Blackhatting your book on FaceBook

Technically, this could be another Tip from Mr. Obie Joe, but since it's just evil, perhaps not.

Tag the name of every one of your FaceBook friends on your book cover, and just like that, your book cover appears on hundreds of pages in FaceBook.

How cool! What little time needed on a nifty marketing technique.

Except -- leaving aside the possible revulsion your friends feel -- it's a get rich quick kind of promotion. If you're in the game of developing your career beyond one book, it's not a technique used for gathering an audience for keeps. Tagging doesn't cultivate your audience; other, more content-rich, individualistic techniques do.

Remember, most social media tools are only enhancements, not the thing. Use FaceBook to cultivate your already burgeoning audience (which probably got its start with your real-life F&F). FaceBook can't create your audience; only you can.

(The icon is from "booktag," a Shelfari type application in FaceBook, which might be a good way to build new FaceBook fans for your book.)

Why Friends & Family need to show the love

In the attic of the former home of the Obie Joe, sat a box of PartyLite candles. At double the normal retail cost, Ms. Obie Joe bought these hallowed candles because she was at a party of friends all engaged in loving the PartyLite.

There's been a long-running debate whether books and/or authors would benefit from traditional advertising. Arguments against include: too difficult to do justice to a book's complexity; book audiences are too niche to risk wide advertising; ads depend on namebrands, only known quantities like Jodi Pincoult go. Plus, advertising is not the same as marketing, which are the tasks most suited for books. Think. When was the last time you saw an ad -- in any of the standard media -- for Avon, Amway, Personal Chef? These brands depend solely on the exploitation, uh, invitation, skills of friends and families. This method is not to be underestimated; Obama's presidential campaign was cited as Internet savvy. Perhaps. Internet was the tool, but Friends & Family was the campaign.

You know your Friends & Family love you, and your book. As your book premieres, give them a nudge to show it. After you send out a postcard via online and mail about the book, shout to your people to do these tasks:
• Request the book at your local book store and/or library. The request will prompt an order, and in some cases with libraries several copies.
• Boost your book to book groups via local bookstores, or readerscircle.com, and libraries.
• Post a review on amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com, shelfari.com, goodreads.com, or anywhere that takes reader reviews. Speaking from Obie Joe experience, e-opinions are powerful motivators for a new reader.
• Leave an anecdote, cheer, or good wishes on the author's blog, facebook, or elsewhere.

On the postcard, or flier, help your Friends & Family out by including:
• Publisher's name
• ISBN number
• Order information (if self or small published)
• Contact information, w/ reminder that author is available for any event, in-person or electronically.

And...of course, you can always ask ya Friend/Family to host their own book party in your honor. Promise them a pink Cadillac if they sell 1,000 copies.

TIP: Call your library

One of the best ways to juice your Amazon ranking (beyond writing a good book?) is to solicit your friends, family, work colleagues, and perhaps neighbors to place an order the first week of a book's release. Or, soon after a huge media appearance.

Don't forget to solicit friends and families for placing orders that won't cost them a dime. When a library orders a book, they tend to order many copies. For a recent title in poetry promoted by Obie Joe, we hit the jackpot with each library order, usually averaging 20+ books.

Ask your friends and family to call their local library to place a hold on the book. If told the book is not in stock, ask to have the book ordered. It may take a few calls before the library orders the books, but eventually a library will.

The Friends and Family plan

Before cell phones, calling cards gave you the convenience of using other phones. As in, payphones. In the 80's, deregulation allowed many companies to offer you this privilege. Key among them was the "Friends and Family" plan from MCI, granting you reduced rates on calls to the ones you love.

A good book publicist will mention the Friends & Family aspect when putting together your publicity plan, usually for the task of gathering an audience for an event, or a one-time mailing. These contacts do make a difference. We worked with one author reluctant to do out of town appearances. Her hometown appearances were garnering 50-100 people a pop -- incredible turnouts for a first fiction author. Her affinity for sticking to just the Friends and Family plan was steadfast.

Yet too many authors are loathe to exploit these contacts, thinking they are bothering their Friends & Family with an invite to support the book. Mr. Obie Joe has to remind an author you're not pushing Tupperware; you're inviting someone to share one of the greatest joys in life: a story. There are many ways for a Friend or Family to participate: view your web site, attend an appearance, pass along news of the book to another Friend, or click onto the e-mail newsletter.

Who is a Friend or Family? Anyone who has met you. That may sound a bit much, but really, what is the harm in asking? That said, you might want to collate your group into separate niches. Family gets every notice of every activity. Work colleagues can get the launch notice, and then maybe an invite to your larger appearances. Friends exclusive to the book -- subjects, mentors, agent, editors, media -- should get the regular updates on everything, which can include appearance notices, blog update companies, links to reviews. And so on.

Just don't forget to see the benefits of Friends and Family.