Marketing for (Almost) Authors

By Jo Wyton

How much marketing is an author expected to do? How much does marketing cost? How do you go about marketing your book? What the hell is marketing?

All questions posed by Nick Cross at the recent SCBWI retreat.

He was faced with a standing-room-only room of writers: some aspiring, some nearly there, and others already there and figuring out answers to the above questions right now. Tough gig. Fab job.

Before I arrived, I got busy trying to summon all of my marketing knowledge. I quickly came to the conclusion that I didn’t really have very much. Oh, I had no idea…

You can find detailed answers to the above questions over at Nick Cross’ WhoAteMyBrain blog, but for now I thought I’d focus on what I got from it all as your average Slushpiler.

It all started so well ....

Conference organizer Sue picks a cozy spot

It all started so well...

The first question posed was all about what marketing means for a published author – nothing to worry about for the average Slushpile Resident – everything pretty much as you’d expect. National ad campaigns vs reader targeted campaigns – usually the latter for children’s books, unless you happen to be J. K. Rowling.

Nick tries to define Marketing. Tougher than you think.

The second question – how much marketing is an author expected to do for themselves? Here’s where it got interesting. (Or horrifying, depending on your point of view.)

It seems to me that you can do as much or as little as you like. Preferably the former, if you want to turn your novel into a career.

And yet somehow I think we’d all like to believe that once you’re on the bookshelves, either a) your book will sell itself (if only), or b) your agent/editor will don their superman capes and sort it all out for you (you never know. No, really).

Sadly, no. More and more it’s being left to the author to publicise themselves and their book. Sometimes they’ll have the help and money of their publisher behind them, other times it’s a more independent route. When I first thought about that, I found myself thinking, ‘Who better to publicise you and your book, than you?’

Easy to say, huh?

But if ever faced with the reality of driving my own marketing, I’m pretty sure my reaction wouldn’t be, “Sure, that seems like the sensible option.”

It would be more like, “ARGH! HELP! Please God, somebody tell me what to do!” yelled at the top of my voice just prior to my head exploding. Well, if I ever find myself shouting those words to the empty vastness above, I at least know that being surrounded by the most supportive group of people on the planet in the shape of the SCBWI will get me through.

Coming back to the original question though – how much marketing is an author expected to do? The answer, from those in the room, is ‘a significant amount’.

Do as much as you can – it doesn’t have to cost a fortune.

Marketing on a shoestring! Cunning, Nick Cross. Very cunning.

It’s up to you to generate your platform and expand on it. No harm in building that platform before you’ve had your manuscript plucked from the Slushpile either. Get building a network now – it’ll come in handy later.

Then came the next, truly alarming thing – the list of possible marketing techniques you should consider.

We’re talking websites, facebook, twitter, YouTube, trailers, t-shirts, bookmarks, banners, business cards, school visits, mugs, mugshots, posters, festivals, workshops, ads in the yellow pages. OK, I might have made that last one up.

The list went on, the published folk in the audience continuing to offer up titbits of wisdom freely and without a thought for my slowly dropping jaw.

Let’s start at the very beginning – the internet. (A very good place to start, apparently.) The advice from the room? Keep it professional.

You’ll probably need a Facebook page designed to represent you as an author – same goes for twitter. Your readers (i.e. kids) may be looking at this, so make sure you’re comfortable with the material you’re putting out there.

You’ll also need a website – the first place most people will go. It needs to represent you as an author, but it also needs to show off your book. Especially when you’re writing for kids – anything interactive is great, as is anything that keys into the tone and themes of your book.

It doesn’t have to be expensive – as with everything else, find some friends to help you.

Here are the websites for Candy’s Tall Story, Tommy Donbavand’s Scream Street and the author site of Sara Grant (Dark Parties).  if you want to take a look.

Then there are trailers. As trailers go, those for books are quite unusual, because generally speaking the only people who are going to see them are those who already know they exist and are deliberately searching for them.

