Let's get this Par-Tee Started! BYOB!

It's almost here!

Marketing Mardi Gras starts Monday, Feb 15th.

To celebrate, I'll have awesome guests, marketing advice, daily prizes and a scavenger hunt for a two Grand prizes.

First - you MUST be a Follower of my blog and Elana Johnson's blog to win ANY of the prizes listed below. Loyal peeps get rewarded :)

Note: Elana is also running a fabulous contest next week for agent critiques and her fabulous ebook so you have nothing to lose by following us.

We gain you as a friend, you gain some cool free gifts :) (Plus we're fun!)

Three kinds of prizes are available for you to win:

1) Daily Prizes
Every day, I will do a prize drawing from the Followers/Friends who comment on that day's post.

In addition to the daily prize, a daily clue will be provided in the post that relates to the Friday's Scavenger Hunt Question.

Monday: Marketing to librarians (Elizabeth Bird, Librarian NYPL/Fuse 8)

• Prize awarded to a post commenter (you must also be a follower) - free books
  
• Clue #1 for the Marketing Scavenger Hunt will be hidden in the post

Tuesday: Frugal Marketing for Authors (Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of Frugal Marketing)

• Prize awarded to a post commenter (you must also be a follower): Free ebook of Frugal Marketing
  
• Clue #4 for the Marketing Scavenger Hunt will be hidden in the post

Wednesday: Marketing to Indie bookstores (Marietta Zacker, Literary agent/NYC Indie book Owner)

• Prize awarded to a post commenter (you must also be a follower): A query/1st chapter critique by Marietta Zacker at Nancy Gallt Literary Agency. She will critique your query or first chapter and give you a follow up 30 minute phone conversation!!!!!!
• Clue #3 for the Marketing Scavenger Hunt will be hidden in the post

Thursday: Double Header! The Zen of Blogging (Lee Wind, author of ebook The Zen of Blogging) and Greg Pincus on Social Networking

• Prize awarded to a post commenter (you must also be a follower): - A free copy of Lee's ebook The Zen of Blogging
• Clue #2 for the Marketing Scavenger Hunt will be hidden in the post

2) Friday's Followers Prizes
All you have to do is be a Follower by 12:00 AM (midnight) EST on Thursday night (Feb 18). I will do a random drawing from the Follower list on the left hand side for some great prizes. This will be announced on the following Monday.



2nd Prize:

3) Scavenger Hunt Grand Prizes
To enter, on Friday you will need to fill out the form completely. You will be asked to put in the Scavenger Hunt answer, tally any extra points, and tell me whether you are agented or not. Winners will be announced on the following Monday.

Point System - Your name will be automatically be entered into the drawing one time just for trying. If you get it right, you will get 2 points.

Extra Points: (You will get your name put in the drawing for each additional point.)
+1 Tweeted the contest
+2 Follow me on Twitter
+1 Facebooked the contest
+2 Friend me on Facebook
+2 Add me to your blogroll
+5 Blogged about the contest
+2 for following Elana's blog
+1 for following my blog

Grand Prize Package #1 - The Unagented Writer Package is for those who currently DO NOT have an agent and want one. This includes:

• A lot of books on writing and querying
  
• A query/ 3 Chapter Critique by my awesome agent, Alyssa Eisner Henkin at Trident Media Group!!!!!!!

Grand Prize Package #2 - The Agented Writer Package is for those who do not want an agent, have an agent, are on submission, have a book deal, or are published. This includes:

• A lot of marketing books
• Free 2 hour consultation with me on marketing you and your book
  
• One free marketing item - design of a business card, bookmarker, postcard etc
  

***NOTE: Elana is also running a Great contest this week. We're offering extra entries for each other, but if you're interested in winning the prizes in her contest, you MUST ENTER HER CONTEST in addition to mine. She's having some great query critique prizes.

In other words, if you enter here, you are NOT entered there. They are two separate contests that we're promoting together. Does that make sense? If not, shoot me an email: sjohannes@bilaninc.com. Or you can leave any questions in the comments and I will clarify!

So go ahead and follow me today. The Par-Tee starts Monday!

Be there or be square!

Mardi Gras 411/Elana Johnson on Querying

411 on Marketing Mardi Gras

As you know, next week (Feb 15 - Feb 19) is my Marketing Mardi Gras Party. The party will last all week long and include many special guests, daily prizes, a Marketing Scavenger Hunt, and 2 Grand Prizes awarded at the end of the week.
1) A Marketing Package for agented authors
2) My Agent's Critique Package (Alyssa Henkin at Trident Media group) for unagented authors.

Sound fun or what!?

Now, Elana Johnson (The Query Master) and I are throwing this PAR-Tee together. She will be having tons of prizes as well including additional agent query critiques.

