Using Forums to Manage & Grow your Readership

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Back in 2005 I was introduced to a great blog and forum, David Long's Faith in Fiction. At the B & F I befriended and have met some of the best people in Christian publishing. We are all still friend even now. We don't connect at Faith*in*Fiction as we once did, which is sort of bittersweet. However, what I've learned through FiF is that social media has the power to galvanize groups of people, empower authors, connect them with other readers and then take those conversations and relationships offline.

Last night I was reminded of Dave's FiF while watching Successfool TV. This discussion was about forums and how they can service a community like nobody's business. And then I thought about my clients, my blog, and my forums.

Forums when thoughtfully created can provide value to you as an author and to your book brand by:

1. Galvanizing your readers to start grass roots projects like: book release parties, pajama parties, library readings, requesting libraries to stock your book. Manga and Comic book fans share book party ideas on Comic Book Forums
   
2. Build a community around your book series: Stephanie Myer's, author of Twilight has fan forums for her series.
3. Build an effective and focused email newsletter campaign: Tyler Perry has a great forum that feeds off his special message email newsletter campaign.
   
4. Serve as a help desk for aspiring authors: I have a Vertical Promo Help Desk for Christian Professionals who seek Marketing support. They can leave me a questions and I will respond within 24 hours. Other readers can see the Q & A and interact.
   
5. Others? How do you use forums

Don't forget to sign up for my free book marketing plan teleseminar. The date is next tuesday, November 18, 2008.