What You'll Learn
Are you going to Virtual Fantasy Con?!?
Ok, you might need a tad more information than that. 🙂 Virtual Fantasy Con is a live multi-day event on Facebook running from Oct 9 to the 16th. It is going to be BIG! Why? Because there are video panel discussions, prizes, games, 400 booths with authors, artists, and publishers, who will each be hosting their own set of interviews, games, and giveaways.
If you love books, this is the place to be!
I’ll be hosting two booths, the first on Sunday Oct 9 for Epic/Sword & Sorcery day and the second on Friday Oct 14 for Dystopian/Apocalyptic Day. But it won’t just be me! I’ve invited some author friends over too who are going to add to the fun not only by sharing their great novels but also with games and giveaways too!
If you want to see the schedule for my epic fantasy booth on Sunday, go here.
If you want to see the schedule for my dystopian booth on Friday, go here.
And to check out the Facebook pages for each day’s events and say that you are going (and share the awesomeness with everyone) follow these links:
Epic/Sword & Sorcery Sunday Oct 9
Sci-Fi/Sci-Fantasy/Time-Travel Monday Oct 10
Paranormal/Urban Wednesday Oct 12
Series/Short Stories Thursday Oct 13
Dystopian/Apocalyptic Friday Oct 14
Dark/GrimDark/Horror Saturday Oct 15
Children/YA Fantasy Sunday Oct 16
I’ve been thinking about what to schedule for my booth days for a few weeks now. I think you’ll have a lot of fun if you stop by. If you ever had a question for me, this will be a great time to connect and chat!
And the other reason I’m excited is that I’ve never done a Facebook event. Ever.
Seriously. I haven’t even attended a live Facebook event, much less hosted a discussion on Facebook for an hour. This is jumping from a distant viewing platform into the volcano.
The only reason I’m not in panic mode is that I’ve got a plan, I’ve enlisted some other great authors to help/take over for a bit, and that … well I know it is supposed to be fun. And if I stressed about it, it wouldn’t be fun. Plus I’m really good with rolling with things as they develop. It’ll be better than fine! It will be new and amusing and I can’t wait to give Facebook events a try.
So why have I jumped in to Facebook events in a big way?
Facebook events aren’t new even if I’m new to them. But what I like about this one is that it isn’t just me having a book launch and inviting over a few authors as well. It is a Fantasy Con with 400 other booths. Sure, it could flop. But if there is a chance of something like this working and getting a bit of attention, this has great potential.
When I posted (on Facebook of course!) that I was looking for other authors to join me as guests in my booth, a few were really excited. But others commented that Facebook events often didn’t have much impact and weren’t worth the time.
Which is the truth?
Honestly, I don’t know. But I’ve been a part of events (non-virtual ones) that flopped and others that were a surprise success. I’m keeping the handful of warnings as a reminder not to go overboard on the planning. I don’t want to be alone talking to myself. But I don’t want to have no plan if (and when!) people stop by. So no elaborate scavenger hunts, but lots of good questions and prizes!
And knowing that no one will show up unless you tell them, I’m planning updates to announce the start of a new giveaway or guest author joining on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+. So I’m marketing with blog posts like this, an email campaign to my mailing list, reaching out to the authors who are guest posting with me to do something similar, updates during the day and let’s forget the other 399 participants with booths!
Marketing — check!
Event Planning — check!
And speaking of updates, I plan on letting you know how it went. Are Facebook Events another way to reach readers? I hope so because I know I can’t rely on being “discovered” on Amazon. Even as Amazon hosts #PoweredbyIndie where they focus on books written by indie authors in October, they only selected a small slice of the thousands and thousands of indie books on their platform. I can’t wait for Amazon to vouch for me!
So I’m continuing to experiment with new venues. The best, and cheapest, is networking with other authors via cross promotion. And Virtual Fantasy Con is going to be one hefty cross promotion event.
Plus it will be fun! And there will be prizes! Hope to see you there! 😀
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