Setting is critical to a successful series, make sure your places and organizations feel real enough to have their own merchandise (merch). *Some affiliate links below*
I didn’t watch Gilmore Girls but a while ago I saw this story about the coffee shop featured on the show popping up around the country. It allowed fans to grab a cup of free coffee and in some locations they get a sleeve branded with ‘Lukes Coffee’ to remember the experience. They were mobbed and it was a huge promotional success.
This is the level of fan passion and engagement you should strive for when creating a business or setting in your series.
I don’t think any writer should plan on having merchandise be the main money maker for their series. However, spending time and energy on a few key pieces can add value to the entire series.
Even bloggers and vloggers are getting in on the merch, all my son wanted for Christmas this year was a Maverick t-shirt from Logan Paul. People love to show off their interests and hobbies, help them show you off.
Think about some of the most popular series in recent history. They all have vivd places and businesses that are merch worthy. None of the books were written with the goal of selling merchandise, but they all created such vivid worlds that the merchandise practically creates itself.
In the case of Harry Potter the setting was worth it’s own amusement park attraction (which was awesome by the way). Harry Potter also has multiple merch worthy settings – Hogwarts, Diagon Alley, The train station, etc. Anyone want a sorting hat?
The Divergent series has cool logo’s for each of the factions.
In The Hunger Games, each district has a logo, there is The Hob black market and Katniss has her Mockingjay pin.
So why should you think about merch before you have even finished writing your story?
- Believability – Knowing what a few pieces of merch would look like helps make your setting more believable. If a reader knows the color of the walls, the brightness of the space, what the logo looks like, how the staff dress they will be able to put themselves in that environment. When a reader is totally immersed in your story, to the point where they can imagine having a coffee at the coffee shop, they will love your book.
- Give aways – Writers are always looking for ways to engage with readers. It would be great if readers wanted a mug with your picture on it, but they probably don’t. So merchandise related to something in one of your stories is a great alternative. Not just book marks either – mugs, pint glasses, t-shirts, hats and stickers all good ideas. Give these away and offer them for sale on your website. If you can make readers want something branded from a fictional business in your story, you’ve got them engaged.
- Project success – Making merchandise related to your fictional world shows that you believe in yourself and your story. Merchandise is not an expensive thing to get set up, but it can look that way. You might be doubting that your story is good enough for readers to want a pint glass with your characters bar logo on it, but having it available might actually convince readers to give your story a try. It becomes kind of a self-fulfilling piece of social proof, you knew customers would love your story so much they wanted merch, so you made merch before they asked.
By now the story of George Lucas passing up a $500,000 directorial fee in order to keep the merchandising rights to Star Wars is well known. He believed in the value of merchandise before his movie was a success. You might not have the next Star Wars on your hands, but if you think big and put enough thought and care into your series, merchandise can be a key part of your success.
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