Kirk Biglione

I’m heading up to Portland tomorrow for the PubWest conference where I’ll be participating in a panel discussion on viral marketing and social media.

It’s an interesting time for the publishing industry. On one hand, publishers are being challenged by the rise of digital media (who isn’t?). On the other hand, social media presents authors and publishers with some interesting new opportunities — not only for marketing, but also for new forms of publishing, story telling, and audience engagement.

I’m currently helping develop the curriculum for Booksquare University, a series of online workshops designed to help publishers and authors make the most of these new opportunities.

I’ve conducted a number of interviews in preparation for the BSU launch. A couple of those interviews have already been published on the main Booksquare site.

• Social Media Thunder - The Gary Vaynerchuk Interview: If there’s a King of Social Media it has to be Gary V. Gary talked with me about building his personal brand and provides some tips for authors looking to do the same with social media.
• How to Succeed After the Writers Workshop: Crime novelist Seth Harwood talked with me about how he found his audience (and ultimately a publisher) through podcasting. Seth also uses a range of social media tools to engage his audience.

More interviews to come. I’m finally getting into production mode for this project.