Tommy Donbavand's Scream Street book trailer

Unless they screen yours at the local cinema ten minutes before The Hobbit starts. You never know. The limited audience reach of a book trailer raises questions over whether it’s necessary.

Candy Gourlay's book trailer for Tall Story

Then again, as somebody on the night pointed out, a trailer does at the very least guarantee you a spot on YouTube – and considering that a lot of kids avoid search engines and go straight for searching directly through YouTube itself, it seems like it’d be useful for something to pop up.

Trailers are also a good tool to have to hand for school visits. Lots of trailers are home-made, too, so again, no need to worry about cost.

The only cost here seems to be time and effort, and it’s up to you how much of both you want to put in.

Sara Grant's German book trailer

In terms of bookmarks, banners, posters etc – from what I can tell, the appropriateness of that sort of thing is going to depend on your book. And target age-range It seems an effective way of getting your name out there though –something good to hand out when you score that spot at the local literary festival.

Candy with the Human Topiary at the recent Pop Up Festival. Photo: Bridget Marzo

Last but not least (which I say because I’m sure there’s lots I’ve missed out here) come the festivals and school visits themselves. This is probably the most intimidating idea around marketing for most writers – at least, I find it pretty scary to think about.

Again, everything depends on the age range you’re writing for. If you’re lucky enough to be writing for an age group where visits to primary schools are a possibility, then look no further.

The brilliant Tommy Donbavand retreated with us to Surrey, and he brought his Amazing Box of Wonders.

Tommy reveals the contents of his box of wonders.

Werewolf's Claw

Mummy's heart

Zombie's tongue.

Now, Tommy’s a guy who can transform a room of 30 grown-ups into a bunch of giggling five year olds in thirty seconds flat. If you’re ever wondering what authors do on school visits, check out Tommy’s pdf guide for schools wanting to know what he does here, or even better, look out for any festival appearances.

Tommy used to be a clown. Really truly. So his school visits involve balloon shapes and gags - including this William Tell re-enactment (assisted by award-winning Wimpy Vampire author Tim Collins)

At the retreat, Tommy showed us (because we’re writers and telling is so last season) what he does.

Cue vampire hissing (camp as you like), werewolf growling (no better) and toilet paper shenanigans (I’m sure you’ve seen the pictures by now).

Maureen Oakley (who writes Puddle the Naughtiest Puppy series for Ladybird) gets toilet papered as part of Tommy's school visit demo. Photo: Wendy Jones

It was all about bringing the book to life – showing kids how much fun books can be, and how much fun getting involved is.

Tommy winning children to reading. Photo: Mostly Books blog

The brill Addy Farmer blogged about this exact topic the other week too, having spoken to Linda Newberry, Penny Dolan, Katherine Langrish and Jane Clarke about their experiences of school visits.

And of course, with Skype and so on, school visits don’t even have to be face to face anymore. Embracing the international market is becoming more and more accessible from the comfort of your armchair (do try to change out of your jimjams first though).

Of course by the end of this session, I wasn’t thinking about ‘embracing the international market’. No – by that point, my jaw was firmly on the floor, my glass of wine virtually untouched and hidden away under my chair lest my dropping jaw knock it over.

All I could think was: how on earth do people find the time? Let alone the willpower and enthusiasm. So much to do – and how on earth do you even go about building a platform, let alone expanding on it?

Then again, we’re writers, aren’t we? Futile enthusiasm is what it’s all about. Until, one day, you find yourself calling on a few friends, developing your website, drawing up some posters and visiting your first school.

Can’t wait!

With photos by Teri Terry and Candy Gourlay

Is Young Adult fiction safe for young adults to read? Discussing darkness in teen fiction

By Jackie Marchant
Guest Blogger

‘Contemporary fiction for teens is rife with explicit abuse, violence and depravity’ Discuss.

Is it? Does it matter? Should we write this stuff? Should we rinse our pens out with soap and water and slap ourselves on the wrists for putting such depraved thoughts on paper?

I went to a recent CBC  meeting, where the recent outpourings from Wall Street columnist Meghan Cox Gurdon were discussed.

