One of the exciting aspects of the publishing world these days is the continuous opportunity to learn about something new. Today, author Sharon Clare 
is visiting to explain about a very virtual experience for readers and writers.
Read on, please, and I think you will be as surprised and interested as I am!
Take it away, Sharon …
HIT AN UNTAPPED READERSHIP – PROMOTE YOUR BOOKS
WITH THE BOOK NOOK IN THE VIRTUAL WORLD!
Five years ago, I was intrigued by a documentary about an online virtual world called Second Life. SL is a virtual world where people meet as avatars from all over the globe to engage in socialization, education, business, music, hobbies, role-play, leisure and all sorts of stuff.
After downloading the viewer, I spent a hilarious day trying to navigate my avatar in this world. I quickly saw why people get addicted to these things—it’s not only fun, but I also learned that chatting to my new Malaysian friend while listening to virtual waves roll against the shore was as relaxing as if I’d spent the day on the beach. No wonder Second Life has millions of residents.
I now belong to many writing groups, have met SL friends in real life and have learned to build, teach and run a business. Two years ago, I started a virtual book store where authors can promote and sell their books in world.
According to a state of the industry report by Spil Games, more than 1.2 billion people of all ages and genders play online games worldwide.
If you have a book to sell, why not tap into this market and advertise your books in The Book Nook stores.
Why use The Book Nook in Second Life?
Visibility—Unlike a magazine ad, your book cover is always on display, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, in a high traffic area. Unlike a real world book store, books are never shelved side-by-side, book covers always face out. Stuart Applebaum, head of Corporate Communications at Penguin Random House said: ‘We don’t know if getting the word out about the book will sell it, but we know they won’t buy it if they’ve never heard of it.’
Reach—Second Life has on average 60,000 people online at all times. These people log in from all over the world. This is a global audience, and in this age of electronic books, sales are viable and easy. Second Life has been around since 2003, long enough to catch Jeopardy’s notice. It was the answer to a question on the game show recently.
In World Promotion—The London City sim where one branch of The Book Nook is located runs a circulating promotional ad for The Book Nook on their group chat. There are 46,102 members in this group. The London City sim has daily traffic on average of 2,470.The stores participate in grid-wide scavenger hunts. Every ‘hunter’ searches the store for a gift. The gifts are reading related and include a romance sampler (the first 2 chapters) from one of our authors. This looks like a real book with pages that turn and can be read in Second Life. To read more of the story, buy links are a click away. This is a great way to get your book in the hands of readers.
Low Competition—There are very few book stores in Second Life. I’ve not seen anything like The Book Nook.
Play Time—Creative people use Second Life. Most are in world for leisure, so book reading is in keeping with the overall nature of this world.
Affordability—Just $10 for 6 months or $20 for 1 year puts your book in Book Nook stores.
What’s Included?
1. The Book Nook has two stores on different sims, London City Victoria and Art Gallery Route 7. Your book will be displayed in both locations.
2. Every new book gets at least 2 weeks featured as new to the store.
3. Each book is linked to your buy link so readers are immediately connected to your chosen web page when they touch your book.
4. An excerpt or blurb from your book will be displayed on a cycling slideshow that plays in the London store.
5. Your book video added to the Youtube TV that plays in the art gallery store.
6. Your excerpt or blurb posted on the Book Nook Facebook page here and Google Plus page here.
7. Tweets will be posted with your buy link to announce and then promote your book.
8. The option to have the first 2 chapters (around a dozen pages) made into a virtual book sampler that will be given away with your buy links to store visitors. (This is similar to what Amazon offers, but it’s more fun to read in SL.)
The Bridge Club and The Promise of Provence are both sitting on their own virtual bookshelf in The Book Nook and I’ll be sending Promises To Keep very shortly. Try it! To have your book included in The Book Nook stores, just send an email to sclare@sharonclare.com.
Thanks for visiting today, Sharon. This is an intriguing concept!
If you’d like to visit Second Life, you can find more about it here. Either download their viewer or use the one Sharon uses, Firestorm viewer. The downloads are here: http://www.firestormviewer.org/downloads/
Find The Book Nook stores here:
Art Gallery: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Phasic%20Foo/188/31/25
London City Victoria: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/London%20City3/213/147/24
