Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in Sarah Prineas' LiveJournal:

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Sunday, May 11th, 2008
12:53 pm	A Sunday roundup of random really good things, none of them writing related. Theo is still young enough to wear a cape—and mean it. He also uses the word "perhaps" in conversation. We got almost three inches of rain last night, and the wind is still howling around the house, shaking the windows. J and I went for a run today (five miles!) and coming through City Park along the river the path was flooded, so we had to take off our shoes and wade. The icy water felt soooo good on my feet. The Maud is reading Anne of Green Gables. I am reading I Capture the Castle (for the first time). Hot Lady Grey tea with cream and sugar and a secret stash of shortbread cookies. The lilacs are in bloom. Last night I made spaghetti sauce with lots of garlic, and there’s plenty left for tonight’s dinner. For mother’s day Theo made me a dragon fridge magnet. Theo, if you recall, is a vegetarian. The dragon is labeled “vegetarian dragon” and is breathing fire on a block of tofu. I don't have anything else to do today but laze around, read with a cat on my lap, and eat spaghetti. If you've got a Sunday random good thing, I'd love to hear it... (27 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, May 6th, 2008
9:32 am	*twitch* You know how runners can get a "runner's high" when they're out for a long run? They actually get a physical addiction to running, from the endorphins. I think I'm addicted to writing. On Sunday night I finished Magic Thief: Found (book three, that is), and I'm totally itching to write. It's like I was in the habit of push-push-push to get the book done and got addicted to writer-endorphins, and now here I am on my "writing day" (day off from the dayjob) feeling sort-of desperate for a project to work on. Do you ever get like this? If so, what do you think causes the addiction? I wonder if there really is a writer-endorphin... (38 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, May 4th, 2008
12:56 pm	Determined. By midnight tonight I am going to be done writing book three. There, I said it. Now it has to happen. Update, 6:40pm. Not ded yet. Thanks for all the encouraging notes! Midnight's still over five hours away... Update, 8:54pm Am getting very close. Just tying up some loose ends here... Update, 10:26pm. That's it. Done. I typed "The End" at the end. Now I must conk out. Cheers! (26 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, May 1st, 2008
10:02 am	Twitterpated Ack! It's been a whole week since I last posted. The trouble is, I'm completely distracted by book things. Sorry about this, but it's pretty much going to be all book all the time around here for the next couple of weeks. Check out the widget thingy on my LJ profile page because it wouldn't post here. The numbers are getting smaller! My editor told me that the book could be in stores as early as the third week of May. Or possibly earlier. So it's really less than however many days the widget says. I have an actual copy of the actual book right here. It has the thing I wanted most, which is raggedy-edged pages (dunno the proper technical term for that). It is sooooo beautiful. It is also a little unreal. More good book news is that the book got a starred review from Booklist and it was chosen for the American Booksellers for Children (ABC) New Voices project (described in this newsletter). Last night I had a prepublication meet and greet dinner right here in Iowa City, and it was very fun, excellent company, and molten chocolate cake for dessert. You see why I'm distracted? And I've got book three to finish by next Monday. It could happen... (32 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008
5:57 pm	Four pieces of good news all at once, all writing related and not necessarily in order of importance One. Eric Marin has selected my story "Dragon Hunt" for his first anthology, The Lone Star Stories Reader. Two. Another story, "The Illuminated Dragon," will be podcasted soon at PodCastle. It takes three dragons to make a dragon theme, and that's all the dragons, so no theme. Three (not dragon related). First the context. I was absolutely certain that my book would be savaged by Kirkus. Dunno why. A premonition. I even had nightmares about it. The other day, to my astonishment, I found out that The Magic Thief received a starred review from Kirkus. My editor sent me a copy, but I don't know if I'm allowed to share it, so won't, for now. Four (no dragons, sorry). Again, context: Booksense is the national organization for independent booksellers. Giving them a group voice, sort-of, so they can be heard along with the big chains. They issue their Booksense Picks at various times. The next one up is for children's books released in spring/summer 2008 (it's not online yet). They list their favorite 50-odd YA, middle grade, and picture books, and then rank their top ten picks over-all. The #1 Top Ten Pick is my buddy Ingrid Law's Savvy, which I'm soooo keen to read. And The Magic Thief is #3 on the Booksense Top Ten Picks. This is a very good thing, and I'm very happy about it. [Edit: unlocked again, 'cos I've seen other Booksense mentions on other LJ's...] (94 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, April 21st, 2008
