How to Use MySpace as a Tool to Promote Your Books

When I first heard about My Space a few years ago, my first thought was "place for online predators to access kids," because I'd been seeing stories on the news about how child predators were posing as teenagers and using it to meet and talk other kids there. Because of that I initially decided that I didn't want to be a part of My Space. However, once it became apparent that My Space was doing everything it could to stop this sort of thing and I started hearing fellow authors speak glowingly about My Space, I decided to give it a try. I'm very glad now that I did, because it is a marvelous promotional tool for anyone, but most especially for writers.

So, how can you use My Space as a promotional tool if you are a writer? A number of ways. Here is how step by step you can use My Space as a tool to promote your books.

Step 1: Set up your profile. This is relatively easy and free. There are many templates offered online for My Space, and they come with instructions for how to set them up. Because I wanted to tweak my profile and add my own graphics I went here and edited my profile.

Step 2: If you are an author I suggest using your name in your sub-domain, mine for example is www.myspace.com/reginapaul. Professional marketers talk about the importance of branding yourself, and by using your name this is one way to do it. I know of some authors that use the title of one of their books, but the problem with this is that once you've written a new book and it is available, how are new readers going to find you if they don't know about your first book? If you brand yourself rather than your book, then your name will become known, not just the title of your book. You will reach more people by using your name.

Step 3: Get yourself some friends. One of the great things about My Space is that it allows you to search for like-minded individuals that you can then invite to be your friend. I have met many fellow authors and readers this way. It is a great way to foster friendships, network with other authors, and introduce your work to potential readers. When I want to search for new people and organizations to invite to become my friend, I go to My Space's search engine and put in Romance Authors, since I am a romance author. You can do the same thing based on your genre or any other search you think might bring you new friends who will be interested in what you write. I regularly seek out new friends, and I encourage you to do so as well. The more friends you have, the more people will see your profile and perhaps become interested in your books.

Step 4: Use the bulletin board function to let your friends know about new releases, and or post exerpts, reviews, and contests. While I don't read all the bulletins that I see in my My Space profile, I do read many of them, and particularly the ones that are from my favorite authors, and readers. Make sure you put a catchy title in the subject line if you want your friends to see and read your bulletins. For example when I received a great review from Two Lips Reviews for Getting Out Alive, I put the following in my bulletin subject line: "5 Kisses from Two Lips Reviews for Getting Out Alive!" The other thing I did was that instead of just posting a link to this review, I copied and pasted the review into the bulletin. This made it easy and no one had to click through to the review if they didn't want to. I got a lot of responses for this bulletin, so my idea about snagging my friend's attention with a catchy subject line worked.

Step 5: Use your blog as another way to get the word out about your books. I use my My Space blog to post exerpts from all my books, to let people know about contests I am running, and to let people know about new reviews. Since not everyone reads the bulletins, by putting them in my blog I give anyone who might be interested another chance to hear about any news I might have. Also, that way if someone is not my friend and as such did not have a chance to see my bulletin, they can find the same information in my My Space blog.

Step 6: Join My Space Groups. While this is not as big of a promotional venue as say Yahoo Groups, there are still opportunities to reach new potential readers using My Space Groups. I didn't even realize there were groups on My Space until I'd been there for a while, and some of them do allow authors to post promotional messages and exerpts. It is well worth investing some time to find groups where you might find interested readers and other authors to network with.

The important thing to remember with My Space is to update your profile often, post bulletins, seek out new friends regularly, and post to your groups regularly. You never know who is watching, and since none of us are on My Space all the time, posting and updating regularly allows you to reach new people.