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Continue Reading "Introducing Erin Buterbaugh"Introducing Erin Buterbaugh
Erin Buterbaugh was the kind of child parents wanted their kids to be friends with, in hopes that her extensive vocabulary and love of books would be a good influence. Consequently, she was also the kind of child whose friends called her a nerd and ridiculed her for reading at slumber parties.
Despite her less-than-literary-minded peer group, Erin grew up to embrace the “word nerd” persona, graduating from the renowned Professional Writing program at Taylor University. Upon graduation, Erin completed an internship under the great agents at Alive Communications, where she first entertained the idea of a career in literary representation.
Erin spent several years working as a freelance writer and editor (as well as dance teacher, choreographer, actress, director, and bluegrass band member) before becoming the in-house writer and editor for an up-and-coming curriculum publisher in her home state of Colorado.
In 2012, Erin was invited to join the MacGregor Literary team as an agent, which pretty much amounts to her dream job, minus an office in Disneyland. Her areas of interest include children’s, middle-grade, and YA fiction, as well as women’s fiction, suspense, and non-fiction.
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Continue Reading "Thursdays with Amanda: How to Host a Successful Book Giveaway"
Thursdays with Amanda: How to Host a Successful Book Giveaway
Amanda Luedeke is a literary agent with MacGregor Literary. She posts about growing your author platform every Thursday. You can follow her on Twitter @amandaluedeke or join her Facebook group to stay current with her wheelings and dealings as an agent.
Book giveaways happen all the time. Whether it be through Goodreads, at a conference, over the radio during an author interview or at a good, old-fashioned book signing, every day, thousands of books are given away free of charge. The goal behind these giveaways is to generate interest—a hope that the person receiving the book will A) read it, B) love it, and C) talk about it, resulting in D) money in the author and publisher’s pockets.
But with thousands of books being handed out daily, how many authors are actually seeing results C and D?
This week, we’ll focus on giveaways in general…the basics of hosting a successful giveaway, and next week, we’ll go over the KDP Select program (the Amazon program that allows you to offer your ebook for free).
HOW TO HOST A SUCCESSFUL BOOK GIVEAWAY
1. Plan in advance. This isn’t a seat-of-your-pants affair. I don’t care how busy you are or whether you gravitate to chaos over organization, the best way to ensure success with your giveaway is to start planning well ahead of go-time. For example, a July 10th-15th, giveaway could start being planned June 1. The goal here is to give yourself plenty of time to get the chips in place.
2. Give your giveaway plenty of time. One-day-only giveaways bomb (unless you’re someone with a million followers, of course). Successful giveaways don’t just happen out of nowhere. They build over time. Give your readers 5-10 days to finalize their entries before you choose a winner. This will give your book more time in the spotlight.
3. Research, research, research. Spend time identifying what blogs, forums, message boards
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Continue Reading "Shannon’s Favorite Book…"
Shannon’s Favorite Book…
While Chip is vacationing in Hawaii, look for posts from the rest of the MacGregor Literary staff. Not surprisingly, “Favorite Books” is the topic of choice for our crowd of book lovers. Don’t be afraid to chime in with your thoughts on these top picks.
Shannon Potelicki is the agency's International Rights Specialist. In this role, she handles MacGregor Literary's international deals and enables authors to maximize their income potential. She also serves as Chip's assistant and handles the ever-present slush pile.
I’ve long been convinced that Margaret Mitchell read my diary before she authored one of my favorite books, GONE WITH THE WIND. And yes, I realize this also means she discovered time travel and utilized it specifically to read MY diary. (Kudos to her, by the way, because even my brothers couldn’t find it under the… Nope, better keep that secret in case they’re still looking.) To understand my theory—as well as the reasons GWTW falls at the top of my list—you need only know the topics of my diary entries in junior high, when I first read the epic novel.
First, that sneaky Margaret Mitchell lured me in with my love for gigantic tomes. True confession: I was the weirdo who would go to the library specifically looking for the longest books. Mom’s rule was three books per trip (which didn’t happen nearly as often as I would have liked), and I wanted some bang for my library card. Margaret must have discovered this from the entry I wrote about an interaction with a librarian—I asked where they kept the “good stuff,” and she looked at me as if I was talking about drugs.
On one fateful trip, in the “good stuff” section, I spotted GWTW. The cover displayed Clark Gable and Vivienne Leigh on the brink of making out, just like the poster for the movie (which is fabulous in its
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Continue Reading "Sandra’s Favorite Book…"
Sandra’s Favorite Book…
While Chip is vacationing in Hawaii, look for posts from the rest of the MacGregor Literary staff. Not surprisingly, “Favorite Books” is the topic of choice for our crowd of book lovers. Don’t be afraid to chime in with your thoughts on these top picks.
Sandra Bishop is a literary agent with MacGregor Literary, Inc. and represents fiction and nonfiction authors in multiple genres and with varying levels of publication background. She was recently named Vice President of the agency.
When I was growing up, my grandmother always kept a copy of GONE WITH THE WIND by her chair. Always.
