Everyone wants to be a successful author – even people who’ve never written a book. Mention television and movie deals and people even start salivating. But those of us who have actually published know there is a vast distance between getting an ISBN number and actually selling books. For most of us the numbers, at least in the early days, are so few and far between that we start cursing our cousins that they haven’t bought enough copies to give to their friends.

The lack of sales leads to depression. Perhaps feeling desperation, we mention our books on Facebook. One friend, most likely somebody living in Bahrain, asks how to get a copy. Fighting back the impulse of gratitude that would take us to the nearest UPS store, we go to our Amazon pages, copy the links, send them. Of course living in Bahrain, our friend doesn’t have an Amazon account anyway, but we have started our careers marketing. Social media becomes our new home. We trudge electronic highways and byways like the old time Bible salesmen, going door to door and offering to personally sign each copy.

I’ve been trudging for a while now and I thought I’d share a few things I’ve learned along the way.

1) You can’t sell if you don’t get in the door. Those two thousand friends on Facebook, those fourteen hundred and thirty-two followers on Tweeter: they all have to think of you as a friend. Let’s face it, you aren’t the Fuller Brush man, you don’t have a product they want. They have to want to buy something from you. That means you have to be friendly before you pitch.

2) People start to sing to themselves when you repeat too often. You know – like the little kid going la-la-la when you’re lecturing him. They heard you the first time. You wrote a book. (They immediately thought they could write one too, assuming they haven’t done just that.) Now tell them something they don’t know. I follow an 80-10-10 rule. Eighty percent of my posting is about non-writing stuff. Ten percent is about writing, but not necessarily mine. I mention my friends, I mention something I’ve read. Heck, I’ll mention the Gutenberg Bible if I find something interesting to say, and I know none of my friends are buying that one. The last ten percent is for my writing. Some of that is about my novels, but some is about everything else I manage to get out there. For example, I’ll post about this blog.

Which brings us to a real problem, while people may know your name and that you wrote a book, they need to see your name and that title a lot of times before they actually act, before they go to Amazon and click that link.

3) Marketing is not a one time effort. I loved your website, but you’re still going to have to convince me that I want your book. Your book, who are you? Do I know your name? Round and round the prospective reader goes. This is a game of blind man’s bluff, and you are it. Come up with more ways to get those social network friends and followers to think about you until the sheer weight of your presence snowballs them right back to that Amazon page.

I hope this has helped you. Now, go buy one of my books. Think about it. You enjoy my style and my ideas. What more can you ask?

Life itches and torments Kenneth Weene like pesky flies. Annoyed, he picks up a pile of paper to slap at the buzzing and often whacks himself on the head. Each whack is another story. At least having half-blinded himself, he has learned to not wave the pencil about. Ken will, however, write on until the last gray cell has retreated and there are no longer these strange ideas demanding his feeble efforts. So many poems, stories, novels; and more to come.

Check out Ken’s website at: http://www.authorkenweene.com
For Widow’s Walk visit: http://vidego.multicastmedia.com/player.php?p=wbgzb2yk
For Memoirs From the Asylum visit: http://vidego.multicastmedia.com/player.php?p=nqm74a8k
To hear Ken read a chapter from his upcoming book, Tales From the Dew Drop Inne: Because there’s one in every town visit: http://soundcloud.com/kenneth-weene/in-the-army

Facebook is a great marketing tool for any author and if you’re not using it, you’re losing sales! Using Facebook for book publicity is both easy and effective and following these few simple steps will help boost your sales and expand your market.

STEP 1.  Create a “Fan Page” for your book

What is the first thing you do after reading a good book?  You tell people about it!  Creating a Facebook Fan Page allows your readers to easily share with their networks the great book they just read and provides you with a free, “mini website” to interact with your fans.

Using the link above, select “Entertainment” then “Book” and follow the step-by-step instructions to begin completing your page. Once you’re done, users will be able to list your book on their info pages, interact with you, the author, and other fans on the Fan Page wall, and share the link with their friends through email and other social networking sites.

One important option to take advantage of is giving your page a username (after you reach 25 followers you’ll be able to do so). For example, https://www.facebook.com/stieglarsson  goes to the fan page author Stieg Larsson. Having a username in your URL will be much easier for people to navigate your page than suggesting they search for you on Facebook. Plus, your link looks much cleaner.

