Pub Rants

Category: promotion

Nick Hornby, Dan Brown, Gail Carriger!

by Kristin Nelson

STATUS: I’m actually going to take the day off tomorrow but I’ll slip in the blog entry for the early morn.

What’s playing on the iPod right now? UNBELIEVABLE by EMF

I just can’t stop laughing. Don’t get me wrong. I’m tickled to death. When am I ever going to see one of my authors included on a list like this again?

It’s Nick, Pat, Dan, Elizabeth—and Gail!

Congrats Ms. Carriger! I heartily agree with the Media on this one. (wink)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Roger Bilheimer

MEDIA SELECTS ITS OWN “BUZZ” BOOKS AT BEA

More breakout books are picked in random survey

Norwalk, CT, June 3, 2009: Members of the media who regularly cover the book industry were asked by BEA convention officials this year to submit their favorite buzz book of the show. Lance Fensterman, Vice President and Show Manager for BEA, notes: “This is one of the most unscientific surveys that we could possibly initiate but it’s also one of the most interesting because anything goes. Most importantly, the survey calls attention to a couple books that may have been overlooked by others, and if this is the case, then I think this effort is well worth it! The people that we asked to participate know an enormous amount about books, they have been coming to the convention for years, and it’s their job to seek out sleepers and winners.”

The guidelines were simple: show officials asked the media for their personal pick of the most interesting book at the show. This could be measured by the book itself, its publishing history, what was been heard about the book at BEA (i.e. its “buzz” factor), or a simple assessment of the title based on reading jacket copy or meeting the author. There were some duplicate responses but officials are not “weighing” or “rating” the results. The final list of books represents the full range of titles submitted back to BEA on the last day of the show by the “movers and shakers” in the media whose job it is to cover the world of books.

AMERICAN ON PURPOSE by Craig Ferguson (HarperCollins)
CONNECTED: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives, by Nicholas Christakis and James Fowler (Little Brown)
JULIET NAKED by Nick Hornby (Riverhead)
SOULLESS by Gail Carriger (Orbit)
SOUTH OF BROAD by Pat Conroy (Doubleday)
SPOONER by Pete Dexter (Grand Central)
STITCHES by David Small (W.W. Norton)
THE LOST SYMBOL by Dan Brown (Doubleday)
THE SWAN THIEVES by Elizabeth Kostova (Little Brown)

ABOUT REED EXHIBITIONS: Reed Exhibitions is the world’s leading events organizer. In 2007 Reed brought together over six million industry professionals from around the world generating billions of dollars in business. Today Reed events are held in 38 countries throughout the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Asia Pacific, and organized by 39 fully staffed offices.

Because It Really Could Happen To You—Guest Blogger Sarah Rees Brennan

by Kristin Nelson

STATUS: Running out the door in about 30 minutes for all-day meetings. If I had been smart, I would have taken a day or two off right after BEA. Make note for next time….

What’s playing on the iPod right now? BEAUTIFUL DAY by U2

As authors (and even as agents), we aren’t always up on the latest technology so let this be a reminder to always have a backup system in place—even for things you didn’t think needed backing up.

The sad part of this story is that the attack on Sarah Rees Brennan’s live journal and her email account was obviously a deliberate one. We can only assume it was meant to sabotage her release day as Sarah Rees has a large online following and there are a lot of great things tied into her internet presence for her release day.

The good news is that she foiled her saboteur. With the help of a lot of good friends, supporters, and fellow generous writers, Sarah is good to go today–her official release day for her debut YA—THE DEMON’S LEXICON.

Congrats Sarah!

It happened six days before my book came out.

I was in the shower, singing a country music song and blinking coconut-scented bubbles out of my eyes, when I heard my phone ring and scrambled out to answer the phone. It was my friend Bob. ‘Hello, Bob,’ I said in a perplexed way. ‘Aren’t you at work?”

Go to your computer,’ he said. ‘Don’t freak out. I’m going to help you fix this.’

I went to my computer and saw that my blog had been deleted. I’d been writing my blog for seven years, since I was eighteen, and it had a lot of my life recorded in it: the parts dearest to me were the posts announcing my book deal, and all the posts I’d made about the terrifying, wonderful process of publication in the almost two years since then. They were all gone.

Then I tried to get into my email, and discovered that was where the hackers had got in: the thought of malicious strangers being able to go through all of my personal and some fairly crucial business emails had me shaking in my fluffy pink bath towel, but there was just no time to panic: I had to call about a hundred people, starting with my bank, proceeding onward to my website hosts and my friends, all the while being on the phone to report the computer abuse to both livejournal and google.

