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Hi Molly! Thank you for joining me today. Before we get into marketing, can you tell everyone a little about yourself and your imprint.

Hi Shelli! I'm an assistant editor at Katherine Tegen Books, an imprint of HarperCollins Children's Books. I've been in the industry for about 6.5 years. I spent the first 4.5 years working on the marketing side of children's books, so I appreciate that this blog focuses on helping authors decode a part of the industry that may not be as second-nature to them as writing. However, while my marketing background is immensely helpful in my current role, my goal was always to become an editor.

I joined Bowen Press as an assistant editor in 2007 and Katherine Tegen Books in 2009. Being a children's book editor is my dream job, and I can't think of another job that could possibly compare!

Can you tell me a little about Harper Collin's web sites? They seem to have a few.

HarperCollins has a website, which has separate, dedicated sections for parents, educators/librarians, and kids themselves.

HarperTeen also has a separate website, a MySpace page (including a blog where many of our authors contribute guest posts), Facebook and Twitter. As a company, we’re constantly looking at the digital and social media worlds for possibilities—we’d like to be ahead of the publishing curve in taking advantage of those opportunities, whenever possible.

From a personal perspective, I'm on Goodreads (although there I mostly watch to see what my friends and colleagues are reading), on Facebook (although I tend to spend far less time on there these days than I once did), and on Twitter, where I'm most active. I also have a new-ish blog. I had blogged as part of Bowen Press and I missed "thinking out loud" about the bookmaking process.

You've had a lot of experience on the publishing side. In your opinion, what are the top 3 things every author should and must do to promote their book?

1. I’m likely preaching to the choir here, because if you’re reading this, you’re someone who is already online, but I think that you must have a web presence!

In today’s world, the internet is the first place that people go to find out more about anything, and potential readers and book buyers are no exception. Kids will look online to find out more about you as a writer, to learn about your other books, to find out when you have new books coming out, or because they want to communicate with you.

Teachers, librarians, and booksellers will look online for extras like promotional materials and teaching guides, to learn more about you and your backlist, and, sometimes, because they want to invite you to do a school visit, library appearance, or to find out about your book tours or signings. If you don’t have a virtual home where these potential readers can locate you, they may move on to another author who is more accessible, and you’ll lose fans and sales without ever realizing it.

In my opinion, you shouldn’t limit your presence to Facebook/MySpace/ Twitter, or other sites where people are required to have a subscription to gain access to you—you should make it simple for anyone to find you if they’re trying to do so. And be sure that there’s a way for readers to contact you via your website. (It’s amazing the number of people who neglect to include this information!) And once you’ve established your web presence and are comfortable with navigating the Internet, be sure to include your website/blog/twitter handle in your email signature. Ask if it can be included in the bio on your book’s cover or back flap. If you’re printing promo materials, make sure you include the information prominently.

Your web presence doesn’t have to be an expensive website—you can start off with a free blog template that you customize—but the key is that it should be professional, both in appearance and content. Think of your online presence as your extended business card to the whole world! And depending on what’s possible for you, once you do have books coming out, you may decide it’s worth investing some money to make your online presence even more unique, professional, and attractive. Think about it—you’d probably consider buying a new outfit or getting your hair or nails done before an appearance at a bookstore or at a conference, and usually that’s for an audience of a few hundred people, if not even less. Your web presence, on the other hand, is how you’re appearing to potentially the whole world—so it’s worth investing time and energy to show yourself in the best light possible !

2. I also think that you must *understand* the tools you're using. Do you know why you’re blogging, or on Twitter, or on Facebook, or thinking about attending ALA or BEA? If you can’t articulate your reasons for doing so, you may be using your time counterproductively. In fact, I think this is one of the big confusions of today’s industry. There are more options than ever before for getting the word out about your book, but you have to know how to take advantage of them in ways that make sense for you. Sometimes authors read about a conference that sounds “like fun,” or like an opportunity that they think they need to take advantage of—but that isn’t necessarily the most appropriate venue to promote their book—for example, IRA is focused primarily on elementary reading teachers, so there’s not a lot of reason for YA authors to attend.

Here’s another great example: An author once confessed to me, “I don’t like blogging at all, I’m just doing it because it’s marketing.” Unfortunately, the internet is often a transparent place, and despite that author’s good intentions I think the “I’m-here-because-I-feel-like-I-have-to-be” attitude came through loud and clear on that particular blog, which never gained much of an audience. There are other kinds of marketing that you can be doing instead. You may need to experiment with different tools until you find the ones that are most useful to you.

There’s no denying that blogging (or fill in the blank with another kind of “hot” current marketing effort that “everyone” is doing) can be a very strong marketing tool. But blogging by itself does not instantly equal marketing. Beware that you’re not equating the two: marketing and keeping an online journal are not the same thing. In my mind, for it to really be marketing, you have to be targeting an audience—and reaching them with it.

3. And I think to be successful, writers should understand communication and relationships are the underlying root of every level of this entire business.

In many, many other industries, “relationship” is code for product placement. In our industry, “relationship” means actual, wonderful relationships—with readers, with booksellers, with teachers, with librarians, with grandparents, with kids, with families, with classes. Your publisher has relationships on your behalf. You establish relationships yourself. Both are important, and depend on one another. Note, though, that the word here isn’t just friendship. Friendships exist for the sake of the friendship itself; they don’t really require any outside goals, but business relationships usually do—and in the case of authors, that goal is book sales. And that has to be a goal, otherwise, you’re just being social and making friends and calling it marketing. I’m not saying a relationship without a sale is worthless, not at all. But every professional relationship should remind you of the potential for sales. Good sales are how you get the chance to do more, to have more relationships, to piggyback closer onto your publisher’s relationships. Focusing on book sales DOES NOT mean you have to be impersonal/sleazy. Many authors think, “I don’t care about my sales, I just want to talk to people who care about books and kids.” But in fact, being aware of sales and consciously working to make them grow means that your publisher will take you that much more seriously—which, in turn, will give you more opportunities to talk to people who care about books and kids!

It looks like you are pretty active in the social networking arena. How important do you think online networking is becoming in today's publishing industry?

It becomes more important by the week, I think! It will never be as important as good writing, as creating impressive art, as executing fantastic, original ideas. But focusing the growing power of social media on yourself and the product of your work—your books—can help brand and define you as a memorable author/illustrator, which will lead (hopefully!) to more book sales, which will then (hopefully) give you a strong sales track, which will (hopefully) make it easier for you publish more books.

Here’s the thing: most people, even those moderately interested in books and children’s book creators, won’t spend time every day/week/month looking at authors’ websites. BUT, the beauty of social networking is that most people WILL check their own profile (be it their @replies in Twitter, their feed in Facebook or Goodreads, their wall in MySpace) anywhere from numerous times a day to at least a few times a week. So if they’re following you, simply by posting (whether or not it has anything to do with your books), you’re reminding them that you exist, you’re reinforcing the connection that you’ve established, which is a small but significant step in building relationships.

Yep, it comes back around again to that relationship part! There are relationships you, as an author, can build, that are different than the ones a publisher can build for you. Some of the key relationships are those that you build on the local level—with your local booksellers, with local educators, with your local librarians, with local readers and young fans. And with social networking that personal, “local level” of relationships quickly extends beyond geography—the people you’ve become virtual friends with become “local,” too, in the sense that you can “see” them on a regular basis—and that’s yet another key to building strong relationships for yourself and your books.

Beware, though, and THINK before you post to your networking sites - blogs, Facebook, Twitter, etc. Your mother wants me to tell you that the rule of “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all” applies EVEN MORE to the Internet! In other words, the instantaneous nature of the online world makes it all-too-easy to blurt things out that are very hard to take back, whether they’re snark about those inside the industry, mean-spirited comments about other authors, or even racy asides that you wouldn’t actually say out loud in front of the young readers of your books. Social media is a tool and it can be used productively, but it can also be dangerous. Think of it like a sharp knife—you can cut beautiful slices of fruit with it, or you can slice your finger off if you’re not careful. Once you’ve put something out on the Internet, it’s nearly impossible to take it back—even if you take down the post later. In short—don’t become an industry cautionary tale!

Also, if you’re involved online before you’re published, as more and more writers are these days, there’s usually a shift that has to happen as you go from being an author whose online community has been mostly other unpublished authors to being a published author with a potential readership of fans. Always ask yourself who your audience is—if necessary, create an imaginary readership that lives in your head (made up of a few kids, a few teachers, other authors, a librarian, some indie booksellers, some editors and agents, your own editor and agent and, of course, your Mom) that you keep in mind anytime you post something, and ask yourself—“Will this offend any of them? Will I be boring them? Am I sharing things that are too personal that I wouldn’t tell these people if I met them in person? And in contrast, am I doing more than just constant, blatant self-promotion? Am I sharing enough of a sense of the person I am to keep readers engaged? Am I interacting enough with my readers, in comments and follow-up posts and replies, that I’m really building relationships?”

Technology and social media are becoming more and more active, rather than static. It’s a bit of a two-way street, where the more you use technology to communicate with others, the more aware people will become of you, too, even if you’re not actively campaigning for yourself. That’s a bit of what’s meant by “web presence”—you’re giving readers a chance to feel like they really know you because of interactions they’ve had with you.


We see alot of group marketing efforts. Do you feel it is beneficial for authors to team up and promote books as a group? If so, what is the best way to do it effectivelywhy?

It can be, definitely. But the truth is, you have to do so as much as a collective as you do as an individual!

The first few marketing collectives drew attention in some part just for existing, and having a new approach that involved harnessing the the-relatively new power of social media, but now there are so many such groups, with new ones cropping up constantly. So you need to ask some of the same questions as you would about marketing yourself as an individual—are we reaching beyond friends to target unknown, potential consumers and advocates? What makes our efforts stand out among all the others like us? What are we doing that’s unique and news/attention-worthy? What are we doing really well—what strengths do we have as a team and how can we maximize them? And, most importantly, how do we draw attention to our group and get the word out wide about the things we ARE doing?

One word of caution, too—in collectives, some authors are almost always going to have different opportunities than others (i.e., some get sent on tour, or get another book deal soon after their first, or their books hit the bestseller list, or get multiple starred reviews, etc., etc.), so you have to be someone who can fight off the insane jealousy those events might inspire and be genuinely supportive of them.

Since you have such a deep background in marketing, what other tips can you share?

I’ve got a handful of additional advice, mostly gleaned from talks I used give about marketing:

• Take the time before each book is published to sit down and make a marketing plan for yourself, separate from anything your publisher may be doing. Think about your limits and be realistic. It’s great to come up with wildly creative ideas, but sometimes carefully thought out simpler ideas can accomplish far more. Set goals for yourself, and make sure they are goals that you can accomplish, not something that you have little control over (like winning an award). Set specific goals, and give yourself benchmarks to measure if you’re meeting them. For example, don’t just have goal of “make brochures.” Make it be “make brochures and distribute at least 50 to local area teachers.” Instead of just “set up local book signings,” which may or may not be successful, add to it, set up book signings and attend 4 other events at your local bookstore, so you can see what works—and doesn’t work—for other authors, and so you become a familiar face. And make sure on every marketing plan, there are a couple things that are new—maybe even things that seem a little scary...whether that means cold-calling schools to offer school visits, or trying blogging, or speaking in public….Growth in your approach is important, and trying new things can open up possibilities you never even considered.

• Writers are creative people who usually have lots of creative friends and family members. Help one another where you can—if you're a former teacher, offer your services writing a reading group guide in exchange for the different expertise of another writer who can help you build a website or create a book trailer. And think about graphic design as you create materials—a little design sensibility goes a long way toward making things like postcards, bookmarks, business cards, and websites look really professional, even if they’re “homemade.” If you know that design isn't your strength, put an ad up on craigslist for a college-age graphic design student to help you create a professional "look" to your materials—the price should be right, as they'll be glad to have the pieces for their portfolio, and you'll see it pay off when schools, bookstores, etc give your materials a second look.

• Beware of putting all your efforts in one place, especially on the Internet. Reach out in different ways to different audiences. And beware of leaving control for all your marketing efforts in the hands of a third-party website that has no vested interest in your career or marketing efforts! If Facebook or MySpace or Blogger closed tomorrow without notice, would you loose valuable lists of marketing contacts, or email addresses, or content you’ve spent hours creating? Just like you back up your writing efforts, back up your marketing efforts, too!

• Remember that imitating another's success is not a guarantee of the same success for yourself—just like no one else can write your same book, you can’t expect your career to mimic anyone else’s. The possibilities for marketing and promoting yourself are endless, and you’re likely to get more attention for being the first person to explore a new form of promotion, rather than being the 100th person to imitate something that got a lot of attention at first, but that has quickly become the norm.

• And finally, when it comes to marketing and publicity efforts, it’s more about a collective whole than doing any one particular thing, be it a blog, website, school visit, social networking use, conference appearance, book signing, interview, etc. etc. Success rarely comes from one aspect alone; it’s the way things you do build upon one another, and on your publishers’ efforts, that come together can make a noticeable difference. And it takes time; success sometimes seems to happen overnight, but behind the scenes it's usually much more gradual than it appears. Finally (and this is where the editor in me speaks up!), don’t forget about your writing! Some of the best marketing you can do is keep creating books for the readers who have encountered and loved one of your books…or for the readers who might not have found your first book, but will fall in love with your next one, and circle back to find what else you’ve written. So don’t forget that your books are out there, building relationships and communicating with readers, too. There will be times to focus more on marketing, and times to focus more on writing, and both are truly important for your career.

As an assistance editor, do you ever google authors before taking them on to see if they already have a web presence or platform? If so, how does that influence you?

Of course! To me, this is research that makes sense in our modern world. If I'm thinking about trying a new restaurant, or looking for a hotel, I usually google for reviews. If I'm thinking about spending *far more* money on a book than I would a pair of shoes, and spending *far more* time working on that book and with that author than I would at the restaurant or hotel--why wouldn't I want to learn what I could first, to be sure we're a good fit?

Are there standard things publishers offer in contracts in terms of Marketing? What does the average author receive or is it different, depending on the book?

