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The Overnight Fame of Steffi McBride Youtube book trailer
I was going to focus today. FOCUS!
But when I heard about the Steffi McBride book, all the little bits of blogging material that I've been trying to ignore in the name of writing my novel came rushing to the fore - so important to share this, especially in the current downturn. So I've got to just quickly tell you about Steffi McBride and all the other stuff that might be meaningful to the Rise and Fall of Us as writers.
I heard about Steffi McBride in today's Guardian RSS feed which highlighted Andrew Croft's new novel The Overnight Fame of Steffi Mcbride - or more precisely, how the author is using Web 2.0 to the hilt to promote the novel:
But what, arguably, makes Steffi more interesting than your average airhead celeb is that she's the figment of an author's imagination and these tantalising - or annoying - insights into her star-studded existence come courtesy of her updates on Twitter, the social media "microblogging" site, and her Facebook page. Read the article
The book trailer is appealing (a bit long but quite appealing - makes authors want to rush out to the nearest drama school in search of cheap but capable talent to star in their book trailers). And suddenly all that wasted time in Facebook turns out to be an investment in my future success as a writer ... I'm off to friend Steffi now (for the record, her friend count is only 33 at the moment, will be interesting to check back in a few weeks). It will also be interesting to see what FB does to the page. FB took down the FB page of Vern, Sarah Macintyre's wonderful comic creation for the DFC comics, on the basis that Vern was not human.
So you’re a few months away from publishing your debut novel. Your publishing house has suggested that you pitch in to help promote your own work, but you don’t have the first clue as to where you should start. Or perhaps you’ve already published your first book without doing any of your own publicity and marketing and now the hard realization has hit that this time around, without a significant change on your part, your career is going to end as quickly as it began. Now you’re willing to try something – anything. But what works? What doesn’t work? What should you be doing? Michelle Moran on Book Marketing Part 1
... don’t be afraid to try new ways of publicity and marketing, even if you’ve never heard of anyone else doing it before. This is what a great publicist will do for you, and what you want to do for yourself. There are so many ways of promoting a book that aren’t widely used, and many of them are free. Michelle Moran on Book Marketing Part 2
Ah well, there goes my Saturday. You know full well, don't you, that you've blogged on my favourite topic - marketing and writing! Yeah! I now realise why I had a previous life in a marketing department! ;-)
i forgot to mention that on the steffi mcbride website, there is a ocmpetition inviting people to submit their own book trailers for the book.
clever, clever. make the reader do your marketing. although this is a ploy now widely used. the nerdfighters do it for john green's books (nerdfighters.ning.com). and the guardian newspaper today announced another similar youtube competition.
i think the steffi mcbrdie social networking ploy though should have been started way earlier than they did - long before the book was launched. it takes a long long time to reach critical mass.
btw book marketing is one of my fave topics too. i have considered turning Notes from the Slushpile into a blog on book marketing. But first I have to get a proper book contract.
My friend Elizabeth likens her experience of the AIDS world to riding her motorbike in India in the good old days when she worked there as a journalist.
Getting from A to B was straightforward enough. Except for the sacred cows. You spent all your time veering and dodging and braking to avoid the sacred cows.
And that's what her book The Wisdom of Whores is all about. The blurb on the book launch invitation declared:
An insider lifts the lid on the multi-billion pound AIDS industry - funny, fearless and ultimately shocking
Funny, fearless and ultimately shocking - that pretty much describes Elizabeth (in the fondest way possible of course)!
Unfortunately, having for days been looking forward to the free alcohol, er, book launch at the Wellcome Collection branch of Blackwells, I was not very well on the day.
Here I am looking decidedly blah amongst all Elizabeth's well wishers:
The Wellcome exhibition focusing on Death didn't make me feel any better. This is what greets you as you enter:
And this:
Elizabeth however was as awesomely vivacious as ever, showing no signs of any previous pre-launch nerves. Here's the author:
And here are the books! Aaaah. The tills were ringing as Elizabeth's friends obligingly bought their fourth copies.
if you look closely at the picture, you will note the "£2 OFF" stickers on every cover. The sticker on my copy chopped the byline off so that it read "By Elizabeth Pis -"
Sadly my blahness made it impossible to stay for the carousing (which I'd been looking forward to for WEEEEEKS!) after the launch, I had to crawl back into my sickbed.
