Darcy Pattison Reading

But what if there’s nothing going in? I’ve been reading less lately and it shows in less coming out. Well, that’s not strictly true. I’ve been reading, but mostly internet articles, websites, blogs–not books. This week, though,I’ve read two novels and have a stack of a couple more to read. It’s a breath of fresh air, a coming home that I didn’t know I needed to do.

Why did I leave? I’ve been swept up in the online world for a bit this year. It’s a vast, uncharted world of opinion, with bright spots of voice and humor. Reading around has been interesting, but even here, my habits were shallow, skimming and not staying for a long time on any site.

But this week, I read two novels and was swept away in Story, falling in love again with the language, characters, events,with the way you get lost in the flow of a story. Hours pass, as you travel, meet new people, feel strange emotions, live in the moment of Story. I read Eva Ibbotson’s fantasy middle grade novel, The Secrets of Platform 13. Then I jumped to an adult mystery with Look Again, by Lisa Scottoline. In line next is an adult fantasy novel, and waiting in the corner is a fantastic new bookstore I’ve just discovered. Meanwhile, I’ve stood in B&N and read through board book after board book, in search of the special ones to give to my new grandson for Christmas. From short to long, baby audience to adult, I am devouring Story.

I am gearing up to write and write and write a new story in January. And this is the right preparation: read and read and read. Literature in, literature out.

What books are you currently reading? What are you giving for Christmas presents?

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Wisdom, the Midway Albatross

by Darcy Pattison

Giveaway ends March 11, 2012.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Writing for Kids? It’s easy, right? Recently, I’ve talked to several beginners and here’s some of the most common advice I give.

Main Character to Relate to and Identify With

What age are you writing for? Adults? Then, you need an adult main character. Teens? Then, you need a teen main character. Elementary age kid? Then you need. . . In other words, your audience needs a main character they can relate to and identify with.

Yes, I know. Fairy tales are about old dudes like Rumpelstiltskin. And Pooh Bear is, well, a bear. Yes, there will be an odd book about a grandparent as a main character. But those are harder to pull off and best left till later in your career. Create a main character a bit older than your audience. It can be an animal–which is generally a kid in animal clothing. But any time you move far off from your audience’s age and general characteristics, you will have to work harder to make the audience care.

Basic Writing Skills

Yes, there are basic writing skills and you need to master these. They include sentence structures and punctuation. For this, I suggest you work through The Art of Styling Sentences. It’s a simple, fun way to review basic writing.

Basic Fiction Skills

Ah, but after you brush up your basic writing skills, you need to learn some basic fiction techniques. Do you know how to punctuate dialogue correctly? Do you know how to Show-Don’t-Tell a story? Do you understand that fiction is about conflict, that you can’t create a plot which has no obstacles and simple obstacles makes for a simple, but boring plot?

I always recommend two basic texts for writing fiction:

• Self Editing for Fiction Writers by Renni Brown and Dave King.
• The First Five Pages by Noah Lukeman

If you study these two books on fiction writing, you’ll be far ahead of the gang.

Ask for and accept help!

Advice from the Sage One

Worry about the words, not the art.

Finally, if you are writing a picture book, worry not about the art. Worry only that your words soar.
The publisher, editor and art director will match you with a fantastic illustrator. You don’t have to find an artist, indeed, it will cut your chances of a sale in half if you do. They WANT to and EXPECT to contract an illustrator for a picture book. Worry about the words. That’s your job.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Wisdom, the Midway Albatross

by Darcy Pattison

Giveaway ends March 11, 2012.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Replace Abstractions with Concrete Detail!

Guest post by Geoff Herbach

Introduced first in 2007, debut children’s authors have formed a cooperative effort to market their books. I featured Revision Stories from the Classes of 2k8 and 2k9 and this feature returns this year with the Class of 2k11.

• Class of 2008
• Class of 2009
• MORE 2k11

What’s wrong with this passage?

Bobby was such a nice boy. He would help people who needed to be helped. But something wasn’t right. Bobby felt sad everyday of his life.

