Bringing Sexy Back: The Book Party in the Digital Age

Business Reasons to do a Create community: Create conversation, connection, engagement Create and maintain relationships Reach influencers, press, tastemakers. Engender a feeling of exclusivity and closeness with the author and the author's mission of getting the word out about his or her book. Book Party

CONS COST They cost several thousand dollars GEOGRAPHICAL LIMITS They occur in one place at one time TIME LIMITS Theres a 2-3 hour window to have an effect LIMITED REACH Only so many taste-makers and press can fit into a room RESULTS Who knows?

Whats a digital Book Party? ITS NOT LIMITED BY TIME It can happen before, during, and after the official release of a book IT CAN BE ASYNCHRONOUS You can have a book party occur in many time zones at once, starting/ending at different times ITS NOT LIMITED BY GEOGRAPHY It can be anywhere ITS BIGGER It reaches larger numbers of people ITS SMALLER It reaches a targeted audience

Whats a digital Book Party? ITS AUTHENTIC Your message is spread by word-of-mouth ITS MEASURABLE Results are trackable ITS FOREVER SEARCHABLE Because a digital record leaves a trail, you can always look up a digital book party ITS COMMUNITY BUILDING Its not just about the author. Its about the audience, too. The audience wants to interact with the author, but they also want to interact with like-minded souls, just as they would at a traditional book party. And those relationships people have reflect back in positive ways onto the author, onto the book, onto the publisher who brought them together. Its a beautiful and virtuous circle. (continued)

This is the Culture of Community Digital tools enable you to create a Culture of Community around: Your authors Your books Your publishing house ….so the connection to readers becomes deep and ongoing

Taking Book Talk to New Levels Twitter: JE TWEET, DONC JEXISTE Twitter allows you to reach more of your readers, more directly, more personally and more consistently over time than ever before. Its like having a CONSTANT conversation. Its like tapping in to a list of pre-qualified people who can buy your book – and can talk it up for you. And when people talk up your book on Twitter, it helps create a multiplier effect.

Twitter Tips: Bringing the Paparazzi to Your Online Book Party

1) BOOK SUBJECT 2) BOOK GENRE 3) AUTHOR NAME (IF WELL-KNOWN) 4) FRIENDS OF AUTHOR (GET LIST FROM HER) 5) PRESS/JOURNOS 6) REVIEWERS WHO TWITTER 7) BLOGGERS WHO REVIEW 8) ANYTHING LITERARY OR BOOK-RELATED 9) ANYTHING WRITER- OR WRITING-RELATED Search terms:

Follow twitter.com/mediabistro We point you to people, tactics + best practices

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Face to Face Online Parties… Tweetups Can Be Both

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live streaming radio (or listen later)

BlogTalkRadio (BTR) brings the old- school author radio tour to the Web, with the potential to reach many more people all at once. BTR launched in 1996, has broadcast 200k+ episodes, hosted by tens of thousands of individuals, companies and organizations.

Books have their own category on BTR

Ustream.TV a live, streaming, book party (or watch later)

Garys been called the first wine guru of the YouTube era. Hes more hyper than Emeril, more cheerful than Racheal Ray, more street than Bobby Flay and cockier than all of them combined, from TIME magazine.

Meetups: Where Digital Book Parties Get Physical

Meetup was founded in It has 2.5 million members. Meetup.com Meet up provides a platform for people anywhere to set up a meeting, and organize others with similar interests. Chess Players, Working Mothers, Computer Geeks and Book Clubs all use [Meetup] to gather, share and accomplish things that can only be done in groups. –Huffington Post

Ways to use Meetup Reach out to existing Book Groups Reach out to existing Interest Groups Advertise on Meetup Sponsor a Groups events Create Your Own Events

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Facebook, etc. Social Networks: Its not Just About Throwing Sheep

Put more in and get more out Create personal pages for authors Change content, pictures, updates regularly Connect Twitter to Facebook for easy updates Use FB to send invites out to your digital events, as well as news, reviews and press mentions Host discussions, upload video, cross-link to author blog Engage your fans and friends – dont just push Facebook

DIY Book Communities The Thing About Ning

Never End... Search for like-minded people Reach out – to influencers and multipliers Engage – get the conversation going Keep engaging your new friends Think of yourself as a community organizer Online Book Parties