Friday Round-Up (thoughts and marketing posts)

NYC Conference! Who's in?

Raise your hand if you are going to NYC SCBWI Conference. Me too! (hopefully:) Libba Bray is the keynote speaker - that alone is worth the cold, the money, and the taxi rides. Don't you think? OK so maybe you could buy all her books for much cheaper (evidently especially if you go to the devil stores of Walmart or Target) or watch her vlog for free.

But to see her in person and maybe steal/borrow/suck up some of her writing brilliance: priceless.


Mediocre Mom to the rescue! Halloween Drama Solved!

My daughter's costume was lost in mail this week. Talk about devastation! Try telling a 5 year old "I'm sorry but you may not be able to be Cheetah Cat Girl" Then I got "the look" - you know the one with a big puffed out lip and alligator tears clinging to the ledge of her eyelids. Broke my heart.

As if I dont' feel guilty enough, to drive the stake further into my heart - she mutters: "It's OK mom. I don't have to be Cheetah Cat Girl. I guess I can just go as a regular old Cat." (So sweet right?)

But just KILL me why don't yah!

So what did I do?

No!!! I did not make one! That would make me a Super Mom. I'm just Mediocre Mom. Not to mention, I am soooooo not crafty!

Besides, if I was so super - I WOULD NOT HAVE WAITED UNTIL THE LAST MINUTE. I would have bought it months ago and had it dry-cleaned and pressed.

My solution? I paid 50$ on overnight shipping for a 30$ cat costume. And lucky for me - it arrived today. Can't wait to see her face and the obvious words that will follow: You're the best mom in the world!

And she will be the best Cheetah Cat Girl - wrinkles and all.

PS: An update - after all that - the other one just came too - GRRRRRR! Anyone need a Cheetah costume, unfortunately its too small for me :)

Marketing Round Up

Here are some "spooktacular" marketing posts for the week. Happy Halloween!

Author Websites- What not to blog - You start blog and wonder what to write about. Here's are some tips on what NOT to do!

What's next in book promotion? - A man using airports as a book tour. All times are based on flight schedules! :)

Book Promotion Humor - A recent (and very funny) New Yorker piece by Ellis Weiner (wait don't laugh yet!) on book promotion has zoomed around the web.

15 places to start a group online - There's another aspect you can use to promote your book and your identity as an author. Instead of looking only for existing social hangouts, why not create one?

The Katy Challenge - My first school visit presentation was speaking to a group of 300 school kids—one of my biggest crowds ever. Here's the surprising thing: it was a piece of cake!

I heart Teen TV - let me count the ways!

I am obviously a teen at heart. (Maybe in my maturity level too.)

Somehow I always fall in love the CW or Fox shows.

Why?

Good question: I will tell you my top 5 reasons (besides #1 these are in no particular order :):

1. Paul Wesley and Ian Somerhalder - Honestly do I have to say any more? All I can say is "Yes please!" OK so who cares if they are dead, who cares if they have fangs, and who cares if they have anger management issues - I say "the more to love them with". (Oh wait, all that stuff is pretend, right?)

2. Vampire Diaries - This shows takes a good bite out of my Thursday nights and I love it! Obviously, a natural follow-up to #1. The show is awesome and follows the amazing books of LJ Smith )who BTW was wayyyyyyy before Stephanie Meyer. Like in the 90s before. This shows manages to get me to have 2 heart stops, 2 jumps, and 1 squeal - in each episode! Yes the jumping out of the trees and popping up in mirrors is probably predictable - but hey call me slow.

3. Glee - This show makes me happy! Why? because I see my life as a musical anyway - really! (check out the post I did on my life's soundtrack). Every time Lea Michele (AKA Rachel) sings - chills run down my spin and goose bumps form on my arms. The inappropriateness of the Principal, Coach Sue, and others crack me up. Yes I love inappropriate humor (as long as it is not about me!:) Mr Shu is a cutie pie, the music rocks, but most of all, Jane Lynch (Coach Sue) is hilarious.

