HarperCollins Canada created a special video to celebrate the 100,000 fans who have “liked” them on Facebook.

We’ve embedded the full video above–what do you think? Using the text from the jackets of their books, the publisher had this message for its readers:

Dear Facebook Fans, Thank you for helping create the greatest community of readers online. One hundred thousand strong and growing every day; made up of awesome, incredible book lovers just like you. We hope you’ll continue to share inspiration, share imagination and share reading.

Facebook recently updated its EdgeRank algorithm, the complex calculation that determines how many people see your individual Facebook posts in their newsfeed.

EdgeRank Tracker is a free tool for measuring how your posts work with the algorithm. They measure Affinity, Weight, and Time Decay, the three variables that affect your post placement. Here’s more from the company: “Affinity is dependent on a user’s relationship with an object in the news feed. Weight is determined by the type of object, such as a photo/video/link/etc. The last variable is Time Decay, as an object gets older, the lower the value.”

Below, we adapted EdgeRank Tracker’s advice into four steps that writers can take to cope with these changes at Facebook. If you have any advice to add, share it in the comments.

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Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg counted the company’s one billionth user today, a major milestone for social networks.

To mark this moment, here are some Facebook resources for writers, readers and publishing professionals:

Facebook Your New or Upcoming Book

Facebook Timeline Tips for Writers

How to Add Goodreads to Your Facebook Timeline

Top 20 Facebook Apps for Book Lovers

How to Control Your Facebook Apps

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Comics legend Stan Lee is hosting a caption-writing contest on Facebook.

Write a snappy caption for this artistic rendition of Stan Lee as a ”Mission Commander” (pictured) and post it as a comment at this link. Lee will personally pick the winning submission. No official reward has been revealed, but a “special prize or two” could possibly be given out.

This contest promotes a new project developed by mobile entertainment publisher Moonshark and Stan Lee called “Verticus.” This superhero action-adventure game is available on iOS-supported devices (i.e. iPads). Follow this link to learn about the full details of this contest.

Novelist Anne Rice wrote an intriguing one-sentence post on Facebook recently: “If you want Lestat to come back, can you tell me why in one sentence?”

Her die-hard fans left more than 8,100 comments explaining why they hoped she’d bring back the vampire who starred in her beloved Vampire Chronicles series (including her bestseller, The Vampire Lestat). She followed up the post with another short and cryptic update: “In one sentence, what one thing do you NOT like about Lestat?”

Would you read a new Lestat book? Could thousands of fans convince the horror novelist to bring back her famous character?

The GalleyCat Facebook page has become an important part of our community outreach. In the upper right-hand corner of our blog, we’ve added a new permanent link to our page on the world’s biggest social network.

If you want to share your new book with GalleyCat readers, you can do it at this Facebook link. If you want to Facebook your upcoming literary event on GalleyCat, follow this link for directions.

We’ve also collected a number of resources for writers, readers and publishing professionals on the social network. Check it out…

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On Monday, KFC will release a free eBook edition of a memoir written by Colonel Harland Sanders, the founder of the fried chicken chain.

Originally published in 1966, the book contains recipes and stories about the cook who built a fast food empire. Readers need to “like” the autobiography and authorize the Facebook app to read the book. Follow this link to get the book next week.

Here’s an excerpt about his childhood: “In those days children did a lot of things youngsters don’t do anymore. Take thrashing, for example. When the boys were thrashing wheat, we carried 160-pound sacks from the thrashing machine to the stock pile with our teeth. When I tell people that today, I can see that they don’t believe me. But it’s the truth. I guess it’s because I carried wheat like that, that I have such a strong neck right now. But as I say, country boys dealt with a whole lot of things then that city boys never knew anything about. We had to cut the wood for our kitchen stove ourselves. About 40 acres of our farm was in a wooded lot, so we had plenty of wood to cut.” (Via the Guardian)

By tomorrow, Facebook Pages will automatically convert to Facebook Timeline–so publishers, agencies and other organizations should take some time today to clean up their new pages.

Facebook has published a Pages Overview Guide (PDF link) that can walk you through many of the new features. If you want to see examples of how brands and organizations use Facebook Timeline, check out Magnolia Bakery, Hyundai Worldwide or Ben & Jerry’s.

We’ve collected some helpful hints to walk you through the entire process. Keep reading…

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At the Inside Social Apps conference in San Francisco, Social Reality EVP of publisher relations Kristoffer Nelson offered some tips for book publishers looking to use Facebook to promote their books and grow their audience.

His company has worked on social media campaigns for major companies like Snickers, HP, General Mills, Coke, Ford, Kellogg’s, Bayer, eBay and Bank of America.

Here’s more about the firm: “Social Reality is a leading facebook app network and developer, reaching 300 million monthly users. We help brands leverage the social graph to increase brand equity — turning facebook users into loyal fans and ambassadors.”

After months of preparation, Marvel Comics has launched its first Facebook game, Avengers Alliance.

Follow this link to play the game, fighting crime alongside the famous superhero team. Earlier this year, we interviewed comic book writer Alex Irvine about his work writing for the game.

Irvine also shared tips for aspiring video game writers–you can explore the growing field in our Best Video Game Writing of the Year feature.

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