Peek-a-Boo Round the Pillar and an Airport Book Sale

The little one-year-old on Dad’s shoulders shrieked with delight as Mom disappeared and reappeared around a pillar in the airport.

When the dust had settled, I offered Mom a little “coupon” that I give out to parents and caregivers of little ones:

Free E-book
How to Prepare Your Young Child for Success in School
Smashwords.com

A grade two teacher as well as a parent, she was interested in the content of the book: stimulating language development in children pre-birth to four years old.

I asked if she’d like to see Scissortown, and found that she, like many others, was happy to support an author directly as well as to buy a bright, colorful storybook for her little one. This simple scenario represents my absolute best way to make sales—one on one to parents and grandparents of little ones.

Second best are local venues like art shows and farmers’ markets, followed by sales in local stores. (Shipping charges make stores out of our area reluctant to carry the book.)

Internet sales are not going well, but I’m hopeful that will change with the enhanced e-book and a video.

So—when I started this blog I said I’d tell you what works and what doesn’t, and here you have it: for the paperback, direct, one on one sales, often preceded by a gift, work the very best. And—they’re so rewarding and so much fun!

When the enhanced e-book is up, I’ll tell you how that goes. My experience will be different from that of many indie authors because I fear the giant, and do not want to deal with Amazon. Said giant can most certainly thrive without me—and I hope to do well without it!

Goodwill Abounds

People are so kind to this new children’s book writer. Case in point: the Museum Gift Shop manager.

I left a copy of the Life Application version of Scissortown (please see grandmasbookshelf.net for the difference between the versions) for her consideration.

She called and ordered four more of the Life Application and five of the Faith-Based. When I delivered them this morning, Netta was at a table outside the Gift Shop with a book stand. We placed my “Debut Picture Book by Peace Country Author and Peace Country Artist” poster at the back of the stand and put five copies of each version in the stand.

Would I like orange, pink or purple felt buttons to indicate the version? I chose orange, having just read about orange sales buttons.

It started to sprinkle, so we took the items into the Gift Shop. Netta’s an artsy craftsy person, and shared her happy ideas about how she’s going to arrange things.

She’d been so kind in providing a stand and allowing me to put it near the entrance, I hesitated to ask–but might there be a place for my business cards? How about on the table beside the stand?

Not so. Netta opened a cupboard and produced a business card stand for me.

And this afternoon, I got a call. Scissortown‘s first Gift Shop customer had met Tommy, Tina and Katie Kat.

Scissortown Grand Opening . . . and Children’s Pictures in a Blender

An appointment with 54 children, Scissortown pictures and a blender

Let me explain . . .

The Scissortown Grand Opening Ceremonies (step aside, Sochi) took place last Monday, complete with a “Welcome to Scissortown” sign and marching band consisting of Tommy, Tina and yours truly. T and T each opened a box of books (one of Faith-Based Application versions and the other of Life Application versions) and passed them around to the dignitaries.

Honoured attendees included Tommy, Tina and Katie Kat (heroes of Scissortown), Scissortown CFO (aka my husband), T’s and T’s moms, Coralie and her husband, Steven (aka videographer, book designer, IT guy), our daughter and her friend, and my brother and his wife (aka the Scissortown Express Delivery Team).

What fun! As my brother kindly explained, he had learned during his publishing career that the only way to catch a typo is to make 1,000 copies of the document. Bingo–and I challenge you to find it!

Guests took book(s) to give, sell or use in promotion, and everyone had a good time except Katie Kat, who eschews noisy crowds and book launches.

Oh yes, back to the blender.

But let’s start with our local hardware store. With nothing to lose and no bookstore in our town of under 3000, I looked around our local hardware store. Hmmm, there might be some shelf space beside the toys. Perhaps the owner would consider selling Scissortown on consignment. When asked, he took me to the portion of the front counter dedicated to local works! And there went Scissortown with a stand and poster supplied by me, happily featured with books by another local author and a CD by a local musician.

Oh yes, the blender.

On Friday I read the story to 54 well-behaved children and an entirely adequate number of supervising staff at Tommy’s after school care program.

I’m to return for a draw for a free book this Friday, which brings us to the blender. The children have colored line drawings of Scissortown pictures, which their teacher is going to BLEND as per page 9 of the story!

I hope I get some good pictures . . . watch this space.

More Crayons for Coralie?

Why exactly did I schedule my book launch before the book was finished?

When I first talked to the school librarian about presenting Scissortown, she wanted the launch to coincide with Family Literacy Day. Coralie was still busy coloring, but that was no problem because I intended to read only the first half of the story anyway. The bright centre page spread made a lovely stopping place. “The Slicers and Dicers left town and everyone was happy until . . . Oh no! These pictures aren’t colored! We’ll have to finish the story another time.”

