Marketing and Promoting Your Book with a Facebook Event, Part 3

It gets frantic. It gets chaotic. It’s hard to keep track of all that’s happening! It’s a blast!

But if not well-prepared, the adventure can turn ugly. Nobody shows up. People show up but leave too early. Your posts are so far in between that people lose interest. Your posts aren’t engaging so you get little response. Four hours is a very long time! (Or one, even, if it’s dragging.)

I’ve been attending on-line Virtual Book Launch Events for a few years now. Before I became an author hawking her own books, I never knew there was such a thing. But, you know, there’s something about the magic of book contracts and promotion expectations, to thrust one into the midst of figuring things out.

I was part of a group book launch for our romance anthology and each of us only were responsible for a segment based on our story in the collection. It was well-attended and lively.

At each event for other authors I attended, I made note of what the virtual book launches included. Here’s what I found. Features that were the same in each of the events were:

         Themes

Cover art displayed

         Book blurb available

         Purchase info easily found and often presented

         Links to author pages of various sorts

         Giveaways (often run by Rafflecopter www.rafflecopter.com free basic

service, but they have paid plans with more options); tweet,

post, share to win

         Video or audio links (including book trailers for author’s own or others’

                  books; might be links to music or YouTube videos of content

                  related to your book)

         Pictures related to the era/theme/topic

Some of the virtual launches also included:

Trivia questions of the era/theme/topic/book to win prizes

         Pictures of foods you are “serving”; sometimes with recipes

         Opportunities to be named in next book, or vote on a character name

         Links to free stuff on the author’s site--bookmark, excerpts, etc.

Here’s the plan for my Facebook Launch for Pastabilities:

1)   Start the event with the book trailer for Pastabilities and run it once every hour of the event because some don’t stay the whole time and others arrive late.

2)   Provide links to YouTube cooking videos I made.

3)   Provide links to YouTube videos of short mystery stories spaced throughout the event hours.

4)   Provide links to YouTube cooking videos I follow.

5)   Post recipes from the book and accompanying pictures throughout the event hours.

6)   Share pictures from my Pinterest board of what characters look like.

7)   Post pictures of Phoenix and Glendale, AZ throughout the event hours.

8)   Give away free books, recipe cards, and cooking gadgets.

9)    Post fun food facts, kitchen gadget reviews, and provocative statements about the book content.

10)                   Post a link to an excerpt for the second book in the series, Prime Rib and Punishment.

11)                  Post a link to a book club guide for Pastabilities and an offer for me to participate in one via Skype/Facetime or in person.

12)                  Create trivia questions to post about the book, mysteries, cooking, police

procedures, etc.

13)                  Create lists of other mystery writers to invite and questions to ask; feature one or two each hour.

14)                  Prepare a series of tweets and Facebook posts that you ask friends to post to invite more people to the event.

15)                  What prizes will I give out for which questions? (apron, recipe cards, recipe

books, signed copies of my books and others’ book, measuring devices, pot holders, and so on).

16)                  Create an hour-by-hour outline of content/contests/videos/and so on.

17)                  Don’t overplan. Allow time for attendees to ask and respond to questions and to interact with one another.

My big Ah, Ha! was that while writing is a solitary pursuit, a book launch is a celebratory sharing. People want to be part of that energy! This post focuses on virtual (as opposed to live event) book launches and what happens in them.

In last week’s post, I gave you my template for planning a Facebook event. Do all that first, then start on these items.

Posting plans for the Facebook Book Launch of my culinary mysteries:

Here is the tentative plan I drafted for the Facebook event celebrating the re-release of Pastabilities (formerly Mission Impastable) in the fall. I’m planning the event for one week after the release date I’m given to ensure the book is available. That’s just a little insurance policy decision based on past experience!

For my Facebook Event, I’ll invite people from my on-line writing and cooking groups. This is several thousands people. Sadly, the actual number attending will be much less. However, by asking friends to tweet and announce my event on Facebook, I have the possibility of many people I don’t know attending. FB will track invitations and acceptances, but keep the event public so anyone can drop in.

 I am planning a four-hour event. The book cover and buy button will be prominent, as will the book blurb and early reviews. I’ll post a link my web page, blog, and Twitter account in a pinned area at the top. When the party is happening, messages scroll by fast.

In the invitation, I’ll tell attendees to bring cream cheese, chutney, and crackers with them. The first post is a recipe from Pastablilites for a quick appetizer to munch on throughout the event.

Four Hour Event:

Welcome to all and show book cover. Thank them for attending. There’s still time to invite other friends to drop in (give the link to invite others). Give overview of what’s coming up

Post the recipe for “Alli’s Super Easy and Elegant Cream Cheese Appetizer” from Mission Impastable

Post question 1

Post the book blurb

Post early reviews

Announce prize winner for question 1

Post question 2

Food Facts you might not know

Play book trailer (or reviews, cover, blurbs) for guest author

Interview/interaction with a culinary mystery author who wrote TITLE

Post a recipe from Pastabilities with a picture

Play book trailer for Pastabilities

Give Pinterest link to the board for Pastabliities’ characters and scenes

Announce prize winner for question 2

Show YouTube cooking video I made for Hermosillo Salsa.