Jane - you had me at Best in Show!!!



4. Dollhouse - All I can say is Echo is a bada$$! I love her guts and the concept is so cool. I mean - a illegal and underground group of people who have their personalities wiped clean so they can get any new personas. Plus they all have eternal amnesia - what a world! How cool is that! Wish I'd thought of it! Oh yeah, and Joss Whelon (who wrote Buffy) - can't wait to see your episode on Glee!!! Maybe Coach Sue and Mr Shu can have a rocking fight scene.



5. CW and Fox Reality shows - Give me Top model, Runway, American Idol, or So You Think You Can Dance any day. I love seeing regular people make it. OK OK so maybe it's staged, but I'll take a fake "making it" over no "making it" any day. Makes me think everyone has a shot in this business if you keep pushing for it.



It gives me hope and I love the see the underdog win.

PS maybe tomorrow I will list my next 5! Yes, that's right, the teen list goes on. Maybe Ill even start a feature called Teen Tuesday where I will list another teen thing I love.

Marvelous Marketer: Publisher's Sales Department (Eric from Pimp My Novel)

Hi Eric. Thanks for joining us. Before you give us some inside scoop into the Sales Department, tell us more about you and what you do.

I grew up in the northeast and have always felt at home there, so moving to New York City after college made sense for me even before I considered a career in book publishing. I've worked in both marketing and sales in the industry over the past few years, with my most recent stint in sales being with one of the larger accounts. My primary role is to assist two of the reps in their day-to-day jobs of selling a selection of our overall list to our assigned account.

Can you tell us the difference between publicity and marketing?

As for publicity versus marketing--the main difference is that publicity is coverage you don't pay for (e.g. a spot on Good Morning America, a New York Times book review), whereas marketing is coverage you do pay for (such as full-page ads in the New York Times, some forms of co-op advertising, &c).

Being in Sales, can you give us some insight as to your typical day?

I wrote a tongue-in-cheek post a few weeks ago about my typical day,but in brief: I spend a typical day doing administrative work (replying to e-mail inquiries, sending mailings to the accounts, copying and filing expense reports, and so on), tracking sales data from the accounts, reviewing bestseller list information, checking and updating co-op information, and building a sales kit (a packet of information detailing all major aspects of a book) for each title the reps plan to sell on their next sales calls.

Before the book is acquired, what is sales role in the acquisitions process? What makes or breaks (from a sales/marketing) the acquisition of a book that book editors love?

Sales generally comes into the picture after acquisition, since the profit-and-loss statement helps separate the proverbial wheat from the chaff (sales-wise, anyway) without our direct input. (For more on the P&L, see my recent series. Sales will generally see the book at informational meetings after acquisition, at which point numbers will start to firm up a little more.

Does sales/marketing Google authors to evaluate their online presence or platform?

Sometimes. This is pure speculation, but I imagine editorial does this more in the early stages than sales or marketing would. Certainly I or my bosses have been known to Google authors of books that have already been acquired and are going to be sold in soon in order to gather more information or to use their on-line platforms as selling points (e.g. "This author has a blog with tens of thousands of followers," "the author website gets X number of hits per month"). Sales calls move pretty quickly and there may not be time to bring these points up, but they may be good ammunition if you're trying to get a buyer to increase his/her buy.

What goes into creating a concept for a book cover? Does the author/illustrator have input?

This is something the art department handles, and I'm afraid I don't know too much about it. From what I've seen, the author doesn't have a huge amount of influence over the cover, although there are exceptions (the author is a major celebrity, the author is an artist who insists on doing his/her own cover art, &c). The author sees the cover before publication, though, and I don't think I've seen a book go on-sale with a cover the author absolutely hated.

During marketing process of a book, how can an author work best with the sales and marketing department?