STEP 2. Keep your page updated

Once you’ve created your page, you need to keep it up to date with fresh content.  It’s standard practice to post three to four times a week (Tuesdays and Wednesdays having the highest click through rates) being conscious not to “overshare” or fans will unsubscribe from your page.

When fans post on your wall, be sure to respond to them in a timely fashion and respond to their comment or question.  Facebook is a conversation and that means both parties have to participate.

STEP 3. Give your fans content they can’t get anywhere else

You’ve accumulated some fans, now you need to keep them coming back.  Providing them with content they can’t find anywhere else rewards them for liking your page and can help you at the same time.

In the “discussions” section, you can post excerpts of your work, allowing people to read and comment on your progress. This also allows you to keep your fans up to date on whatever it is that you are working on. You simply click the “discussions” option, select “start new topic,” fill out the topic title and then write a post about it. Your fans will be free to read and reply to all posts on the discussion board.

STEP 4. “Like” it

A page allows people to “like” your book’s page. A fun fact is that when people “like” your page, it helps in your search engine rank. Google figures that if people are “liking” your page, it must be pretty good and worth seeing. One note about liking things; make sure that you click around to other author’s books and pages and “like” them. Odds are, they’ll “like” you right back!

STEP 5. Promote your book signing and speaking engagements

Say you have a book signing or a speaking engagement coming soon. Sure, you’ll post it on your blog and your website. Another option you should utilize is the Facebook “events” tool. Using the “event” function, you can create an event, like your upcoming book signing or reading, and invite all of your Facebook friends to join. You can list information like the time, location, and even directions of how to get to your event. Adding a photo to an event is always a nice touch. List as much information as you can so people will be well informed and more likely to attend. People can RSVP and even if they don’t, the event will linger on their Facebook mini-feed as a constant reminder. Use this example for inspiration. http://tinyurl.com/3lfa9oo

STEP 6. Show appreciation

Once you start to rack up Facebook friends and fans, a nice gesture of appreciation for their support might be to offer some incentives. For example, update your book’s page status to something like, “2,986 people like my book’s page so far! If I can get to 3,000 I’ll be giving away a signed copy to one of my wonderful fans!” People like free things. More importantly, people will keep checking your page not only because of your literary masterpiece, but also to see when you’re giving away more prizes. Giveaways generate interest and will help maintain and produce more fans.

Step 7. Badge and advertise

To let the public know you’ve created this fantastic Facebook page for your book, be sure to add a Facebook badge somewhere on your blog or website so people can click right over to it. Finally, consider utilizing Facebook’s advertising space. You can buy ad space on Facebook. You’ll be able to create your own custom advertisement by filling out the URL, title, and body of your ad. Then, you just have to add a photo and preview. Facebook ads allow you to choose your audience by age, sex, location, interests, even by place of employment. You’ll also be informed how many are in each demographic, which will allow you to target your advertisements to the exact market you want to reach. Facebook allows you to set a daily budget and you can also adjust it at any time, so you won’t break the bank.

So, be sure to hop on over to your Facebook account and set up a page for your book. It is an effective way to market your work and it will allow you to connect with your fans.

Book publicist Scott Lorenz is President of Westwind Communications, a public relations and marketing firm that has a special knack for working with authors to help them get all the publicity they deserve and more. Lorenz works with bestselling authors and self-published authors promoting all types of books, whether it’s their first book or their 15th book. He’s handled publicity for books by CEOs, CIA Officers, Navy SEALS, Homemakers, Fitness Gurus, Doctors, Lawyers and Adventurers. His clients have been featured by Good Morning America, FOX & Friends, CNN, ABC News, New York Times, Nightline, TIME, PBS, LA Times, USA Today, Washington Post, Woman’s World, & Howard Stern to name a few. Learn more about Westwind Communications’ book marketing approach at http://www.book-marketing-expert.com  or contact Lorenz at scottlorenz@westwindcos.com or by phone at 734-667-2090. Follow Lorenz on Twitter @aBookPublicist

It’s true: social media is here–and there goes your life! Well, maybe not entirely but it sure seems that way sometimes, doesn’t it? If you’ve held off joining the social media party because you were worried about what a time suck it would be, take heart! There are a lot of authors who feel the same way. I speak at conferences all the time and at almost every event I get at least a half a dozen people who insist they don’t have time to devote to social media. Well, the fact remains you don’t have time not to! But if you are still worried about the time commitment, let’s take a look at how you can do this without dumping too much of your time into this effort. I mean an author’s still gotta write, right?