It’s dead. You can’t see, feel, or smell it. It’s all tell, no show. What makes the passage that way? Abstractions!

In writing, abstractions are words that symbolize a notion. For instance, in the passage above, what does nice mean? What does helped mean? What does sad mean? Abstract is good in math (math describes reality using symbols, which are by nature abstract). Abstraction can be really cool in visual art. Check out Mondrian’s work Broadway Boogie Woogie, a series of lines and blocks of color meant to represent Midtown Manhattan. You get a different idea of Manhattan through abstraction. Abstraction does not work in writing, though!

Mondrain: Broadway Boogie Woogie, Low-res used under Fair Use

You might have had an English teacher or writing instructor ask you to “show” not “tell”. Often they’re asking you to replace your abstractions with concrete detail.

Reading should be a visceral experience. You should feel it in your guts. If I say I am nice, do you know what nice really means? No way! You can’t see it, feel it, or smell it. If I say every morning I get up at the cold crack of dawn, roll out of my warm covers so I can trek three miles to my disabled grandma’s house to help her make breakfast, do you know what nice means? Oh yeah. You can see and feel it.

Circle Abstractions. When I am revising my work, one of my steps is to go through the manuscript and circle every one of my abstractions. After I do that, I’ll think about each instance and decide if the abstraction serves the story or takes away from the reader’s ability to “see” what I mean. Almost always I’ll replace the abstraction (showing what nice means) with concrete details like getting up at the cold crack of dawn or making breakfast for my grandma.

If I replace every abstraction in that initial passage, I get this:

Every morning Bobby woke up at 5 am so he could cross the wide street in front of his house and serve Old Lady Grisham a breakfast of poached eggs and apple smoked bacon before he left for classes at Golden Prairie High. Still, even though his parents hugged and smiled at each other every time they looked at Bobby – they were so proud, each morning that spring, in first hour English, Bobby’s stomach twisted and his face reddened and he excused himself and went to the bathroom to talk himself out of crying.

Now the passage is alive. Abstractions are replaced with concrete detail that shows who your character is, where your character exists, and how your character is nice, helpful, and also sad. What an easy trick!

So, as one of your revision steps, make sure you locate where you use abstractions, and consider replacing them with concrete details!

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Wisdom, the Midway Albatross

by Darcy Pattison

Giveaway ends March 11, 2012.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

In a recent post about Facebook Author Pages, Nathan Bradford said:

When fan pages were first created, I think people were kind of nervous to get started on them due to the whole “fan” thing. It seemed a bit presumptuous to have a fan page when one wasn’t a celebrity. But Facebook pages are increasingly how people distinguish between their private and public networks. So even if you aren’t (yet) a published author, I would definitely consider creating a page for yourself.

Wow! Intimidating. Before you even have a manuscript to submit, you should get involved in social media? I strongly feel authors have a social presence. A friend finds this intimidating and asked for advice. I’d suggest a slower start than others. For one thing, you’re probably unsure of your goals for social media beyond name recognition. You’re unsure of whether you want to target writers, parents, teachers or readers (adult or kids). Dip your toes in for a while; wade a while.

Start Slow in Social Media

Get a Business Email. Usually, this will be something like FirstLastName@gmail.com. Use this email to start accounts on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

Comment. Since you’re unsure of what manuscripts you’ll sell, and where you’ll fit into the chidlren’s literature world, take some time to look around. Use something like Alltop.com to find blogs to read. On Alltop, you just search for a topic–writing, moms, dads, teachers, etc–and find blogs.

Using your new business identity, read blogs and comment.
Pay attention to topics being discussed, the layout/design/platforms of the blogs and anything else that interests you.

On Twitter, don’t worry about posting, you can just attend a chat:
KidLit Chat
YALitChat

Or Follow some folks and Message them about their Tweets

On YouTube, watch book trailers and add authors and publishers as friends.

At first, set small goals. Maybe a goal of 10 comments a day. That should help you make the rounds of blogs that interest you. It lets you see your options. You can go to AllTop.com and search for writing blogs, moms blogs, reading blogs, or whatever.