6:55 am	What Kids Are For Me: Making breakfast, packing school lunches. Maud: At loose ends before bus arrives, sings, loudly, to the cats. Me: "Gnar! That singing is making me crazy, Maud. Quit it." Maud: Continues to serenade the cats. Me: Goes up to Maud, waves hands around. "Aaaaaaa! That singing is making me FREAKING INSANE!!!!!" Maud: Calmly. "Mom, that's the point." Pwned. (13 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, April 17th, 2008
7:12 pm	Being and Nothingness At dinner tonight, the Prineii (me, J, The Maud, and Theo, who is 8) talked about nothing. Or, rather, Nothing. Theo is very interested in the subject of Nothing. What came before, what comes after. The absence of thing. Nothing. No Thing. His theory of life and death is that people die to make room on the earth for new people. He thinks the Nothing after death is not the same as the Nothing before. J, who is a physicist, gave us a lecture on the Big Bang. We speculated about what the teaspoon of super-matter, or whatever it's called, looked like before the Bang. Floating? In what? In Nothing. What color is Nothing? Clear? Black? White? Me: So what is nothing? Theo: It's nothing. You know? No, not really. (42 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, April 13th, 2008
8:11 am	The Novels Meme I've enjoyed reading my FList-friends' posts about novels written, though it's making me feel like a writing weirdo. So many writers have been doing this gig since they were in high school, like it's a calling, or something they were always meant to do. I started writing when I was in my 30's, sort-of accidentally. I wonder how that history--or lack of history!--affects my attitude about writing. Anyway, here's my list of novels both attempted and completed, starting in around 2000-1: 0. Unfinished untitled mess. Something murky and under-plotted about a girl with magical powers. The magic system was cool, based on written spells. I got less than 20,000 words into this and realized I needed to learn to write first. 1. The Tuppence Device. Set in 18th century alt-magic London, an adult fantasy about David Treadwell, a mathematician who has magical powers he doesn't want, and Sally Tuppence, a scientist; these two, with the help of Sir John Fielding (actual historical character) and the Bow Street Runners, must thwart a plot by a secret cabal of wizards to overthrow the Hanoverian government. This was my 'learning to write a novel' novel. It took me four years to finish. The protagonist didn't protag. I submitted it to six agents, got a couple of full ms requests (including one from the agent who is currently my agent) and helpful comments from Lucienne Diver about why she stopped reading on page 120. Decided I didn't like the book very much and bagged the agent search. I've pillaged some things from this book (the idea of the Device, for one, and the ratcatcher character). But it's pretty much dead and unpublishable. I don't even have a fond place in my heart for this book. 2. The Magic Thief. About six months after I trunked Tuppence I started this one, finished it eight months later, took it to the Blue Heaven novel workshop, and got an agent. We sold it just over one year after I'd started it. My plan, when starting this book, was to write a protagonist who does protag. So I did learn something from writing Tuppence: character motivates plot. Concerns the adventures and perils of a boy thief, Conn, his grumpy wizard-mentor, Nevery, and a nefarious plot to steal the magic of the city of Wellmet. Plus biscuits and bacon. 3. The Magic Thief: Lost. Started it not long after selling the first book, finished it in time for Blue Heaven last year, revised it for agent and for editor, it's turned in to the copy editor and I'm awaiting the CEM. Further adventures of Conn, this time pyrotechnic experiments gone awry and a mission with Rowan, the duchess's swordfighting daughter, to the desert city of Desh and the discovery of larger plots against Wellmet. Plus biscuits and bacon. 4. The Magic Thief: Found. This one doesn't really count because it's not done yet. About 10,000 words to go, I hope to finish it on the same schedule as Lost (it's due to editor in September). Conn and Nevery trying to save the city from the larger threat discovered in book two, a sad lack of biscuits and bacon, peril, and the city beseiged. Plus dragons! Next up: Who knows?! I've got some ideas for more Conn and Nevery books and a few freestanding novel ideas (I keep getting comments about this "Crow's Changeling" story I published in Strange Horizons a couple of years ago); also, a new idea for a MG fantasy trilogy with a wicked-cool magic system bonked me on the head recently. Depends on the vagaries of publishing, I suppose... (36 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, April 11th, 2008
