When an author is invited to speak at a conference–Reading Association, National Council of Teachers of English, Science Teacher’s Association, School Librarians Association, etc–it’s a great opportunity to connect with an audience who is already inclined to like your books. You need to be ready to maximize your efforts at such a speaking engagement.

Darcy Pattison on Read Across America Day 2011

• Do a great presentation. First and foremost, do a great presentation. Plan ahead, make sure the audio-visual setup works, have great handouts. Practice. It is worth everything you can do to make a good impression. Think about the needs of your audience, not about what you want to present. What would help your audience do their job better? Meet the needs of the audience, exceed their expectations.
• Build a Mailing List. The second most important thing to do–if you do nothing else right, get this one right–is to build a mailing list. I just have a paper signup sheet asking for name and email. Period. Make it easy for them to sign up. At the top, I clearly state the purpose of the newsletter: Darcy Pattison’s News: Occasional Updates, New Releases, Speaking Engagement and Other News.
  
  I use MailChimp (NOTE: This is an affiliate link.) to actually set up and send e-newsletters. I’ve tried Constant Contact, but found it harder to understand. With MailChimp, a free account allows up to 2000 subscribers. They also offer a simple mailing program–no html formats (which means no pictures in the email)–with TinyLetter. If you’re really afraid of doing this, try TinyLetter for a while: it’s simple, easy and fun.
• Handouts. You should have handouts ready. A flyer on your latest book. Business cards. Sales coupon for your book. Something. At conferences, attendees LOVE freebies and will take almost anything you hand them. Think ahead about what you want to promote or what you want them talking about. Maybe you’ve just put up some great book trailers and you want people to go watch them!

  Here’s a tip: If you want people to go to a certain website, use the bit.ly URL shortening service to create a custom URL just for them. You must be a member to use this feature, but it’s worth the registration. Try this one: http://bit.ly/ARA2011 Sure, you could do a designer QR codes, too, but how many people have the app? Be safe and try a catchy URL.

• Schmooze. Talk to people! If you’re like me, you hate talking to strangers. OK. Find someone else who is standing alone and go talk to them. Remember how YOU feel standing alone and be a friend (To make a friend, BE a friend!)
  
  Another tip: Read the newspapers closely for 2-3 days before you go, so you are up on current events. Choose a couple things that interest you and be ready to talk about them. It can be general cultural things, or industry specific things. For educators right now, you might talk about the Common Core State Standards. For other writers, talk about the new Nook tablet that was just announced (See my book for Nook, 11 Ways to Ruin a Photograph!) If all else fails and conversation flags, ask questions. People love to talk about themselves, so get them started and sit back and enjoy.

  Your goal in schmoozing is NOT to sell a book, get invited to a school, or anything but this one thing: make a friend. But hey, I do speak at conferences–here’s the info. And I’ll be speaking at the 2012 NYC SCBWI conference. I’ll be the one standing alone: please come and introduce yourself!

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Wisdom, the Midway Albatross

by Darcy Pattison

Giveaway ends March 11, 2012.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Where will you be on January 27, 2012?
I’ll be in New York City, hoping that the weather is warm!

MARKETING FOR PROFESSIONAL WRITERS INTENSIVE DEBUTS AT THE 2012 SCBWI WINTER CONFERENCE

Registration opens today for the 13th Annual Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators International Conference. SCBWI will hold its first Marketing for Professional Writers intensive on Friday, January 27, 2012 which, along with a Marketing for Illustrators intensive that day, kicks off a jam-packed conference weekend. The Marketing for Writers intensive brings today’s market leaders together to talk trends and marketing tactics in social media, websites, ebooks, mobile & games, apps, book trailers, publicity, working with publishers, Amazon, the education market and more.

The 13th Annual SCBWI International Winter Conference is held January 27-29 at the Grand Hyatt in New York City and brings together publishing professionals, including agents, editors, publishers, and other experts in the field to conduct workshops, panels and presentations for writers and illustrators. It’s a unique networking opportunity designed to help new and published writers and illustrators have their careers soar to the next level.

Registration opens at 10am Pacific Daylight time on October 17th .
Watch for conference announcements and updates at: http://www.scbwi.org and follow us on Twitter #NY12SCBWI and Facebook http://scbwiconference.blogspot.com/.