Contracts are written to define the rights to intellectual property--so the bulk of them don't address marketing, as it's not really the appropriate forum for that conversation. It's also not usually the right TIME to be talking about marketing. It's often hard to know at the time of a contract's signing what the best kind of marketing for that book will be--especially since the project may morph over time, and because the landscape of marketing can change dramatically in the 2-5 years the bookmaking process takes.

What marketing things do you expect an author to do on their own?

1. To learn what it means to be a professional in the industry, and to be sure that their online presence reflects that professionalism—while also reflecting the personality that makes them unique and exciting as a writer.

2. To have considered the many possible options available for marketing their books (and to consider whether there are untapped ways to do so, too!) and made careful decisions about which methods they’re going to use in support of their books.

3. To be trying new things—just like I don’t expect most writers to write the exact same book over and over (even if they’re series writers!), I don’t expect them to do the exact same things to try to support it. I always suggest that with each book, an author at least try a couple things that are new—maybe even things that seem a little scary...whether that means cold-calling schools to offer school visits, or trying blogging for the first time, or speaking in public….Growth in your approach to being an author is important, and trying new things can open up dynamic possibilities you might never have even known were possible.


So I have to ask. What are you looking for at Katherine Tegen Books? What are you interested in?

I’m not interested in books that are clearly derivative of other successes currently on the market—I like stories that surprise me by being fresh and new. I acquire everything from picture books through YA, but I’m especially looking for strong middle grade and teen books right now—a vivid voice and inventive storytelling are the thing I’m hoping for every time I open up a manuscript. I’m a sucker for a gripping high-concept idea and good writing to back it up, for a good romance (or in middle grade, for the stirrings of romance!), and for stories about connectivity and the choices that we make and the way they trickle down to affect others—and the person we ultimately become, too. Other sweet spots of mine: ballet/theatre/other artsy, backstage stories; a strong setting and a sense of place that shapes a story, and books that make me laugh, or cry, or even better— both!

Thank you for in depth sharing your insight with us!

Thanks Shelli!

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Note: Melissa may be stopping by so if you have any questions, now is the time to ask :)

Hi Melissa, thank you so much for visiting us today. Can you tell me a little about yourself?

Hi Shelli. Thanks for having me!

I am a literary agent at the Elizabeth Kaplan Agency in New York, which I joined in 2006. I’m doing a mixture of fiction (adult, YA and middle grade) and nonfiction. The first project I sold was a YA series by Suzanne Young called The Naughty List, which debuts in February 2010.

In fiction, I am looking for literary and commercial projects; I gravitate toward dark, edgy stories with brilliant prose and strong voice as well as quirky stories with a fresh sense of humor. I especially enjoy family sagas, multicultural stories and similarly emotional stories with dystopian themes. (I love Margaret Atwood, Graham Swift, Haruki Murakami, Barbara Kingsolver.)

In nonfiction, I'm looking for voice-driven narrative nonfiction, memoir, lifestyle, travel writing, pop culture, cookbooks and food writing. I graduated from Boston University and moved to New York, where I began working in magazine editorial. I benefit from the experience of working with several literary agencies: Waxman Literary Agency, Brick House Literary Agents, and Imprint Agency (now FinePrint).


Do you/your agency/your house have a website/blog? When did you start it and who manages it?

Not yet, but I'm working on a website and should have it up and running in a few weeks! It will be at www.elizabethkaplanlit.com Then you'll be able to see all the amazing projects we're working on. And yes, I’ll be managing it.


Great we can't wait to learn more about your agencies projects. We hear about Elizabeth Kaplan all the time, but do not know much other than its a great agency. In your opinion as your authors promote their books, what are the top 3 things every author should and must do ?

I think the first thing an author should do is accept the fact that the publisher may not do much to promote his/her book. This varies by project and by house, but it is the cold, hard reality of the times. You’ve really got to take things into your own hands and early. (Apparently getting to know one of the higher-ups at Target helps!

Don’t be upset if your publisher doesn’t want to send you on tour. They rarely do these days and it’s because they don’t generate enough sales, especially with new, unknown authors. I do think YA and MG still benefit from library and school visits or other children’s events.

It really helps for an author to have a great website that they update regularly; and even more importantly is for an author to be blogging regularly. That’s how you build an audience. And I’m not just talking about creating your own blog. Blogging on other related sites is a great way to expand your audience and get your name out there. The blogging and Tweeting really needs to start happening months (if not longer) before your book comes out. One of my YA authors has her own blog that she writes on almost daily; but she also writes for a bunch of other YA blogs. She’s really developed a community of other YA authors and readers – and when her ARCs came in, bloggers were clamoring to get their hands on them for blurbs, to review and blog about. She had created that interest and they were dying to read her book. That’s something I hadn’t quite experienced before. But it’s not the same thing to have your book come out and then start a web site for it and start a blog. There’s no built in audience there for when the book publishes.


Oh good. Now I have an excuse to keep blogging :) In addition to blogging, how important is social networking to an author's presence and promotion?

Well, again, our agency is really noticing that the books that are gaining web traction, are selling. Those are the only ones that are selling. We represent a number of YA authors and in this area it is critical to be on Facebook, Twitter, etc. because that is where the teens are! I think to power of social networking as a way to sell books and create an audience is only going keep increasing.


YAY! Another excuse to stay connected. It's hard to balance but sounds like it's worth it in the long run. When evaluating whether to take on an author or book, do you Google them to see if they have a web presence or current platform?

Yes! This is absolutely vital with all nonfiction proposals. It is becoming increasingly difficult to get a publisher on board when the author doesn't have a strong web presence and/or platform. Things like a great Twitter following are being considered platforms by some publishers, do don’t feel like you absolutely have to have a TV show or column in a national magazine.

I have also been asked whether the debut novelist I’m representing has a platform, which left me aghast. But I fear that’s going to be the case more often going forward. I will absolutely take on fiction that does not have a web presence, but having one does help your case.

With nonfiction, it’s often a deal-breaker.


In your experience, what things do Publishers offer in contracts in terms of Marketing? What does the average author receive or is it different, depending on the book?

Publishing contracts don’t really cover Marketing plans – therefore, they aren’t promising to do anything specifically. There is a somewhat standard marketing plan that includes sending galleys to magazines, bloggers and newspapers; scheduling interviews, readings and appearances at bookstores and libraries. All of this will be scheduled by your assigned publicist, who handles your “national media campaign.” (You’ll see that phrase pop up a few times.) There are newsletters and email flashes sent out to booksellers, librarians, bloggers, et cetera.

Ultimately, publishers want their books to sell, too! But too often certain books take precedent and others don’t get enough attention. That’s why the author has to do everything in his/her power to get the word out and also work with the publicist to capitalize on every opportunity.


Melissa, everyone wants to know. What are you looking for? What are you interested in?

Along with what I mentioned above, right now I’d love to see multicultural YA and middle grade – stories that open young readers’ lives to other cultures, or those in which he/she can relate. I think there are so many cultures underrepresented in children’s literature and it’s an area where there is room for new writers.


Great, I wish you the best of luck and thank you for stopping by!

Thanks Shelli!

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NOTE: Cynthea may be dropping
by so feel free to leave your
questions/comments for her.

Hi Cynthea, thanks for finding time to
join us today!

Before we get started, can you tell me a
little about yourself and your books
that all appear to be doing so well. :)

Hi Shelli. I'm the author of PARIS PAN TAKES THE DARE (Putnam, 2009)--a middle grade novel about a dare, a creepy shed, some very bad basketball, and a heart attack that was possibly caused by a chili dog.

My YA novel, THE GREAT CALL OF CHINA--a Students Across the Seven Seas novel (Speak, 2009) follows an adopted teen to China in search of answers to her past. It's also part travel, part romance, and all-over fun if it doesn't make you bawl at the end.

WRITING FOR CHILDREN AND TEENS: A CRASH COURSE (Pivotal, 2008) is my tell-all book--without the gossip!--for new writers who had just as many questions as I did when I started writing for kids and teens. I hope it answers all those questions and then some!


Looks like you have had a busy 2 years. To promote your book, do you have your own website or blog? If so, when did you start it and who manages it?

I do. I am almost embarrassed to say I have THREE websites and a blog, managed by me and my pet rabbit Snoop. Though he's been slacking a lot lately.

My author site, my writing site, and my Debut Author site (which supports the largest collaboration of debut authors in the US, and quite possibly the world!)

I also maintain a blog.

Phew! Now I realize why I'm so tired. :)


Boy, those alone must keep you busy. But you seem to find time to do marketing for yourself as well. In your opinion , what are the top 3 things every author should and must do to promote their book?

The best things I think an author can do (in no particular order) are:

1) If you're going to go online: have a website where people can find the following information:

a) Info about yourself
b) Info about your books
c) Info about visits, talks, or presentations (do you do them? how much does it cost, what can you do?)
d) How to contact you

2) Tell everyone you know about your book. It's so easy to forget to do that sometimes! Even if you're not a web-savvy person, let the people you personally know (family, friends, your dentist) know about it. Yes, even Dr. Smile who may give you nightmares, can be your biggest fan and supporter.

3) Write the next book! It is way too easy to get lost in PR activities. And it could make you crazier than you already are. We have to remember, FIRST AND FOREMOST, we are authors, not marketers. Our writing is what keeps us going! That said, if you can joyously market your book without feeling guilt, by all means, do it! But if marketing makes you sick and angry and annoyed, remember: no writer needed to know how to build a website in order to be a great author!

See? Isn't this just sooooo simple? Why do we stress ourselves out with all this stuff? There's just no need!

In your opinion, how important is social networking? Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, GoodReads.

First I think it is important. I am on Twitter and Facebook.

If we're talking about social marketing and its correlation to book sales, you will find examples where social marketing has let a not-so-big author sky-rocket to the top because a social network gave them visibility that they wouldn't have had otherwise. But there are right and wrong ways to do it! Most people online can see through sales pushes now, and social networking can actually be a negative if you don't use them correctly.

How important is it? Based on my answer to Question 3, you can tell I don't feel like every author HAS to do it. Can it make a difference? Sure! But it's still a question of ...

Do you want to do it?
And can you do it joyously?

Otherwise, you could be wasting your time.

Personally, I use social networks according to the purpose for which they were built--hanging out, getting to know people, connecting and reconnecting. Direct-selling on social networks can be kind of Ick. Though I have sold stuff before using Facebook and Twitter for my PARIS PAN launch called Take the Dare: Show You Care. I held an auction that raised money for a Title I school in my home state of Oklahoma. I was selling and selling hard. But I wasn't trying to sell PARIS PAN. (What?!) I was selling the school, auction prizes, etc--motivating people to put money down for a cause. Sure, fans could buy my book in support of the school. And the book got great exposure. But did I expect to sell thousands of copies? No. Not at all. So if you're thinking "what Cynthea did" is what *I* need to do to sell my books, think again. A book launch DESIGNED to sell books would have been a much better alternative.

But..."it's my party, and I can do what I want to ... do what I want to!" :)

In the end, the community raised around $15,000 for Tulakes Elementary in less than a month. Most of it through social networking. While I'm talking about it, I have to thank everyone who put up with all the noise during that time and supported the cause. (And btw, if you want to donate money or books straight to Tulakes, you still can. Find out how to double your money at http://www.cynthealiu.com/showyoucare. Don't be left out!) See? I still can't stop selling that school. I LOVE IT!

So this brings me to a big point about social networking.

Be genuine. Be you.

If you're putting a sales-hat on, and it's just not fitting your fat-writerly-head, don't wear it.You might as well go door-to-door and sell your book that way. The result is the same. Doors closed. No one answers. Who cares?

Finally, social networking is supposed to be fun, not work! If people buy your books as a side-effect of social networking, amen. If you set out to sell your books through social networking, more power to you! But I, for one, am perfectly happy with just reading and commenting about other people's stories when I can, posting fun pics of my Baby Liu, and sharing my writing joys and woes with others. And that's just another way you can socially network effectively!


Wow that was packed with a lot of great advice. You mentioned your auction, when you started marketing your books, did you have a formal marketing plan or is your marketing more random?

A formal marketing plan? Ha. I can barely find my planner, much less formulate a marketing plan. But I do have some idea about what I want to do and when. Like my book tour to Oklahoma this fall. Does everything I want to happen get all done? Absolutely not. There's just no end to the things that you can do to get your book out there.


What creative things have you done to promote a book?

People have told me that my book launches are some of the best launches they've ever seen. Wow! But that praise always takes me by surprise. I guess I haven't stopped to think about it until now. So here's what I'm thinking ...

If you do something creative, it becomes more memorable automatically.

Even though my first book launch (for THE GREAT CALL OF CHINA), wasn't "mind-blowingly" creative or anything, I did spend some moments thinking about how to make party-goers feel like they were REALLY at a party (but online). Then it became .. we have to have food, games, prizes, movies, etc. So I made a video that wasn't just any old book trailer, I served up some grub (recipes related to the book), got the game figured out, made sure everyone left with a party favor, and gave away free prizes. I guess, as a total package it WAS creative. And that's what made it stand out to people.

The Paris Pan launch party was like the new-and-improved version of my first launch party. While online auctioning isn't a new idea, the combination of the book launch, the auction, the new movie, the game, the contest, and everything else made it even more special to my fans and supporters. I was so happy I could show everyone a great time and do something truly meaningful to me in the process. And btw, if you'd like to go to one of my online parties, the after-party is still on at http://www.cynthealiu.com. You can see what happened: the auction bids, the passed-out people with lampshades on their heads, and even take home some prizes. Sweet!

I also put together an essay contest that tries to do more than just get kids to write about the book. In true Paris-Pan-style, I ask readers to "Take a Dare: Dare to be You." It's part writing-rigor, part social-experiment. Kids will dare themselves to change something about their behavior, and take their own Dare over the course of one week. Their dares should get themselves to act in ways that are more aligned with who they truly are. For example, a reader might say, "I should stop acting like washing dishes is worse than an oral cavity search. I am not a lazy person, I am a helpful one." Once the reader carries out the Dare, he or she then reflects upon it in an essay. Finalists will be published in a book of winning essays and the top winners will also get some serious cash. Now how can you beat that?

So if you have any kids, know any kids, who might benefit from this one (maybe YOU might benefit from it if you need some dish washing done :) ), definitely check out the essay contest. It's open to all students in the U.S. and Canada (including homeschoolers) in grades 3-7.