OR, if you like Facebook, try posting daily and Liking 10 things daily.
If you like creating videos, post a new video weekly and comment on 10 other videos.
If you like Twitter, post one thing daily, and Message 10 people daily.

Well, you get the idea.

Notice What you Notice

Meanwhile, notice what you notice. Which blogs draw you back over and over? What topics do you comment on? Why? Which platform do you like: FaceBook, Twitter, blogs, YouTube? Do you gravitate toward things for readers, parents, educators? Are you drawn to info about picutre books, nonfiction, YA/Teen lit?

Start slow, start small. Notice where your interests lie. Read tutorials on platforms that interest you. And when you’re ready dive in. Yes–you should do it sooner, rather than later. But if you don’t have a mss ready to submit, you’ve got time. Use it to find a niche that you can sustain.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Wisdom, the Midway Albatross

by Darcy Pattison

Giveaway ends March 11, 2012.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Today, everyone should be rolled over to Facebook’s new Page features. Why should authors care? Because it gives us new ways to interact with each other and with our readers.

LIKE my Facebook Page: I know there are neat, nifty little buttons you can put here so you can LIKE my Page without going there. Alas, I’m part geek, but not enough to have figured this out YET. Instead, PLEASE CLICK through and LIKE my Brand-New Page! BTW, I went with DarcyPattisonAuthor as the name of my page, so the URL is now http://www.facebook.com/DarcyPattisonAuthor.

Basic Changes to Facebook Page

Here’s a great detailed explanation of the changes. Here’s what authors need to know.

My new 180x540 Facebook Profile Pic.

• Photos at the top. Some time ago, Facebook Profile pages switched to pictures at the top and the Pages are doing this also. These are randomly displayed, but you can X out the ones you do NOT want to appear. The photos are drawn from those you upload and those you Tag with your PageName. It will NOT include photos posted by those who like your Page.
• Use Facebook as your Page. When you login you can switch and surf around Facebook AS YOUR PAGE. This means you can LIKE other Pages, post comments as your Page and function as the entity, Author. You can NOT post on profiles, only other Pages.
• Email notifications. You can choose to receive notifications when people post or comment on your Page.
• Featured Pages and admins. Hurrah! If you have Pages for each of your Books, you can feature these on your Page, thus linking all your Pages together in a coherent fashion. You can feature your publisher, your illustrator, your favorite organizations, etc. If multiple people are involved in the page, say for an anthology, you could feature each of those authors (if they have pages). It’s a nice networking tool
• Mutual connections: When someone visits your Page, they will see which of their friends also likes your Page, as well as other Pages that both they and your Page like.
• Profile picture size. Profile pictures were limited to 200×600 px, but that’s reduced to 180×540 px. What do you think of my new pic?
• Navigation. Gone are the tabs at the top, replaced by the Links on the left-hand side, exactly like on a profile. Tabs are swapped out for the personal info that used to be under your pic. Make use of your Info to highlight what is important.
• Custom “tabs”/Links to additional pages on your Page, now) can be created with iFrames. This is important enough it gets its own section below.

IFrames with WordPress

So, what’s the big deal about adding iFrames. Facebook is a clunky interface with no chance for customizing it unless you do some fancy coding. Before you had to use FBML (Facebook Markup Language), a variation on HTML (hypertext markup language).

Note: If you skipped learning all that stuff ten years ago, then you’re one of those who uses a Visual Editor on everything, a What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get. It’s OK. There are tools out there for you.

Now, Facebook is switching to iFrames, which means that you create content and host it somewhere outside Facebook, on your own domain or server; then you pull it into Facebook, like putting a picture into a frame.

Complicated? Yes, a bit. Now, I’m not afraid to do some playing around with codes, but this iFrames stuff looked overwhelming to me. Fortunately, there are already apps to make it easy.

I use WordPress, which I host on my own domain. When I found this newly updated Facebook Tab Manager Plugin, I was excited. I followed the recommended video and quickly managed to create a custom page through WordPress and pull it into my Facebook Page.