When she needed to put her feet up and rest from her work, she would grab it and read a passage—it rarely mattered where she’d left off. She didn’t use bookmarks. She’d just pick it up and “visit with Scarlett,” sometimes out loud.
I have a fondness and appreciation for the commercial success of Ms. Mitchell’s book, of course, but mostly my fondness is driven by how much the book reminds me of someone I loved dearly. I consider it one of my most fav-o-rite treasures, though I hesitate to leave it out in its condition. It lives on my bookshelf, its pages tattered and torn, and its cover made over with a scrap of wallpaper from Grandma’s last kitchen.
I’ve heard it said that if it were being sold today, it would never make it. Too much description. Pacing problems, etc. But that’s another blog post for another day, perhaps by someone who has read it more recently than have I.
I may not have inherited grandma’s everyday huger for tales of Tara, but I did retain her habit of reading a passage of a favorite book on occasion—just picking it up and thumbing to a random spot to read for a bit. It’s been awhile, though, since I’ve allowed myself the joy of stopping
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Continue Reading "Marie's Favorite Book…"
Marie's Favorite Book…
While Chip is vacationing in Hawaii, look for posts from the rest of the MacGregor Literary staff. Not surprisingly, “Favorite Books” is the topic of choice for our crowd of book lovers. Don’t be afraid to chime in with your thoughts on these top picks.
I was about halfway through Randy Alcorn’s novel Safely Home (Tyndale, 2001) when I concluded this book deserved to be on the privileged “best books I’ve ever read and always recommend” shelf. Happily, I’m in good company. Safely Home received the Gold Medallion Book Award and an anniversary edition was released last year.
A persecuted Chinese Christian, Li Quan wakes up with a daily question: Is this the day I die? This concept poked my conscience, even stung. As a Christian living in the freedom-filled USA, I related far more easily to Ben Fielding, the 40-something college-educated corporate ladder-climber whose faith shows only when it is comfortable and convenient; this too was an uncomfortable discovery.
Though I was aware of persecution, Safely Home sheds great light on the struggle Chinese Christians face each day. Li Quan’s father and grandfather were martyred, and he expects the same end for himself. What I take for granted, many have lost their lives for. Can any of us imagine having to ride a bicycle under cover of darkness at 2 am to attend worship service, knowing that at any moment, armed police might threaten jail or beatings? The stories we hear on TV of China “opening up” and of government-run churches don’t describe such situations. And what about the freedom to quietly read the Bible in our own homes?
The man held up the Bible. He put it up to his nose and smelled it. “This is the book of God. Nothing is more precious. Last week I delivered twelve of these to a church of one thousand. Until I arrived, they had only five in the whole church.
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Continue Reading "Can you ever lie to tell the truth?"
Can you ever lie to tell the truth?
Lisa McKay is a psychologist and the author of the award-nominated novel My Hands Came Away Red. A memoir, Love At the Speed of Email, will be released in June 2012. She lives in Laos with her husband and infant son. To learn more, visit www.lisamckaywriting.com.
In January I listened to a This American Life episode called Mr. Daisy and the Apple Factory, which was excerpted from a monologue called The Agony and Ecstasy of Steve Jobs by Mike Daisey. The monologue described Daisey’s encounters with workers from the Foxconn factories in China that make Apple products.
Like many others, I was deeply moved by this story. It hit particularly close to home because, as I’m living in Laos, the factories he describes lay only one border away.
The episode became the most downloaded podcast in the 16-year history of This American Life. It launched a thousand editorials. It inspired a petition—signed by more than 250,000 people—demanding Apple guarantee ethical treatment of its workers. And last week it became the first show This American Life has ever retracted.
It turns out that Daisey didn’t actually witness some of the most egregious conditions he describes, such as workers as young as twelve and those poisoned by neurotoxic chemicals.
TAL explains:
“As best as we can tell, Mike's monologue in reality is a mix of things that actually happened when he visited China and things that he just heard about or researched, which he then pretends that he witnessed first hand. And the most powerful and memorable moments in the story all seem to be fabricated.
Some of the falsehoods found in Daisey’s monologue are small ones: the number of factories Daisey visited in China, for instance, and the number of workers he spoke with. Others are large…He claims to have met a group of
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Continue Reading "Can you ever lie to tell the truth?"
Can you ever lie to tell the truth?
Lisa McKay is a psychologist and the author of the award-nominated novel My Hands Came Away Red. A memoir, Love At the Speed of Email, will be released in June 2012. She lives in Laos with her husband and infant son. To learn more, visit www.lisamckaywriting.com.
In January I listened to a This American Life episode called Mr. Daisy and the Apple Factory, which was excerpted from a monologue called The Agony and Ecstasy of Steve Jobs by Mike Daisey. The monologue described Daisey’s encounters with workers from the Foxconn factories in China that make Apple products.
Like many others, I was deeply moved by this story. It hit particularly close to home because, as I’m living in Laos, the factories he describes lay only one border away.