Authors rarely work directly with sales or marketing, since their relationship with the publishing house is generally mediated through their agent and editor. However, I have gotten the opportunity to meet/work with a few well-known authors, usually accompanying them around to local stores to sign stock, helping coordinate their appearances at conventions like Comic-Con or BEA, and so on. The best way an author can work with sales is to let their agent and editor know they're willing to do whatever it takes to sell themselves and their book, and if the editor and agent have an idea that involves getting the author together with some of the sales folk, they'll make it happen.

What would you say are the 3 things authors can influence the most in the book marketing process? What is out of their hands?

I think the three most important things an author can influence during the book marketing process are: 1.) Writing a great, salable book; 2.) Keeping up their on-line presence (author website, Facebook, Twitter, and so on) in order to maintain interest in them and their work and garner a loyal fan base; and 3.) Bring any positive reviews, media attention, &c they may receive to their agent's attention. Chances are their agent and publishing house will already be aware of these things, but it never hurts to double check. As an author, you can't afford any missed marketing opportunities.

That said, pretty much everything else (advertisement, promotional placement, &c) is out of the author's hands. That's what the marketing and sales teams are for, and the author needs to trust that those industry professionals know what they're doing.

What else can you share with us about your role in publishing and how authors can best utilize this role in their marketing?

Since I could go on for days about this, I'm going to take the opportunity to sell myself a bit and direct all you folks to my blog: http://pimpmynovel.blogspot.com/.

For more tips on what you can do, see my blog post on the subject.

Thanks for coming today, Eric!

Thanks Shelli.

Life lessons to a younger me

Dear younger Shelli,

I'm here to tell you that life turns out better than you ever expected. And I have a few pieces of advice that will make your life a lot easier.

Here are a few tips:

1. Remember the business class you took over creative writing....big mistake. Dangling modifiers will mean more to you than ROIs.
   
2. The typing class that you slacked off in...trust me... typing from Home Row is critical to your future. Remember two words - The Claw!
   
3. All beautiful kids who are mean to you in high school...tell them not to be so cocky. Our 20th reunion will reveal all.
4. When you get in trouble for your messy handwriting...it doesn't matter. Computers take over and you'll never have to "write freehand" again.
   
5. The cute guy you start dating in college. Dump him! He will break your heart. Oh yeah, and he loses all his hair too.
   
6. The soap opera you skip class for because you're afraid you might miss an episode? Let me just tell you that Days of our Lives is still on and you wont miss a thing. Bo and Hope are still together and Stefano is still crazy.
7. For all the times you have to decide between cheering and chorus? Don't worry, a show called "Glee" makes singing and dancing cool again.
8. The reason you love to read so much....is because one day you will be a writer. Keep reading!
9. Write down everything and keep all your journals. Some day they will be considered priceless "research".
10. It's not so bad taking your drivers exam in a 1984 van. When you move to the city, parallel parking will be a breeze!
11. Don't get too excited about mastering Atari and flipping PacMan or Space Invaders. It gets much harder on Xbox.
12. Your parents love you and mean well...and most of the time - they are right. Except when they tell you to go for the money.
    
13. Your little brother won't always annoy you. Someday you'll forgive each other for the countless wedgies and be the best of friends.
14. Friends will come and go. Don't worry, the ones you need will be the ones you keep. The ones you lose end up being crazy anyway.
    
15. All those fashion faux pas you make - macrame tops, parachute pants, and Indian moccasins? They will probably all come back in style in some form anyway. (oh yeah and someday, thick glasses will be cool!)
    
16. Whatever you do - do NOT perm your naturally curly hair or spray Sun-In at the beach, you will pay dearly.
    
17. All I can say is - blue eye shadow and pink lipstick are not your best colors!
    
18. All the mistakes you make don't matter in the long run. Including getting kicked off the cheerleading squad and a D in Trigonometry.
    
19. All those times you worry about your weight. Let it go. You haven't seen yourself pregnant yet.
    
20. Don't worry...you will get a first kiss, you will marry, and you will live happily ever after.

Love always,

Your wiser self!