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!

Facebook Author Pages

I’ve mentioned in this series of posts that I’ve been attending workshops, reading books, and finding articles about using social media outlets as an author. “Marketing R Us” should be emblazoned on any work about becoming a writer.

Don’t like it? That’s kinda too bad. ‘Cause this is the reality for a professional writer. And that’s you, right? Professional writers do what they must in the craft and business parts of the professional writer’s life.

One aspect that I’m paying more attention to after one such workshop, is my Facebook Author Pages. That’s right. Pages. When you write more than one genre, you need an identity for each, even the as-yet unpublished ones. I subscribe to Christina Katz’s perspective, Get Known Before the Book Deal.

That book was the first book I read on marketing. The year was 2010. She convinced me since I wasn’t known and had no book deals yet. Since then, I’ve published with two traditional, if small, presses and will publish with a third this fall. I’m a believer.

Back to Facebook Author Pages, I didn’t have all four at first. In fact, number four, Caroline Adams Writer, was added this summer. I think by next summer, I may add number five, Olivia Lucas, who writes women’s fiction.

By the way, I’d love it if you’d follow me on all four! Links below. Is that a cheeky ask, or what? Just click on a name to go to the Facebook author page.

So what do they all write, in the order I created the pages, and what do I post for each of them every day? As a side note, the postings I suggest here also work for Twitter! Get a two-fer by posting the same content both places.

Sharon Arthur Moore-Author writes cozy culinary mysteries. Her first book, now unavailable, was MISSION IMPASTABLE. The book will be re-issued from a different publisher as PASTABILITIES this fall. The “Murders with Taste” series is planned as a six-book series with recipes that mostly reflect the titles. A second culinary mystery series (in the planning stages) will be set in Alaska.

She belongs to several affinity groups on FB related to mystery writing and to cooking. On her FB page, she posts recipes, mystery book links, food holidays, and cooking tools and facts. She is also starting a newsletter she is trying to get subscribers for.

Angelica French writes about relationships: romantic, familial, friendship, and business. She is all about communication and empathy. Her first book is an erotic romance (180 degrees from culinary mysteries, thus the need for a pen name. STREETWALKER is a story of trust and redemption.

She belongs to several Facebook affinity groups for romance writers. On Angelica’s FB page, I post links to books I get from other Facebook groups, articles I find online, and links to articles about popular culture.

River Glynn-Author has a bit of an identity crisis. She is, as yet, unpublished, but she’s written a novel with a ghost story and has written a full-length play with a “ghost” in it. She also likes science and science fiction and has some books outlined for topics like the Voynich Document and a future dystopian society. River is also a high fantasy fan and would love to do a fantasy series with paranormal elements.

She belongs to some FB paranormal groups and also follows a lot of them as well as science folks on Twitter.

She posts science events (past and present), weird holidays, links to paranormal, scifi, and fantasy books, links to articles about science facts and paranormal tales.

Caroline Adams Writer is my newest persona. She writes historical fiction and Intrepid Women biographies for middle grade readers. She has an historical fiction romance, LUCINDA, that is as-yet unpublished, though there has been some interest in her work from agents and editors at conferences. She wants to write about a Singuan woman she thinks was one of her previous incarnations. She also has plans for a Viking-settlement historical fiction novel. She is fascinated by many eras in history. Too many? Possibly.  

Caroline belongs to historical fiction affinity groups on FB. I post for her links to historical fiction books, archaeology finds, articles about historical eras, and historical trivia facts.

See, it’s easy to find stuff to post for your FB author page and Twitter. Just keep the focus for your persona.

FACEBOOK: Authors, do you struggle with what content to post on your FB author page or Twitter beyond links to buy your books? Struggle no more with these suggestions that will help. http://bit.ly/2EjWU6b

TWITTER: #Authors sometime struggle with what to post on Facebook and Twitter that isn’t just links to their own books. Try some of these ideas from @Good2Tweat. http://bit.ly/2EjWU6b