Is it possible to relish promoting a book?
I’ve never seen a UFO.
But my Thirteenth Circle coauthor, MarcyKate Connolly did, back in fourth grade, and I am loving hearing her tell that story to various wide-eyed listeners as we promote our new middle-grade sci-fi/mystery book. (Out 1/30/24!! Have you preordered yet?!)
In fact, I’m having a lot of fun in general, promoting our upcoming book release…which is, to say the least, a bit unusual.
Book promotion is not most authors’ favorite part of the gig. It’s nerve-wracking—will any of this make a meaningful difference? It’s performative—do I really have to film myself speaking enthusiastically at my phone, again? It’s exhausting—shouldn’t I be putting my energy toward, you know, writing the next book? No matter how much we love our books and want them to succeed, the months surrounding a new release can be stressful and overwhelming.
My Word of the Year is relish, and I want to try to apply that word throughout my life—looking beyond the things I already know I enjoy. That means finding ways to relish not just the act of writing, but also the less exciting and/or enjoyable parts of being a professional author. Even the possibly nerve-wracking, performative, exhausting parts.
Like book promo.
When MarcyKate and I started brainstorming how we wanted to promote our book, on top of whatever efforts our publisher had planned, we came up with all sorts of ideas. Some of those ideas have actually been super-fun to implement! For instance, we wrote a Buzzfeed personality quiz: “Are you more Science…or Strange?” In our co-author partnership, I’m definitely the down-to-earth one (though I am not a scientist!), while MarcyKate would say that she brings the “strange.” (Remember, up top, how I said she saw a UFO once?)
On the subject of MarcyKate’s long-ago UFO sighting, we’ve also decided to share “science” and “strange” stories from our own lives—and to ask our followers and readers to share their own, using the hashtag #ScienceandStrange. Visit MarcyKate’s Instagram for all the details about her close encounter. Visit my Instagram to learn about one of my favorite science fair projects I did as a kid. (The premise of The Thirteenth Circle revolves around a prestigious regional science fair; Dani and Cat both desperately want to win.) More stories will be coming soon!
Will either of these two promotional efforts help us sell more copies of The Thirteenth Circle? I hope so…but it’s hard to be certain. And yet, I would say I’ve relished this part of the process. I’m excited to share more “science” and “strange” stories. Just like I’m excited to share more snippets of my teenaged X-Files fanfiction on social media—another way I’ve been promoting this new book, since without my X-Files fanfiction, The Thirteenth Circle might never have existed. And the quiz: how fun is that? Seriously. If you didn’t already, go take it. I’ll wait.
Are you back? What was your result?
So, about those admittedly less-fun parts of book promo. Is it possible to relish them, as well? In the fall, MarcyKate and I mailed out hundreds (and hundreds) of handwritten postcards to independent bookstores and libraries, asking them to consider stocking The Thirteenth Circle. Writing all those postcards was…a bit tedious.
It also felt productive. And I truly relish being productive.
At the New England Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators conference last April, I attended a session on marketing yourself and your books to bookstores and libraries. One of the things the presenters recommended: mailing postcards. It sounds old-school, but it’s still an effective way to get your book info seen and remembered. Why? Booksellers and librarians receive seasonal catalogs from publishers. They flip through those catalogs to decide what to stock on their shelves. Aside from each publisher’s lead titles—the ones every book retailer will have—there are hundreds (and hundreds) of new releases every month. It’s far too easy, the workshop presenters said, for your book to get lost in the shuffle.
A postcard, especially one that includes a brief note, can be a simple way to stand out. It can act as a reminder—Oh, yeah, I wanted to read that!—or a nudge: Hm, I should learn more about that book. A postcard can be pinned to a bulletin board, propped up next to the computer where orders are placed, handed to a colleague.
My Class Critters chapter book series was a mid-pandemic release, and one of the reasons I think it never really broke out was because…well, a lot of people never knew the series existed. That sounds obvious, right? In order to read your books, people have to first know they exist. In that category of “people who never knew about Class Critters,” I’m unfortunately including booksellers. In the past few years, I’ve gone to plenty of bookstores where a bookseller very kindly told me they hadn’t heard of my series, but it sounded cute.
What if I’d mailed out postcards, if not when Tally Tuttle Turns into a Turtle released in 2021, then when David Dixon’s Day as a Dachshund and Madison Morris is NOT a Mouse! followed in 2022? Would those books have ended up on a few more bookstores’ shelves—and thus found their way into more kids’ hands?
I relished doing that ginormous postcard mailing for The Thirteenth Circle, because even if only a fraction of those bookstores and libraries end up stocking the book, who might not have done so without that postcard reminder, that’s more books on shelves! More books with the potential to find readers!
What I’m learning, as I try to relish as many parts of publishing books as I can—including marketing and promotion—is that I want to be doing a mix of what genuinely brings me joy and what feels particularly productive. A book’s success depends on a lot of factors (including pure luck!), and I want to be spending my energy either enjoying my promo efforts or feeling like they actually have the potential to make a difference.
I’ve gone on a bit long here, so I’ll end with a reminder about another of our promo efforts: our preorder swag pack campaign! If you preorder The Thirteenth Circle, any time before January 29th, you’re eligible to receive a bundle of goodies, including:
Bookplate signed by both authors
Thirteenth Circle bookmark
Assorted stickers
Glow-in-the-dark stars
A download link to read the original, non-canon ending of the book! (Save this one for after you’ve read the published ending. Trust me.)
Plus, you’ll be entered for a chance to win a limited-edition Thirteenth Circle t-shirt!
Go HERE to sign up and submit your preorder receipt. Then, sit back and wait for your bounty to arrive in the mail. And THANK YOU so much for preordering! That truly means the world to authors.
~Kathryn
I am predictably more science 😄
Have you written a post about writing postcards to bookstores? For my middle grade coming out in September, this is something I'd love to try, but I'm not sure where to start.