I’m having a Facebook Party for Beneath the Skin!

Today is my big day. Beneath the Skin will be released to the world! In celebration, I am holding my first ever Facebook Party. In preparation, I have done a ton of research. Below is what I learned goes into having a successful party.

Steps to a Successful Facebook Party

STEP 1 Choosing a Theme for Your Facebook Party

Consider having a topic or theme and color scheme or graphic image to unify the party and draw the interest of your readers. For my party, my book  Beneath the Skin is the topic and the color of the cover is purple and blue. But you could also feature a character or a setting or a special element from your book or book series.

Step 2 Choosing Prizes for Your Facebook Party

All parties have prizes. Consider prizes that will be easy to get to the winners. Gift cards always work well. Signed copies of your books is another common choice. I have chosen the following:

1st prize – A signed copy of Beneath the Skin, a canvas Beneath the Skin bag, a tattoo coloring book and colored pencil set, purple earrings, lavender lotions, a Zara West pen, bookmark, and Beneath the Skin temp tattoo.

2nd prize – A basket of all natural, organic Beneath the Skin soap (cucumber melon scent) hand crafted by Laurel’s Garden.

3rd prize – a $10 Amazon Gift Card

3 Runners up – $5 Amazon Gift Card

STEP 3 Setting up How People Win Those Prizes

Next, you need to determine how participants will win the prizes. You should assign points for the different activities and set a time frame. Some parties are run so there is a new game and new way to win every 1/2 hour or on the hour.

Since I am just starting out, I don’t think I will have a tremendous amount of competition so I want my Facebook party to be expansive. So for Friday, I have decided to post the games at 8 AM EST and leave them up the entire day till midnight PST so people can come and go and still get to play them all. At midnight June 17th PST, the person with the most points wins 1st place, next 2nd place and so on. Participants receive points as follows:

• Join the party 50 points
• Invite a friend 50 points
• Like a post 10 points
• Play a game 20 points
• Win a game 50 points
• Join or subscribe: For example, join Zara’s Readers Club  50 points (If you are already a member you get 50 points automatically)
• Volunteer for Zara’s Street Team 50 points (Five will be chosen at random)

STEP 4 Selecting Games and Activities

Facebook Party Games are a lot like those played at birthday parties with some digital searching and selfies thrown in. Here some examples:

Roll Call: Time to get to know each other

• Tell us you’re here and post your favorite ___
• How do you know _____ (your name or the name of the book)?
• Where are you from?
• What do you like to read?
• Post a selfie

Glamor Name Game:

• Google search “your name +glamor shots” and post first picture that comes up

Favorites

• Google search “Romance Novel Covers” and post the cover that is your favorite’s
• Name a romance novel that starts with the same letter as your first or last name
• Name your favorite romance hero (heroine) and tell us why
• Name your favorite romance genre
• Name your favorite romantic movie

Keep the story going

• Keep adding two words to my story starter
• When I add THE
• First person to add END wins

BINGO

• Choose 5 words from the list posted here
• Direct Message them to me
• When you see one of your words in my party posts, check it off your list
• First to check off all 5, shout out BINGO in the comment section, and you win.

Scavenger Hunt

• Here is a list of ___ facts found on my website, each on a different page
• When you find one, post URL on the event wall
• Each person to post a fact gets 10 points

Perfect Guest

Earn 50 points if you do the following

• Participate throughout the day
• Play every game
• Post a selfie

Alphabet Soup: Movies/Romance novels/authors

• Every 30 minutes I will post a letter, first one to post a movie star/novel/author whose first or last name starts with that letter gets 10 points

Door Prize

• Every hour I will roll a die. The person who posted that number of times gets 10 points

Secret Word

• I will post a “Secret Word” at the start of the party. Every time someone sees it in a post and announces it in the comment section, they get 10 points

Word Scramble

• Post a scrambled word every hour.
• First person to unscramble it gets 10 points

Tic Tac Toe

• Chose three items in a row
• Do all three and get 30 points

STEP 5 Ending the Party

After an exciting day, the party should wrap up with a summary of what was learned over the day, and an announcement of the winners. Don’t forget to take notes on what went well and what needs changing so you will be ready for your next Facebook Party!

I invite you to join my Beneath the Skin Book Release Facebook party and see how it works. Then let me know what your think!

Your comments are always welcome!