You obviously have a knack for marketing that not all authors have. Did you do this great of a job marketing yourself to agents/editors before you were published?

Before my books sold, I focused on writing, more so than getting noticed by agents/editors in any other way. It's easy to forget in this age of Internet-Everything, that YOUR WRITING is what matters most. You do hear about examples where writers have gotten stuff sold from having great blogs and so on; I think that's fabulous! But keep in mind you still have to be a great writer! It's not a matter of putting up just any old thing and then hoping it happens. There's a lot of hard work involved.

Also, the Internet is now inundated with blogs. That means it's becoming harder and harder to be noticed by editors and agents through your blog unless you're doing something truly unique, and doing it in a way that shows publishing people that you might actually have a really good book in you! So let's remember what editors and agents think about when trying to make that determination. I won't spell it out for you here. I want you to think hard about it ... Done? Now make sure you're "showing" that in your blog, if getting noticed by agents/editors is one of your objectives. And keep in mind, that even if if you are doing all the right things, don't bet on anything happening either. You'll just frustrate yourself.

Finally, I can't say enough about how wonderful it is to put yourself out there, online, and befriend other people in the community (not just agents and editors) BEFORE you're published. If you want to blog, have a website, or socially network now, but you're holding back because "I'm not published yet!", get that thought out of your head. You don't have to be published to have a wonderful place to hang out on the Internet. It could be one of the best marketing moves you'll ever make. Who wouldn't want a fan base already in place when your first book comes out? (And I'm not just talking about your mom and your English teacher! *Though we love them, too!*)

So go for it. I look forward to meeting you in cyberspace!

Thanks for the great tips today, Cynthea.

Thanks for having me, Shelli! Hope your readers enjoy the interview!

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Hi Sarwat! Thanks for joining us today. Can you tell me a little about yourself?

Oh, I’ve been writing serious for about five years and my book DEVIL’S KISS is out here in sunny Britain and will be out in even sunnier USA 1st September (this photo is the US cover) .

It’s about a fifteen year-old girl, Billi SanGreal. She’s a recruit into what remains of the Knights Templar, a secret society of demon killers. I love Gothic horror and medieval history, especially the Crusades period. Though set in modern London my stories are a mixture of all those things, basically monsters, religion and sword fights.

I found my agent, Sarah Davies at Greenhouse Literary, through entering a writing competition. It’s a fantastic way of avoiding the slush-pile scenario, so do look bear comps in mind if you’re keen to break in. Plus it gives you an idea if you’re ready or not since a lot of these comps will include honourable mentions and runners-up.



Do you/your agency/your house have a website/blog? When did you start
it and who manages it?

I manage my own website, sort of. I also have a blog in there that I started as a bit of fun a year ago, but have recently really gotten into it. It’s mainly me rambling on about writing and getting stopped at airports. My UK publisher has also set up a website for Devil's Kiss.




In your opinion , what are the top 3 things every author should and
must do to promote their book?

1) Okay, if you’re a kids’ author you really should visit schools. It’s not just good publicity but I think it helps remind you of what you’re doing. However much you think you remember your childhood, you don’t (especially if you’re my age).

2) Tours are something publishers organise and may seem a bit overwhelming, but just do your best to enjoy them, rather than dread them. They really aren’t that bad and audiences are humans too.

3) Websites go without saying, not sure about blogs. I can understand how they might end up being a chore. No-one forcing you into this job, so do make sure you remember to have fun. Even if you don’t become a blockbuster, being a writer is about loving what you do.

 

 







Did you think about marketing before your book was published? Did you
start prior to getting an agent or selling your book? If so, when and what
did you do?

There was never a formal marketing strategy because I think we were all caught a bit by surprise when the book went to auction the way it did. Therefore, I’ve spent the last year desperately playing catch up. I’m having to find out about the publishing industry very quickly.

Meanwhile I’m concentrating on writing, which should always be the priority, don’t you think?
However, marketing is hugely important and there are some writers out there that have built awesome fan-bases over the Internet. Maybe it’s a generational thing but I’m a bit old fashioned about this. I really enjoy the school visits side of things so will probably build my marketing around those and the school visits are really best once the book is out.

 

 






What other advice do you have for authors/writers regarding marketing?


Mold the marketing to suit you, rather than try and copy someone else’s strategy. If your strength is face to face and mixing it up with an audience, do that. If you’re a great blogger and write entertaining blogs and die at the idea of standing in front of a crowd, focus on the Internet stuff instead.

But remember, you can be taught. If you want to do audience work, so go on a public speaking course. Or learn website design. Play to your strengths. That’s the best way to enjoy marketing, which otherwise can feel a bit like a chore.


Do you have a formal marketing plan or is your marketing more random?
If not, why? Would you like to?


My marketing’s pretty random right now because I’m trying a few different things and haven’t quite decided what works best for me. This’ll carry on for a bit longer then in the fall I intend to be a bit more organised. I recently did my first writing workshop and that was fun. It was centred around why The Devil Wears Prada is the same plot as The Godfather. It’s all smart suits and power. Now I know I can make that work and enjoy doing it, I’ll do a few more.






What creative things have you done to promote a book?


I love role-playing so wanted to get the audience to participate whenever I do an event. I’ve got a few props so we get a few kids up to act out a scene they themselves make up. It’s usually pretty gruesome, but very funny. It keeps you on your toes too since you never know what they’re going to come up with and somehow you’ve got to help them turn it into a semi-coherent scene.




How did you market yourself to agents/editors before you were published?


I didn’t. Let’s not forget this is about the book. The book must stand alone. My background is in construction, so I knew nobody in publishing at all. I only joined writers groups AFTER I had an agent and book deal. I think people might believe that there’s some secret trick to getting published. There isn’t. Learn how to write. Write a great story. Agents and publishers are DESPERATE to find great new novels. Be charming, funny, approachable and clever all you want at agent parties and signings and publisher events. It’ll all help BUT only once you have a great book to sell.

I believe the marketing will be built around that. Not the other way around.



Thank you for joining us today!

Thanks Shelli.

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Hi Joanna, thanks for agreeing to share your marketing tips with us. Before we get started, tell me a little about yourself.

Well, I'm the first literary agent that Nancy Coffey Literary & Media Representation has ever taken on board, and I couldn't be happier. Working with an industry veteran like Nancy has been invaluable to me--she's a fantastic mentor. Prior to working with Nancy Coffey, I was a literary assistant/junior agent at FinePrint Literary Management, where I also
sold audio rights. My taste varies, as you can see by my first two sales listed on Publisher's Marketplace--The Town that Food Saved by Ben Hewitt (Rodale, winter 2010)--narrative non-fiction) and The Ghostwater series by Lee Nichols (Bloomsbury, May 2010--YA paranormal). I'm always on the lookout for something new, and if the writing is strong, it doesn't matter what it's about!

In your opinion , what are the top 3 things every author should and must do to promote their book?

1--Definitely create a website.

2--If they haven't already, join a writing community (SCBWI, RWA, etc)--the writing community is one of the most supportive I've seen in any industry and your fellow writers not only make wonderful critique partners, but they have great publicity and self-marketing advice.

3--Reach your audience personally. I'm not more specific here because honestly, it depends on the book. For YA, a blog with contests and maybe even a blog tour is a strong marketing device. For a socio-economic non-fiction, it may be best to give lectures at colleges and business conventions. Either way, you need to reach that audience!


How important is technology to an author’s marketing plan?

These days, very important. Even that socio-economic narrative non-fiction writer wants a website and to set up a few interviews online. I know one author who gives lectures by webcam
when he can't be present himself, there are e-books, e-anthologies where authors publish short stories about the characters in their upcoming books, etc--there are some fantastic options for writers these days!


What other advice do you have for authors/writers regarding marketing?

Take a very active role in the marketing of your book. There are still writers and authors
out there who expect everything to be done for them. With the publicists at the publishing houses spread so thin, this is unrealistic and will only hurt the sale of your book. You need to be a team player, and in fact, the star of the game. Send some copies out to local papers/magazines for reviews in your area. If you've published a children's book, visit some schools. If you've written women's fiction, look out for local women's organizations that you may be able to appeal to. Go on a blog tour, link up with some other author's for book signing events, attend conferences. If you won't be the biggest champion for you book, who will?


When evaluating whether to take on an author or book, do you ever google them to see if they already have a web presence or platform?

Always.


What things do Publishers offer in contracts in terms of Marketing? What does the average author receive or is it different, depending on the book?

Publishers don't actually offer anything in contracts in terms of marketing. The publishing
house's marketing plan is completely separate and varies from book to book. Each house
has a general marketing plan that they do for all of their titles, but if it is something they really want to push, they'll write up a specialized marketing plan for that specific title.
I would say that the average author receives placement in the company's catalog, and the book
is sent out for review to the usual line up (Publisher's Weekly, Romantic Times, etc). That's it. Scary, huh? This is why it is so important to champion your own book!


What are you looking for? What are you interested in?

Well, I represent a lot of children's books, from picture books to YA (non-fic to fic), covering every sub-genre there. As far as the adult market goes, I am looking for historical fiction, women's fiction, urban fantasy, paranormal romance, romantic suspense, dark drama, horror, some narrative non-fiction (although I'm very picky about this--I know what I like when I see it. Topics would be: food, environment, pop culture) I am NOT looking for: mysteries, poetry, screenplays, short stories, anymore picture books, corporate/legal thrillers, academic non-fiction, memoirs.

And if I didn't mention the genre that you write, it can't hurt to query me!

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Hi Mary Kate. Thank you for joining us today.

Before we get started, tell me a little about yourself.

I’m an associate editor at Walker Books for Young Readers. I worked as an assistant to a literary agent for a year before joining Walker & Company, where I started as an editorial assistant. Being on both sides of the process has really been helpful when considering manuscripts and making deals.


In your opinion, how important is social networking?

Social networking can be a really great tool for reaching readers directly. Teens and tweens are constantly online and being able to access authors’ information is a great way for authors and readers to interact, but also distanced enough that both parties feel comfortable.

How important is technology to an author's marketing plan?

I’d say that the importance of a web presence is certainly growing, but it’s important that authors be comfortable in how they extend themselves online. Blogs are great because fans can get a slice of life for their favorite author, but it’s important to keep your audience in mind. If you’ve written a young adult novel do you think teens will be reading your blog? Or if you have a picture book or middle-grade novel, do you think it will be mostly educators and/or parents checking in?

Once published, it’s important to keep in mind that you might have to start tailoring the material on your blog to reach that audience. Blogging isn’t for everyone, however, and so I don’t think it’s an essential tool. At the very least a web site with updates about your books is the best place to start and then it’s good to think about how you can extend that reading experience for your fans. I’ve seen authors include elements like playlists that their characters would listen to, quizzes to see which characters readers are most like, and features that give the back story about writing the book. It should be fun for both the author and the reader!

Do you feel it is beneficial for authors to team up and promote books as a group?

Teaming up can be really helpful for authors because they feel like they are a part of a supportive and enthusiastic group. Beyond the kind of marketing push that a publisher can give a book, the most beneficial aspect of this is being able to cross-pollinate audiences between one author and another. If readers like one author and his or her work, they usually take further reading suggestions to heart and this is a great way to lead readers from one book to another.

When evaluating whether to take on an author or book, do you ever google them to see if they already have a web presence or platform?

I usually do check first to see if an author has a web site just to see how far along they are in the process. It’s not essential that a writer has a web site at the time of acquisition, but it’s always a bonus to be able to say that an author has already created a web site—especially because it’s a tool we’d want them to have at their disposal in the future. Knowing that the url is reserved and that at least the bare bones of a web site are set up means that when it comes time for the book to publish there will already be an option for a stepped up web presence.

A really good example of this is Walker’s author Simone Elkeles. When we acquired her novel, Perfect Chemistry, she already had a great web site for her previous titles. Then she created an excellent book trailer that got a lot of attention and drove the sales of her book. It was a great combination of online elements that really came together to spread the word about her book.

What things do Publishers offer in contracts in terms of Marketing? What does the average author receive or is it different, depending on the book?

Just as books differ from each other, no two books have the same marketing plan. What is most important to us is not how much marketing we put behind a book, but how specifically we target the areas where we know a book will have success. This means figuring out how best to reach the market for a book. Since resources are limited publishers pay close attention to making the best use out of allotted resources in very focused ways.

For example, is a book one that we know will have direct to teen appeal? Then perhaps a Facebook ad or a blog tour would do well by that title. Or is it one that is best served by appealing to the gatekeepers (teachers, librarians, parents). Perhaps then we’d focus efforts on getting the word out at educational conferences. Our marketing department tries to be as creative as possible, and is always thinking of new ways to try to make the potential audience as broad as possible.

What are you looking for? What are you interested in?

I acquire books for all age levels, and especially likes quirky, kooky picture books that celebrate personality, and middle-grade fiction with a light-hearted, honest approach like my current middle-grade project The Brilliant Fall of Gianna Z. I am also looking to find new YA voices for the Walker list, especially ones that have a more literary feel, but I also like issue-driven stories, such as my upcoming project Dirty Little Secrets, a story that explores the effects of compulsive hoarding on a family. My acquisitions wish list also includes historical fiction with a strong hook, coming of age stories handled with humor, and explorations of spiritual or cultural identity.

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Hi Jon, Thanks for joining us today.

Before we get into marketing, can you tell me a little about yourself?

I'm Jon Bard, Managing Editor, Children's Book Insider, the Newsletter for Children's Writers and Fightin' Bookworm in Chief at The CBI Clubhouse -- The Essential Children's Writing Resource.

My wife (Laura Backes) and I have been publishing Children's Book Insider since May, 1990. Our audience is aspiring and working children's book authors. We've also produced numerous books, ebooks, DVDs and such, all about the art (and science) of writing children's books and getting them published.

Do you have a website/blog? When did you start it and who manages it?

We've been online with Write4Kids.com since 1995. But our new project is also our most exciting -- we've created a full members-only site for our readers called The CBI Clubhouse. It's packed with audio, videos, articles, ebooks, messaging and much more. It's really a full-fledged online community all about writing children's books! The response has been astounding -- there's nothing else quite like it on the Net. I invite your readers to come by and check it out. I think they're going to be amazed at what they find.

In your opinion , what are the top 3 things every author should and must do to promote their book?