Thanks to the efforts of my more computer savvy friends, who were basically acting as my ninja team of technology, I got control of my blog and my email back in less than three hours. Unfortunately, that was plenty of time to delete every post I’d ever made on my blog, and every email I’d ever sent or received: emails from a long-distance boyfriend, my first email from my publisher, a million emails from my best friend in the diplomatic service. Not to mention all of my email contacts, which was scary given the whole six days to publication, and all the people I needed to be in contact with whose email addresses I had not memorized.

It still makes me feel a little ill to think of all that, lost. Then my tech ninjas said ‘Sarah… this looks like deliberate malice rather than a regular hack’ and I said sadly that given the timing, I had figured as much.

It was probably just someone who didn’t like my style on my blog, and thought they’d take me down a peg. Holy violation of privacy, Batman! The internet is sometimes a scary place.

Since I was given that object lesson in It Can Happen To You, I collected up some very, very simple tips (I am not a tech ninja, so I can only understand the basics!) on how to safeguard yourself against hackers, and wish to share them with you guys. Especially since I know a lot of you are writers, and I don’t want anyone trying to ruin your big day! So three tips, then.

1. Using your password on public or unsecured wifi is not safe, as it means you’re broadcasting your login data: so if you’re going on holiday or away on business and you’re going to be using public or unsecured internet for some time, change your password before you go and when you come back.

2. Whenever you’re given a link, hover your mouse over it and see where it leads before you go there: just going to a dodgy site can infect your computer, so always regard new sites with a little wariness.

3. And then there are passwords, and how we really do need them to be random, even though it’s so much easier to remember your dog’s or your boyfriend’s name… Not that I’m suggesting those two things are on the same level. I really love my dog! Here’s a great site with tips for creating better passwords.

And if despite your precautions – and I thought I’d taken precautions myself – it happens, well, it happens, and it’s awful, but right after it happened to me my blog readers were collecting up all their saved entries from my blog, and helping me reconstruct it. Lots of people re-sent emails to me that they’d sent me years ago. And one blog reader provided me with some handy tips, much like the ones I’m giving out to you! The internet can be scary sometimes, but it can be great as well.

Even though that day last week was horrible, today is wonderful. My book is out – my very first book, on shelves, where people can read it!

And nobody can delete that.

A stack on the table at the Borders–Penn Station

Knowledge Dissemination As A Tool of Promotion–Guest Blogger Sherry Thomas

by Kristin Nelson

STATUS: Meetings and more meetings. Chut really enjoyed Riverside Park this evening.

What’s playing on the iPod right now? YOU’RE ON THE ONLY WOMAN by David Pack

Bad Agent. I was supposed to post this entry on Wednesday which was Sherry’s actual release day for NOT QUITE A HUSBAND. Bad Agent.

“Sherry Thomas is the most powerfully original historical romance author writing today.”
—Lisa Kleypas, New York Times bestselling author

But today’s entry is so worth waiting for. Not to mention, I get to share Sherry’s hilarious book trailer. I completely share Sherry’s sense of humor so I’m going to apologize beforehand if this doesn’t tickle your funny bone. I spit coffee when I watched it for the first time. Understated to say the least…

Now, without further ado, named one of PW’s top five authors of 2008, Sherry Thomas. Happy Release Day!

When it comes to promotion, Agent Kristin is my model. Make no mistake, this blog is a promotion tool, for her agency and for her clients. But the lovely thing about this blog is that it is not just a promotion tool, it is also a knowledge dissemination tool. When you read this blog, you get the insider’s look, you get to see publishing as it happens.

I wanted to do that. But compared to Kristin, I had a significant drawback. I didn’t have any specific useful knowledge. What to do? Well, knowledge can be acquired. But what knowledge to acquire? I made a decision: I would learn about those things that interest me as an author and hope that what interest me would also interest a good number of other people.

For example, I was curious as to how genre books, particularly romance, get into public libraries–because I’m a devoted patron of my local public library and because if my books didn’t make it to the library branch right next to my house, I wanted to know why! I pitched it as an article idea to the editor of Romance Writers Report (RWR), Romance Writers of America’s monthly newsletter. She said go ahead, and I did.

I contacted blogger Super Librarian (http://super_librarian.blogspot.com), an online reviewer who is, in non-virtual life, the adult fiction buyer for the Orange County Public Library. I contacted the fiction selector for my local public library system. I contacted John Charles, reference librarian and fiction selector at Scottsdale Public Library who also conducts romance reader advisory workshops at state and national library association conferences. I read the material Mr. Charles kindly sent me. I did my homework.

