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Continuing the series about Alternate Publishing.

Brain Child Press: Photo-Illustrated Books for Kids

Dr. Peggy Sissel-Phelan started Brain Child Press when she realized that there was a need for health and nutrition titles for kids and their parents. She immediately went for niche markets, selling her first title, A Visit to the Farmer’s Market, to the WIC (Women, Infants and Children) program which provides food stamps, and health and nutrition information to low-income parents, infants and children. This is an example of a niche publisher who deliberately sidesteps bookstores in order to find her target audience. In this case, Brain Child targets young mothers who are just learning about nutrition for their infants.

I first met Peggy at a Literary Festival, where she calmly told me that her first title had sold over 100,000 copies. A brilliant business woman, she has built a thriving niche publishing business.

You sell to alternate markets. Could you tell us about your best selling book and where it sells best?

My children’s photo-illustrated picture book “A Visit to the Farmers’ Market” is extremely popular. First published in 2007, a Spanish edition came out in 2008. In the past five years I have sold around 100,000 copies of the book (English and Spanish combined.) The original version was 7×8.5, saddle stitched (stapled). Last year, after requests for a bilingual version, I produced it. In doing so, I took the opportunity to revise the book’s layout to be 8.5×8.5, which is one of the standard picture book sizes in the trade, and I began to put it out in perfect bound format. I made this choice because I wanted to have access to Ingram’s Lightning Source POD service, and because you cannot apply for a Library of Congress number for a stapled book. I was also thinking about trying to get it in bricks and mortar book stores (it does sell on Amazon.)

The idea of bookstores is a new thing to me because from the very first my intention was to sell to niche markets. Having worked in health, education, and social service , settings, I not only knew there was a demand for the book, I was also very familiar with and had contacts in some very large market segments: WIC, Head Start, Cooperative Extension, health departments, Ag in the Classroom, etc. In fact, the book took a long time to produce (I did all photography and layout along with the text) so in that time (4 years or so) I pursued the market research and generated bigger and bigger contact lists. The agencies I listed above, along with schools, Farmers’ Markets, universities, and others have purchased quantities ranging from 1 to 8,000 at a time.

Because you sell in large numbers, you use traditional printers to get the best prices, instead of selling POD. Where do you go to find great printers at great prices?

I am a member of the Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA). They provide various resources that can help you find printers. The membership maga

How to Sell Your Mss to the Right Editor

When you write “The End” on the last page of your story (novel or picture book), it’s time to start marketing the story to editors. For this, you need a business hat.

Let’s think about marketing.
If you sell Jaguars–those beautiful classic cars–what is the best way to sell them?

You could join a local Jaguar Club, populated with enthusiasts who love these cars and while you’re visiting with club members, you learn that five people are looking for a real classic in red–and yours happened to be red! Bingo! You probably have five people interested.

Or, you could open up a phone book, close your eyes and stab at the page. Open your eyes, see what name/address you identified and send the car over to that person’s house. You could let that car sit at their house for three months or six months or twelve months. You know nothing about this person, except their mailing address, yet you think because you’ve got a classic red car that they will buy that car?

Crazy! That’s cold submissions and it’s just plain wrong.

Know What Type Mss an Editor Wants to See

You must know something about the editor and what they want and like. That means research.

Blogs. Many editors these days have blogs where they lay it all out. What they like, don’t like, what passions they have, what they are currently thinking about. Search out blogs for editors whose lists seem interesting on the surface. For example, the Agent Spotlight here is great, with a breakdown of which agents rep YA, MG or PBs.

Google that Editor or Agent. You’ll be amazed at the interviews you can find about or with some editors/agents. On the other hand, sometimes, the editor follows a very strict policy of limiting info on them and their list online. You won’t know until you Google. Here’s a nice list of the Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers editors, with information on what sorts of books they acquire. This is a great STARTING POINT to research these editors more. Don’t forget to research the publishing house, too. Here’s an overview of Philomel/Penguin (see also the other imprints overviews here).

Test:

Which S&S editor does this describe? Post the answer in the comments–first one to answer gets a free BOOK TRAILER MANUAL!
“She is actively looking for middle-grade, especially boy, but anything not too girly, edgy YA, and sports-themed books for any age.”

