Tractor Fun

I have had a great two weeks meeting new people and discovering new things while marketing "The New Blue Tractor"! I now have 3 stores selling my book on consignment and am hoping to contact two more this week. My book is now available online at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Books-A-Million, Borders and Target! How exciting to search and see it pop up! I am working on getting the large, local stores to carry it as well. I have only had one disappointing contact, one of the local libraries. The person I met was concerned about the binding holding up although there were many early reader books there with the same type of binding! I checked them out for my kids a few years ago. The same person also shared the many things that they thought were wrong with my book, in their opinion. Oh well, I don't expect everyone to appreciate or like the book. I took it with a grain of salt, not my favorite library anyway!

I met with a fantastic lady at my local university and she really enjoyed my book. She has many ideas on the marketing angles and also invited me to speak to a class of undergraduates in which they are required to write a children's book. I am VERY EXCITED!

I did another book signing at a local store this weekend for a Christmas promotion. There was a fair amount of traffic in the store, but not a lot of interest in my book. It is, however, selling fairly well without me there :)

I have now completed two more interviews for local papers. One in particular was quite enjoyable as the reporter was also a children's book author. We traded some stories as well as tips.

I have begun working on my second book. The story is about a bulldozer and it will start my construction series. The text has been a little more challenging. It is difficult to keep the short, simple text while writing about the work this machine can do! I'm sure the text will come along. I have shared it with Richard and our next plan of action is to meet with someone, a professional, who is familiar with bulldozers to check the technical "stuff".

I am hoping to capitalize on the holiday purchasing for my book. I am glad we were able to get it published by this time.

More another day,
Stacey

Having Fun Going to the "Market"

I'm still expanding my list of places to visit, widening my circle. Most people I call are very pleasant and welcome the chance to meet. It is a little intimidating (is that the word?) asking people to look at my book to see if they might want to purchase it. However, I feel I am getting better at it. I have completed one interview (with a photo here at my house) for a local paper and have another scheduled in a few days. I am kind of surprised that writers are so willing! It is a good thing that I have a couple of days off next week for the Thanksgiving holiday since I don't know how I would fit in these meetings.

It is fun to watch the ranking of my book on Amazon fluctuate. Some days high, some days low.

I have been able to add a word search puzzle to my site for people to print off. It is simple and just right for a young child to complete. I have just begun setting up my author profile on Amazon. It is kind of fun!

Stacey

Marketing has begun

Just last weekend I experienced my first children's book author signing event, as an author! I met a wonderful children's bookstore owner that happened to be having a local author book signing on Saturday and she invited me to participate. We didn't have a lot of people attend but it was a good experience to meet other local authors who like me, are publishing books. I saw a couple of neat books and made a few contacts while there.

This week, I plan to visit a few local places on my list to sell my book. It is pretty easy to talk about The New Blue Tractor since I think it just looks fantastic! I'm hoping others think so as well.

Amazon now has the cover picture up when you click on my title and boy does it pop! Those great primary colors really call attention to the book. We have had a couple of wonderful readers leave some nice posts. Richard made a "how to" list and I touched it up a little to pass out with the books I am selling requesting people to post comments for us.

Some days I feel like my life is just a little too crazy working full time, promoting this book and being a mom full time but....I try to remember the big picture. Also, dust has always been a friend in my house so why chase it out now!

More to come.....

Stacey