The result? The lead article in the August 2008 issue of the RWR—and a pretty good one if I do say so myself. Plus, now I know pretty well the whole process on how books get into libraries.

My next area of significant interest is foreign rights sales. Kristin and Whitney, her foreign rights sub-agents, do a bang-on job of it. But how exactly does a sale happen? Well, I know how it happened for me in one instance. Kris Alice Hohls, the publisher of LoveLetter, a German monthly devoted to romance novels, had read an ARC of my debut novel and loved it. She spread that love to the editor at CORA Verlag, where my book was on submission, and voila, the rest was much happy dancing on the way to the bank.

So, who is Kris Alice Hohls? How did LoveLetter come about? How does a young woman decide one day to create a magazine for an underserved market? There is nothing to do but interview her.

The interview would appear in the June 2009 issue of the RWR. A couple of weeks ago, Kris Alice Hohls emailed me and asked if I would be interested in doing a panel at next year’s RWA National with her, my German editor, and Agent Kristin, to discuss how foreign rights sales really go down.

Oh, would I? You bet. Because I have been hoping to get hold of a foreign editor for a long time–along with Whitney–so I could write a proper nuts-and-bolts article on the art and science of foreign rights sales. That article would appear in the RWR when my next book comes out.

Why the RWR always, you ask? Well, because the RWR goes out to 10,000 subscribers and I get a half-page ad space in exchange for giving them an article they can use. Not to mention the rights to the articles remain with me. For example, on May 19 the article on how romances get into libraries is getting a reprinting at DearAuthor.com, one of the premier romance blogs on the net.

And when I have a book out next time, that nuts-and-bolts article on foreign rights sales just might make an appearance on this blog. Further promotion through knowledge dissemination. Maybe I’ll learn to live with promotion after all.

Holy Display Batman!

by Kristin Nelson

STATUS: Did some meetings today but don’t have the brain power to write up for tonight’s blog. Stay tuned tomorrow though. I’m going to shoot for the morning.

What’s playing on the iPod right now? Nothing at the moment.

20 days and counting down to the release of DON’T JUDGE A GIRL BY HER COVER. Would you say this bookstore is enthusiastic?

All I can say is that I wish every store in America would follow this example! Huge grin here.

Get Vamped! Get A Street Team!

by Kristin Nelson

STATUS: TGIF! It’s supposed to be a lousy weekend in Denver. Rain both days. Guess who will probably get a lot of reading done?

What’s playing on the iPod right now? TOTAL ECLIPSE OF THE HEART by Bonnie Tyler

Happy Release Day Lucienne!

I imagine that most writers believe that because Lucienne is also an agent, she probably got special treatment when she went out on submission. But actually, that’s not true. If the editors knew who she was, then I’m sure they kept that in mind while reading but most of the editors were in the children’s realm—a market Lucienne doesn’t do a whole lot of repping in. So her being an agent didn’t necessarily carry extra weight.

And even with that, the work had to live up to its promise, and the editors had to love it as a novel to take it on.

In looking back on my submission notes, we had quite a few editors who wanted the angsty vampire romance—not something fun, campy, and totally different than anything out there already.

All the editors loved Lucienne’s voice. One editor felt it was similar to something she already had on her list but she went back and forth on it as she really loved that voice. Another editor thought they had too many vampire books on their list (can’t argue with that!).

Now it’s the lead title for Flux’s spring list. It’s debuting today. It’s gotten a good Kirkus review. Excellent sell in. It’s being featured as part of Barnes & Noble’s book club.

And Lucienne has a great promo tip for you. I’d like to welcome guest blogger and fellow agent, Lucienne Diver of The Knight Agency.

I can haz minions?


I don’t know, something about starting my own street team has me talking in LOLcat and wanting to laugh maniacally, like a cartoon villain. I’ve been feverishly working on my evil villain laugh, actually. Taking a page from Dr. Horrible’s Sing-A-Long Blog.

But I’m not here today to talk to you about my minions. Or, not exactly. I’m here to talk about promotion. You know how they always say that two heads are better than one? Well, twenty is ten times better than two. And one hundred…well, you get the point. It’s a truism in the publishing field that word of mouth is the biggest seller of books. Ads and reviews are all well and good, but nothing works as well as recommendations from friends. Hence the idea of the street team… providing advance copies of your book (and maybe other freebies like t-shirts, bookmarks, mugs, whathaveyou) to a group representing your target audience with the understanding that if they like your work they’ll spread the word, go forth and kvell—blog, put up reviews on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Borders.com, Twitter, go tell it on the mountain. I don’t know if Mari Mancusi was the first author to come up with the idea, but I do know that I first heard of it through an article she’d written. Brilliant! I thought. I let my young adult authors know about it, because it seemed especially suited to the young adult field. I filed it away in my own mind.

