A seemingly odd, but nonetheless worthwhile, book promotion idea.
By now, you've discovered Wikipedia. Whatever you think of Wikipedia -- whether you love it or hate it -- you've surely noticed that, regardless of what you're "googling," a Wikipedia entry almost always seems to turn up first in the search results.
We all know that (to be polite about it) Wikipedia's information is only as good as those who have contributed to its entries. That, of course, can be anyone, which is why "Wikipedia" is called a "wiki." It's produced by anyone with something to add, which means that Wikipedia shouldn't be your primary source of information. It's just not as reliable as it would be if, say, it couldn't be updated instantly, by anyone, at any time (although, in fairness, the site's editorial board to try to keep an eye on those updates and have even challenged some of my entries when I've inadvertently "under"-footnoted).
Anyway, what brought Wikipedia to mind is that, unfortunately, Tim Russert has just passed away. I wanted to see Russert's bio, so I googled him and -- predictably -- his Wikipedia entry came up first. What really made my eyes pop was that Russert's entry notes his death. I checked the entry a few minutes ago, and the entry already had been updated to include an unexpected death that had occurred less than three hours before.
People are using Wikipedia, and you should be using it, too, whatever your feelings about a democratic encyclopedia that allows anyone, regardless of credentials, to offer suggestions. It's easy to enter your own bio in Wikipedia and, hopefully, score a backlink to your Web site and your fair share of Google's attention. Yes, it's an offbeat book promotion idea, but it's one that authors and publishers should be using, anyway. Try it, and don't be shy -- it's impossible to "break" Wikipedia or your own entry. I promise. You can always edit your offering once you've uploaded it to Wikipedia to test it out "live."
Comments
I've found that Wikipedia's editors can be touchy when it comes to promotional additions; sometimes I've understood it, and sometimes it seemed rather catch as catch can.
For instance, in the "further reading" section of Wikipedia's listing on "Fan Films," I added a link to the website of my next book ("Homemade Hollywood,” out in September); within hours, it was de-linked and left as mere text. Another time, I added an appropriate link for a news blog I edit, and it was removed when the blog wasn't updated for a few days. These, I basically got--perhaps there was a rush to judgment, but whatever.
On the other hand, I once wrote an extensive entry for a college humor magazine that has published for 25 years. They deleted the entire thing, and when the magazine alumni appealed, Wikipedia decreed that the magazine simply wasn't "important enough” to warrant being on the site. If that’s how they view a publication that has been read by hundreds of thousands of people since its inception, you can imagine how they may react to less-than-household-name authors entering their own bios: Get ready to be told you’re just not that important.
Posted by: Clive | June 13, 2008 5:36 PM
I thought it was against Wikipedia policy for people to write about themselves? I have a friend who is in my niche who tried to promote her website this way, and was essentially banned from doing any other additions to Wikipedia at all. Do you have any insight on this?
Stacey's response:
Hi Tammy. I'm sorry; I didn't read Wikipedia's policy. You may be right. Since I'm a book publicist, I offered to write a Wikipedia entry for several of my clients after one of my clients requested my help with editing his entry.
But I think, with all due respect to the spirit of Wikipedia's intention, that the workaround would be obvious. Ask someone (or even considering hiring someone) to create a Wikipedia entry for you.
I created my clients' Wikipedia entries gratis, because I could, and because I find it enjoyable (albeit moderately challenging, since Wikipedia uses a coding language that, apparently, is proprietary and slightly goofy). But I suspect a teenaged relative or friend's relative could be bribed to create a Wikipedia entry for the price of a couple of movie tickets....
Hope this information helps.
Posted by: Tammy Takahashi | June 20, 2008 9:15 PM