On BookTrailerManual.com, we’ve posted a Q& with Analine Johnson, a librarian from Laredo, TX, who loves to create book trailers. Four–count them, four!–of her trailers are finalists for the new School Library Journal Trailie award. A

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Wisdom, the Midway Albatross

by Darcy Pattison

Giveaway ends March 11, 2012.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

HAPPY HOLIDAYS

For the last few years, I’ve posted writing tips from Winter Holiday personalities. For example, Frosty the Snowman has 6 Top Writing Tips. This year, as our Christmas gift to you, we’ve collected these into one downloadable pdf. It’s a bit early, but teachers will be planning December and January lessons soon, and we thought they would enjoy it now.

Winter Writing with Kids

Complimentary, FREE download. 34 Writing Skills addressed. Celebrate the Season while Teaching Kids to Write.

DOWNLOAD NOW from the FICTION NOTES STORE

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Wisdom, the Midway Albatross

by Darcy Pattison

Giveaway ends March 11, 2012.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

The Best Info About Book Trailers

I’ve followed the book trailer phenomenon for a couple years and wanted to do a post. In 2003, it was just beginning; in 2006, there was lots of experimenting; in 2009, it seems here to stay and writers should take it as a given that they need a book trailer for trade books. Here’s some of the best about book trailers from around the web.

The Book Trailer Manual

42 Sites for submission

14 Ways to approach content

10 Ways to combine audio/video

5 Case studies

Much more. . .

CLICK HERE to Learn More.

How To Create a Book Trailer

1. The Book Trailer Manual
2. Book Trailers Squidoo
3. How to Make A Book Trailer — Easy And Free
   EHow has step by step instructions for making a trailer with Powerpoint.
4. The Making of a Book Trailer. A four-day account of an author making her own book trailer.
5. Animoto.com. Animates still pictures.

Articles or Posts about Book Trailers

6. How Will Your Book Trailer Upend Readers’ Expectations?
7. In A World … Where Books Are Hyped Like Movies A 9/2008 National Public Radio article, with links to the audio.
8. Book Trailers that Matter
9. Every Book Needs a You Tube Video From CamCorderInfo.com. Of course, the Camcorder people would recommend book trailers; yet, the article is fairly balanced and has lots of links to new info.
10. What Can You Do with a Book Trailer? by Karen Dionne (billed as the “new Michael Crichton”) write a general article about trailers touching on where to share them and best practices.
11. Book Trailers Coming to Bus and Mall Billboards, buses (one company already busted!) and more links.
12. Book trailers might be overkill. 2009 post: How do you make your video stand out? It’s about finding interesting ways to tell a story.
13. Book Trailer Videos. A general article.
14. VIDEO BOOK TRAILERS: Coming to a Library near You!
    When kids make book trailers they are more engaged with the story.
15. Book Trailers, a great way to promote your children’s book The downside of trailers: less imagination needed.
16. In-Transit Viewing of Book Trailers – A Potent New Book Marketing Venue. Kids watching book trailers on the school bus.
17. Book Trailers: The Key to Successful Video Marketing. From Poets and Writers Magazine.
18. New York Statewide Summer Reading Program
    Featured book trailers for teens from their reading program.
19. A Survey of the Imperfect Art of the Book Trailer. The marriage between book jacket blurb and the video – review of 7 trailers.
20. Trailers for Sale or Rent . 2007 optimistic look at the impact of book trailers on children’s books from PW.
21. Watch Before Reading: Art-House Book Trailers. Book trailers are interpretive, rather than plot-focused.
22. Promoting your novel: How to make a book trailer. Author Brenda Coulter poss her experiences making a trailer for her book on Gather.com
23. What makes video trailers for books effective? (5 keys) Over 1 million views of a book trailer!

Ongoing Series about Book Trailers

24. Book Trailer Tuesday. Another regular posting on trailers.
25. Video Wednesday.Scholastic column which presents a book trailer each Wednesday.
26. Fuse #8 Productions does Video Sundays and sometimes features Book Trailers.

Where to Display Book Trailers (Besides YouTube and Facebook and Good Reads)

27. BookTrailers.net
28. Bookscreening.com
29. ComicBookTrailers.com
30. Blazing Trailers
31. The Red Room Where the Writers Are
32. Books Toolbox: 50+ Sites for Book Lovers
    From Mashable, this post lists many more social media sites about books.


Featured List: 42 places to submit your book video trailer.

