Very poor marketing

I’m posting about the Harlequin novelist a second time because the only way to make a comment on the press release is to give them a trackback to a web page. My first post was too indirect to serve as a good response.

A romance novelist apparently has a book series (of two) with a Victorian female detective. A site called PR Web has a press release about it: Author – and Her Victorian Creations – Come Alive in Second Life

In addition to live question and answer opportunities, book aficionados and Victorian enthusiasts can participate in the upcoming Victorian Ball, to be held on Thursday, January 24th at the ACTIV8 complex. The overall aim of the Second Life promotional campaign is to bring new and existing readers of Raybourn’s novels and fans of Victoriana together in an environment that allows for community interaction with the author, while immersing attendees in the world of the novel.

Harlequin’s hosting the event in Second Life is a natural fit since the publisher continues to seek innovative means to reach out to readers and because ‘Silent in the Sanctuary’ is a novel set in the Victorian era, which is very popular with Second Life residents.

Second Life marketing agency TheSLAgency is handling all of the technical and marketing aspects of the program, including re-creating several key creative features of the book’s setting and plot items.

This would be of note only as a moderately interesting Victorian event in SL, were it not that SLAgency has done such a spectacularly poor job of marketing the events, which transforms it into a perfect target of ridicule.

As an active member of the Independent State of Caledon (a group with over 700 members, an active internet forum, wiki, and innumerable blogs), I had never heard of this marketing effort until I came across a tangential reference to the press release somewhere. Neither had my compatriots, and I’d wager that none of the residents of Antiquity, Steelhead, or Babbage had either. It certainly doesn’t speak highly of a marketing agency when they miss a community not only situated squarely in their target audience but that has been highlighted in a variety of guides to Second Life. It’s not like we’re hard to find.

One Reply to “Very poor marketing”

  1. I would agree, especially to those farther afield. Perhaps that press release was targeting a different market? PRWeb does have a free, self-service feature. Maybe this SLAgency is just getting started.

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