Whatever platform you’re using, see if you can find a new App; wait a month, there will be one!

SEE THE CUSTOM PAGE: To see the resulting page, you need to LIKE my Facebook Page first. Then in the left-hand column, click on What’s New.

Using Facebook to Promote Books and Yourself as Author

So, why should authors care about all this new-fangled stuff?

Pull Together all Your Online Presence

For the first time, Facebook seems to be a place where you can pull together all your online presences. For example, I talk about writing fiction here on Fiction Notes, including the Novel Revision Retreats that I teach; I talk about book trailers at BooktrailerManual.com; and I talk about my books everywhere, including on some websites dedicated just to them. It’s frustrating because it’s hard to pull it all together in one place. A FB-Page now has that capability.
• Strategic Linking Use strategic linking on your Page, including Featured links to Pages. Use iFrames to create Links to pages that pull in your info to this one central place.
• Networked Blogs Use the Networked Blogs App to pull in posts from any and all of your blogs.

Keep People Engaged

Already, folks are pulling together info on how to best use a FB-Page for business. Here’s my best tip:

Tip: Get Hubspot’s Facebook Page Marketing 2011 free ebook. They give many more tips on using the new pages to promote. It’s not geared specifically toward book promotion, but many things apply.

• Timely Posting Specifically, Hubspot suggests that you post about every other day on your Page. Daily posts are too much for fans, but every other day is about right.
• Offers. This is hard for authors, but Hubspot says that in a recent survey, a majority said they LIKE a page, so they will get offers from you. I’ve always thought that book signings are a way for people to take home a tiny slice of an author: I’ve touched someone special and have this autograph to prove it. Likewise, the “offers” might be something like a book giveaway; but it might be a tiny insight into how you work; or it might be sharing an emotional moment with your fans, a success or a failure. The “Offer” for us isn’t necessarily physical, it might be an offer of an emotional connection. But it needs to be there.

Read Hubspot’s ebook for more tips.

LIKE my Facebook Page: I know there are neat, nifty little buttons you can put here so you can LIKE my Page without going there. Alas, I’m part geek, but not enough to have figured this out YET. Instead, PLEASE CLICK through and LIKE my Brand-New Page! BTW, I went with DarcyPattisonAuthor as the name of my page, so the URL is now http://www.facebook.com/DarcyPattisonAuthor.

Darcy Pattison

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Wisdom, the Midway Albatross

by Darcy Pattison

Giveaway ends March 11, 2012.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Arkansas was blanketed with snow yesterday, up to 2 feet in NW-Arkansas, and about 6″ (officially) in central Arkansas, although it looks like much more to me.

When you have an unexpected day off, what do you do?

1. Read. I had already bought Paolo Bacigalupi’s book, Shipbreakers, which just won the Printz award for best teen fiction. So, I read it. Great book. It’s a great example of how to start action in media res, and keep the action going. This is a futuristic world, almost a dystopia. But we don’t have a prologue that explains all this, rather the information is given naturally as the story progresses. We don’t know information until we need it.




2. Learn. I also watched some YouTube videos in my on-going self-education about book trailers. I found this video to be an interesting introduction to the book/CD of The Selfish Giant, with musical adaptation by Dan Goeller and great new illustrations (March 1 release date). Maybe I just liked it because I’m snowed it!
   
   
   *|YouTube:we78ycIUYkk|*




3. Observe. Finally, I went walking in the snow, taking pictures. I snapped pictures of birds at my feeder: rufous-sided Towhee, downy woodpecker, tufted titmouse, chickadee, blue jay, cardinal, house sparrows, house wren and more. In other words, I filled the coffers with sights, sounds, smells, textures, temperatures and more, so that when I sit down to write, I’ll have something to draw upon.

Today–I’m back at my computer, even though the world outside glitters and beckons. Because that’s what writers do: we write.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Wisdom, the Midway Albatross

by Darcy Pattison

Giveaway ends March 11, 2012.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Richard Curtis in a recent EReads post asks a provocative question: Do authors make good publishers? The question is in the context of ebooks, keep that in mind.

