What a great way to promote a book – by giving away the first chapter! That’s what the publishers are doing with The Lost Dog by Melbourne based world renowned author Michelle de Kretser. I picked the first chapter free at my local coffee shop yesterday morning.
This is what I wish magazine publishers would do – package an article or two to provide a sampler for the title. Newsagents could give these away to customers purchasing other items. We could stamp the freebie with our details so that customers know where to purchase the magazine or include an offer of our own to drive sales.
I especially like this sampler giveaway idea for when we have traffic generating lottery jackpots and superdraws. Done properly, the sampler would feel genuinely valuable, like a gift. Customers would look favorably on newsagents and the masthead represented in the sampler – a great marketing investment I’d say. The key, as noted, would be to do this right, with some quality.
The magazine categories which I feel would benefit from a sampler strategy would be crosswords, crafts, food, current affairs and home/living.
Allen & Unwin would have only invested in giving away chapter one of The Lost Dog if they trusted the strategy. If it works for a book why not a magazine title. How about it magazine publishers? I am sure it would be easy to find a group of newsagents to test the opportunity.