Rachel Levy: Social Media & Marketing

A few ideas:
- create a blog to serialize the first chapter or two, and cross-post to your blog, tweeting new posts of course
- create twitter profile for main character in book; be honest that user is fictional character but allow book personality to become Twitter personality
- get the author on Twitter
- create a blog for the author to write not just about the process of writing the books, but about anything he wants to blog about -- fans will be fans of anything their favorite author says

Good luck -- will watch this space for developments!

Lance Godard
http://writingthisdown.blogspot.com

Rachel - great post. I think a lot of people could benefit from some of your basic 'steps' above. A nephew of mine recently asked me how to develop a web community around kayaking (out west). I said 1) blog and 2) twitter. But your recommendations of Facebook and Video (among others) are great ways to employ multiple SM portals to build a true social community via digital media. Well done.

Maybe an e-book that acts as a preface to the main book?

If you are going to utilize the various socnets, I'd recommend providing unique content/info per socnet. Especially if you are going to be offering discounts or contests.

Maybe Twitter followers are offered info/discounts that Facebook page fans are not and vice-versa. This provides unique value to the socnets individually.

<abbr>DaveMurr’s last blog post..Social Media’s Theme Song</abbr>

While blogging about the process of writing books, writing tips, and comments on other blogs about the same genre of books, the author and current books, I would add to this the whole process of getting accepted by a publisher, choosing an agent, the whole book proposal process for fiction writers, all endearing an author to his writing public and reading fans.

While a raffle or special offer is ok I have had great luck offering two free chapters on my website in exchange for an email address. This is implied permission to continue to market to a prospect and those most interested will proceed to a purchase button. Consistent marketing and communication builds a fan base.

Asking for reviews on Amazon or the many book review websites is something that can be done with email announcements, twitter, facebook, linked in or other social networking and social media marketing.

If you use the recorded audio excerpts, I suggest using an interview format: “How did you build conflict into the plot, how did you develop the character, what different twists did you consider, etc.”

While making appearances doing book signings, offer to speak to libraries, non profit groups, radio and tv and print audiences. This leverage really helped my books reach best seller status. “Meet the Author” days at places other than bookstores like banks, community events, bakeries, coffee shops, etc. work as well.

I like audience participation and interaction for future books: suggest the next title, give character ideas, pose different endings, set up new conflict, etc.

These are just a few ideas. Tradtional marketing can support driving people to websites, twitter chats, facebook postings, etc.

Thanks, Al Lautenslager
Author, Guerrilla Marketing in 30 Days
www.marketforprofits.com
www.certifiedsocialmedia.com

My first question upon reading this is: is he really a bestselling author? I mean no disrespect, but that term gets bandied about far more often than is accurate. If he has written thrillers that have indeed appeared on the New York Times, Washington Post, or USA Today bestseller lists, then he should already have a tremendous head start on this campaign. I would hope that as a bestseller he has culled a large email contact list from his fans, been publishing a newsletter, perhaps even used Myspace and a personal website to reach out to them.

My instinct, as a writer of many novels myself, is to have him use the list of fans he has as a starting point. Get out onto Facebook and create a group page for his new series. The use Facebook search to search for fans via their email addresses and immediately friend them and get them out as members of the group. At that point, he should ask them to cull new fans from their own contact/friends lists and hopefully grow his base exponentially.

Incorporate Twitter with Linked In, Facebook, and Plaxo so that his updates are uniform and posted across the social media atmosphere.

What he should *not* do is start spamming other groups with news of his new series. He'd be shooting himself in the foot if he does that. instead, start conversations with other fans of certain groups and if they like the dialogue, they may add him as a friend. At that point he can invite them to his group. But don't look to subvert people away from another group for his own purposes. It just doesn't fly.

Get him a page on Youtube and start filming bi-weekly episodes of how the series came into being. Get those videos out on to every site possible - link to them everywhere. A lot of authors are doing this now, so it's tough to stand out, but it helps.

Going back to his (hopefully) established fan base, I wold identify the half dozen people who have corresponded with him the most - in other words, who are his biggest fans? These are the people he should look to recruit to help him in his efforts. They will talk him up to everyone, potentially, and they should be rewarded for their time.

There's plenty he should have been doing already, and I hope he has. Publishing today is one hell of a risky gambit. He has to hold on to every fan he has like they're a lifeline.

They are.

Best Regards,
Jon F. Merz
http://www.thefixer.tv

How about social bookmarking?
What about getting some "brand ambassadors" on board to talk about bestselling author and review chapters? See this article for some more: http://www.marketingtom.com/2009/02/twitter-and...
You could use Seesmic - I saw some guy posting chapters up and inviting people to leave comments.
How about "trailers" in the form of chpater readings on Youtube?