5:03 am	Dayton Dayton sarah_prineas The picture's from last night's dinner in Dayton. The "car" driver dropped me off early, so I bopped into Books & Co, which was right across from the restaurant. Their children's books area was amazing--such a wide selection, and displayed face-out, which really does make a difference. The dinner with booksellers from that store and librarians was great. And now I'm in the Dayton airport! For six hours on a flight delay. The irony is that I flew American all week and was on time every time, and this is a United flight I'm waiting for. 'Sokay, though! I've got a cuppa coffee, a quiet chair, an electrical outlet, and words to write. Something about traveling has been so great for my writer brain; I've gotten lots of words every day. I'm going to finish this book by May 1st. Heck, with a six-hour wait in the airport, I could finish it today! (22 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, April 9th, 2008
2:26 pm	The best readers in the world The best readers in the world If you click the picture some more tour pictures are in there Hello! Here I am in Columbus hoping this posting-a-picture thingy is going to work right. The prepublication tour has been amazing so far, starting with Anderson's Bookshop in Naperville (just outside Chicago). They have this "Galley Club" where they get a whole bunch of galleys/ARC's from Harper and send them around to classrooms, and about 30 of those kid readers came to dinner with a couple of teachers and librarians and some of the staff from Andersons, and the Harper sales rep. It was such a fun evening. Meeting the kids blew me away. They'd come up to me, all starry-eyed at meeting a "real author" with no idea that I was just as freaked out by meeting real readers. We ate dinner and I circulated around the room. Then the store owner, Becky Anderson, said a few words, and then Rick, the Harper rep, sang a song, "Oh What a Beautiful Morning" (yes, this really happened), and then I got up and talked for, oh, about two minutes and then did Q&A until we ran out of time. The questions were great. There's a scene in the book where my protag gets into a fight with another boy and kicks him "in the collops" and a kid asked what "collops" were, haha. Three girls were in this class where they were collecting vocabulary words for points, so we made a deal that if they asked questions they had to put their vocab words in, so from them I got "How did you come up with the *plethora* of names in the book?" and "Was it hard to *persist* as a writer?" Some fun. Then I signed books, writing in secret messages in the runes that are NOT in the ARC's but will be in the final book (thus driving every kid there crazy, not knowing what the messages said), and that was it. The next night was very different, a delicious dinner with three children's booksellers from the Book Stall in Winnetka, a regular bookstore with an amazing children's section that, like an amoeba, is engulphing the rest of the store, apparently. We had a lovely dinner at a French restaurant and talked about books, books, books, and books. They hadn't read Megan Whelan Turner! Or Life as We Knew It! I set them straight on that. I got some great book suggestions from them, as well. We ate squishy desserts! The cheesecake was made there on the premises by the French chef (I mean, the chef was actually French). Soooo delicious and deadly. Harper's taking great care of me through all of this. My publicist had told me they were sending a "car" to take me from home to the airport, and by "car" I figured they meant "a taxi." But no! A limo! The driver looked like a farmer in his best black Sunday suit, but that's Iowa for you. It's been "cars" all the way, and believe me, it's nice to not have to worry about getting from point A to point B. Tonight, another dinner with booksellers, a teacher, and a librarian. And I wrote 600 words this morning in the hotel room. Being out and about is good for my writer brain. Cheers! (41 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, April 6th, 2008
10:18 am	and now for something completely different... Two things that I've been saving for after the publicity neep. One is that there's a cool educational website where you can hear children's authors tell how to pronounce their names, like Jon Scieszka-rhymes-with-Fresca and Cornelia Funke-pronounce-it-the-German-way. Mine's a tough one. The correct-ish pronunciation is right here. The second is that my book's UK publisher, Quercus, has posted the book cover on amazon.uk. Here it is! Shiny! I'm heading off to Chicago tomorrow, the first stop on my pre-publication tour in support of The Magic Thief. Dinner with Anderson's Bookshop and a whole bunch of kid readers. It's going to be fun! (49 Comments |Comment on this)
