author events

Story Catcher Publishing Expansion: Author Events and Latest Releases

Donna L

Whether traditionally published, indie published, or even published by a vanity press, book marketing and promoting should be high on any author’s list of priorities. Sales can’t happen without people knowing about your latest creation.

In our area every Spring, one of the largest gatherings in the south happens as a way of celebrating the written word. On May 20th, 2023, Knoxville, Tn will hold its annual Children’s Festival of Reading at World’s Fair Park. With up to 15,000 families attending each year, this is one of the best opportunities for authors to promote their books.

But what if you don’t have any books to sell or maybe just one?

Don’t let that stop you. Be creative!

For the first five or six years I had a booth at the festival, I was a pre-published author. I spent those early years networking and making friends with various authors all over the globe. When festival time came, I reached out to my friends and THEIR signed books began to pour in! I did a series of giveaways using those signed books and created an email list from the people who entered the giveaways. All my friends also included plenty of swag so people visiting my booth was able to walk away with freebies galore!

This year, I’m doing something a little different. I’ve invited another local author to hang out with me at the Story Catcher Publishing booth where they will get the chance to promote their own brand. I wanted to help showcase an author writing in a different genre than what Story Catcher Publishing releases and I found the perfect partner in Susan Weaver Jones. Here’s more about Susan…

Susan Weaver Jones, a local author and retired elementary educator, resides in Farragut, Tennessee. She has taught students in kindergarten through eighth grade in Florida, as well as Tennessee.  In addition, she has written a total of six leveled books for beginning readers in Hameray Publishing Company’s Kaleidoscope Collection and their Zoozoo Animal World Collection (www.hameraypublishing.com).  Look for her books on Hameray’s website:  We Recycle, Service Dogs, Hide and Seek, Spider Monkey, Toucan, and Yak.  All six titles are available in English and Spanish.

This is Susan’s first time participating at the festival and I’m sure she will have a blast!

Story Catcher Publishing will also be showcasing our entire line of released titles, including our picture books, our award-winning historical fiction chapter books, our young adult fantasy novel, our memoir writing journal, and our latest release…THE WARRIORS THREE (a sport adventure chapter book)…coming just in time for the festival!

Mark your calendar, tell your friends, and hop on down to our booth at the Children’s Festival of Reading on Saturday, 5/20, from 10 am until 3 pm. The event is free and there are plenty of fun for everyone!!

And coming this fall, Story Catcher Publishing will open it’s doors to author submissions. We are a hybrid publisher offering services and support to authors everywhere. And as our mascot, Finnigan, says, “Catching Great Stories…Together!”

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Hybrid published author, Donna L Martin, has been writing since she was eight years old. She is a 4th Degree Black Belt in Taekwondo by day and a ‘ninja’ writer of flash fiction, children’s picture books, chapter books, young adult novels and inspirational essays by night. Donna offers occasional BOOK NOOK REVIEWS of great children’s books and offers WRITERLY WISDOM to new and established writers. She is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators, Alliance of Independent Authors, and Children’s Book Insider. Donna loves dark chocolate, going to the beach and adding to her growing book collection.

Want to connect?

Email: [email protected]

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Twitter: www.twitter.com/donasdays

LinkedIn: Donna L Martin/Story Catcher Publishing

Goodreads: Donna L Martin

Mail: Donna L Martin

c/o Story Catcher Publishing

P O Box 27788

Knoxville, Tn 37927

WRITERLY WISDOM: Donna L Martin

Donna L

author

 

Author Event Planning

by Donna L Martin

 

I’m already lining up author events for when HISTORY’S MYSTERIES: Ship of Dreams comes out so I have put together a list of ten things I need to keep in mind as I get closer to my book’s release date. Hopefully some of these ideas might help someone else as well…

1. If you have ready-made Event Flyers for the personnel at your event to hand two weeks in advance, it will help build momentum prior to your arrival. Include things like the title of your book, how they can purchase it, book cover with blurb, date & time of the event, and who to contact for more information.

2. Add a Bookmark to those event flyers and your audience will have information regarding pre-orders or even directing them to your website.

3. Plan a Talk instead of just a book signing. Interact with your audience to help them feel connected to what you have to offer.

