Will You Be My Friend?

As I continue to research the cookbook publication process, one topic that keeps coming up is how to publicize the book before it is published. Before it's published? Aren't we getting a little ahead of ourselves here? The book isn't even in a tangible form yet, but I'm expected to try and market it now?

I must admit, the idea reminds me of this poster I once saw in Italy. The poster advertised a traveling troupe of Shakespearean actors that planned to pass through Florence. As I recall the poster said the troupe would be performing a production of MacBeth sometime between June of 2009 and April of 2012. How's that for prior marketing? Might as well employ some of those “The End is Near!” nuts and have them walk around town with sandwich boards that read “Brace yourselves everyone! MacBeth will be here sometime during the next 3 years!” But I digress...

My research is telling me to market my book as best I can before finding the publisher.  So that is exactly what I am going to do. I've already started a Facebook page. It's called Nathan Scott's Book(s). (Book(s) because I only have the one book at the moment, but am planning a series of cookbooks for the future.) And I am now asking anyone and everyone to “like” that page. Which isn't exactly a new concept to me. Let's face it, between the middle school headgear and the high school acne, I've learned how to make friends despite disadvantages. But in this case, I'm not exactly asking people to like me, but rather a book that (at least at this moment) can only be read from my computer. Hmmm...

So far I've only thought up two solutions to the problem. One: I've suggested the Facebook page to all my friends and have already asked/begged/bribed them to encourage their friends to “like” it as well. And two: I've posted the link to my page on several other pages such as the Boy Scouts of America and WPTZ in Plattsburgh, NY.  But aside from those two solutions (excluding, of course, that fleeting thought of jumping down one of those airplane escape ramps - a publicity stunt that seems to have worked for that Jet Blue fellow), I am fresh out of Facebook networking ideas. Perhaps I will think of some more over the coming days. But for the moment all I can do is ask – will you be my friend?