Graham Storrs

Anyone notice the advert in the left-hand column of this page? It’s for J. A. Konrath’s new novel ‘Afraid’. (If you want to know more about the book, just click the ad.)

I don’t advertise much on this site. I used to use Google AdSense and it brought in a little money (enough to pay for my hosting costs and a bit extra) but it was a bit unpredictable and would often advertise things I did not approve of (mention ‘religion’ in a post and you’d get rabid right-wing anti-abortion ads, mention ‘science’ and you’d get rabid, religious-loony, anti-evolution ads, mention almost anything to do with writing and you’d get dodgy vanity-publishing scam ads.) I tried to maintain a list of excluded advertisers but there are just so many of them that it is a waste of time. So AdSense has gone. I’d rather do without the bit of money it earned me than give any support to organisations of which I disapprove.  I do still have a couple of Amazon ads – on the grounds that people who read my blog might be interested in buying books, and my list of favourite sci-fi books is all linked through to Amazon (why not?) but that’s it.

Then Joe Konrath came up with this idea. Anyone who puts up an ad for his new book for 30 days gets a free, signed copy of one of his other books. Now, Joe doesn’t write in a genre I’m wild about (although Wifie is) and I’d much rather place an ad for one of my favourite sci-fi writers and get one of their books for free, but he is a writer who is being very energetic and creative about marketing his work and I think he’s come up with a great idea. (I also like his blog.) So I’m very happy to support him.

If Joe’s idea works (i.e. he makes lots of sales) I’m hoping this will catch on and other writers will start barter schemes, trading advertising space for something their supporters would like (including ad swaps with other writers).

But there is an even more exciting possibility. If this kind of barter-based advertising became popular, it could be the beginning of a whole new kind of social networking phenomenon. Bloggers would effectively become marketing outlets for their favourite authors (as many already are!) but they would be rewarded for their support. Publishers, as well as authors, would be able to join in to promote their authors. Very importantly, self-published authors would have access to a marketing channel that could be as effective for them as it is for published authors (assuming they have equivalent product quality).

So I’m wishing Joe all the best with this one .