Book Trailer Production

33. Circle of Seven Productions: Book Trailers
34. JKS Communications: A Literary Publicity Firm
35. Moving Stories Book Trailers and Book Videos
36. WritersDirect.net
37. Author Bytes
38. Living Jacket.com

Book Trailer Contests

39. Book Trailer Competition for High School Students
40. Authors Promoting Authors
41. Fantasy Book Reviews
    This UK site has a yearly Book Video Award
42. Outsourcing the Book Trailer Production to Your Fans. Authors Megan McCafferty and Lynn Messina ran book trailer contests for teen girls – a great example of a trailer contest.

Are Book Trailers Effective?

43. Publishing Monday: Are Book Trailers Effective? This author is charmed by trailers.
44. Are Book Trailers Effective? This post quotes the Wall Street Journal: “”There is scant evidence . . . that the average book trailer actually has much impact on book sales.”
45. Book Trailers Work! From LatinoLA!

Lesson Plans

46. Lesson plan for Book Trailers. (pdf). References to NCTE/IRA, NETS and CTLanguage arts standards.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Wisdom, the Midway Albatross

by Darcy Pattison

Giveaway ends March 11, 2012.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

BACK TO SCHOOL with Great K-3 Literature — FREE Lesson Plans

Back to School With Literature Units That Integrate Other Subjects

• Over 100 Student Activities for the Classroom
• Teacher resources for study units in Literature, Writing Letters, Art, Science, Geography, Map Work, Social Studies, Math and more
• FAQ by Children’s Book Author, Darcy Pattison about writing her picture books

BACK TO SCHOOL with Picture Books by Children’s Book Author, Darcy Pattison

• 19 Girls and Me (Philomel/Penguin)

  This is a story about friendship in a kindergarten class with 19 girls and one lone boy.
  

  • “Readers will have almost as much fun with this title as these 20 energetic and happy classmates have together.” School Library Journal
  • “Adept and amusing depiction of this early battle between the sexes and her harmonious solution is ideal for readers of any gender.” Kirkus Reviews
  • “The brightly colored illustrations depicting the adventures and the rich, descriptive text will encourage imaginary play.” Childhood Education
• The Journey of Oliver K. Woodman (Harcourt)

  A wooden man travels across the family to connect a family.

  • “A fresh, unusual tale.” School Library Journal
  • “. . . whimsical and imaginative. . .” Booklist
  • “. . . a warm tale. . .” Publisher’s Weekly
  • “All geography lessons should be this much fun.” Kirkus Reviews
• Searching for Oliver K. Woodman (Harcourt)
  When Oliver is lost, a Private Eye a wooden woman goes out to find him.
  
  • “. . .this whimsical cross-country jaunt. Young readers will eagerly await more exciting travels from the wooden duo. . .Publishers Weekly
  • “. . .understatement and ambiguity are everything. . .” Kirkus Reviews

Back to School With the BEST. . .

• Of Children’s Literature – The Journey of Oliver K. Woodman
  has received many recognitions of excellence including:
  • Starred Reviews in The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books and Kirkus Reviews
  • Child magazine Best Books of the Year
  • Nick Jr. Family Magazine Best Books of the Year
  • Irma S. and James H. Black Picture Book Award Honor.
• Read Alouds – 19 Girls and Me.
  The 2008 Read Aloud America Book List
  places 19 Girls and Me at the Top of their K-1 Reading List
• Humor – Searching for Oliver K. Woodman
  “Small details, such as clever license plates (the clown’s plate reads “EEEHA”), add to the book’s subtle humor.” Publisher’s Weekly

Back to School – Download FREE Lesson Plans now!

• Download free Lesson Plans for Darcy’s books. Included are Lesson Plans for The Journey of Oliver K. Woodman, Searching for Oliver K. Woodman and 19 Girls and Me. These Lesson Plans are FREE and may be distributed as needed.

• Answers to Frequently Asked Questions about the writing process for the books
• Easy to Use–Just photocopy and go!
• This is a 6374 KB zipped pdf file. It may take a couple minutes to download. Please be patient!

Download FREE Lesson Plans

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Wisdom, the Midway Albatross

by Darcy Pattison

Giveaway ends March 11, 2012.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

HAPPY HOLIDAYS

For the last few years, I’ve posted writing tips from Winter Holiday personalities. For example, Frosty the Snowman has 6 Top Writing Tips. This year, as our Christmas gift to you, we’ve collected these into one downloadable pdf.