Post question 3

Post a link to an excerpt for the second book in the series, Prime Rib and Punishment

Post a link to a book club guide for Pastablilities and an offer for

me to participate in a book club meeting via Skype/Facetime or in person.

Play book trailer (or reviews, cover, blurbs) for guest author

Interview/interaction with culinary mystery author who wrote TITLE

Announce prize winner for question 3

Post question 4 (winner announced at beginning of next hour)

Links to short mystery stories on-line

Share titles and synopses of the six books in the series

And so on.

Continue in this vein--some repetition, some new content. Your helper person(s) might be in charge of the posted answers to questions and determining winners as well as managing the posting of on-line videos and other content like pictures or recipes, freeing you to respond to questions, conduct interviews, and facilitate interactions with other authors.

Next week, in Part 3, I’ll give the nitty gritty of setting up the actual event on Facebook. See you then! In the meantime, start planning your event.

Marketing and Promoting Your Book with a Facebook Event, Part 1

A Facebook author event is an on-line Facebook page set for a specific time frame and either an invited or open-to-the-public happening. Most often there are games, giveaways, contests, and content provided.

It’s not that planning and running an author event on Facebook is so difficult, but there are a lot of moving parts, so I split this post in two with Part I this week and Part II next week.

Part I will focus on the prep for a Facebook event.

Part II will focus on how to set it up and what happens during and after the event.

Planning an event or happening on FB is a little complicated, but not too difficult. Just be well-planned before you go to set it up, then fill in the blanks. Set it up. Let ‘er rip.

With adequate prep, the event should go off smoothly. But before the event there are decisions to be made and materials and/or resources to accumulate.

Planning your Facebook Author Event:

1)   What kind of event are you planning?

A book launch? A connect-with-you event for fans? An “Author Takeover” event to allow connection with multiple authors? Fundraiser for some cause important to you and connected to what you write?

In an Author Takeover, gather a variety of authors in your genre (from around the world if possible). Or perhaps you are in an anthology. Get those authors to participate. An example of the fundraiser might be raising money for Desert Labrador Retriever Rescue if your books feature a rescue dog as an on-going character.

Name your event and select a picture to represent the event! Choose something memorable but short like “Pastabilities Book Launch.” The picture, of course, would be the book cover. Create a description that is concise, punchy, and use hashtags to aid in the spreading the word of the event.

2)   Allow 2-3 months prep time.

You need this time for planning and gathering materials and resources, but mostly for building buzz about the upcoming event. Drop hints on your FB author page, your blog, and your website. Post things like “Save the date! July 15^th is a BIG event coming your way.” Or, “Be my date. I want to spend time with you on July 15^th? Got a couple of hours?”

If there are multiple authors involved, set up the schedule for when each must be available for their part of the event. Have them promote the same way you are on your social media avenues. Provid them with copy so all they have to do is copy/paste.

Be sure to invite those attending to follow you on your FB author page and to subscribe to your website. Post that information periodically throughout the event (people come and go) or have it permanently available on the event site.

3)   What is your timeframe?

Will this event be a marathon 24 hours? Happen for two hours? What time frame works best for your fans in various time zones? What date has the least conflicts with other stuff in your life?

Make it easy for people to attend by making the time and location easy to find. Ask them to respond to the invitation for attendance and to spread the word to others.

4)   Who is going to help?

Even if this is a “simple” event lasting two hours, you will need at least one other person to help out. So get a good friend or friends to pitch in. Doing what, you ask?

If you have contests going on, someone has to monitor the entries and decide on the winner. If you have a successful event, you will have multiple conversation threads occurring simultaneously. When people post something, someone on your team needs to respond quickly.

I accumulate memes, questions to answer, lists of culinary books and authors, recipes, cooking tips and hacks, giveaways, polls, mini-mysteries to solve, etc. that are posted every several minutes. Accumulate enough to post at least 15 times per hour. See why you need 2-3 months?

You have to keep things happening, moving. You 

want people to stay for a long time and not leave 

because the event is boring. With so much 

happening, you need helpers to post and to respond 

with you.

Okay, you’re now ready to set up and run your Facebook author event. Come back next week to see how that works. If you have some suggestions to add, please comment below. I’m always trying to get better at this promo stuff!

10 Tips for Passive Advertising for Authors

Marketing a book requires more than picking out your business cards and setting up a Fan Page on Facebook. One big area authors often neglect is identifying a budget for marketing. How much do you have available to spend and where will you spend it?

Of course, we all know that the best advertising is word of mouth because you wrote an incredible book. That’s a given. But what else can you do?

There are two types of marketing in any business, and book selling is no different: active and passive advertising.

Active marketing is aggressive, requires campaigns, money and people resources, and is deliberate and purposeful. The point is to make each dollar and each hour spent return more than was spent.

In passive marketing, authors create materials/experiences and then let them spread the word in an on-going, rather than event, way.