7:44 am	Publicity Neepery Part the Last: Wrap Up (the previous publicity neep is behind these words). Just because it took me a while to write this up and post it doesn't mean it's especially profound. I am far, far from an expert on this stuff, and everybody's experiences and expectations are different. So I'll leave you with a few thoughts and invite you to add yours in the comments. --For the author every part of the publishing process, from writing, to submitting, to the agent hunt, to launching the book, is potentially fraught with angst. The thing about book publicity that makes it perhaps the most angst-provoking is that the process, as the author sees it, is so opaque. Authors try to decode how the publishing house feels about a book from the kind of publicity effort it's given. Sometimes the author feels like she's on the outside looking in, losing control of a piece of work in which she's invested her whole self. The author's editor and publicist and agent are professionals; they know how things work. Authors often don't even know the right questions to ask. --From a friend's email (reproduced here with permission), taking issue with my first publicity neep post: All of us on the lower spectrum of publishing work our butts off promoting. And we don't stay out of the way. You stay out of the way, you are forgotten. We email reviews back to the publicity department, we make our own reviewer lists, we organize our own contests, we do all this insanely time-consuming crap, which I completely hate, because we know that no matter how much marketing and publicity loves us, they are working with a tiny budget alloted by a very profit-conscious publisher. This friend and I disagree about the efficacy of this kind of effort, but as she pointed out in the same email, my own situation is not typical. She is worried: Because your average $5,000 advance newbie authors will read [your post] and expect the works and won't do the promo on their own, and then will suffer for it. --A counterpoint, from another friend's email: So I can't decide whether to blog about this or not but one of the saddest things at [a recent] conference was the sight of 30+ authors sitting behind tables and stacks of their books for the mass book signing [...] and no one buying them. All the [authors] in their best clothes, in a hallway far off the main lobby, and you've got your [...] other reputably published authors mixed in with the self-published or micro-published with no way to tell the difference. All of the authors had big smiles and autographing pens and little candies on their tables [...] along with bookmarks, flyers, tchotchkes, etc, all the little marketing trinkets that I find mostly useless. All pert and ready to talk to the readers who never come. So a question. If the author does her own publicity, and she is an amateur (that is, not a professional publicity person), how does she distinguish herself from the self-published and vanity published authors who probably spend more time selling themselves than working on their writing? How does her effort make a difference to how her book does? How does she reach her readers? --I think it's important to examine the truisms of book publicity. Like the one about publishing houses not doing enough to promote their books. Maybe not every book is getting a lead title push, but the publicity team might be doing the most they can, in their professional capacity, to push the book into the hands of its "fit audience". --If the author hates schmoozing and giving away tchotchkes and spending her own money on publicity, then wouldn't her time be better spent writing? A very highly respected author I know via a listserv, who has also been an agency professional, says that the best thing an author can do for her career is not publicity, but writing the next book. --That said, every author might augment her publicity team's push as much as she feels is right for her. In the comments to the first neep post, other authors pointed out that they do only what they feel comfortable doing. So maybe that's the answer. If the author feels comfortable handing out bookmarks and stopping to sign stock at every bookstore she encounters, then maybe that's what she should do. If she likes going to conventions and setting up readings, then maybe she should. Will these things make a difference to her career? I have no idea. I guess the trick is finding the right balance. Seroiusly, I hope you'll add your thoughts on this. (19 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, April 4th, 2008
12:34 pm	Publicity Neepery Part Six Thousand: School Visits (not a how-to) (the previous publicity neep is yes, here.) This isn't a post about how to do school visits, but on how school visits might contribute to a publicity effort. Seems like a thing for children's writers, but those LJ friends who are reading and writing sf/fantasy might want to take a look at this because it might be an underused publicity resource for some of you. As you know, there's a lot of genre crossover readership--kids tend to start reading 'adult' science fiction and fantasy while they're still kids... Our school visit guest is Dean Lorey (guslad), the author of Nightmare Academy and all-around good guy. Here's his very cool website: www.deanlorey.com. Dean: "I love school visits, and I think they're really useful, but it took me a bit to get my mind around them. First, there was the fear of getting up in front of people, even kids. Maybe especially kids. Second, I wondered how helpful they would ultimately be. After all, you're often only meeting with small