Debut Author Interviews

What is your plan to get the word out to the public about your book?

• Ruth McNally Barshaw on...Promotion
• Paula Chase on...Promotion
• Melissa Marr on...Promotion
• Carrie Jones on...Promotion
• Heather Tomlinson on...Promotion
• S.A. Harazin on...Promotion
• Tiffany Trent on...Promotion
• Julie Bowe on...Promotion
• Greg R. Fishbone on...Promotion
• Stephanie Hale on...Promotion
• Sarah Beth Durst on...Promotion
• Suzanne Selfors on...Promotion
• Joni Sensel on...Promotion
• Jay Asher on...Promotion
• Judy Gregerson on...Promotion

What is your plan to get the word out to the public about your book?

I’m going to thicken my skin and think creatively and explore every avenue I can.
Luckily my publisher has a top notch publicity department, so I don’t need to hire anyone to help. All of the things I had on my “To Do” list, they’re already doing.

So — I’ll exploit the local angle. I’ll continue to push myself to meet librarians, teachers, booksellers, and reviewers.
I’ll ask all my family and friends to buy my book and recommend it to their friends if they like it.
I won’t obsess over bad reviews.
I’ll visit schools, bookstores and libraries.
I’m going to kiss the babies, be diplomatic to politicians, and shake a lot of hands…
And I am going to keep working steadily on the next books, because I don’t want to be a one-hit wonder.

What is your plan to get the word out to the public about your book?

This question shouldn’t be as hard to answer as it is. But the truth is, so much of what I plan to do may not ever see the light of day. I believe, at the end of the day, I’ll do whatever I can to supplement my publisher’s lead.

But some of the activities I already have in the works:

- attend as many book fairs/festivals and conferences that I can along the East Coast
- create a virtual street team of readers that will help spread the word-of-mouth
- serve on writer’s panels talking about publishing and my own experience
- make sure I go down every avenue I’ve traveled to let them know about the book (my sorority, alma mater, the team I coach) in other words, try to find the “common” bond I have with as many organizations and folks as possible
- of course have friends and family help talk it up
- find a few “angles” and try to get media attention regionally, nationally and of course, locally
- hook up with the Divine Literary Tour, a group of authors who also belong to one of the nine historicaly black service organizations. They tour the nation, focused primarily on the national and regional conferences of the 9 service groups

What is your plan to get the word out to the public about your book?

I don’t know that I have a concrete plan just yet. I have my website, & I’ve had that up for a bit now. I spoke to a few personal publicists, but after I met with my marketing team in NYC I was given to understand that Harper had much of that under control. Recently, I’ve received the final marketing plan from Harper US. (They are being just fabulous.) My only request was that my book be in their First Look program. They’ve done that and so much more. One fun thing is that they’re sending me out on a pre-publication tour to a number of cities. Aside from the general anxiety that I’ll sound inarticulate in conversations, I’m pretty excited about that.

And, my Darling Nick (my British Editor, N. Lake) tells me that I will be doing PR stuff next summer in the UK—possibly just London, but those details are not set yet. We’ll see. Either way, that sounds like good fun too.

Beyond that, I have a few vague ideas, but I don’t have a proper plan. My plan is to let the folks who have the plan run this part. If needed, I’ll supplement if it becomes prudent to do so. Right now though, I’m just putting my trust in the experience of those who know better than I do.

What is your plan to get the word out to the public about your book?

1. I plan on cheating off of everyone else’s answers.
2. I have a website.
3. I plan to go to some national events.
4. I plan to do everything my editor tells me to do.
5. I plan to beg everyone I know to buy my book, in exchange for hugs forever, of course.
6. I plan on some sort of cool duct tape promotional thingy.
7. ARCs. ARCs everywhere.

What is your plan to get the word out to the public about your book?

I’m with Carrie in the “cheating off everyone else’s answers” category. That’s why I joined the Class of 2k7: to get a clue about this whole “promote your book” gig!

Otherwise, I’ll try and spread the word in the places I hang out, both in real life and on-line: the high school library where I volunteer, bookstores I patronize, my local community of writing buddies, the Sur La Lune Fairy Tale discussion boards, etc. I definitely feel like I have a lot to learn in this department.

What is your plan to get the word out to the public about your book?

I hope to provide ARCs—or copies of my book—to librarians, reviewers, and booksellers who are interested. (Feel free to let me know if you want to be added to a list.)

What is your plan to get the word out to the public about your book?

Good question. A colleague asked me the other day if I planned to have a reading/signing at our university bookstore, and I was like…Me? Why? And then—Oh. I’m still new to all this stuff.

My publisher and I have plans to hit some of the big conferences—Book Expo America, American Library Association, National Council of Teachers of English, and so on. Because I’m also writing genre, I plan to attend several genre conferences, including Dragon*Con and Comic-Con next year.

I also have thought about donning an antebellum costume and visiting schools to talk about the books and some of the historical/cultural aspects of the novels. But that may be going a bit far. I can just imagine a teenager telling his mother about his day at school…”Yeah and there was this crazy lady in a big skirt talking about all this weird stuff in the Civil War. Like, did you know they had vampires back then?”