So now you've done it, Elizabeth!
What's next?
No pressure.
3 Comments on The Wisdom of Whores Launch Party, last added: 5/22/2008
But then I sat in on a film-makers' convention in Manila (ages ago) and noticed that you had to wear a lot of make up and dress like an ice cream dessert.
So I became a writer.
Comes the internet, digital cameras, YouTube and the advent of book trailers and I decided I'd still love to have a go at film.
I mean, you only have to watch a few videos on YouTube to realise that the bar can't be that high. I took the advice of Edgar Wright, director of Hot Fuzz:
People always ask me how to become a director, and I always reply: Get camera. Start shooting. it's not great English but it's good advice. No matter what your background or experience, just get out there.
The Guardian Guide to Making Video (Jan 2008)
I went through my list of writerly friends, looking for gullible, willing and attractive talent to exploit and decided Elizabeth (whose sex-drugs-and-AIDS book The Wisdom of Whores is coming out next week! Buy it! You know you need to!) would be an ideal victim er, subject. She is pictured above preparing to throw a spear.
My equipment was rather thrown together - but hey, Edgar Wright, also says:
Don't let a low budget stop you. Having no money means you have no real limits. Just go for it. No excuses.
So what equipment does one need to create a book trailer?
1. Camcorder - my old hi-8 camcorder was last used filming my daughter falling out of her cot (she's nine now). The battery no longer charges so we had to keep it plugged into the wall. No problem.
2. Tripod - I had my late father-in-law's old tripod but it didn't have the right connection to my camcorder. So I decided to handcarry the camcorder. I brought up three kids, surely that means I've got steady hands.
3. Light - we had no lights but hey, there was a lot of sunshine around.
4. Sound - thankfully my old hi-8 camcorder had a socket for plugging in a microphone. And I had only recently blagged a proper microphone from a BBC friend (I was thinking of experimenting with podcasting) . In fact the microphone was the last piece of BBC equipment out of a news hotspot during one of the Beeb's quick escape routines - but that's another story ...
5. Red lipstick - presentation is key.
So Elizabeth came with a rather bedraggled sheet of paper listing the points she had to make. Lipstick was duly applied, camera plugged in. We could only shoot a certain distance from the open door because the power cable was rather short. No problem, no problem.
We shot a few lines and it was good. Then it began to rain. So we moved inside. Setting up inside involved moving all the furniture away from the door (we needed the natural light from the doorway).
We needed Elizabeth to sit because if she stood, the background would include some unattractive grey window frames. Also without the chair, the camcorder's power cable unhelpfully kept making cameo appearances.
Because we had no tripod, I had to stand rather painfully with bended knees. At one point the knees gave way - you will notice in the intro that in one shot the picture appears to turn over. That wasn't intentional fancy schmancy video work. That was me falling over. Having physio now.
Elizabeth had to hold the microphone, a rather tumescent presence in our video which happened to be about s-e-x. Without the mic you could hear the pitter-patter of the rain, the occasional rumble of thunder, and the neighbour's stereo blaring from an open window.
We tried to recruit some small people from the next room to act as microphone stands but they demanded compensation and Equity membership. So keeping faith with the traditions of indie cinema, we coped.
Here's the finished product -
The video was edited using Roxio Easy Media Creator - which pretty much does everything from capturing and editing music to cutting videos. I suppose next time I experiment with book trailers, it would be more appropriate for this blog if I sought a subject who's actually writing a book for children.
And in the spirit of committed geekery, I've started up my own channel on YouTube:
oooh. yes ... what a great idea. but first i have to win the cooperation of the microphone stands.
Wilf said, on 5/4/2008 10:23:00 AM
I LOVE this idea and did indeed waste quite a bit of my post-uni days trying to break into film-making. Well done! A
Absolute Vanilla (& Atyllah) said, on 5/4/2008 10:56:00 AM
Oh well done, you! I was a scriptwriter and video director in a former life and I know well that hankering to be a film maker - I just want to know this - where on earth do you find the time?!
Candy Gourlay said, on 5/4/2008 1:11:00 PM
it's easy to find time when you don't have time. it took two hours to shoot and three and a bit hours to edit. it took a long time to pipe it up to youtube though.