groups and the numbers of kids you see are really only a drop in the bucket compared to what a successful book would need to sell. Since this little post isn't really supposed to be about planning a school visit, I'll just talk about some of the benefits of doing them: First of all, buzz. There's so many entertainment options out there that's it's hard to get people to even sample your book, so one-on-one contact is a terrific way. The hope is that your visit will convince a group of kids to read it, hopefully like it and then tell their friends. Last Fall, I visited a school in Pennsylvania that ended up adapting my book and putting on a full-length play in the community. Not only is something like that enormously fun and gratifying, but it certainly exposes your book to a wider audience. Second, feedback. There's nothing more helpful than really getting out in the reading community and seeing what kids have to say about what you wrote. It's different from fan mail. Fan mail is almost always positive (which is nice) but chatting with a wide variety of kids in a group setting will give you a greater sense of what the majority of people think. It was eye opening for me to see what characters were their favorites (not who I had guessed -- at least in my book), what elements were most exciting to them, what they were interesting in finding out in future books, etc. Third, experience. I recently gave a speech at the SCIBA (Southern California Independent Booksellers Association) Literacy Dinner in Pasadena. I'm not sure I would have been able to work up the nerve to do it if I hadn't spent a lot of time in front of groups of kids, getting comfortable and honing my pitch. It's enormously useful to develop an exciting way to briefly communicate to potential readers and booksellers what your book is about and school visits are invaluable in helping you to perfect it. Kids are remarkably honest and it becomes pretty clear pretty quickly what connects with them and what doesn't. Fourth, (and finally) it's fun! Here's the bottom-line truth about school visits -- the kids are always excited to see you. Even if they haven't read your book and have no idea who you are, at the very least you're their alternative to math class. You can't help but be welcomed. :) And even though a school visit or two won't necessarily shoot your book to the bestseller lists, it's an enjoyable thing to do and it's just one of the many tools in your publicity tool box, so why not use it?" Thanks, Dean! Later today or tomorrow, the wrap-up. (14 Comments |Comment on this)
8:27 am	Publicity Neepery Part A Million Five: Publicity On and After Publication (yesterday’s publicity neep about prepublication tours is right here) Closer to the actual publication date is when the big shift happens in publicity: the team shifts from promoting the book to the gateway people to promoting it directly to readers. Marketing to individual readers en masse is very, very difficult. It's even difficult for the publicity team, never mind for the author who is going it on her own. Melissa talks a little about this, below. I may have a post later today about school visits, because that's one way to reach readers after the book comes out. Sometimes part of the publicity plan is the book tour, sometimes scheduled by the publicity team, and sometimes by an author who is motivated to get out and sell her book. With rare exceptions, the publisher-sponsored book tour is unlikely for a debut author, because she has no readers yet—she might have a reading at a bookstore, but nobody will come. In cases where a book debuts very strongly and has amazing buzz, a tour on publication might be scheduled. Other events might be useful, too, like industry events, trade shows, book festivals, book signings, and so on. Author Melissa Marr (melissa_writing), author of Wicked Lovely and the forthcoming Ink Exchange (from HarperCollins), was kind enough to write up and analyze her experiences touring in support of her first book. ( Bring it! ) Wow. This is great stuff. I'm taking notes. Later today or tomorrow, summary post and discussion. (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, April 3rd, 2008
7:27 am	Publicity Neepery, Part Four: The Pre-publication Tour (yesterday's neep on prepublication publicity is right under here.) This is another one of those atypical things. But it generates buzz and it's new and interesting, so... If an author is friendly and willing to travel, and if her book is a lead title, the publicity team might feel the book will benefit from having the author talk to those gateway people--booksellers, librarians, and teachers--before the book comes out. Maybe they think doing so will result in higher pre-orders, resulting in a higher print run, resulting in a bigger book. I have no idea whether this actually works. This is the pre-publication tour. It’s not a typical publicity thing, and it’s fairly new, as this New York Times article points out. The fact that there is a tour at all, it seems to me, is as important as what actually happens on the tour. The prepub tour is another marker that the publisher is pushing the