So, what was I thankful for?

Everyone was prepared. The librarian had my schedule timed to the minute. She also had the technology (and the help I needed with the technology), as well as paper, crayons and pencils.

The teachers and students were prepared to meet an author. (How else would I have been taken for Robert Munsch??)

The hours I’d spent in preparation paid off, as I used almost everything I’d brought.

The librarian introduced me and provided updates as to the number of minutes I had left. This was very helpful.

The teachers kept order, allowing me to focus on the task at hand.

They also gave me free reign. At one point I had only two minutes left, and no one batted an eye when I introduced a new activity. (I also respected their time, finishing as soon as I was told the time was up.)

The teachers had read my suggestions beforehand and chosen what they wanted. Most (except those who taught very young children) wanted me to talk about being a writer. They also wanted the students to write a story together, which we did in small groups.

What would I do another time?

I’d read book blurbs and introductions and have the older students rate them as a warm-up, as I did this time.

I’d also go over the elements of a short story again before giving the students the writing prompts. However, I’d give some consideration to developing an activity (in addition to discussion) about these elements.

I’d use Coralie’s slide show with more than just the kindergarten class. (It featured 16 original thumbnails, and followed the progression of two of them from super-rough copy to final colored picture.) The kindergartners had fun seeing Katie Kat’s progress, and I think there are ways I could use the slide show for the older ones, too.

“Are You Robert Munsch?”

asked the grade two boy at my book launch.

Should I be flattered or what? Let’s see, millions of copies of Canada and U.S. bestseller Love You Forever sold, over 50 published books to date, storytelling gigs with thousands of children in attendance . . . . On the other hand, maybe I got my hair cut a bit too short this time. But I WAS wearing a skirt . . . .

Anyway, my book launch at the K-9 Christian school was fun.

The librarian had drawn up an interesting and varied schedule–grades eight and nine, followed by kindergarten, grade six, grade two, grade one, then a three/four group, then grade five and then seven.

I told the upper level students about my longtime dream of writing books.

But–“Not everyone can write,” my grade eleven English teacher had explained kindly. And it’s true. Not every high school student can write a story suitable for high school students.

Her colleague trashed my poem. But then, not everyone is a poet either.

The dream not only didn’t die, it didn’t even suffer much. I just kept believing I could write and getting (mostly) good marks in English.

Then, after getting laid off from my job at the college, I found my writing niche–magazine articles. Editing adult non-fiction followed, and now I’m writing picture books for children.

So, little boy, I’m not Robert Munsch. But I love doing what he loves doing–telling stories to children.

In my next post, I’ll tell you what worked for this book launch–and I’ll even tell you how I managed to have a book launch before the book was finished.

Scissortown

The people of Scissortown were neat and tidy. In fact, they were the neatest and tidiest people to be found anywhere.

“What are we doing today?” asked the barber.

“Take three centimetres off, please,” answered Tommy.

The children of Scissortown cut out neat pictures of trees, birds and animals and pasted them into their notebooks.

Then they wrote sentences under the pictures with their nice sharp pencils. “C’est un arbre,” wrote Tommy under the tree, because he was learning French.

“J’ai un chaton,” wrote Tina under the kitten, because she was learning French too.

“What do you think?” asked the dressmaker. “Is Tina going to like this?”

“Mew!” answered Katie Kat politely. She was MUCH too busy playing to look up.

“This one’s for Tina,” said Tommy’s mom as she snipped the first bow on a dragonfly kite.

“Hold still!” laughed the gardener as he trimmed the baby giraffe’s ears.

Everyone in Scissortown was happy cutting and chopping until one day  . . .

THE SLICERS AND DICERS CAME TO TOWN!

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Welcome to Scissortown, my first book for children, and my blog.

The dream of writing for children started in earnest sometime last year. I’ve had magazine articles published and edited a couple of non-fiction books, but there was something about my grandchildren’s request for stories that got me thinking.

Tina’s mom used to work nights, and although Tina enjoyed the bedtime stories I read to her, what she really wanted were “fake stories” that we made up together.

And not just at night—there was the morning her school bus came and went while she and I sat in the warm car, weaving a story about a bug hotel!

Even as a very little boy Tommy could listen for an hour while I read to him—but now he calls me and wants a made-up story on the spot.

And so my grandchildren have stretched my imagination . . . and I hope to share the results with many more children.

I hope to learn from other writers and aspiring writers about both crafting stories and marketing them. And I trust that I’ll have something useful to share with you as well.

Tomorrow, for example, I’m off to the Farmers’ Market to promote Scissortown. The invitation to the Market came as a result of a neighbourhood garden party in the rain . . . but that’s for another post.

Please come along—join me in the journey!