Avalanche of Words

Once up on a time there was an author who was getting ready for the publication of his first fantasy series. Deciding that he wanted to do everything within his power to make his series a success, he decided to do leave the city of Blog and go on a tour. The thing was, he couldn?t really find any solid information on what a blog tour involved. He?d always enjoyed reading other people?s blogs as well as writing his own, so he set out on a quest to discover the prefect blog tour.

Along the way, he learned that not all blogs are equal. Some blogs focus primarily on certain genres of books or certain age groups. Some have a very small audience of only a few readers while others have hundreds of thousands of unique visitors. Many bloggers weren?t sure he was really legit. Some didn?t respond to his e-mails. Some politely declined.

But over time, he met many new friends, found lots of great sites that he regularly visits, and signed up over one-hundred and fifty people to join his tour. Now that he had a great group of bloggers covering the US and Canada, and representing a wide range of readers, he thought about ways to make his tour stand out. A review is great, he thought. And one-hundred and fifty reviews will be even better. But how cool would it be if the readers could get to know me as well?. He knew that he liked learning more about the authors he enjoyed reading. What better way than to do interviews where bloggers could ask him questions?

This seemed like a good plan. And the bloggers appeared to agree. Soon he received his advance reader copies, ARCs, and sent them to the wonderful bloggers. At first there wasn?t much response, as people read his book. But after a week or so, he began to get e-mails. The messages were great. People didn?t hate his book! In fact most of them liked it quite a bit. Along with the reviews came interview questions. He excitedly answered each question, trying to think of answers that were both helpful and at least a little entertaining.

Soon he received more interviews, and more, and more, and more. One thing he had failed to take into consideration was how long it takes to answer 150 interviews. On average, each interview took from thirty to forty minutes to answer. Some were shorter. Some were longer. Questions ranged from what his favorite candy bar was to why there was no technology to speak of on Farworld.

The questions were great! They really gave him a lot to think about. And it was wonderful hearing how the book affected people. But even with an average response time of 30 minutes, doing 150 interviews took over seventy-five hours. At the same time, his publisher was asking for a completed manuscript of book two. And his other publisher was asking for edits on his regional mystery series.

The author tried to keep climbing the growing mountain of interviews while also writing 2-3,000 words per day. But soon he slipped and disappeared under an avalanche of words. Several miles away, the people of the Blog watched and waited. Would he ever be heard from again? Had he smothered under the weight of so many words? Had his brain been twisted by the question of which character was his favorite or how he came up with names?

Then a hand appeared at the top of the mountain of words, and the people gasped. A second hand appeared. And finally a head peeked over the surface of the pile. He WAS alive. He still had a gazillion books to send out. And he was answering questions from three days before. But there was hope that he would return to the land of Blog soon. And once there, he would post many links, tell many tales of his journey, and get all of the winner?s their books. Oh, and he would also get his second book turned in. It being easily twice as exciting as his first book.

Hey, gang. Sorry I disappeared for a while. I?m just about caught up. I?m currently answering Friday?s questions and hope to be through all of today?s questions by the end of the night. So if you haven?t missed my posts, bad luck for you, I?m back. But if you have missed them, thanks! I?ve missed you too. Also, please if you have sent me questions earlier than Friday and have not heard back, absolutely resend them.

Thanks! Scott

A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes When You're Busy Washing the Woodwork

I felt a little like Cinderella this last weekend. The one who is scrubbing bedpans while her stepsisters are at the ball?not the one who meets the prince and dances the night away. Friday through Sunday all of my fellow Shadow Mountain fantasy authors were at BEA (Book Expo America) in Los Angeles, doing book signings, meeting cool authors, attending dinners etc. Unfortunately, since I didn?t have my first book out yet, I was left home.

The analogy even goes a little farther, because my fairy godmother even made me a beautiful new gown for the ball. It?s the cool book cover over on the right of this blog. And it is as beautiful as any gown I could wish for. The kind of sucky thing is that in this version of Cinderella, the gown went to the ball without her and was snatched up by other dancers. (Okay this whole analogy is starting to sound a little creepy even to me. But you get the point.)

I guess the good news is that Shadow Mountain took 250 ARCs to the show, and they were gone before the end of the first day. With all the free books available, that really says something about the cover. So yay!

