A Couple of New Ideas...

I have been very busy since the call came from the producer, talking with literary agents and making plans for my trip to Book Expo America in New York at the end of the month. But I did want to let everyone know what else I am doing. As always I have a million things going on at once. Hopefully these things will be helpful to you new authors out there.

First, I have mentioned in the past that I joined a new writers/readers network called Indie Readers. If you haven't already, stop by and join. There are a lot of nice people there and many great tips and opportunities for authors to help each other. I have just started a new group within the network called Amazon Authors. This is very similar to Todd Fonseca's Tag My Book onAmazon blog, but on a much smaller scale. If you are interested in adding your Amazon titles to our group to be tagged, I would suggest that you also post it on Todd's. The more you get your work out there the more chances you have to get more readers. If your not sure what tagging is please stop by either of the following addresses for an explanation.

http://indiereaders.ning.com/group/amazonauthors

http://tagmybookonamazon.wordpress.com/

I have been fortunate to meet many writers and authors, both on line and off. I am very thankful to have all of the opportunities that writing and publishing has given me and love to help other writers when ever I can. That was the main reason for starting this blog; to share my experiences and pass along what I have and continue to learn about the whole publishing process. Lately I have been meeting some new author's of children's books. Having 4 children of my own, and being a substitute teacher in a large town with 9 elementary schools, I offered to ask how these 9 different librarians ordered their books. I was given the name and contact info for the man who orders the books for all of our schools. That brings the number of school libraries up to 12. This led me to my second idea.

I thought what a great idea if I take copies of these new children's books along with their purchase info to the man in charge of ordering. He would be able to sample them and then decide if he's interested in buying them for the libraries. I have contacted him about this and will let everyone know the outcome of that as soon as I hear anything. In the mean time, I will offer any children's author a review, which I will post here, on Goodreads, and on Amazon. Not bad exposure for the price of postage and 1 copy of your book. Most of us have a few copies hanging around the house anyway.

In the event that your book is chosen as one to be purchased for all of our town's libraries I will offer the copy you send me as a free bonus to them. If your book is not chosen I will offer it on my contest blog. We all love a giveaway and it helps get your book out there to more readers. Tell me what you think about this idea, and if you're interested in participating email me and I will give you the address of where to send a copy of your book.

dkcallender@sbcglobal.net

As always, keep writing and keep in touch. If you have any ideas on how we can help each other pass them along.

Thanks,
Kristin :)