Celebrity authors opt for online promotion. (book bytes).

Def Jam recording artist Ashanti Douglas' self-titled album Ashanti earned her the biggest first-week sales for a female R&B artist debut in Billboards SoundScan era. "Album promotion is an extensive campaign, a yearlong process, and much of it takes place over the Internet," according to Joe Haggleman of Del Jam Records, who is promoting "Baby," Ashanti's third single, "including contests and giveaways."

Could book 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 on Love (Hyperion Books; November 2002), a collection of her original poetry and thoughts on love and relationships, Ashanti will be adding another rifle to her credit--author.

Karin Maake, a publicist at Hyperion Books, describes Foolish/Unfoolish as a book that takes "a young woman's outlook on love with an urban perspective." She says, "Ashanti wants to convey that in matters of life and love, she's like everyone else."

Maake describes Ashanti's online book promotional effort as one way for an author with somewhat limited time to promote a book and reach an audience without necessarily going on 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 book excerpts or find a review. Her [Ashanti's] audience is always hungry 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 books, reading-group guides. The desire is to have a book picked up by a reading group."

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

Another musician with a book 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 once dark and dangerous life of DMX, who grew up in Yonkers, New York.

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

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

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