Does your favourite novel (or the novel you have written) have extras?

This what I mean by extras. I was involved in a conversation on Goodreads the other day, when someone was asking if any of the authors present had created a Twitter account for our characters. He was wondering if it helped generate sales. Most of us thought it wouldn’t be much help, except perhaps for a novel that was already doing well.

There are a lot of things authors do, which I call ‘extras’, to try and reach a wider audience. For example, all three of my books have book trailers. You can find them on this website. However, it seems that book trailers don’t do a lot to generate sales. Most readers aren’t interested in them. And what use are they if no one knows they’re there because the author’s marketing reach isn’t extensive?

Another thing I’ve tried to do is use merchandise. The bookmarks my publisher produced for me have been extremely helpful. If someone only buys the first book in the Verindon trilogy, I always slip a bookmark in, as it contains websites where they can find the other two books. I also give them to anyone who buys the full set, so that they can always give it to someone else if they want to ‘share the love’.

My t-shirts were a great extra, until I lost the website printed on them. However, I’m hoping it may be free again next year, so I’m keep all the t-shirts, just in case. I’ve also put together a charm bracelet for those who buy the full set of my trilogy. However, this is more useful in providing an extra incentive for them to buy the full set, as the bracelet doesn’t have any branding on it, so it can’t point onlookers in my direction like a t-shirt or bookmark.

I think all of these things have their uses, and some are definitely more effective than others.

Are you a writer? What ‘extras’ do you use? Do they work? Are you a reader? Do you look at book trailers, character Twitter/Facebook accounts, and things like that? Let me know in the comments section at the bottom of the page.