When it comes to social media, understand this: sometimes more is not better; it’s just more. You don’t want to push yourself to too many sites because that can lead to fragmenting yourself too much online and, when you get fragmenting, you often get site abandonment. Meaning that you populate content on a (social media) site, only to forget it even exists.

1.      Skim: the first phase of online promotion is often reading. This can be anything from Twitter posts to Facebook updates, blog posts and online articles. Here’s a tip: skim. You’ll want to be very selective with anything that you feel is worthy of an in-depth read. Save your time for the real important stuff and skim the rest.

2.      Subscribe to RSS feeds, but only those you actually read: it’s tempting to subscribe to a whole bunch of RSS blog feeds (just like it’s tempting to get an email box full of newsletters but save yourself the hassle and only subscribe to content you can actually read). The same goes for people you follow on Twitter, if they don’t add value, let them go. You don’t need the noise.

3.      Keep a timer nearby: if you are allocating time each day to your online activities, it’s safe to assume you’ll go over time unless you really police yourself. Get a kitchen timer and keep it near your desk, when the buzzer goes off, stop!

4.      Automate whenever you can:  automating can be the key to your online happiness. When you have autoresponders or auto content generators in place they can save you scads of time. An easy and quick way to implement example of this might be your newsletter sign ups. There are a variety of systems, one of them via Constant Contact that will allow you to easily automate sign ups. Even if you have a giveaway for signing up, the system can handle this too!

5.      Consolidate your online presence: when you use sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Squidoo, you can really consolidate what you’re doing online. Why? Because these three sites “talk” to one another, what that means is that if you update one, they all update.  Makes it easy, doesn’t it? While you still should visit each of these to populate them with content, you can also plug your information into one source and have it update all your properties. The ‘source’ can actually be your blog too. Using a site called Twitterfeed can update your Twitter account each time you update your blog, and there are widgets in Facebook and Squidoo that will do the same.

6.      Get a routine: get yourself into a social media routine. You’ll want to identify the best times of the day for you to blog, get active on Facebook, Twitter, etc., and then don’t diverge from that. Stick to a schedule and a routine.

7.      Cross-pollinate your stuff: much like my section on consolidating, you’ll want to also cross-pollinate your content. Syndicated online articles are a good example of that. You can link to these articles from a variety of places. Your Twitter account for one will really benefit from this content, and you can also upload it to Facebook and Squidoo.

8.      Do only essential things: you can waste a lot of your time online. By now you know that a million things can distract you; it’s important to keep to the essentials. This means that you define what pushes your campaign forward and what doesn’t. By doing this you will gain a better sense of where it’s best to spend your time. For example, if blogging seems to get you a lot of new newsletter sign ups, continue doing it.

9.      Don’t follow the leader: while there are a lot of folks out there telling you what to do (including moi), you want to do what’s right for you and your campaign, not what’s popular. Twitter, for example, might make no sense for you at all. So don’t just follow advice because you trust the source. Listen, learn, then do what will have the biggest impact on your campaign.

10.  Create a plan: without a direction, any path will do. Make sure you have a plan for going online, don’t just do it because it’s “hip” or everyone else is. Make sure you spend some time creating a focused outline of what you’ll do, what your goals are and what you need to attain to accomplish these goals. A plan will not only keep you focused, but also stay better on track with your marketing. A plan should include goals and a to do list so you make sure and sift through all the action items you need to create a rockin’ online campaign.

These days, social media is a must for anyone promoting anything. But it doesn’t have to mean that it’s a time suck too. Keeping a social media presence also means managing it carefully. Know where to spend your time, what needs to be limited and where your efforts need to be expanded. Sometimes the quickest way to grow traction online is to isolate your efforts, while everyone is throwing it all “out there,” you can create a focused plan that will not only gain you momentum, but readers as well.