They point to high-profile authors who have tried this route this year: Cory Doctorow, Seth Godwin and J.A. Conrath. Curtis concludes that the services of a publisher are valuable.

As he quotes Doctorow, “With a Little Help has helped me realize something: whatever I do next, I don’t want to be in charge of all these moving parts. I can’t be both a Zen, let-it-all-happen-at-its-own-pace writer and an aggressive, deadline-pushing publisher. If I were realistically going to keep up this publishing stuff, I would need to outsource every task that requires the virtues inherent in agents, editors, sales, marketing, distribution and retail, especially that willingness to tithe a large portion of my working day to logistics, follow-ups, and calls.”

Here Conrath however, takes issue with Curtis’ conclusion, reporting, “In December, I made over $24,000 self-publishing, and I’m currently averaging $1300 per day. But I’m far from the only one doing well.”

He then lists many authors with sales figures of over 1000 ebooks in December and concludes that you should self-publish.

May you always Find your Way!

What do you think? Know anyone successfully selling ebooks? Ready to move toward self-publishing? Or, like Doctorow, do you still appreciate the professional team of a publisher?

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Wisdom, the Midway Albatross

by Darcy Pattison

Giveaway ends March 11, 2012.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Guest post from Dori Butler

What advice would you give to your younger self?

I’ve always wanted to be a writer. Always. But wanting to be a writer is probably a lot like wanting to be a baseball player. Or a movie star. A lot of people want it, but most will settle for something else.

One thing that sets me apart from other people is I’m determined. Some might say stubborn. I’m also relatively patient. When I want something, I go after it. And I don’t give up until I get it.

That doesn’t mean I don’t have doubts. I’ve had a lot of doubts about my writing through the years. There have been times I wondered if I was wasting my time…times I considered giving up…times I wished I could look into a crystal ball and see whether I was ever going to get anywhere. Would I ever get published? Would I ever publish a book? Would I ever publish a book with my name on it rather than someone else’s? Would I ever publish a series? That’s what I really wanted to do…publish a series of my own.

Now that I’m more than twenty years into my writing career, I know the answers to those questions. If I could actually talk to a younger version of myself at various points my life, and offer some advice, this is what I would say:

Dear 21-year-old Dori,

Dori at 21

So what are you working on? An eight-book picture book series called Plato Goes to Obedience School. Wow. Eight books, huh? All about a cocker spaniel who goes to obedience school. You don’t realize this yet, but you don’t have enough story there to sustain one book, much less eight. You’ve got the start of a character, but no plot. No. I’m sorry, you really don’t.

Let me ask you this: What does Plato want? What is he willing to do to get it? What is he going to DO in each of these eight books to move the story forward? Where’s the conflict? Where’s the adventure? Where are the high stakes? You need to read A LOT more picture books if you think you want to write picture books. You need to learn the elements of a good story. In fact, maybe you should think about writing just one good story at this point. It’s too early to be thinking about a series.

I know you really want to write a series. But trust me, you’re not ready. And Plato Goes to Obedience School is NOT series material. By the way, six-year-olds don’t even know who Plato was, so you might consider changing the name of that dog. Yeah, I know…that’s really your dog’s name, but nobody cares. Please, do me a favor. Don’t send that series proposal out. Just keep reading, keep writing, keep learning. One day you will publish a series of your own. It’ll even be a series about dogs! But it’s not going to be Plato Goes to Obedience School. It’s just not. Put this away and don’t ever show it to ANYONE! You still have so much to learn…

–Middle-Aged Dori

Dear 29-year-old Dori,

I know…you never saw yourself living in Iowa, of all places, and yet here you are. Let me tell you this: you’re going to come to love Iowa and your life there. Really, you are. And your new friend, Carol? She’s going to change your life because she’s going to tell you about book packagers. She’s going to show you how to approach them, she’s going to read your Sweet Valley Twins audition piece, she’s going to be your biggest cheerleader next to your husband, and you’re going to get hired as a writer for the Sweet Valley Twins series. You’ve already published a bunch of magazine stories, but these are going to be your first published books. They may not be “your” books, but you’ll find subtle ways of making each one your own while remaining true to the series. This is going to be a great experience for you. You’ll get a 10-page outline for each book you’re contracted to write and then you’ll have 4-6 weeks to write each one. I know that doesn’t sound like much time, but don’t worry. You’ll make every deadline. You’ll learn how to structure a novel, match a series voice, maintain a character over several books, work with an editor, meet a deadline, revise, and you’ll actually get paid to learn all this.

