Pajama Promotion: Ten Tips For Writers

As my book launches tomorrow (First Daughter: White House Rules), I've been doing my best to get ready from the comfort of my cozy study. For any writers out there, I want to share ten ways to spruce up your online presence in anticipation of a book release:

1. Create a web page for your book to grab potential readers.

2. Syndicate your blog(s) at Feedburner (bloggers should do this, too).

3. Invest in an ad via Google Adwords (see mine below) and on Facebook -- make sure you pick keywords carefully.

4. Use AddThis to put social networking buttons at the bottom of every post.

5. Generate a Facebook Page for the novel.

6. Create a widget at Springwidgets to display your blog on your MySpace page, the sidebar of other blogs (note my sparrowblog content to the right) and/or on your website.

7. Import your blog(s) into Amazon.com so that the content shows up for all your titles.

8. Create a widget featuring your book(s) at Adaptive Blue for your sidebars -- see mine as an example to the right.

9. Set up Google Blog Alerts with keywords related to your novel and write a two-sentence blurb that you can cut, paste, and personalize on a blog post dealing with those keywords, like I did over at the Los Angeles Times and at MSNBC.

10. Make a book trailer (see mine below) using Animoto, Jumpcut, Quicktime Pro, or Apple iMovie and upload it to YouTube, Google Video, Facebook, and MySpace TV.

I know everybody might not be as geekily inclined as myself but some of these things are so easy even a purely right-brained person can do them.  And they're all free, except the ads, which can cost a lot or a little, depending on your budget. Oh, and you have to pay for Quicktime Pro or iMovie but Animoto and Jumpcut are free.

At the very least, get yourself to MySpace and Facebook and sign up right now. Then come to my session on Pajama Promotion for Dummies at the New England Society of Writers and Illustrators Conference on April 12, 2008, where I'll explain how to do these things and more.

My Google Ad

First Daughter (Dutton)

Check out two fast and funny 

tween novels by Mitali Perkins 

www.firstdaughterbooks.com

Book Teaser / First Daughter White House Rules