Book Trailers and Social Media Events

I’ll be speaking about book trailers and social media events.

Available August 15

Drawing on the experience of Random Acts of Publicity, especially the Random Acts of Publicity event on Facebook, we’ll discuss social media for special events. The Random Acts of Publicity saw about 500 people join us in promoting their friend’s books for a week.

Register Now for the Marketing Intensive and the SCBWI Winter Conference

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Wisdom, the Midway Albatross

by Darcy Pattison

Giveaway ends March 11, 2012.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Are you attending the American Library Association in New Orleans, LA this summer? I’m going! I’m speaking!

In an exciting group effort, I’ve joined with nine other non-fiction authors to propose a session, NON-FICTION BOOKBLAST!

Here’s what we’ve done so far:

1. Formed a group. Once the session was proposed on a mailing list of non-fiction authors it quickly reached its maximum of ten great authors. It was limited to authors who hae new books coming out this year that they could have available to promote at the June conference. Through an email-list, we’ve worked together to iron out details.
2. Proposed a session. The ALA accepts session proposals, but has a specific timeline and format. We’ve met every deadline and our session was accepted. There are still deadlines for sending in handouts, etc, but we’ve got those under control.
   Here’s the description of our session:

   Nonfiction Book Blast: Booktalks and Activities for Your Library

   Start school with new booktalks and activities from ten nonfiction authors: April Pulley Sayre (Rah, Rah, Radishes), Kelly Milner Halls (In Search of Sasquatch), Deborah Heiligman (Charles and Emma), Loree Griffin Burns (The Hive Detectives), Carla Killough McClafferty (The Many Faces of George Washington), Christine Taylor-Butler (Magnets), Shirley Duke (You Can’t Wear These Genes), Darcy Pattison (Prairie Storms), Carla Mooney (Explorers of the New World) and Anastasia Suen (Read and Write Sports). (Handouts)

3. Group blog. We’ve established a group blog, NonFiction BookBlast blog. We’ve devised a schedule of posting, so that everyone can post before the conference.
   Check out these posts:
   • Weird Rocks! Writing the Books that Prove It, by Kelly Millner Hall
   • Horse Poop vs. Street Lamps by Deborah Heiligman

   I’ll post two things next Monday: a group book trailer and a post about my forthcoming book, PRAIRIE STORMS.

   

   Coming August, 2011

4. Each Person Promotes. It’s understood that each person will do as much promotion as possible before the conference. Our goal is to fill the room for our session! With ten of us working to spread the word, we hope to create excitement–and attendance.
   

   NonFiction Book Blast!

   American Library Association Annual Conference
   Sunday June 26, 2011 8 am – 10 am

Will the efforts be worth it? We hope so! When a similar group did a similar effort in 2009, their session had over 300 attending. That’s fantastic. May our room be overflowing this time! Hope to see you there!

New Orleans, here we come!

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Wisdom, the Midway Albatross

by Darcy Pattison

Giveaway ends March 11, 2012.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

A new study sponsored by Cornell Center for Hospitality Research gives 3 solid reasons for face-to-face meetings, instead of just virtual meetings.

Co-author Mary Beth McEuen writes,

“. . .we identified three key reasons for face-to-face meetings: to capture attention, especially for new concepts; to inspire a positive emotional climate; and a related point, to build human networks and relationships.”

“Face-to-face meetings possess the unique ability to spur action and drive business results through creating powerful, emotional ties to your business mission and message. The fact remains that there’s no substitute for meeting in person when you want to build emotional support and develop relationships.”

• MI-SCBWI Fall Conference, on October 08, 2010, @ Yarrow Golf Resort near Kalamazoo, MI
• “Writing and Illustrating for Kids”: Southern Breeze SCBWI, Plotting Workshop and Keynote Speaker. on October 15 2010, @ Birmingham, AL
• Novel Revision Retreat: Upstate NY SCBWI, on November 05 2010, @ Syracuse, NY
• Novel Revision Retreat: Brazos Valley SCBWI, on November 13 2010, @ College Station, TX

I’m booking for 2011 and 2012. Interested in more information? Email me at darcy at darcypattison dot com.

