How authors can network on MySpace

MySpace is a great way for authors and publishers to network. There are several ways to find people on MySpace who might be in your target audience: by searching for murder mysteries, historical romance, self-improvement, organic food, or whatever niche you’re writing in or wherever else your interests lie.

Perhaps there’s a famous writer whose style you emulate. Once you’ve found potential friends, you can send a request for them to “add” you as a friend. The invitee can accept, decline, or ignore your request, though most people accept.
Once you’re friends with someone on MySpace, you can post comments on each other’s profiles and see each other’s full circle of friends, exposing more people to your book.

Here’s how to find friends and potential readership on MySpace:

-- Browse the Friends list of similar authors. Find the MySpace profiles of authors with similar books, writing style, and similar target audience as yours. On the right side, scroll down a bit to the link See All of [Name]’s Friends. Start sending invitations, and you’ll get many potential readers this way. For example, memoirist Josh Kilmer-Purcell invites fans of David Sedaris and Augustine Burroughs, who have similar writing styles—and every time he makes his MySpace rounds, he sees his Amazon sales rank spike for days afterward. Another tactic you can use is sending a Friend invitation to the other author and, when accepted, post a comment, which will appear on the bottom right of their MySpace page, giving you added exposure.

-- Search. Click on Search on the top toolbar on the MySpace home page. You can limit your search to certain areas such as Books Interest, Blogs, Music Interest, or others. Let’s imagine your looking for MySpace members interested in organic food. Click on Search, Book Interest, and enter into the box “organic food.” You’ll receive list of the MySpace members who’ve used the words “organic food” in their profile. Click through to read the context on their profile. You can use the same searching technique to search for subjects, genres, and author names. Also, use the “Affiliations for Networking” search tool a bit farther down the page. You can search the fields “Marketing” or “Publishing” using your keywords to find potential MySpace friends who could share book-marketing resources and tips.

-- Browsing for Friends. If you have a travel book or title of regional interest, it might be useful to browse for potential MySpace friends by geographic area. On the home page, click Browse and the “Advanced” tab. You’ll be able to view member profiles within a specified distance of Postal Service zip codes, as well as other criteria such as age, gender, religion, and income. Many MySpace members use this function to scout for potential dates, but it can be useful for publishers as well.

-- Browse comments on other authors’ profiles. Short comments are posted by Friends on the bottom right of member profiles. The most recent comments appear at the top, accompanied by the member’s profile photo. Members who leave these comments tend to be the most active and vocal MySpace users, and make good friends. In particular, seek out people who’ve posted thoughtful comments, like “Enjoyed seeing your profile and can’t wait to read the next book.” Skip the people who write, “You ROCK, Man!!!”