Book publicist Meryl Moss was having lunch with author M. J. Rose recently when the talk turned to building online buzz for writers in advance of their book’s publication date. “It takes buzz 8-12 weeks to build,” Moss explains, “and very often publicity and marketing doesn’t start until the book comes out. By the time word of mouth gets going….all too often the book is off the co-op table.”
From that meeting came the idea for The Great American Book Giveaway, a website that offers visitors the chance to select one of five upcoming titles and enter into a drawing to receive that book for free…a month or more before it shows up in bookstores. For now, authors and publishers can put their books in the giveaway queue and only have to pay the cost of shipping the books to the winners; a more formal fee structure is planned for April, as the site’s audience gradually builds to a critical mass.