Meanwhile, back in Utah, I figured I might as well get out and do some work. So Jen (my wife) and I took ARCs, mouse pads, posters, and bookmarks out to twelve stores. It was actually kind of fun seeing how different the responses of store employees were. Some were thrilled to death and others looked like we were the postman dropping off a batch of junk mail. We even came up with a little grading system.

F?The only F I am going to give is there store where we walked in at a few minutes after seven and no one was there. The entire store was empty. Finally we checked the back office and realized the store had closed at six and some guys were cleaning the carpets. Um, you might want to lock the front door maybe?

D?Manager or CRM not at store. No clue who I am, who the publisher is, or what an ARC is. Repeats this phrase over and over as I hand him all the goodies. ?Okay, I?ll give it to the manager.? Fortunately I only had one of these. I really tried everything I could to get him excited, but he looked like he hated anything to do with books. Which begs the question, ?Dude, why are you even working here??

C ? These employees at least seemed to look interested. They politely took the book and glanced at the cover. I couldn?t get any conversation going about school visits, book signings, or the like. When I mentioned Shadow Mountain there was no recognition. Mention of Fablehaven got a small spark. They seemed to understand generally what an ARC was.

B ? There was actual interest here and recognition of some sort. They definitely knew what an ARC was and were interested in reading it. They recognized either me or the publisher. They liked the goodies and promised to put them out. They thought there were several people in the store who might want to read the book. There was interest in having me do events with them.

A ? These were the best ones. And fortunately there were more of these than any other. These people knew exactly what an ARC was and practically snatched it out of my hands. When I mentioned Fablehaven their eyes lit up. The loved the poster and promised to get the mouse pad on the office computer where everyone could see it. Several of them knew exactly who I was from my other books and couldn?t wait to start on this one. (This won?t be the case at most stores outside of Utah, but it was still fun.) They were excited to talk about school visits and book signings. They told me what had worked well in the store previously and gave me suggestions for working with them. I came back from these almost forgetting I wasn?t at BEA.

So what did I learn? Several things actually. (If you aren?t into book marketing jargon, stop reading now. This is the kind of stuff that bores most non-authors to tears.)

First, I am going to make up some new business cards with information about school visits, books signings, best ways to reach me etc. They best store managers asked for that right away. I may even make up a little flyer talking about my school presentations. Many of the stores got excited as I outlined what I present to schools.

Second, a few stores know who Shadow Mountain is. But nearly everyone recognizes Fablehaven and The Wednesday Letters. I could tell that several store employees were wary when I first showed up. Typically ARCs come in the mail. But once they realized I was with a publisher they knew and saw my book, they opened right up. I found that phrases like, ?My publisher would normally send this out, but I like to meet you person,? helped a lot.

Third, know the name of the person you are coming to meet and try to make sure they are there when you come. There is a huge difference between meeting a manager or community relations manager and just dropping by on a bunch of employees. While we did meet several employees who were excited to see us and promised to get our materials to the right person, the managers were always excited and involved. I will make appointments from now on instead of just dropping by.

Fourth, explain what an ARC is. Not everyone understands that this is an advance copy of a book coming out. I actually had one nice salesperson try to ring it up while I was talking. I need to make sure they understand that the final product will be a hardback with illustrations and that an ARC is not proofed.

Last. I need to get a clean clear pitch that I can give in less than a minute. It explains who I am, who I am with, why I am there in person, and what I can do for the store. Starting with the right pitch makes all the difference in the world. It was clear the assumption was that I was some schmoe out peddling a book he printed up in his garage. I don?t think they get a lot of drop ins from authors, so letting them know I am coming in advance and why I am there would probably go a long way.


Well that?s it. I guess I?ll get back to work. I still have to finish sweeping out the chimneys and washing the dishes before those ugly step sisters get back. But I hear a rumor that if I clean the drapes really well, I might actually get to see some inside illustrations today. Now where are those helpful little mice?

ARCs, Mouse Pads, and Marketing

The ARCs are out. After an exciting evening of printing, labeling, signing, stuffing, and sealing, I will be dropping them off to Shadow Mountain for mailing tomorrow. Here are a couple of pics from the blessed event.

Ready to get to work. More or less

Read the name, grab the envelope, apply the label . . .

What I told them to look like after we finished.

What they claimed they felt like after we finished.
(Until we went to DQ and they all perked back up.)