Penny C. Sansevieri, CEO and founder of Author Marketing Experts, Inc., is a best-selling author and internationally recognized book marketing and media relations expert and an Adjunct Instructor with NYU. Her company is one of the leaders in the publishing industry and has developed some of the most cutting-edge book marketing campaigns. She is the author of five books, including Book to Bestseller which has been called the “road map to publishing success.” AME is the first marketing and publicity firm to use Internet promotion to its full impact through The Virtual Author Tour™, which strategically works with social networking sites, blogs, micro-blogs, ezines, video sites, and relevant sites to push an authors message into the virtual community and connect with sites related to the book’s topic, positioning the author in his or her market. To learn more about Penny’s books or her promotional services, you can visit her web site at http://www.amarketingexpert.com. To subscribe to her free ezine, send a blank email to: mailto:subscribe@amarketingexpert.com Copyright 2010 Penny C. Sansevieri

Writing a book is no easy feat.  It can take months or even years of your life to finish writing and editing your masterpiece.  And once your tome is complete, you will probably face an uphill battle in getting it out to the public.  In bygone days, publishers were responsible for promoting your work, sending it around to retailers, and setting up readings, interviews, and book-signings for the author (you) to appear at.  While some of this still goes on today, more and more people are turning to advances in modern technology to do their dirty work for them.  And there is no better tool in your promotional arsenal than social networking.

Facebook, as you may know, is the preeminent outlet for social networking today.  And there are all sorts of ways to use it to your advantage when it comes to introducing your work to a mass audience.  While you should certainly start by setting up your own Facebook page (or one devoted to the book in particular), that is only the springboard for your social media marketing adventure.  And the best way to capitalize on the opportunities offered by Facebook is to begin joining groups.

You can seek out and join all kinds of groups related to your book.  For example, you may want to join a group for people interested in writing (or reading).  You can also look for those that are linked to your subject matter.  For example, say you have written a book about a young girl’s journey to find herself amidst the ruins of a terrible natural disaster.  She builds her character even as she labors to rebuild homes lost to a giant tsunami. Along the way, she finds and rescues an abandoned dog, which then becomes her best friend.  She goes off to college later that year with a newfound determination to use her life for the betterment of mankind.  The end.

Now, this book might appeal to several audiences, including young adults, females, disaster survivors, spiritual entrepreneurs, Peace Corp volunteers, carpenters, and dogs (well, let’s say dog lovers).  In any case, you can no doubt find groups that embody each and every one of these categories (hey, you’d be surprised how many dogs have their own Facebook pages).  If you can break your book down in this way, you should have no problem figuring out which groups will be the best ones to target.

Of course, you could make it easier on yourself by simply starting your own group.  With administrative rights, you can send out messages, updates, and even snippets from your writing (or previews of upcoming books) to other members.  Unfortunately, you probably won’t see the same success with this method of promotion as you will by joining already established groups, for the simple fact that you are limiting yourself to those who seek you out (or find you by accident) rather than reaching out some tendrils to bring in a new audience.  However, exercising both options should net you a fair amount of fresh meat while still allowing your current fans to find you without fuss.  And Facebook groups offer you the flexibility to do both on your path of self-promotion.

Sarah Danielson writes for a retirement savings plan website where you can find tips and advice on eligibility, investing, and establishing goals for your future.

Bloggers have influence and major players are reaching out to influence them.

Consider these events at BlogWorld:

• General David Patraeus took time out from defending our country to welcome people to BlogWorld and to thank bloggers for supporting the troops and their families. BlogWorld held a separate track for military blogs. Other tracks were for business, travel, food and sports.
• Mark Burnett, creator of Survivor, The Appren tice and other reality shows, used BlogWorld for the world premier viewing of a trailer for his latest show, “Sarah Palin’s Alaska.”
• Political consultants Mark Penn and Karen Hughes, veterans of two White House staffs, spoke about social media and politics.
• Borders announced software program to turn a blog into a book and have it sold via their bookstores – for $85, which includes the cost of an ISBN number. The head of the program told me that an ISBN number alone usually costs more than $85.
• SONY showed a prototype television with Internet capabilities. Tech pundit Jim Louderback said it was not ready for prime time, but that it did herald the beginning of a new era of convergence of the two media.
• FORD let people test drive their new car.