Sometimes authors combine active and passive advertising, and, in fact, I think they should. Before a book’s release and immediately after, the author should assign a major part of marketing dollars to spread the word on availability. Linked to simultaneous passive advertising, the author should see some effect from the efforts. One of the hardest areas to gauge is the effect of various marketing strategies on sales given the lag time for sales data. And who knows who might later remember your book when going through paperwork and happening on your business card? How would you know that new sale was tied to the card?

This post focuses on passive advertising. We want to create maximum exposure with minimal effort or money. Here are xxx ideas for you to try, too.

1) One of the first recommendations here is to establish a Fan Page on Facebook. This is a place to interact with your readers, link to your blog posts, announce book signings and book releases, share content connected to the kind of book you write, and keep readers updated with what’s going on in your personal life and your writing. You can link readers to your website and blog to expand the content available to them.

A Caution: do provide more related content than in-your-face book selling. Nobody will come to your fan page to see you running the same book ads continually and solely.

2) My business cards take advantage of the valuable real estate on the back of the cards. See what I wrote about business cards when my first two books were published. Rather than use the back to list more about me or about my books (list of books, synopsis, etc.), I created content related to each book and gave people a reason to keep my card rather than trashing it.

For my culinary mystery, I printed a recipe on the back from the book title on the front. It’s an easy recipe that even kids could make. And it’s delicious and fast. A quick and cheap dinner recipe is content to keep!

For my erotic romance, I listed my protagonist’s “Top Ten Sex Tips.” That gets peoples’ attention, and I give away lots of those cards. Some people even ask for additional ones to give to friends. Now that is passive advertising!

Here’s a tip from an author friend of mine. When dining out, write a brief thank you to your server on a business card and leave with the tip. You never know who might see that card!

A Caution: Make sure the content is engaging enough that people will hang onto your business card and make sure the content connects to the content of your novel.

3) When I first saw the ad for car magnets, I knew I had to have them. They come two in a package and in different sizes. Lots of printing companies provide them. Probably your business card vendor has them available. The book title and your name should attract attention. I’ve had people in the grocery store parking lot ask me about my book.

A Caution: Getting the right size graphic to fit the space was a challenge for me. You don’t want to cut off your name or the title. I am spatially challenged on a good day. On a bad day . . . well, don’t ask.

4) Pens and other swag have been around a long time, but don’t discount them just because they’re not a new idea. People love getting useful stuff. I get pens printed with my book titles and names and hand them out in lots of venues. Again, there are lots of sources for stuff like this. My advice to go with a middle of the road pen, pricewise. Too cheap and they give out early, frustrating your potential customers. Too expensive and it’s not cost effective to give them out at book signings and other events.

5) Include your author name, book title, and publisher in your e-mail signature. Very easy to do and as passive as can be, not to mention free!

6) Seek more book reviews. If you have 20, set a goal for 50. If you have 50, set a goal for 100. On Amazon, we all look to see how many reviews (and the rating) that books we’re considering have. We are more likely to buy a book that a lot of people read and reviewed than one that few or none have read and reviewed. I don’t know the ratio of books read to how many end of being reviewed, but I know that more read than read and review. So if I see a book with 50 reviews, I would guess that thousands read the book. That gets my attention.

There are services that will provide you lists of people who review books like yours. Consider spending some of your marketing dollars on a service, then contact those people to ask for reviews. Once you have done that, the reviews that follow provide you with passive advertising for years to come as people dip into past articles and find you.

7) Seek more followers on your Fan Page. Keep building your list of people who follow your author page on Facebook (or Twitter or other social media sites you use). Continually add to your list by posting a request to be followed in various groups you belong to. The more people who see your Facebook listings the more potential book buyers you have.

By the way, do you follow me on Facebook? I’d appreciate it if you would. I have four Fan Pages for the different genres I write:

https://www.facebook.com/SharonArthurMooreAuthor/

https://www.facebook.com/RomanceRighter/

https://www.facebook.com/RiverGlynnAuthor/

https://www.facebook.com/carolineadamswriter/

8) Guest blog to get exposure beyond your own fan base. Provide a link to your website, blog, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook pages, and how to buy. Each person you guest blog for has a set of readers who are likely unfamiliar with you. Give them good content and a way to connect to get more followers and buyers.

9) Set up a Pinterest page with a story board for each book. Also provide content on other boards that relate to your book contents. I have recipes and cooking tips on my site for the culinary mysteries as well as beauty tips and elegant clothing for my romances. Check mine out (and follow me, please) at:

https://www.pinterest.com/authorsam/

10) Create a short PDF book to give away on your website or when people subscribe to your newsletter. Once the book is done, the passive part kicks in. The book can be past blog posts collected on a topic like how to keep romance alive or recipes you posted. It is sent to them for following you or for participating in a contest or as a bonus if they send proof of a book purchase. Make sure the free booklet has your book titles and how to buy.

There are lots more ways to passively advertise your work. Please share your favorites below. I’m always looking for ideas!