BLABBING ABOUT YOURSELF

As a published author, I can’t help feeling pretty darn proud of myself. I had a goal, I worked really hard non-stop, I never gave up, and I accomplished my goal of getting a children’s picture book published. However, getting the word out has been a difficult task.

I am probably one of the worst sales person you’ve ever seen. I’ve always said that if someone wants to buy your product, they will. But, if they don’t even know about it, how can they buy it?

The bottom line is, it might be difficult and make us want to puke our guts out with nervousness sometimes, but if we want to get the word out and sell our books, we have to blab about ourselves.

Everywhere we go we should be passing out business cards, bookmarks, whatever we can give to let people know we’ve written a book. And we can’t just do this for a couple of months or so. It has to be ongoing.

I’ve had months where I blabbed about myself and sold some books but then the months that I don’t blab to someone… I sell nothing.

In the words of Susan Sundwall from Writers Weekly:

“Anyone can do this. Whether you live in a huge city, a suburb, or small town all of the activities I've mentioned here are available to you in one form or another. Of course it's important to map out your plan in a computer file all nice and proper. And it's kind of silly to think you can include in that plan spontaneous blabbing, but do keep it in the back of your mind. Understand that wherever you go someone will be pleased to know you've written a book. It's well known that word of mouth sells more books than anything else. Why shouldn't that first mouth be yours?”

How about you? Have you blabbed about yourself today?

Hello fellow bloggers! I had a simply wonderful week last week. First, I received word that I’m getting my 4^th picture book published… Woo hoo!! That’s all I can tell you about that at present as I won’t be signing their contract until September. I’m so excited though!. Secondly, I also heard from the ezine Knowonder and they are going to publish a story of mine called Hippytoe Gets A Frog In Her Throat. No word on when yet but don’t worry, I’ll let you know. And even more exciting than all of that, I received the final proof for the cover of my next picture book titled Bree Discovers The Color of Love. This book is going to be one in which you can personalize it with your own child’s name. Take a looksy. I’m very pleased with it.

And after all of that good news I was then tagged for the Be Inspired Meme’ Post by Nickie Anderson. Thanks for tagging me, Nickie! Here’s how it works: I have to answer the following questions, and then tag five more wonderful bloggers. This time instead of talking about my current book The Pea in Peanut Butter, I'm going to talk about my upcoming picture book Bree Discovers The Color Of Love. Okay, here we go!

1. What is the name of your book?

Bree Discovers The Color Of Love

2. Where did the idea for your book come from?

Well actually I wrote this story for Writers Retreat. This is an online critique group and the subject for the month was to write a story with color in it. So this was what I came up with.

3. In what genre would you classify your book?
Children’s Fiction with a touch of fantasy.

4. If you had to pick actors to play your characters in a movie rendition, who would you choose?

I would choose Disney Pixar animation characters, of course! Nothing better then a Pixar 3D movie!

5. Give us a one-sentence synopsis of your book.
A little girl sets out on a magical adventure to find out what color love is.

6. Is your book already published / represented?

It is not published yet but the illustrator is working on it. As soon as she finishes it will be produced by Frecklebox.

7. How long did it take you to write your book?
The actual story only took a week or two. However, I did several edits after that, sent it to two of my critique groups and then more edits.

8. What other books within your genre would you compare it to? Or, readers of which books would enjoy yours?
All readers of picture books, including adults. I think it will be an enjoyable read for parents to read to their child as well.

9. Which authors inspired you to write this book?
No author in particular so I guess I’d have to say the authors in the WR group. If the author who chose the subject for the month (sorry I can’t remember whose month that was!!) hadn’t chosen that criteria for us to write about, I probably wouldn’t have written this story.

10. Tell us anything that might pique our interest in your book.
Have you ever dreamt about having your own magic carpet? Well now you can jump aboard Bree’s and enjoy!

Now for the bloggers to tag:

1. Claudine
2. Mikki Sadil
3. Ruth Schiffmann
4. Katie Clark
5. Elisabeth Hirsch

Please leave a note if you decide to participate. Thanks!

Is Blogging Worth the Effort?

I recently had someone ask me if I found the blogging community beneficial in my writing process. Has it helped me sell any books? My answer to that is it has helped me get the word out and that is how you sell books. Most of my followers are fellow writers and let’s face it, we can’t buy every book from every writer. But what we can do is help each other by making our audiences aware.

Having my blog has given me a platform to announce what’s going with me writing wise. It has also been essential in hooking me up with other writers as well as some great friends. I’ve learned patience and discipline by having a blog. I’ve also received a lot of great tips from other writers along the way by some of my own posts as well as when I visit other peoples blogs. There is nothing more enjoyable to me then to discuss literature with fellow writers who are just as passionate as myself.

I admit, I was very leery about starting a blog in the beginning. I wasn’t sure I’d ever have anything to say and I still struggle with that. It’s hard for me to believe I have anything interesting to say that other writers would be interested in. However, it is getting easier and easier as the weeks/months pass and receiving comments back on my posts is like receiving a nice Christmas present! Yay… someone read my post and felt compelled to take time from their busy day to comment! That feels great to me.

My fellow bloggers have become a great source of information for me as well as a great support system. So to all those writers who are contemplating starting a blog or wondering if it’s all worth it, I believe it is. After all, it does give me another reason to write every week! And that alone is worth the effort.

A shout out of thanks to all my followers for their support! But what about you? Has having a blog been worth it to you?

ONE SUBMISSION AT A TIME

I hear about and meet a lot of people that want to write a book. They seem amazed that I could and actually did get a book published (I am too!). I can tell in their eyes that when they ask me how I did it, they want me to say, “well I just wrote a story and sent it in!”

Truthfully, that is what happened, however not until I did at least 1 year worth of research on writing children’s picture books, enrolled in a children’s writing course, and sent in manuscript after manuscript. Getting published in children’s magazines is not very profitable, if at all, however I believe it helped me get a book published much quicker. Many writers I know won't submit to magazines or small presses because they feel they are a waste of time. However, I think I’m living proof that having a few things you can put on your writing resume makes a publisher see that you are serious about your craft. Plus, just seeing your name in print, whether it’s a magazine, an article in the newspaper or newsletter, is a great boost to anyone’s writing ego. And let’s face it, we need to keep our ego’s going or we are doomed for failure.

The bottom line is if you are a writer who is afraid to submit, then you will quite possibly never see yourself published. I admit, it really is hard to get the confidence in yourself and your writing to actually start submitting it. But, if you go in to it with a positive attitude and believe in your story, then even if you get a rejection at least you can sit back and say you tried. And it will give you the courage to try again and again until your dream finally comes true. Persistence is the name of the game when it comes to anything you really want, and especially in getting your work published.

So if you are one of those writers who are afraid to submit, I challenge you to get out that favorite story you’ve written, edit it the best you can and send it out. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain by doing so! Just take it one submission at a time. Goodluck!