Category — Marketing

I’ve been neglecting this blog terribly the past several months – it’s as if after quitting my Day Job I’ve put everything on hold ’til I’m finally outta there! Not really; I’ve been doing other things, notably, thinking about ways to get the news out there about The Forever Friends Club: the great little easy-reader chapter book my little press has just produced!

The book’s gotten fantastic reviews. Adoptive Families magazine called it “a delight,” and Motherhood Later said it was “ a wonderful twist to the adoption tale.” Plus, it has tons of free downloads, including a complete educators guide as well as a printable kit so kids can start their own club for forever friends!

I love this little book and I know that once adoptive families (and all families!) get their hands on it they’ll love it, too!

If you want to be eligible for one of 3 copies of this well-reviewed, well-written, and beautifully illustrated book about a group of kids who put the friendly in friendship, please comment below this blog entry and answer this question by May 30:

What makes a good friend?

If you are an author I want to be sure you know about the usefulness of Google Alerts for tracking reviews, mentions of you, results of PR activities, or whatever it is you’re interested in following on the web. I won’t get into the hows of creating a Google Alert for oneself- Google it! – but suffice it to say it is very useful, particularly when trying to keep track of ones promotional efforts.

I have Google Alerts set up for me, the titles of my books, the titles of books my publishing company has published, and the authors who have published with my company. Come to think of it, it would behoove me to set up a Google Alert for my company, too. That’s only logical.

It’s because I have a Google Alert set up for my books that I recently came across a brand-new book review for Mishka: An Adoption Tale. Mishka came out in 2007 – not that long ago in people years, but ages ago in book years. Most of the reviews for that book came out in late 2007, early 2008. A couple of bloggers reviewed it last year, but that was it the result of a little blog-tour experiment by yours-truly. But this review, sitting smack-dab in the middle of a website devoted to International Adoption, was completely unsolicited and unexpected. The very best kind of review a book could get!

I’m a bit behind in really using web 2.0 to promote the books I publish through my little independent press, but since I’m on the eve of promoting my press’s next book, The Forever Friends Club, written by Sue Gainor and Sarah Gibson, and illustrated by Miranda Mueller, AND November is National Adoption month, it is an opportune time to try new things, like making book trailers.

In preparation, I’ve been looking at book trailers for picture books on the Internet. I’ve found a few that I think are well done.

First, here’s one for Up! by Kristine O’Connell George, illustrated by Hiroe Nakata:

I like it because, while the text stays still, the illustrations move, which gives the impression of animation although the image is static. It’s also a very clean, clear, playful trailer with un-annoying music. It’s also short, but not too short, and importantly, isn’t the author reading the book.

Here’s another one that is super-cute, for the book Chicken Butt, written by Erica Perl and illustrated by Henry Cole. Within about 3 seconds it pulled my 7-year-old in from the next room over:

I really like the 3-D effect of the first few frames, and I also like the voice-over. Again, the music is unobstrusive and the illustrations amusing and well chosen.

Here’s another I found for Captain Cheech, a book by Cheech Marin and illustrated by Orlando L. Ramirez. Again, the soundtrack is appealing, and I like how the words are animated, but you can still read them. No voice-over, but kids laughing and water splashing add a layer to a simple soundtrack:

The trailers I seem to like have a couple things in common: they’re short, they’re cute, and the creators have paid special attention to the soundtracks. They also give the impression of animation although confined to static artwork.

Have you made a book trailer for your book? Let me know how it went for you, how you came up with the design of the trailer, and what tips you might have for a book trailer newbie. Feel free to post a link to your book trailer in the comments section, or post a link to another book trailer you think serves as a great example.

In the last couple of posts I wrote I attempted to explain why it takes so long to publish a picture book. The timeline I gave holds pretty true no matter if you are an author working with a traditional publisher or a self-publisher working on a picture book.

The bottom line is that it takes a long time to create a children’s picture book. Art takes a long time, design takes time, and printing, particularly if you’re going overseas, takes time. Picture books need to be produced offset (I think digital will get there, but it’s not there yet), and the cheapest deals you’re going to get remain in countries like China and Hong Kong.

In those posts I also said that once your book is sent off to the printer you should probably consider yourself about 6 months away from publication, give or take a month. This is to take into account any printing contingencies, but it’s also to give your time to get pre-press reviews by the review “biggies”: Library Journal, Publisher’s Weekly, Kirkus, Booklist, the New York Times Book Review, and School Library Journal. There are also many, many other review publications that will also need significant lead time as well, and these review pubs (niche or local publications) might be even more relevant or offer better possibilities as a place for your book to get reviewed.

If you’re not going to bother with this you still need to give yourself 4 months for printing and review-getting. Because you NEED reviews, even if it’s a website or a blog or your local newspaper or your grandma. You are going to need testimonials, because testimonials, or quotes from great reviews, are what you repackage on your sell sheets, your postcards, your website, etc. etc. 