1. Learn about marketing. In particular, learn how to craft a compelling marketing message that will resonate. Some of my favorite marketing writers are Dan Kennedy, Joe Vitale and Joseph Sugarman. PublicityInsider.com is a good site to learn about PR. Also, visit the Warrior Forum to learn how marketers think. They're a very helpful group and are usually happy to help newbies get started.

2. Don't be shy about promoting yourself. Get out there, via Twitter, Facebook, your blog, other people's blogs -- whatever it takes. And do all of this with a consistent marketing message in mind. One of my favorite marketing concepts is "the elevator pitch". If you have 20 seconds in an elevator to convince a fellow passenger to buy your book, what would you say? When you've got that down, you're ahead of the game.

3. Team up with other writers. Group blogs (like classof2k9.com) are a great way for authors to expand their reach and seem "bigger" than they are individually. Find some other writers who work in the same or a similar genre, or some writers who cover the same sort of topic and put together a group blog. Twitter together. Hold a teleseminar together about your topic, and so on.

In your opinion, how important is social networking?

They're great if used properly. They're ineffective if it ends up being all about what you watched on TV or what you're eating at the moment. Get out there and give useful information, provide quality links and build alliances, and social media will pay off for you.

How important is technology to an author’s marketing plan?

I don't even think of the Net as technology any more. It's just the place to connect with the world. I do like using audio and video, and they're now so easy to do. Combine a presentation software like Powerpoint with a screen recorder like Camtasia and you can create really compelling video in no time at all. Here's an example of the sort of video I'm creating on a weekly basis. It's called "A Crash Course in Submitting a Children's Book Manuscript to a Publisher".

What other advice do you have for authors/writers regarding marketing?

You've worked hard on your book, so you should feel no reservations about asking people to buy it. Too many writers feel uncomfortable with the idea of marketing and (gasp!) actually making a few bucks. Really, you're not selling out by doing a little promotion. Trust me, your favorite sainted children's book authors never turned down a royalty check, so why should you feel strange about hustling a bit to find success?

What are some offbeat things that authors can do to promote their books?

1. Give your book's characters their own online presence. Have them Twitter, create an online diary, let them make videos or audios. Have them do the sort of off-the-wall things that you never would. Create a buzz for your characters and readers will naturally want to read the book to find out more about them.

2. Target niches that might have an affinity for your book. Let's say one of your main characters is a cheerleader. Go to the top online cheerleading sites, blogs & e-zines and offer to do interviews about your book. Again, use an elevator pitch, but this time, more targeted to the niche you're addressing (e.g. "My book deals with a boy cheerleader who overcomes taunting from the school jocks to make it to the state championship")

3. Use your online "real estate" to sell your book. Put up some sample chapters and link to them in your e-mail signature file, in your signature files used on message boards, in your Tweets and anywhere else you show up. Post comments on blogs that relate to your subject and be sure to include the link, and so on. Just be out there -- and always include a way for folks to find your book.

Thank you for joining us today!

Thanks Shelli.

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Hi Tracy! Thanks for joining us today. Can you tell me a little about yourself?

I am a Literary Assistant at Curtis Brown Ltd., a full service literary agency that has had the pleasure of representing adult and children's literature for nearly 100 years. We have a foreign rights and film department, and have just launched our new website. I also have my own personal blog.

Before joining Curtis Brown, I worked as a newspaper correspondent and a freelance children's book reviewer. I graduated Binghamton University with a BA in English, concentration in Rhetoric.

In your opinion , what are the top 3 things every author should and must do to promote their book?

The top 3 things every author should do to promote their book:

1.) Start early.

Buy your name as your domain now. Maybe you don't need to set up your website yet, but squat on your space and pay attention to renewals. Once you've sold the book, you'll most likely have a year or two before your book hits the shelves. Start social networking now so that you have friends in the kidlit social community that will be happy to hear and blog about your book release. (Likewise, this is a friendship like any other, so respect your fellow bloggers by blogging about their book releases and linking to posts that you think other writers would find informative.)

2.) Encourage creativity.

Experiment with ways to create a movement around your book by offering your readers not only information about you and/or your book, but also different ways of interacting with you than they might interact with another writer. Try different platforms to see which are the most appropriate ways for you and your readers to talk. Try videos, contests, "open mic" Q&A's -- anything that might give the reader more information about your book without just giving them a sales pitch. Experiment without worrying about how many people might catch on, and remember that there will always be more people reading than participating (partially, I think, b/c of the ease of Google Reader.)

So, forgiving the fact that marketing isn't a large part of my role at the agency, and speaking more on a "what I'd love to see authors do" level, let's imagine that I wrote a funny memoir about needle pointing while traveling the world on the circus train. (On the off-chance anyone really did, I would love to read a copy!)

First and foremost, I would ask myself if this project would translate better online as a blog or as my own social network. In this case, I would consider A.) if there are any major needle pointing social networks already in existence, B.) if I felt that my audience would be interested in posting videos and pictures of their own needlepoint projects or if they would prefer just to comment on what I blogged about, and C.) if my target demographic was likely to be comfortable with one platform over the other. Because crafters would probably enjoy the ability to learn new techniques from others in a niche community, I would personally choose to create a social network over a straight blog.

Once I set up the network and traffic started to grow, I would invite my readers to tell their funniest circus stories, post a series of how-to needlepoint videos, keep my readers up-to-date on my latest needle pointing projects by posting pictures, encourage people to post pictures of their needlepoint projects by commenting on those that do, give away needle pointed bookmarks that I'd made as prizes, post sample chapters of the memoir, invite readers to write a circus story with me by writing a line, or perhaps invite them to create illustrations to a circus story I'd posted, etc. In addition to reaching out to my readers, I would reach out to other blogging needle pointers and invite them to guest blog. Perhaps I'd set up a needlepoint rivalry, challenging a fellow needle pointer to a cross stitching duel. (Post videos of your fastest 100 stitches? Or challenge each other to create the best original image without using a grid to pre-plan the design?) [If you're not a needle pointer, I'm sure the idea of watching people stitch 100 x's as fast as possible sounds about as much fun as giving yourself a frontal lobotomy with a spoon. It's tempting to be as general as possible in hopes to attract the biggest audience. But remember, the goal is not to have every person on the planet on your network. Instead, we're trying to create a tight-knit community of needle pointers, because they are the ones that would (possibly) be interested in a needlepoint circus memoir.]

Then I would experiment with how my Twitter feed and Myspace and/or Facebook page could integrate what was happening on the needlepoint social network without turning into a list of links. Maybe invite your Facebook followers to be the judge of the best needlepoint project that was posted on the social networking site by creating a Facebook page or group for it. Schedule a time to have a question and answer session with your most advanced needle pointer on your network via Twitter, and invite your readers (who have, at this point, essentially become co-creators on your site) to listen to the conversation and then ask questions.

If I had a major prize to give away (b/c needle pointing is so time intensive), I would ask my readers to needlepoint a favorite scene from the needlepoint/circus memoir. The scene where you discover the bearded lady isn't a lady, or perhaps the story about the tightrope walker who fell during a practice session into an elephant pile because they accidentally used your embroidery floss instead of the tightrope.

Likewise, I would experiment offline. Perhaps at book readings I would ask people to come prepared with their own needle and floss. I'd pass out 1 by 3 inch pieces of canvas and at the end of the reading, we'd race to see who can embroider their piece the fastest. Winner gets a prize and everybody else goes home with a physical reminder of the event, even if they chose not to buy a book. Or maybe I'd try to find an artist that makes beautiful needlepoint art, and see if we could have a collaborative reading and gallery exhibition.

The most important thing to remember, I think, is that if people love your content and if you are genuine in your interactions, then they're going to want to participate in the making of similar content. So experiment yourself, and encourage other people to experiment with you.

3.) Be gracious.

Networking online is the same as networking in person, so whether you're online or offline, it's important to be a gracious host and an appreciative guest. Thank people for re-tweeting, or for posting a link to your blog. It's important to remember that people online are still peope, so take care when you comment and post.

In your opinion, how important is social networking? Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, GoodReads etc.

My main area of interest is children's literature, and so I can not stress enough how important it is as a children's writer to talk to your audience on the platforms that they are most comfortable with. I think this helps not only on a marketing standpoint, but also I think it improves your writing and keeps it more real. As we get older, our perspective on middle school, high school and college changes, so why not talk to the very same people you're writing for and ask them -- what are you worried about today? What is the best thing that's happened to you today? I think the answers will be inspiring, and will help keep authors in touch with how they were felt at that point in their lives.

How important is technology to an author's marketing plan?

Technology is important because it enables its users to access the type of information they want at an ever-increasing pace. What that means for an author is that their fan-base can decide how much or how little they want to know about an author and their books.

Sometimes I think authors are resistant to blog or tweet, or chat on Facebook because they worry that people don't really care what they're working on or what their flight to Denver was like on the way to their book signing.

But that's not something an author should worry about, because the people that follow them are doing so by choice. Your readers want to hear from you!


When evaluating whether to take on an author or book, do you ever Google them to see if they already have a web presence or platform?

We often Google perspective clients. We're always pleased to see a professional looking website, but we are also looking to make sure the author isn't a fugitive!

Can you give us an idea of what things Publishers may offer in contracts in terms of Marketing? What does the average author receive or is it different, depending on the book?

Contracts vary depending on the author and publisher. It's been my experience that debut and mid-list authors will rarely see any sort of marketing commitment in terms of dollars spent in their contracts. (One exception to this is Vanguard Publishing, whose business model is to offer a certain amount to be spent in marketing dollars instead of an advance.)

Unfortunately, most publishers have one small marketing and publicity team that handles all of the imprint's and/or publisher's books. It's impossible to buy a full page ad in the School Library Journal for every book, or to send every book to the New York Times Book Review.

So be nice to your publisher's publicist! You want them to want to help you.

Thank you Tracy for your time and advice!

Thank you Shelli.

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Hi Jim thank for joining us today. before we get into your marketing brilliance, can you tell me a little about yourself.

Well first off, thanks for contacting me about the interview! I'm honored.

I'm a freelance illustrator who at one time wanted nothing more than to work as a penciler in the comic book industry. That was one of the primary motivating factors that brought me to art school. Some years later now, I have no regrets with the path I took since all of that focus on drawing really gave me a strong foundation for any and all of the art I do. Plus, as a bonus, I met my wife, author and designer Laini Taylor, there during my second year at CCA.

While I did end up dabbling in comic books for a couple of years, I started getting more and more interested in the book-publishing side of illustration and have had the good fortune to collaborate with my wife and her publishers on three books now. I did the covers and interior illustrations for her DREAMDARK series with Putnam (BLACKBRINGER, which just came out in paperback, and the September '09 sequel SILKSINGER). We also collaborated on the upcoming (October '09) illustrated teen book LIPS TOUCH being published by Arthur A. Levine Books (one of six "YA Buzz Books" featured at BEA this year!).

This past year I've also had the privilege of working with Simon & Schuster and Scholastic Press on some fun cover work and unique illustrated educational projects respectively. It's been unbelievably fun.

Do you have a website/blog? When did you start it and who manages it?

I have both. My newly (slightly) updated website and my sporadically-attended-to blog.

The former was first designed and active sometime around 2002, and the blog started in the fall of 2005. I manage both of them myself. I'll be doing a larger update of the website in a few months, but since a fair amount of the work I've done recently is being kept under wraps until the books containing that work come out, I'll have to wait to do a more complete update.

As for my blog, I tend to be pretty good about semi-regular updates when I'm only a little busy, but terrible about updates when I'm realllllllly busy and stressed. I would make some sort of powerfully assertive declaration that "Starting NOW I hereby declare that I'll be doing more regular updates regardless of how busy I am!!" But since we're expecting our aforementioned
first baby (a little girl!) to arrive in a couple of months, I imagine that she will have (an adorable!) time-suck effect on any blogger decrees I might make for a bit. I'll be honest and say that I'll do my best to be more frequent with updates though.

In your opinion , what are the top 3 things every illustrator should and must do to promote their book?

Well, a web site and blog are pretty much expected when promoting yourself. They're almost "gimmes," but since having a web presence is absolutely necessary and has worked in unexpected ways in securing me art jobs, I'll definitely put these two as #1. Between being able to be found through other people's sites mentioning your work OR through Google searches if you take care in titling your blog posts, a presence online is essential.

At #2, I would absolutely say that attending industry conferences and conventions is crucial and quite possibly what I've found to be the most effective in a variety of ways. From getting inspiration from faculty presenters at organizations like the SCBWI (Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators), to making friends with peers for critique groups, these sorts of gatherings are incredible. Plus whether it's Comic Con, International, SCBWI, or ALA, getting to meet Editors, Art Directors and Art Buyers, Agents, and Publishers face-to-face can have fantastic results.

However, unless you've somehow made a pre-arranged time to review artwork or a manuscript, don't expect to get your work looked at and evaluated at these functions by your dream Editor/Art Director/Agent/Publisher. Instead, introduce yourself, make a good impression if you can (i.e.- no biting, kicks to the neck, or strange unprovoked hugging) and quickly follow up the conference with an e-mail or snail mail sending links to your website or samples.

#3 would be mailing those printed samples and e-mail links to your site.

In your opinion, how important is social networking?

I certainly think it's important to take advantage of those technologies to make and nurture new and existing friendships in any way that can help, but there has to be a balance heavily-weighted toward actual productivity vs. networking or else you'll end up with a bunch of great friends and acquaintances but nothing cool accomplished to show them other than increased typing speed or the ability to regularly think of something clever to update your online status about. I suppose it's like TV or some such, it's all OK in moderation & can be a distraction sometimes if you're not careful. You know what I mean, right? Entry example: "Saturday, 2:02 p.m. Just made a sandwich. Put too much mayo on it. Drat." Followed by: "Saturday, 2:13 p.m. Just ate the sandwich. Not so bad after all." All the while you could have been painting.

How important is technology to an illustrator's marketing plan?

Wow, despite my previous answer, I don't know what I'd do without technology! Since you're specifically talking about marketing, I'd have to say that it's of the utmost importance, or at least for me it is. Whether it's designing promotional postcards with Photoshop that I'll then upload to a web-printing site, or sending out e-mails to people I've met at conferences (or "met" online) with links to my web site and blog, technology touches it all. And that's not taking into consideration that even when I do artwork traditionally (i.e. watercolors, inks, oils, etc.), I'm usually going to do at least a small amount of refining and futzing in Photoshop.

