Building a social media presence can be important to your success as an author, but it can also be a significant time investment. We share our best tips on how to manage your social media efforts most effectively.

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Readers use Goodreads to discover books online, and to share books that they love. More than 25 million members and 100,000 authors use the site. Because Goodreads focuses directly on readers and on helping them discover new titles, authors who use the site strategically have a direct way to engage and interact with fans and prospective fans: users who have read or will read your books.

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There’s no doubt about it—book purchasers are curious about and engaged with media content across a variety of platforms and channels, especially online media. This makes book purchasers more accessible than ever to messages from authors and publishers.

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Award-winning author Anna Quindlen describes the start of the editing process with Kate Medina, in this touching tribute to the special relationship between author and editor. (Adapted from a speech Anna gave introducing Kate as the recipient  of the 2014 Poets & Writers Editor’s Award.)

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Happy birthday to Google Hangouts, which turns one year old this month. Chats featuring notable authors such as Toni Morrison have put Google Hangouts on the map as an innovative way to engage with readers. Here’s what you need to know and keep in mind when planning a Google Hangout.

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Email is anything but dead. It’s a vital part of any marketing plan, allowing you to reach readers easily at any time. But with all the inbox competition that emails face each day, how can you make your emails stand out? And if you’re new to email marketing, where should you begin? Here are 10 tips for making your email program shine.

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Authors across numerous publishers, including Penguin Random House, recently transformed Twitter into a forum for experimental storytelling during #TwitterFiction Festival 2014. The festival, which took place March 12 through 16, was a partnership among the Association of American Publishers, Penguin Random House, and Twitter. It resulted in a five-day round-the-clock global literary event that reached 50 million people on Twitter.

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Publishing has traditionally been thought of as an industry that instinctively knows the reader and draws primarily on experience and general market trends to design publishing and marketing plans. Even as that instinctive factor remains a critical element of success, Random House has built a Consumer Insights team that draws on a number of data sources to help marketers and publishers better understand consumers. One of the most useful resources is the Random House reader panel, which allows direct access to and feedback from readers.

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This month, the Random House Sales Analysis team offers an answer to the age-old questions “Do women prefer to buy books written by women? And do men prefer to buy books written by men?” We share their point of view, including some surprises about how this varies by genre.

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Authors increasingly create content on an ongoing basis through social media, blogs, and video. But what makes a piece of content likely to be shared—and maybe even go viral? We look at some of the latest research in this fascinating area.

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