On a second note, I was asked a question yesterday that I thought was worth blogging about. I was talking with a friend about the things I?ve been doing and will be doing prior to the release of Water Keep. In particular, we were talking about some mouse pads that I bought as giveaways for the stores I?ll be visiting, and the cost of gas and hotel. Her comment was, ?Why are you spending all this money of your own? Should the publisher do that??

The answer I gave her was shorter than what I?ll post here, but in essence it came down to the same thing. If you could make a living doing anything you want, what would it be? Rock Star, actress, ship captain, the guy who goes up and down the strip in Las Vegas changing light bulbs? (Hey we all have our dreams right?)

For me, my dream is to make a living telling stories. If Bards were still around?and if I could sing?I?d probably go for that gig. In today?s world, the profession is novelist, script writer, movie director, or something of that sort. The problem is, there are far more people who want the job than actual opportunities. I?ve probably said before that more people make a living in the US as professional baseball players than novelists. So when the opportunity presents itself, you have to jump on it.

Now let?s take a look at what you?re getting into when you sign on for this particular adventure. First of all, it?s a 1099 position, meaning that there is no base, no guarantee, not a ton of job security, no insurance, and a paycheck that hopefully comes twice a year. Not exactly CEO of a fortune 500 company, right? In addition, my book will something like 1 out of 175,000 published this year.

Now the odds are not quite as bad as they sound. First of all, a lot of those books are nonfiction. So technically they don?t compete directly with me. Then there are a large percentage of books that are either self published or published by regional publishers small enough that they will see minimal if any shelf space nationally. Finally, we have to get rid of fiction titles that don?t compete directly with mine?adult, picture books, etc. I?m sure if I was really industrious I could scour the internet and come up with the actual number of YA fiction titles that will be published by midsize publishers or larger in 2008, but let?s be totally random and guess that the number is somewhere around 5,000.

What that means is that in my space alone, there are 5,000 other authors looking to sell enough books to make a living. Obviously, the biggest thing I can do to stand out is write a good book. And hopefully I?ve done that. But how many good books?books you?d really enjoy if you knew about them?come and go without you even knowing it?

So this week, I?m going to hit the road taking my ARCs to stores. In addition I?m taking out mouse pads that I purchased myself. I?ll spend money on gas and hotels. It will look like I?m out making friends, meeting store managers, and promoting my book. And all of that is true. Honestly, I?m really looking forward to spending some time with my wife as we travel from Las Vegas to Denver to Idaho, and everywhere in between. But what I?m really going to be doing is investing in myself. My thinking is this. If I?m not willing to invest time?and yes, money?in myself, why should anyone else be?

They're Heeeerrree (Said in a Poltergeist Movie Voice)

Okay, the ARC chant did it. The ARCs are here at last! I only got five this morning. But in the next couple of days I should get all the books I need for the blog tour. It's such a cool feeling holding a book in my hand that not so long ago was just an idea in my head. It finally seems real. Of course they aren't the final hardback copies, and I have published other books before. But this is an initial print run of 40,000 hard back copies. It's placement on bookshleves nationwide.

Honestly, until I had the book in my hands, there was still a tiny voice in the back of my head whispering, "It's not real. Something will happen to make it all fall through."

But hey, now it's real! Would you blame me if I sleep with one under my pillow until the final copies show up in about three months?

Funny side note: I told my boys (pictured above) that next week we were going to have an ARC mailing party.

Boys "What's that?"

Me "It means we are going to stuff, label, and insert letters in over 150 envelopes to mail out books to my blogger friends."

Boys (Think for a minute.) "Will there be food?"

Me "Probably."

Boys "Will there be other kids?"

Me "Nope. Just us."

Boys "That doesn't sound like much of a party."

Oh, well. At least I'll be having fun. Which is good, because as much as it pains me to say it, Indy 4 was something of a let down. I'm sure if I hadn't gone in with such high expectations it wouldn't have been as bad. I went in looking for another 10, and what I got was maybe a 6 1/2. The sad thing is, most of the movie was a 12. Classic Indiana Jones thriller. But a few scenes, and the ending in particular, just had us all shaking our heads and asking, "Why?"

