The Clash, AI, and Marketing 101, by Josh Stallings

Q:  Do you set aside dedicated time to do promotion for your book and your brand? If so, how much time and what do you concentrate on? If not, why not?

“Siri play The Clash Sandinista! loud.” Give me Topper Headon’s locked tight beat. Strummer’s chord stabs. Give me the fuck-capitalism ethos. To get the label to release Sandinista! as a triple-LP at a cost the fans could afford, the band lowered their royalty rate. Also for the first time they listed song writing credits not by individual members but as written by The Clash, thereby sharing the royalties equally. Pure fuck-the-money-man attitude.

Listening now. Fingers starting to feel the beat of typing. “Charlie Don’t Surf,” is the perfect answer to “I love the smell of napalm in the morning.” The Magnificent Seven turns out that snapping boogaloo that has me dancing with words.

“WAIT. Come on Josh, this is how I answer a question about the business of writing?”

Yep. It all connects… The Clash made Sandinista! as a middle finger pointed at the record business. Strummer said they made a triple album because the record company objected to London Calling being released as a double album. That’s rock and roll baby. Brazen guts, a rock steady beat, three cords, and something to yell about is all you need.

This is the mind set I need to do what I do. Starting a project I need the arrogance of a teenager to block out everyone's opinion and listen to my own. It is audacious to walk  into a dark room, stare down the blank page and say “I will find my story here, and it will be worth the work.” It takes a combination of Evil Knievel’s fearlessness and Iggy Pop’s raw power rage to pull that off… 

“Wait, slow your roll Josh, all that youthful angst and bravado has nothing to do with the business of promoting your work.”

Am I avoiding the question? Hell yes. 

Why am I avoiding the question? Fucked if I know. 

Let me put on my logical professor hat. 

Movie marketing 101: In the before times the keystone of movie’s advertising campaign was the trailer. The greatest effort and money was spent on this two to two and a half minute piece. It played only in theaters. It set the tone for the shorter work that followed. A thirty second spot placed on a hit TV show would be seen by millions more than the trailer, so why weren’t they as important? This speaks to the heart of marketing, it should be aimed at people predisposed to see or hear or read your product. A person sitting in a movie theater is already paying to see movies. They are predisposed to want to see another movie. The studios were also careful to launch a trailer attached to the opening of a film in the same genre as the one they were selling. Confident that audiences will get excited over their new film coming soon. Get this right and the viewers will tell their friends about it. They will evangelize. For the core audience the TV spots were simply to keep the enthusiasm going and as a reminder of the opening date.

Books aren’t movies, and streaming killed that old movie marketing model. Why bring it up? It remains relevant even if the venues shifted. Like movies, books sell by word of mouth, we need evangelized readers. So how do we meet those readers, where are their “movie theaters?” Where they read? Should we be hanging out in libraries looking over shoulders to see what folks are into? Seems kinda creepy. Social media (Twitter and Facebook) was where I was first “discovered.” Back then it worked to connect with readers and critics. Honestly, honesty is gone from social media. Political ideology and lying liars have poisoned the well, we don’t trust each other online, never sure if we’re talking to a writer/reader or a PR AI bot, or worse an AI bot with a neo-fascist agenda.

“What do you think about AI writing books?” My brilliant little sister asked. We were talking about AI in art and literature. If we couldn’t discern it was AI created why did it bug us. I came down on the pro human unionist point of view, 

“If we buy AI books, we take jobs from human writers.” It was true but also a bit self serving. 

My sister dropped, “Maybe the problem is, AI itself has no back story. Take Van Gough, love the paintings and we know his life story. We can study his work and know the man through it. Louise Penny? I feel like I know her. Getting a new Three Pines book is like a letter from an old friend.” 

“Can’t AI crack the old friends logarithm?” I asked afraid of the answer.

“Damn brother, that’s dark. Imagine a new Hap and Leonard book that AI personalized and tailored to the reader's unspoken wants and desires. Joe R. Lansdale without all those bad words and problematic social issues? Or with a heaping pile more of them if that’s your deal. Afraid of gay? Leonard is straight as ruler, well not any ruler, not Julius Caesar, obviously, or Alexander the Great.”

After I stopped laughing, I wanted to ask her if books shouldn’t pull us out of our comfort zones past our petty preconceived notions? But instead told her I needed to get back to my Criminal Minds essay.

Clearly I’m stuck. Here’s why, if I were to spend my time on marketing what would that look like? Shouting BUY MY BOOK in a social media echo chamber? Going to book conferences and connecting with readers? Writing essays on book marketing? These aren’t rhetorical questions dear readers, no, I really hope you have some answers. Any answers.

For now, “Siri play No Shit by Iggy Pop.”

Back to my master plan for literary domination, keep typing as true and real as I know how. Take no shit. Never give up. Demand that every book is better than the last. Remember fellow writers are my traveling companions. Only compete with myself. Push myself to write better. 

Failing all that, “Siri play Ziggy Stardust.”

 Ziggy played guitar…