Sample chapters on facebook

Publishers Lunch  reports that it will soon be possible for authors and publishers to feature sample chapters on facebook.

For a while now (they say) Hachette Book Group has been talking at conferences about their internal work to harness Facebook as a way for readers to sample and share books. Wednesday the company formally launched their ChapterShare Facebook app, which makes good on that promise.

The app lets authors themselves as well as HBG staff post chapters onto Facebook pages from forthcoming books. Facebook friends can read and share the samples, as well as pre-order the titles. The first two excerpts are opening chapters from James Patterson’s forthcoming novel NYPD Red (October 8) and Michael Connelly’s The Black Box (November 26). HBG coo Ken Michaels notes in the announcement, "Publishing is evolving from a B2B business to a B2C business, and apps like ChapterShare allow us to connect directly with consumers. Publishers need to become application developers in order to connect writers and readers more closely. We saw a need for an application that could unlock more of Facebook’s power for writers and used our unique publishing expertise and systems to build it." (Michaels will expand in this theme in a presentation at Publishers Launch BEA on June 4.)