Using Drama to Grow Your Platform

The title is Thomas’ fault, after he was talking about how he learned to use controversial titles to get more attention on YouTube. :)

No, I’m not advocating drama as a primary tool; but the latest Author Update episode mentioned author drama and I wanted to chime in because it happened to my wife.

If you really want to have a “guide,” though, here’s the short version:

- Don't go pick a fight; but when it happens, don't run from it.
- If you have the moral high ground, people will be sympathetic.
- If the drama wasn't about your book, don't bring your book into it.
- If no one notices, then it's not useful for marketing anyway. Internet argument is a spectator sport; don't bother if there's no audience.
- Drama marketing is better when observers are pushing the marketing, NOT the author. Be the underdog with the fanbase.
- Don't sling mud (* unless your book's target audience likes mud in the first place).
- Don't wear it out or try to milk as much from it as possible. Make it a joke with your fans you can reference later, rather than something everyone is tired of.

My wife documented what happened with screenshots and a self-critique on what she did wrong here on her blog: https://littlesquirrelbooks.com/2023/09/13/dealing-with-trolls-on-social-media/ But I’ll summarize it here so you don’t have to click the link if you don’t want to.

(Also, Thomas, avert your eyes; yes, it’s a Wordpress.com site, and I’m planning on fixing that. Life has been against us rather repeatedly.)

So what happened was Lori accidentally waded into a slap-fight. She commented on an author’s drama and became his target. One of his tribe’s more prominent members then came in to accuse her publisher of plagiarizing a more popular author’s cover. At the time, neither of us had heard of that author; but the only similarity is that Dan Brown’s Red Rising had four or so different covers, one of which had a single red wing on a black background; her book, Phoenix, had a black bird outline that crossed both covers and the spine against a red background.

Larry Correia (who has been on Novel Marketing once and been mentioned several other times) noticed the incident and stepped in to mock the people accusing my wife of theft. This continued across two different social media platforms. Larry has been a great friend to us, and he was so irritated at the baseless accusation that he broke one of his usual rules and encouraged people to buy a book that he hadn’t personally read (or at least read a prior book from the same author).

The result was that Lori’s book broke the single-day sales record for her publisher (previously set by a launch from a more popular author); but most of the sales, based on comments and reviews, were not actually from Larry’s encouragement. Rather, it was from people who were already irritated with the person who attacked her. We wound up getting social media comments and reviews that basically said “Hey, I bought this entirely out of spite, but it turns out it’s really good!”

So the lesson here is that you should never seek out the drama; and that you aren’t likely going to get “sympathy buys,” based on this incident and others I’ve seen (including the two mentioned in today’s episode). You might, however, get “adversarial buys,” where the spectators dislike the guy creating the drama to the point of supporting the other guy (or gal, in Lori’s case).

Which means not only do you never start the drama, you also don’t fan the flames if it happens to you. Stand your ground, call in allies if you can, and keep the focus on the adversary rather than yourself. People are only going to buy if they see value in what you’re offering, and if you’re pushing the drama they’re not only not going to see it as a good buy, you’ll forever taint yourself in the eyes of the spectators. The people who are there for the drama have received their reward.