« back to articles

Where's Alice Bliss?

How one author utilized BookCrossing to send her book around the world.
by LauraHarrington
January 25, 2012
It's harder than ever for a new author to get discovered. Inspired by BookCrossing and with the help of two young, media-savvy assistants I created and launched a social media experiment for my debut novel, Alice Bliss, called Where’s Alice Bliss?

I invited book bloggers to help send Alice Bliss around the world via BookCrossing.com. My goal was to reach all 50 U.S. states and 5 continents. Penguin Books very generously agreed to give away 100 copies of Alice Bliss as part of this experiment.

In exchange for sending bloggers a copy of my novel, I asked them to read and review the book on their blog, register the book at BookCrossing and send me a picture when they “released” the book.

My assistants created a website to track Alice’s progress around the world, a flickr account to post photos, two Foursquare accounts (one following a specific reader, the other logging the location of all of our readers). I also used my Facebook page and a dedicated Twitter account to help us get the word out:

www.wheresalicebliss.com
www.twitter.com/WheresAB
www.flickr.com/photos/69145489@N07/
http://www.facebook.com/LHarringtonbooks
https://foursquare.com/wheresab (1 reader)
https://foursquare.com/user/19395691 (All of our readers)

Penguin mailed 100 books to 65 book bloggers and 35 individuals. Alice Bliss travelled to 28 states, 19 countries and 5 continents, including Canada, Europe, China, Japan, Saudi Arabia, India, Australia and New Zealand. There are currently 63 journal entries for Alice Bliss at BookCrossing.com and several of those copies have changed hands and travelled multiple times, bringing our BookCrossing total to 90 new readers.

This has been a fun campaign and has delivered Alice Bliss into the hands of people who might not otherwise have even heard of the book. With new readers and new reviews I hope that Alice Bliss will continue her journey around the world.

Are you sure you want to delete this item? It cannot be undone.