To drive readers to pick up the paperback edition of Dreams of Gods and Monsters, which releases today, Little, Brown have created a marketing plan that engages fans directly in author Laini Taylor’s process. The publisher is asking fans to tweet their favorite quote from the series, with the hashtag #UnlockLainiTaylor. Once the publisher has reached 613 hashtags via fans’ Twitter accounts, Little, Brown will “unlock” a bonus chapter written by Taylor, which has never been released, that the author said inspired the series. Why 613 hashtags? To match the page count of the book.
LBYR have teamed up with Genius, the company that started with “Rap Genius” – where users annotate rap lyrics to demystify lyrical content – to offer the chapter with author Taylor’s annotations. The annotations provide an inside look at Taylor’s writing process, and how this early piece morphed into the trilogy it is now, and where it might have gone. When the chapter is unlocked, fans are taken to a website containing the story with highlighted bits of text. Users can click on the highlighted text to invoke Taylor’s annotations.
In a marketing campaign reminiscent of Macmillan’s recent campaign for Marissa Meyer’s Fairest, the publisher has found a way to add unique value to fans while also engaging them on social media. Jessica Shoffel, director of publicity at LBYR, said that she hopes “to team up with Genius in the future,” though nothing is officially lined up at present. While Dreams of Gods and Monsters concludes the Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy, Taylor is currently at work on The Muse of Nightmares, the first book in her new trilogy, which is due out in fall 2016.
