Today, everyone should be rolled over to Facebook’s new Page features. Why should authors care? Because it gives us new ways to interact with each other and with our readers.

LIKE my Facebook Page: I know there are neat, nifty little buttons you can put here so you can LIKE my Page without going there. Alas, I’m part geek, but not enough to have figured this out YET. Instead, PLEASE CLICK through and LIKE my Brand-New Page! BTW, I went with DarcyPattisonAuthor as the name of my page, so the URL is now http://www.facebook.com/DarcyPattisonAuthor.

Basic Changes to Facebook Page

Here’s a great detailed explanation of the changes. Here’s what authors need to know.

My new 180x540 Facebook Profile Pic.

• Photos at the top. Some time ago, Facebook Profile pages switched to pictures at the top and the Pages are doing this also. These are randomly displayed, but you can X out the ones you do NOT want to appear. The photos are drawn from those you upload and those you Tag with your PageName. It will NOT include photos posted by those who like your Page.
• Use Facebook as your Page. When you login you can switch and surf around Facebook AS YOUR PAGE. This means you can LIKE other Pages, post comments as your Page and function as the entity, Author. You can NOT post on profiles, only other Pages.
• Email notifications. You can choose to receive notifications when people post or comment on your Page.
• Featured Pages and admins. Hurrah! If you have Pages for each of your Books, you can feature these on your Page, thus linking all your Pages together in a coherent fashion. You can feature your publisher, your illustrator, your favorite organizations, etc. If multiple people are involved in the page, say for an anthology, you could feature each of those authors (if they have pages). It’s a nice networking tool
• Mutual connections: When someone visits your Page, they will see which of their friends also likes your Page, as well as other Pages that both they and your Page like.
• Profile picture size. Profile pictures were limited to 200×600 px, but that’s reduced to 180×540 px. What do you think of my new pic?
• Navigation. Gone are the tabs at the top, replaced by the Links on the left-hand side, exactly like on a profile. Tabs are swapped out for the personal info that used to be under your pic. Make use of your Info to highlight what is important.
• Custom “tabs”/Links to additional pages on your Page, now) can be created with iFrames. This is important enough it gets its own section below.

IFrames with WordPress

So, what’s the big deal about adding iFrames. Facebook is a clunky interface with no chance for customizing it unless you do some fancy coding. Before you had to use FBML (Facebook Markup Language), a variation on HTML (hypertext markup language).

Note: If you skipped learning all that stuff ten years ago, then you’re one of those who uses a Visual Editor on everything, a What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get. It’s OK. There are tools out there for you.

Now, Facebook is switching to iFrames, which means that you create content and host it somewhere outside Facebook, on your own domain or server; then you pull it into Facebook, like putting a picture into a frame.

Complicated? Yes, a bit. Now, I’m not afraid to do some playing around with codes, but this iFrames stuff looked overwhelming to me. Fortunately, there are already apps to make it easy.

I use WordPress, which I host on my own domain. When I found this newly updated Facebook Tab Manager Plugin, I was excited. I followed the recommended video and quickly managed to create a custom page through WordPress and pull it into my Facebook Page.

Whatever platform you’re using, see if you can find a new App; wait a month, there will be one!

SEE THE CUSTOM PAGE: To see the resulting page, you need to LIKE my Facebook Page first. Then in the left-hand column, click on What’s New.

Using Facebook to Promote Books and Yourself as Author

So, why should authors care about all this new-fangled stuff?

Pull Together all Your Online Presence

For the first time, Facebook seems to be a place where you can pull together all your online presences. For example, I talk about writing fiction here on Fiction Notes, including the Novel Revision Retreats that I teach; I talk about book trailers at BooktrailerManual.com; and I talk about my books everywhere, including on some websites dedicated just to them. It’s frustrating because it’s hard to pull it all together in one place. A FB-Page now has that capability.
• Strategic Linking Use strategic linking on your Page, including Featured links to Pages. Use iFrames to create Links to pages that pull in your info to this one central place.
• Networked Blogs Use the Networked Blogs App to pull in posts from any and all of your blogs.

Keep People Engaged

Already, folks are pulling together info on how to best use a FB-Page for business. Here’s my best tip:

Tip: Get Hubspot’s Facebook Page Marketing 2011 free ebook. They give many more tips on using the new pages to promote. It’s not geared specifically toward book promotion, but many things apply.