A couple points here:

New concepts: Notice that the report talks about capturing attention for new concepts. At writing conferences, it’s easier to hold an editor’s attention for a few minutes while you pitch something. Practice the elevator pitch! Be able to discuss your story, your idea, your concepts in a few succinct words.

Positive Emotional Climate: Hey, please be polite and gracious and kind to guest speakers. You want them to come away with a great feeling about you and your organization. Put yourself in their shoes: they are in a room full of strangers. You don’t always have to pitch your story to make yourself memorable. Just a small kindness can do that for you.

Build Human Relations and Networks: Casual conversation can reveal unexpected points of connection between people and build tighter ties and relationships. Go to a conference with the idea that you’ll learn something, of course. And, of course, you’ll make connections with influential people. But don’t leave out your peers: they are just as important to network with. In fact, let’s don’t call it networking at that point. It’s important to make friends with whom you can share your joys and trials.

The results of the Face-to-Face study seems predictable: but it’s a good reminder to us of why we go to conferences, to meet people. I hope to meet YOU soon.

Coming in November: 30 Days to a Stronger Scene.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Wisdom, the Midway Albatross

by Darcy Pattison

Giveaway ends March 11, 2012.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Put your Book in Educator’s Classrooms

A friend and I recently sat down with two librarians to talk about what they like to hear in presentations. Their needs were different: one teaches in an elementary school and one in a high school. Yet, they agreed on several things. Educators are one market for most authors of children’s books, YA books and many adult books – here are 4 tips.

Recognize the differences in organizations.

There are many places a writer of children’s books might speak. In Arkansas, these include (but limited to) the Arkansas Library Association (ArLA), Arkansas Reading Association (ARA), and Arkansas Association of Instructional Media (AAIM).

Different members. It’s important to know the differences in their memberships. The ArLA is mostly public school librarians who are concerned about programming special events, balancing a collection and keeping funding when it relies on politics. The ARA has a large number of classroom teachers who are concerned about teaching reading to kids. The AAIM are librarians, who must follow the state standards for teaching library skills, as well as function as the technology expert for their school. Obviously, each will have special interests and you should know these differences when you develop a presentation.

For the ARA, classroom teachers appreciate take-home materials that they can instantly use in the classroom without any extra work: Make my life easy, please. For the ArLA, they want information to answer their patrons questions. For them, I did a session on “I Wrote a Book: Now What?” as a way to answer that question when a patron asked it. Here’s the free pdf handout of that session. For AAIM, go for technology: your website, a book trailer, Skype, etc. Anything that helps the technology-minded librarian help the classroom teacher with technology or library skills.

Tip: Join a couple organizations and hang out on their listservs to see their concerns; think about how to meet those needs.

Keep abreast of education terminology.

Have you heard of “Bell ringers”? These are short questions or prompt designed to make students think. They are designed to be written on a board, or posted somewhere, so that when the bell rings, students immediately start working on an answer to the question. This practice allows teachers to check roll, do other necessary daily paperwork, and spread writing tasks across the curriculum.

Write your Bell Ringers. So, have you updated your teacher handouts to include Bell Ringers? Are there questions that students can think about BEFORE a teacher reads your book aloud? Are there ideas in your novel that deserve thought and discussion? Look for these and develop a list of ten Bell Ringers and include them with your education materials.

Tip: Listen when teachers are talking and ask them to define education terminology and apply it to your marketing for you book.

Keep abreast of education standards.

It’s important to know what standards teachers must follow. Even with the new Common Core State Standards, only 80% of a state’s standards must follow the national standards. It’s always good to check the state standards. Also, check standards recommended by national teacher organizations: math teachers, social studies teachers, English teachers, etc.

For example, libraries now have to do more technology and are changing from research libraries (since students do most of that online) to libraries full of popular literature for kids to read what they love.

Tip: When you have a new book come out, do the grunt work and check the standards and make a list that your book meets. Yes, they’ll buy your book if it’s popular with the kids, if it’s great literature, if it wins an award. But they’ll be even more likely to buy it if you make it easy for them to use it in instruction.

Remember the audience.

Teachers and librarians are overworked, underpaid, compassionate and committed.

Tips: Make their life easy. Remember to make a personal connection by giving them a behind-the-scenes look at your life and work. Tell them thank you for your hard work and give a personal anecdote about your positive experiences with educators. Respect them and their hard work.

