New Book? How do you get reviews?

by Susan J Berger.

Last week a second edition of Earthquake was published. Earthquake 2nd Edition has new material, new factoids, updated emergency supplies list,  and a tactile exercise to find the meaning of the numbers on the Richter Scale. Earthquake Second Edition is also available as a PDF for your eReader from Guardian Angel Publishing. Price is $5.00
The original edition was published in 2009. It got honorable mention in the Green Book Awards, and some very nice comments from FEMA and the USGS.  In seven years things changed. FEMA's delightful kid's page no longer exists. We've had some big earthquakes. Cell phones became a way of life. The book was revised. New material added. The Earthquake Book website has been updated..

 Next step get reviews and publicize it. What is available to an indie author?

SCBWI Book Launch Party? Nope. Not till September or October. When it reopens, it will be available for all books published this year. Sounds like a great resource.

Los Angeles Times Festival of Books. SCBWI has a booth and is offering signing opportunities for PAL authors. I booked a fifty minute slot for Saturday April 9th from noon to 12:50. Come see me. Will I make money? Festival goers mostly come for the swag and the chance to meet major authors.Unlikely. But it's a good opportunity to get it out there.
  Classroom visits?  Alexis O'Neill is the Queen of Classroom Visits. Her page is an excellent resource. I would love to be her intern and follow her around.

How about reviews?

I Googled  Reviewers? Where can an author get a non fiction children's picture book reviewed?
Results:
 Midwest Book Review?
There is a charge of 50.00 for reviewing eBooks, but I think print books may be free. I could send either. I will query them.
Kirkus Book Reviews? Don't think so. Cost starts at $425.
Publisher's Weekly Yes. I submitted a PDF for review.
Booklist online.  This looks possible. I will follow up.

Blogger tours? Pricy and probably for a non fiction picture book,  not helpful.

Marketing

I suggest you read this wonderful post by MJ Rose on the difference between publicity and marketing.
M. J Rose founded AuthorBuzz which includes KidsBuzz. Marketing plans vary in price. Lowest price I saw was $495. Is it worth it? If you are planning to write more books and make a career in the writing business, yes. In case you did not feel like clicking the link to M.J. Roses post, I will quote from it.
5. What to spend? The advice I give everyone, and follow myself, is to keep your day job or a freelance job and spend as much as you can on selling your book. I’ve worked with authors who spend $985 and others who, between my services and other efforts, spend $250,000. One way to decide: if you are going to look back and regret spending the money, don’t do it. But if you are going to look back and say, “If only I had tried maybe the book would have succeeded,” then do it. Nora Roberts said you should spend 10% of your advance. For years, James Patterson spent all of his on advertising and kept his job.

How about you? If you have an indie book out, where have you gone for reviews? Are you planning any marketing?
 Oh and if any of you would like to review Earthquake, 2nd Edition, I would be happy to send you a PDF. Just leave your contact information in a comment.
Write on!

Reminder: This Thursday, March 17th is PITMAD. Here a post on the Art of the Pitch Tweet. If you use Tweetdeck or Buffer, you can set your pitch up ahead of time.

I just found this: SCBWI 
Summer Reading List

We are putting together our 1st ever SCBWI 
Summer Reading List to promote our published authors. You are invited to feature one of your 
books on our premiere list. 


All you have to do is select one book of yours to be on the list. Send us the title, author (you!), and a book description of 25 words or less. Separately, indicate the rough grade level, genre, and your state/country of residence. (Choose from one of these genres: Adventure/Mystery, Humorous, Realistic Fiction, Historical Fiction, Graphic Novel, Fantasy, Horror, Science Fiction, Non Fiction, Poetry, Picture Book, Series Book) 

We will assemble the lists by region (same regions as used 
for Crystal Kites) and organize all the books by grade level 
and genre. 

All the SUMMER READING LISTS will be made available to schools, libraries, bookstores, and consumers via digital download and hard copy distribution. We will promote the lists and support them with a robust marketing plan (more to come on this!). 

