Friday, June 8, 2012

BookExpo America 2012: Beyond The Hunger Games: YA Book Marketing and Public Relations Strategies

BookExpo America 2012: 

Beyond The Hunger Games: Young Adult Book Marketing and Public Relations Strategies


Tuesday, June 5, 2012, Javits Center, NY, NY.  The panel I organized and moderated at BookExpo America 2012 on Tuesday morning was standing room only and the panelists were outstanding!

Photo by Publishers Weekly 
Panelists were (left to right):

Becky Anderson, Anderson's Bookshops;
www.andersonsbookshop.com

Derry Wilkens, Sourcebooks;
www.sourcebooks.com

Michelle Renaud, Harlequin;
www.harlequin.com

Michelle F. Bayuk, Albert Whitman.
www.albertwhitman.com



Back row, standing:
Susannah Greenberg, Susannah Greenberg Public Relations, moderated and organized.
http://bookbuzz.com

My own report on this panel to come.

Publishers Weekly covered it:
http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/bea/article/52455-bea-2012-ya-marketing-digital-vs-physical-.html

In GalleyCat! (June 11, 2012):
http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/5-ya-marketing-tips-from-publishing-professionals_b52745

My photos of the Sourcebooks exhibition booth on the floor of BookExpo America:










Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Audies Gala, New York Historical Society, June 5, 2012, Photos

BookExpo America 2012: 

Audies Gala and Awards Presentation 


Below are my photos of the Audie Awards Gala for audiobooks, on June 5, 2012, at the New York Historical Society, New York, NY.   

This year I had the honor of being an Audie Award Judge, helping to select the Audiobook of the Year.The winner of the Audiobook of the Year was Bossypants by Tina Fey. The other finalists were American Gods: The Tenth Anniversary Edition by Neil Gaiman, read by Dennis Boutsikaris, Daniel Oreskes, Ron McLarty, Sarah Jones and a full cast; Go the F*** to Sleep by Adam Mansbach, read by Samuel L. Jackson; and Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson, read by Dylan Baker.


As a judge, I received an invitation to this elegant soiree and a nice white ribbon to wear to signify that I was a judge.  


I also came to appreciate the pleasure of the theater, music and poetry that audio brings to books. What a wonderful experience it has been to become a part of the audiobook world.

Among my photos below, pictured first is Adam Boretz of Publishers Weekly who was covering the event for Publishers Weekly.

See the story Adam Boretz wrote about the Audies Awards in Publishers Weekly here:

Audies were also covered in the New York Times Artsbeat Blog:
http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/06/audie-awards-celebrate-great-voices-not-famous-faces/

and the Huffington Post:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/06/tina-fey-audie-awards_n_1572753.html

The complete list of Audies Winners and Finalists:
http://www.theaudies.com/

Those pictured below include: "Neil Himself," Neil Gaiman, author of American Gods, one of the narrators in the full theatrical cast version audiobook of American Gods, a presenter last night, and an audiobook champion and enthusiast; actor Dylan Baker, narrator of the audio version of Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson; Michele Lee Cobb, President of the Audio Publishers Association; and Audies Judges Committee Chair,  Ellen Myrick.









Adam Boretz

Neil Gaiman

Ellen Myrick

Michele Cobb

Cool book purse!

Dylan Baker, left. Neil Gaiman on right.

Jo Reed, left. Robin Whitten, AudioFile Publications, right.

The crowd before the Awards Ceremony began


Neil Gaiman



Megan Fitzpatrick, Associate Director, Marketing & Publicity at Hachette Audio/Hachette Digital

Dion Graham, Actor, Audiobook Narrator


Dylan Baker, Actor, Audiobook Narrator


Peter Berkrot, Actor, Audiobook Narrator




Monday, June 4, 2012

BookExpo America Panel on Tuesday, June 5 at 11 AM: Beyond the Hunger Games: Young Adult Book PR & Marketing




Beyond The Hunger Games: 


Young Adult Book Marketing & Public Relations Strategies

A BookExpo America Educational Panel

11 AM - 11:50 AM
Date: Tuesday, June 5, 201211:00 am - 11:50 am
Location: 1E09
Javits Center, New York, NY


Young Adult books are a huge growth category in the book industry.  Hear from experts in the field about the burgeoning of YA book publishing and successful tactics for reaching the YA demographic.  


A generous amount of time will be allotted to interactive discussion amongst the panelists and with the audience. Please bring question.


The distinguished panelists are:


Becky Anderson, Owner, Anderson's Bookshop, http://www.andersonsbookshop.com/ 
Michelle F. Bayuk, Director of Marketing, Albert Whitman & Company, http://www.albertwhitman.com/content.cfm/teen
Michelle Renaud, Senior Manager, Public Relations, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, http://www.harlequin.com/ 
Derry Wilkens,  Publicity Manager, Children’s & YA, Sourcebooks, http://www.sourcebooks.com/


Susannah Greenberg of Susannah Greenberg Public Relations is moderator and organizer. Susannah helped launch the Albert Whitman Teen line of books in 2011 making media placements in the Wall Street Journal and on NPR. 


