Emdashery Blog

How to build your brand (book) with young adults--

Myspace, piczo, friendster, orkut, bebo, facebook--we're all a twitter over the social networking options. QuickSprout lays out three ways to use them to build a brand: creating a profile, networking, and inviting stickiness. It's just one more way to network in your pajamas (at your computer where, you know, you actually might still be able to do some writing). The blog Mashable also adds some thoughts:

With all that’s going on with social networking these days, we’re seeing a lot of figures leverage the popularity of social networks to gain visibility for themselves. We’ve seen it a lot with musicians, films, and especially politicians, who recognize the potential of reaching out to the teen and young adult demographics that connect over social networks and are hoping to get the young vote for the 2008 Presidential elections.

Read both blogs here and here...

Traveling the internet--

A while ago, I posted on the growing trend in taking the virtual route for book tours. Not everyone can plane hop around the country, promoting their new book to hordes of adoring fans. So, as an alternative, some authors are blog hopping instead--connecting with various blogs for online interviews and discussions about their book.

A good example of virtual book tour can be found at Glenda Hyatt's blog. Ms. Hyatt recently self-published a book (I'll Do It Myself) about her experiences with cerebral palsy. To promote her book, she launched a 40 Blogs in 40 Days tour, which she recently concluded. You can see how she set things up here, and you can check out all the sites/sights she visited here...

It's about selling books--

The purpose of book trailers is to sell books. So you might as well be upfront about it and have a little fun.

This week's book trailer is by Dylan Schaffer who did both for his book Life, Death & Bialys: A Father/Son Baking Story.

Getting someone else to do the trailer--

Radio personality and blogger, Hugh Hewitt has written a book about presidential prospect, Mitt Romney. The book is titled, A Mormon in the White House? 10 Things Every American Should Know about Mitt Romney. Hewitt is big fan of the potential of YouTube and recognizes the value of book trailers. But with name recognition and a loyal following working in his favor, he doesn't need to produce his own book trailer. Recalling that Doritos used an ad contest to allow amateur ad producers to make commercials for the superbowl, Hewitt is offering $1,000 to the person who can produce the best  trailer for his book.

Not a bad deal if it works. That's less than most book trailers cost, and he might get several good ones to boot. 

Podcasting 101--

Want to know what you need to produce your own audio podcasts? You can check out the teleseminar and podcast by Mike Stewart and Rick Frishman on promoting yourself through the internet.

They discuss online audio, online video, podcasting, blogging and video blogging. They're promoting their own stuff, but there's also offer lots of good general information on the benefits of new technology and some of the equipment you need to pull it off.

Check it out here...

99 ways for the world to love you--

Do you want to spread the word about your work on the internet but don't know how to begin? Ron McDaniel at the Buzzoodle Buzz Marketing Blog offers a list of 99 free or low cost tools to spread your message online. His list includes social bookmarking/news sites, online communities and contact management, blogs and blog-related sites, photo sharing, advanced media, and web publishing sites.

Check it out here...

An About page in video form--

Yesterday, I posted a book video for Working with You Is Killing Me. The video was produced by VidLit, a company started by Liz Dubelman that creates book trailers using flash animation.

At the VidLit Web site, you won't find an About page. What you will find, of course, is a video explaining what VidLit is all about.

You can watch the video below, or you can see it at their Web site along with all the other videos they've produced.

A slow office death: the video--

Most authors today don't produce book trailers to help promote their new works, and of the book trailers that are produced, many are...well...boring. Too many authors are using YouTube videos to talk about their books in a drab monotone. So, I'm always on the look out for interesting book trailers.

Here's one for Working with You Is Killing Me by Katherine Crowley & Kathi Elster. It includes a quiz that must connect with 99% of office workers, thereby making the potential readership rather large. Today, I work for myself, and although my boss can be rather annoying at times, this video did conjure up memories of a few long ago co-workers who nearly drove me over the edge...

A (Charlotte's) Web of Readers--

It seems there are endless possible methods for viral marketing. In the case of the new Charlotte's Web movie, getting a whole bunch of kids to read the book will work. That's a whole bunch as in half a million...at the same time.

My wife is a teacher, so for a few weeks I've been following the film maker's attempt to encourage schools, hospitals, libraries and community centers to help break the world record for the largest simultaneous reading. Yesterday at 12:00 pm EST, 547,826 readers in 2,500 locations from all 50 states and 28 countries opened the book and read together an excerpt from Chapter Five.

Students participated in: countries as far away as Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; groups that ranged from 1 home school student to over 3,000 students in Salem, MA; and schools that included The Kentucky School for the Deaf (KY) and the Perkins School for the Blind (MA).

You can go to this page to hear E.B. White read the excerpt that was read by those half-a-million (it's the part where Wilbur first meets Charlotte).

Yes, it was a marketing attempt. But a marketing attempt that encourages reading and viewing a wholesome family film? I'll take that.

MySpace is AuthorSpace--

The social networking site, Myspace, is becoming an important arena for authors to build name recognition and to communicate direclty with readers. COS Productions, which produces book trailers, has a profile on the site and posts new trailers there. It is also compiling a list of authors who have a presence on MySpace. The list has over 500 authors and is growing.

Check it out to see if any of your favorites are there...

HT: Book Trailerpark