Who Needs Facebook?

Each month I hold a giveaway exclusively for people on my private email list. Often I will use the contest as an opportunity for a little research. I'll ask readers to enter by sending me email with the answer to a simple question or two.

This month I asked the following question.

Based on your personal reading and book buying habits, how important is it that an author have presence on Facebook?

As some of you already know, "Lisabet Sarai" does not have a Facebook account, because I need to protect the privacy of my author persona. I know that if I was a FB member, it wouldn't take more than a few days for FB's data mining algorithms to determine the linkage between my real identity and my pseudonym.

However, I've obviously been concerned regarding how seriously this is impacting my sales. Some of my publishers organize events solely on Facebook, and because of my concerns, I can't participate.

Hence, I was eager to see how my readers responded.

I received 18 contest entries - not a lot, but then, any contest that requires effort or thought is going to have a low return rate! Of these 18 only three told me they thought Facebook was essential

Some indicated that they tend to frequent blogs or Goodreads more than FB. Several readers indicated that they themselves are not on FB or do not use it very much.

I was relieved. Of course, this is far from a random sample. Obviously, these are the readers who have already found me - through some channel other than Facebook.

I'm curious about other people who might read this post. How would you answer this question?

Thanks!

Oh, and a big congratulations to Sara, who won a copy of The Ingredients of Bliss in this month's drawing!

And if you'd like to join in the monthly contests - just email me at lisabet [at] lisabetsarai [dot] com. I'd be glad to add you to the VIP list.