You see, at the time, Gina, my heroine from Vamped, was not even a twinkle in my eye. In fact, when she first started talking in my head (yes, that’s how it happens), she was a snarky fashionista who, after clawing her own way out of the grave, discovers that true horror is a lack of reflection. No way to do her hair and make-up; eternity without tanning options. She decides that her first order of business is to turn her own stylist. The story didn’t have an actual plot. It was more of a vignette, really, a slice of unlife. I thought I’d have done with her and be able to walk away. But as it turned out, Gina was more resourceful and stronger than I knew. A short story wasn’t enough for her (or my readers, who wanted more). Oh, no, she had to have a novel. Then a series. Next thing you know, she’ll be taking over the silver screen (oh please, please, please).

Anyway, that part of me that is Gina – because, let’s face it, there’s a little of us in all of our characters – is crowing “I can haz minions!” My street team is fabulous. I put out a call on my blog for teens and twenty-somethings, directed them toward the section on my website where there’s an excerpt posted to see if they thought they’d like it, and recruited. The first ten to respond would got T-shirts and a signed copy of Vamped, the next twenty-five were offered signed bookplates. I got a great response. I’m actually pretty humbled by the amazing energy, enthusiasm and creativity of my team. They’re heads and shoulders above Victor Frankenstein’s iconic Igor. They’re people that make me go “wow” and “I’m not worthy” on a regular basis. I actually want to succeed as much for them—so they can brag about how they were part of it all, that they were there before I was someone—as for myself.

In short, having a street team can be incredibly rewarding, hopefully for all parties. It’s certainly the most fun I’ve had promoting my book. It makes me feel like I’m not in this alone and gives me the comfort that there are folks other than me enthusiastic about my new release. Writing is too often a lonely endeavor.

Power Of Twitter

by Kristin Nelson

STATUS: I’ve got under 200 emails in my inbox! Yes, this is worth celebrating. I haven’t seen a number this low in weeks.

What’s playing on the iPod right now? CHIQUITA by ABBA

Talk about eye-popping. Lisa Shearin just forwarded an email that Felicia Day had sent her regarding Felicia’s twittering yesterday of THE TROUBLE WITH DEMONS.

According to Felicia, over 10,000 people clicked on her twitter link to the Amazon.com page for DEMONS.

Of course she can’t track who then purchased but if even just 1% did an actual buy, that would be a solid 100 copies in one day.

I’m thinking all my clients need a celebrity fan! Hello.

But seriously, look at the mechanisms Lisa put in place that allowed people to reach out to her. She knew about Felicia’s blog via Google Alerts and then she followed up on it. If you’ve got a book being published this year, make sure your website is up and ready by the time galleys go out. Make sure there is a way for fans to contact you. If you’re doing a social networking site, make sure that’s ready. Be sure to track your reviews as you never know who might be talking about you! Sure it can be a lot of work tracking this stuff but it just might pay off in nice dividends!

Tweet This! Guest Blog Lisa Shearin

by Kristin Nelson

STATUS: Ah, disaster day. I spent about four hours straight on the phone this morning. Didn’t even get a chance to glance at my notes for more news of London but I will. Stay tuned.

What’s playing on the iPod right now? SHE IS by The Fray

Happy Release day Lisa! A series that started quite humbly and is now edging close to 100,000 copies in print. And they said a fantasy series featuring an elf wouldn’t fly. Harrumph!

All hail the promo power of Twitter by Lisa Shearin

Twitter is addictive. It’s all too easy for me to be Tweeting when I should be writing. However, Twitter can also be an incredibly effective way to reach thousands of potential readers. Now, I personally can’t reach that many people with Twitter (as of last night, I only had 216 followers, but I’m proud of each and every one of them). However, I have a fan who has over 460,000 followers on Twitter—actress Felicia Day.

You may know Felicia from Joss Whedon’s Internet musical hit Dr. Horrible’s Sing-a-long Blog, or from the web series The Guild, which she created, writes and stars in. Or from TV shows such as House, Strong Medicine, and Monk. She had a recurring role as “Vi” in the last season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and can be soon seen in Dollhouse, My Boys and in a four-episode arc on the new ABC Family sitcom Roommates—and more.