book hard—a buzz generator. I’m told by colleagues that their tour accomodations were first-class all the way, which is partly because our publisher is a first-class operation, but is yet another way for them to Show Don’t Tell how serious they are about the book. My prepub tour starts on Monday, so I don’t know a whole lot yet about what happens. I have been calling them “schmooze dinners,” which about covers it—they are dinners, generally, with some of the gateway-to-readers people. I'm not really nervous about the dinners because we'll all have so much in common--we all love books! Also I have read the tour stories of experts who do know what happens on prepublication tours because they’ve done them. The author of Wicked Lovely and the forthcoming Ink Exchange, Melissa Marr (melissa_writing), talks about her experiences in blog posts here and here and here. (Melissa will be back on Friday to talk more about publicity on publication). And I’ve been looking forward to introducing my LJ friends who don’t know her yet to soon-to-debut author Ingrid Law. She talks about her prepub tour here: ( Tell us about the rabbits! ) If you want to see a picture of Ingrid’s incredibly gorgeous book, and to learn more about the book itself, www.ingridlaw.com is the place to go. Next up! Publicity on publication, with two special guests, and then the wrap-up post, which is probably going to kill me ded. (11 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008
8:41 am	Publicity Neepery Part Three: Prepublication. (yesterday’s neep about technical terms is right here.) For a long time after an author signs a book contract, she might hear very little from the publisher about the publicity plan. That is because the publicity team is focusing on other books ahead of her book on the schedule and not because they aren’t interested in her book. They are very calendar oriented. They also work very, very hard. My publicist called me at 6:00pm yesterday and when I commented that she was working awfully late, she laughed and said she worked at least that late every night. Depending on how the publishing house does things, the author might get an overview of the publishing plan right when she signs the contract, and she might get an idea of what the publicity team plans to do six months or more before the book comes out (if you have experiences with this you're willing to share, please add a comment!). These plans can change, sometimes at short notice, as the publisher assesses and re-assesses; the author should try her hardest to remain flexible. The author might fill out a questionnaire for the publicity team about her book, her press contacts, her ability to talk in front of a group of people, and so on. About two months before the book comes out the book gets “on the grid,” as a friend of mine puts it, and things start to happen. Caveat! This is where my experience becomes less typical. My book, The Magic Thief, is two months from publication. It is what’s known as a lead title, which means it gets a certain kind of push--or publicity effort—from the publisher. I’m very lucky to be in a situation where my book is being pushed hard. I suspect most lead titles are pre-determined because of the book or author’s standing. If you look at the lead titles from HarperCollins this spring, in addition to mine you’ve got the next title in the insanely popular Warriors series (my son is sitting next to me reading a Warriors book as I write this), the fourth book in the successful Septimus Heap series by Angie Sage, the sequel to Melissa Marr’s Wicked Lovely, Jenna Bush’s latest, the sequel to Anna Godberson’s The Luxe, and so on. (An aside: I have a theory about how my book got to be a lead title, which I will explain some other time. It wasn’t one, originally. It’s partly about luck.) So anyway, at this point, two months before publication, for any book the purpose of the publicity effort is to generate pre-publication buzz. Or getting people who are gateways to many readers--teachers, librarians, booksellers--reading the book and talking excitedly about it. It’s also to get people who have access to the author's book’s specific readership aware of the book, which may mean people in her region, or with a special interest, like fishing, or website design, or lighthouse keeping. This is partly the purpose of a group publicity effort like the Class of 2K8 or debut2009--to get books by new authors on the radar of those gateway-to-readers people. So anyway, how does the publisher generate buzz? In different ways for different kinds of books. As far as I can see, for a lead title they might do a combination of the following at varying times leading up to the book’s publication date. Books that aren’t lead titles might get pushed using some of these things, too: --Send out ARC’s (advanced review copies) or galleys. The ARC is like a bound paperback, vs a galley, which is often stapled. ARC’s are sent to reviewers, to book buyers, and to potential blurbers (well-known authors who will put their name to a short sentence like, “I couldn’t put it down! And not because of the glue on the cover!”). --Place ads