Plug Your Book by Steve Weber

MySpace is the Internet’s answer to a promotional tactic used by

new authors for decades—selling books from the trunk of your car. Both

tactics are tedious, time-consuming, and usually don’t produce results

for a while. But if you keep plugging away and you’re sincere, people

notice. Your snowball starts barreling downhill purely from its own

momentum.

Here are some of the friends you can network with on MySpace:

Readers. People who read similar kinds of books, on the same

topics and in the same genres. People who read the same authors as you,

or whose style you emulate. You can search for these readers using any

keywords or names related to your themes and books.

Authors. Other authors are great people to network with—creative

types in the same boat as you, trying to find new readers. You’ll find

many valuable ways to share resources and cross-promote with authors

you meet on MySpace.

Agents and publishers. Book publishers want to find authors

who already have a following, a platform that can be turned into

readership and book buyers. One obvious way of showing you can do it

is making a name for yourself on MySpace.

Most of its members don’t use MySpace as a promotion tool; they’re

just there for the friends. But MySpace can be a foolproof self-

promotional tool if you’re intent on using it that way. Any author, even

one without computer skills, can easily post photos along with artwork

and sample text from their books. You can include links to buy your book

from online retailers, publish a MySpace blog, and send bulletins about

your public appearances and publication dates.

Big publishers have noticed the potential for publicity on MySpace

too, and have been building profiles for their authors, often using the

same canned material from press releases. Readers who are already fans