On the heels of a blog post I wrote about asking folks “What Are You Reading?” we received some really excellent comments about how authors, publicists and publishers are sharing and starting conversations about their books.
That reminded me of a site I’d seen years ago developed to track a book’s journey around the globe… Which sent me searching the worldwide web ’til I found it again. I’d honestly never thought of the potential marketing value (and sheer fun) for an author…
The site is called www.bookcrossing.com and it’s easy to join I’ve already ordered a set of labels and can’t wait to start sharing clients’ books and learning where they head and who they get read by… Here’s how it works!
What is BookCrossing?
BookCrossing is the act of giving a book a unique identity so, as the book is passed from reader to reader, it can be tracked and thus connecting its readers. There are currently 2,054,231 BookCrossers and 9,871,367 books travelling throughout 132 countries.
You sign up on the website for free and then register a book that you want to share with the rest of the world. Your book is assigned a unique code (a BCID) which you write onto the front cover along with a message indicating the book is registered on BookCrossing. You can order labels from the site to make things easier, or even download free labels templates. (We ordered some since we could customize them and not have to go buy blank labels and print them.)
You can download free label templates…
Order one of their designs…
Or create one of your own!
Then you release the book into the world. Leave it on a park bench, at the airport, anyway someone will be pleasantly surprised to find it. The lucky finder jumps onto the website, enters the BCID and sees where the book came. Once read the finder should leave a comment on the website and re-release the book into the world.
Label. Share. Follow. Breath new life into books instead of letting your old favorites collect dust – pass them along to another reader. The online archival and tracking system allows members to connect with other readers, journal and review literature and trade and follow their books.
Who are BookCrossers?
According to the website, bookcrossers tend to be the most generous, innovative, earth-friendly, good-hearted, whimsical, fun and educated people on the face of the planet. How about we add to that and make them savvy authors. Not only might it be a marketing tactic – but think of the blog fodder you’ll have if a book or two begins to have a travel life all its own!
Where in the world is BookCrossing:
Here are the top 10 BookCrossing countries:
- USA 29%
- Germany 16%
- United Kingdom 13%
- Netherlands 11%
- Finland 10%
- Canada 8%
- Australia 5%
- France 4%
- Portugal 3%
- Spain 1%
That’s it in a nutshell, but the site offers lots more in terms of community sharing, a partnership with another favorite co., Better World Books, social networking with other readers, forums, even the opportunity to provide articles and photos about your book for their newsletter.
Let us know if you’ve already tried Book Crossing or when you give it a try – we’ll be interested to hear your stories!
Creator of Where Writers Win, Shari Stauch has been involved in publishing, marketing and PR for 30 years. She is also the principal author of the WWW blog, and speaks at conferences around the country. The Where Writers Win team’s newest collaboration is The Winner Circle – vetted book review directories, book clubs and other cultivated resources for emerging authors.
What you need to understand is that, when you leave books in any place, the person who picks it up is not always going to bother to write something on the web. There are official meeting places where bookcrossers meet and exchange books, so that there are much more possibilities of getting a written opinion.
Interesting, Kathleen – so are those meeting places also easy to find on the site?
I’ve been a Bookcrosser for 11 years now. It’s my favorite hobby. I love to release books into the wild and always take a stack of them when I travel. I also “go hunting” when I see that books have been released in the area where I’m traveling. That’s the fun of Bookcrossing to me — the game of it.
But more than that, it’s a great place to connect with other booklovers and read book reviews or just learn about books that I hadn’t heard of before.
Thanks for spreading the word. I hope your readers and authors give it a try.
Hi, I’ve been a BookCrosser for 6+ years and would be happy to help with any questions on the site. Just look for Bascula – but there are any number of us who are very happy to help. Post in the Newbies forum and you WILL get a response.
Thanks so much, Rebecca – we have a lot of folks excited about this!
I tried this a few years ago with 2 books. I did get a note from the person who found one of them. Nothing from the other one. Thanks for the reminder – I may just try this again.
This is one of the coolest things I have ever heard about. I can’t wait to do it! And I would be so happy to FIND a book somewhere and become a part of this chain. Bravo Shari, for finding this and sharing it with all of us.
Thanks, Jacquie – while I’m waiting for labels I’m looking at the books I can’t wait to share and trying to decide where to leave ’em! Food court? Airport? Farmers market? Maybe a book festival here and there? So many possibilities!
Please don’t leave books in an airport – for security reasons it’s generally not a good idea. How about the bank, in the kiddie cart at the grocery store, in the mall food court, at a concert, hanging from a tree (in a bag), at the top of a mountain?
Thanks – great ideas!
It is a great idea but sign up was not easy. Lots of error messages but would not say what the error was. Finally got through that part and then they asked for the referring members user name. I did not know that. It would not let me continue. After numerous tries, I was too frustrated to go forward. It’s too bad. It really is a great idea. 🙁
Yikes – I just logged in thru Facebook and then did some labels… I haven’t tried putting a book up yet though… If you need a username referral, mine’s ShariJStauch
This sounds very interesting. We are going to give it a try with our book “Rainbow’s End”. We will let you know how it goes. Thanks for searching for this Shari!
Thanks Jane and Brenda – can’t wait to see how much fun this will be!