• Timely Posting Specifically, Hubspot suggests that you post about every other day on your Page. Daily posts are too much for fans, but every other day is about right.
• Offers. This is hard for authors, but Hubspot says that in a recent survey, a majority said they LIKE a page, so they will get offers from you. I’ve always thought that book signings are a way for people to take home a tiny slice of an author: I’ve touched someone special and have this autograph to prove it. Likewise, the “offers” might be something like a book giveaway; but it might be a tiny insight into how you work; or it might be sharing an emotional moment with your fans, a success or a failure. The “Offer” for us isn’t necessarily physical, it might be an offer of an emotional connection. But it needs to be there.

Read Hubspot’s ebook for more tips.

LIKE my Facebook Page: I know there are neat, nifty little buttons you can put here so you can LIKE my Page without going there. Alas, I’m part geek, but not enough to have figured this out YET. Instead, PLEASE CLICK through and LIKE my Brand-New Page! BTW, I went with DarcyPattisonAuthor as the name of my page, so the URL is now http://www.facebook.com/DarcyPattisonAuthor.

Darcy Pattison

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Wisdom, the Midway Albatross

by Darcy Pattison

Giveaway ends March 11, 2012.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Want to put YouTube videos on your Facebook?

ReelSeo has a couple tutorials for you:

• How to Add a Video to Your Facebook Welcome Page
• The Definitive List of Video Apps for Facebook Pages

Book Trailers: Is It Budget or Aesthetics that Matters?

On my sister-site, BookTrailerManual.com, I’m having a discussion with Melissa from YABookshelf about teen book trailers. What’s the most important thing in the success of a trailer? Is it the budget, how much you spend on the trailer? Or is it the idea, the aesthetics with which you approach the book trailer? Come and join the conversation.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Wisdom, the Midway Albatross

by Darcy Pattison

Giveaway ends March 11, 2012.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Getting Your Book Noticed

Should You Social Media? Yes! No!

As authors, we want to know if all this effort on FaceBook and Fan Pages and Tweets and all the other social media helps or not! Here’s a sideways answer.

In a December 2010 survey of major retailers sites, 10,000 shoppers surveyed reported being influenced by these factors:

• Promotional emails – 19%
• Web Search – 8%
• Social Media – 5%

Going Mobile? Is your website ready for smart phones?

• 14% of the shoppers accessed sites through their phones
• 11% bought something through their phones.

Does this trickle down to authors with a single book to sell? Maybe, maybe not. Individuals who are dedicated and diligent in promoting online may see vastly different results. An individual title may buck the trend.

If you’re interested in using social media, here are some recent resources:

• Facebook Marketing in Six Steps: How to successfully manage your fan page
• Value Prop: Is there true value in your marketing proposition?

Have YOU had success with social media promotions for your book?

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Wisdom, the Midway Albatross

by Darcy Pattison

Giveaway ends March 11, 2012.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Critiques lead to Zine

Guest post by Anne Marie Pace

The members of our critique group, The Funky Ducklings, had known each other online for years, but July, 2008, was the first time most of us were able to meet in real-life. After a year of planning, we finally came together with some other writer friends at the Highlights Foundation’s facility in Boyds Mill, Pennsylvania. We came from all over the United States and Canada, and one member even came from Brazil.

As the week progressed, a schedule evolved in which we wrote on our own during the day, but at 4:00 each afternoon, we met to talk about our writing and about books. This sharing time became special to us, and even after our time in Pennsylvania had ended, we maintained contact through email and continued talking about books we love. All of us have kids, and sharing wonderful books with kids was something we did easily as parents and as writers (and for some of us, as teachers or homeschoolers).

Extending the Book Talk

In the spring of 2010, we embarked on a new adventure together–we began to publish our free email monthly newsletter, The 4:00 Book Hook. It was a logical step, both in terms of broadening our book conversation and sharing our writing with others (both our book talks and our own published books). We planned to provide quality content about quality books of all genres—picture books, chapter books, middle-grade and young adult novels, nonfiction for all ages, and poetry, as well as activities that extend the reading experience. Thus we launched our first issue in May, 2010, and we’ve published monthly since then.

You might ask why The 4:00 Book Hook is different from any other online review source. It’s true that each issue covers one of our own books. If a person reads that book as a result of learning about it from our newsletter, of course we are thrilled. But we don’t want the Book Hook to be an advertisement; rather, it’s a labor of love–an extension of our own book talk and our experiences with our kids and books.