Meanwhile a room full of 100 food bloggers anxiously took notes from PR people who showed them how to curry favor with reporters and with brands – and learn a bit about journalistic ethics in the process.

In another room, several hundred corporate employees talked about how to measure ROI on social media and new media tools. Wrapped in numbers, metrics, formulas and algorithms, the session was not for the faint of heart, but for B-school wonks.

Still in another room, newbie bloggers were learning the ins and outs of creating content, creating community and creating income.

As panelists made their points, many in the audience tweeted and re-tweeted key points and sound bytes. Some presenters paused in their talks to point out they just said something that was tweetable.

Still others checked their messages on Facebook and Twitter (using HootSuite for the most part).

If one message came through loud and clear it was the social media was about creating conversations, not broadcasting messages. Case in point, two bloggers took to the microphones during Q&A to blast Penn and Hughes for talking in talking points, but not engaging the audience. The politicos answered the bloggers with more talking points but never once asked the questioners for their ideas.

Old habits are hard to break.

My audience is mostly speakers, authors, consultants and coaches. Most of whom think social media is a giant time waster. I can see why: Most messages I get from them are promotions for their webinars, teleseminars and thinly-veiled commercials for their books, consulting clients and other self-serving and self-promoting ventures. Of course no one engages in conversations with them. There’s no meat. People can see through an ad, even when it isn’t labeled an ad.

If you want to be successful with social media (and this conference showed me that many big companies really are getting ROI from their efforts), then it is key to engage so you can build visibility, trust and then sales.

So, what do you think?

Follow me on twitter @prleads, http://www.facebook.com/danjanal and Linked In and my Linked In group, “PR LEADS.”

Dan Janal is a very successful entrepreneur, professional speaker and marketing coach who helps clients build their businesses by improving their strategy for using publicity, marketing, Internet marketing, e-commerce and sales. To see how you can improve your business, go to http://www.prleadsplus.com

Social media, according to many entrepreneurs, is the best thing that ever happened to small business. It streamlines market research, makes it easier to locate valuable contacts, allows for completely-free-of-charge “advertising,” and helps new customers find you.

However, as with any popular venue it’s easy to pass unnoticed unless you work hard to stay visible. If your LinkedIn or Facebook presence isn’t attracting book buyers, consider the following points.

Have you posted a photograph, an interesting bio, and links to your online address(es)? The more complete your profile, the better, but these are the essential elements.

Photograph: People are more likely to investigate further if they see a real face.

Bio: “X is an author from New Jersey” equals instant boredom. Grab reader attention right away, as you would in a book. Identify your genre in the first sentence, note your most important book(s) and other publishing credits, include humor and human interest. But keep to one short-to-medium paragraph. (See “Who Are You?” by Devyani Borade for more bio-writing tips.)

Links: Always include a link to your author/publisher website. If you don’t have one, get one ASAP. Social media accounts and/or blogs are not sufficient online presence—they make you dependent on another’s whims and problems, and can arouse resentment in potential customers who don’t want to register with your host.

Have you utilized SEO principles? Make a list of keywords that customers might use to search for a book like yours, and put every one of those keywords in your profile.

Are you too sales-minded for your own good? Social media etiquette does allow for “buy my product” talk, but frowns on using an account as nothing more than free advertising. New fans and old will visit your page (and buy your books) regularly for helpful and interesting information from your field of expertise—but not if all they ever find is advertorials.

Some authors seem determined that no one will ever read their writing without paying for a whole book. Every online mention of their work boasts about the wonderful changes this material will make in your life—with nary a specific as to how. Finding even a brief excerpt online or in a magazine is an exercise in futility. Even public libraries don’t have the books. This approach is a good way to label yourself paranoid and avaricious in a high percentage of potential customers’ minds. If, instead, you use direct excerpts from your book as social media posts, and note where they came from (with a purchase link slipped in inconspicuously), you’ll draw a triple benefit: enhancement of your reputation as expert and helpful; low-key but highly effective advertising for your book; and saving yourself the work of writing a post from scratch!

Katherine Swarts is a professional writer specializing in articles—from blogs to booklets to press releases. Her Web address is www.spreadthewordcommercialwriting.com.

