Pages For All Ages Books,Music,DVD's and Cafe
Savoy Plaza Shopping Center
1201 Savoy Plaza Lane
Savoy, IL 61853
Tel:217-351-7243
Mark and Charlotte Phillips
Showing posts with label hacksaw. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hacksaw. Show all posts
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Savoy Illinois
If you happen to be in the Chapaign/Urbana/Savoy Illinois area on Tuesday, December 23, stop by Pages for All Ages between 3 and 6 PM and introduce yourself. We'd love to meet you. We'll be the two dressed-up people handing out bookmarks while they last.
Mark and Charlotte Phillips
Mark and Charlotte Phillips
Saturday, August 23, 2008
Is This a Good Month to Market Your Book?
Yes.
"Tie your book to a current event..."
How many times have you read a version of this tip?
Until recently, I couldn't figure out a way to use this advice in my own marketing campaign. You see, I write mysteries - make believe murder and mayhem stories. It seems more than a little crass to consider tying my stories to the latest gruesome murder in an effort to receive free publicity. Just how would that call begin? "Good morning Mr. Producer! You know that story you ran last night on the slaughter of the much loved pastor of that little church over on main? In my recent novel, a minister finds his end in much the same way. Do you think the murderer read my book? Perhaps we can talk about it on your morning show..."
I think not.
Some mystery series have themes. The protagonist has a hobby (scrapbooking, knitting, antiquing) or a profession (catering, teaching, archeologist) that can be used to approach special interest groups. I wasn't that smart. My protagonist is a PI and her spare time hobbies seem to revolve around dating and helping out the homeless. She isn't even an expert PI. She's young, inexperienced, makes mistakes.
Early this morning I started to wonder about those National __________ Months. Who decides? Is there a list? Is there something for Hacksaw or the challenged Eva Baum?
Google to the rescue.
Did you know that 2008 is the International Year of
"Tie your book to a current event..."
How many times have you read a version of this tip?
Until recently, I couldn't figure out a way to use this advice in my own marketing campaign. You see, I write mysteries - make believe murder and mayhem stories. It seems more than a little crass to consider tying my stories to the latest gruesome murder in an effort to receive free publicity. Just how would that call begin? "Good morning Mr. Producer! You know that story you ran last night on the slaughter of the much loved pastor of that little church over on main? In my recent novel, a minister finds his end in much the same way. Do you think the murderer read my book? Perhaps we can talk about it on your morning show..."
I think not.
Some mystery series have themes. The protagonist has a hobby (scrapbooking, knitting, antiquing) or a profession (catering, teaching, archeologist) that can be used to approach special interest groups. I wasn't that smart. My protagonist is a PI and her spare time hobbies seem to revolve around dating and helping out the homeless. She isn't even an expert PI. She's young, inexperienced, makes mistakes.
Early this morning I started to wonder about those National __________ Months. Who decides? Is there a list? Is there something for Hacksaw or the challenged Eva Baum?
Google to the rescue.
Did you know that 2008 is the International Year of
- Languages
- Planet Earth
- The Potato
- Sanitation
What about the month of September? September is (partial list)
- Be kind to editors and writers month
- Library card sign-up month
- National Alcohol and Drug Addiction Recovery Month
- Menopause Awareness Month
- National Potato Month
- Pleasure Your Mate Month
- Healthy Aging Month
- Shameless Promotion Month
- National Hispanic Heritage Month
- Hug a Texas Chef Month
And on the weekly list (partial list)
- Sept 8-13 Lind Dance Week
- Sept 27-Oct 4 - Banned Books Week - Celebrating the Freedom to Read
- Sept 18-21 International Women's Ecommerce Days
- Sept 21-27 Build a Better Image Week
And then there is a daily list that includes things like Be Late for Something Day, Google Commemoration Day, Salami Day, Talk Like a Pirate Day, Responsible Dog Ownership Day, Elephant Appreciation Day, and International Literacy Day.
Anyone can find a tie-in to their book and use it for marketing - check it out at http://www.brownielocks.com/ or http://www.quamada.com/months.html
In case you were wondering - October is National Toilet Tank Repair month. Be ready.
What are your favorite marketing reference sites? Please use the blog comments to tell us about it.
Friday, August 1, 2008
Blog a Day Challenge
Dani Greer, founder of the Yahoo! Group blogbooktours (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/blogbooktours/) is a wonderful, generous woman. She founded the Yahoo! Group so she could share her considerable blogging knowledge with writers. She wanted to teach us how to use blogs to let readers know our work exists.
I joined the group several months ago and have been 'lurking'. I didn't know I was lurking, I thought I was keeping quiet until I was sure I had something valuable to contribute. But Yahoo! Groups have a language of their own. People who only participate by taking - never contributing - are lurkers. Sadly, I was a lurker.
A few weeks ago, Ms. Greer decided to give us lurkers a good kick in the, well, you know. She threw down the gaunlet in the form of a challenge - write a blog a day for thirty-one consecutive days. Wonderful! Brilliant! An opportunity for lurkers to get off the bench and into the game. Okay, so it sounded more wonderful, brilliant, and exciting when the start was two weeks away. Now, 2.5 hours before the first deadline, I'm wondering if I'm out of my mind.
I joined the group several months ago and have been 'lurking'. I didn't know I was lurking, I thought I was keeping quiet until I was sure I had something valuable to contribute. But Yahoo! Groups have a language of their own. People who only participate by taking - never contributing - are lurkers. Sadly, I was a lurker.
A few weeks ago, Ms. Greer decided to give us lurkers a good kick in the, well, you know. She threw down the gaunlet in the form of a challenge - write a blog a day for thirty-one consecutive days. Wonderful! Brilliant! An opportunity for lurkers to get off the bench and into the game. Okay, so it sounded more wonderful, brilliant, and exciting when the start was two weeks away. Now, 2.5 hours before the first deadline, I'm wondering if I'm out of my mind.
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