Each issue contains:

• ARTICLES
  - For example, we’ve included an interview with fathers about reading to their children and an essay about choosing facts to be included and omitted in non fiction books
• REVIEWS
  - Each issue has a full page of book reviews, plus lengthier book review features linked to activities or websites of interest.
• LINKS
  - There are too many wonderful resources. We’ve done some of the work for you so you don’t have to face Google. We’ve linked to great sites about NASA, building submarines, animal enrichments, teacher guides–the list is as eclectic as our issues.
• EASY ACTIVITIES OR RECIPES
  - Honey dingies, Brazilian cheese bread, and nature bracelets are just the tip of the iceberg!

We’re aiming for the best of both worlds–both book talk and the fun reading brings to our lives.

We’ve been amazed at how quickly our readership has grown; our audience consists of parents, grandparents, teachers, librarians, homeschoolers and writers. And we’ve been thrilled at the response.

Sample Issues: Download sample issues of The 4:00 Book Hook, at http://www.annemariepace.com/Site/The_4_00_Book_Hook.html

Subscribe: Just send an email to thebookhook@gmail.com. No subject line or content required.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Wisdom, the Midway Albatross

by Darcy Pattison

Giveaway ends March 11, 2012.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Help! I Can’t Find Any Help on Facebook

Of course, you know by now that for author promotion, you should be on Facebook. But frankly, I find it to be confusing. Yes, I easily figured out how to sign on and create an account. I figured out how to upload pictures and how to post on someone’s wall.

Is that all there is?

No. When you think about using Facebook as a tool for book promotion and publicity, you need to go deeper. Unfortunately, Facebook doesn’t have good Help. It’s hard to figure out where to go. You’re faced with a wall of posts and, what? I’ve found some of the important pages for you.

Individual Account v. Fan Page v. Group Page

My Facebook Avatar

• Individual Profile: Just sign up.
  • Pros: Easy. Privacy controls allow you to set who sees what, and who can comment. For example, several editors have their pages set to No Comments. If you have some popularity and get too many comments, you have options.
  • Cons: You can only have 5000 friends. If you have some popularity and think it will grow, then you should opt for a Fan Page.
  • Tips on keeping business/family separate: You could create two accounts, using two different emails. That’s what I did, because no one told me there was another option. Instead, you just create Friends/Lists. On your home page, left hand navigation, find the Friends Link and click. Then, in the middle of the page, at the top, look for the Create a List. There, you can create a List of Friends, a List of Writer Friends, etc. When you upload or post, you can decide WHO gets to see what. For posts, there’s a tiny link at the bottom of the posting box. For photos, look for these privacy controls when you upload.

    Unfortunately, Facebook is not forgiving. You make an ill-advised decision early–when you know so little about how it works–and you’re stuck. I’m keeping my two separate accounts; but I wish I’d know about the Lists so it was easier.

• Fan Page: Go here for information.
  • Pros: Unlimited friends. You can customize the page with any sort of app you want: discussion board, calendar of events, etc. There are tons of apps available, check them out.
  • Cons: People must LIKE the page first and you have to get them to do that. Once they do, your posts here will show up on your friends’ walls. But what they post on their individual walls will NOT show up here. It’s more of a one-way street.
• Group Page: Go here for more information. These pages are more like clubs. A group page is still tied to YOU as an individual, while a fan page is operated as something very separate.

Obviously, these aren’t exhaustive comparisons. Here are some great comparison charts.

• Fanpage v. Grouppage: When to Use Which
• Group v. Fan Page: What’s Better?

Create a User-Friendly Name

One thing that Facebook allows you to do is to create a user-friendly name. For example, my Facebook address is http://www.facebook.com/DarcyPattison (Hey, Friend Me while you’re looking.) Sounds great doesn’t it? But before I give you the link to do this, be warned: you can only do it once.

That is, since I changed my individual account to DarcyPattison, I can never create a Fan Page with that name. ARGH! I didn’t realize this when I changed my name, or I might have done it differently. Maybe DPattison. Then, later when I’m rich and famous I’d make my Fan Page DarcyPattison.

Plan for the future, in other words, when you create your user-friendly name and don’t use up all the good names at first. In fact, you can survive a long time without changing the name; I just like things neat and easy to remember.

Here’s Facebook’s info on creating a User Name: Proceed with Caution.

Facebook Events

Finally, you can also create a Facebook Event. This is an page devoted to a certain event that takes place on a certain day(s). Book launches are great times for an Event page. For example, I created an Event Page a couple weeks ago for the Random Acts of Publicity Week. 730 people officially responded and participated.