Planning a Virtual Book Launch, a Virtual Book Birthday or a Virtual Book Tour are great compliments to a book marketing campaign. They are free, effective, and can stick around in the blogsphere forever to immortalize your book and marketing efforts.

Anyone can throw a Virtual Party for any reason and the set up is fun and free.

CREATE A PARTY WEBSITE

Do this at least two months in advance. It takes information time to travel throughout the web. Create a party website that’s attached to your author website. Build a party blog for the sole purpose of hosting daily or weekly party updates. If you are a multiple book author, keep the blog for all of your parties and invite current party goers to review your scrapbook of previous parties.

Plan out your weekly prizes, posts related to the book or guest, give tidbits about the book and your guest. Even spotlight like works from other authors.

Keep the party going and post monthly games, prizes, post related to your up and coming works. You can always point folks back to your party site and if you keep it going people will always want to return.

PARTY MUST HAVES

Offer party favors weekly(these are gifts given prior to the release day of the party), music, video interview of the author, video interview of guest, book trailer, gifts, contest, book excerpts, chat room, guest book, cover art, book reviews, email box, and anything you would think would improve the fun.

PARTY PROMOTIONS

To promote your party you could do the following; press release, tweet it, facebook it, newsletter, email it, tell everyone in the forums you visit and ask people to pass the word on.

Another author friend of mine used a service to offer up over $1000 in prizes for her Amazon Book Launch Party. She went on a week campaign of countdown advertising and prize offers with games. She updated her blog, sent email newsletters, tweeted, facebook, myspace, evite and the word spread. She’d moved up the ranks in the Amazon ranking system from the millions to around 20K. Not bad for a first party attempt.

COMPLIMENTS TO THE PARTY

Have a real party too! You can have a small local launch party and invite guest to log into the Virtual After Party while they are at the small local party. Sign the online guest book and do videos and pictures that will be posted on the Virtual Party site. After the local party, post pictures on the PARTY BLOG and kick off the next virtual party.

LM Preston is the author of The Pack and Explorer X – Alpha www.lmpreston.com and http://lmpreston.blogspot.com

Have you ever had someone tell you they were slammed with work, only to find their Facebook page full of frequent frivolous activity?

Or maybe you have been surprised by a rude, off-the-cuff remark on Twitter?

Social networking offers boundless potential for authors and writers to promote their works to a wide audience online. Just remember to avoid some common etiquette pitfalls.

Keeping a personalized touch makes all the difference. Let the Golden Rule govern your behavior online and treat people and situations as you would face to face:

Share — Provide valuable information that people can use. When I am networking online, I offer great content for free, whether it be seminars, newsletters or even articles that I find that would be interesting for the community.

Don’t just promote yourself — Engage with people online just as you would if you were building a business relationship in person. If someone comes in and all they want to do is promote, promote, promote, that approach is likely to go nowhere.

Be polite — People have a tendency to say things online they would never say face to face. I have seen instances where people on Twitter have a personal beef or a problem with a person and tweet it out publicly. Don’t say anything you would be embarrassed for your loved ones to read.

Don’t lower yourself — With electronic communication, whether email or social networking, there is no way to read facial expressions or body language. If there is a question about a person’s intentions, give them the benefit of the doubt rather than calling them out for being rude.

Be responsible — Not only for what you say, but for your time and your image. It will hurt your credibility if you tell people how busy you are and they see you taking those “Who am I?” and “5 Favorite” quizzes on Facebook everyday. When you are online you should assume everyone is watching and behave accordingly.

Don’t butt in — If you are participating in an online discussion, let other people have a chance to share their ideas and perspectives. Wait your turn and you will get your chance.

Have fun and be creative — Think of ways you can share information about your article, book, writing service or yourself that are fun and make people want to follow you.

These tips work because social networking is all about building community. Just like in the community you live in offline, the people who have credibility online who are those who engage others and provide value for the community.

L. Drew Gerber is CEO of www.PublicityResults.com and creator of www.PitchRate.com, a free media tool that connects journalists and the highest rated experts. Gerber’s business practices and staffing innovations have been revered by PR Week, Good Morning America and the Christian Science Monitor. His companies handle international PR campaigns and his staff develops online press kits for authors, speakers and companies with Online PressKit 24/7, a technology he developed.