in online and print industry outlets like Publishers Weekly or Shelf Awareness (but see Barbarienne's comments yesterday about the purpose of print and online advertising). --Send the author to an industry convention like BEA (Book Expo America) or ALA (American Library Association) to schmooze with booksellers and sign books. --Put up a microsite (a book site linked to the publisher’s website). My book’s microsite is http://www.magicthief.com. Note that it is geared now toward gateway people; closer to publication it will change into a reader-oriented site with games, wallpaper, contest, etc. --Make the book part of an early reader program like Harper’s First Look. --Put info about the book into the seasonal catalogue (this actually happened about six months out). --Send the author on a pre-publication tour (more about this tomorrow). --Include the book or information about the book in a white box mailing. Publishers have to pay to do this. --Probably other things I don’t even know about (if you know more, feel welcome to share that info in the comments). My assessment of this is that the publicity team is truly expert at finding every possible avenue for getting word out about the book. They do this to generate buzz, which results in lots of pre-orders, which results in a stronger start for the book. Tomorrow, part four: the prepublication tour, with a special guest who recently completed her own tour. (15 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, April 1st, 2008
7:33 am	Publicity Neepery Part Two: Technical Terms (yesterday’s pragmatic overview neep is right here.) So I did get a little controversial yesterday because I didn’t quite acknowledge the fact that my experience with publicity/marketing, as the author of a lead title, is not typical, and that this atypical experience has informed my opinions on the subject. True enough! But I do think some of my experiences are relevant. In my end-of-the-week summary post I’ll try to put together some further thoughts about the author’s role in the publicity/marketing efforts, possibly with some guest commentators. Today’s guest expert talks about this a little bit, too. Okay! Book publicity is complicated, so today’s neep unpacks some technical terms. Involved in the process on the publisher’s side are Sales, Marketing, and Publicity. Three departments with a general purpose—to sell books—but with specific ways of doing that. To talk about this [with my comments interjected] is today’s guest expert, barbarienne. ( Take me to funkytown! ) Thanks, Barbarienne! I don’t know about you guys, but I find this stuff really interesting. As the week goes on, I’m going to refer to Sales, Marketing, and Publicity as the publicity team. If there are other technical terms you’d like defined, do mention them in the comments. I might not know the answer, but if our expert is around she might, or somebody with more experience might. Next up: Prepublication publicity. (14 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, March 31st, 2008
8:34 am	Publicity Neepery Part One: Overview, With a Sprinkling of Pragmatism (Yesterday’s brief intro is here ) Book publicity/marketing is a tricky subject to talk about because every book is different and is promoted in different ways by its publisher, and authors tend to be sensitive about how their book is treated, how much attention it gets. There’s a wide perception among authors that publishers are not doing enough to promote books. It’s worth remembering that publishing is a business, and publishers will promote books in certain ways in order to make the best return on their investment. (It’s not quite so cut-and-dried as this because editors and publicity types do fall in love with books in unbusinesslike ways, but for the sake of this neep let’s say this is how it is). Before I go any further, I should say that all of what follows is my perception of a process that is (I suspect) made intentionally opaque for authors by their publishers. For example, I hear anecdotally that editors often will not tell authors specific numbers about print runs. When asked about how many ARC’s Harper did for The Magic Thief, my editor told me, “Oh, a lot.” And really, I don’t need to know any more than that. Doing publicity/marketing for her books is generally not the author’s job. Her job is to write, and to work with her editor to make the book as good as it can be. Once they’re done with that, it is time to let go and stay out of the way while Publicity, Sales, and Marketing (more about them tomorrow) do the work they know how to do far better than the author does. At the center of the book publicity is the book, and, except in specific cases, like an author with a platform (some sort of pre-existing celebrity or a relevant and compelling personal story) or a particularly photogenic face, the author is antecedent to the publicity process. She might be called in by the publicity experts to serve the publicity process, but she is not in charge of it and not at the center of it. [EDITed to add: see below for some comments on this, about the author's role in publicity/marketing. The can of worms!! More