Conferences. For editors who have a low profile online–and lots of them do–look to conferences as a place to meet them. When an editor presents about their company and their list, you’re more likely to find a connection that makes a difference. If you’re a member of the Society of Children’s Bookwriters and Illustrators, you can find a listing of co

The Author’s Guild has updated their recent post about the state of the publishing industry. This article is reprinted here with permission. To see this post on their site and make comments, click here.

Amazon, Innovation, and the Rewards of the Free Market

Our article from two weeks ago, Publishing’s Ecosystem on the Brink: The Backstory, and similar articles spur frequent comments online that Amazon is simply reaping the rewards of its innovation, that its growing dominance of book publishing is merely a demonstration that the free market is functioning as it should. This isn’t really what’s been happening.

Useful innovation should of course be rewarded, but we’ve long had laws in place (limits on the duration and scope of patent protections, antitrust laws, stricter regulation of industries considered natural monopolies) that aim to prevent innovators and others from capturing a market or an industry. There’s good reason for this: those who capture a market tend to be a bit rough on other participants in the market. They also tend to stop innovating.

Amazon’s first Kindle, released in November 2007, was certainly innovative, but its key breakthrough wasn’t any particular piece of technology. Sony had already commercialized e-ink display screens for handheld e-books in September 2006. (E Ink, a Cambridge company co-founded by MIT Media Lab professor Joseph Jacobson developed the displays used by both companies.) Amazon’s leap was to marry e-ink displays to another existing technology, wireless connectivity, to bring e-book shopping and downloading right to the handheld device.

Amazon’s innovation, in other words, was to untether the Sony device and put a virtual store inside it. This is no small achievement, and Jeff Bezos’s particular genius seems to be his ability to grasp the transformative potential of this sort of thing long before others do, just as he saw the potential of databases and the Internet to facilitate shopping for books and the potential for one-click shopping to ramp up online sales before most others had caught on.

Amazon’s reward for developing the wireless e-reader should have been that it would become a significant vendor of e-books and earn a profit commensurate with the value it added to the publishing ecosystem. Whether it would then continue to be a significant e-book vendor should have depended on whether it continued to innovate and provide good service to its customers. Amazon’s reward should not have included being able to combine its wireless e-reader, deep pockets, and an existing dominant position in a related, but separate, market — the online market for physical books — to prevent other vendors from entering the e-book market. Amazon’s reward as an innovator, in other words, shouldn’t be getting to wall itself off from competition.

By all appearances, this is precisely what Amazon was trying to pull off two years ago, when it removed the buy buttons from nearly every Macmillan book. Amazon removed the buy buttons for both e-books and, stunningly, print books, even though its disagreement with Macmillan was confined to the sales terms for e-books. Amazon had about 90% of the market for e-books at the time, but that market was then quite small: Macmillan could handle Amazon’s e-book blackout indefinitely. Amazon’s

As an author, marketing has become a large portion of my day-to-day routine. That used to mean blogging, online interviews, social media networking, with a few road trips to the brick and mortar stores nearby. With my latest release, The Wishing Ring, I’ve had to do a little regrouping. Rethink the traditional marketing realm and get creative. Still working on that part. Gives me a headache at least once a week. (Or once a day, depending on the day).

One would think marketing is marketing. Get your name out there, brand yourself, grab those followers…That’s all well and good, but with a tween novella, like The Wishing Ring, the audience begins to alter the landscape a bit. Here, let me show you. Up until now, I’ve written young adult (Driven) or contributed the young adult pieces to contemporary stories (A Summer in Oakville, co-written with Lisa Lickel). Blog interviews and social networks are key avenues to marketing both of those. With teens avidly participating on social sites and adults perusing the blogosphere such tactics makes sense.

However, The Wishing Ring is a tween novella. In other words it’s storyline is geared for readers ages 8 – 14. Facebook limits its users to those 13 and older. Makes hitting my readership tough. I could go for their parents, but unless it’s Christmas or their lovelies’ birthdays, parents are generally not as eager to thumb through tween fiction titles or reviews. (I know I don’t…speaking as the mother of tweens:). Twitter is just now capturing the teen market (according to USAToday.com). Until that audience ratchets down from the 12 – 16 to the 8 – 14, I’m still sunk.

