Ah, marketing! I could start out by saying it’s tough. Nah, that wouldn’t do. Besides, most authors already know this. When I think about marketing my newest release, there are lots of things I’d rather do. Like keep working on the edits of the next novel that’s coming out in June.

But after all the work I’ve put into this novel, isn’t it worth a little more of my time and effort? Yes. But it sure would be more enticing to market if there were a sure-fire way to do it.

But there really isn’t. So I plug along…right now, I’m working on a cover release. Today is the 77th anniversary of the fall of Bataan during World War II. Aha…now isn’t that something worth noting, if I want to promote a book where the hero was one of the soldiers in that fall?

Historical Fiction Marketing

Yes. Making the most of historically significant dates like this is a must. (You’ll see that I wrote this blog back on April ninth.)

I planned to do this when I realized April 9 was such a big day in my story’s unfolding. And today, I’m writing a blog post about this event. Why, you ask, didn’t you do this earlier? The honest answer is “I should have.”

But I didn’t, for a variety of not-so-great reasons. But also to be honest, I keep learning things about my novel right up to the moment the copies I’ve ordered arrive at my door. And afterward, too. So maybe this isn’t all bad.

At least my blog readers will have a fresh of the presses post, right? And I might emphasize how in the aftermath of the horrendous Pearl Harbor attack, the fall of Bataan sort of fell into the shadows. Everyone knows about Pearl Harbor, the day that will live in infamy, but who knows about April 9? Okay, to be totally honest, I didn’t either, not specifically, anyhow, until I started researching this story.

April 9th

But back in 1942, those Americans captured in the Philippines were not entirely in the shadows, because over 70,000 of them were taken captive when General Wainwright was forced to surrender the remaining forces backed up on the Island of Corregidor. That’s a lot of soldiers, seamen, airmen, and don’t forget the nurses!

On April 9, 1942, seventy thousand families heard President Roosevelt’s proclamation that their sons and daughters were now in enemy hands, at their mercy. What mercy, you might ask?

And we could answer none. For what followed, the Bataan Death March, goes down in history as a genuine horror. So do the next long years American captives spent in POW camps, and so does the death toll. It’s a miracle anyone survived.

Ordered by the President to evacuate, General MacArthur, when he left the Philippines with his wife and son, promised to return. But in the meantime, such terrible suffering occurred in the camps.

One positive provided a bit of light—some American officers escaped to the high country to fight with devoted Filipino guerillas. These hard-core soldiers kept watch, decimated enemy patrols when they had the chance, and provided intel to MacArthur’s troops when they returned.

Enter the hero of All For The Cause, Private Stan Ford. When an officer invited him to join him in the mountains, Stan decided to go. And the rest of the story is…

Well, you’ve just experienced one key element of marketing—make use of your story’s historical importance. Then throw out a hook to entice readers to check out your book. Check out as in purchase. Provide purchase links, too, and the book cover. Make it easy to click on that link.

That’s what I’ll do in my blog post today, and in several other blog articles I’m writing for other sites. As you can see, I don’t use any new-fangled marketing ploy. Just plain, old-fashioned show-and-tell.