For several years, we hosted high-school exchange students in our home. The surprising thing was the ongoing friendships that continued for many years. One European family, in particular, have been friends and it’s interesting to see the students finish college and begin careers. The son, especially, has an interesting attitude: he wants to be flexible enough to go where he needs to get a good job.

His girlfriend/fiance/now wife went to Scotland for experience in the hospitality industry; he went to Germany to learn that language and culture, then worked for a while in Russia. They were considering work in Australia.

In today’s economy, writers need to be flexible.This year, I’m taking risks, trying to break out of the slump forced by the economy.

• I’m trying new genres. I’ve tried at least three new genres this year and plan to play around with a couple more to see if I can find new markets.
• I’m trying to reach new people. I’m attending different conferences than I’ve ever done before, to meet new people in the industry and see if something will click.
• I’m triple-checking resources, looking for markets. What have I overlooked before? Where can I plug in that I’ve over-looked?
• I’m looking at my life circumstances and thinking about how it affects my work. What have I avoided because of other concerns, such as family? Am I in the same place or could I now consider those things? What have I always accepted because it fit my life – but maybe I no longer need to accept?
• I’m appreciating the writing outlets I do have and trying to serve them better. What are the editor’s needs? How can I make their life easy by giving them EXACTLY what they need?

Articles, books, bylines – here I 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

Memoir of a Successful Book Trailer in Six Words

by guest Lisa Gottfried of DigitalWeavers.com

NOTE: Lisa did the editing for my retreat video. She spoke at the San Rafael conference and I was interested enough to try her services, for which I paid. This is an invited guest post and she speaks here as a professional working full time on video promotions.

Thanks to the editors at SMITH magazine, the popular mini-memoir book “Not Quite What I was Planning,” is full of incredible pieces, all only six words long, some uplifting, some intellectual, some tragic, some incredibly accessible, but all what I would consider to be successful.

It got me thinking about the economy of communication and how that translates to book trailers. If I were to edit a book filled with only links to book trailer videos, which ones would make the cut and which would not? Could I narrow down the critical elements of a good book trailer into six words? Here’s what I would write.

Memoir of a Successful Book trailer by Lisa Gottfried

Economic Focused Editing; Authentic Emotional Entertainment

If these ideas can be met and done well, no matter whether an author has a budget of $200 or $2,000, a book trailer can be successful, i.e. move a viewer to get excited about the book, share the trailer with friends, write an on-line review of your book. Let’s look at the six key ingredients to a successful book trailer.

Economic – 30-90 seconds

On-line audiences are interacting with their computer, not passively watching a TV. You either get the message across in a short time, or your viewers are moving on with the click of a button. We all know this.

But keeping communications brief and to the point is an art form. The length of a book trailer should be thirty to ninety seconds. You might get away with two minutes, but an eight-minute trailer needs the eyes and ears of a good editor, no matter how famous the author.

Think billboard. You’ve got 10 seconds as the car drives by to get your point across. Think, big, bold and simple. Leave an impression, don’t tell the whole story. Steer clear of special effects unless they are used sparingly. Like they say on “Top Chef,” if the food is on the plate just for looks and doesn’t add anything to the taste of the dish, it shouldn’t be on the plate. Focus, focus, focus.

Edited – balance and blend text, images, audio.

Every piece to the book trailer puzzle needs to fit perfectly. The music needs to go with the words just right, not be tacked on. If you use subtitles or printed words, the pace needs to be slow enough to read and take in the background images, but not so slow that it’s excruciating to watch.

I highly recommend using a voice over artist to speed things along, but if you don’t have the budget for one, subtitles can work. Keep your sentences and phrases under six words at a time. It’s also tempting to put the entire review on your trailer. Here’s an example of how I would edit a review for a trailer for “The ABC’s of Writing for Children,”

“Pentacoff provides a most fun and readable book, packed with insights and inspiration about the children’s book field from the people who know best–the authors and illustrators.” -Andrea Brown

The pieces I would include on the trailer might be:

“…most fun and readable book….”
“…packed with insights from the people who know best…..”

It makes sense that authors want to be wordy. This is their craft. With book trailers you need to move in what might feel like a counter-intuitive direction, where less is more, a LOT less.

Authentic – be real

Web viewers have a lower threshold for BS (your Basic Story). Don’t try to be something you are not because viewers will sniff you out in an instant and be on to other things faster than you can say “boo.” People know when they are being “sold” to and there is less tolerance on-line for the tactics used on TV commercials. Your message needs to be more down-to-earth, user friendly.

You can provide something more home-grown and people will be more receptive to the message. However, home-grown does not mean cheesy. Production value still needs to be there.

