Although sounding quite tasty, what does this have to do with books? While attending the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, April 25-26, my attention was captured by one of the author’s marketing materials. The author just so happened to be participating in the AuthorsDen.com booth along with me, so I had ample opportunity to see the marketing materials, and drool. The most interesting aspect to me was that the author, Allyson Ames was using her book, Wonderlicious ~ The Enchanting and Delicious Story of Wonderland Bakery as a means of marketing her Wonderland Bakery. Along with the book, Allyson and Sondra had aprons, shirts, a cupcake purse, a castle tote, a tea set, a cupcake bake set, along with enchanting wands in blue and pink.  But the item that captured the most attention was the Gund bear which reads the Wonderlicious story, a definite must have item among the pre-school set. And as an added bonus, each purchase was accompanied by a Wonderland Bakery cookie. Sweet!

The absolute best thing these very savvy women did was to send an Allyson character to walk around with the book and the bear talking to children and showing how the bear reads the story. Meanwhile, her compadre was quickly passing out flyers to help promote the bakery and direct people to the AuthorsDen.com booth where they might sell a few of the accessorial products.  Could you resist that smile?

We, as writers, focus so much of our time and energy on promoting our books through traditional methods such as book fairs, bookstores, and libraries, we may be overlooking a golden opportunity. It’s time to pull out those creative thinking caps and dream up a kind of marketing strategy in reverse whereby you find another product or activity to promote which leads right back to your primary product of books.  The Ames women have provided a shining example in using a book festival to promote a bakery, without pitching a cookbook or putting on a cooking demonstration.  What is your Wonderland?

The Wonderlicious Cookbook is due out Spring 2009.

Written for the Lulu Book Review.
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LK Griffie
Visit me at Griffie World
To buy Misfit McCabe, visit my store at Lulu.com or purchase at Amazon.com
To track Misfit McCabe across the country, visit: Where in the World is Misfit McCabe?
Own a Kindle? Download Misfit McCabe in an instant.
For other e-book formats, visit Smashwords.com
To read book reviews by LK Griffie, visit: The Lulu Book Review

The post A Wonderland of Marketing appeared first on Be the Cat.

1. Listen to Denny a little more often.
   • Denny had a very good idea about taking my laptop to the festival so I could play the book trailer for Misfit McCabe. I wasn’t thinking straight because I kept thinking the ability to play the trailer would be predicated on whether I could have a power connection ande/or internet connection. Have I mentioned I’m blonde? Of course I have a laptop with enough battery to last the duration of the signing and then some. And if that battery ran out of juice, I do have a back up battery which could be fully charged. Ok – chalk that one up for next time.
   • Put together something to show some of my reader feedback vs. professional review. This is also something Denny suggested. The tweens/teens he approached were pleased that someone was interested in giving them something and had a book especially for them, and he felt they would also enjoy reading what others their own age thought about the book.
2. Learn how to answer the question, “What is the book about?”
   • It is the most basic question an author can be asked. Words are our medium. We know our characters intimately, some of us can go on for hours about the intricacies in the lives of our characters. But, when asked point blank to sum up the story, all of a sudden gibberish is our first language.
   • It’s not as if I am shy about talking in front of people. Especially in this type of setting. I’ve always said if I can get up on stage and sing in front of a room full of strangers, saying a few words is a piece of cake.
   • Now I have an action item to be accomplished before May 9th when I attend the San Diego Children’s Book Festival. Develop an answer to the question. But don’t only say what’s on the back of the bookmarks or book cover. Make it appealing and enticing, yet keep it short (my biggest challenge whether the word is written or spoken.)
   • Part of the issue may have something to do with the fact that we are intensley intimate with our characters and in many cases they become real to us. It’s kind of like telling the life story of our best friend to a total stranger and hope they don’t think our best friend is a jerk or not worth knowing.

All for now as it’s late and I’m beat.

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LK Griffie
Visit me at Griffie World
To buy Misfit McCabe, visit my store at Lulu.com or purchase at Amazon.com
To track Misfit McCabe across the country, visit: Where in the World is Misfit McCabe?
Own a Kindle? Download Misfit McCabe in an instant.
For other e-book formats, visit Smashwords.com
To read book reviews by LK Griffie, visit: The Lulu Book Review

The post Thoughts From the Morning Commute – Festival Aftermath appeared first on Be the Cat.