The thing is to enter this Mardi Gras Party - you really need to follow us BOTH.

So go ahead and sign up for both blogs today and get a head start.

What do you have to lose? We give great advice, we are fun, and we give 30 day guarantees if you don't laugh at least once. Plus let's face it - the prizes are awesome! (if i do say so myself :)

All details on the party will be announced TOMORROW so come back!

===================

Today, Elana stopped by today to tell us the Five Things To Avoid When Querying (On her blog today she asked me about how to balance Social networking with Writing. GO check it out!)

Querying can be a long and tiring process. Writing a query letter can feel the same way. And since your letter is what you use to query, here are a few hints for what to avoid when getting ready to enter the query trenches.

1. Querying too early. Write your query letter. Revise it a few times. Post it for others to review. Rewrite it a few more times. This same advice should be applied to your manuscript. Write it. Revise a few times. Give it to some trusted readers. Rewrite some more. Don’t query until both your letter and your MS have gone through this process.

2. Sending mass queries. You need to personalize. Research each agent. QueryTracker.net has all the pertinent links you need for every reputable agent. And stats for how long they take to respond, how often they request, etc. Make sure you spell the agent’s name right. Be sure they’d be a good match for your work. Mass querying is bad for everyone.

3. Gushing. The query letter is a business letter. Treat it as such. It’s okay to say you read something on their blog/twitter/website that made you think they’d be a good match for your book. Don’t gush about how amazingly awesome they are or that you like their cat or whatever. That just screams “stalker!” and that’s not really how you want to start your professional relationship.

4. Blathering on and on. We all want to make ourselves personable. But as I said before, the query letter is a business letter. State your business and be done. They don’t need to know how many kids you have or anything like that. They want to know if you can craft a concise summary of your book. Because usually, that means you know how to use words well, and your MS won’t be stuffed with useless words. If your query is, agents likely think your MS is too.

5. Sending repeatedly. Follow the rules. If an agency says a “no” from one is a “no” from all, don’t try someone else at the agency. Don’t send your query letter to the same agent over and over again. If they say no, they mean it.

Get that query polished to a high shine, coat your nerves in steel and sit back and wait for the requests to come rolling in!

See you back here tomorrow for the Pre-Party!

2010 SCBWI New York Notes from across the Net

Hi guys.

I've been perusing and reading some great notes from the NYC conference. I thought I would lists out a summary of what I have found. Some of this is on the SCBWI Team Blog, but a lot of these I found on Twitter/ random blogs.

Jane Yolen

Write Up My Life

Berrie Green


Libba Bray

Beware of the Hot Pterodactyl

Story Makers

Libba Bray on Writing

Writing as an Extreme Sport

Libba Bray on Writing as a Sport


Jim Benton - Illustrator

Compulsive Creator


Viral Marketing/Promotion - Jennifer Bailey, Blogger & Graphic Designer

Jenn Bailey on Promotion

Viral Marketing


TV and New Media - Eddie Gamarra Agent, The Gotham Group

Your book as a Movie


Picture Books - Allyn Johnston, Vice President & Publisher, Beach Lane Books

Real Deal about Picture Books


Writing Fantasy - Arianne Lewin Editor, Disney/Hyperion

Writing Fantasy

Arianne Lewin on Fantasy


Literary Novels - Alvina Ling Senior Editor, Little Brown

SCBWI Aving Ling


Visual StoryTelling - Laurent Linn Art Director, S&S Books for Young Readers

SCBWI Laurent Linn


NonFiction - Brenda Murray Editor, Scholastic

Brenda on NonFiction


Contracts - Edward Necarsulmer Agent, McIntosh and Otis

Exciting world of Contracts


Writing For teens - Ben Schrank Publisher, Razorbill

Writing for Teens

Ben Schrank on writing


Series Fiction - Francesco Sedita, VP & Publisher, Grosset & Dunlap


Miscellaneous sessions: Intensives, Q&A Panel, Signings

Post intensives and Q&A

Networking NIght

Conference summary

Autograph Party

Agents on the Market


Other sessions

Sheldon Fogelman Agency

What's selling



General Round UPs

SCBWI Blog

Winter Conference

NYC SCBWI

Round UP

SCBWI Conference 2010

Conference High Points

Surviving NYC Weekend

Publishing tips from NYC

Conference Wisdom

Summary:
Part 1 - Friday
Part 2 - Saturday
Part 3 - Saturday
Part 4 - Sunday


Hope this helps!

Marvelous Marketer: Mandy Hubbard (author of Prada and Prejudice)

Hi Mandy, thanks for joining us this week! Tell us a little about yourself and your books.

