By Kristen Eckstein

If you’re an author and you are not taking advantage of the publicity Facebook can give you, you’re missing out on some serious promo! It isn’t just a playground for teens and college kids anymore. It is full of adults and businesses, and is a great place to market your book. In fact, the demographics of Facebook are mostly college graduates and their parents—a well-educated crowd always seeking to learn. This is a crowd of book buyers!

The best way to promote your book on Facebook is with an author fan page. Yes, you will have to ask others to become your "fan," but the truth is you probably have a few fans already, so why not use it to your advantage and get the word out about your book at the same time?

Here are 3 easy steps and reasons to create your author fan page on Facebook:

Step 1: Sign In or Sign Up! If you’re already a member of Facebook and have a personal profile, all you have to do is sign in to your account and begin the fan page building process. If not, you’ll have to first go to http://www.facebook.com and sign up for your Facebook account. (FREE!) They make it super simple, so don’t be scared.

*Reason #1 to have a Facebook fan page: It’s FREE promotion! (Who doesn’t like free?)

Step 2: Build it so they can come! Next, you’re simply going to build your fan page. Once signed in or signed up on Facebook, you need to go to http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php to set up your page. You will want to be sure to include a professional picture of yourself and links to your official website, and of course info about your book. Note: when choosing the primary "profile" picture to use, avoid using your logo or book cover. People want to know you, the author, not just your book. If you have more than one book, it’s an even better reason to use your personal photo.

*Reason #2 to have a Facebook fan page: People want to get to know YOU, and this makes it easy!

Step 3: Promote, promote, promote! After you’ve built the page, you’ll want to put it to work for you. Promote it, share it, tell everyone about it. As you get connected to "friends," invite them to become fans. Share it on your blog, put a link to it in your sidebar, share it on message boards, Twitter, and even offline. You can always put the URL to it on your business cards or any fliers or bookmarks you make to promote your book. And Facebook makes that easy with their "vanity" URLs. Once you have your fan page set up and 100 fans, go to http://www.facebook.com/username and create a custom URL that is easy to advertise. And while you’re at it, check out http://www.facebook.com/writingfan and become an official fan of writing! (See how that works?)

*Reason #3 to have a Facebook fan page: It gives you more places to share your book.

Studies show that it takes a person eight times of seeing something before they take action on what they have seen. That means a person may have to see you and/or your book eight times before they’ll decide to buy it! You want to help contribute to those eight times and a Facebook fan page can help. It will give you yet another place to communicate with those interested in your topic, allowing you to send them updates and information. It will also drive traffic to your website or any other social media site you are on. And it’s an excellent way to promote book signings, workshops, or other events you may have planned. So what are you waiting for? Go sign up, build, and promote, promote, promote!

Kristen Eckstein has been coaching writers through writing and publishing their books for almost 8 years. She is honored that authors have trusted her with their most valuable resource—their knowledge. Kristen’s biggest thrill comes when she sees YOU graduate one of her programs and hug your book for the very first time! Learn more at http://www.ultimatebookcoach.com