I kept my eyes peeled as we walked through the festival looking for new and different ways to market books. There were a few eye-catching displays, but overall, much of the same from booth to booth. One booth pushing a book on tennis and life had a tennis racket at the corner and you could try and hit a tennis ball into the holes in a brightly colored wooden stand inside the booth. While it drew quite a few people to the booth, I’m not sure asking people to swing a racket while surrounded by so many people was the brightest idea.

Our booth was actually located very well. We were directly across from the Culinary Stage, so we had lots of people coming by to watch the cooking demonstration. Plus, the $5 bookstore booth was just past us and we were on the way in (and out), so did actually get quite a bit of good foot traffic. Instead of watching the culinary show while I was conducting my signings, I had Denny take a book and some bookmarks to try and direct some traffic my direction. It did work. He started targeting those he thought were tweens, and they were very pleased to think that someone had written a book just for them.

I was pleased enough with the event, that I am going to participate in the AuthorsDen.com booth for the San Diego Children’s Book Festival coming up May 9th. More details to come later. This time I’m going to bring my laptop and have my book trailer running during my signing times to help draw attention.  I have a few more pics, which I will share in a later post.

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LK Griffie
Visit me at Griffie World
To buy Misfit McCabe, visit my store at Lulu.com or purchase at Amazon.com
To track Misfit McCabe across the country, visit: Where in the World is Misfit McCabe?
Own a Kindle? Download Misfit McCabe in an instant.
For other e-book formats, visit Smashwords.com
To read book reviews by LK Griffie, visit: The Lulu Book Review

The post LA Times Festival of Books – Day 2 appeared first on Be the Cat.

I participated in the event with the AuthorsDen.com online literary community. AuthorsDen.com is an online community of authors where registered authors can post their books, publish articles, update people on events that they will be participating in, etc. AuthorsDen.com garners the traffic of over one million readers per month and provide the authors with additional exposure and web presence. I have personally found that the more content I have on AuthorsDen.com, the more people click through to either other articles or to my external links that I scatter judiciously through all of my content, such as to my website, blog, and traveling book site, as well as to the locations to purchase Misfit McCabe. AuthorsDen.com has just decided to start becoming involved with events, and the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books is their first venture. Matt and Jackie Miller were very welcoming to all of the authors, and I can’t thank Jenny enough for all of her assistance throughout the day. The tent was one of the larger ones, and we were located directly across from the culinary stage, and right by one of the food courts (which solved Denny’s issue of where we would find something to eat.)

My signing time went very well. I had steady traffic throughout my time and spoke to quite a few people, handed out lots of bookmarks, and even sold a couple of books. If tomorrow goes as well, I will be quite satisfied with the weekend. I brought along not only copies of Misfit McCabe in the original cover, but I had a few books printed with potential new covers to see what people seemed to be drawn to. So far the results are not conclusive, but there is still tomorrow. Interestingly enough, younger children and boys in my target age group were drawn to the original cover and grabbed the marketing materials I had on hand with the original cover picture. Starting with my target age girls and all adults were drawn to the new covers.

I had a nice chat with Chareline Sanders, who is currently taking some business classes, and she purchased a signed copy of Misfit McCabe in one of the new covers. She will be sharing not only my book, but the marketing materials, including a poster, as well with her instructor, so I am quite excited by that. I will go into some of the marketing things I have seen at the festival as well as posting some pictures that help to illustrate the sheer volume of people attending this event. I will just say, the children’s book area was nuts!! As it is now late, and I am worn out, it’s time to call it a night so I can wake up fresh in the morning and start the process all over again.

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LK Griffie
Visit me at Griffie World
To buy Misfit McCabe, visit my store at Lulu.com or purchase at Amazon.com
To track Misfit McCabe across the country, visit: Where in the World is Misfit McCabe?
Own a Kindle? Download Misfit McCabe in an instant.
For other e-book formats, visit Smashwords.com
To read book reviews by LK Griffie, visit: The Lulu Book Review

The post LA Times Book Festival ~ Day 1 appeared first on Be the Cat.

I will be scheduling some time for book signings, and am generally excited about the networking opportunities. The theme appears to be along the lines of The Very Hungry Caterpillar, a staple of the preschool set, which is having its 40th anniversary.

I also plan to go through the list of authors expected to attend to see if I can hunt down a few of my favorites. If you happen to be in the area – tickets are free. I’d love to see you there.

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