The episode became the most downloaded podcast in the 16-year history of This American Life. It launched a thousand editorials. It inspired a petition—signed by more than 250,000 people—demanding Apple guarantee ethical treatment of its workers. And last week it became the first show This American Life has ever retracted.
It turns out that Daisey didn’t actually witness some of the most egregious conditions he describes, such as workers as young as twelve and those poisoned by neurotoxic chemicals.
TAL explains:
“As best as we can tell, Mike's monologue in reality is a mix of things that actually happened when he visited China and things that he just heard about or researched, which he then pretends that he witnessed first hand. And the most powerful and memorable moments in the story all seem to be fabricated.
Some of the falsehoods found in Daisey’s monologue are small ones: the number of factories Daisey visited in China, for instance, and the number of workers he spoke with. Others are large…He claims to have met a group of
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Continue Reading "Thursdays with Amanda: 5 Steps to Build Book Hype on Goodreads"
Thursdays with Amanda: 5 Steps to Build Book Hype on Goodreads
Last week, guest blogger and author Jennifer Murgia did a fab job of introducing us to Goodreads.com and many of you asked for more!
While we're not going to do a step-by-step with screenshots (most of your how-to questions can be answered by spending time on the site…see #1 below), we've come up with 5 steps to building hype for your book on Goodreads:
1. Participate. Just like any social media site, Goodreads requires participation in order for the magic to happen. So the first step is to to be a regular, old Goodreads participant. This means reviewing books, tracking your bookreading progress, adding books to your shelves, commenting on friends' shelves and statuses, and getting comfortable with how the site works and how people use it. For any Goodreads virgin looking to use it for personal promotion, I think it would be helpful to spend a month or two learning the ropes. Don't just dive into it with the intention of selling books. Figure out what works and doesn't work from a user's perspective. Follow a few of your favorite authors and see what THEY do. Learning and participating are the first steps.
2. Maintain your author page. Treat your page as you would your author website (check out Jennifer Murgia's Goodreads page for reference). Dump book trailers, blog posts, and information on yourself as often as you can. You can even use both of those mediums (video and blog) to interact with fans, make announcements, and more. Before you start promoting yourself, you want this page to be full of information so that you don't appear to be a ghost author.
And while we're
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Continue Reading "Thursdays with Amanda: 5 Steps to Build Book Hype on Goodreads"
Thursdays with Amanda: 5 Steps to Build Book Hype on Goodreads
Last week, guest blogger and author Jennifer Murgia did a fab job of introducing us to Goodreads.com and many of you asked for more!
While we're not going to do a step-by-step with screenshots (most of your how-to questions can be answered by spending time on the site…see #1 below), we've come up with 5 steps to building hype for your book on Goodreads:
1. Participate. Just like any social media site, Goodreads requires participation in order for the magic to happen. So the first step is to to be a regular, old Goodreads participant. This means reviewing books, tracking your bookreading progress, adding books to your shelves, commenting on friends' shelves and statuses, and getting comfortable with how the site works and how people use it. For any Goodreads virgin looking to use it for personal promotion, I think it would be helpful to spend a month or two learning the ropes. Don't just dive into it with the intention of selling books. Figure out what works and doesn't work from a user's perspective. Follow a few of your favorite authors and see what THEY do. Learning and participating are the first steps.
2. Maintain your author page. Treat your page as you would your author website (check out Jennifer Murgia's Goodreads page for reference). Dump book trailers, blog posts, and information on yourself as often as you can. You can even use both of those mediums (video and blog) to interact with fans, make announcements, and more. Before you start promoting yourself, you want this page to be full of information so that you don't appear to be a ghost author.
And while we're
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Continue Reading "More on how to make money with your writing…"
More on how to make money with your writing…
Continuing the thoughts about making a living at writing…
4. The most overlooked area of writing is still the ‘zine market. Especially special market magazines — and there is basically a magazine or e-zine about anything you'd ever want to study. I still do some writing for The Linking Ring (the magazine for the International Brotherhood of Magicians), and have done work for numerous other magazines, e-zines, and newsletters. But don't start sending things indiscriminately. Check out a copy of the magazine at Barnes and Noble, then go to the mag's website and you'll find directions on how to submit, how many words, required focus, etc.
There are two keys to success in writing for 'zines: (a) Know the magazine so that you understand the readership, focus, and editorial tone; and (b) Know the editor to approach, and how to approach him or her. If you're not familiar with the 'zine, spend some time getting to know the tone and approach they use, so you can shape your writing to best fit their expectations. Remember that magazine editors are like everybody else — if they like your work and find you easy to deal with, they'll soon be using you on a regular basis.
5. You might be able to go to your local newspaper and try to get a column. Or go in and suggest a focus for a column, like "gardening" or "farm life" or "parenting" or "travel." Make it unique, think it through, and give the editor a reason to say yes to the idea. Many book writers I've worked with over the years have found a regular column in a newspaper is helpful because it helps get them writing regularly, and helps them build a readership.
6. Keep in mind that every piece of ephemeral or periodical literature is a monster that must be fed. All of us who started in magazines or newspapers know the