My book on shelves, PRADA AND PREJUDICE, is about a fifteen year old girl who trips in her Prada heels, hits her head, and wakes up in 1815. I have four other books in the pipeline, most notably my August 2010 release, YOU WISH, about a girl whose every birthday wish from the last fifteen years came true-- starting with a life-sized MY LITTLE PONY.

I got started like most do-- querying. I landed an agent in 2006, but it took two years (and nine drafts) for Prada & Prejudice to sell. It's a rather long story, but if you'd like to read about it, I recapped it here, on my blog.

Selling my debut novel (as part of a two book deal) was sort of like breaking through a logjam, and I've sold three other books since. (including a book about Nascar, Driven (June 2010, Harlequin); You Wish (August 2010, Razorbill) and Shattered (Written as Amanda Grace, Flux, 2011)

Blogging has been really amazing for me, but at first, it had nothing to do with marketing. I met my critique partner(s) through livejournal, and I really don't think I ever could have been published without them. I used livejournal as a way to socialize with other writers and document my journey.

I do get a lot of traffic to my blog these days, most notably to the "road to publication" tagged posts. After my book deal, I went back and unlocked the entries dealing with rejection. The ones where I whined and moped that it would never happen. I was hoping that other writers who were struggling with rejection would recognize that we all felt like that at one point, and perseverance is what it takes to get beyond it.


You are very active in the social networking community. How do you use the various channels to get the word out about your book?

I think it's important not to be obnoxious when you're on the social networking platforms. If you be yourself and try to make genuine connections and friendships, you create a far more lasting impression than if you friend everyone with a message about your novel and where they can buy it. I talk to people every day on Twitter and Facebook, but I do it because I enjoy connecting with writers.

I do think it's important to use your real name (or pen name, if you have one) consistently, rather than goofy nicknames that change between the social networks. If your livejournal name is WRITERMAMA45 and your twitter name is Janey Smith, I probably won't even realize you're the same person.

I also make a point to keep my book cover in my avatar or user picture. My book cover is my brand, and people are more likely to remember the image than the title.


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

A) You absolutely must be google-able. I can't tell you how many opportunities I've had because people were able to find my website or Facebook and send me a message. One of the countries that bought foreign rights contacted me directly, and I was able to forward that to my publisher. I've also set up library visits and talks with writer's groups after someone contacted me. I've discovered my book is in a grocery store chain in California.

In other words: be available for opportunities to strike. If they can't find you, they'll find someone else. If you can't afford a website, use a customizable blog. An example of someone who does this well is Suzanne Young

B) Interviews. I must have done at least thirty or forty by now. But they are free, except for your time, and it gets your book out there.

C) Write another book. All the work in the world isn't going to mean a thing if you don't have another book coming out. This might not seem like a "marketing" type tip, but it truly is--if you want a career, you need more than one book on shelves. Unless you're Jay Asher. Then you can bask in the glory of your awesomeness. (Although, for the record, pretty sure he's writing another book too.... So what are you waiting for?)


You have done some very creative things in terms of marketing. Can you tell us more about the STUPID PRADA SUMMER VAN TOUR?

The Van Tour started as a joke during a chat room conversation. Rhonda Stapleton (author of Stupid Cupid) and Saundra Mitchell (Shadowland Summer) and I were talking about selling our books at truck stops. Truly, it's a stroke of marketing genius, right? Someone needs to provide books to truckers. It ended up spinning into this epic joke about us driving a van across the country, selling our books. Saundra is a graphic design goddess and created funny photoshopped pictures of us. Then we kind of fed off each other and tried to make each tour post more ridiculous than the last.

In planning the tour, we came up with the stops by looking at list of silly tourist attractions (like the giant cow or huge ball of twine) and funny town names (Half.com, Oregon). It was really fun, and we're talking about doing a "world" tour in 2010, for our sophomore releases!

It was funny how many people still thought the tour was real, even though all of our photos of the events were stick figure drawings and we talked about going to a rave with George Washington or doing our signing in the crown of The Statue of Liberty. I even posted a picture of Little Miss Sunshine stealing our van and the guy from fight club. HA.

But yes, basically, we each picked three locations and blogged once per week (My day was Wednesday) an the "tour" lasted three weeks that way, revolving between our blogs. It was a really fun, goofy way to entertain people and talk about our books.

(If you want, you can read the tour recaps).


I was actually one of the people who thought you guys really rented a van! (ha!) After promoting Prada, what would you say is the most important thing you’ve learned about marketing since you began this journey?

This is going to sound vaguely Sesame Street, but I feel like the best thing I've done is just be accessible and helpful to people. I genuinely love this industry and want to see people succeed, and I like answering questions and encouraging people. It seems, in return, people buy my book and talk about it, and I really, truly appreciate that.

Thanks Mandy!

Thanks Shelli