We were a band for maybe two years before we were ever in a magazine. And even then, it was like, little, small mentions.
--Jason Gnewikow on the Promise Ring's coverage in the press.
People frequently ask me how I'm going to promote Post once it comes out. Well, I say I've been promoting it for years. This blog was originally started to track the writing progress. Course, lots of other things to talk about came up along the way, making the blog what it is now. But as far as farther-reaching promotional efforts, the operative word is "organically."
There's nothing worse than a crappy piece of work getting a major push in the media. On the other hand, it sucks when there's something great that is impossibly hard to find. In the back of my mind, I thought about how I got into the bands I featured in the book. None of the bands got the mass-exposure treatment. I didn't flip open an issue of AP or Guitar World and find an extensive, multi-page piece on any of the bands. There were small mentions here and there, but intriguing enough to make me want to track down the band's music.
To me, there's something very cool about Aaron's plug in the recent issue of Revolver and his blog beyond the fact that it's a plug. It's the nature of the plug. How Aaron introduced me, and several other people out there, to the Get Up Kids and Braid was through small mentions in AP. There was enough information presented in those mentions that piqued my interest. People can rag on AP for being a Circus-like buyer's guide for the Warped Tour audience, but back in the late nineties, it was the only way for me to hear about pop-punk, post-hardcore, and obscure indie rock. I get the sense it's still serving that purpose for a lot of teenagers and college students.
There are plans to do some coverage on a few sites that have a pretty wide range of coverage. Which ones those are, I won't say at the moment. It's more a matter of, see what happens. I of course will post the links. I'm also kicking around the idea of a book release party here in Dallas. I'm trying to do all promotion on the cheap, hoping that the people who really like the book will simply pass the word along to other people that might want to read the book.
At this point, I want to release the book and not fear cracking it open and finding a major typo. On top of that, I really hope the people I interviewed don't have similar thoughts and feelings like a certain family that was interviewed for a certain book I'm almost finished reading. It would truly suck after spending a number of years researching and editing hoping to leave no stone unturned and get a response like, "The whole thing is completely wrong." But that's to be found out at a later date . . .
Comments