On Facebook, “Profiles” are strictly for people. Facebook’s rules require that you register your Profile in your own name. If you use the name of your business or book, you risk having your account canceled.

A Facebook “Fan Page” or “Page” is designed for business use and it’s a great way to promote your book. You can set up a Fan Page for your business, book, or even a character in your book, and you can create multiple Pages. Here are some advantages that Pages have over personal Profiles.

• By using Facebook applications like “Static FBML,” you can create customized tabs on your Facebook Fan Page containing graphics, text, videos and even opt-in forms to promote your book.

• You can specify which tab of the Page that you want new visitors to land on.

• Facebook users join a Page by clicking on the “Become a Fan” button and there’s no limit to the number of fans who can join.

• You can send messages to your all of your fans, which shows up in their news feed.

• Pages get indexed by search engines and each tab on the Page has its own URL.

Click here to create a Fan Page. Here are some ways to promote your book by building traffic to your Fan Page:

• Once your Page has at least 25 fans, go to http://www.facebook.com/username/ to create a personalized URL for your page.

• Beneath the photo or image on your Page, click “Suggest to Friends” to send invitations to your Facebook friends to join your page. The invitation will appear in the In Box of your friends.

• Write an article for your blog and ezine inviting people to join your Page.

• Invite people to join your page by posting updates on Twitter, your Facebook personal Profile, and on other social networks.

To encourage Facebook users to join your Page, be active in posting on the page, maintain lively discussions, and offer some benefits and incentive for becoming a fan. Even though promotion is allowed, you still need to be somewhat subtle and provide value to your fans rather than just a sales pitch.

For more detailed information about how to promote your book on Facebook, see Facebook Guide for Authors, by Dana Lynn Smith. For more book promotion tips, follow @BookMarketer on Twitter and visit The Savvy Book Marketer blog at http://www.TheSavvyBookMarketer.com.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Dana_Lynn_Smith
http://EzineArticles.com/?Promote-Your-Book-on-Facebook-With-a-Fan-Page&id=3829973

Does your heroine have a Twitter account? Why not? Posting to social media sites in the voice of your characters gives you another way to interact with readers and get them involved in your story. This works especially well for series characters, where the character’s relationship with the audience builds with each book. Social media can speed the process along.

Here are some tips for making the most of your character’s presence in social media:

Use a drawing or photo of the character as an avatar if you can. Otherwise, use the book cover or other image to represent them. (Note: Be careful if using a photo of a real person as your character. Make sure you have permission. Take a photo of a friend or model, and get a signed release.)

Make it clear that the account belongs to a fictional character. The purpose is not to deceive anyone, but just to do something interesting to readers and have fun with the characters.

Here are a few places to put your characters:

Although fictional characters can not have Facebook profiles, they can have fan pages. Set up a fan page for your character and let your followers know about it. Use the fan page to keep readers up to date on new books, events, etc., and also about what is happening in the life of your character between books (or after the book in which they appeared ended).

Anyone can have a Twitter account, even if they only exist in your imagination. Drop clues about the latest case your amateur sleuth is involved in, or tweet about the romantic evening your romance heroine enjoyed. Of course, your characters can also mention your upcoming book signings and other events.

Set up a Ning.com network around your books, where your characters can interact with readers.

If you really want to go all out, set up a blog for the character. Or create a blog for all of the characters in your latest book and let them take turns posting. You may find that too much to maintain (along with your own blog, oh, and writing books!) so instead just have a character do an occasional guest post on your blog. Be sure to announce the post via Twitter, Facebook and other social media.

Have your characters guest post on other people’s blogs. This could be part of a blog tour, where your character appears instead of you, or be done on its own. To find blogs where you and your characters can guest post, join http://BloggerLinkUp.com/ (free) and submit your offer of guest posts.

Don’t go overboard with this. You probably do not want to do all of these things. Choose one or two and have fun with them. This can be a new way to engage your current readers and attract new fans.

Cathy Stucker writes about marketing, blogging, publishing and more at IdeaLady.com and CathyStucker.com. Sign up for her free IdeaLady Insider newsletter at http://IdeaLady.com/article/newsletter.