Did you think about marketing before your work was published? Did you start getting the word out prior to getting an agent or publishing you work? If so, when and what did you do?

I definitely did, but I certainly didn't really know what I was doing for a while. Laini and I have joked that putting promotional mailings "out there" sometimes feels like tossing them into a void, especially if you don't hear ANYthing back from them. Ever. Which happened to me a couple of times. However, one of my first jobs came from sending a packet of art prints to a Submissions Art Director at the role playing game company White Wolf Publishing a packet of art prints, and while she didn't hire me, another A.D. that was in her office one day saw them sitting there (I assume NOT in the trash) and called me. I've since ended up doing illustrations for over 25 of their books and manuals, plus a fair amount of trading/gaming cards.

Getting that first opportunity from the right mailing to the right person (or their office-mate!) can pay for itself and keep paying YOU for years to come. Plus, you never know when the work you do for a particular job might lead to work somewhere else. It's all about building relationships AND your portfolio.

What other advice do you have for illustrators regarding marketing and getting their name/work out?

Hmmm. Well, this is a tough one. I'm a big believer in the "Never give up on your dreams and goals!" sort of philosophy, but this can have some major caveats. For instance, if you're not succeeding with your current style, maybe consider something drastically different with your technique or materials. Or if you're getting a lot of feedback that seems to be suggesting that the foundation of your skills is lacking, you don't have to quit necessarily. There is always Art School, or even great art classes at the J.C. level. Also, speaking of technology earlier, there are a TON of tutorials online (many for free) that walk you through traditional and digital art techniques.

Once your skills are on their way, I feel that much of success has to do with persistence coupled with recognizing -- and working on -- what your work might be lacking. The "natural talent" of an unmotivated artist can be surpassed by a somewhat less-talented artist who's very driven (and meets deadlines).

What creative things have you done to promote a book?

Definitely the most creative thing I've done (so far!) to promote a book was for the graphic novel that Laini and I did for Image Comics entitled THE DROWNED (July 2004). We printed up in-progress copies of the book (all of it fully drawn and lettered, but the painting was at various early stages) and mailed them out to online comic book reviewers in nice white boxes. Each manuscript inside was tied with a red ribbon that had a rusted metal key in the knot and a black feather tucked under it (all elements from the story). We then printed up nice custom address labels using artwork from the book. While sales of the book didn't break any records (or even close), we managed to get about 20 or 30 very positive reviews. But in the process of it all we learned a lot and gained some friends (and fans) and had a lot of fun.

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Hi Alan! Thanks for joining us today.
Before we get into marketing, can you tell me a little about yourself.

My first published novel, Samurai Shortstop was an ALA Top Ten Book for Young Readers the year it came out. I followed that up with two contemporary YA murder mysteries based on Shakespeare plays: Something Rotten (based on Hamlet) and Something Wicked (based on Macbeth). My latest book--which just came out March 5th!--is a middle-grade novel called The Brooklyn Nine, and is the story of nine "innings," nine generations, of an American family and their connections to baseball from the 1840s to the present.

Do you/your agency/your house have a website/blog?

I have both a web site and a blog. My web site (features more information about me and my
work. My blog is called "Gratz Industries," and I share it with my wife, Wendi. On the blog, we
generally post about our attempts at living creative, productive lives. I designed and manage my own web site, and my wife and I both write, edit, and design the blog.

I've had the web site longer than I've been a published author. It began it as a way to feature the manuscripts I was trying to sell. I doubt it was very successful in that regard. I was under no delusions that editors were going to *chance* upon my web site and e-mail me with six-figure offers (or six thousand dollar offers, for that matter) but I saw it as a step toward presenting myself professionally. What I hoped was that if an editor got a manuscript of mine across her desk and decided to Google me, she would find a well-designed, informative site that would give her an idea of what to expect from me if she bought my book.

The last book I promoted on my site this way was Samurai Shortstop, which became my first sale. After I sold Samurai, I immediately transitioned the site from one that discussed many projects to one that focused on my forthcoming work. I really went to town on that site--this was my first book!--with elaborate web buttons made out of mon, Japanese family crests, and features like pictures of the actual school I had written about, and a recipe for miso soup. Once I began selling other books, of course, I had to decide: a separate web site fr every book, or one that featured them all? One that featured them all was the way to go, of course, so the Samurai Shortstop site was subsumed into the larger one and I just made the pages from the previous site part of the Samurai portal.

That transition was time-consuming, and forced a complete overhaul of the site. If I had it to do all over again, I wish I would have planned for selling more books from the outset, and designed an initial site that could be easily augmented as new books were added. I have that now, but it could have saved myself a lot of nights at the computer if I had made the original site focus on me, not a single book.

In your opinion , what are the top 3 things every author should and must do to promote their book?

Whew. That's tough. The top three things? I think maybe the way I'll answer this is to break it down into three main groups you have to appeal to for your book to be successful. As a children's author, teachers and librarians are a tremendously important group of people to know, and cultivating those connections is vital. You can do that by attending conferences like IRA and ALA, and by visiting individual schools.

I've also done direct postcard mailings to YA librarians in public libraries across the country. It's hard to know how much that helped, but it certainly couldn't have hurt anything except my wallet--and it wasn't really that expensive.

Next up are the booksellers. One motivated, enthusiastic bookseller can "handsell" the Dickens out of your book--that is, talk it up and put it in the hands of likely readers. To get to know booksellers, regional trade shows like SIBA (Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance) and
national trade shows like BEA are great ways to meet many people at once, but getting there can be costly if your publisher doesn't bring you--and they bring only the biggest authors. A more tedious and time consuming process--though perhaps even more effective than the trade
shows--is simply *visiting* as many bookstores as you can and introducing yourself to their children's buyer or manager. I'm mainly talking about the independents, of course. You can make great connections with some managers at the big box stores of course--I had a great connection with the woman who ran the children's department at the Alpharetta, GA, Barnes & Noble, for example--but that one connection is not going to get you into all B&Ns, and you'll find that many big box store managers aren't as involved in handselling.

Indies NEED to handsell to survive, and they love getting to know authors so they can
say something personal and meaningful when recommending their books. Drop in on bookstores wherever you go. Better yet, call ahead, tell them you'll be in the area (when you can), and ask if they'd like you to do a stock signing. This is where you don't do a publicized reading/signing,
but instead pop in to meet the booksellers and sign whatever books of yours they have. The booksellers come away knowing an author and his work, and you leave knowing your books are going to be faced out with "AUTOGRAPHED BY THE AUTHOR" stickers on them and handsold to kids and their parents.

And let's not forget the kids, of course, the audience you're writing for. This is the toughest group of all to reach. School visits can build fans by the hundreds, but are few and far between--particularly as schools have to tighten their financial belts. To reach a broader geographical audience, you can turn to social networking sites and make yourself available. But beware: kids can smell "fake" a mile away. They don't want to visit a promotional site. They want to get to know *you.* That's a difficult thing to understand about this kind of marketing, and
a level of familiarity that some people are uncomfortable with.

In your opinion, how important is social networking?

I'm beginning to think this vital. When MySpace became all the rage, I built a MySpace site for myself, but mostly as a link to my other existing sites--my web site and my blog. I was already blogging on my own blog and updating my web site--why update a *third* personal page as
well? And MySpace seemed overrun *already* with people "friending" others not to really be friends, but to network to sell their own books. It began to feel as though everyone with a book to sell was just friending each other.

But I'm becoming a real fan of Facebook and Twitter. Both allow me to send quick, almost real-time updates about what I'm doing, reading, writing, or thinking. Again, this is a level of transparency that some may be uncomfortable with, but the power of these tools became obvious the moment I tweeted about a recent post on my blog and doubled my hits.

Twitter and Facebook allow people to "follow" you without having to go visit your web site or blog every day. And while we wish 500 people WOULD check out our web sites every day, they just aren't going to do that--but they WILL read the one or two Facebook comments we post every day. Am I selling my book on Facebook and Twitter? Not overtly, no. (Unless
it's the day my book releases--in which case I feel I have license to crow.) What I'm selling is *me,* the author. I hope that if people like me, they'll support me by going out and buying my books.

Did you think about marketing before your book was published? Did you start prior to getting an agent or selling your book? If so, when and what did you do?

I thought a LOT about marketing before my book was published.

In fact, the day I got the call from my publisher saying they wanted to buy Samurai Shortstop, my wife and I sat down to brainstorm all the ways we could sell it. We created a marketing plan that set deadlines for 12 months, 9 months, 6 months, and 3 months prior to pub day, and that encompassed things like: revamping my web site, creating postcards for direct mailings to booksellers and librarians, and press kits that we sent to all kinds of media, from geographic media (hometown papers) to media we thought would be interested in a book about Japanese baseball (towns with Japanese major league players; in-flight magazines for airlines with service to Japan).

The results for so much of what we did are hard to quantify. Samurai Shortstop sold out its first print run in the first six months, and went on to get some great reviews and recognition. How much of that was because it was a good book with a good hook, and how much of it was my
promotional efforts? It's almost impossible to know. Perhaps good publicity requires both, in the end--something to ring the bell that announces your book is on shelves, and then something good on the shelf to back up the bell-ringing. :-)

What other advice do you have for authors/writers regarding marketing?

It's said that the greatest challenge facing most authors today is obscurity. We do everything we can to write the best books we can, but we could write the next great American novel and it wouldn't matter if no one knew it existed. I think what we have to do is begin, as authors,
to see the dissemination of our work--in any format, for any price, including free!--as a means to an end, and that end is *notoriety.*

One of my favorite authors, Cory Doctorow, offers up copies of every one of his published novels and short stories one his web site as FREE downloads while his books are still for sale on bookstore shelves. His works are downloaded hundreds of thousands of times, and yet his latest book still made the New York Times Bestseller List. His argument--and one that I'm coming around to more and more--is that he would rather have 100,000 people in his tent, no matter what they paid to get in, rather than 5,000 he knows bought a ticket. I think it's a great point.

To that end, I petitioned my publisher to post Something Rotten, my first Horatio Wilkes mystery, for free, in its entirety, online for a month. It got hundreds of reads and, I hope, brought more fans into my tent right when the second book in the series, Something Wicked, was hitting shelves. My real regret is that you couldn't download the book; you could only read it online. Ideally, it would have been available free and clear, to be downloaded to any eReader. Maybe next time.

Publishers are understandably leery of giving away for *free* something they're trying to sell.

What creative things have you done to promote a book?

Besides offering up Something Rotten for free online, perhaps the most creative attempt at marketing I did was try to do a book signing at a minor league baseball stadium. The experiment, alas, was a failure. I sold very few books, despite the efforts of a strong independent bookseller, and visible placement at the ballpark. Ultimately, I just don't think too many people came to the stadium that day to buy a book--they came to watch a game, have a hot dog, maybe buy a foam finger. We got a few interested parties, but not enough to make it worthwhile.

The best part, for me at least, was that they let me throw out the first pitch. :-)

Thank you Alan for sharing some of your tricks of the trade!

Thanks Shelli!

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Guys - ask your questions, Jenn will be stopping by today periodically to answer them! :)

Hi Jenn, before we pick your brain on marketing, can you tell me a little about yourself?

After more than 16 years in corporate America, most recently as a vice president of media and communications, I am now working full time as a writer and branding consultant including the Know Your Brand Class that many new and publishers authors take.

I am also an aspiring romance author as well, writing dark, romantic urban fantasy. In 2007, I won the Golden Heart award for best paranormal romance manuscript.

Do you have a website/blog? If so, when did you start it and who manages it?

I have two sites. My fiction site is http://www.jennstark.com/, managed by Bemis Promotions. My branding site is http://www.knowyourbrand.com/, managed by Glass Slipper Web Design.

I started the branding site in 2006, and my other site launched in January of 2009, though I have had it since 2005 in various iterations.

In your opinion , what are the top 3 things every author should and must do to promote their book?

I consider a website absolutely essential—it provides reader access to an author both before and after the sale of the book, and gives a “complete” reader experience. I am a huge fan of guest blogging as well, and I do recommend book signings if you can do it in a group and make it an event! In addition, look for the niche marketing angles for your book—what group of “fanatical advocates” can you develop for your story to help get the buzz out for you?

In your opinion, how important is social networking?

This is becoming more and more important, particularly for authors targeting tech-savvy readers—such as Young Adult writers. For most authors, having a site and maybe one or two social networking pages is sufficient to help build buzz, but if you’re a YA author, I absolutely would make online marketing a critical part of your promotional efforts. That said, be sure to keep a solid balance for yourself. If you find that you’re spending more time tweeting than you do writing, step AWAY from the internet.

How important is technology to an author's marketing plan?

Regardless of whether you’re targeting readers in their teens or eighties, building and maintaining a solid online presence is critical for authors today. Remember that it isn’t just readers who are looking for you online. Media representatives, publishing professionals, publicity firms, reviewers, librarians, booksellers—they all have a reason to check your site for information about you and your books. So keep your site as up to date as possible, manage your online promotion in a timely manner, and respond to any contacts you receive online to keep the digital conversation going.

What can you do before you are published to begin your marketing/branding?

Many things.

You can create pitch materials for it by identifying the high concept, writing a concise blurb, and (hopefully!) an engaging query letter.

I would encourage any actively-submitting writer to take a similar approach to their work. In today’s market, it’s more important than ever to present yourself as a marketing partner with your editor or agent—not just the supplier of the product.

Do you feel it is beneficial for authors to team up and promote books as a group?

Why?YES! First, there is safety in numbers J. In all seriousness, readers are more likely to approach a writers group vs. a single, lonely writer at a table – and if you are having FUN with your writing group, then it creates a no-stress, engaging atmosphere for others to approach you. Whether you are teaming up with authors who write books similar to yours (i.e. all romantic suspense or all historical or all funny/light in tone) or with simply a fun group that offers “something for everyone”, group promo is often the way to go, especially for newer authors.


What other advice do you have for authors/writers regarding marketing?