So, here’s the first part of a list of things you need to be doing while you wait for your book to arrive on that proverbial and literal slow boat from China. If you are working with a traditional publishing company the publishing company should be doing these things for you. I say should, because I’ve heard that some don’t. If they don’t, they probably don’t care about your book that much (or at least not like you do)…and maybe you need to take the bull by the horns and do some of it for them. In any case, this is what needs to go on in that 6-month lag time:

• Get reviews and testimonials. This can take longer than you think. Even if you’re just getting a nice quote from the lady next door, you need to give her enough time to read the book and think of something intelligent to say. Also – give out more copies for testimonials and reviews than the number of testimonials and reviews you think you’ll need. Many people intend to read and review your book…but then they don’t. I’ve done it and people have done it to me. It happens.
• Create your press package. Sell sheets, press releases, sample reviews, sample articles, a website that looks GOOD – all of these are crucial.
• Sign up with distributors. Even if you’re not trying for an exclusive distribution deal, you’ll still need to sign up with Baker and Taylor, BWI, Follett, etc.
• Sign up with online stores. Amazon is a must, as is BN.com. But you’ll also need to find all the little niche stores that might be able to sell your book. The more places it’s available (especially if they’ll stock your book in a limited way – to reduce returns – the better).
• Create your author web page. I don’t have one of these, which is too bad, but there’s only so much time in the day, no? I will do one this summer…promise! An author website can be very useful, however, especially if you want to promote your book with school visits OR if you are self-publishing and are creating a publishing company it presents a different side of you – author as opposed to publisher.

It’s the Midwest Book Review.

Good to know about the reviews, because Jim Cox, the guy who runs it, reviews books that the biggies won’t touch, but better to know about the INSANE amount of information on the site.

Go there. Read.

This is the second interview in a series of discussions I’ll be having with owners of small, start-up presses who specialize in books for children. It’s my hope that by interviewing these folks we’ll all get a better sense of the trials and successes of D.I.Y. publishing. Some of the people I’m interviewing started as self publishers, and some of them started publishing other people.

If you would like to be considered for an interview, please contact me at adrienne@drtpress.com. My goal is to do at least an interview per week.

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Ellen Feld, owner of Willow Bend Publishing, a small press devoted to publishing books about horses for young adults, shares what she’s learned over the past seven years operating her own small press. With upwards of 50,000 copies of her books sold, she obviously has tapped into the keys to marketing: persistence, a good product, and above all, knowing how to reach her market.

Q: Ellen, on the Willow Bend Publishing website there’s a lot about how you started writing about horses. When and why did you make the leap from writing about horses to publishing your own books about them?

A: I’ve been writing for horse magazines for about 25 years as a freelancer. These magazines are both regional and national in scope and the assignments kept me fairly busy. But at one point, I was between assignments, and as any writer can relate, felt the need to write. So I wrote a short story. A few friends read it and said it was quite good and that I should expand it into a book. I took their advice and wrote the book. Thinking it would be easy to get my book published as I’d been published countless times in magazines, I was in for a rude awakening when I submitted my manuscript to various publishers and received form letters back from each one saying ‘no thanks.’ Not one to give up, I decided to self-publisher. That was back in 2001. Now, with over 50,000 books sold, I’d be hard-pressed to go with a traditional publisher.

I never really thought about running my own publishing company, it just happened. As I sold more and more of my first book, I was getting asked when the sequel was coming out. Now, seven years later, I’ve got a regular following of horse enthusiasts, a full-time career with my publishing company (although I also have a “regular” full-time job), and when I took a year off from writing to concentrate on promoting, I had a lot of “oh drat,” reactions for fans at book signings who thought I’d have a new book this year. It’s been a ton of work but also a ton of fun!

Q: The key to small press success in a big press world is creative marketing. Can you share some of the more creative things you’ve done to market your books?

A: Creative marketing is definitely the key. I spend almost no time marketing to book stores. It simply isn’t worth the small sales and big headaches that I get from them. About 70% of my sales are through events such as craft fairs, big state fairs, horse shows, etc. These are direct sales which translates into sales at full retail price and there are no returns. I also sell to shops dealing specifically with the horse world. These “tack shops”tend to be small and although they may only order 10 or 20 books at a time, they tend to be very loyal, and again, they never return books.

Q: What has been the most successful way you’ve marketed your horse books? What has been the least?

A: Most successful: Remember all those magazines that I mentioned above? Well, I used my connections at those horse magazines to get FREE publicity. Having great relationships with the editors, I found that each one was enthusiastic about giving my books press. They’d write reviews, run any press release I sent them, include full-color pictures of the covers, and even include the books in their annual gift giving guides. One of those magazines, although focused on horses, was focused primarily on model horse collecting. They’d reviewed all my books and when they were looking for a book to package with one of their model horses, they came to me. They purchased the first book in my series, created a model to look like the horse in the book, and sold it nationally and internationally. In essence, they were marketing for me, plus they bought thousands of my books. It was a win-win. Since all the other books in my series are listed in each book, those buying the book/model set were all now aware of all my other books.

- Least successful: Signings in the big book stores such as Barnes&Noble. They never drew a crowd. However, some of the local, small, independents draw 10 times as many people. They’ve got a much more loyal following and I’ve found customers in those stores eager to support local authors. I’ve also had little luck advertising on the big, horse specific websites. These sites get up to a million hits a month, but are expensive to advertise with, and produce few results.

Q: Do you have any words of wisdom for people starting out in this business, particularly those who are interested in publishing for children?

A: Keep plugging away. The horse model/book sale didn’t happen overnight. I wrote for the company’s magazine for several years and had an excellent working relationship with them, and still do. Also, use your connections. If you’re written for a magazine, don’t be shy – ask them to run a press release about your new book. The children’s market is really tough and competitive so you must work at it every day. Think of new angles to market. Is your book about a dog? What kind? Approach the breed organization to see if they’d like to sell your books. There are also loads of local clubs for every breed of every animal. They all need to raise funds so ask them about using your books as fundraisers. Whatever your book is about, there’s probably a club somewhere promoting that topic. Tell them, then show them, how perfect your book is for them.