Children's Festival of Reading & BOOKMARKS!

Look what I've been busy with...

I finally made bookmarks for my eBook, Casey Chameleon, published by Flying Books, 2012 AND a website (still in a work-in-progress)! I've been thinking about doing this for a while now. I have to thank Donna Martin for giving me the push. More on Donna later. But first, a little about my bookmarks: 

Making the Bookmarks
I went with Gotprint.com from the recommendation of the lovely ladies at the Children's Book Hub.

Here's the lowdown:
Specs: 2 x 8 bookmarks, gloss on both sides, rounded corners, economy shipping
Quantity: 250 bookmarks
Cost: $39.36

Quality: Excellent

I recommend them.  If you are comparison shopping, another company I recommend is Overnight Prints. I requested their free samples and I was impressed. They cost a tad bit more, but they offer sales on occasion and when they do, their prices are comparable. 

As for the design, I recommend Alison K. Hertz. She designed a number of our picture book author's bookmarks and postcards. I happened to design my own before I knew of Alison's services. Since I spent hours on it, I didn't want to throw my hard work away. I think it came out pretty good considering I did it myself. On a writer's budget, sometimes you have to go DIY.

Childlren's Festival of Reading
The Children's Festival of Reading is coming up on May 18, 2013 in Knoxville, Tennessee and Donna Martin is hosting a booth.  She is offering a free giveaway for the over 15, 000 families that will be attending.  Donna has graciously opened up her project to our writing community to help us promote our books in the hopes of instilling the love for reading. It's a win-win situation! 

"Proceeds from the festival will benefit Dolly Parton's Imagination Library, which fights against illiteracy by donating free books every month to children ages NB to 5-years-old."

I couldn't find gummy chameleons so the lizards should suffice

Since I have an eBook, I can only handout autographed bookmarks with a QR code directing readers to my publisher's site. I am in the process of working out a way to offer the eBooks for free for a limited time or quantity.  I'll let you in on the details as soon as I figure it out.   

In the meantime, I am on my way to the post office to mail the bookmarks with gummy treats to Donna. The Children's Festival of Reading is a wonderful event. I wish I could be there.

If you are interested in donating to the festival, visit Donna Martin for more information!

Pitching a Story

Julie Hedlund of Write Up My Life challenged us 12 x 12 in '12 participants to write a pitch for Tamson Weston's Pitch Contest.  We are asked to prepare a 140 character pitch for our story.  I thought this was going to be fairly easy until I re-read the rules again.  "...in 140 characters," not words!   This is equivalent to the maximum Twitter message.  


In any case, how could I refuse a challenge.  I used Twitter's post to test my pitch.  It was the most difficult thing I've ever had to do.  I always went over the maximum characters allowed.  How could I possibly condense my story to only 140 characters!  I felt I didn't do my story justice by limiting myself to a few words.  I wanted my pitch to entice readers and give them enough information to know what my story is about- conflict, resolution, and all.  


Below are pitches for 4 different stories.   I'd like to know which story are you more inclined to pick up and read?  Please make your choice in the comment section.  Please note that all of these pitches fall at or below the 140-character count.  I realize some information is lacking.  But your choice will help me see which of the pitches below is more effective.  Thank you!

Title:  A Case of the Funny Face

Pitch:  "Stop making faces or your face will stay that way."  But Frankie still makes faces until one day, his face finally freezes into place.

Title:  I'm a Monster Too!

Pitch:  Herman is waiting for his nightly visitor.  Only this night is different. Join Herman as he outwits Barry into making him a monster too!

Title:  Emily Sparkles

Pitch:  What Emily wants most is a tiara to add to her collection of sparkly things until she finds out she'd have to win the pageant to get one. 

Title:  WEE!

Pitch:  What did the snail say when riding on the back of a tortoise?  Wee!  What did Timothy say when he found out he wasn't as fast as he thought?


Update: 3/8/12
The winners for Tamson Weston's Pitch contest has been announced.  In the post you will find valuable information on how to write a great pitch and what editors may be looking for. Tamson sums it up well.  I'm sure you'll get a lot out of it as I did.  

“LIKE” it or Not- The Results (part 2)

In Mid October, I entered a writing contest- the MeeGenius Author Challenge.  I submitted my story titled, “Funny Face,” and was notified a month later that I qualified to compete in the voting round of the contest.  All qualified stories were posted to the MeeGenius website for everyone to vote.  The idea is for authors to spread the word to family and friends and have them “like” our story to advance through the voting round. (The only drawback is that you have to have a Facebook account to vote.  In part 1 of “LIKE” it or Not, I share my views on this type of contest.) 

MeeGenius was kind enough to offer some marketing suggestions to enter the social loop:

Here’s A Handy Marketing Guide to Help You Spread the Word:

§  Tweet your manuscript link to the Twittersphere. (Make sure to include the hashtag #authorschallenge in all your tweets.)

§  Request retweets from your followers.

§  Post your link on your Facebook wall and ask your friends and family to “LIKE” it.

Fight for Your Write!

§  As a budding author, use those skills as a wordsmith to write a blog post and ask your readers to vote for your manuscript.

§  Email your family and friends and encourage them to vote. Ask them to share your manuscript link with their friends and colleagues.

Stick With It!

§  Stay engaged with your contacts throughout the voting period by posting additional comments on Facebook and Twitter. Update your blog regularly with new and interesting developments.                                        

Marketing is tough business.  If you want to see results, you need to put in the effort.  Needless to say, I did it all:  Twitter, Facebook, JacketFlap, Blogger, Message Boards, e-mail, and even placed an article in an online local newspaper- The Patch.

I tried to be regular with my postings without being overbearing.  My experience with this type of contest has taught me how much work is involved in self-promotion.  It's almost like a full-time job.  

The 2 weeks and 5 days of marketing garnered me 132 votes.  “Not bad,” I thought.  But the winner, Gregory G. Allen, received 2006 votes!  That's impressive.

Under the circumstances, I was pleased that I ranked 84 out of 398 and managed to stay in the top 100 rather than the bottom 100. 

Thank you to everyone who voted for me and shared my story to others.

I put a lot of effort into my marketing, but not enough to reach 2000+ people.  That just goes to show that I need a different marketing strategy or make more friends!