REFLECTIONS ON MY 1st BOOK TOUR PT 1: "THE BONES"
Even Monsters is my first trade picture book. While I had done 13 books in the educational market, this book was special. This book was gonna be big – basically, available in bookstores everywhere – so I went above and beyond what I have done before and possibly what I might do again. I spent a lot of my own money and even more of my own time on promoting this book. I was very fortunate that my publisher, Sourcebooks was so supportive of the book. They had almost no promotional budget for me to work with (which is very typical of any author who isn’t yet a bestseller). But what they did and continue to provide is their time and efforts in promoting the book. I can’t say enough about the great work Katy Lynch, Derry Wilkens, Alex Yeadon, and Jean Johnson in marketing have done and how amazingly responsive and available they’ve been with their time. I got on board with them as early as possible in the process to get on common ground and start to formulate a promotion plan.
Even before speaking with my marketing people at Sourcebooks, I decided I would set aside some budget to have a professional book promoter come in to help implement some ideas. I was helped out by longtime friends, the amazing Anna Boll (check out the amazing teacher guide she cooked up: http://www.evenmonsters.com/teacherGuide.pdf ) and the incomparable Kirsten Cappy (smart, focused, experienced idea machine!) It was paramount that my book promoters and marketing people at Sourcebooks not step on each other’s toes. I was up front with each and we outlined what everyone’s roles would be. The relationship went splendidly and Kirsten even met with Sourcebooks at ALA to further brainstorm ideas. One of those ideas was this library story hour kit: http://www.evenmonsters.com/activityKit.pdf – Kirsten then made it available to librarians for free on a National Library Listserve. We did up new, original art just for a promotional library poster (here’s a making of video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLEKqnFFOww&list=UU7l2NA2cVNSUM_UU7usm87w )
My whole impetus behind the tour was to promote the book, connect with kids while advocating literacy in a very non-didactic way, and treat it as a means to extend the life of the book. What that entailed for me was finding ways to engage kids with fun activities that might help encourage them to want to pick the book up and read it again and again and find ways to play with Glubb & Skeebu, the main characters from Even Monsters. To accomplish this, I knew even before the book was completed that I wanted book trailers, a website full of downloadable activities/extras, and outside-the-box presentations at bookstores, libraries, and schools.
www.EVENMONSTERS.com -- The website had to be easy to navigate, kid (AND adult) friendly/inviting and revolve around the book. While I am by no means a web designer, I do have the benefit of knowing some basic html. I built the whole website in Adobe Dreamweaver, and actually got started on it long before the book was completed. I secured the URL and launched a simple single page website with the title, character art, and the release date (April 2014). I thought of the book as being the cracker jacks and the website as being the prize at the bottom of the box. I was very cognizant of what my contemporaries were doing well (and not so well) with their author/book websites and strived to offer the best I could. Some of my favorite goodies: downloadable trading cards http://www.evenmonsters.com/cards.html , Swamp Munch cereal box http://www.evenmonsters.com/swampMunch.pdf , and a Monster Drawing Contest for kids http://www.evenmonsters.com/artcontest.html
Kirsten Cappy helped make it unique: Kids send in their creature creations and I will then be animating their drawings at the end of the year in a promotional music video for Even Monsters! I’m pretty proud of that one and can’t wait to see the results. It will also serve as another book trailer of sorts.
COMING SOON TO A BOOKSTORE NEAR YOU…
Speaking of book trailers, I cooked up a pretty basic video trailer in Adobe Flash with the belief that brevity and simplicity was the best route https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RN9jGTw_VpM I was aided with the vocal stylings of Kristen Laurion as narrator. I met Kristen a couple years back when she worked as a coffee shop barista. I didn’t know how, why, or for what at the time but I could envision her one-of-a-kind voice in some kind of creative project! I’m glad she agreed to help out. I posted this video about a month before the book came out. Then I set out to make a video a little more outside the box. Something silly that could be enjoyed by kids and parents. Something that would embarrass my wife to no end! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAByRZetmts&list=HL1395847323&feature=mh_lolz What a blessing to work with the legendary Morley Safer…just wait 'til you guys see the Barbara Walters interview!
On their own, just posting them on youtube.com didn’t garner millions of hits or probably even drive traffic to my book events. But what they did do was add one more layer to the book’s promotional presence. They have been used in concert with many online reviews and blog tours. It’s proven that web pages with video are far more likely to appear in google web searches than those without, and that people are more likely to click an embedded video than just a text link.