Emotional – look for teasers

Find a place in the book where there is some emotional pull and concentrate your efforts there. You want to offer a teaser, a trailer that gives the viewer the essence of the writing while using the emotional moment as the vehicle to deliver that content. Trailers are not simply fancy announcements of your upcoming book. If viewers can emotionally connect, they will buy your book. Remind viewers of their humanity. Grab them by the heart strings.

Entertainment – make ‘em laugh; then make ‘em cry

Here is where I am amazed that writers seem to forget the basics of, well…writing. You start a novel with some interest. You don’t tell the reader, you show them. The same holds true for book trailers.

Is there an interesting piece of dialogue you can lift from your book? A moment when things seem really charged? Where is your book entertaining? Grab a piece of that pie and serve it up.

Your name and reputation is on the line and if the trailer is not done well with a certain standard of sound, images and final product, don’t bother putting it on the web. Poorly done book trailers can hinder sales and ruin reputations. Instead, a great book trailer serves as the place where a potential reader flips open the book and randomly reads a page. Why not make it choose a juicy and entertaining page?

Lisa Gottfried runs her own book trailer, digital video, and website business, DigitalWeavers.com. She brings over fifteen years of experience to the video and web marketing field and specializes in children’s book author promotion. Lisa is available for speaking engagements around the San Francisco Bay Area and around the nation.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Wisdom, the Midway Albatross

by Darcy Pattison

Giveaway ends March 11, 2012.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

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Children’s Books Beating the Recession?

What’s the state of children’s publishing?

Harold Underdown, The Purple Crayon website, has reported on the economic turmoil in publishing of late 2008 and into early 2009.

Publishing, especially books for kids, is on the upswing? So say a couple of postings:

• JIll Cocoran, Literary Agent at the Herman Agency pulls out quotes from Border’s statements on their rebuilding efforts and finds hope.
• Cocoran also send readers to The Wild Rose Reader for a report on an independent book store surviving, no, thriving against competition from Barnes & Noble.

Other Stories

• This is a bit late, but funny. 3 Reasons Why the Easter Bunny should NOT be Your Marketer.
• You write, but you don’t have a blog? Don’t want a blog? Then you need a Google Profile, so people can find some information about you online, information that you control. How easy is it to set up?
• NYTimes article on book advances. What percentage of books actually earn out their advance?
• Why First Reads or First Pages critiques at a conference is like the American Idol of Manuscripts.
• The UT-Austin Library has Norman Mailer’s laptop! What do they plan to do with it?
• Alan Gratz SHOULD be writing. Instead, he’s sword fighting? AND playing at harp? At the same time?
• Everything I Ever Needed to Know, I Learned from FolkSongs?
• And Janni is talking to characters again. What advice is she giving to heroes?

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Wisdom, the Midway Albatross

by Darcy Pattison

Giveaway ends March 11, 2012.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Yesterday’s news was sad: PW has learned that Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has asked its editors to stop buying books.

NOTE: News has filtered down that the buying freeze applies to adult imprints, not the children’s imprints.

How Can Writers Survive in Slow Times

In light of our sluggish economy, how can writers still pay bills — make money? Of course, I’d like to become Famous Editor’s new best friend, sell five mss by January 1, receive calls asking me to write a great book on a fascinating topic (for a great advance), and so on. Not likely.

Instead, I will read Art and Fear yet again, and try these three ideas.

• Write Better. Emily van Beek, Kathi Appelt’s agent, said Appelt revised The Underneath eight times.

  Help is readily available. For example, my workbook on revision, Novel Metamorphosis, helps you diagnose problems, plan a revision in 8 strategic areas, and gives you tools to accomplish those revisions.

  Or take online classes, sign up for that MFA program you’ve been wanting to try, or give yourself an assignment to seek out information and learn learn new writing skills.

• Diversify. Look around for other writing opportunities such as writing newsletters and magazines: consider children’s magazines, parenting magazines, adult magazines. Publicize your public speaking to schools or organizations. Teach online, at a local community center, local university, or in your neighborhood.

  To find school visits, find resources such as Authors and Illustrators Who Visit Schools, and evaluate which meets your needs best.

  If you write fiction, try nonfiction. If you write nonfiction, look for new markets. Try writing a movie script.

• Maximize Your Writing Time. If you have to spend more time making money, consider maximizing your time for your own fiction/nonfiction by using things like Nanowrimo to keep you motivated to produce a lot in a short amount of time. Also check out their NanoFinMo (Finish Month) and other variations.
  (Of course, be sure to morph your fast writing into great writing with Novel Metamorphosis!)

Times are sluggish, but not desperate. I’m optimistic that books will be popular as Christmas gifts. I’m optimistic that the economy will turn around soon.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Wisdom, the Midway Albatross

by Darcy Pattison

Giveaway ends March 11, 2012.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win