LivingSocial Opens New Chapter for Book Industry with Social Marketing Portal

Authors & Publishers Tap Social Media Expertise Behind Facebook’s Visual Bookshelf and Pick Your Five

BookExpo America - Washington D.C., May 28, 2009 – LivingSocial, the innovative social media company behind Visual Bookshelf, the largest interactive book network on the web, andPick Your Five, the No. 1 Facebook application, today announced a new social media portal for authors to engage with an active community of book-lovers online.

Independent authors can now tap into the same cutting-edge social marketing tools as leading book publishers like HarperCollins, Macmillan, Penguin, Random House, and Simon & Schuster. Authors and publishers alike will have access to a community that has collectively shared 5 million book reviews and catalogued 72 million books.

LivingSocial’s new social marketing portal provides a fast, viral, and cost-effective way for authors to build an online fan base around new book releases. In a matter of days, authors can start capturing the attention of avid readers looking for their next book, and generate buzz among an influential literary community. Typical turn-around time from form submission to campaign start is less than 48 hours, and after completion, LivingSocial provides campaign metrics to the author.

“After working with some of the largest publishers in the country, we wanted to create a similar way for independent authors with marketing budgets of all sizes to reach the same passionate, influential readers in our community,” says CEO and Co-Founder Tim O’Shaughnessy. “Our social media campaigns are designed to create maximum viral impact, within a wide range of budget scales, in a short period of time.”

Today’s announcement coincides with BookExpo America, where O’Shaughnessy is presenting “A Strategic Approach for Harnessing the Power of Social Media: A Publisher Roadmap” at 9:30 a.m. in Room 1E14, Javits Center. Questions will be fielded from the @LivingSocialBEA Twitter account.

About LivingSocial

LivingSocial.com is a social discovery and cataloging network that allows people to review and share their favorite movies, books, games, music, restaurants and beer. As the most comprehensive interest-based online community, LivingSocial is now helping more than 6.4 million users catalogue their interests, seamlessly integrating with Facebook. The company is headquartered in Washington, D.C. To start cataloging your interests, or to find out more information about LivingSocial, visit www.livingsocial.com.