Winter Writing with Kids

FREE download. 34 Writing Skills addressed. Celebrate the Season while Teaching Kids to Write.

DOWNLOAD NOW from the FICTION NOTES STORE

Holiday Writing Tips

Frosty the Snowman’s Top 6 Writing Tips
Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer’s Top 5 Writing Tips
Santa Claus’s Top 5 Writing Tips
The Gingerbread Man’s Top 5 Writing Tips
12 Days of Christmas Writing Tips

Frosty The Snowman

Read about the history of this song.
Oh, what a great 3-D snowman cake pan!

1. Frosty the snowman was a jolly happy soul,
   With a corncob pipe and a button nose
   And two eyes made out of coal.
   Frosty the snowman is a fairy tale, they say,
   He was made of snow
   
   Extended character descriptions. Don’t be afraid to take time to describe the main character. One the continuum of character descriptions, this one is longer than you’ll find in most children’s picturebooks. But it works because this is a character story.

2. but the children
   Know how he came to life one day.
   There must have been some magic in that
   Old silk hat they found.
   For when they placed it on his head
   He began to dance around.

   Point of view. Notice the point of view here. The attention is squarely on Frosty, not on the children who found the old silk hat. When you write a story for kids, you don’t always have to put the child as the main character.

3. O, Frosty the snowman
   Was alive as he could be,
   And the children say he could laugh
   And play just the same as you and me.
   Thumpetty thump thump,
   Thumpety thump thump,
   Look at Frosty go.
   Thumpetty thump thump,
   Thumpety thump thump,
   Over the hills of snow.

   Language play. This section doesn’t add much to the plot, it’s just pure language play. But this is perfect for the younger audiences, who know that playing around with language is half the fun of reading a story or singing a song. Great onomatopoeia.

4. Frosty the snowman knew
   The sun was hot that day,
   So he said, “Let’s run and
   We’ll have some fun
   Now before I melt away.”

   Conflict. Every good story needs conflict. And the character’s attitude in the face, well, in the face of certain death, is evident. It’s an attitude of taking joy where you find it and facing the future with courage.

5. Down to the village,
   With a broomstick in his hand,
   Running here and there all
   Around the square saying,
   Catch me if you can.
   He led them down the streets of town
   Right to the traffic cop.
   And he only paused a moment when
   He heard him holler “Stop!”
   For Frosty the snow man
   Had to hurry on his way,

   
   Development of the conflict. The traffic cop provides an extra bump of conflict that adds to the story’s development. For picturebooks, it doesn’t have to be much; in fact, it can’t be huge, or you’re writing a novel. This is perfect, just the introduction of an authority figure who yells, “Stop!” but can’t really do anything to stop the breakneck speed of Frosty’s life.

6. But he waved goodbye saying,
   “Don’t you cry,
   I’ll be back again some day.”
   Thumpetty thump thump,
   Thumpety thump thump,
   Look at Frosty go.
   Thumpetty thump thump,
   Thumpety thump thump,
   Over the hills of snow.

   Hope. Children’s stories may end in tragedy, but the best offer a spot of hope. Notice also the nice repetition of the language play that sends the story off with a nice echo.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Wisdom, the Midway Albatross

by Darcy Pattison

Giveaway ends March 11, 2012.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

HAPPY HOLIDAYS

For the last few years, I’ve posted writing tips from Winter Holiday personalities. For example, Frosty the Snowman has 6 Top Writing Tips. This year, as our Christmas gift to you, we’ve collected these into one downloadable pdf.

Winter Writing with Kids

FREE download. 34 Writing Skills addressed. Celebrate the Season while Teaching Kids to Write.

DOWNLOAD NOW from the FICTION NOTES STORE

Holiday Writing Tips

Frosty the Snowman’s Top 6 Writing Tips
Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer’s Top 5 Writing Tips
Santa Claus’s Top 5 Writing Tips
The Gingerbread Man’s Top 5 Writing Tips
12 Days of Christmas Writing Tips

Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, with a little help from UTube

1. Unique characters. Give characters a tag, a physical or emotional something that makes them stand out from the crowd. That red nose, in the context of a reindeer herd, is absolutely astoundnig.

   Rudolph, the red-nosed reindeer
   had a very shiny nose.
   And if you ever saw him,
   you would even say it glows.