Whew! I could fill up pages on this one, but I’ll just keep it to this: Before you promote your work, develop your "Writing Brand" and slogan. You can check out some articles on branding on my web site. Slogans are optional, but they are a lot of fun, so it might be to your advantage to have one for your work. Be able to answer the question “What is it that you write?”

Knowing succinctly WHO you are as a writer and WHAT you write may seem obvious, but you’d be amazed at how many writers stumble over this question before they take the time to really identify their Writing Brand.

My class, "Know Your Brand" takes authors through the branding process.

How can writers brand themselves if they write in more than one genre?

This is a HUGE concern among writers, whether they are new writers who have yet to be published (and who may be marketing books in multiple genres) or established authors looking to branch out into new fields.

The answer all depends on your unique situation—authors have successfully marketed multiple genres with one Brand (Christina Dodd), or marketed multiple genres using two separate pen names, but with heavy cross promotion (J.D. Robb and Nora Roberts, Kinley Macgregor and Sherilynn Kenyon), or had a more distinct separation (J.R. Ward and Jessica Bird).

Writers with this question should consider what the carryover potential is for their existing audience to enjoy their new work, as well as the confusion factor in introducing a new Brand to an existing audience. If you are just starting out, I would recommend against

Branding yourself as a multiple-genre writer under the same name – it’s too difficult for your readership to get a “fix” on who you really are.

Won’t establishing a brand limit me from writing something completely different?

In a word… Yes! Particularly in the short term. But that could be a good thing. Take Nike® for example. When Nike first got started, all they were known for was outstanding running shoes, sold to fanatical runners. They OWNED that market, and then, later they expanded to other fitness equipment, clothing and accessories. Now you can put a Nike swish on a headband and suddenly it turns you into a fitness guru, but it took quite a bit of time for the Nike Brand to extend out naturally to all things fitness. And note, they kept the emphasis on fitness. There is no Nike brand carpet cleaner. Or Nike brand nail polish. So even this mega-Brand’s expansion has kept the focus fairly specific.

So it should be with your writing. If you Brand yourself as a writer of spooky gothic romance, then I know what it is you write. Clearly and concisely. If you want to write light, funny contemporary stories later, then you have the issue of multi-genre branding, covered above (and in this specific case, you could use two pen names and two different Brands for your very different styles of writing).

This doesn’t mean you can’t WRITE something completely different. It simply means that for a given specific pen name, you have a clearly defined Brand—and you extend that Brand only where and when it makes sense!

A Brand is a marketing tool, like any other—it’s intended to help you make the most of your writing, by helping you present yourself effectively in person or online. By taking the time to develop the best Brand for your work, you’ll ensure that your Brand can do its best work for your fiction writing career.

Thank you for joining us today!

Thanks Shelli!

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Hi Abigail. Thanks for joining us today.

Before we get pick your brain on marketing, tell me a little about yourself.

Tricycle Press is the children’s imprint of Ten Speed Press which began in Berkeley in the early 1970’s. After over 30 years as an independent publisher, we were just bought by Random House/Crown Books in February.

Ten Speed is known for its quirky, offbeat books like ‘Why Cats Paint’ and ‘The White-Trash Cookbook,’ but also for its business books (‘What Color is Your Parachute?’) and its high-end James Beard Award-winning cookbooks (Charlie Trotter, Hungry Planet, the Moosewood Cookbook). Tricycle’s list shares some of Ten Speed’s offbeat quality with board books such as the ‘My First Book of Sushi’ and ‘Urban Babies Wear Black.’ We’ve also done groundbreaking books like ‘King & King,’ about same-sex marriage, and ‘Mama’s Milk,’ promoting breast-feeding.

We have a whole list of character education books such as ‘Hey, Little Ant,’ which has kids think about the moral issues surrounding the question of squishing or not squishing an ant, and the picture books by anti-bullying expert, Trudy Ludwig. Our list ranges from photographic board books, to humorous read-alouds, to literary young adult novels. It’s an eclectic list and what all the books have in common is their high-quality and broad appeal to a trade audience. Our motto is ‘Books to Make Kids Think.’

As far as for me, I've been an editor at Tricycle Press since 2000 and focus on books, picturebooks, middle-grade, and early young-adult novels. These include the SCBWI Golden Kite winner GEORGE HOGGLESBERRY: GRADE SCHOOL ALIEN and the New York Public Library Ezra Jack Keats awardwinner, YESTERDAY I HAD THE BLUES.

I also edited the middle grade series Edgar & Ellen which has sold over 200,000 copies worldwide and launched a cartoon series on Nickelodeon.

There is more information on Abigail in her interview on Cynsations.

Do you or your publishing house have a website/blog? If so, when did you start it and who manages it?

TenSpeed has had a website since I came to the company in 2000. We have some individual contractors who help us with it but it’s managed overall by one of our marketing people.

In your opinion , what are the top 3 things every author should and must do to promote their book?

First I would have to say websites.

For writers, websites are a very good idea, but if an author feels overwhelmed by the idea, a Word Press or Blogger blog can work almost as well. If I’m interested in an author, I’ll often Google them to find out a little more about them. A blog gives me a good sense of their writing style, what they’ve been up to, what they might do to promote their book, and their interests.

For illustrators, a website is crucial. I can’t tell you how frustrating it is to come across a book with amazing illustrations and then Google the illustrator only to find out they have absolutely to web presence. Most of my illustration searches are done online. Even if I get a postcard or tear sheet from an illustrator, I’ll always go online to see more of their work. Make it as easy as possible for an editor to find you: the best web address is one that’s simply your first and last name .com (or, alternatively, first and last name + illustration + .com). Be sure to include lots of samples (twenty or more is ideal).

Secondly, it would be platform.

Someone who has already made a name for themselves among teachers and librarians is gold to your publisher. We love illustrators and authors who do school visits. A few of our authors make a good living doing school visits. School visits and attending trade shows like ALA, TLA, and IRA is great, but also consider less obvious methods such as writing an article for a trade journal (i.e., ‘Teaching Tolerance,’ ‘School Library Journal’), writing a teachers’ guide for your book and offering it through your website or blog, or putting a video up on teachertube.com---give teachers and librarians free content to use and they’ll remember you.

The third thing is to focus on targeting specialty markets.

As trade book sales drop, the special markets are becoming more important to publishers. Most publishers will have someone on their sales team that deals with special market sales. Help them out by thinking of places to sell your book besides bookstores and schools/libraries. There are tons of places that sell books that aren’t bookstores: baby shops, gift shops, stationers, museum stores, tourist shops. chains like the Discovery Store, Pottery Barn, Anthropologie, ...the list goes on. Come up with your own list of special markets to explore and work with the sales people at your publishers’ to get the book into those places. If you have any contacts that might help your publishers’ sales team---i.e., your sister-in-law knows the buyer at Anthropologie---share them.

In your opinion, how important is social networking? Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, GoodReads.

I love Facebook because it’s a way to stay in touch with people I’ve worked with or met at conferences in a casual, less time-intensive way than email. Remember, though, that it’s still a professional relationship---it’s okay to be playful, but not okay to barrage editors or agents with lots of requests for quizzes and such.

I personally prefer Facebook to MySpace for professional contacts because it doesn’t have that teen vibe MySpace has and or as many obnoxious ads. The “status” bar on Facebook is great for letting people know about conferences you’re attending, awards you’ve won, exciting news about your book.

Jacketflap.com is my second favorite social networking site because it’s specifically dedicated to children’s book people. I just found a terrific children’s book designer through that site.

When evaluating whether to take on an author or book, do you ever Google them to see if they already have a web presence or platform?

I didn’t used to but now I do more and more. It’s especially helpful when I’m trying to convince my publisher why we need to take on a given book---it’s a big plus for the project if I can tell my publisher that the book has an “active author.” Having a web presence is a big part of this.

What marketing do you expect an author to do on their own?

At Tricycle, we’ll rarely sponsor a book tour. We’ll help schedule book signings and events, but the travel and lodging costs are almost always up to the author. We also expect authors to put together their own websites or blogs.

We expect authors to do a lot to promote their books. Its a partnership.

Thank you Abigail for being here!

Thanks Shelli!

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Hi Ingrid, Thanks for
joining us
today. Before we get started,
could you tell us a little bit
about yourself?

My first book, Savvy, was released in May, 2008, from Dial Books for Young Readers (a division of the Penguin Young Readers Group) in partnership with Walden Media. I am represented by Daniel Lazar at Writers House in New York. Savvy has earned both a Newberry Honor Award
and a Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor,
and has spent three weeks on the New York Times Bestsellers List. Savvy was voted one of Publisher's Weekly's Best Books of the Year (2008) and chosen by Booklist as one of the Top 10 First Novels for Youth (2008).

Do you have a website/blog ? When did you start it and who manages it?

I have a website and a blog. I use my blog more as a tool to share things with and by my readers, and less as a social networking tool, so I do not enable comments.

But one of the things I love to do most is to share drawings, videos, and stories created by young readers. I love it when kids answer the question: What’s your savvy? And do so in their own creative ways.

I started both my website and my blog several months before the book came out.Penguin Young Readers Groups has also created a terrific Savvy mini-site . This site contains a downloadable discussion guide, wallpapers, and an exclusive ‘origin story’ for the family in Savvy.

Walden Media also has a wonderful, playful site where readers can listen to the first chapter of the audio book, play games, send postcards, and find even more downloads.

In your opinion, how important is social networking ?

I think a lot might depend on one’s audience and one’s personality. For the adult and young adult markets, social networking sites may be more effective than for middle grade or picture book authors. While Savvy crosses into early YA, my main audience is 4th-6th graders.

As a parent, I did my best to keep my daughter off social networking sites when she was that age, so I didn’t really feel as though I wanted to place too much emphasis on these when it came to marketing Savvy. However, when marketing a book, even if a book is aimed at young readers, one wants to reach out to parents as well.

I'm sure that some people have made a different choice.The only social networking site that I am on is GoodReads, and I’ve been surprised at how many kids reach me through that site.

Logistically, I’ve found that managing social networking sites takes up a lot of time, and time is not something I have a lot of right now. Plus, I’ve always been a rather shy person, so social networking sites tend to push me out of my comfort zone.

How important is technology to an author’s marketing plan ?

Aside from the question of social networking sites, I think technology is becoming increasingly important in the marketing of books, especially in the face of our current economy. Author tours are expensive and many authors are turning to virtual visits as an alternative. Bloggers have turned marketing into a viral phenomenon.

And one of the biggest technological marketing successes for Savvy so far has been the week-long free e-book download offered last summer, which was a factor in propelling the book onto the New York Times Bestsellers list for the first time.

What other advice do you have for authors/writers regarding marketing?

Try from the very start to find a balance between your focus on marketing and your focus on continued writing. It is easy to get so tied up thinking about the marketing of your first book that your next book, or your writing in general, becomes neglected.

For me, writing and marketing use two very different parts of my brain. Trying to do both in the same day is difficult for me. I set aside days where I try to do nothing but write, saving other days—perhaps those already scheduled with additional distractions—to work on marketing, or any other business aspect of being an author.

What creative things have you done to promote a book?

I am very fortunate to have amazing promotional backing from both Penguin Young Readers Group and Walden Media.

Because my book encourages readers to discover what is special about themselves, asking kids and adults alike the question "What’s your savvy?" has given me the opportunity to engage everyone in the creative process that I began.

I love sharing the ideas kids send to me about what their own talents might be. This has become one of the anchors on my blog. I think that any time you can engage other people in your process and invite them to be a part of it, they will respond.

Thank you for joining us today!

Thanks Shelli!

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Hi Anastasia. First, I am sure our
readers would like to know all about
YPulse and how it got started.

Ypulse is a media platform for youth media and marketing professionals. We publish a blog, Ypulse.com; a newsletter, the Ypulse Daily Update; as well as several conferences each year, the Ypulse Mashup events. We are coming up on our 5th anniversary.
I started Ypulse.com in May of 2004 and am the editor-in-chief. I also provide editorial direction on all Ypulse Mashups as well as creative direction for the overall Ypulse brand.

Ypulse.com reaches a highly influential audience of agency, brand and media executives as well as social marketers trying to reach our youth (tweens, teens and early twentysomethings). With a unique blend of readers and conference attendees, we all get a rare opportunity to learn from academics and youth advocates who are working with youth on a daily basis. This benefits many different sectors including authors, corporations, and non-profits.

I am very excited because Ypulse is also named one of the top 100 marketing blogs on Ad Age’s Power 150 List. We have been featured in several leading publications including USA Today, Business Week, Forbes, and Fast Company.

I started my career in the non-profit youth media space at Teen Voices. I have worked in media for the past 15 years and have helped many launch youth oriented web and television properties for brands like Oxygen, AOL and Current TV. I have won awards for my blog and know a lot about our tweens, teens and early twentysomethings.

My first book about teens and technology called Totally Wired: What Teens & Tweens Are Really Doing Online was published by St. Martin's Press.

In your opinion , what are the top 3 things every author should and must do to promote their book?

My top 3:

1) Know your audience...and where they hang out online. Book promotion can be very time consuming, so if you aren't a full-time author, you need to figure out who will buy your book and be strategic about where you spend time promoting online and what you do to promote (blog, create videos, Twitter, etc.) It's impossible to be everywhere and impractical to create/maintain every kind of "social media" out there. Pick and choose the right sites and the right content for your audience.

2) Unless you are a big name, skip the bookstore tour. Pick a cool indie bookseller in your hometown and have a nice launch event there (inviting all your friends and family). Other than that, unless you're a well known name, don't waste time at bookstore events where 2-5 people will show up, often "regulars" who go to all the events and never buy your book! Obviously if you have large contact networks in certain cities, and know YOU can turn out a bigger audience, then do it. But if you're relying on the bookstore to pack them in, forget it. Instead do events that make sense. If your book is for teens, reach out to YA librarians who are passionate about this audience and usually know how to fill a room.

3) If you have the discipline to post at least 2-3 times a week, use a blog to build an audience for your book before it comes out. Get people excited, let them get to know you, build an email list and most importantly elevate your search results -- the more you post and tag your blog posts the more people find you and your content and ultimately your book.

