Wordy Wednesday: WHAT...?

It's Wednesday already?  I'd swear it was Monday about two seconds ago.  This week is flying by and filled with driving (football, cross country, soccer, play practice, band practice...).  I'm in this strange nether-world between having sent off revisions to my editor and not having time to get back to revising my next ms which I am LONGING to do.  Oh, I've spent the occasional half-hour at the computer tranfering my pages of notes-jotted-down-while-waiting-at-red-lights into the new ms.  But real, solid, three or four hour chunks of time to do the big things I want and need to do have proven elusive. WHAT am I going to do?  Answers...please...?

Back-to-Business Monday: THE HONORARIUM QUESTION Part 3 - Promotions & Incentives

While connecting with potential readers (as well as with educators, librarians and others in the book community who are interested in you and your work) is an important benefit of the author or illustrator appearance, it is optimal to have your marketing efforts also get the most number of books into the hands of readers.  Here are a few ideas for moving copies.

• Consider appearing for a discounted fee (or even just travel/hotel expenses) if there is a bulk book purchase.  This can be beneficial for newer and even more accomplished authors to show their support for such programs as a community book distribution or a One School-One Book event.
• Ask your publisher if they offer a pricing discount to schools/libraries hosting their authors. If so, make sure that this discount information is provided to all hosts to encourage book purchases.  If you have a reading guide, link to a really good newspaper interview you've done, or other read-the-book enticements, make sure to provide this information to hosts along with book order details when you confirm an appearance.
• Create a special appearance benefit for groups having read your book.  For example, if you're going to speak at a school, offer to have a special session with members of their book group if they've read your book.  Or, offer a special talk tied to particular curriculum areas and with special "author secrets revealed" material for appearances at which all students will have read your book and are ready for a special, in-depth workshop.

Beyond the fact that selling books is good for your career, the more members of your audience have copies of your book, the more engaged they are likely to be in your visit.  There's just something cool about having a copy of a book written by someone you have seen or even met!  Obviously, the more books there are to sign, the more fun and energized signings will be as well.  Which brings me to the topic for next Monday: School Appearances and Bookstore Signings.

I'll finish her by noting that, as always, these suggestions should be considered merely starting points to get you thinking about the how and why of promoting your book.  Have you had a particularly successful author appearance, gotten a great appearance marketing tip from a website or writer colleague, or thought of another author appearance idea to share?  Please leave a comment so we can all learn from each other!

Fiction Tuesday (?): Back-to-School Books

Okay, for some reason this went up today, instead of on fiction friday!

Teaching, learning, and the meaning of education are on everyone's mind this month. So much MG and YA fiction is set in--or comments on--school that it's tricky to define a "back-to-school" themed reading list.  And, of course, there are some educated wizards and summer-camp Olympians that are kind of their own NYT-best-selling genres.  That said, here are a few of my favorite boarding school tales (old and new):  



(Frances Hodgson Burnett's ultimate orphan-versus-mean-boarding-school-headmistress story)



(The first in Ally Carter's fun Gallagher Girls series about a secret boarding school for she-spies-in-training)





(Lauren Baratz-Logsted's historical fiction in which Bet disguises herself as a boy to get an education--with romance!)

What's on your back-to-school reading list?

FRIDAY FINISH LINE!

Revisions are done.  Well, put it this way, I THINK they're done but I am taking Saturday off and will reread the manuscript on Sunday morning to see if I still like it :)

Meanwhile, I think this is an appropriate moment to thank the Starbucks near the field where my eighth-grader practices football and where I have spend countless blissful hours writing and revising.

Honestly, my book is partly MADE of grande, decaf, three-pump, light whip mochas -- as are my thighs!

I've never been much of a coffee connoisseur and I'm not going to launch into some massive commentary about fast food and chain restaurants but I've gotta give credit where credit is due.  And, for someone who spends most days sitting at a desk in the same house where she sleeps, works, cooks, reads, and does the laundry, there's a lot to be said for a clean table by a three-pronged outlet and a cup of something hot I didn't brew myself.