Candy Gourlay said, on 5/4/2008 1:18:00 PM
>I LOVE this idea and did indeed waste quite a bit of my post-uni days trying to break into film-making
addy, you should start another kind of blog so that you could tell us about it. would love to know what you got up to.
nicky, i'm not surprised you were in film-making. i should have been able to guess from the chicken feathers.
JaneyV said, on 5/4/2008 3:57:00 PM
Bloody marvellous and I've been educated as well! You are now my 2nd Youtube subscription. I normally only tune in to the Vlogbros. Keep it up. Spielberg started with a small 8mm and I've heard he did quite well.
I've just found out that the new book of my good friend Steve LeVine is now listed on Amazon (out this fall!!!) and it's got a beautiful cover and this humdinger of a title:
As it happens, the book of my other good friend, Elizabeth Pisani, is coming out next week and she's got a terrific title too which is amazing given her subject which is AIDS and the bureaucracy surrounding it.
Here's a screenshot from the outro I made for her video (that's the opposite of intro - and I'll talk about the video in another blog post):
I know, I know, this is a blog about children's book writing but there's no harm in a bit of shameless publicity between friends? That's what the internet is for.
Anyway, the main point I wanted to make was TITLES MATTER.
This became crystal clear to me at the recent SCBWI before-Bologna conference when a panel of agents read the first pages of blind submissions from the audience. They were asked to react the way they would to any submission.
Agents shredding submissions at SCBWI's Bologna conference
And react they did. It was at times a painful experience. It was like American Idol or any other show from TV's humiliation genre. It made me think of all the rejections I ever received and it made me imagine how agents must have opened my submissions and snickered over my leaden words, my unprofessional presentation, my ... but let's not tread that path again.
The main thing is: the agents always, always, ALWAYS wanted to read more when there was a good title.
Oooo, thanks for the shameless plug. Titles are important. But as I do the round of interviews, I find it's really important to have a "tagline" about the book too -- to be able to describe it in a sentence. It's probably more important for non-fiction than it is for young adult fiction, but still, aspiring (and even published) authors all need to be able complete the phrase "It's about..." in not more than 7 words.
I overheard my editor describing my book as "about AIDS and bureaucracy" and I wanted to slit my wrists. Candy says it's about "the state of the AIDS industry" (but then she hasn't had a chance to read it yet. I think it's about sex, drugs and money. Ho hum.
Angela said, on 4/30/2008 4:54:00 AM
Two great titles....
it's not just agent's... I'm one of those readers who will buy a book if I love the title -even if the flap copy doesn't sound that great.
Angela said, on 4/30/2008 4:56:00 AM
Elizabeth - you're right... a book about "sex, drugs, and money" is a much better tag line when compared to "AIDS and bureaucracy"
No wrist sliting!!!! Stay healthy!
Candy Gourlay said, on 4/30/2008 5:07:00 AM
The cover design is important too. I would have suggested putting your picture on the cover ... except for that excellent title.
Nick said, on 4/30/2008 6:01:00 AM
An aspiring novelist friend of mind, Carolyn Braby, had a great title for one of her books: Rocket Science for Girls. It was universally turned down, just before a welter of books with similar titles came out... e.g. A Short History of Tractors in Ukranian. But I wish to make it known that she anticipated the trend...! Here's hoping that she too one day escapes the Slush Pile.
Candy Gourlay said, on 4/30/2008 6:03:00 AM
ooh rocket science for girls! sounds brilliant, nick! i wish caroline a speedy escape from the slush.
readers, since we are all shamelessly advertising our friends' books, don't forget to add a link to pertinent websites! we writers need all the help we can get!
Candy Gourlay said, on 4/30/2008 6:05:00 AM
>It was universally turned down
just to add. i guess the door opening is just the first hurdle.
why do we do this to ourselves?
Paul Romeo said, on 4/30/2008 1:27:00 PM
This is - perhaps - an advertisement.
I thought I'd jump on the bandwagon and make full use of my friend's most popular (and popular it is, believe me!) of all Blogs, Notes from the Slush Pile, to set up a poll and find out whether the title of my book - alas, still in first draft - is captivating enough: "The Vespertine Hour" Would you want to read it?