In your opinion, how important is social networking? Facebook, MySpace, Twitter

Social networking is as important or useful as your network is. If you only have 20 friends on Facebook and they're mostly your real life friends and family, and you blanket them with book promotion status updates and links....well, I'm sure they'll put up with it being your friends and family, but if you have a couple hundred friends, colleagues (past and present), your reaching a much larger radius of people. Still there's a lot of noise on big social networking sites, and I'm not convinced they will make you a best seller.

That said, it's worth creating a group or a page on Facebook, and if your book is for teens, make sure you have one on MySpace, too (and hire a teen with lots of friends to help promote it on both MySpace and Facebook through their networks). I think sites like GoodReads are even better because people are there to find out about new books and are more likely to buy them. Twitter takes time to cultivate real followers and effort to be part of the Twitterverse -- not just promoting yourself but participating in the larger conversations to build trust and credibility and/or being witty/clever in 140 characters or less. If you have the time/bandwidth, it can be very valuable. Just as with my bookstore analogy, I think it depends on how well known you are -- with social networks and Twitter, how big your networks are to begin with as far as what kind of impact you'll have right away vs. building up your networks in the course of promoting your book.

What other advice do you have for authors/writers regarding marketing?

One thing we as writers know how to do that other folks trying to market products sometimes don't is WRITING. Blogs and other websites LOVE good, free content. Guest post, offer to write newsletter articles, etc. and make sure your book is mentioned and/or integrated in some way (include the cover!). Work with your publicist to be able to do book giveaways combined with Q&As for blogs. We run them all the time on Ypulse.

Readers love getting free books, bloggers love having stuff to give away to loyal readers and you get great publicity. If you're publicist will mail the books out (so the blog doesn't have to) even better. And if you have a YA title, reach out to high school newspapers for reviews. Teens also love getting free books, and believe it or not they still read their high school newspapers. Teens also love contests....So think "free" (i.e. getting free books to influencer teens) and contests. I would also suggest hooking up with folks like Not Your Mother's Book Club, Readergirlz and the folks at YALSA. All do a great job promoting YA titles to teens.


As the author of Totally Wired: What Teens & Tweens Are Really Doing Online, did you have a formal marketing plan or is your marketing more random? If not, why? Would you like to?

I definitely had a plan and ideas about where to try and target my efforts, but as a first time author I also learned a lot of lessons the hard way. I sat in empty bookstores and libraries where I assumed they would promote me instead of me promoting me. I was invited to speak at a PTA meeting, and once I saw how successful that was for reaching my audience, I began suggesting it to parents who would reach out to me. I did countless blog interviews, podcast interviews, guest posts, newsletter articles, etc.

What helped me the most was having an established blog and readership going in -- that's why you see bloggers get book deals. My readers bought 6K copies of my book the first month. I spend the next 8 months selling around 4K more copies little by little. Because Ypulse has five years worth of posts online, I have very good search results around anything teen or tween or Gen Y related.

I did get publicity through my publicist that was directly related to the book, but I continue to get publicity (two years later) from reporters finding me via search. I did lots of radio/talk/NPR, tons of newspaper stuff and local and national TV. Still my national TV appearances were very short and usually just a quick expert comment in response to some incident that would happen involving teens and tech -- yes, they would show the book cover, and it's great, but it's not like an in-studio segment on the Today Show or a longer appearance on Oprah. And even if you're lucky enough for that to happen, there's just no guarantee it will move hundreds of books.

What has also helped me was having a great agent at a large agency (ICM). When ICM made a deal with the American Program Bureau (a large speakers bureau) to represent its authors, I suddenly had a lecture agent and began getting paid speaking engagements around the book (I still get them). Very often our speaker's contract mandates that they have a book sale/signing as part of the engagement. So the book keeps going...even after I've officially stopped promoting it.

No matter how well your book sells, just remember, having a book and being a published author is still a huge calling card, credential, credibility builder, even in this "totally wired" world.

Just getting published is a huge accomplishment. :)

Thank you for taking the time to join us today.

Thank you Shelli!

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Note: Alice Pope has been rescheduled for
next Monday! Be sure to come back and join us.

Today we have Harold Underdown, Author of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Publishing Children's Books

Hi Harold, before we pick your brain for your marketing wisdom, tell me a little about yourself.

I'm a children's book editor. At present, I work freelance and in educational publishing. I've worked as an in-house publisher for such publishers as Orchard and Charlesbridge, and hope to again, perhaps when the economy improves!

I am also the author of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Publishing Children's Books.

From a teaching side, I'm about to start teaching the third session of a children's book revision class with Eileen Robinson--information at http://www.kidsbookrevisions.com

Do you/your agency/your house have a website/blog ? When did you start it and who manages it ?

I started a web site, The Purple Crayon, in1996 and still manage it myself. I provide a variety of information on children's publishing, and speak and give workshops at conferences.

In your opinion , what are the top 3 things every author should and must do to promote their book ? (web sites, blogs, tours etc)

I don't think there are just three things that every author should and must do to promote their book, because different books need to be promoted in different ways!

My book, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Publishing Children's Books, has a niche audience, for example. What I've done to promote it is not what I would have done if I had written a picture book, and what I would have done for a PB is different from what I would have done if I had written a young adult novel.

But for all types of books, I do believe that there a few fundamental principles that should be kept in mind. You need to know your audience (or at least have a guess as to who your audience is), and then you need to figure out how you can most efficiently reach them. This is complicated for authors of children's books, since many aren't purchased by children, and since their audience is national but limited.

For my book, I had a clear niche market to reach, and it was one I knew pretty well already, since when I was signed up to do the first edition of my book I already had been working as an editor for several years, had my web site, and had years of conference speaking under my belt. (I had a "platform," in the current language, which I suspect was one reason the publisher approached me to do the book in the first place).

I have had limited time to promote my book and so I have made sure I focused on the best ways to reach my audience of aspiring writers and illustrators (and many published authors and illustrators too, but of course that's a smaller group).

For my book, my top 3 were:

• To get reviews in writer's magazines and web sites. My publisher sent out some review copies and I've done some work on my own, down to making sure that there were reviews on Amazon.
  
• To speak at conferences, mostly organized by SCBWI. From early 2008 to the end of 2009, I will have been to 8 weekend conferences and 2 retreats, not only to promote the book, but I made sure that I did at all of them.
  
• And to utilize the web by having sample materials and blurbs on my web site as well as taking part in online discussion groups.

In your opinion, how important is social networking ? Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, GoodReads etc.

This really depends on the book. For some books it can make a huge difference. For most books, it doesn't.

However, if your audience uses social networking heavily, this is an area to look at, but carefully--authors should keep in mind the principle of efficiency. It's possible to put a lot of time into social networking and have little in the way of results to show for it.

As an Editor, when you were evaluating whether to take on an author or book, did you ever Google them to see if they already had a web presence or platform ?

I didn't do this when I was at Charlesbridge, my most recent in-house job. I might do this today, though it would depend on the type of book. I doubt that I would for picture books or most kinds of fiction, for example. I might for YA or nonfiction for bookstores.

Having a platform is still a relatively new concept in children's books. Being able to support one's backlist through school visits and other ways of connecting with one's audience (such as a web site) are more common.

In your experience as as Editor, what things do Publishers offer in contracts in terms of Marketing ? What does the average author receive or is it different, depending on the book ?

Publishers put as little as possible into the contract about marketing. There are certainly things that one can expect--being in the catalog, review copies being sent out, etc.--but unless one has considerable pull they won't be in the contract.

Did you think about marketing before your book was published ? Did you start prior to getting an agent or selling your book ? If so, when and what did you do ?

I thought about marketing before my book was published, but not before it was signed up, simply because I was solicited to write it, as I mentioned above. But I did have ideas in mind from the time I started writing--thought I don't think that his is necessary for all writers. Some books can be effectively and efficiently promoted by their authors, while others can't. Some authors aren't good promoters. There are times when writing is a better use of your time, and writers shouldn't feel guilty about that.

Now, if you could put on your author hat. For your book, do you have a formal marketing plan or is your marketing more random ? If not, why ? Would you like to ?

My plan wasn't written down, but I did have a pretty good idea of it all along. If I had had more time, I might have written up a plan, but I don't feel that the lack of a written plan has been a problem.

And lastly, what creative things have you done to promote a book?

I haven't been creative! I've done the obvious things and I've tried to do them well.

Thank you Harold for your time and knowledge!

Thanks Shelli!

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Send thoughts of love to Bridget Zinn today!
Pls send some extra prayers tonight.

Marvelous Marketer: Laini Taylor
(Author of Dreamdark Series)

Laini, thank you so much for joining us today. Before we get into marketing, can you tell me a little about yourself?

Hi Shelli! I write middle-grade and YA fantasy. My middle-grade series, Dreamdark, is published by Putnam. The first book, Faeries of Dreamdark: Blackbringer came out in 07, and the sequel, Dreamdark: Silksinger, will be published in September 09.

My first YA will follow shortly in October. It’s called Lips Touch, and is published by Arthur A. Levine Books, an imprint of Scholastic.




I’m so excited about this year!!!

(Shelli's peanut gallery: Laini is also a wonderful artist and is responsible for the Laini Ladies Collection of which I own also every one :) My fav is the Writing Muse!)

Do you have a website/blog? When did you start it and who manages it?

I have a website and blog that I started in 2006 and still manage myself.

(Shelli's peanut gallery: Laini is being very modest - her blog is very popular and she just posted her 500th post :)

I don’t know html, but my husband (illustrator Jim DiBartolo) found some great software (Freeway Express) that enables non-programmers to design their own websites using Photoshop. It has some drawbacks, but I like being able to update it myself—which I need to do soon!

In your opinion , what are the top 3 things every author should and must do to promote their book? (web sites, blogs, tours etc)

Um, I personally don't think I'm a brilliant self-promoter. But I love blogging because it’s a community; my blog isn’t all about my books and trying to sell them. Blatant self-promotion blogs are pretty boring, and instantly recognizable as such.

As for three things, I would say:
1. Getting your books or ARCs out to good book review sites/blogs.
2. Having a website—though the trick is to get people to your site.
3. Speaking at events and conferences, to teachers, librarians, and other writers. School visits are great too.

In your opinion, how important is social networking? Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, GoodReads etc.

I’ve found these things to be a great way to network with other writers, but I wouldn’t say that I’ve really used them for direct promotion.

How important is technology to an author’s marketing plan?

Well, there isn’t much face to face promotion that authors can do on their own. Besides, many of us want to write books and may not be comfortable really putting ourselves forward (I am very shy about looking for my book or my art in stores).

However, the online aspect is something we can control, and even the more timid personalities need not be terrified. I think today’s authors have a tremendous advantage that the online book world exists. Before, there were mainly just print reviews? And those are so hard to come by.

Did you think about marketing before your book was published? Did you start prior to getting an agent or selling your book? If so, when and what did you do?

I thought about marketing in a “I-hope-my-publisher-will-do-it” way; I didn’t do anything at all on my own. Fortunately, through blogging (which I started shortly after selling my first book, long before it came out), I lucked into some getting some interview requests and articles that helped spread the word about my book, and I started to become familiar with many review sites.
I also went to the first Kidlit Bloggers Conference, right after my book came out, and then I co-organized the second one. This was a great way to network with other writers and reviewers. (The third one is going to be in D.C. - in October - and should be great fun!)

Do you feel it is beneficial for authors to team up and promote books as a group? If so, why?

I’ve read some good group blogs. It seems like a good way to maintain constant, interesting content that will keep a variety of readers coming back. I have some friends in debut author groups who help each other self-promote, and I imagine there can be some strength in numbers. Thought I have not done it myself.

What other advice do you have for authors/writers regarding marketing?

Do more than I did!

I didn’t even try to do a local launch party at a bookstore when Blackbringer came out. Though I know those tend to be about friends and family, it’s still a way of marking the birth of something incredibly important. Since I didn’t do anything, the utter ordinariness of my book birthday was a little depressing!

I would say definitely make an effort to connect with the online book community. If you want to get reviewed by other bloggers, know their sites, leave them comments, and be respectful. Don’t just suddenly appear, ask for a review, and disappear. Being a part of the community is rewarding far beyond garnering reviews, and you never know what might come of the connections you make.

What creative things have you done to promote a book?

When my very first book was coming out—The Drowned, a graphic novel from Image Comics— Jim Di Bartolo (my husband/illustrator) and I made cool review packets that included the book, a parchment scroll, a crow feather, and a rusty key. These got really nice attention at the places we sent them.

(Shelli peanut gallery: Jim will also be joining as a Marvelous Marketer in April/May!)

For Lips Touch, I’d really like to make up a small limited edition book on the “story behind the book” which will include some of the art that didn’t make it in the final, as well as a very early version of one of the stories.

I also did a drawing on my blog where readers could *win* an early draft of Silksinger. The catch was: they had to give me feedback for the next draft! (So really, it was work for them, and they were awesome!)

Do you have a formal marketing plan or is your marketing more random? If not, why? Would you like to?

So far, I would say very random.

Fortunately, my editor at Putnam, Tim Travaglini, has been a star when it comes to getting my book into as many hands as he possibly can. Since the sales/marketing folks at Penguin Young Readers have so many titles on their plate, it’s great to have an editor who really goes the extra mile for you.

To be honest, marketing is not my favorite thing. Well, the blogging part of it is great. Everything else causes me some anxiety!

I am thinking now about what I can do for my books this year! Of course, I’d like to just focus on writing the next one, but I really want to give my books every chance to find readers.

Thank you so much for sharing your tips with us. Good luck with your book or should I say BOOKS coming out this year!


Comment Contest Update
Some rule clarifications...... BTW I LOVE all my new blogger buddies!!

• The point of this contest is to get you to comment and find other bloggers to visit.
• You can comment on past posts.
• Remember to email me if you do any of the extra credit ;) I dont have time to go out and look :( wish i did.
• You guys are determined visitors :) Please don't split up your comments so that you post a fraction of comment every minute in a row.
• The comment HAS to be relevant to the post commented on.
• No advertising or political statements! Those comments will not be published or counted!

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Marvelous Marketers: Krista Marino, Senior Editor
Delacorte Press (Random House Kids)

Hi Krista! Thank you so much for taking time out of your schedule to be with us today. Before we get into your marketing advice, can you tell me a little about yourself and publishing house.