Felicia’s a busy lady. She’s also a voracious reader who loves fantasy. And fortunately for me, she’s crazy about my Raine Benares fantasy adventure series. “This series is like chocolate to me,” Felicia wrote in one blog review of my books. “I just can’t get enough of it. This is a girl-power fantasy with fighting and magic and sexy hunk elves and goblins galore.”

I met Felicia through her blog. Like many authors, I have Google Alerts set up for my books. So when Felicia reviewed my first book (MAGIC LOST, TROUBLE FOUND) Google let me know. I popped over to Felicia’s site and read the review. She raved about the book, but . . . uh, not so much about the cover. I have to tell you, it was the most hilarious take on my cover that I’d ever read. (Felicia’s an incredibly gifted comedic writer.) I couldn’t resist it; I just had to jump in and post a comment. Felicia and I have been email buddies ever since. I’ve sent her signed copies of my books, and she sent me a fabulous signed photo of her that’s on my office wall, plus she’s always spreading the word about my books.

With today’s release of my third Raine Benares adventure, THE TROUBLE WITH DEMONS, Felicia graciously offered to post a review on her blog. I asked if she would tout my book on Twitter as well (http://twitter.com/feliciaday) and she said she’d be glad to. Felicia’s website and blog get an insane number of hits every day. And with over 460,000 people following her every Tweet . . . well, I can’t wait to see what happens. : )

I know what will happen! They’ll find Raine just as irresistible (I hope!)

Do You Indiebound?

by Kristin Nelson

STATUS: Going to bed early. I’ve got to kick this cold.

What’s playing on the iPod right now? I”LL BE AROUND by Joan Osborne

Because writers are quite comfortable with online book sites such as Amazon, often times it doesn’t occur to them to include independent bookstores in the links they provide on their Buy My Book website page.

If you’ve got a book about to be published and a website to promote said book and you as the author, the first think your publicist is going to ask you to do is to link fair on your author website. Include Amazon, BN, Borders but don’t forget the Indies.

Not sure how? Click here.

Haven’t got an indie link? Might be time to update the old website.

Haven’t ever heard of Indiebound (formerly Booksense)? Can’t hurt to learn a little more.

When You Really Mean That The Work Is Not Right For You

by Kristin Nelson

STATUS: Still basking in the glow of yesterday’s news. Of course I’m now all anxious. We’ll we stay on the list? We’ll we move up? What’s going to happen? Luckily Jamie is very mellow guy. Takes it all in stride and lets me do all the worrying for him.

What’s playing on the iPod right now? HONKY CAT by Elton John

I had a funny thing happen to me not so very long ago. An editor, whom I know well, sent me a finished copy of a soon-to-be-released novel that was on her list that she was obviously very excited about.

When editors do that, they are hoping that the agent or person who the novel is being sent to will talk about it. We call that a big mouth list.

So I cracked open the spine to give it a look as I did not recognize the title. Then I started reading and I recognized it immediately. I had seen the novel in manuscript form and had passed on it. I remembered it well too because the concept was great and I recalled reading the sample pages more than once, having Sara reread them again, and having both of us come to the conclusion that we just didn’t like it.

So we passed with regret.

So now I’m reading the finished novel in all its glory and I can’t help wondering if the editor worked a lot with the author—whether I would like it now. So I read a good 60 pages of it.

I still didn’t like it; I’d still pass on it.

I was so not the right agent for that book even though the book is doing well. (I think it even hit the NYT list briefly). No regrets.

So sometimes when we agents say that a project isn’t right for us, we really mean it. And it doesn’t necessarily mean that it won’t be right for somebody else. In this case, I’m sure the agent who took it on is delighted to have done so and ecstatic at the book’s performance.

Me—I wouldn’t have read past page 60.

On Tour

by Kristin Nelson

STATUS: Late night for me! Just got back from having dinner with Jamie Ford and his wife. Their plane was a little delayed getting in to Denver. Everything is all set for the event and signing tomorrow.

What’s playing on the iPod right now? WATERMARK by Enya

Considering it’s so late and I’m not sure I’m capable of writing a coherent blog entry (and no, I didn’t have that much wine!), I figured I’d pop you over to Jamie’s blog where he has been talking about being on book tour—13 cities in five weeks.

His blog almost puts you there—except that you don’t have to wait in line or have odd moments with security.

My favorite shot is the Costco warehouse in Seattle. Where’s a soundtrack when you need it?