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Welcome to the last post of the 4th Annual Random Acts of Publicity week. This is the announcement of the winners of the FREE publicity consults.

• ATTEND the 4th Annual Random Acts of Publicity event on Facebook. OR, LIKE our Board on Pinterest and add some photos of book conversations.
• Read the FAQ.

We want to express our deep gratitude to Susan for donating these ten consults. We know that it will make a lasting difference in the careers of these people. If you nominated a friend who won, you deserve a special thanks, too–it was truly an act of kindness to do everything that Susan asked for in a short 24-hour period.

Thanks to everyone who participated in the Random Acts of Publicity and look for the 5th Annual RAP next year, the week after Labor Day.

1. Alina Klein, RAPE GIRL submitted by Kristi Valiant
2. Mimi Vance, WORDS BY THE HANDFUL submitted by Andrea White
3. Elaine Scott, BURIED ALIVE!, submitted by Jeanette Larson
4. Lynn Rubright, MAMA’S WINDOW, submitted by Stephanie Bearce
5. Eileen Robinson, MOVE BOOKS, submitted by Christine Taylor-Butler
6. Bethany Joy Carlson, THE RIVAL, submitted by AM Carley
7. Vicky Alvear Schecter, POMPEII, submitted by Elizabeth Dulemba
8. Tara Lazar, THE MONSTORE, submitted by Pat Zietlow Miller
9. Pat Zietlow Miller, SOPHIE’S SQUASH, submitted by Tara Lazar
10. Margaree Mitchell, UNCLE JED’S BARBERSHOP, submitted by Christine Taylor-Butler

Susan Raab’s Book

And since we are talking books, if you don’t win one of the marketing consults, don’t worry. Susan also shares her wisdom in her book, An Author’s Guide to Children’s Book Marketing, 11th edition.

Nook Kindle PDF Look for it in the iBook store.

• ATTEND the 4th Annual Random Acts of Publicity event on Facebook. OR, LIKE our Board on Pinterest and add some photos of book conversations.
• Read the FAQ.

Win a Marketing Consult for Your Friend!

A good friend can be your best cheerleader. During Random Acts of Publicity Week, you have the chance to win a special gift for your friend – a marketing consult about their book with Susan Raab, President of Raab Associates, www.raabassociates.com. To qualify, please interview your friend and provide the answers to these branding questions.

As your friend thinks about their work in the context of the market, help them to determine what can differentiate them from other authors. At first glance, it may not seem like there’s anything so unique, but clearly their publisher saw something of particular value, and your friend felt s/he had something important to say. That’s why s/he wrote the book in the first place.

Ask your friend to think about their original objectives, their expertise, and their body of work as a whole. How would they like to be viewed in the marketplace – for their expertise, sense of humor, unique way of presenting the topic or story, or for something else?

Then consider the best ways to showcase that across various platforms – on their website and Facebook page; in the tone they use for their Twitter and email communications; and throughout the interviews and appearances they do. The more your friend, and their agent, publisher, publicist, and everyone involved are in concert with the marketing presentation and focus, the more effective they will be.

10 Marketing Consults: Enter Your Friend Today

Questions to help your Friend answer. You must email the answers to [email protected] by midnight on Thursday, September 6. Winners will be notified by Susan Raab; all decisions are final. Put RANDOM ACTS OF PUBLICITY in the subject line. Include your friend’s name, email address, website, and the title of their most recent or forthcoming book.

1. What’s your elevator pitch (quick, catchy description of your book & why it should matter to me)?
2. Who would be your ideal media interviewer and why?
3. If I were that person, what 3 things could you say to me to make me want to get you on my show or featured in my publication or site?
4. Is there an interesting back story to your book and/or your writing career that might be of particular interest to the press?
5. How good is your online and social media presence, and what could you do to make it better?

And since we are talking books, if you don’t win one of the marketing consults, don’t worry. Susan also shares her wisdom in her book, An Author’s Guide to Children’s Book Marketing, 11th edition.

Nook Kindle PDF Look for it in the iBook store.

• ATTEND the 4th Annual Random Acts of Publicity event on Facebook. OR, LIKE our Board on Pinterest and add some photos of book conversations.
• Read the FAQ.

Coming on Thursday, September 6: WIN A MARKETING CONSULT FOR A FRIEND!
Susan Raab of Raab Associates (http://raabassociates.com/) has kindly offered 10 FREE marketing consults.
The catch? You can’t enter.
You can only enter your friend’s name. See the posting at 12:01 a.m. September 6 for full details–you’ll have 24 hours to enter.

Debby Edwardson

That’s why time devoted to Random Acts of Publicity is a good thing. If we were all to reach out just a bit more, it will help all of us. It’s easier to think of it as just I week or two.

