A Page From the Book Business
By Tim Walsh -- Playthings, 11/1/2009 12:00:00 AM
As an author and game designer, I have kept a foot in both the book and toy businesses for years. Having done so, I believe there’s something we can learn from the book world when it comes to that often-overlooked piece of the puzzle between placement and profits in a successful game launch: promotion.
Recently, I spent a few hours in Anderson’s Bookshop in Naperville, Ill., promoting a game I designed called Blurt! Owner Becky Anderson welcomed me into her store and allowed me to tell the Blurt! story to her, her employees and a handful of her customers. I shared with them how the inspiration for Blurt! came out of a third grade classroom. I shared how I had found a children’s dictionary, turned to the first page and read aloud: “The nut of an oak tree.” A kid blurted out “Oak nut!” and I told him, “No, it’s acorn,” then read another definition aloud. Before I knew it, the whole class was blurting out words. After I gave this recount of my eureka moment, we played the game and soon customers were blurting—and buying.
“I must admit I’d never thought of having a game creator in the store,” Anderson said a few weeks later when I called to follow up. “We’ve tried a few game nights in the past, which were mild successes, but this was much more like an author event. You sold the game, but more importantly you sold my staff on the game. Now we know how to sell it, and that makes all the difference ... We’ve sold a ton since.”
Anderson says that stories like mine extend the value of a product: “People are looking for gifts and a gift means more when there’s a story behind it.”
Imagine how much more goodwill, buzz and excitement we could create if more toy stores promoted designers the way booksellers promote authors.
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