Today I’m going to meet with my power partner, social media maven Lisa Twining Taylor, to come up with a blockbuster social media campaign that will extend my present outreach to new DeForest Kelley fans in addition to the ones who already know about my 30-year association with De.

Among ours existing social media outreach ideas are… (if you have additional ideas, please share them with me!)

• Looking for podcasts, Google Hangouts, and other online and off-line (Star Trek Magazine, etc.) media folks to interview me about De and the book.  I’m going to come up with a waaaay tooooo long list of questions that hosts can choose from in case they can’t think of their own to ask, to make it as easy as possible at their end to host and run it. This way, I’ll get different questions all the time so no two podcasts or hangouts will be the same.
• Creating a book page on Facebook (likely)
• Publishing excerpts from the book, or audio clips from the audio book, with links to where to order it, if readers want more
• Creating memes that can  be liked and shared across Pinterest, Facebook, etc. with links to audio or written book excerpts that will link to Amazon if the viewer decides he or she wants more
• Perhaps a DeForest Kelley TV and Movie Roles trivia contest (Examples: “When did De first say the line, ‘I’m a doctor, not a…..’  (Hint: It wasn’t Star Trek!)  “What other catch phrase was Dr. McCoy supposed to be noted for saying that never went anywhere long term?” (Answer: “I never said that.”)
• See if local TV stations with Star Trek fans as news anchors, reporters or hosts would want to interview a bona fide DeForest Kelley fan/friend/caregiver about her 50th anniversary title DeForest Kelley Up Close and Personal, A Harvest of Memories from the Fan Who Knew Him Best
• …and some other fun stuff

I’ve been through all of my personal photos, notes and cards and sent them to Lisa to go through and choose the ones she thinks fans/readers will most enjoy seeing. I’m too close to the images and communications to be a reliable arbiter in this regard. We might use some of them for social media outreach (Pinterest, Snapchat, Flickr, etc.), too…

I’ve audio-taped the manuscript and appended to the end of the audio book some of the best voicemail messages that De, Carolyn and others left for me…some very funny, some poignant…all of the ones truly worth listening to…

I’ve contacted Createspace (CS) to ask a few pertinent questions as to the expected publication costs of various editions: hardbound with full color pictures inside and out, softbound with color cover and black and white inside photos, Kindle version, full color inside and out, audio book… I don’t know if CS has audio book/MP3 versions, but I know iTunes does, so I can go that route if need be…

The actual books (hardbound, softbound) will be 8.5 x 11 in size and  will include middle sections with page after page of images that have rarely or never-before been seen.  I’m guessing (but no guarantees!) the page count will be over 300 pages since the manuscript alone (not counting image captions) has 125,000 words and I want the editions on Large Print so readers over 40 can easily read them.

I’ve outlined all of this to Createspace and am waiting to hear back from them as to whether 125,000 words plus captions is do-able.  I read somewhere that CA wants manuscripts to come in at 125,000 words or less, so a lot of De’s final days came out so that many more of our fun times could get in.  The original version, published in 2001, was truncated mightily because I felt readers/fans would want to take the end days journey with me to find out that De’s final days weren’t as bad as most fans likely feared after hearing that cancer had taken him, so a lot of the funny stories at the front and in the middle had to come out to keep the word count under control.  In fact, my original manuscript was 751 pages…single-spaced!  No one would have been able to lift it had I put everything in it!)  More than half of it had to hit the cutting room floor!  (Needless to say, I had someone else edit that one: I was too close to it at that time, so soon after his death, to know what to take out!

Anyway, social media is the piece of the puzzle that we have to figure out because my marketing budget is minuscule until after the launch when people start buying.

Lisa knows the way.

I have the words, she has the way…so away we go!!

I truly hope that those of you who already know about me and my long-time association and friendship with De will help get the word out by liking, sharing and talking up the new title via your social media channels as our campaign starts coming your way in the next several weeks and months. Without “viral sneezers” (engaged friends and fans of De’s) like YOU along for the ride, social media outreach can fall flat on its face! Social media requires Serious Mojo to work! YOU are my lucky charm.  Thank you!