I used the idea of RAP to launch my blog, Words from the Top, the first year Darcy started it. Last year, the competition for a marketing consult motivated me. And I was delighted when I won a consultation with Raab and Associates.

I took careful notes. My book, My Name is Not Easy, was just coming out. It was historical fiction, set in the 1960’s in bush Alaska in a parochial boarding school in which the majority of the students were Alaska Native. I knew, of course, that this was pretty unfamiliar territory for the average teen reader. Raab gave me a lot of ideas about how to make it accessible, how to get it out there.

Since the story was based on my husband’s story and since I had lived within the Inupiaq culture for the majority of my life, they suggested that I offer both of us for media interviews. I took that idea and created a book trailer with both of us talking about the book.


If you can’t see this video, click here.

The big takeaway for me was this: I needed to find a way to connect my book—remote historical fiction–with today’s readers. Raab asked me to think about what readers could learn, fifty years later, from this piece of history. Of course I hadn’t written it to teach anyone anything but now, after the fact, what did this story offer contemporary readers? It was a story about dealing with adversity coming out at a time when adversity was on people’s minds. How could I capitalize on this? What kinds of strengths do people need to face adversity, to make a difference? In my notes, I wrote this:

The characters do XXX the real story is XXX and this is relevant today because XXX

It’s a pretty good marketing formula.

National Book Award Nominee

Then my book came out and I was delightfully diverted: My Name is Not Easy was named a finalist for the National Book Award. Suddenly the book was marketing itself and I barely had time to breath, much less consider publicity.

I used the ideas I got from consulting with Raab when I did interviews and blog appearances.

So what is the lesson here? Think carefully about marketing and hope your book earns a major award? Sure, but even if you are as fortunate as I was, this is hardly the end of the story.

The effect of a major award is great, don’t get me wrong. It piques interest. But the real truth is that all of the lessons I learned from the marketing consult are still there waiting to be implemented and still relevant–maybe I should quit writing blog posts and get back to work, supporting my books. All of them.

But wait—what about Random Acts of Publicity Week? What if we start looking at each other’s books and thinking deeper about marketing other books the way my marketing consult make me think about My Name is Not Easy? What is it about that book I read recently read and loved—the one thing that will recommend it to other readers? Often readers can see this clearer than writers can. And as wonderful as awards are, they are also transitory and somewhat serendipitous. Sometimes, for whatever reason, really good books fail to get noticed by the award committees. Maybe a certain book wasn’t even submitted for an award.

We need to celebrate those books, too. I blogged about this, too.

(Of course we can also celebrate award-winning books, too.)

Bottom line: we can use our power as writers who are also readers. It’s a lot of power.

Note: The contest rules will go live at 12:01 tonight. You’ll have 24 hours to enter your friend’s information.

Nook Kindle PDF Look for it in the iBook store.

Next week is the Random Acts of Publicity 2011 –JOIN us on the Facebook Event Page– and we have lots of prizes for participating. Remember:
It’s all about your Friend’s book (OR, your favorite book).

The week will focus on the basic tasks of publicity and ask you to do a daily Random Act of Publicity: Blog, link, Like, review, or talk about the book . (BLLuRT!)

17 FREE Book Marketing Consultations

In addition, three book marketing and publicity professionals have offered to giveaway a FREE marketing consultation.

September 6: Guest Susan Raab

Susan Raab of Raab Associates

September 7: Guests Barbara Fisch and Sarah Shealy

Barb & Sarah of Blue Slip Media

September 8: Guest Deborah Sloan

Create Buzz by Connecting with Readers by Deborah Sloan of Deborah Sloan & Company. www.deborahsloanandcompany.com
One-day chance for you to enter your Friend to win a one-hour book marketing consultation provided by Deborah Sloan & Company.

How to Enter the Giveaway Contests

• You may not enter your own name in any of these prize giveaways, you can only enter your friend’s name/book.
• To enter, you must put your Friend’s name in the Comments on the Guest Post on the given day. By posting a person’s name you acknowledge that you have asked their permission and the post is with their knowledge.
• Please note carefully WHERE to comment for each giveaway. They all require you to comment on the POST at Fiction Notes (www.darcypattison.com). Posting on the Facebook Event Page does not qualify.

Do you like listening to author and illustrator interviews? I do. They’re often interesting, with bits of wisdom and great writing advice woven throughout. That’s true with the interviews Susan Raab, book publicist and author of An Author’s Guide to Children’s Book Promotion, did at the Bologna Book Fair.

Susan Raab interviewed 16 people related to children’s literature. The interviews include children’s and YA author Kathleen Duey; YA author Susan Beth Pfeffer; YA author, book reviewer, and creator of YA Book Central Kimberly Pauley; children’s author and illustrator Marla Frazee; children’s illustrator Nancy Devard; some publishers; and more.

You can listen to the interviews online; they’re interesting.

Thanks to Kathleen Duey for the link.