Hosting a Successful Facebook Party
November 2020 Gimme Five: Hosting a Successful Facebook Party
By Jen Collins Moore
With book tours and in-person launch parties on hold, online events are taking on a new urgency. Julia Buckley, author of the Writer's Apprentice, Undercover Dish, and Hungarian Tea House Mystery Series, has always leaned toward online connections. She’s been hosting Facebook events for years and says they’re easier than you might think.
“I don't travel a lot, so readers who are far away would never have the opportunity to chat with me unless I did some online events, sent a newsletter, hosted parties and contests,” says Julia. “Also, as an introvert, I sometimes enjoy the solitude of online chatting and promoting from a distance.”
Here's how to get started:
1) Decide whether to host solo or with a partner
Julia says both approaches have their advantages. When you work alone, you can run the show and do what you want. With partners, you have the opportunity to grow your audience base. When thinking about an event, consider whether control or audience growth is your top priority and go from there.
2) Make it fun
Julia’s party plans include discussion ideas, riddles, fun images, and giveaways.
“I want to have something for people to do rather than just murmur at each other, so I create a game that we can all play and offer prizes.”
Prizes, Julia says, are key. “People love winning books, so if you advertise, they will come.”
Julia typically does a giveaway every half-hour, and they include free books or fun swag that relates to the content of a book. For Death with a Dark Red Rose, she gave away tin roses and rose bookmarks.
Julia encourages authors to be creative and consider a theme that might enhance the event. Julia talked about elements of Gothic fiction in her Writer's Apprentice series launch and talked about Hungarian Fairy Tales for the Hungarian Tea House series launch.
It’s OK to ask for a sale, but do it gently. Julia will put a sales link in at least one post, but remember the party is about building relationships, and pushing for sales in every comment will undermine that. Consider attending another author’s party if you want to see how they work first hand.
3) Set the date and spread the word
Choose a time when your readers are most likely to be able to tune in. For Julia, it’s Friday evenings and Sunday afternoons, but consider different time zones and work habits of your readers.
When you spread the word on your social media channels, encourage your followers to invite a like-minded friend to join them.
4) Don’t sweat the audience size
Don’t worry too much about how many people log in to join you. Smaller crowds—even fewer than ten—can make for an intimate gathering and a chance to connect with readers in a more meaningful way.
Also, remember that for each person who attended, there are ten or twenty or a hundred people who heard about the event and thought about your books. As promotion works, that type of awareness building is powerful in and of itself.
5) Enjoy yourself
Even if promotion doesn’t come easily, stay focused on why you got into writing in the first place.
“Writing should be fun,” Julia says. “Promotion should be fun. And you should change something if you stop having fun. Creativity brought you joy. So take that notion with you into the publishing business like a talisman. The advantage is that the more you enjoy yourself, the more your work reflects that positivity.”
Jen Collins Moore is the author of Murder in the Piazza from Level Best Books. Her short fiction has appeared in Mystery Weekly, and she is the editor of the Mystery Writers of America Midwest newsletter.