
Ask HN: Marketing ideas for my book "The Geek Atlas" - jgrahamc
Next April my 'travel book for people interested in science and technology' will be published by O'Reilly.  Of course, O'Reilly will do their own marketing, but I feel like I ought to be doing my own guerrilla marketing since I'm a geek.<p>I would love to hear the thoughts of HN people on good ways to build a buzz.<p>PS I probably should have said a bit more about the book: it's 128 places around the world with significant scientific, mathematical or technological significance without being a list of the the usual science museums (although there are a few good ones in the book).  The book has information about the place, and an explanation of the science behind it.<p>An example place is The Horn Antenna (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horn_Antenna) in New Jersey where the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation was verified (by accident).<p>To be notified about the book you can put your email address on my little mailing list: http://www.jgc.org/blog/2008/12/geek-atlas-mailing-list.html
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abijlani
I think you can learn quite a bit from Tim Ferris (the author of the 4-hour
work week). He started marketing his book way before it came out by way of:

1\. A website that complimented his book

2\. A blog that talk about things related to the book

3\. He reached out to bloggers and built a relationship
([http://text.co.uk/internet-marketing-news/how-to-market-
to-b...](http://text.co.uk/internet-marketing-news/how-to-market-to-bloggers-
according-to-timothy-ferris.html))

4\. Get interviewed. Podcasters are always looking to interview people with
interesting stories and of course there are many book review sites and
podcasts.

All these will build enough anticipation and hype that once your books hits
the shelf you should have generated significant buzz.

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terpua
Definitely blog with excerpts. I would also considering giving away the book
(as PDF) before it is published to get people reading and reviewing it.

~~~
jgrahamc
I imagine that O'Reilly will do their RoughCuts thing with the book so that
people get early access.

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ganley
I have no useful suggestions, but like @pchristensen, you had me halfway
through the title. Most excellent idea. I'm reminded of an old Wired piece by
Neal Stephenson entitled "Mother Earth, Mother Board" in which he talks about
the 'hacker-tourist.' The only thing that could make it better is to suggest
nearby non-geek attractions that I can use to sell the trips to my wife. :-)

~~~
jgrahamc
I actually thought about doing that, but didn't have the time. The book will
highlight elements of the places that are non-geek oriented (such as they are
outdoors and suitable for a nice hike or picnic).

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pchristensen
It would be hard for me to give any meaningful advice since you had me halfway
through the title. I even made a note in my calendar for April 2009 that your
book was coming out and I need to buy it. (this was when it was on your blog
last week).

I would see if you can get on "geek" media: geek.tv, NPR's Science Friday,
etc. Science Friday had a 20 minute talk with the people that wrote "My
Nuclear Family Vacation" where they visited nuclear history sites.

Not sure if it's in the budget, but you should go to any of the places you can
and do a little 2 min video about it, with info about the book in the fade-
out. Put them on youtube and on the book site.

Definitely have a site for the book, preferably with a decent blog. This lets
people find out more about the book and lets you give periodic reminders that
it exists and should be bought. See "Permission Marketing" for more details.

Anyways, good luck and I can't wait until it comes out in April!

~~~
jgrahamc
I really like the YouTube idea.

The plan is to have a dedicated web site for the book (O'Reilly did buy
geekatlas.com).

Thank you for the suggestions.

~~~
pchristensen
I was thinking about it some more and you should probably just look for
everywhere where "Nuclear Family Vacation" has been featured and contact them.
They did all the marketing research already, follow in their draft!

[http://www.amazon.com/Nuclear-Family-Vacation-Travels-
Weapon...](http://www.amazon.com/Nuclear-Family-Vacation-Travels-
Weaponry/dp/1596913789)

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SingAlong
128 places!!?? 128 is associated with computer science (like 1024). So you
could use this number in a very innovative way.

Whatever places everyone mentioned, poster, website, etc make an ad with '128'
that you could put up anywhere. The first thing that comes to my mind is...
"128 bytes and 128 places". Some sorta caption for your self-created campaign.
Will post later if I hit upon something more creative.

Talking about the future, if you intend to get a 2nd edition and a 3rd edition
on the shelf. Then I would have 256 places, 512 places and henceforth for
further editions.

~~~
jgrahamc
And that's precisely why I decided to do 128 places instead of 100. It's
instantly recognizable to anyone who's had to deal with base 2 as an in joke.

The full title of the book is "The Geek Atlas: 128 Places Where Science and
Technology Come Alive".

Of course, for people who don't understand the joke I do explain it at one
point in the book where I explain the binary system.

~~~
pchristensen
That was my first thought, but then I wondered if Boston's Route 128 had
anything to do with it.

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unalone
I just checked that out. What a neat connection to make!

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davidw
I think the coolest things... actual maps, links to wikipedia, user comments
from people who have been there, and so forth, might eat into sales of the
book.

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Shamiq
But is building a following worth losing a few sales?

Also, I'm sure that more people that know about it, the more likely it'll
become a birthday gift for that right-at-the-edge-about-to-go-full-blown geeky
cousin.

