New Look, New Ways to Connect

I’m in the process of having my blog, website and social media updated and inter-connected by my tech-smart friend, Kristi Ross, so that you’ll have many ways of staying in contact with me and hearing my latest news in the publishing world. I’m very excited because that means I can have more immediate connections with my friends and fans. Plus I’m working on ways to make it easier for you to purchase my books through my sites.


So stayed tuned! I'll publish the new web address soon for my fabulous reinvented blog!

Conference Inspiration

This past weekend, I attended the Rocky Mountain Chapter of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators Conference (I know, it's a mouthful) in Lakewood, Colorado. I was there as a presenter, and talked about how my Night Before series started as one book and grew to 16 over the past 12 years. Twelve years! I've been writing that series for that long!

It turned out to be a fun assignment for me to study my own works. Typically I read other people's books to help improve my own. Well, I found out a few interesting things:
- My top three selling titles are: The Night Before Kindergarten, then Thanksgiving, then Easter.
- It was a wise idea to get an agent. I earned more in the advance and royalties ever since signing on with my agent.
- The stories all have families with a mother and father and either one child or two.
- It would have been better to have one artist for the whole series.
- The books illustrated with big-headed kids with skinny necks didn't sell as well as kids depicted more accurately.

It's always good to connect to your audience, too. Two women at the presentation were teachers and used my books in their classrooms. One woman who was pregnant read The Night Before the New Baby and started crying, it touched her so. Plus, people offered great ideas for new titles.

The thing attendees were most thankful for is that I talked about what I earned for this series: advances and royalties.

Besides presenting, I was also fortunate to attend a sessions that offered new information to an old hack who's been in the business for 20 years. Plus I made contacts with editors, and learned more about how to craft a better story.

So if you are considering attending an SCBWI conference, I say do it if you get a chance. This is a people business, and you have to make face-to-face connections. And getting a shot of inspiration doesn't hurt either.

Why Readers Choose Books

This bit of information came to me via fellow writer and friend, Teresa Funke, who emails me newsletters about writing which I read top to bottom. I thought this would be interesting for writers, especially if you are designing, publishing or marketing your own book.

People Buy Books Based On:

  

Friend's Recommendation - 49%

Familiarity with Author - 45% 

Description on Jacket - 32%

Reviews - 22%

Advertisement - 21%

Place on Best-seller List - 17%

Reading Group Pick - 16%

Cover Design - 12%

Source: Spier N.Y. (Based on responses from 813 readers, as noted in Publisher's Weekly and quoted in Joe Watt's column inThe Denver Post). 

Guest Post

Read my guest post on Bubble Cow about back matter to see how you as a writer can enhance your manuscripts with information that furthers and deepens your story.

Note: Above back matter page from An Eye for Color: The Story of Josef Albers.

A Song About Kindergarten

My book, The Night Before Kindergarten, was mentioned on The Barron Bunch blog. There's an adorable video of daughter, Ella, singing a going to kindergarten song. With their permission, I am posting it here to share.

Wouldn't you love to have had her girl's room when you were a little girl?