Promote your book on John Scalzi's blog

He has 45,000 daily readers at Whatever, and he outlines what you need to do if you'd like to write a featured blog post.

From his blog:

1. What is The Big Idea?

It’s a feature presented here on Whatever, up to twice-weekly, in which authors discuss their latest books, to the delight and edification of Whatever’s up to 45,000 daily readers.

2. Why would I (or the writer I represent) want to be part of it?

Because Whatever readers love books (hey, they’re visiting the blog of a professional writer), there’s lots of them, and because The Big Idea feature is linked to all over the Internet, drawing in readers from elsewhere — all of whom like hearing from the author what it is that makes their book so damn interesting. As Leverage television show writer John Rogers recently wrote:

[T]his series of blog posts… has allowed me to discover more fine new fiction in a year than all the online reviews I’ve plowed through in the five previous.

Read the rest.

Thanks to Val Serdy for the link.

Wanna be in a documentary?

Inspired by the seven-year-old daughter of one of their benefactors, three award-winning filmmakers
are teaming up to craft a unique on-screen storytelling experiment. 

A short (15 min.) pilot will be filmed on Friday afternoon/evening, May 28, in Everett. 

The filmmakers are searching for a published children's author and illustrator who are willing to participate in their little adventure.

The age range of the participants is 9-11. For details, contact Hank Isaac at pointsource AT gmail.com.

Promote your historical fantasy on Blog Talk Radio

Simon Rose will guest host Blog Talk Radio on June 7 at 11 a.m. Pacific Time, and is looking for guests.

He writes:

The Heretic's Tomb, my fifth novel, is set in the time of the Black Death in 1349 and the June 7 show will feature authors who have written books set in a particular time, with a major event as part of the story—World War One or Two, the American Civil War, the Titanic, the Crusades, the French Revolution, and so on.

If you have a children's or YA novel based on a major historical event, this show will be a good fit for you. The deadline to submit your name for consideration is April 30.

For more information, visit Facebook's Blog Talk Radio.

Published authors: promote your work at a historic resort

Here's a swell promotional opportunity for some of our published members. Read on--applications are due tomorrow.

Hello from Kim Ricketts Book Events!

We are currently seeking children's book authors for a series we're running at an historic resort here in Washington. The dates of the events are March 27-28 and July 9-10. Authors for these events will garner significant publicity via press releases, pitching to local media, Kim Ricketts Book Events newsletters and website, and resort newsletters and website. Your involvement in the event will feature a reading from your book(s) and book signing on the first day and then leading an activity for parents and/or children that goes along with your work.The selected authors will receive overnight accommodations during the event.

To be considered, please e-mail rebecca@kimricketts.com with a description of your book, press kit and ideas about what activity you could lead for the audience by Friday, February 19. Thank you!

FREE promotion for your latest book

This comes from the prolific and generous Jim Whiting:

All published SCBWI members are invited to feature their recent work in Kids’ Book Author of the Week, a regular feature for Grand (as in grandparents) e-zine. Joni Sensel, Suzanne Selfors, Amanda Noll, Royce Buckingham, Anjali Banerjee, Deb Caletti, Samantha Vamos and Pam Withers are among the local authors who have taken advantage of this excellent opportunity. One author reported receiving several orders within 24 hours after she went live on the site.

To participate, send a blurb about the book, your bio, a cover image, author photo and list of other books to Jim Whiting at jimruns3@gmail.com. For the book itself, include the name, publisher and pub date, genre, number of pages, recommended ages and price. You can also provide links to a sample chapter, reviews and/or your website. Perhaps the most important element is the hook: Why would grandparents want to buy your book for their grandkids? To whom would the book especially appeal?

Check out the feature at www.grandmagazine.com. Submissions are posted in the order in which they are received.

Authors: sign books at the PNWA holiday party

Pam Binder is looking for regional published authors to attend the PNWA members’ holiday party, where you can informally sign and sell your books, which will be supplied by Barnes & Noble.

The event will be in Bellevue on December 5, from 6 – 9 p.m. and will include chatting, eating, and drinking, of course, as well as the informal signing and sales.

Contact Pam ASAP at pbinder183@aol.com if you’d like to participate so they can add you to the list and place an order for your books. At least a few SCBWI members will be there — let’s have a strong showing of children’s authors at this event!

UPDATE: We're all invited to their holiday party!

PNWA has extended an invitation to any SCBWI members who’d like to attend the PNWA holiday party on Dec. 5 in Bellevue. The more, the merrier! It’ll be held at the historic Bellevue Winters House, 2102 Bellevue Way SE , Bellevue, WA 98004. Drop in any time between 6 and 9 p.m. for holiday cheer, authors galore, and networking with another great organization for Northwest writers.

Holiday book promotion idea

Mitali Perkins has come up with Books with Flair, a site that aggregates indie bookstores willing to sell and ship signed copies of favorite books.

Here's how you can get involved:

Kid/YA Authors and illustrators (and publicists, too), if an independent bookseller carries your traditionally published books, ask if they'll gift-wrap and ship signed or personalized copies. If your bookstore agrees, send an email with the title of your most recent book, your name, website URL, publisher, genre, suggested age of reader, along with the indie's name, URL (if they have one) and telephone number.

Tell Mitali if you're willing to personalize for each recipient or if the bookstore is offering generically signed stock. Add a brief two- or three-sentence blurb from an established review source and attach a small .jpg of the book cover (less than 500kb) to the email.

See the site.

There's some great stuff there already (including books signed by Mitali, Judy Blume, David Levithan, and Rebecca Stead).

Seattle Bookfest still seeking authors

It's Oct. 24 and 25; to participate, get all your details here.

PALs: a low-cost promotional opportunity

There are a lot of reasons to love goodreads.com--you can keep track of what you've read and what you loved about it, you can compare book tastes with friends. But for published authors, here's another reason: they facilitate book giveaways for you.

I've done this twice and been amazed at how many people entered the contest. I think it was something close to 2,000--2,000 avid readers. (Granted, my last book was for adults, but still. Children's literature is very hot these days.)

It's really easy to sign up, and you just need to be willing to send a copy of your book to the winner. (You might want to restrict to U.S. recipients if international mailing isn't your thing.)

The rest of the details are here.

School Library Journal Book Club Call

Found this on Twitter:

sljournalLast call: YA/kids authors who do *free* 20-min bk club visits via Skype Send name/URL to slj[at]reedbusiness[dot]com. Deadline: Mon 7/20

Translation: If you are a YA or children's author willing to do free 20-minute book club visits using Skype (a free, voice-over-Internet telephone service), send your name and Web site to slj@reedbusiness.com by Monday, July 20.

If you want to follow School Library Journal on Twitter, you can find them here.