Content Marketing Today

Can Fantastical Content Marketing create NY Times Bestseller?

Canadian single mom may beat the odds to become the next JK Rowling.

Creating a successful business book is difficult.  Creating a best-selling work of fiction is even more challenging.  Creating a blockbuster children’s fantasy novel is probably most difficult of all. 

But, thanks to equal doses of determination, creativity, and showmanship, Kamilla Reid of Edmonton Alberta, may replicate the Harry Potter phenomenon. 

Her fantasy novel, The Questory of Root Karbunkulus, is the first in a series of six.  It involves the ultimate scavenger hunt by a 14-year-old Root, whose very life may be at stake in the adventure.  The mystical quest involves a cast of fantastical characters, beasties, and scary situations.  Oh my!

Kamilla’s eclectic background ranges from banking to theater and now to the writing of children’s fiction.  For the very first time in her life, Kamilla believes that she’s doing exactly the right thing.  Although she’s up against some very steep odds, the early results of her content marketing efforts look very promising indeed.

Taking the more and more productive and profitable self-publishing path

She is working with BookSurge, which is owned by Amazon.com to produce the book.(Click for related story on BookSurge’s fabulous eNewsletter)  In fact, they featured Kamilla in their latest eNewsletter.

BookSurge is a sensible choice because of its affiliation with Amazon.com. It also offers numerous resources to help its authors succeed. Moreover, should a self published work start to sell like crazy, BookSurge’s contract let’s authors keep the rights to the book.  This means they are free to work out a deal with a major publishing house at any time. 

Going way beyond Amazon.com

The BookSurge connection gives the Questory an automatic place within Amazon.com and makes it eligible for all their special merchandising and marketing opportunities.  Perhaps more importantly for Kamilla, they will also sell volume quantities of its books to its authors at a significant different discount.  This is perfect for Kamilla because it gives her complete freedom to sell and to market the book in anyway she chooses. In fact, she is going way beyond what a traditional author would do to promote a book.  She is also going way beyond Amazon.com.

Doing what Ernest Hemingway couldn’t or wouldn’t have done

With a small budget, you can’t hope to replicate the efforts that the publishers of Harry Potter gave their blockbuster hit.  However, as Kamilla has proven,you can make things happen with a big dose of creativity and intelligent use of all the tools available on the web. Her highly imaginative in person and online content marketing as already taken her well beyond the ranks of a typical first-time novelists. She has begun to build a buzz for her book by thinking way outside the binding.  Here are some of the cool things she’s doing that may very well take her from Edmonton to New York City and beyond.

Create a miniature play rather than a traditional book signing

Kamilla did not sit demurely behind a desk ready to sign books for parents and children. Rather, she invented a mini fantasy drama with all kinds of mystical things going on.  She wore a special red cloak that plays a big role in the book. She had magic. She had a giant scary statue. She had mystical mist. It was only after setting the stage brilliantly that she did a wonderfully dramatic reading from the book. The kids lucky enough be there absolutely loved it . Best of all, Kamilla sold a lot of books.
I don’t know this because she told me about it.  I know this because she has a wonderful video on her site that captures all of the excitement and drama of her book launch.

Great videos that make the book, the author,and its youthful readers very real indeed

Various types of videos are major component of the Questory website.  Here’s what you’ll find:

• A fun video of the book launch event which fully conveys the excitement of the kids who had the good fortune to be part of the event.
• An exciting video book trailer does a great job of capturing the spirit of this fantastical novel.  You wouldn’t know a but she action shot the video in her basement.  And for those of you who know the story of Baby Einstein, that’s exactly the way they started–on a bare-bones budget with the first video shot in the basement.
• Video captures of television interviews that show her dressed in the famous red cloak telling about the book, sharing her enthusiasm, and building awareness among thousands of TV watchers in her home province.

A website that perfectly captures the essence of the book 

The look and feel of the site itself is absolutely wonderful.  It conveys a sense of drama and mystery and hints of the secret world we won’t know about until we start reading the book.  It’s exactly the kind of mysterious world that will draw kids in for the first novel–and probably for the next five as well. The Questory world looks just scary enough to intrigue kids but not so scary as to put them off.  In addition to the look of the site, there is an accompanying audio track which reinforces the element of mystery and drama. 

The website contains everything you need to know

You can find complete reference information on the website about all things Questory:

• a sample chapter
• the complete storyline
• a complete list of the characters human and non-
• all the new word you’ll need to learn to understand the book
• a fascinating bio of Kamilla complete with pictures
• a press section, entitled buzz that shows all the great coverage she’s gotten
• a store where you can buy the book

Bottom-line:

Kamilla Reid is selling books, making money, building a buzz, and establishing a foundation that will make it possible to achieve bestseller status. In fact, her creative content marketing efforts have generated1000 book sales in just 7 weeks. That’s more than most first-time authors ever sell in a lifetime.

Is it certain that she will accomplish her bestseller ambitions?  No.  But I certainly wouldn’t bet against her.

Oh, and here’s a link to buy the book for your kids.The Questory of Root Karbunkulus. Then we can all say we knew her when.