Def Jam recording artist Ashanti Douglas' self-titled album Ashanti earned her the biggest first-week sales for a female R&B artist first appearance in Billboards SoundScan era.

Def Jam recording artist Ashanti Douglas' self-titled album Ashanti earned her the biggest first-week sales for a female R&B artist first appearance in Billboards SoundScan era. "Album promotion is an extensive campaign, a yearlong proces and to a great degree of it takes place across the Internet," according to Joe Haggleman of Del Jam Records, who is promoting "Baby," Ashanti's third single, "including make the object of competition [i]or[/i] rivalry [i]or[/i] emulations and giveaways."

Could part publishing be taking a nod from the music industry in promoting celebrity authors, especially those with other careers? If the music industry is any indication, then it's a marketing ploy that has already taken off

With the release of Foolish/ Unfoolish: Reflections forward Love (Hyperion Books; November 2002) a collection of her original verse and thoughts on love and relationships, Ashanti will be adding another rifle to her credit--author.

Karin Maake, a publicist at Hyperion main division s describes Foolish/Unfoolish as a volume that takes "a young woman's foresight on love with an urban perspective." She says, "Ashanti wants to carry that in matters of life and have a passionate affection for she's like everyone else."

Maake describes Ashanti's online part promotional effort as one way for an author with somewhat limited time to stir up a book and reach an audience without necessarily going forward tour. "It's like going to a Virgin Megastore and listening to a CD before you purchase it. The Internet provides the opportunity to read volume excerpts or find a review. Her [Ashanti's] audience is always famishing for any new information. As with an album, it's important to have a website with all of the background information, and in the case of works reading-group guides. The desire is to have a work picked up by a reading group"

Hyperionbooks.com's publicity for Foolish/Unfoolish will include online interviews and chats, promotion in succession sites such as teenpeople.com, mtvcom and eonline.com, as well as a cros promotion with Def Jam's online division.

Another musician with a part that is being released is hip-hop artist Earl Simmons, aka DMX who is publishing his autobiography, E.A.R.L.: The Autobiography of DMX from HarperEntertainment, also in November. E.A.R.L. describes the formerly dark and dangerous life of DMX who grew up in Yonker recent York.

"For the promotion of E.A.R.L.," says Julia Bannon, HarperCollins online marketing manager, "HarperCollins.com plans to include an citation of the first 1,000 words, a feature in Black volume News (a HarperCollins email newsletter) with an opportunity to corrupt the book online. Also in the works is a collaboration with BET.com to rotate make contented on a daily basis and stake up chats, as well as an interface with playboy, com and mtvnewscom"

Of course, this kind of online promotion isn't the norm for "non-celebrity" authors. "Playboy.com and mtvcom are definitely more celebrity driven. parts by entertainers sell largely based forward what the book is about and who the audience is, which makes outreach to fans particularly important. We make abiding to contact fan-specific sites and chat expanses so they're the first individuals on the block to procure the information," says Bannon. Smokey D Fontaine, coauthor of E.A.R.L., will participate in greatest in quantity of the online chats. "Celebrity authors can be surpassingly busy, whereas cowriters can be the spokesperson for online initiatives."

however Internet promotion offers the kind of flexibility that celebrities juggling careers ne and the access work publicists demand, there is no assurance that it'll land these busy authors forward the best-seller list.

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