Rudolph, the Musical, Act I

2. Conflict. The conflict here is the usual playground teasing and bullying of someone who is different. It’s a classic theme because we can all identify with it on some level. Don’t’ be afraid of classic themes; just use them in unique ways.

   Also, pile on the conflict. The other reindeer do three things to Rudolph, each an escalation: laugh, call him names, exclude him from games.

   All of the other reindeer
   used to laugh and call him names.
   They never let poor Rudolph
   join in any reindeer games.

   “I’m All Alone” from Monty Python’s Spamalot

Rudollph the Musical, Act II


3. Turning point. After the set up and the conflict, comes the turning point. The crisis here is that Santa must deliver the toys to the children around the world, but the weather isn’t cooperating.

   Then one foggy Christmas Eve

4. The unusual characteristic becomes a blessing. Again, this is a cliched way of handling a conflict and crisis, but it still works. The very thing that sets the character apart, that makes him/her different and weak, is also the very thing that makes the hero able to save the day. Of course, this means we are matching up conflict and resolution, too. Santa also functions as a sort of mentor here, one who is able to recognize the unique qualities of Rudolph for what they are.

   Santa came to say:
   “Rudolph with your nose so bright,
   won’t you guide my sleigh tonight?”

   Rudolph the Musical, Act III

5. Rejoice. It’s not just the climax here, but also the concept of a celebration of successfully completing a quest. Give characters a moment to celebrate. This often comes after a big battle, or a big effort to overcome something.

   Then all the reindeer loved him
   as they shouted out with glee,
   Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer,
   you’ll go down in history!

   And, of course, Gene Autry, singing Rudolph, the Red Nosed Reindeer
   

   Think the story is still a little slight for todays’ market? Here’s why.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Wisdom, the Midway Albatross

by Darcy Pattison

Giveaway ends March 11, 2012.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

HAPPY HOLIDAYS

For the last few years, I’ve posted writing tips from Winter Holiday personalities. For example, Frosty the Snowman has 6 Top Writing Tips. This year, as our Christmas gift to you, we’ve collected these into one downloadable pdf.

Winter Writing with Kids

FREE download. 34 Writing Skills addressed. Celebrate the Season while Teaching Kids to Write.

DOWNLOAD NOW from the FICTION NOTES STORE

Frosty the Snowman’s Top 6 Writing Tips
Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer’s Top 5 Writing Tips
Santa Claus’s Top 5 Writing Tips
The Gingerbread Man’s Top 5 Writing Tips
12 Days of Christmas Writing Tips

Santa’s Top 5 Writing Tips

Just got an e-newsletter from the North Pole and Santa had these writing tips posted for the young-at-heart who are writing novels this year. Stay tuned: Santa promised to send me Rudolph’s writing tips tomorrow.

Santa’s Top 5 Writing Tips
Rudolph’s Top 5 Writing Tips
Frosty’s Top 6 Writing Tips

Santa Claus Is Coming To Town

• Oh! You better watch out,
  You better not cry,
  You better not pout,

  1. Instant Conflict. The characters are crying and pouting. Make sure your story has instant conflict.

• I’m telling you why:
  Santa Claus is coming to town!

  2. Plots. A Stranger comes to town. It is said that there are only two plots in the world. A character leaves home, or a stranger comes to town. This time it’s promised that the stranger will bring happiness and joy. But will he?

• He’s making a list,
  He’s checking it twice,
  He’s gonna find out
  who’s naughty or nice.
  Santa Claus is coming to town!

  3. Character Motivations. Are you checking your character’s motivations? You should know who is naughty or nice and especially why. No character should be totally one or the other. Soften villains and round out main characters by giving them a flaw.

• He sees you when you’re sleeping,
  He knows when you’re awake.
  He knows when you’ve been bad or good,
  So be good for goodness sake!

  4. Know your characters. You should know your character’s feelings, actions, morals. When s/he is admonished to be good, what would s/he do?

• So…You better watch out,
  You better not cry
  You better not pout,
  I’m telling you why.
  Santa Claus is coming to town.

  5. Endings. Make sure the story’s ending resolves the conflict you set up. Here, the song doesn’t resolve the conflict, so we have an unsettled feeling. Well, that’s probably OK. Christmas morning will tell the real tale. And it’s OK to leave the reader wanting a little bit more, as long as you resolve the inner conflict and leave the reader with hope.

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Goodreads Book Giveaway

Wisdom, the Midway Albatross

by Darcy Pattison

Giveaway ends March 11, 2012.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win