Our daughter was home this weekend and, in one of those random moments in family life, asked if either of us has used reddit. Well, we’d heard of it, but no, we hadn’t used it. Reddit is a social news and entertainment website where registered users submit content in the form of either a link or a text post.
Megan felt it would be a great publicity venue, and suggested that Rob should go on reddit, introduce himself as the author of six original Indiana Jones novel and the novelization of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, and that he was open to answering questions about the books.Here’s the link to the discussions/questions.
Within less than 60 seconds, questions started going up. This leads me to believe that some readers live on reddit in the same way that some people live on Facebook. So while Megan and I listened to an interview with Esther Hicks on the Hay House site – 70 minutes that included an interview with Esther and with Abraham – Rob sat at his computer answering dozens of questions from Indy fans.
These questions ranged from minutia about the characters in the Indy saga to questions about writing, plotting, characterization. Someone from Chile asked a question in Spanish, so he responded in Spanish and someone in a later comment translated the comment. Someone else asked about Aliens in the Backyard, others asked about synchronicity. After an hour and a half, Rob said he was signing off for the night but would be open to answering more questions the next day.
Megan, who had set up the account for Rob, kept reading more questions as the three of us were watching a movie, and I suspect he’ll spend another couple hours tomorrow answering the questions. What I learned from this is the power of an archetype – which Indiana Jones certainly is. It was surprising to hear questions from people who had read the Indy books in elementary school – and are now adults – and traced their love of reading back to those books. This kind of feedback for a writer is priceless.
When a writer writes that first word or that first sentence, there is usually a hope somewhere in the back of his or her mind that the story which unfolds will attract readers. Inspire them to read more and more. One commenter said his mother used to read him the Indy books at night, before bedtime. Another commenter said that when he was in fifth grade, he did a book report on Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, and read a portion of the book in front of the class that included the word shit. He remarked that it was pretty cool to be standing there and saying that word and the teacher couldn’t do anything because it was in the book.
When Megan read this comment aloud, Rob laughed. “Yeah, and after that, Lucas Film told me not to use any cuss words in the books.”
What seems clear is that archetypes are as Carl Jung described them, unconscious patterns that are intrinsic to all of us, that speak to us at a profound level regardless of culture or religion or ethnicity. There is probably an Indiana Jones or Marion Ravenwood in many of us- the raconteur, rebel, rogue, adventurer – following some mysterious quest into parts unknown.
Yes, I saw your post on FB, so went to Reddit. There were certainly a lot of people interested. But it must have been time consuming to read all (or many) of those posts and type out responses.
I reckon you’d now have a good chance of following that up with one on AITBY – act quick! Online attention spans are short. The idea of aliens is intrinsically interesting to people. But in the case of that discussion, be prepared for some heated disagreements.
You could post a short extract of one of the most interesting passages “I’m RM, and a couple of days ago I posted about my Indiana Jones series. Today I thought I’d share…”
Thanks, Marcus. Good idea. We are planning to do another AMA at Reddit this weekend on ALIENS, and yes, no doubt there will be doubters showing up.
Liked Darren’s comment! Reddit and other social sites are very powerful, you never know who might pick up on what is published. The down side is that they can become very time consuming.
Definitely time consuming, but that’s ok if it helps sales!
I just heard of Reddit recently, by following a link thru FaceBook. I really don’t think there will ever be The One online media place to be like those first trailblazers – and I’m glad because I love seeing how all these communication tools morph – and are shared across many venues.
How awesome that so many read the IJ books as The Books! Those readers will be the ones who will be thrilled to know Rob has more books to read, and not just IJ ones. Have fun with this!
The reddit link is fascinating to read! I laughed when I read Darren’s comment.
These social sites are very powerful – if you have the time!
I found this comment in spam, mike, sorry!
Rob and Trish – you are super stars. I looked at the Reddit post – very interesting. This posting is so great for publicity. I find it so time consuming to be involved with all these extra social sites needed for marketing. I can’t seem to manage doing both the creative side and what is needed to sell after the work is done. I am now still deep in the hell of the moving process — screaming fits. So it was most enjoyable to see things working well for the writer.
FABulous! just goes to show the POWER of the WORD! especially words written as rob does in all those magnificent IJ books! and now, touching not only all those lives initially touched by those words, but all the others who, after having read him on reddit, will go grab his books now –
Hopefully that’s how it will work!
Like Indy in the Temple of Doom,Rob will be lucky to get out
of that Reddit forum alive.-)
Funny!
He nearly didn’t!