I am a Senior Editor at Delacorte Press—an imprint of Random House Children’s Books. Delacorte publishes middle grade and young adult fiction, so I’m only looking to acquire books that fall into those categories. The genres I work on are far-ranging, though. Lately I’ve been acquiring darker projects. I think it’s a reflection on where our world is today. Teenagers just aren’t really looking to read light, happy books--and I guess I’m not, either. One of my upcoming books perfectly encapsulates this world anxiety. THE FOREST OF HANDS AND TEETH by Carrie Ryan is a story about hope set in a post-apocalyptic world.

In your opinion, how important is social networking? Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, GoodReads etc.

At Random House we’ve found that this is a HUGE part of an author’s success. You can quietly build a solid fan base by keeping (and maintaining regularly) a blog and website. And the more authors you connect with, the better your networking tools become. You can follow Random House . Facebook seems to be the social networking site of choice these days, but a personal blog could be even more useful in creating a feeling of intimacy with your readership.

How important is technology to an author’s marketing plan?

Because teens are on the internet more and more, we’ve really turned our marketing focus toward this venue. I think it’s very important you are out there—that you have a presence—on the internet.

Do you feel it is beneficial for authors to team up and promote books as a group? Why?

Yes. It’s very beneficial. And the more authors you have out there talking your books up the better. Any champion you can get with a venue that reaches the public is useful. The internet seems to be the most cost-effective venue out there these days and there are several groups that are taking advantage of this, organizing online, and pooling money for group marketing projects.

What things do you expect an author to do on their own?

We expect an author to do anything they can to support their book. These days, a website is a basic necessity. Then you can build up from there to Facebook and Myspace and other online communities. Not only for marketing, but for building connections within the industry. Librarians, teachers, other authors—the more people you know, and the more friendly you are, the better off you’ll be. Many of my authors have parlayed their relationships into blurbs for their debut novels. That’s something that goes far.

Thank you again for sharing your marketing advice!

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Random Stuff

Yes I am leaving this up for one more day by popular demand :) But I wanted to pop in and say say how sad I am about John Updike's death. He was a great author. :( *sniff

Here are a few great marketing posts I wanted to give a shout out too.

Shrinking Violets posted an interview with publicist

Becca posted a publicity contract to look through. She's got a great book coming soon :)

Writers Digest posted Marketing essentials for unpublished authors!

Martha Interview

Hi Martha. Thank you so much for agreeing to talk with me today. As you know this blog focuses on educating authors on how to best market their books. But before we get into marketing, tell me a little about yourself.

Greenwillow Books is an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers. We were founded in 1974, and our talented, wonderful authors and artists include Kevin Henkes, Lynne Rae Perkins, Peter Sis, Chris Crutcher, Ian Schoenherr, Megan Whalen Turner, Carin Berger, Diana Wynne Jones and many many many more!

We publish books for children of every age, from picture books to novels. We aim to publish books that truly speak to children and teens, that they will keep coming back to again and again. I’m the Associate Editor and have been with Greenwillow for seven years.

Let's start with Greenwillow Books. Do you and/or your Greenwillow Books have a website/blog that you use for marketing?

Yes, HarperCollins has a very thorough website, which our online marketing department manages. There are several blogs popping up all over Harper Collins that have a lot of useful information in addition to several Facebook Fan pages.

Greenwillow also has its own Facebook Fan page which I manage myself.

And I have my own personal blog, A Curiosity Shop.

In your opinion , what are the top things every author should do and must do to promote their book?

I think the most vital thing is to have a website—one that you regularly update, so that it never seems stale. Kids, teens, parents, librarians, booksellers, teachers will all google favorite authors to find out more about them!

This is particularly critical for aspiring illustrators, in my opinion. Most of my artist-hunting happens online. And “website,” can also mean blog.

It’s important that an author or artist’s online presence is one that THEY are comfortable with. This may be a regular website that they update once a month or so with news, etc. Or it may be a blog they update every day or once a week, or what-have-you.

After that, reaching out to your community and contacts and being available for appearances is great.


In your opinion, how important is social networking?

I don’t think we’ve really seen yet how much social networking impacts sales directly.

That said, though, I think they can be useful for making people aware of your books and forming a network of support. However, you should never do anything that you aren’t comfortable with, though! Twitter might not be for you, but GoodReads might be. Every author needs to see which one seems natural and fun—and doesn’t take too much time and thought away from the writing!

Another thing to keep in mind is that blogging or being active on Facebook or Twitter puts you in the public eye. ANYONE can see what you write, so don’t forget that as you post—be aware that you are presenting yourself to potential readers, critics, editors, agents, and fellow writers.


How important is technology to an author’s marketing plan?

It’s important to understand technology, and my guess that technology will grow more and more important with time. But again, not everything is right for every book and every author.


Do you feel it is beneficial for authors to team up and promote books as a group? If so, why?

It can be! Shannon Hale (Author of Princess Academy) and Libba Bray (Author of Rebel Angels) had what seemed like a successful and fun tour together last fall. Not to be a broken record, but this is another area where it’s important to consider what’s right for the book and the author. You need pairing that make sense, and pulls audiences that will appreciate both books.


When evaluating whether to take on an author or book, do you ever Google them to see if they already have a web presence or platform?
ALWAYS! Whether or not they have a presence is not the deciding factor on a book or author. I decide whether or not I like a manuscript based on the manuscript itself.

But when I’m presenting a book for possible acquisition, I want to know as much about the author as I can. If they have a website or blog, then that’s another way to get to know him or her.


To finish up, I know every writer will want to know what do you, as an associate editor, look for in an author or book that you aquire?

I look for a voice that’s authentic to its age group, one that resonates. I look for a story that sticks with me, either because it makes me laugh, warms my heart, poses thought-provoking, haunting questions, or leaves me breathless. I look for characters who seem like real people to me—all of them, not just the protagonist. I look for a protagonist I think children or teens will identify with. I look for hook I know will get readers’ attention and good writing to support it. In an author, I look for someone who’s dedicated and passionate about his or her writing.


Before you leave, tell me what exciting books are you working on now at Greenwillow Books?

Well, all of our books are exciting! Every book we work on knocks our socks off, so we’re very lucky to be working with such talented creative people.

On the Greenwillow Books Summer 2009 list, I edited a fantastic, funny debut picture book called DO NOT BUILD A FRANKENSTEIN! by Neil Numberman. And a middle grade mystery that’s tons of fun called A RECIPE 4 ROBBERY by Marybeth Kelsey .

Greenwillow Books also has two amazing debut fantasies. RADIANT DARKNESS that retells the Persephone/Hades myth from Persephone’s perspective. And SILVER PHOENIX, an ancient-China inspired epic fantasy.

You’ll be able to see teasers and jackets on http://www.harpercollinschildrens.com/ or on the Greenwillow fan page on Facebook.

Thank you Martha for joining us today and sharing some marketing insight.

Next week join us for advice from Best-selling author Jay Asher (13 Reasons Why)

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Marketing interview with Lisa Schroeder

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I've started another yarn piece, and thought I'd do a work in progress, 'cause I know you all like that kind of thing.

Its 5 x 7, on Strathmore illustration board.


These are the first 4 steps. Doesn't look like much yet, does it?

Here's how I start.
Step 1: Scribble a basic design.

Its hard to see, but believe it or not I darkened it in Photoshop already so that it would at least show up!
I use an HB or similar lead to lightly draw out an overlapping serpentine pattern. I don't over think this. I may sit and get an impression of how complex or simple or something else that I'd like it to be. Then I just let my hand go. Its very intuitive, and the curves have to feel natural.
This takes about 30 seconds.


Step 2: Work out the over/under pattern.


There's a lot of work in this step. I redraw out each strand of yarn, giving it dimension. I also figure out the over/under pattern, which is what its all about. I adjust loops that are off a bit so that the design works. I'm still using a regular graphite pencil here. Reason is, I want to be able to erase it off in the next step. Colored pencil doesn't erase all the way, graphite does.
Again, I darkened it up to show you, but really, its a lot lighter.

This step takes the most brain power. You have to have slept well the night before (or had a good nap) and had your coffee before you tackle this. Its harder than it looks to work out. Its not rocket science, but it does take a bit of concentration.


Step 3: Outline with color.

In this step I go over all the lines again with the colors I'm going to use. First, I take an eraser and go over the whole graphite line drawing lightly to bring it down to where I can just barely make it out. Then I start going over the lines with the color.

For this I decided to start with all Derwent Drawing pencils, in Fall-ish colors, just because I had them sitting there. I like these pencils, they remind a lot of Coloursofts (they're made by the same company). The colors I used are Chocolate, Sepia, Sanguine and Brown Ochre.

As I go I further erase any graphite. I keep the colored pencil light too, again, erasing the whole thing down to almost a color "stain" on the board, and also paying attention to any 'hot spots' that occur (that's places where it gets darker, usually where two lines join up).


Step 4: First layer of color.

Here I just color in the strands with the same color they were outlined with. This is definitely the "ugly stage". It has a long way to go, but at least the pattern and basic colors are established. Now I can have fun!

More tomorrow, or more likely the next day. Tomorrow I have tons to do.

Are Mondays crazy for all of you too? I don't know what it is ~ I always run around like a chicken with my head cut off on Monday. Errands and miscellaneous busy work rule the day, usually. I also find that Monday is the day I'm most likely to "just pick something up" for dinner while I'm out, like an already roasted chicken or some other take-out kind of thing.
And I hope to god its not 98 again like all this weekend. Isn't it FALL? My air conditioning is on as we speak, and its 8:00 at night. Whine whine.

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Yep, hard to believe February's almost over. Dare I say it? I think I may be over the flu. Today's the first time I don't feel like I'm walking in a fugue state in ages.

Packing is moving along great. I'm super-excited about the move, even more excited because a couple more projects have moved past the initial stages. Yeah, may have said it before, but getting a book published isn't just about one editor liking it, but a whole gaggle of people loving it.

Of course, getting that initial contact truly excited about your manuscript is important, as they turn into your advocate for getting published.

Keeping the post short again today (still oodles to do), but I wanted to post part of a comment from a client (and English teacher) because it is oh so true--

I tell my students people today have too many things to occupy their interests, so a writer needs to basically stand on a chair and yell and wave his/her arms in order to pull the potential reader away from the Internet, video games, cell phones, HD TV, etc.

--

Stay literate;)

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Read through 15 subs over the weekend. 1 was author info only, so we requested a sample. The other 14 are all rejections.

Had messages this morning, so that was first on the list. Then the usual rounds of initial subs for new projects, followed by additional subs for other projects and follow ups.

Drank some coffee. Read Publishers Lunch (have to stay on top of that one, my little beasties, or else it piles up).

Having a good Monday, actually. Half through my sub list to send today, with only 100 pp of editing to do.

Other than editing over the weekend and reading subs, I read:

Playing for Pizza by John Grisham (not bad, especially considering I'm not much on football).

Black Water and Gravedigger's Daughter by Joyce Carol Oates.

Third Degree by Greg Iles.

Yes, I do read fast;)

I've also started my own writing again. Haven't focused on my own work since the agency started, so finding time and getting back to it are both challenging. What works for me? Setting aside the same time each night for my writing, immersing myself in alot of reads in the same genre I'm writing, and music (I have different sets of songs to listen to depending on which chapters I'm writing).

I'm old fashioned in my writing. I cannot work straight into a computer, but use 70 count spiral notebooks (college-ruled) and rollerball pens. The key is to keep up with typing everything into the computer. I once lost the first 20k of a story before it got into the computer (Ouch!)

It actually works well because I do the intial writing for that chapter, go back and reread and make notes (my margins often contain all sorts of scribbles and notes), then do the third edit when I type it in. Let it sit for a day, then print it out and read, then make changes. This process is repeated one chapter at a time. Then, once it's completed I do a final edit. So, five rounds in all.

Of course, sometimes 5 rounds doesn't do it (we all know that), so then it sits for more changes another day.

What do I write? Well, this one is a supernatural thriller with a literary bent. As always, this one's the best thing I've done yet. Like agenting, writing is a learning experience. We grow and evolve from one word to the next.

Stay literate;)

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The OUPblog and Link Love are taking the day off to recover from Thanksgiving. Enjoy your leftovers and be sure to come back Monday, we know you will need distraction after the holiday weekend!

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So I’ve been reading, working on a marketing ad thingie (I’m all sorts of good with the technical type wording, yup), and trying to find book bindery that will let me tour their facilities and ask all sorts of nosy questions (pesky kid!). I’ve got all sorts of interesting (in my mind anyway), half-finished columns on each of these topics, but that doesn’t do anyone any good for the here in now, so instead go follow some links and some news.

Chris! You've won a copy of Stephanie Gayle's novel, so please email me your address at the email to the right of this post.

John Lustig of Last Kiss fame became Unshelved enough to contribute to their Sunday bookclub with Summer Moonshine by P.G. Wodehouse gone comic retro. Someone alert Bully!

Ms. Marta Acosta interviews Ms. HelenKay Dimon (whose Paperback Reader I’m an infrequent contributor to, and to whom I owe one review of Bad Kitty), divorce lawyer who writes romance. Marta, it should be noted, will be hosting a bad classic book trailer contest where the top price will be a copy of Adobe Creative Suite 3. Unfortunately being a judge precludes me from entering.

Kassia Krozser of Booksquare (and Paperback Reader as well) posted a column entitled, “Virtual Worlds for Fun and Writers, Or How to Make the Most Out of Second Life,” on Romancing the Blog about the use of Second Life in helping to build a believable world for your novel. I’ve never played in Second Life, nor (gasp) read Neal Stephenson, but the whole concept sounds worth checking out. Again, this is one of columns that could apply to any writing that requires world building, not just romance.

Are book clubs ruining the reading experience? I certainly heard a lot of people complain about their book club’s choices back when I was a bookseller, but I had just as many people gush madly. To avoid the homogeneity that the Guardian alleges, my friends and I had our own way of doing book club. Specifically everyone brought one or two books that they thought someone else should read. We would then sit around in a circle and “hand sell” the book to the group. After everyone took their turn we’d then trade, so there would be at least one other person in the group that you could discuss the book with next time. This also meant that a lot of different types of books got introduced.

Meanwhile Bookselling This Week offers up its own thoughts on the keys to book club success.

New blog Novelish had a great post a ways back on the dangers of

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