That being said, we all applauded at the end. (Well most of us.) And I will go back and see it again. And I will buy the DVD. It is a good addition to the trilogy, but in my opinion it is not as good as any of the first four. Honestly, if I go back with the right expectations, I could probably bump it up to a 7 or even 7 1/2. But I really, really, wanted it to be a 12.

One other funny thing. We left at 10, although it turned out we could have gone at 11:30 and gotten decent seats. The two theaters weren?t even sold out. But that says more about Payson, Utah than the movie. Anyway, without even discussing it, we all brought books to read while we waited. So here are all these rowdy teenagers in line, and sitting on the floor is my me, my wife, and our four kids all reading away. Made me proud

Back on the ARC side, I will be sending out e-mails over the next couple of days with final blog tour details to everyone who has signed up. Last time I sent out an e-mail to everyone on the tour, I only heard back from about 2/3rds. So if you don't hear from me by Monday, check your SPAM filters or send me a message. Can't wait to get these out and start hearing back from you!

Marketing Part IV?The Blog Tour

As promised, I am officially kicking off the Find Your Magic, Farworld Blog tour. Since I haven?t done this before, I am going to kind of make it up as I go. It?s pretty simple, so that shouldn?t be too hard. But if any of you more experienced bloggers think of a better way to do it, or catch something I missed, let me know. Here?s the deal:

My publisher, Shadow Mountain, is providing me with 400 advanced reader copies of the first book in the Farworld series, Farworld?Water. The books will be used for a blog tour running from July 1 to August 31. (The book should hit the shelves the first week of September. It appears the official release date is September 5th.) I will send the first 200 bloggers who sign up to take part in the tour an ARC, and will also drop ship a second copy for them as part of any type of contest they would like to run.

What: Farworld Blog Tour
When: The tour will run through the months of July and August. Signup will begin Friday, April 11th. (But you can get in early. See below.)

Here?s what you do:

1) Send an e-mail to me at scott at jscottsavage dot com any time after 7:00 am MST Friday, April 11th telling me the name and URL of your blog, the mailing address where you?d like the book sent, and any preference you have as to when you want to post your review. I?d kind of like to spread out the reviews over the two months prior to the release, but I don?t want to tie anyone to a specific date. Let?s just make it easy and say first half of July, second half of July, first half of August, or second half of August.

2) Agree to run a review of the book and do a Q&A with me on your blog during the tour. You don?t need to send me your questions now, since you may come up with different questions once you?ve read the book. (I?d imagine something like, ?If you can get this trash published, doesn?t that give hope for everyone??) Okay, I hope that?s not really the first question that comes to mind, but it would be great if sites asked questions that are most tailored to their audience so they aren?t all the same.

3) When the time comes to do the review and the Q&A, run any type of contest you?d like. When you have a winner, send me their address and I?ll send them their book. On both the book I send you and the one I send the winners, let me know if you?d like them signed and personalized in any way.

Here?s what I do:

1) I will provide Shadow Mountain with the list of blogger addresses. As soon as the ARCs come out they will be mailed to you.

2) I will post here on the site when the tour is full, and when the ARCs are sent out. If you don?t get your book within a week or so of the mailing, let me know and I?ll check on your copy.

3) As soon as I get your questions, I?ll send back my answers.

4) If we get too many people signing up for one part of the tour, I?ll ask for volunteers to change to another part of the tour.

Random Notes:

G sharp, E flat, D.

Sorry.

The only real rules I can think of are that you must be using a blog that is fairly active. No fair using sites that haven?t been updated since 1999, cool as that year was. If you have two blogs that have different audiences, I think I?d be okay with you posting and running contests on both of them, but I?d only send you one review copy. Also, if you are part of a blog that you share with other people, it will be first come first serve. Only one review and contest copy per blog.

Oh, this might be kind of a pain, but since the initial release will only be in the US, I?m going to limit the tour to US and Canadian addresses only. I promise to do another tour in other countries when foreign rights are sold.

If you don't have a blog, not to worry. I'll link to all the blogs on the tour, so you'll have 200 chancea to win one. And I might be able to snag a couple of extra copies to give away here too.

Finally, thanks everyone. I really appreciate all of you who have given me such great feedback and support. It?s great to have good people helping you, and I hope I can return the favor. But in all seriousness, review the book honestly. I?d much rather have someone say they didn?t like this or that so I can try to improve with the next book in the series. But, hey, if you really do think I?m the next JK Rowling, say what you have to.