Designing a Unique Mailing to Win Big Media

Media outlets receive dozens of books on a weekly — sometimes daily — basis. We knew we had to make our media mailing for Ann Stampler’s YA thriller How to Disappear stand out to get attention, so we got creative! 

This edge-of-your-seat thriller follows a teen named Nicolette and her race to escape a hitman, so we decided to re-create both the hitman’s “hit packet” from the book, as well as the disguise kit used by the protagonist.

Our media mailing included a copy of the book, a personal note from the author, and two large, special envelopes. The first envelope read “Are You the Hunter?,” and included the hitman’s info on Nicolette as described in the novel: “photos” of Nicolette and her house, her “driver’s license” and a checklist of her personal information. (Yes, we created these things!) The second envelope read “Are You the Hunted?,” and included Nicolette’s disguise kit (complete with sunglasses and a tube of hair dye!), the fake ID she uses in the novel, a road map and a “room key” to the hotel she stays at in the book! 

The mailing received a lot of love and attention from the media, who responded warmly to the book (instead of tossing it in the “to read” pile). After the mailing, we were thrilled to see How to Disappear featured multiple times on Buzzfeed (which tweeted a photo of the mailing!), Bustle, B&N Teen Blog, USA TODAY Happy Ever After, Hypable, Heroes and Heartbreakers, PopCrush and more! 

A little extra imagination helped ensure that Ann’s incredible novel won’t “disappear” off the best teen reading lists!