4. What about holding your event somewhere other than a bookstore? Maybe at a local youth group community center? Or out in the open? The library closest to my house sits on the corner of a small park and there is a pavilion large enough to have a table, chairs and even displays with grassy areas for the audience to lounge on the ground picnic style.

5. Pair up the purchase of your book with something else…i.e. two for one sale. You might want to bundle your current book with an older one as a package deal. Or maybe if they purchase your picture book, you can include some illustrator coloring pages as well for free. 

6. Make sure you have a way to contact the people attending your event. Have a sign up sheet for email addresses and offer some type of incentive for providing that information. Maybe you already have a newsletter you send out just to your email subscribers. Maybe you have worked out a deal with your publisher to offer 10% off their purchase if they sign up to receive occasional emails from you.

7. Arrive an hour before your event and greet the store personnel. Thank them for their assistance in helping to create a successful event. If at a bookstore or other retail space, mill around and hand out copies of your event flyer. Encourage people to come by and visit with you later.

8. Make sure your local newspaper, radio, and TV stations know about your event. If your publisher doesn’t send press releases, make sure YOU do. A lot of media outlets have community boards or ways of getting the word out about local talent. Announce it on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and any other social sites you regularly participate in. Ask your friends to help get the word out about your event.

9. After the event send a thank you note to the person in charge of opening the doors to you in the first place. If your event was at a bookstore offer to come back at another time to autograph any pre-orders once they are delivered. It’s going the extra mile to impress them so you will get a return invitation for your next book!

10. Take a moment to make notes about your impressions of how things went. Even if you just sit in your car after loading things up, write down estimates of how many attended, if you know how many books were purchased or ordered, what kind of questions were asked, if the audience seemed engaged as well as things you might need to work on before your next event. If you wait until you are back home, you might forget something you really wanted to remember during the excitement of the day.

Anything I left off this list? What do YOU do to make your author events special? Let us know in the comments below…

 

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HM-SHIP-OF-DREAMS (cover)

 

Amelia Earmouse travels back through time to uncover little known secrets. You may THINK you know your history, but wait until you see what Amelia uncovers in this latest volume of HISTORY’S MYSTERIES!

In Book One, Ship of Dreams, ten-year-old Margaret can hardly wait to see the largest ship ever built visit Southampton! Life is already hard for her family in the spring of 1912, but the coal workers’ strike could turn a bad situation into a deadly one. Margaret hopes to see the great Titanic leave on its maiden voyage, but will the strike prevent it from happening?

 

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donna - Copy

 

Best selling, award-winning author, Donna L Martin, has been writing since she was eight years old. She is a 4th Degree Black Belt in TaeKwonDo by day and a ‘ninja’ writer of children’s picture books, chapter books, young adult novels and inspirational essays by night. Donna is a BOOK NOOK REVIEWS host providing the latest book reviews on all genres of children’s books, and the host of WRITERLY WISDOM, a resource series for writers. Donna is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators and Children’s Book Insider. She is a lover of dark chocolate, going to the beach and adding to her growing book collection. Donna’s latest book, HISTORY’S MYSTERIES: Ship of Dreams, will be available in eBook and print form from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books A Million, and other online retailers on October 14th, 2019.

AN INDIE AUTHOR’S JOURNEY: Author Visits

Donna L

Story Catcher Book Signing.jpg

 

I’m delving into the world of indie publishing. Some authors go the quicker route and use a source like Kindle Direct to immediately get their books out there.

There’s nothing wrong going that route but I’ve decided to take a different path.

 

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It’s been a while since I’ve made my round of book signings. I had a book released last year which actually became an international bestseller. That same publishing company, Expert Insights Publishing, will be releasing another book next month and I’ve contributed again. But now, with LUNADAR released last week and MY JOURNEY, MY JOURNAL releasing next month, I’m really going to have my hands full trying to promote TWO BOOKS at once…lol.

In my mind, book promotions are done for two main reasons:

 

BOOK SALES

 

 

Yes, it’s great to have that tangible book in your hand with your name embossed on the front, but any author will tell you it would be nice if that book sold a bunch of copies and made them tons of money as well. But those sales won’t ever happen without the other reason book signings are done.

