Promoting Your Book in the Virtual World
Second Life can in some ways be seen as an extension of one’s “real” life into the virtual world. Unlike the popular role-playing games that dominate the Net with fantasy scenarios, it enables people to conduct themselves in very “real” scenarios … just like we do now, in many ways, but with the added visual element that is lacking in the traditional URLs through which we access information.
It may be virtual, but it is also very real. Support groups are held in SL. A professor has created a place where his students can experience what it’s like to be schizophrenic. Major League Baseball has a presence there, as does Harvard University. John Warner is using Second Life to launch a possible presidential campaign; Suzanne Vega and Duran Duran have performed concerts there; and the Linden Lab virtual world is being used to model everything from the possible layout of an office to a global response to disaster or terrorism.
And, as Toby Sterling of the AP has reported, people are paying real money for things in Second Life, which would have a GDP of $150 million if it were to stop growing today. But it’s not: it will probably pass the million-user mark later this year, and many of those users are earning a full-time living there, selling virtual things or offering virtual services.
And authors are not immune. There have already been a number of readings and signings on Second Life … and it may not be such a bad idea. Based on the numbers of people who turn up for concerts and the like, you could potentially do far better there than at your loal Borders!
There are a lot of details to arrange, the primary one being the facilitation of buying books easily and quickly when doing a reading in Second Life. I’m not yet sure of all the practical ramifications.
But — here goes. Watch this space. I’m going to give it a try! When my new book, Open Your Heart with Geocaching, comes out this spring, I’m going to try a book reading and signing in Seconf Life. I already have a character there: my name is Sherpa Voyager, and together with my partner Seeker Gray I offer occasional reviews of interesting places to visit in Second Life (check us out at SecondSeeker.com); so Sherpa will be my spokesperson. I’ll give it a try and let you all know how it goes!
I’ll make sure that Sherpa gets … beyond the elements of style!
Posted in Publicity, The Cutting Edge on February 25th, 2007