If you have a spare hour from 1-2 p.m. (Eastern Daylight Time) on Tuesday, June 29, register for Dan Zarrella’s free webinar about marketing on Facebook. Here are some of the topics he will discuss.

• The behavior of demographic groups on Facebook
• The sociology of the Facebook community
• The difference between men’s and women’s interactions on Facebook
• How to get your content shared on Facebook

One thing that I find both interesting and scary about Facebook is that its audience isn’t gathered around a single interest (like a political site) or even a group of interests (like DeviantArt).  If you’re interested in marketing a book online but aren’t web-savvy enough to make your own site, I’d highly recommend giving this a look.

1. In most cases, I think that it’s probably best to ask your editor about a pseudonym after getting the offer. For one thing, it’ll reduce the chance that you make a poor first impression with a goofy-sounding pseudonym. The only time that I think that a pseudonym may be necessary prior to getting published is if the author shares a name with a celebrity. (“Who’s this guy pretending to be Steven King?”)

2. If you do use a pseudonym, please write something like “[YOUR REAL NAME], WRITING AS RODDY BARBER” on your title page. For tax reasons, the publisher has to know your real name. (Otherwise, the IRS will get surly and then everybody is screwed).

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Over at The Frisky, John DeVore speculates (careful– probably not safe for work) that vampire-lovers are disproportionately female because vampires are exotic, dangerous, mysterious and passionate.  So vampires do a better job of satisfying female wish-fulfillment (which is more about romance than violence).

In contrast, male wish-fulfillment tends to involve badass characters doing badass things (superhero stories, military action, James Bond, cops-and-robbers, etc).  Also, I don’t think that men find vampiric qualities very romantic.

All of this is probably an overgeneralization, but I think there’s some degree of truth to it.  What do you think?

The Motley Fool reports…

But what began with Harry and Hogwarts has grown into something more. Teen literature is hot. Estimates suggest the category will generate $744.3 million in revenues for U.S. publishers this year, up 13% from $659.1 million in 2008. In comparison, book retailing in general is slumping, with revenue expected to fall nearly 5% from a year ago.

Instead of trying to grab kids’ eyes as they rush past the book stacks toward the movies and music, Borders is creating an in-store boutique called Borders Ink, featuring graphic novels, manga (Japan’s homegrown style of comics), vampires, and, of course, wizards. It hopes to have as many as 90% of its superstores featuring the teen reading section by the end of the month.

This is encouraging. First, more readers generally means that publishers will have more room to take on more authors in this field. Second, diversifying comic book sales beyond comic-book stores is extremely important.  That’s especially true if you want to write for demographics that are far more likely to visit a bookstore than a comic-book store– like women, children/parents, first-time comic book readers, etc.