Caution: you’re going to get so good at this that the assignments are going to come one after the other. And you have two little kids now. You’re going to actually make some money as a writer, but you’re not going to have time to write anything of your own. And one day you’re going to wake up and realize that everything you write sounds like a Sweet Valley Twins book. So here’s a piece of advice: slow down a little. I know it feels good when someone calls you up and offers you a contract, but learn to say no once in a while. It’s perfectly reasonable to say, “I’d like to, but I just can’t do another book this month. Could I do one next month instead?” And then use that month off to recapture your own voice.

–Middle-Aged Dori

Dear 32-year-old Dori,

So you think you’re ready to try again. You think you’re ready to propose your own middle grade series. You’ve learned all you’re going to learn from writing Sweet Valley Twins books. You’ve continued to publish magazine stories. You’ve even published a few picture books with regional publishers. But what you really want is your own middle grade series. You’ve read a bunch of other people’s series. You understand what makes a series. You even have an idea: you want to write about a girls’ baseball league. That’s not a bad idea.

You understand now that series are all about character. You’ve created nine different girls, each with her own story. You’ve got action. You’ve got adventure. You’ve got friendship. You’ve got conflict. You’ve got characters who are doing things. And at the heart of it all, you’ve got baseball.

It would help if you were a little more passionate about baseball. Sure, you know how the game is played. You know a lot about the history of women in baseball. And A League of their Own is your favorite movie. But let’s be honest. You’re not really passionate about baseball. Not really. So why do you want to write about it?

What’s that? You say you’re writing about middle school girls…middle school girls who happen to play baseball. You’re not really writing about baseball.

Yeah, okay…I’ll buy that. Temporarily. Because, after all, you’re going to get really close with this series proposal. You’re going to send Harper Collins your list of characters, a synopsis of book one, ideas for the next three books, and two sample chapters (the only ones you’ve actually written) from book one. And they’re going to get back to you after a couple of months and ask you for the rest of book one.

That single phone call will inspire some passion for baseball. You’ll read a bunch of books about baseball; you’ll even start reading the sports section of the newspaper now and then. You’ll spend the next couple of months frantically writing the rest of book one and then you’ll send it off. And you’ll wait…and you’ll wait…and you’ll wait…

But guess what? HarperCollins will NEVER give you an answer. You’ll call them and ask about the status of your manuscript after six months and again after nine months. You’ll get some encouraging news both times, but they will never offer a contract, nor will they ever tell you they’re not interested. They’re just going to hold that proposal FOREVER.

Eventually you’ll find out that Peachtree is looking for girls’ series ideas. So you’ll send your series proposal to them. This time when somebody asks about the rest of book one, you’ll be able to send it right away because you’ve actually finished it. And guess what? They’re going to tell you it’s got “too much depth” for a paperback series (which is going to blow you away because you are the queen of the “your story lacks depth” rejection letter). But they’re going to offer you a contract for it as a stand-alone hardcover novel “with sequel possibilities,” and in 2003 Sliding Into Home will be one of your first published middle grade novels.

Don’t give up!

Sincerely,
Middle Aged Dori

Dear 43-year-old Dori,

Mouse and Dori

You’ve been working with Albert Whitman & Co. for seven years now. You’ve written Boxcar Children books for them (which is a very different experience from writing Sweet Valley Twins books. You don’t get any outlines for Boxcar; you get to come up with the mysteries yourself. Too bad we can’t tell 7-year-old Dori, who LOVED the Boxcar Children series, that she would one day grow up to write them!). You’ve published five books of your own with Albert Whitman. And your editors there know you well enough to know that you’ve always wanted your own series. You’ve even discussed a series idea with them. All you need to do is write a couple of sample chapters and a synopsis of the first book, some character notes, and ideas for future books.