on this tomorrow, too] So. Onward! Books have specific audiences; not every book is going to appeal to every reader (duh, right!). Some books will work well for middle-school girls, and some will go after that elusive high school boy readership. Some are “quiet” books; some are Newbery award contenders; some are polished literary gems; some are “issue” books. Some books come out from small presses that have to choose very carefully which books to promote, some from giant publishing houses with enormous resources so they can throw lots of spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks. Some books, for reasons having mostly to do with serendipity--timing, subject matter, the state of the market--have the potential to reach a wide readership and thus make the publisher a lot of money--they’re commercial books. The job of the publicity/marketing team is to get each book into the hands of its “fit audience,” as Milton called it. In doing this, each book is treated differently. My sense of it is that there are template publicity/marketing plans, and the book is categorized and slotted into that plan—what has worked best for that kind of book in the past--and I suspect each template is tweaked to better serve each book. So a good educational read might have publicity geared toward teachers, and the author needs to be ready to do school visits. Another book might be a great summer read so is pushed at librarians as they’re making up their summer reading lists. Another might be a perfect fit for Black History Month in January. My other sense of this is that even before the book is purchased the publisher is starting to think about publicity/marketing, in that they’re thinking about potential audiences (hmmm, girl readers are tiring of “issue” books, but historical fantasy might be heating up... or Last fall’s XYZ did really well and this book might reach the same readers... or Us muz srsly do first buk writtun in LOLCat!!1!). A lot of times the bare bones of a publicity/marketing plan is printed right on the back of the Advanced Review Copies of the book. You can get a good sense of what kind of promotional effort books are getting by taking a look at the back of an ARC or at a seasonal catalogue. So there are some general thoughts to start with. Here’s the schedule for the rest of the week: Tuesday: Defining terms (marketing/publicity/sales, guest post from a friend who works in the industry) Wednesday: Prepublication (ARC's, ads, "buzz") Thursday: Prepublication tour (possibly recent prepub tour author as guest poster). Friday: Publicity on publication. Two parts. One, Dean Lorey on school visits, and part two, Melissa Marr on the book tour and/or on-publication publicity). Throughout this week-long discussion, I hope you’ll share your experiences in the comments if they are different (or if they're the same!). Despite the opinions, this is really meant to be descriptive and informative. Excelsior! (45 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, March 30th, 2008
8:44 am	Publishing Neep: Publicity Lately I’ve been reading comments here and there about how writers blog or post on message boards about the quest for the agent and that kind of thing, but then fall silent about the process after the book has been accepted for publication (apart from a post here and there on revisions! ack!). I think we probably do this because we’re trying to negotiate the transition into becoming professional writers and are not sure about acceptable topics of discussion, at least in public. I think this topic is okay. I find it interesting. Heck, I find everything about the publishing process absolutely fascinating! In just over two months my book comes out, and I can hear the wheels of the publishing machine grinding into action. It’s got me thinking about how book publicity/marketing works. I have strong opinions about some of this and it’s going to get long, so I’m going to break it up into a couple of posts this coming week, maybe with a guest poster or two. If you have any questions about how book publicity works, or how it’s worked for me, ask them here and—IF I know the answer, which I might not—I’ll try to get to them in the subsequent posts. Cheers! (20 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, March 25th, 2008
9:51 am	Book Food In my last entry I blogged about the book theme park thing. In the comments, kidlit_kim said, "Wouldn't a kidlit cafe be cool too? Now featuring food from all your favorite picture books!" And yeah, that would be awesome. Not just picture books, though, all kids' books. Here's what I'd order: The butter that Ma makes in Little House in the Big Woods, you know, with the molded strawberry leaves on top? Mmmm. But not the roasted pig's tail from the same book, no. I'd put the butter on one of the potatoes Almanzo bakes in the coals in Farmer Boy. Maybe some macaroni and cheese from Ellen Klages' Green Glass Sea. And some Froot Loops from A.M. Jenkins' Repossessed (ordinarily I'm not a big Froot Loops fan, but the narrator makes them sound so delicious...). So what would you order at the kidlit cafe? (48 Comments |Comment on this)