Lesson Plans for My Books

Download Lesson Plans (zipped pdf file) for my Picture Books.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Wisdom, the Midway Albatross

by Darcy Pattison

Giveaway ends March 11, 2012.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

I just finished a great school visit. Driving home, I realized there were some keys to making it great.

Communication.

It’s essential to communicate with the venue effectively right from the first contact through the actual event. I try to respond within 24 hours to requests for school visits, weekend retreats, speaking at conferences, or any other speaking requests.

I’m often asked how many times a year I do events. Basically, I try accommodate requests as often as I can. So, if I’m asked, I usually go.

During the Initial communication, I try to find out these things:

What type of event is being planned?
How can my participation add to, complement or enhance the event?
Dates?
Type, length and content of presentation?
Type of audience (grade levels, reading levels, adult, etc.)?
Preferred date and alternate dates?
Compensation rates?

Clear expectations result from clear communication and is the backbone of a great event.

Providing materials for advance preparation.

School author visits are most successful when students are prepared. I provide a free downloadable pdf file of lesson plans for all my books, which helps teachers introduce my books. For adult presentations, it’s often necessary to send bios, descriptions of presentations, and suggested copy to advertise the event when appropriate.

Oliver is available to visit your school.

Another area of preparation is providing order forms, so books can be purchased at the event. I have a pdf file that I modify to fit the needs of the event. For example, I often give discounts to books bought when I speak and I adjust this as needed.

Speaking is great fun. I’ve had whirlwind events! And I’ve met fascinating people in CA, LA (Louisiana, not Los Angeles), WA (Washington state, not D.C.), and many other places around the US.

Being Prepared Myself!

The day before my school visit this week, I checked my bag to make sure everything was there. Well, let me back up. I keep a bag packed with things I’ll likely need at a school event: foldable wire frame to hold a book upright; copy of book inter-leaved with overhead projector sheets for each page (back-up only these days); CD burned with Powerpoints of each of my books (MOST useful); a miniature Oliver K. Woodman, samples of each of my books to show while I talk; a snack bar just in case I get hungry; common medicines I might need in case I get a headache or something. I usually add bottled water the morning when I leave.

OK, I go overboard. But I’ve been places where I got a headache and didn’t have medicine and I don’t like it. I go prepared!

This time, I checked my bag and the Powerpoint CD was missing. I searched, but ultimately had to burn a new CD. Had I not checked, the school visit would have been disastrous.

I also do MapQuest or Google Maps and PRINT IT OUT. I’m direction-challenged and follow these type maps to the letter, so it’s essential when I’m driving to have this.

If I’m flying somewhere, I double check reservations a week ahead. I try to have contact numbers while traveling; a school number isn’t enough, since travel may be after or before hours. I usually like a cell phone number of the person in charge of the event; likewise, I give them my number, so they can contact me for any reason.

If I’m speaking at a conference, I try to have handouts ready a couple weeks early. Which means my presentations are ready ahead of time and I can go over it. Often I read mss from writers attending. I read these carefully, make notes, and often re-read on the plane to an event, as well as referring to them privately in-between sessions. I want to be helpful to the writers and that means I need to be familiar with their work.

Most events go well because I try to communicate early, often and clearly, I try to help the organizers to prepare the audience ahead of the event, and I try to be prepared myself. I love to travel and speak.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Wisdom, the Midway Albatross

by Darcy Pattison

Giveaway ends March 11, 2012.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

For an inside glimpse of the Novel Revision Retreat, here’s a short video podcast or trailer from the recent San Rafael, California retreat.

Read more from Lisa Gottfried of DigitalWeavers.com, who edited this video for me.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Wisdom, the Midway Albatross

by Darcy Pattison

Giveaway ends March 11, 2012.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Meet Editor and Agent at Arkansas Conference

The Arkansas SCBWI Spring Conference schedule is now online!