 

NAME PROMOTION

 

 

The more people who know who you are, the greater the chances they will become an avid reader of your work. In my case, I have a two-fold issue. First, I have to promote myself as Donna L Martin…author of LUNADAR: Homeward Bound and next month author of MY JOURNEY, MY JOURNAL. Secondly, I have to promote myself as editor and publisher of STORY CATCHER PUBLISHING.  Multiple hats call for multiple strategies to promote oneself.

Here are some of the promo items I’m bringing with me as I make my rounds in promoting all the different hats I wear:

 

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Plenty of current and prior books. I have to establish myself as a well-seasoned author with more than just one title to my name so new potential readers will realize I’m not just a one-hit wonder.

 

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Business cards to promote my publishing company. I have big dreams for the direction of my new company and the networking I do now will help me in the future.

 

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Book promo items like bookmarks, postcards, and a framed copy of my LUNADAR map. I have two upcoming book signings…one on October 26th at the Book Market in Sevierville, Tn and then on October 30th at McKay’s Bookstore in Knoxville, Tn. I’m dressing up in a costume based on a character from LUNADAR, and have pencils and other swag items to tie into my book.

I’ve also spent a total of $50 this past week on three book promotions vias email, Facebook, and Twitter that put my book in front of more than 600,000 young adult readers. I think that a great use of my marketing budget, don’t you?

Let the marketing fun begin!

 

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***WINNER ANNOUNCEMENT!***

***WINNER ANNOUNCEMENT!***

 

I’m happy to announce the winner of week four of my TWELVE WEEKS OF LUNADAR free giveaway! Another mystery follower who didn’t leave their name, ([email protected]) has won the $20 Wendy’s gift card. Thanks for following this blog! Congratulations! Look for my email on how to get your prize…

 
Week Five

 

***DON’T FORGET! It’s week five of THE TWELVE WEEKS OF LUNADAR giveaway and this week you get a chance to win a beautiful moon and stars necklace shown above! Just click on the pile of presents to the right of this post and choose how you would like to enter the FREE giveaway. Winners will be announced every Monday in my INDIE AUTHOR’S JOURNEY post, so enter the FREE giveaway and check next Monday to see if you’ve won!

***ALSO…it’s not too late to tell all your educator or school librarian friends about their chance to pick up a FREE copy of LUNADAR: Homeward Bound during my LUNADAR Pay It Forward FREE giveaway! I’m giving away THOUSANDS of ebook copies between now and Friday, November 2nd, in exchange for an honest review on Amazon. All they have to do is send me a Facebook message or email with their valid email address and I will send them their FREE copy, along with a copy of the LUNADAR map I sketched. Hurry and share the good news about this FREE ebook giveaway before time runs out!***

 

LUNADAR cover jpg

 

Ruler by day, a reluctant pirate by night, 18-year-old Princess Ariana fights for her subjects in the waterfall city of LUNADAR. In a kingdom surrounded by fairies and mermaids, and ravaged by deadly Drundles, only a chosen few are trusted to guard her daughter, Candra, as the secret heir to the throne.

But it only takes one ill-fated meeting for Ariana to suddenly be plunged into an escalating web of secrets found in her father’s journal, a deadly kidnapping, and an ever-weakening resolve to turn her back on the call of the merman’s song.

With Ariana’s world falling apart and the future of LUNADAR at stake, how will she bring her father’s murderer to justice and fulfill a deathbed promise to protect Lunadar’s legacy?

 

donna

 

International best selling, award-winning author, Donna L Martin, has been writing since she was eight years old. She is a 4th Degree Black Belt in TaeKwonDo by day and a ‘ninja’ writer of children’s picture books, chapter books, young adult novels and inspirational essays by night. Donna is a BOOK NOOK REVIEWS host providing the latest book reviews on all genres of children’s books, and the host of WRITERLY WISDOM, a resource series for writers. Donna is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators and Children’s Book Insider. She is a lover of dark chocolate, going to the beach and adding to her growing book collection. Donna’s latest book, LUNADAR: Homeward Bound (a YA fantasy), is now available in ebook and print form from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books A Million, and other online retailers.