We might finally have a video app that can do that in Facebook Live. In fact, authors and Facebook Live could be quite compatible.

You’re not familiar with Facebook Live? You are if you saw this May 2016 video of Candace Payne trying on her Chewbacca mask. This epic video by the woman who has become known as “Chewbacca mom” has been viewed 185 million times and shared by more than 3.3 million people. (I dare you not to laugh along with you as you watch.)

I’m not going to explain how to use Facebook Live here — you can find lots of helpful information about that online, including this article on the Social Media Examiner site.

My goal with this article is to help you think about how you might use Facebook Live for book promotion and marketing. This piece of it is just important as the technology. You don’t need to spend any time learning about the app until you better understand what you want to accomplish with this marketing tool — and how you’ll do that.

11 ideas for authors and Facebook Live

Here are some ideas to get you thinking. Would a few of them work for your goals, personality, and book? You don’t need to limit yourself to one!

1. Do a cover reveal: You’ve finally selected your cover? Share it with your followers! Or, show them three options and ask them to pick their favorite and tell you why.

2. Solicit reader input: Noodling around ideas for a new character or plot twist? Tell fans and ask them for their feedback.

3. Show a bookstore or other event appearance: If you’re talking about your book before a signing at a store or other venue, recruit a friend to broadcast your event from your phone.

4. Offer advice: Give your followers helpful information that will help them do something better, smarter, or faster. That’s when Tenita Johnson does. The author of Grammatically Incorrect: When Commas Save Your Sentences & Your Reputation nudges people to write their books and offers editing advice. 

5. Ask a friend to interview you: Oh, sure, you could talk about your book forever, right? But a Q&A format with a friend who is off camera, or starts in front of the camera then flips it to show you, is so much more interesting visually then you sharing the same information yourself, talking to the camera all by your lonesome.

6. Demonstrate something: This works especially well for cookbooks and how-to nonfiction. Food historian Amy Riolo, author of  The Ultimate Mediterranean Diet Cookbook: Harness the Power of the World’s Healthiest Diet to Live Better, Longer, uses it to give people a glimpse into her cooking classes.

7. Broadcast from your book’s setting: Written a novel set in a real place? Take your readers there!

8. Flip through a family photo album: Written a memoir? Flip through the pages of an old family photo album so fans can put faces to the names.

9. Show your work space: Readers are often curious about where writers work. Whether it’s your kitchen table or a neighborhood coffee shop, show where you produced the book they love so much.

10. Change people’s minds: After Linda Cohen, author of 1,000 Mitzvahs: How Small Acts of Kindness Can Heal, Inspire, and Change Your Life, noticed people complaining about the inconveniences caused by a crippling snowfall in Portland, Ore., she hopped on Facebook Live to help adjust attitudes by asking followers about the acts of kindness they were seeing. 

11. Host interviews with thought leaders: Arrange to do a series of short interviews with people who influence your audience while you’re at a conference.

Which idea will work for you?

Whether you’re a novelist or a nonfiction author, I’ll bet there’s an approach on this list that will work for you. You can also let it inspire you to think about other approaches you might try. I’ve seen authors host weekly “office hours” where followers can ask questions while others are more spontaneous, pulling out the camera to share an inspirational thought.

Still need more inspiration? Watch the videos on the Harper Collins Book Studio 16 Facebook page.

Just make sure you’re comfortable with the approach you decide to use. For example, you’ll never catch me trying to inspire or motivate you — it’s just not how I roll. I’m more likely to take you into a cool indie bookstore or interview an author or expert at a conference. Be true to yourself.

Once you know what you want to share on Facebook Live, explore how it works. The more you know about best practices and what’s working for other authors, the more confident you’ll feel when you try it yourself.

If you know an author who’s trying to figure out what to share on Facebook Live, be sure to share this post with them.

How are you using Facebook Live for book promotion? Tell us in a comment.

Author of 1,000 Mitzvahs tells how she gets publicity

By Linda Cohen

If the secret to great real estate is location, location, location, then the secret to great publicity is persistence, persistence, persistence.

Since my book, 1,000 Mitzvahs, launched in November 2011, I have learned three important things regarding publicity:

1. Expect to do a good deal of your own publicity even if your publisher has assigned a publicist to your book. Pitching the media can actually be kind of gratifying, so don’t be afraid of it.
2. Don’t expect anything, but do keep persisting.
3. Start at the local level and grow from there.

Learn to pitch

On the recommendation of my publisher (Seal Press), I took Sandra Beckwith’s “Book Publicity 101: How to Build Book Buzz” online course six months before my book was published. This was an important decision for a number of reasons.

It taught me that even if I have a publicist helping me, I am sometimes just as effective at generating opportunities for my own book promotion. I learned how to successfully put together tip sheets and pitch ideas. I was also inspired to begin to build my social media platform.

This meant that when the book finally did launch, I was positioned to successfully pitch media myself and even felt confident about taking the lead for dozens of opportunities. Sandra gave me several suggestions that I put into place once the book was published. The best one was the suggestion that I offer a daily mitzvah idea on Twitter and Facebook. It has been an effective tool for engaging my readers. I also learned the secret to pitching with the seasons and holidays, essentially keeping the book top of mind and continuing to build exposure throughout the year.

Manage your expectations

If you’re starting to promote your book, I recommend that you tap into your networks, but don’t assume anything. When my book was published, I knew both a producer at a local television station and an editor at a local parenting magazine and you know what? I have neither been on that station locally nor in that magazine. I have, however, been on several other local stations and in the other parenting magazine in our town. It reminded me that just because you know someone doesn’t mean they will give you exposure.

Start locally

Regardless of your connections, starting locally definitely makes sense. Local opportunities can generate national opportunities. I was recently interviewed on the  national show “Better TV” on Fox, an opportunity that came to me through a local TV appearance. My local networking activities led me to a producer at the local Fox affiliate who invited me to be a guest on the station’s talk show.  While at the studio, I met the general manager, who later recommended me for a national show produced by the network in New York City. (Watch me on Better TV at this link!)

Work while you travel

I also learned to organize book events when traveling for work or pleasure. Before traveling to Detroit for a family gathering a few months after my book came out, I scheduled a book signing with a small independent book store. This local appearance allowed me to successfully pitch a local morning show on an in-studio appearance and to be interviewed by a local Jewish newspaper, which ran a full page article on my book.

I’ve worked this system with my publisher’s publicist on four trips this year and was able to get on television in three cities. That’s a pretty good track record!

Pitch with persistence

My advice is to pitch, pitch, pitch – and don’t give up.

I pitched a book-related article with a timely hook to my local Jewish newspaper. Even though I know the editor personally, the article didn’t run. So I contacted an acquaintance in Los Angeles with the same article idea, and she used it. That never would have happened if I didn’t persist.

You never know what will work and what won’t. Don’t despair if something isn’t successful. Keep pitching and networking. Start local but don’t expect anything . . . and always hope that there’s a bit of luck on your side.

Has persistence ever paid off for you when promoting your book? Did something good happen because you refused to give up?