[Candy you can kill me at the retreat. I'll pass you a knife ;)]
Lenore said, on 4/30/2008 5:21:00 PM
ooh...just looking at all those agents lined up there again makes my skin tingle in fear. by the way - is there a place where we can view more photos from bologna?
Candy Gourlay said, on 5/1/2008 4:54:00 AM
paolo, this is the shameless post so go ahead. i like vesepertine hour. there were a few iffy moments during the agent's panel when they found it hard to pronounce some words and decided not to read on. so you might think about if vespertine might be hard to pronounce? i don't find it so myself. anyway at the end of the day, this is just an exercise in getting through the door.
>pass the knife
no worries. i've got my own.
Candy Gourlay said, on 5/1/2008 4:57:00 AM
lenore - re bologna - i saw quite a few amongst my facebook friends. i've posted a bologna album on multiply but i think the main pics are already on the blog.
Polly Toynbee recently gnashed her teeth over Girlification's triumph over Feminism. The Toynbee rant ranged from glass ceiling stuff to "the pink disease is far worse than it was 20 years ago".
Mention of the "pink disease" pricked up my ever-vigilant ears as I'd only recently contributed to a discussion about pink book covers (it was about the highly pink cover of my friend Fiona Dunbar's book Pink Chameleon) at The Bookwitch blog where Ann Giles (who is no witch)wrote:
I’d like to know if they sell more books with pink or lilac covers (glitter optional) because they are pink or lilac, or if the pink and lilac puts more prospective buyers off? Not all girls love pink and lilac. Lots of parents are allergic to pink and lilac, after years of nothing but. (from Think Pink)
I commented that a clever book like Pink Chameleon - which re-imagines a high tech fashion future - should have a sticker on the cover, warning: "Smart Inside".
Toynbee had some pretty shocking back-up research for the girlification rant:
A report from the American Psychological Association shows how sexualisation harms girls - and it's getting worse, more of it and more extreme. One study showed how anxiety about appearance harms brain function: girls were asked to try on a swimsuit or a sweater in a private dressing room, supposedly to give their opinion. While waiting they were asked to do a maths test. The girls given swimsuits did much worse than those in sweaters, as thinking about their bodies, mostly negatively, undermined their intellectual self-confidence.
Aww.
At the end of the day, ridiculing girliness is negative in its own right, isn't it?
As the mother of a girl who is just emerging from a strong anti-pink phase and entering a more fashion conscious age, I say: let's not suck the fun out of being a girl. What will really empower a girl is permission to be whoever they want to be.
P.S. The second book in Fiona's Pink Chameleon series is Blue Gene Baby - with a BLUE cover.
7 Comments on Polly Toynbee on Girlification, last added: 4/23/2008
I'm not sure how indicative that study is. Anxiety about appearance would indeed harm brain functions, not just about math, but about any kind of capability, if one is consumed by it. But it's not just psychological manifestation (mind), it's anthropological (culture). The anxiety does not come from being girly alone, however. Did they, for instance, perform the same test on boys? How old were the girls? Do they devour fashion magazines? What do they watch on tv? Do they come from a matriarchal or patriarchal society? You can imagine the difference in results across borders and sociagraphics.
I guess I'm pretty sensitive about any judgment placed on what it means to be a girl. It should be empowering to be one, pink and ruffles and all. Or black nailpolish and scruffy jeans. Girly can mean so many things and wear many different outfits.
Candice said, on 4/22/2008 1:34:00 PM
I'm not sure how indicative that study is. Anxiety about appearance would indeed harm brain functions, not just about math, but about any kind of capability, if one is consumed by it. But it's not just psychological manifestation (mind), it's anthropological (culture). The anxiety does not come from being girly alone, however. Did they, for instance, perform the same test on boys? How old were the girls? Do they devour fashion magazines? What do they watch on tv? Do they come from a matriarchal or patriarchal society? You can imagine the difference in results across borders and sociagraphics.
I guess I'm pretty sensitive about any judgment placed on what it means to be a girl. It should be empowering to be one, pink and ruffles and all. Or black nailpolish and scruffy jeans. Girly can mean so many things and wear many different outfits.