I’ve seen this used to invite people to a birthday party, a book launch, a conference, etc. One of the nice things is that others can invite people to the event. For the Random Acts of Publicity Event, there were a couple thousand invitations sent out, and I only did a couple hundred of those.

Have some FUN on Facebook

I offer here just one of the many fun ways you can waste time making your Facebook page/profile/image better. I love the image here of the guy hanging by his fingernails.

Need other help on Facebook? Look at the very bottom of the screen, on the right hand side. There’s a tiny Help link. Good luck finding what you need, they don’t make it easy.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Wisdom, the Midway Albatross

by Darcy Pattison

Giveaway ends March 11, 2012.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Enter before October 10

Our sister site, The Book Trailer Manual (booktrailermanual.com) is giving away things!

Here’s the scoop.

• Just sign up for the Book Trailer Manual Newsletter between now and midnight, October 10, 2010 and you’re automatically entered.
• We’ll do a random drawing on October 10 and winner will be notified by October 11.
• Winner will receive a free copy of The Book Trailer Manual.
• Winner will receive a free consultation: 30 minute phone or Skype discussion of your book trailer. This can be brainstorming your next trailer, critique of your current trailer, or advice on distributing your trailer.

Bonus for signing up for newsletter

The Book Trailer Newsletter sends you updates from this blog. When we post here, you’ll automatically receive an email of the post. Convenient and easy!

Bonus: As soon as you sign up, you’ll immediately receive a download link to our free Special Report: 43 Sites to Upload Trailers.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Wisdom, the Midway Albatross

by Darcy Pattison

Giveaway ends March 11, 2012.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Most of you know that I’ve also written The Book Trailer Manual.
Inquiring minds have asked: “Why don’t you have a book trailer for the Book Trailer Manual?” (Thanks for the question, Joanna!)

It’s the idea that is so hard! But finally, here is the first one. Yes, the first of many. As I explain in the Book Trailer Manual, videos on YouTube usually have a half-life of only 3 weeks. That is, most views of the video will come in the first three weeks, with only long tail views after that. Because of this short shelf life, I recommend a new trailer about every three weeks for the first six months your book is out.

Here it is: The Book Trailer for the Book Trailer Manual

*|YOUTUBE:Rogq93aYvkQ|*

Hey, pass along to your friends, please!
For more about the manual, see BookTrailerManual.com

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Wisdom, the Midway Albatross

by Darcy Pattison

Giveaway ends March 11, 2012.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

1384 People Interested in a Book

Update on GoodReads Giveaway

Joelle Anthony offered a signed copy of her novel, Restoring Harmony, as a giveaway on GoodReads. Joelle did a guest post, giving details on how to hold a giveaway on GoodReads.

Congratulations to the Goodreads contest winner, Kristin Wing. Kristin is an aspiring writer herself.

And Congratulations to Joelle. The contest garnered 1384 entries, an amazing number of people who were interested in her book. Clearly, it’s a good venue to get some interest in your fiction.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Wisdom, the Midway Albatross

by Darcy Pattison

Giveaway ends March 11, 2012.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

For more information on the Random Acts of Publicity Week, see this post or the Facebook Event page.

Thank you!

There are times when you just want to weep at the friendships expressed in publishing. Thank you. Thank all of you for participating.

The last count on the Facebook Event page was over 725 people participating. If everyone did just one thing this week, that’s amazing. But I know some did five or six things every single day. Wow!

Thanks.

2011 Random Acts of Publicity: September 6-9

Reserve the dates now!

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Wisdom, the Midway Albatross

by Darcy Pattison

Giveaway ends March 11, 2012.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

For more information on the Random Acts of Publicity Week, see this post or the Facebook Event page.

Today’s task for Random Acts of Publicity: For your friend or friend’s book do some kind of networking through a social media channel. Friend them. Like Them. Get Linked In. Network in some way.

Friend Me or Like Me: Social media is all about networks. Friend Me on Facebook (I’m at DarcyPattison) is a basic request from which all other things flow. For fan pages, be sure to “Like” them. This follows for GoodReads.com, LibraryThing.com, LinkedIn.com or any other social media.

Events: Participate in an event you are invited to. If it’s a local event and you’re thousands of miles away, at least stop by the event site and write an encouraging note.

Network: Suggest to one friend that they may want to be friends with a couple other friends. Try to be deliberate about this and not just random, matching up people with like interests.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Wisdom, the Midway Albatross

by Darcy Pattison

Giveaway ends March 11, 2012.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win