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A controversial blog post Darkness Too Visible by Megan Cox Gordon recently sparked outrage from the most eminent echelons of the YA writing community. She described Young Adult fiction as "like a hall of fun-house mirrors, constantly reflecting back hideously distorted portrayals of what life is".  Among teen books she mentioned were:  Go Ask Alice - drug addiction, rape, overdose; I Am the Cheese by Robert Cormier - murder; Rage by Jackie Morse Kessler - self-injury; The Marbury Lens by Andrew Smith - a boy is drugged and raped.

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The panelists included Joy Court, past chair of CILIP  and co-ordinator of Carnegie and Kate Greenaway awards; Bali Rai, a writer of contemporary fiction that may be described as an example of the above (but who has not as far as I know ever rinsed his pen out with soap and water); Julie Randle of Scholastic Book Clubs, who is responsible for direct selling of books to children in schools and Shannon Park, executive editor of fiction at Puffin.

The room was filled with publishers, writers, teachers, librarians and anyone with a passion for children’s books.

 It was billed as a ‘debate’, but although the discussion was lively at times, it wasn’t really a debate - because everyone agreed that the books Meghan Cox Gurdon was so concerned about deserve their place on the shelves of our bookshops and libraries.

The closest we had to disagreement was a suggestion that YA books should not be labelled as children’s books.

 

Parodies of teenagers by British comedians. Vicky Pollard (left) the obese juvenile delinquent motormouth, and (right) Kevin the Teenager, rude and sex obsessed

I think this is a valid point - there are content issues with YA books, which may well be inappropriate for younger readers. But YA books do carry warnings that they are not suitable for younger readers and their covers should reflect the age of the reader they are aimed at.

SOME LINKS TO THE BUZZ SURROUNDING YA

YA authors Katie Crouch and Gradie Hendrix write that the 'insane pace' of YA fiction is affecting quality

YA writer Tahere Mafi responds in hilarious fashion

Wall Street Journal publishes Gurdon's piece Darkness Too Visible

Provoking strong responses from YA literati Judy Blume, Neil Gaiman, Libba Bray and Sherman Alexie.

Maureen Johnson starts up a Twitter hashtag YAsaves which immediately goes viral.

Gurdon defends her essay in another Wall Street Journal piece.

Loretta Nyham warns in International Business Times that if YA Saves, there's a danger of equating the genre with self-help ... which isn't literature

Scott Westerfeld calls on teens to help their parents understand YA fiction

Here are the interesting points raised at the CBC debate:

• Young adult books differ from adult books only in the age of their protagonists. That means YA books have main characters their readers can relate to.

• Young adults should have the same freedom to choose what they read as adults. They will have access to adult books and will read them.

• It is not in the interests of publishers to take on books that won’t sell. If the teens are buying them, they will publish them.

Bali Rai is the author of
Killing Honour and (un)Arranged Marriage

• Some published and highly acclaimed authors were brought up in deprived inner city areas. They know what they are writing about and they do it well.

• There are a lot of ‘paranormal mums’ out there - a whole market of mums who can’t get enough of teen vampire books.

• Publishers do have a sense of responsibility. Violence must have consequences, sex must be in context, swearing must be in character and filling a book with violence and depravity for its own sake will never work. The most important thing is that the writing must be strong and engaging. (Hmm, wonder whether you’ve heard that before?)

• Reading is SAFE. Young adults can read about the real world and all its issues without going there.

• Reading violence does not make young adults violent, any more than reading crime turns adults into murderers.

Bali Rai in correspondence with Notes from the Slushpile had this to say:

I feel that reading is often under attack from some quarters and as such we should take every opportunity to defend books, the importance of reading for pleasure, and our right, as authors, to write challenging and boundary-breaking fiction without being vilified as a bunch of evil misery-pushers. Reflecting REAL teenage experiences is far too important to leave it to a morally righteous minority who forget that the 1950's and the rise of the teenager ever happened. Left to their own devices such people would have sixteen year olds reading the Famous Five and wearing Hush Puppies!

