On his last number, Business Week presents a great article about the Twilight Vampire books and how author Stephenie Meyer used online social media to reach her fans and create a huge online marketing spiral. Her great success will be reflected with Breaking Dawn, the last of the four-book series, that came out on Aug. 2, this release is expected to surpass all her previous efforts, with an initial print run of 3.2 million copies.
What is important about this article is that explain that Meyers success isnt due simply to her vivid imagination for vampire romance. She also figured out before almost anyone in the book industry how to connect with readers over the Internet and inspire them to build on her work. Since Meyer published the first Twilight book in 2005, she has reached out to readers on social networking sites, such as MySpace (NWS), and participated in online discussion groups. Fired-up fans have championed her books on Amazon.com (AMZN) and set up their own sites, such as Twilight Lexicon and TwilightMOMS. That has helped propel sales of the series to 7.5 million books. “Other authors have pockets of fans online, but nothing to this extent,” says Trevor Dayton, a vice-president at Indigo, Canada’s leading bookseller. “Stephenie Meyers Twilight series is the first social networking best seller.”
Executives in the book industry have long understood that the Internet can help authors connect with fans, of course. Major releases are usually backed by author videos, a Web site, and interviews with influential book bloggers.
But Meyer, a 34-year-old mother of three from Phoenix, went well beyond standard marketing. She engaged with online readers to answer their most detailed questions about the star-crossed lovers, Edward Cullen and Bella Swan. She put up her own Web site, in addition to the one by her publisher, Little Brown Books for Young Readers, posting her personal e-mail address and family photos.
Meyer’s readers have responded by creating an entire world of Twilight on the Web. Cousins Chris McElvogue and Georgina Tena launched Twilighters.org last year to discuss the books with other readers.Inspired online marketing is key to the astounding success of Twilight, a series of vampire novels.
Is Meyers a marketing guru? Maybe the book industry thinks so, I don’t. I believe she just see the benefit of social networks to be in touch with her readers and her readers respond positively to this human approach. The ability of touching millions of people is making social networking a powerful tool that relies in the fundamental principles of human nature.
If you are an author, try to answer these questions:
Are you afraid to know first hand what people think about your work?
Are you afraid to let people use your work to create parallel histories?
Are you afraid to see your work spreading in unexpected ways?
If the answer is : NO
You should consider to create your own social network site, let your fans interact with you, let your work to be share by millions and the best…have fun doing it.
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