She publicized the indie press Middle Grade book Saltwater Taffy by Eric DelaBarre, getting him placements on NPR, in Scholastic Teacher magazine, and Wired Magazine's Geek Dads column. DelaBarre's book recently won the Silver Nautilus Book Award. http://www.whatagreatbook.com/


Greenberg represented the debut YA paranormal novel, The Veil by Cory Putman Oakes getting her dozens of book blogger reviews including one in The Pioneering Woman blog which has over 500,000 visitors per month.  http://www.corypoakes.com/


Greenberg was a featured guest on the subject of YA book pr in an online Twitter chat with hundreds of YA writers and readers on YAlitchat,  a membership organization for those interested in fostering the advancement of young adult literature worldwide. It hosts a weekly live chat on Twitter and  has over 2500 members worldwide who are readers and writers of YA literature.  http://yalitchat.wordpress.com/


More about Susannah Greenberg Public Relations here:
http://bookbuzz.com


I will blog about the panel afterwards here in this blog.  



Building the Buzz for Books - The New Book Publicity



Pictured from right to left are Susannah Greenberg, Patrick Brown and Jim Milliot, speaking  with attendees at uPublishU at BookExpo America, after their panel presentation on book publicity for the self-published author, "Building the Buzz for Books."




Building the Buzz for Books - The New Book Publicity was the name of the panel I moderated, organized and spoke at yesterday, Sunday June 3, 2012 at the new education event for self-published authors called uPublishU as part of the major annual book trade show BookExpo America, now underway at the Javits Center in New York, NY.  I will be posting the text of my presentation here soon!  The key points for book pr in my view are: 1) Advance planning is critical 2) Story is paramount. Create a mediagenic narrative about your book.  The media want a news story. 3) Be a media junkie.  Get inside the head of the journalists, producers and bloggers, to know who is interested in what and how they work.  Other tips included building your online presence  on social media and the internet, and to take advantage of the pr opportunities afforded by seasonal roundups like beach reads, holiday gift guides, Jewish Book Month and National Poetry Month.   More information about Susannah Greenberg Public Relations at http://bookbuzz.com

Patrick Brown, Community Manager of Goodreads, the social reading site, the largest community of readers online, spoke after me.  The growth at Goodreads is exponential he said with 9 million members now and 42,000 authors. He said ideally self-published authors should print advance review copies to try to get reviews on Goodreads, and they need to do this well in advance of publication date.  E-galleys are not yet accepted.  He said the measure of success or your goal should be the number of people who add your book to their virtual shelves on Goodreads and to get as many people as possible to review your book.  Every mention or review helps potential readers and book buyers to find your book.  The mentions and reviews also go to update feeds on Facebook and are deeply integrated with Facebook.  Goodreads also pushes reviews to other online media of bookstores and libraries and further, many bloggers cross post their reviews from Goodreads to their blogs.  The site also has an algorithmic book recommendation feature but that feature only starts when a book has several hundred reviews.  The new erotica New York Times best seller which Berkely just bought, Bared to You by Sylvia Day, was boosted in part by becoming linked algorithmically to 50 Shades of Grey, and receiving some 2500 reader reviews on Goodreads.  He concluded by recommending advance giveaways of ARCs (advance reading copies), to do the giveaways well in advance of publication date, to give people a long time to respond to the offer of review copies and to give away as many copies as possible, although there is no requirement for that and you may give away even only one copy.  More information on giveaways, (the service is free by the way), can be found at www.goodreads.com/giveaway.   Greenberg added it was an important first step for authors early on to also build their author profile on Goodreads, join and participate in relevant groups on Goodreads, and to take to look at all the opportunties offered in the Goodreads author program.

More information here:
http://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/new

http://www.goodreads.com/author/program

Jim Milliot, of Publishers Weekly and PW Select, an advance review service spoke next.  Publishers Weekly is a 135 year old book trade magazine, now available on line as well at www.publishersweekly.com and also via the blog PWxyz.  The magazine and PW Select still prefers print galleys to e-galleys, and needs them three to four months in advance of publication date.  Their reviews are seen by the book trade including CEOs at companies such as Random House and Barnes & Noble, agents, distributors, librarians, media and more.   PW Select is a four times a year self-published book announcement issue.  For a fee of $149.00 you receive a listing guaranteed, and 25 to 30% chance of receiving a review.  You are not guaranteed a good review though.  They are in the process of becoming more flexible about the lead time necessary for review recognizing the changes in the book printing and production process and plans are in progress to begin reviewing e-galleys in the future.  Another benefit of PW Select reviews are that their reviews are licensed to 30 licensees and carried by them on their sites, including Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Apple and more.  In the future, they will be reviewing more eBook originals as well. The price of the PW Select listing also includes a six-month digital subscription to Publishers Weekly, and you’ll receive a print copy of the PW Select issue that features your book.

More information here:
http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/corp/DIY-FAQ.html