Virtual shelves can be less daunting

Publishers, which recently turned to podcasting to maintain hype over long-anticipated books, are turning to social networking to help push tough-to-market manuscripts, says Reuters.

When Bob Sutton's The No A**hole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn't, published early this year by Grand Central Publishing, received a chilly reception from marketers, Executive Editor Rick Wolff targeted bloggers and social networks to help spread the word.

The effort resulted in "tremendous demand for this book, which quite frankly was not getting any print coverage," Wolff said.

Publisher HarperCollins Children's Books used MySpace.com to promote a teen novella competition. Teens were encouraged to write successive chapters of a story that were voted upon by site visitors as the book progressed.

Finally, social networking site Gather.com helped a pair of unpublished authors land Simon & Schuster contracts after the publisher saw their work in a site-sponsored contest.

BookExpo has kept an eye on the social networking trend. The firm, which conducts annual trade fairs in New York, will launch a partnership this year with Shelfari.com, a new site enabling users to congregate for discussion and recommendations around virtual bookshelves.

Authors have been using a similar site called LibraryThing.com to build loyalty. The initially "nerdy" LibraryThing community has been compared to a cocktail party by in-house "librarian" Abby Latchley.