So where do tweens hear about their favorite reads? Here’s what I’ve discovered (oh, and the results are in no special order)…

• Word of mouth–always the best advertisement. If one tween (make that one popular tween and you’ve got it m
  2 Comments on Where Did all the Tweens Go?, last added: 2/15/2012
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  Marva Dasef said, on 2/15/2012 1:59:00 PM
  

  I see them wandering the streets after school lets out for the day. Stand at the front of the school and hand out bookmarks? Of course, you might get arrested, but the writer’s life is a hard one.

  I’d market my fantasies as YA, but the kids aren’t having palpitations over each other, not swearing, not having sex, and don’t have access to cell phones. Okay, one SatPhone in the cupboard in the Witches’ Council Room.

  Kids must have twitter accounts otherwise, how do they do all that cyber bullying? Try to find tweets with lots of OMGs and LOLs and you might home in on the demographic.

  I’ll be interested in hearing answers from tween writers who know something about it.

  shellie said, on 2/15/2012 2:39:00 PM
  

  LOL, Marva. Yeah, I’m thinking I’ll hold off on the arresting part:). Although that would be a great way to reach the kids. Wonder if the schools would be willing to send bookmarks home in their weekly folders, hmm….

  You know, when I researched the twitter thing, everything I found said teens had twitter accounts, but weren’t using them. Until recently. It is slowly gaining speed with them. (Something about it being taken over by the older generations:D). Guess we’ll be watching. It’s big with the 20-somethings, tho:)

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Guest Expert: C Kay Brooks

Regardless of whether you are ‘only’ a reader, a budding author ‘wantabee’ or a published author, you should consider owning a website and posting blogs.

As a reader, you can challenge yourself personally as to how much you read and document what you read while making new friends along the way.

In sharing what you read, you help other readers to find interesting and informative reading material. If you find a new author that you enjoy, become a benefactor by encouraging and assisting the author — be a cheerleader to bolster flagging spirits of a discouraged author. Being an author can be a lonely, isolated occupation. Many beginning authors give up in frustration, not being able to continue for lack of an audience. Your blog with friends and followers could feature budding authors that you have found. The author would have a refreshing moment in your spotlight. You could be the catalyst or helping hand for that author to find a road to success.

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As an author, you can use a blog to fill in details about a location, occupation or a character’s history (back story) to enhance the reading experience of your books. Once you have a following, you can engage them as partners with brainstorming for endings or new story ideas. Engaging in the creative process gives a sense of ownership, creates a vested interest in the outcome. Your finished novel, the outcome, will have a waiting audience eager to read what you did with their suggestions.

Your blog can be shared on your platform and re-shared by followers, fans, friends and those who stumble across you post. Think of your blog as the starting place of your streaming link to the world. It can be a platform or foundation where you can share yourself and your creations to build a fan base. Your blog can be the vehicle enabling you to reach out and touch the world.

So what do you blog about? Not what you had for breakfast, unless you are a gourmet cook giving instructions, a diet consultant or a “biggest loser” offering ideas on becoming healthy and slimmer.

If you are a non-fiction author, posted articles with hints that didn’t make your book, or small portions of your book working as teasers would be good. Posting success stories of how your book information was implemented could be interesting and very strong selling points for your book.

If you are a memoir author you can post more detailed information about places, people or experiences featured or mentioned briefly in your book.

A fiction author is often more challenged but should look for a non-fiction hook that people might be interested in and be searching for. You can use your story research, gathered before or during the actual writing of your novel. It might be history of vampires, theories, myths and famous vampire characters that refuse to die throughout years of literature. What about a review of vampires portrayed in the movies?

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Oh, you don’t write about vampires? In the above paragraph substitute you character’s profession, personality or problem for the word ‘vampire’. Let’s

As a member of the Author’s Guild, I receive informative posts from them. Used here by permission, is their new insightful message about the current 2012 state of the publishing ecosystem. Read it on the Author’s Guild site.

Before you read this, or after you read this, you might want to have some other input about the state of YA, Middle grade and children’s writing, in general. Here’s a good place to start: Harold Underdown, Purple Crayon site: “Children’s Books in Hard Times:
Our Industry in 2011″

Publishing’s Ecosystem on the Brink: The Backstory

Subtlety is out. Bloomberg Businessweek’s January 25th cover shows a book engulfed in flames. The book’s title? “Amazon Wants to Burn the Book Business.” A towering pile of books dominates the front page of Sunday’s NYT Business Section. The pile starts well below the fold (print edition), breaks through the section header at the top of the page, and leans precariously. Books are starting to tumble off. “The Bookstore’s Last Stand,” reads the headline.

