How to use this Page

Guest Expert: Phyllis Zimbler Miller

It helps to have a roadmap to follow when promoting a book, whether it is your first book or your 15th. And if you want to use social media effectively to promote your book, you need to go through some foundation stages before you even get to using social media:

Stage 1: Identifying Your Brand

Now before you say that’s easy – it’s the title of your book, let’s think this through a moment. The title of a book is usually not the brand of an author – even if that author ever only writes one book.

Your brand is what makes you as an author – and by extension the books that you write – stand out from the crowd. Here’s an example of what I mean:

Years ago a mystery bookstore owner told me that people would come into her store and ask for the next book in the alphabet mysteries series. What I at first found incredible is that fans of this series neither remembered the name of the author – Sue Grafton – or the very distinctive book titles, such as “A Is for Alibi,” “B Is for Burglar,” “C Is for Corpse.”

Sue Grafton has a very distinctive brand – alphabet mysteries. What’s your distinctive brand?

Stage 2: Your Book Author Website

Your book author website is your home base for all your book activities regardless of whether your publisher also gives you a page on the publisher’s website.

It’s important that you have a site that you completely control. This way you can make changes at a moment’s notice (for example, when you get a last-minute invite to do a radio interview or book signing). I recommend a self-hosted WordPress.org site for this (which can include a blog) (note that this is not the same as a hosted WordPress.com site).

Whether you have an existing site or are planning a new one, be sure that the site is up-to-date. In other words, do not have any outmoded web design elements such as a slow-loading Flash introductory page.

People today want their information instantaneously. When they land on your website, they want to know what is this book (or books) about, fiction, nonfiction, who’s the author?

You want also to be sure to have such elements as an email optin system that will enable you to keep in touch with your book fans.

Stage 3: Your Social Media Activities

Now you are ready to have an effective and active social media presence in order to connect with prospective fans. I recommend starting with one of these sites and then adding in the others:

• Facebook personal profile
• Facebook (business) page about your book or books
• LinkedIn profile
• Twitter account

And as you are a book author, you will also want to take advantage of the book promotion opportunities on BookBuzzr.

Be sure to use the same good headshot across all these sites to help in recognition. And you’ll want to learn as much as your time allows on how to effectively participate on each of these sites.

For example, it’s important to remember that Twitter is NOT about selling your book. Twitter is about sharing information and occasionally mentioning your book.

Of course, if you have a blog, which is definitely a good idea if you are a writer, then you can post the links to your new posts on all of the above sites.

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YABC is going to be putting together Librarian Care Packages (librarians, take note! More on this soon). If you are an author or a publisher and would like your book swag (i.e. bookmarks, stickers, reading guides, etc.) to be included in these Care Packages, you can send it to us at:

Kimberly Pauley
YA Books Central
PO Box 303
Grayslake, IL 60030

Young Adult Books Central: Connecting Authors and Readers since 1998!

When editors or publishers request authors remove details from their manuscripts before they’re even published because of concerns that parents or educators will react, it is a form of censorship. It also, in my opinion, can lead to bland or banal books, books that do not resonate with the target audience. It can prevent children from being able to learn about issues and work through them through one of the safest forms possible–a book. And, when paring away at a fantasy plot, can also take away the magic, mental stimulation, and spark for imagination that fantasy aspects can have.

Of course it’s important to edit a book well, to make the book the best it can be. But when word choices are based on fear, I don’t think the decisions are good ones.

It appears that some UK children’s authors, especially picture book authors, are experiencing such a censorship right now–and the word choices seem to me to be poor ones, such as removing from the text or illustrations in books: sharp objects; a dragon that roasted marshmallows with its nose; a ladder; and a child walking alone.

Books are one of the few things that still promote active thinking, imagination, problem solving, and more in a child, unlike TV, video games, or movies. I hope this trend of censorship will stop. A spokesperson from the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) said it well: “Honest literature opens communication and gives young people the opportunity to test their values and make positive choices for their lives.”