Clearly pink makes people have an opinion. And all because Fiona worried about her book.
Candy Gourlay said, on 4/22/2008 4:14:00 PM
>girly can mean so many things and wear many different outfits
excellent point, candice - and girliness should not equate to airheadedness in the same way that a boy can be a jock and still love reading (like my son, actually)
and bookwitch, yes your piece in the guardian was fascinating. your informal study was more food for thought: "I put my gut feeling - that pink book covers don't sell purely because they are pink - to the test with a group of children aged eight and nine. Blue and white books were universally popular. Nobody liked the green classic. The boys loved the brown, classic looking adventure book, but at the sight of the pink book the girls were all excited, and the boys shook their heads in disgust."
Jon M said, on 4/22/2008 4:20:00 PM
Not sure about pink, my daughter moved onto purple very quickly. hmmm
Candy Gourlay said, on 4/22/2008 4:43:00 PM
hey jon, congratulations on getting an agent! for some reason, your blog refuses to let me congratulate me there ... or comment. so hey, here are my good wishes. me happy for you!
Sarwat said, on 4/23/2008 5:27:00 AM
I wonder if the colour pink isn't the issue here, it's the self image being sold to young girls (actually, being sold to all of us). There's an article (today's Metro, well I had to read something on the way to work) which brings up the Size Zero thing, and how girls and young women are aspiring to this size, even though many of them don't quite know what it is, exactly. In the same paper there's a report of a eating disorders specialist having died (implied through organ failure) as she weighed only 30kg. On the pink issue, my daughters only question on our recent visit to a castle was why there wasn't any pink armour.
The moment finally came! Signing a copy of HUNGRY at Cobb Mountain's very own coffee shop and bookstore, The Bookkeeper. Bill made pistachio Home Worlder cookies, with five tentacles rather than six, but who's counting! Pipecleaner tentacles were made with googly eyes. There were green alien Italian sodas to drink and a t-shirt giveaway.
My good friend and writing partner, Mary, helped in my presentation as Commander Pggsbtk, (otherwise known as Deborah's grandmother Pig's Butt). Mary and I did a "spit and greet," and she ably assisted applying Pggsbtk's beauty secret to transform Tom, one of the Bookkeeper's visitor's, into an alien. There were wonderful screams of pain from the bathroom as the beauty secret did its job. Norm, Mary's husband, made a certificate for the kids that said they were officially part of the invasion force and were not to be eaten.
Since then Mary helped me at an assembly at school in which a sixth grader named Tristan outdid Tom with his screams from the back of the stage. He was very brave as he went out on his mission to terrorize Earthlings with his new alien face. One of the pleasures of all of this is being a teacher and a writer. The kids at school have been genuinely excited for me.
I signed books at Funtopia last weekend as a fund raiser for Minnie Cannon's sixth grade science camp. Over 200 dollars was raised!
My family, community, friends, collegues, and church (even Episcopalians can appreciate hungry aliens) have been so supportive. All I can say is a humble thank you to everyone who have made the last two weeks so memorable.
0 Comments on Life in Tentacles as of 1/1/1900
Janet Grace Riehl said, on 10/18/2007 3:40:00 PM
Alethea...what fun! And how imaginative. The Heroine's Journey presentation you sent me is marvelous as well...good educational service as well as attractive.
Timber Beast said, on 10/23/2007 8:34:00 AM
I am thrilled the book signings have been such a positive experience.
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Ah well, there goes my Saturday. You know full well, don't you, that you've blogged on my favourite topic - marketing and writing! Yeah! I now realise why I had a previous life in a marketing department! ;-)
i forgot to mention that on the steffi mcbride website, there is a ocmpetition inviting people to submit their own book trailers for the book.
clever, clever. make the reader do your marketing. although this is a ploy now widely used. the nerdfighters do it for john green's books (nerdfighters.ning.com). and the guardian newspaper today announced another similar youtube competition.
i think the steffi mcbrdie social networking ploy though should have been started way earlier than they did - long before the book was launched. it takes a long long time to reach critical mass.
btw book marketing is one of my fave topics too. i have considered turning Notes from the Slushpile into a blog on book marketing. But first I have to get a proper book contract.
Vern's still gutted about that...