These stories capture pretty well the state of book publishing: this appears to be no ordinary, cyclical crisis that future authors and publishers will shrug off. To understand how the book industry got into this predicament, however, a broader perspective may be needed. The cover story of February’s Harper’s Magazine provides that, discussing a fundamental shift in the federal approach to antitrust law that’s affected bookselling and countless other industries. It’s a story that hasn’t previously been told in a major periodical, to our knowledge.

We’ll get to that in a moment. First, let’s set the stage with the other two stories.

Burning Down the Houses

Brad Stone’s Businessweek story discusses Amazon’s campaign to prevent other booksellers from securing a foothold in the booming e-book market and the company’s furious reaction to Random House’s decision last March to adopt agency pricing for e-books, just as five of the other “Big Six” trade publishers had the previous year. (Before agency pricing, Amazon could sell e-books from Big Six publishers at deep discounts, taking losses at a rate that Barnes & Noble could never afford to match. See How Apple Saved Barnes & Noble, Probably for more.)

Mr. Stone writes that after Random House’s March 2011 agency-pricing announcement,

Amazon could no longer run the best play out of its playbook – slash prices and sustain losses in the short term to gain market share over the long term. … “For the first time, a level playing field was going to get forced on Amazon,” says James Gray [of UK bookseller John Smith & Son and formerly of Ingram Content Group]. Amazon execs “were basically spitting blood and nails.”

Amazon’s response to Random House’s move was stunning and swift:

The next month, an Amazon recruiter sent an e-mail to several editors at big publishing houses, looking for someone to launch a new New York-based publishing imprint. “The imprint will be supported with a large budget, and its success will directly impact the success of Amazon’s overall business,” read the e-mail, which was

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What is KDP Select?

KDP Select is an option for KDP publishers from Amazon. Through KDP Select, for an initial period of 90 days your Digital Book is exclusive to Kindle and is included in the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library Program where it will earn a share of a monthly cash fund when readers borrow it. Also, you can promote your Digital Book as free for up to 5 days during these 90 days.

We have had a few authors asking if it is okay for them to continue to promote their book using BookBuzzr Technologies while on the KDP Select Program. Based on our understanding of the KDP Select terms of service and their FAQ and extensive research on various forums on the Internet, here’ why we (the BookBuzzr team) have concluded  that KDP Select DOES NOT affect BookBuzzr Authors. Of course, we expect that you will do your own research and draw your own conclusions. Feel free to jump in the comments section and let us know if we’ve misunderstood something.

Authors who use BookBuzzr technologies DO NOT violate KDP Select Terms of Service

If your book is on the KDP Select program, you are perfectly within your rights to market and promote your book through other sources. For example, you can go ahead and tweet about your book on Twitter. And you can talk about your book on your blog. If you use BookBuzzr technologies to market your book, you are not distributing your book through BookBuzzr or selling your books through BookBuzzr. Therefore, you are not violating Amazon terms of service. So go ahead and continue with your BookBuzzr subscription. It may even help complement your efforts on the KDP Select program.

Distribute Means Giving Away or Selling Your Book in it’s Entirety

The KDP Select FAQ Page states: “When you choose KDP Select for a book, you’re committing to make the digital format of that book available exclusively through KDP. During the period of exclusivity, you cannot distribute your book digitally anywhere else, including on your website, blogs, etc. However, you can continue to distribute your book in physical format, or in any format other than digital. See the KDP Select Terms and Conditions for more information.”

It’s important to understand that distribution refers to the act of giving away or selling your book in it’s entirety on ebook distribution sites such as Smashwords, BookBaby etc. or in the form of PDF or other digital or electronic versions of your ENTIRE (FULL) book.

Giving Away Your Book Excerpt is NOT the Same as Book Distribution

However, when you provide your book excerpt it DOES NOT constitute a violation of KDP Select terms of service. Book excerpts have always been a valid form of book marketing for authors. The BookBuzzr Flipper Widget and Book Sampler is best-suited for book excerpts. If you are part of the KDP Select program, please do not upload your ENTIRE book. But feel free to put up your excerpt.

Amazon’s Exclusivity is for Distribution and Sales Only