Using Tinder to Promote ‘Mary’s the Name’

(Please note: all screenshots were taken with the other person’s permission)

These days, everyone’s after new ways of advertising and promoting. More importantly, everyone’s after free ways of advertising and promoting. My publisher, Cranachan, asked me to think of as many creative ways to publicise Mary’s the Name as I could. Having used Tinder (not very successfully) before, I knew what a large amount of people could be reached with just a few swipes. So I figured, why not re-download (as everyone eventually does) but this time, I’ll make Tinder work for me!

The rules I set myself were:

1. Always stay on message (e.g. Ah, you’re a horse doctor? You know, that reminds me of MY BOOK.)
2. Swipe right on everyone, even girls I know in real life. This was the only fair way, I thought. Fair to say, some swipes were nerve wracking stuff..
3. Don’t message matches too late at night. Bad enough I’m promoting my book, no need to wake people up. (Gents, use this as a rule for life in general.)

First order of business: setting up my profile.

As you can see, I was pretty upfront about my purpose. Tinder allows you to choose an ‘Anthem’, to define your music taste. I went with (Marie’s the Name) His Latest Flame by Elvis, naturally.

Once I matched with a girl, my opening gambit would generally be to ask something based on their profile, before adding my standard line: ‘Do you like to read? (You can probably see where I’m going with this…)’. I’d then ask if they wanted to hear the full blurb, and take it from there.

So, let’s look at some results! Sometimes, some light encouragement was required:

Will I be this girl’s only fiction read this year?? Only time will tell.

The first response of this next match was too good to be true!

She was even nice about my Tinder idea:

If anyone’s looking for an example of classic Scottish banter, here we go:

Fair to say I won her round…I think:

One girl insisted on being in this blog post (you’re welcome, people!):

This girl had me, very briefly, worried there was a mistake in the blurb:

I’ve saved my favourite till last. This girl broke a bit of news to me!

What are the chances, eh?

I suppose this is where I’m supposed to come to come sort of conclusion. Would I recommend using Tinder to promote a book? Why not. It’s free and you’ll probably get a laugh or two out of it.

To the girls I matched and chatted with, thank you! To the girls who saw my profile and thought ‘wow, he’s using his book to try and score Tinder matches, what a loser!’, fair enough.

One last thing. Do you like to read? (You can probably see where I’m going with this…)

Mary’s the Name out January 30th 2017! from Cranachan Publishing. Several Tinder users can’t be wrong!

Pre-order now on Amazon