DON'T MISS THIS FREE SCBWI OPPORTUNITY TO GET YOUR BOOKS INTO THE HANDS OF THOUSANDS OF READERS THIS SUMMER! It's another way SCBWI is supporting your work and spreading the word about excellent books for children and young people. 

E-mail your information to readinglist@scbwi.org by 
April 1, 2016. 

Earthquake, Chocolate and Book, Oh My

By Susan J Berger

It's the Anniversary of the Northridge quake and I'm out of chocolate. This is a disaster.

I always check my emergency supplies on January 17th. Anyone who remembers the quake knows that terror requires comfort food. Chocolate is the number two staple on my emergency supply list. Right after batteries.

The Northridge Quake occurred in the early hours of Martin Luther King Day. The fact that it began at 4:30 AM on a holiday probably saved countless lives. That was twenty one years ago. My son commented, "The Northridge Quake is now old enough to drink.."
No California resident twenty one or under has any experience of what it feels like to be in a devastating shake. But if you lived in Northridge, Sherman Oaks or Santa Monica in 1994, you probably have a cellular memory of what it felt like. Some moments are like that. 9/11, for example.

Ventura Blvd South of Tyrone Ave. Sherman Oaks. Those stores are still there.

I



Corner of Hazeltine and  Moorpark Sherman Oaks.

Broken Freeway. Not sure where.

 

 

I was a Sherman Oaks Resident. That day is burned into my memory. So much so, that a decade later, I wrote a book for children on earthquakes.

 

Earthquake was aimed at a second grade level. Guardian Angel Publishing published in 2009. It won an Honorable mention in The Green Book Award. It had approval and nice comments from FEMA administrators.

Fired with enthusiasm, I got a list of school districts in California, Washington and Alaska and wrote them all.

I contacted Libraries and my local Fire Department.

No response.

I got a  book trailer.

 

I made a website 

I did a Teacher Activity Page 

My favorite activity is a hands on demonstration of the strength differences between numbers on the Richter Scale.

 

I made a tab for Emergency Supplies and links to other Kid Friendly Earthquake Websites.

I added a tab listing Grant resources for teachers wishing to use the book in their classroom.

I started a Facebook Page Which I update with reasonable regularity.

I took it to the SCBWI Summer Conference twice as part of the PAL book sale.

I don't think anyone really wants a preparedness guide for younger grades sprinkled with humor and factoids.

Occasionally I get a comment. After the 8.8 Earthquake in Chile in February 2010, I received a letter from Julio Vogel

Dear Susan

I´m very interested in your book about hearthquake as you should understand due last events in Chile.

I work at school preparing parents and teachers in several matters of comunications between them and with childrens, and a subject like hearthquakes today is a must.

How can I do in order to reproduce your work into spanish and spread it trough my blog, for me is very important with the huge numbers of childrens that survive an experience of an earthquake of 8.3 degrees, also if you can introduce me to places where i can found subjects about post traumatic stress for children.

For me is useful in english also because I work with several bilingual school and they talk only in english

Hope my english is ok for you 

warm regards.

 

I used Google Translator to make a copy of the book in Spanish. Hilde Garcia and her husband, David Krol proofed it for me. I sent it to Julio. I hope it helped.

 

In six years I  have done two school visits. On February 22nd I will be doing the Encino Elementary Charter School Book Fair.

I am proud of Earthquake. I think the editor/book designer, Lynda Burch did an amazing job of putting together.

I can't say it's a failure. The people who read it, seemed to like it. But there haven't been many readers.

Earthquake is available in paperback and hardback.The Kindle version is skewed. It doesn't get the factoids, pictures and text in proper order. It's better to buy the 5.00 pdf from Guardian Angel Publishing and send it to your reader program, should you be minded to check it out..

(In putting this post together, I notice that I have six reviews on Amazon, and three ratings on Goodreads - One of them from me. If any of you would like to review the book, I will be happy to send you a PDF.)

 

So my question, dear reader is what would you have done differently? How could I do a better job of selling the book?

 

Happy Birthday,  Martin Luther King. Post I have A Dream from January 20, 2014