Dear UPPAA Members,
Carrie Pearson, Gretchen Preston, Jenifer Brady, and I have been busy planning the virtual book sale we’ve talked about previously.
Following is a description of it and what will be expected of people who wish to participate. It is open to any author who lives or writes about the UP or has a UP author connection so please invite any authors you know who might not be UPPAA members. The more the merrier. Right now this is the plan but we may change the hours or other items once we have a better idea of who wants to participate and how many. Please read all the information below carefully and make sure you understand what is required of you if you wish to participate.
I know it seems complicated, but it’s not really. If you have a Facebook account and know how to make a post, you should be able to participate. Let us know if you have any questions.
Thanks,
Tyler
Event Date: Saturday, November 21
Time: 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. EST
Place: Facebook
Title: UP Authors Virtual Book Party
Cost per Participant: At least two donated giveaway books or other items plus postage (see details below)
Deadline to Register: October 7
How It Works
The UPPAA Facebook page will create a Facebook event on or about November 7th. The UPPAA Facebook page will then invite all of its Facebook friends to participate in the event. Invited friends will then all be encouraged to invite their friends. This is the snowball effect where ultimately we will end up with thousands of people invited and hopefully dozens at least participating. Even if we only get ten authors to participate and each invites 300 friends, we will have thousands of possible attendees. Remember, your Facebook friends may already have read your books but not another members so you’ll be helping your fellow authors and they in turn will then be introducing their friends to your books. Most of us have Facebook friends across the country and even the world so this can really be an international and not just a UP sale.
How It Will Be Promoted:
- We will design a special banner for the Event page that will include images of numerous of our UPPAA books.
- We will send out a press release to the UP media.
- We will proactively contact radio stations to try to get interviews and other on air publicity.
- We will post info on the UPPAA website and we will post announcements at Facebook, Twitter, and individual participants can also advertise it however they wish.
Participation Requirements
· Email Carrie Pearson at carrieapear@aol.com that you wish to participate. In your email include:
- a jpeg of one book cover you wish to have included in the event banner.
- The title of the book you will give away toward the grand prize.
- The hour of the party you agree to participate. For example 2-3pm.
- You must have a Facebook account
- You should send a Friend request to the Upper Peninsula Publishers and Authors Facebook page prior to November 7th so you are included in the Friend invite.
- Once you are invited to the Facebook event, you are expected to invite all of your friends, this requires sending an actual individual invite to each Facebook friend, which can easily be done through the events feature on Facebook although it is a bit time-consuming, but the more people we invite, the greater chance for success. Everyone invited via Facebook will get event reminders the day of the event.
- We ask that you familiarize yourself with how Facebook events work. You may also want to read the 99 cent kindle book on Facebook virtual book release parties, available at: http://smile.amazon.com/Hosting-Virtual-Book-Release-Party-ebook/dp/B00KWQN79I
- Everyone is asked to hold at least one contest (see explanation below) and select a winner and give a prize to that winner. The prize can be a free paper or ebook version of one of your books or some other book related item such as a T-shirt, poster, CD, etc. having a retail value of $10 or more dollars (a bookmarker doesn’t count as a prize). (You are responsible for determining the contest winner and delivering the item to that person).
- Everyone is asked to contribute one item also for the grand prize. We will collect a list of the grand prize items to announce before the party begins. Whoever wins the grand prize will then provide us an address and every author can individually mail the individual item to the person.
- Everyone is asked to commit to at least one hour to be actively involved in the party and to post a minimum of one contest during that time. You may also post links to your books, post interesting UP author and literature facts, post photos or short videos relevant to your books, or whatever else you want that will interest people, encourage participation, and encourage an interest in UP books that will result in book sales for you and your fellow authors. The important thing is we want to keep momentum going for the party every hour so we will create a schedule to make sure we have at least one author and hopefully two or three manning the party every hour. We also encourage you to check in periodically throughout the day because even if you sign up for 10-11 a.m. that doesn’t mean someone interested in your book won’t be posting comments on your posts at 4pm. We don’t have to sit glued to Facebook all day but check in every couple of hours as convenient during the day. The more you post and interact, the more likely you will engage readers who will want to buy your books.
- Finally, it is advised that we do not respond to or engage with difficult people who might post snide or negative comments or want to argue about something. We want the party to stay fun so do your best not to let anyone put a damper on it.
- You are asked to mail all prizes as well as books sold as a result of the party within one week’s time to both book buyers and contest winners.
- We encourage you also to post links to your website or books at Amazon or other online stores to encourage people to buy your books.
Contest Guidelines & Ideas
The book Hosting a Virtual Book Release Party has numerous contest examples in it but here are a couple of possibilities. 1.) You could post a photo, for example of you the author in a funny situation, and then ask everyone to write a funny caption with a 20 minute deadline to do so. Then when the time ends, you pick the winner with the funniest caption. 2.) Tell attendees they have 20 minutes to name the man who the main character marries in your novel titled X. You have 20 people who answer but only 18 get it right. You then at the end of 20 minutes announce the contest is closed. Then you put the 18 names in a hat and draw one and announce that person is the winner.
Once you have selected the winner, when you announce the winner at the Facebook event, ask the person to message you privately with his or her address so you can mail out your prize to the person.
There are lots of other possibilities and ideas for contests as well as other engaging things to post, so we invite everyone to be creative and have fun.
We have the potential to reach readers worldwide in unimaginable numbers by having this party online and if it goes well, we will plan to have more, but we need participation from a lot of authors to make it successful.
Again, if you are interested in participating, please email Carrie (info above) no later than October 1.
Thank you,
Tyler Tichelaar
President, UP Publishers and Authors Association