When: May 15-16, 2009
Where: Conway, AR

Speakers include:

• Anastasia Suen, author, teacher
• Jennifer (Jaeger) Rofe, literary agent, Andrea Brown Literary
  • Interview at KidLit Central news
  • Cynsations interview
• Martha Mihalick, editor, Greenwillow Books/Harpercollins
  • Greenwillow books on Facebook
  • Christy’s Creative Space report on Mihalick’s talk on Voice
  • Cheryl’s Musings reports on books edited by Mihalick
  • Market My Words interview with Mihalick about marketing
  • Mihalick’s personal blog, A Curiosity Shop
• Melanie Siegel, illustrator
• Darcy Pattison, author, teacher

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Wisdom, the Midway Albatross

by Darcy Pattison

Giveaway ends March 11, 2012.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

One main reason to attend a national conference is to meet editors, listen to how they describe their lists, and find out what they are looking for. Attendees are usually offered an opportunity to submit for a short period of time, even if the house policy is no unsolicited manuscripts.

Needs Picture Books, Middle Grade and Digital Stories

Michelle Nagler, Editorial Director at Bloomsbury Children’s Books is petite, energetic and talks with her hands. In spite of today’s economy, she’s very optimistic about the publishing industry.

Bloomsbury submission policy: Query; they will only respond if interested, so do not include a SASE. Be sure your contact info is on the cover letter.

Nagler says:

• No new fantasy. Bloomsbury has done well with fantasy, which means it has a stable of fantasy writers already, so no new fantasy.
• Debuts. They get excited by debut authors.
• Funny, bold picture books. Picture books should be funny and bold and include a hook in the title, if possible.
• No early readers. They don’t do early readers.
• Short chapter market.They find the short chapter market to be very competitive.
• Early middle grade stories. Stories for this age, such as The Magic Half, by Annie Barrows, sell well for them.
• Tween, or upper middle grade (junior high) stories must have a strong hook. For example, Bloomsbury title, Boys Are Dogs, by Leslie Margolis, is described as a girl who uses a dog training manual to deal with boys.
• Historical fiction. They do some, but it’s mostly for girls, such as those by Celia Rees, or Ophelia by Lisa Klein.
• Edgy YA. Yes, especially with a voice that takes you back to high school.

Nagler’s Personal Likes & Wishes

• Hooks. Stories must have a hook: editorial hooks emphasize something in the text; marketing hooks emphasize a link to the market; hooks give the audience an “in” and helps marketing know how to do every book on her list justice in some way.
• Picture books. Bold & funny with a hook; snarky, offbeat, quirky.
• Mysteries.
• Chapter book series, even though it’s a very competitive market.
• Contemporary middle grade
• Digital tie ins such as the Bradford Girls (S&S) and 39 Clues (Scholastic)
• Literary stories

Nagler Does NOT Want to See

• Fantasy. High fantasy, though urban fantasy or magical realism might appeal to her.
• Slow paced stories.
• Narrow nonfiction.. Must have commercial appeal such as election, space. etc.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Wisdom, the Midway Albatross

by Darcy Pattison

Giveaway ends March 11, 2012.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Who attends a national conference of writers?

Demographics

Executive Director of the SCBWI, Lin Oliver, always starts the conference with jokes and then gives a demographics report.

• This year the conference was attended by 1056 people; 890 women, 166 men. Which, of course, meant that on the ballroom floor, all bathrooms were converted to a Women’s Bathroom. Sorry, guys.
• 15 countries and 46 states were represented.
• Over 50% had never attended a national conference before
• Over 50% of attendees were published
• Attendees listed many professions. One of the most interesting was a person who listed about ten jobs, including vampire hunter. “But,” Lin quipped, “I guess that’s just the night work.”

Random Comments Heard Around the Conference

Before I get to the reports on individual editors and speakers, I’ll just list some of the random comments I heard and recorded:

• Interesting name. Did you know you’re named after a famous New York City theater?
• It’s all so subjective.
• In an industry that is over 80% women, why were all the keynote speakers men?
• Hotel is fine. No problem getting a hot shower.
• Speaker 1: When you’re old, the first thing you size up about a meeting room is how much can you see, so how close do you have to sit.
  Speaker 2: Well, yes, that. And how close to the exit I am so I can get out for the bathrooms.
• Speaker 1: Do you have your business cards with you?
  Speaker 2: Well, I know just where they are.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Wisdom, the Midway Albatross

by Darcy Pattison

Giveaway ends March 11, 2012.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win