What’s that? You’re not all that excited about the series idea you’ve already discussed with them? You’ve got a new dog that you’re training to be a therapy dog, and really, you’re all about the dog right now (and the kid who’s moving out in 10 months). In fact, the dog is actually taking precedence over the writing. But…it might be fun to write a beginning chapter book series from the perspective of a dog. Maybe from the perspective of a school therapy dog who solves mysteries. I know, that’s not what you and your editor discussed. And you’re worried this idea is a little too close to Plato Goes to Obedience School, which you understand now was a really BAD idea.

But keep going! You know so much more about writing and constructing a series now than you did when you wrote Plato Goes to Obedience School. And most important, you’ve got PASSION for this project! Don’t worry…Albert Whitman & Co. is going to love it!

–Middle-Aged Dori

P.S. Your dog is going to be an awesome therapy dog!

If I was given an opportunity to look into a crystal ball and see answers to those questions, I don’t think I’d look. I’d rather keep doing what I’m doing and discover the answers to those questions as they happen. After all, it’s the questions that keep life interesting. I wonder if 75-year-old Dori would agree?

I wonder what advice 75-year-old Dori might have for Middle Aged Dori?

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Wisdom, the Midway Albatross

by Darcy Pattison

Giveaway ends March 11, 2012.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Recently, I was asked a basic question: should authors promote their books? Yes. Here are your options.

Options for Promoting Your Book

This post has two parts. First, it’s a regular post; see below. Second, it’s a first attempt to post a video where I’m talking and explaining something. The video is below, but here’s a critique of it. Skip this part if you just want to read about author promotions.

This video was a first attempt, and first attempts inevitably go wrong. I knew it wasn’t perfect, but I also knew that if I didn’t make a start, if I waited for perfect, I would NEVER post a video. So, deep breath, have courage, Darcy, I posted one. Here’s a critique of it:

First, what’s right:

• I tried.
• I said everything I wanted to say. Well, in the video I said there are four major ways to promote your work and here I say there are five. And I included things in the video not in the notes below. Instead of “personal appearances”, I said “personal experiences”. But overall, I’m pleased with the content.
• The equipment worked well. My “studio” worked well.

What’s wrong:

• The hardware worked, but I still had software issues. In particular, I had to reload the editing software on my office computer. That left me short on time, so I just created the video and sent it to YouTube. I should have added a title screen, and text screens with the info I was giving at the appropriate moments.
  Lesson learned: create the video a day or so ahead, to allow time to edit.
• Wow, I say, “um” a lot! I need to tape myself more and make sure my presentation is cleaned up and held to a higher standard.
  Lesson learned: tape yourself and work to do better presentations.
• A phone rang during the taping. Gosh!
  Lesson learned: silence the phone while taping.

Basically, there are five options for promoting your book. Authors should choose from among these a unique mix of marketing efforts.
How to choose, what criteria will you use to decide what to include in your marketing plan?

2 Criteria for deciding on how to promote

Play to your strengths. Do what you like to do, what you’re good at.

Find your audience and play to their preferences, even if they aren’t your strengths. Where does your audience hang out and what media are they using? You gotta hang out there, too, and you gotta use the media they use.

5 Options for Promoting Your Book

• Print: flyers and posters, ads in magazines/newspapers/specialized publications, sample chapters, direct marketing, newsletter, interviews, business cards, slogans/pitches
• Audio: radio or online interviews, read samples of your work, give reader’s reactions and comments
• Web: website and/or blog, email marketing, online ads, sample chapters, RSS, feeds, bulletin boards or forums, ezine or newsletter, affiliate programs, online contests, webinars, advertisements (from Craigslist to GoogleAds), ebooks, podcasts, vlogging, internet memes
• Personal appearances: BEA, ALA, local library, bookstore signings, literary festivals, teaching, school visits, speaking engagements, seminars, conferences, asking for referrals, elevator pitches, personal PR
• Social Media: Facebook, GoodReads, Twitter, LibraryThing, delicious.com, StumbleUpon.com; spending enough time to become part of the community; using announcements, contest, giveaways

The Video: Should Authors Promote Their Books?