So, those are some of my preliminary plans, which I hope to whip into some kind of shape over the next few months.

What is your plan to get the word out to the public about your book?

My website is up and running six months before the book’s publication. That was a big goal for me and I’m so happy I reached it. Last week I created three email groups (local friends, family, and other friends). I plan to send occasional updates to them as news about the book progresses. A few weeks ago I registered my website with Google and Yahoo. As of yesterday my website shows up first on the Google list when searching for “Julie Bowe.” I’m still waiting on Yahoo. I listen carefully to every piece of advice established authors give via listserves, blogs, forums (!), etc. I am so grateful for every tidbit I glean.

What is your plan to get the word out to the public about your book?

I’ve got sort of a “throw a bunch of stuff against a wall to see what sticks” sort of approach, but I won’t have time to try even half of the wacky things I originally came up with.

There’s a part in THE PENGUINS OF DOOM when the main character, Septina Nash, is replaced by a robot double. So I was going to build a robot, a SeptinaBot, that would chat to people and tell them about the book. I got an old AI program core and tinkered with it until it believed that it was a robot sent back in time from the future, captured by the CIA, and made to do middle school math problems. But can you believe it, the stupid thing crashed on me and lost all its specialized programming?!!!

I, um, also have a website. And a blog. And I started a group of first-time 2k7 authors who can all promote each other’s books.

What is your plan to get the word out to the public about your book?

Um, okay, well I’m NOT going to build a robot! I swear Greg, is there anything you can’t do?

My plans include
1) an awesome website that will hopefully hold teens attention long enough to remember the title of my book;
2) to have at least 5000 MySpace friends before my book comes out;
3) local booksignings hopefully paired with The Cinderella Project (an organization that provides prom dresses & accessories for girls in need);
4) my blog - booksboysbuzz.com;
5) the Class of 2k7;
6) at some point beg Dooney & Bourke for free purses/publicity/anything for all the free advertising they are getting in my book;
7) visit bookclubs, schools, author fairs, conferences, etc;
8) hand out bookmarks instead of business cards to pretty much anyone who will take one;
9) select a group of Princesses to help promote the book by word of mouth;
10) try to get reviews from every source I can find;
11) have awesome contests to draw people to my website;
12) die of exhaustion if none of it works……

What is your plan to get the word out to the public about your book?

How will I publicize myself? Like this! Check out my website:

http://www.sarahbethdurst.com

and my blog:

http://sarahbethdurst.blogspot.com

and look out for INTO THE WILD by Sarah Beth Durst coming to a bookstore near you on June 21, 2007!!!

What is your plan to get the word out to the public about your book?

This is tough, because as a writer, I’d just like to focus on the next book and the next book and not think about the publicity angle. But that is just not the case. Publicity departments shell out less and less $ and it’s falling on writers’ shoulders more and more.

The best thing I can do is to focus on the local scene. That’s where I’ll get the best turnout for readings. I’ve been to so many readings where only a few people show up, so you’ve got to be smart about dedicating precious time to these. I’ve got a great independent bookstore in my town that will host a celebration for me. I’m lucky.

Other than that, it’s still early for me. My book is not out until Fall 07 so the publicity department is not focused on me yet. I’m curious to see what they have in store.

What is your plan to get the word out to the public about your book?

Ditto on stealing other ideas here. I also have a cool (I think) and inexpensive give-away for when I visit booksellers, classrooms, conferences, etc. — it’s a custom seed package that I had a local designer create and am buying from a custom seed package manufacturer. I got the idea from another local writer who used them for sunflower seeds, because there are sunflowers in her book, but my twist is that they’re not your usual plant seeds, but “wish seeds” (which relate to the storyline of Reality Leak). With some creative copy and the book’s title and my web site and all that good stuf. Can’t hurt, and they’re inexpensive enough to try!

What is your plan to get the word out to the public about your book?

13 REASONS WHY sold at auction and one of the things each editor had to submit as a part of their bid was a marketing plan. The publisher I went with (Razorbill/Penguin) submitted a strategy that blew me away with its creativity. They’ll be sending out press kits that play on the suspenseful tone of my book, hopefully leaving booksellers and librarians intrigued. They’ll be setting up a highly interactive website so readers can dig deeper into some of my (intentionally) loose threads. A lot of my pre-publicity will be working with Razorbill to make things as creative as possible (writing text, recording podcasts for the website, etc…). Outside of the publisher, I’ll be using my blog (www.DiscoMermaids.blogspot.com) and the Class of 2k7 to keep reminding people that my book is ON ITS WAY!!! When it hits the shelves, I plan to speak at as many schools, bookstores, and writing conferences as possible. Hopefully I can also get added as a panelist in workshops and conferences dealing with some of the teen issues dealt with in my book.

What is your plan to get the word out to the public about your book?

There’s so much to do to promote my book. But I’ll start with this:

1. I have a website.
2. I have a myspace.
3. I’m working with a publicist on a marketing strategy.
4. I’ll contact local media, libraries, bookstores, etc and then work out to a larger and larger area.
5. I’m going to work on getting speaking engagements at conferences.
6. Mailings, mailing, mailings!!
7. Bribe all family and friends to buy my book.
8. Bribe others to talk it up.