The University of Michigan Press is hoping to entice Facebook members into purchasing two new releases this summer by posting installments from each novel on the press’s Facebook page over the next eight weeks. Beginning today, and extending through the Labor Day weekend, the press will post one chapter each from A Spell on the Water by Marjorie Kowalski (May) and Faithful Unto Death by Becky Thacker (June).
Facebook friends of the press can read the serializations for free here. Each installment will include a link to the press’ website, where readers may obtain more information on each novel and its author. They link also enables them to purchase the novel in either print or electronic format.
Heather Newman, University of Michigan Press’s marketing manager, described the two novels as releases that the press is especially proud of,” by authors whom “people might not recognize.” The Facebook serialization promotion is, the press considers, an effective way to introduce these two authors and their work to readers who might otherwise not want to take a risk on reading Kowalski or Thacker’s work.
“We want to give people a taste of these books without them having to buy the whole thing,” Newman explained. “But, after reading parts of these novels, they’ll want to read the whole thing.”
Newman also hopes that the promotion will go viral, thus adding to the press’s visibility. Friday, when the press announced the news of its promotion on its Facebook page, they had 550 friends. This morning, the first day Facebookers can read an installment from each novel, the press has 633 friends.
