What's worth celebrating as much as a birthday? Why, a book birthday, of course! Twitter Book Parties (@bookbday), the brainchild of Mitali Perkins (@mitaliperkins), grew out of the Kids Heart Authors' Day celebration on Valentine's Day earlier this year, for which Twitter also served as midwife (Shelf Awareness, December 17, 2008). With 200 authors and artists gathering at 75 bookstores all over New England for that event, Perkins said she realized how important independent booksellers are. "I write these titles that may not be as commercially viable, but I've managed to stay in print," Perkins said. "I've discovered how much we need indies to keep the breadth and depth of titles."
Perkins started Twitter Book Parties both to connect again with indies and to help authors boost exposure for their titles. "With the publishing industry struggling and the amount of publicity dollars shrinking, the pressure is on authors to publicize their books," Perkins said. "I wanted to do something that would be special for authors on their launch date, those who are not getting their Suzanne Collins moment." Perkins's next novel, Bamboo People, appears in fall 2010. But that has not stopped her from joining others' celebrations.
Members of the Twitter Book Parties site agree to tweet about other member authors' books. (There are currently about 150 participating authors.) Six book parties on September 1, the most on one day so far, resulted in 2,011 clicks through to IndieBound. "The whole way that sales are happening is through relationships," said Perkins. "We need to capitalize on the community we have in the children's books industry--authors, teachers, librarians, agents--it's a great network."
A typical Twitter Book Parties tweet might read something like this: "Happy Book Birthday!: GIVE UP THE GHOST | @megancrewe | YA | Henry Holt | http://bit.ly/EF8mi #bookbday," which for those not versed in Twitter, cites the title, author, publisher and a direct link to the book's IndieBound page.
Perkins said she believes that all authors, no matter how modest their time or financial budget, can have a Web presence. "If you have just $50 to spend and a half hour a day, you register a couple of domain names; there's a lot you can do to get yourself an online business," said Perkins. "With 20 minutes a day, update your Facebook status and Twitter status. These are tools that showcase your writing. If people like your writing, they might enjoy your fiction."
To aid the uninitiated, Perkins has a blog entry called "Getting Started on Twitter: A Quick Guide for Kid/YA Writers." She is, of course, a big fan of social networking. "There used to be this big distance between the New York publishing houses, the authors, the booksellers and the librarians," she said. "And unless you had a lot of power, you couldn't cross over and get to know those groups. With social networking, it makes everything feel closer. Voices that felt marginalized can come together, especially writers of color. Twitter Book Parties has nothing to do with my being a writer of color. It allows you to participate and make connections in ways that spread the power a little more."--Jennifer M. Brown