The one issue that cropped up over and over was quality of writing. That is what sells books and that is what us writers are aiming for.

So - where does all this leave us, the humble writer?

 The answer is simple - exactly where you were before.

 Write what matters. Write from the heart.

 And if you feel the need to write about the real world where teenagers meet abuse, violence and depravity, then feel free to write about it. As long as your writing is strong and engaging, that is what really matters.

Jackie Marchant writes humorous fiction for boys 8+, as well as YA fantasy. Her story Picture This was published in Scholastic's Wow! 366 - a collection of stories of just 366 words each.

Jackie lives in North West London with her husband, two teenagers, and a her ex-trainee guide dog. Jackie has helped train three guide dog puppies and now looks after guide dogs while their owners are away. She spends a lot of time walking in the woods, thinking about what to write and bumping her head on low branches.

Jackie is represented by Alice Williams at David Higham Associates. Photo: Rosie Marchant

Writing's a struggle. And then Life gets in the way.

By Maxine Linnell
Guest Blogger

What happens when life crashes in the path of what we think we know about ourselves – and about life itself? What happens to the writing - can it go on, and how will it change?

That’s what has happened to me – and what I’m waiting to find out.

I was a late developer as a writer, finding so many things got in the way. I started to write seriously five years ago, and my first book, Vintage, was published last year by Five Leaves, an independent publisher in Nottingham.

Vintage is a time-swap story about Holly from 2010 and Marilyn from 1962. They swap bodies and lives and find out what it’s like to live in completely different eras. It’s going down well with reviewers, ‘a very compelling and thought-provoking read’.

I say Vintage was my first book, because it’s the first one that was published, but it was the second book I completed. The first got me my agent – that was the passionate book, the one I really felt I wanted to be available. It’s hard to feel that when the world is so full of books.

Closer is about love, and when love goes wrong.

Mel is an outrageous girl who doesn’t care about anything – until something happens that she has to care about. It’s about a dad who gets too close. But it’s more about how Mel gets closer to everyone she knows, by having to deal with what happens to her and her family.

When Five Leaves liked Closer, in spite of its edginess, the discomfort of its subject and its approach, I was delighted that it would happen. The book only needed minor editing before it could go ahead.

Then last November, life jumped in. My lovely son Benn died, at 37, from the epilepsy which he’d had since he was seventeen – caused during his birth.

His death was sudden, catastrophic and brutal, in the middle of one of the happiest, most creative times of his life. He was an artist, and supported others to make and sell their work. He was in a new, loving relationship, hoping to have children and marry.

Everything crumbled. His partner, his sister, his dad, his many friends, all suffered and are suffering. The lives I was living, as a writer, a therapist and the many other labels I might choose, lost all their meaning.

I was in the middle of completing a commissioned book for A&C Black, for their new Wired Up series for reluctant readers.

The jokey, feisty heroine’s voice became inaccessible for months. Nothing was in my mind and body except the shock and the devastation. But somewhere the hard-won life as a writer wouldn’t go away, and I knew I couldn’t give up on my first opportunity to write for a big publisher.

I had to search for the voice somewhere behind the grief that had taken over. After several delays I managed to complete it, I’m not sure how.

I had to treat it as a job that needed to be done, however I felt. Breaking the Rules will come out in February next year. It’s about a girl whose family move to a new area. She struggles to find a way into a new school, and begins to rely on a Facebook ‘friend’ she’s never met.

The voices I’ve used, the people I’ve chosen to carry the stories I’ve wanted to tell in my books, know nothing of the experience of a mother losing her son.

Maxine Linnell

Closer launches today, the 6th of July. I’m attaching the threads of my young adult novelist shadow to myself as best I can, to give it the best start in life it can hope for.

But I have no idea what will follow – if I can write for young people again, how my writing will change, who I am now as I go through this unexpected, uncontrolled and completely unwelcome transition into a new life. I know I will write – I’m beginning on poems about Benn and grief which may become a book – and I know everything I write will be coloured by this experience.

How could it not be?

Maxine's website: www.maxinelinnell.com