Marketing Books - A Novice's Tale, by Harini Nagendra

Having one’s book rise above the crowded marketplace is difficult. What have you tried to get yours noticed — what has worked and what has not?

This is the million dollar/rupee question, isn't it? My fellow Criminal Mind'ers, Brenda, Terry, Dietrich and Jim, have terrific and very varied responses to this, which I hope you get to read.

Compared to my other friends here, I'm still very much the novice. While I do have six published books, and a seventh on the way - four of these are non-fiction, sold to an Indian market. I've only published two fiction books as yet - The Bangalore Detectives Club, and its sequel, Murder Under A Red Moon, both released to a worldwide audience in March 2022 and May 2023. The third in the series, A Nest of Vipers, will be out in May 2024. 

At heart I'm a number crunching scientist who likes to deal with data, but I have a relatively short time series to work with. I am already finding some interesting patterns, though. I'm a writer living in Bangalore, but selling books to an audience primarily in India, USA, Canada and UK, with some sales in other parts of the world. The patterns seem to differ across geographies, and what I am able to do with marketing also differs across locations.

In India, most of my sales come from print books. The independent bookstores in Bangalore - most of whom are on one tiny stretch of Church Street - account for many thousands of sales in themselves, and the very knowledgeable owners and staff in these stores are amongst my biggest supporters. I drop by these stores regularly to sign and personalize books and to do book events. Because I already have an audience in the country for my ecology books, it's much easier for me to spread the word here.

In the UK, where my main publisher, Little Brown Books' Constable Crime is based, half my sales come from print books, and half from ebooks. I haven't been able to visit the UK since the books were released, or to do much publicity there. I got some help from bookstagrammers - I posted on Instagram asking book readers if they would like to read and review. A number of them responded asking for the books, creating and posting videos with stunning backdrops, mood boards and the like. Many Indian bookstagrammers also picked up the books, and continue to ask for them, posting terrific reels. I have no idea how these impact sales, but they do attract a lot of viewers, and I love it - that's the best way I would love books to reach readers, via word of mouth.

In the US, ebooks far outstrip my print book sales, and audio books are doing very well too. It does seem like the modes in which people like to access their books varies hugely from location to location. In both the US and in Canada, libraries and library readers have been terrific supporters - The Bangalore Detectives Club has been featured in a number of library book club discussions (which makes me very happy, because public libraries are the best). I can't claim to have influenced this in any planned way. I can't, because I live so far away - I haven't been able to attend any writer's conferences, visit bookstores, or promote my book in-person in any way. 

More than anything I did, though, it was some very good breaks that I got with book reviews that helped. The Bangalore Detectives Club and Murder Under A Red Moon got terrific reviews in the New York Times, and were selected as Amazon Editor's Choices, as well as starred reviews in influential magazines like Publishers' Weekly, BookList and Library Journal. All of this made libraries order the book, which led to more library patrons reading the book, and reviews on Amazon and Goodreads, which (I hope) led to organic sales. Book 1 was on the NYT list of Notable Books of 2022, shortlisted for a Lefty, Agatha, Anthony award in the US and for a Crime Writers Association Historical Dagger. I didn't win any of these, but being shortlisted certainly helped keep it in bookstores, which means that potential readers got to see the book.

This was good luck, I lay no claims to brilliant planning or strategy, or even just being around and making myself a familiar face. I did get to Canada last year to the Motive Crime and Mystery Festival in June 2023, and met some readers and fellow-writers like Vaseem Khan, which was a blast! 

So far, the books are doing much better than I hoped, and I'm very happy. I would really love to spend more time with my readers outside India though, and I need to find innovative, low carbon ways to do this.

And so - here's the promo! Libraries, bookstores, book clubs, readers - if you see this and would like me to interact online or on email, let me know. I'd be happy to join you virtually, and if I can manage it, even in person. Please visit my website at www.harininagendra.com, or send me an email at harini (at) harininagendra.com, to reach out.  

--Harini