Social Media

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Wisdom, the Midway Albatross

by Darcy Pattison

Giveaway ends March 11, 2012.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

PR Notes: Start with Optimized Websites

The first thing you should do for book publicity promotion is a website (or a blog). I know. Most of you have one.

But let’s do a check to see if it’s the most effective it could be.

1) Put your name into a search engine. Great. Your website/blog came up first (I hope!).
2) Describe your latest book in 4-5 words. For my forthcoming picture book next year, Prairie Storms (August, 2011, Sylvan Dell), I might list these words: prairie weather animals kids book.
Put those words into a search engine. Does your site come up on the first page of the results?

Can Anyone Find Your Site?

It’s no use having a website, if no one finds it! Tweaking your website to make sure search engines find you is called Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Last year, I did lots of tweaking and it doubled the traffic to my site. Yes, doubled it within six months.

I’m not going to do a whole tutorial on SEO here, you can find those online, as well as books devoted to the subject at your bookstore. Here, I just want to talk about keywords.

Keywords for your book

When I listed those words for Prairie Storms, I just pulled some out of the air, but I won’t do that when I create the website this year. I’ll look at statistics, because the online world is all about statistics.

First, you’ll want to use a tool like Google Adwords Keyword tool to help you find the right keywords. For this tool, you put in words that you think someone will use to find your book. For example for Prairie Storms, a teacher might use these keywords: weather unit lesson plans.

Try this with me. Go to the Keyword Tool and put in those words, one on each line.

I like to click at the top of the Local Monthly Searches column, so it will sort the results in descending order from the most searches on down.

Here are the top 3 keywords:
Weather – 68,000,000 searches / month
Plan – 20,400,000 searches / month
Lesson – 9,140,000 searches / month

Wow, lots of people are looking for weather related stuff! But if there are 68 million searches/month for “weather,” how many could I reasonable expect to come to my site? None. If you don’t show up in the top 30 results for a search term, very few people will click on your site. Page ranking is the term used to refer to how well a page on a website ranks on search engines. If you’re in position 10 for the keyword, “weather”, that would be fantastic.

What I need to do then, if find phrases where I might could get a high rank. In the Keyword tool, you can do this by putting phrases in brackets; also on the left-hand column, click on the Match Phrase; on the Contains column, I only want to see results for “weather lesson plans”. Searching for [weather lesson plans] there are 8,100 local searches/month. The competition is low enough that I could probably rank high on it.

Before I create the website for this book, I’ll probably repeat this process and decide on 4-5 keyword phrases.

If I rank #1 on that keyword, will I really get get 8,100 visits a month from that keyword? No. But I’ll get a good percentage of them. And it’s up to me and the content on my website to make sure the visitors stay a while and read about my book.

The next thing to do is to use that exact phrase on my website. I use the Live Keyword Analysis to check the percentage of times I use a phrase. I put my text into the tool, along with the word or phrase and it tells me how often I use it. You should shoot for 3-7% of the text including the keywords. Once you’ve optimized the use of the keyword, making sure the text reads in a natural way, it’s ready to put on your website.

Tedious sounding? Maybe.

But it’s meant doubling the traffic to my blog in the last year, something which has helped get the word out about my work. And that’s what we care about, isn’t it? It’s something simple that I can do, something that is totally within my control and outside the publisher’s control, and something that works.

What keywords will you use on your author website? Do you specialize in medieval historical novels for teens? Or do you write nature animal books? Choose your keywords carefully for your general website and especially for each webpage about your books.

What keywords have worked well for you?

P.S. Mary Nida reminded me in the comments that blogs are as important as website. In reality, all this keyword stuff works for blogs and/or websites. So, I made a few revisions above to emphasize this.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Wisdom, the Midway Albatross

by Darcy Pattison

Giveaway ends March 11, 2012.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win