The Whitman Wire, student newspaper of Whitman College (Walla Walla WA) has published a review of GenderQueer!
“GenderQueer: A Story from a Different Closet” explores the complexity of gender
Because I figured that my book would be of particular relevance to the college communities, both students and faculty, I solicited reviews from student newspapers. The Whitman Wire is the first to publish a review of my book.
I am very happy with the column, written by Jaime Fields, their Arts & Entertainment reporter. It's an analysis of the writing itself, including character development and pacing and readability (she compares it favorably to fiction novels and describes it as "compelling and enjoyable to read"), of the story line, and of the book's social relevance to potential readers.
I'm particularly pleased that the review characterizes the book as being intense and verging on overwhelming. After a long querying odyssey in which I was told over and over by literary agents and publishers that the writing didn't move them, that it left them wanting to know more about what my character was feeling, that it was dull, static, and lacked emotion *, it is nice to read that my book actually packs an emotional punch!
* e.g, Jason Bradley, editor at NineStar, with whom I had a publishing contract for this book back in 2017. Backstory available here
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My book is scheduled to come out March 16 from Sunstone Press, and is now available on Amazon for pre-orders (paperback only for the moment).
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Showing posts with label promotion. Show all posts
Showing posts with label promotion. Show all posts
Friday, February 28, 2020
Friday, February 14, 2020
Unveiling: Author's Web Site (genderkitten.com)
GenderKitten.com
"Authors", they told me, "are expected to have a web site".
"Oh, no problem, I've had my own web site since 1995", I replied.
So they go take a look at it and then they contact me, giggling. "You can't use that! That belongs in an Internet Museum or something. Seriously, you don't even have your own domain, that's just an old freebie web space you got with your internet service provider. It's all Web 1.0 right down to being in a web ring, having a visitor counter (which doesn't even work, by the way), and even advertising the fact that you made it yourself in freaking PageMill? And those colors ... excuse me, but the 90s are calling and they want their decor back!"
Hmmph. OK, I suppose they have a point there. (Besides, earthlink had given me notice that they were freezing these old "home page" web sites and would be taking them down soon). So after doing some asking around, I selected Fantastic Worlds and explained that I was an author with my debut book coming out soon, and they worked with me and accommodated my wishes and intentions for the site and built me a new one.
The work has just been completed and the site rolled out live, focusing on the book and my availability as speaker and lecturer.
** pulls back the curtain **
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My book is scheduled to come out March 16 from Sunstone Press, and is now available on Amazon for pre-orders (paperback only for the moment).
———————
This LiveJournal blog is echoed on DreamWidth, WordPress, and Blogger. Please friend/link me from any of those environments on which you have an account.
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Saturday, November 23, 2019
Bookstores and Libraries and Community Centers, Oh My!
Having given approval to the formatted manuscript and the covers (back and front), I've now effectively switched effort-gears from "getting book published" to "getting people to read the book", even though it hasn't rolled off the Sunstone Books presses yet.
At this phase, where the book's availability is predicted but still slightly off in the future (January 2020, for benefit of the curious), the focus is on women's and gender studies programs at colleges, and LGBT community centers. I can be booked to speak at such venues even before it's possible to show up with a stack of the books on the table in front of me.
I actually did some of that in 2016-2017 when I had previously thought my book was on the verge of coming out. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Learned a lot, too. When I next have an opportunity to present, the presentation is going to be more closely focused on my specific type of gender identity and what it brings to the table. People like the "Gender 101" introductory material but I think I can encapsulate it in a much smaller portion of my talk.
Later, once the book can be purchased, I will add libraries and bookstores to the list of targets.
To be sure, a library or a bookstore, theoretically speaking, could also have a presenter or speaker before their book is available for purchase. But in the case of bookstores in particular, my research thus far indicates that they aren't much for "events", or at least not the kind of event that revolves around a gender-variant person discussing gender identity. Some of the new age and mystical / spiritual book stores do host events but they're most often focused on chakras and healing and the sale of gems and oils and other non-book substances that they market along with books on the subject. University bookstores generally don't do events at all, of any sort, and the remaining balance of independent bookstores mostly want the author's book to be available for purchase first.
Meanwhile, my publicist, John Sherman of Sherman & Company, is going to have an additional focus: getting my book reviewed. That, surprisingly enough (for me at least), is something that needs focused attention before the book's release date. Some important reviewers won't review a book once it comes out.
My day-job skills as a FileMaker database developer are again serving me well, just as they did for the querying process. For this publicity effort, I have 11614 records in my database (with many of them containing multiple contact persons to fire emails or snailmails or phone calls off to). Of those, 864 are college campus women's and/or gender studies programs; 412 are LGBT community centers, a mixture of on-campus and independent. Then I have 1552 academic libraries and a whopping 7263 public libraries, any and all of whom could theoretically acquire a copy of my book for their shelves. I have no experience pitching this possibility to libraries, but with any luck I will learn as I gain experience. Then I have 32 LGBT-focused bookstores (a declining phenomenon, unfortunately, although part of the decline may be that the subject matter is more mainstream and more often carried by mainstream bookstores), and 1351 other (generic) independent bookstores. The independent bookstores and libraries are dual-opportunity: they could book me to speak, and purchase copies of my book to stock and sell as well. Finally, I have 139 reviewers, bloggers, booktubers, and individual people who asked me to alert them when the book becomes available.
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This LiveJournal blog is echoed on DreamWidth, WordPress, and Blogger. Please friend/link me from any of those environments on which you have an account.
————————
Index of all Blog Posts
At this phase, where the book's availability is predicted but still slightly off in the future (January 2020, for benefit of the curious), the focus is on women's and gender studies programs at colleges, and LGBT community centers. I can be booked to speak at such venues even before it's possible to show up with a stack of the books on the table in front of me.
I actually did some of that in 2016-2017 when I had previously thought my book was on the verge of coming out. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Learned a lot, too. When I next have an opportunity to present, the presentation is going to be more closely focused on my specific type of gender identity and what it brings to the table. People like the "Gender 101" introductory material but I think I can encapsulate it in a much smaller portion of my talk.
Later, once the book can be purchased, I will add libraries and bookstores to the list of targets.
To be sure, a library or a bookstore, theoretically speaking, could also have a presenter or speaker before their book is available for purchase. But in the case of bookstores in particular, my research thus far indicates that they aren't much for "events", or at least not the kind of event that revolves around a gender-variant person discussing gender identity. Some of the new age and mystical / spiritual book stores do host events but they're most often focused on chakras and healing and the sale of gems and oils and other non-book substances that they market along with books on the subject. University bookstores generally don't do events at all, of any sort, and the remaining balance of independent bookstores mostly want the author's book to be available for purchase first.
Meanwhile, my publicist, John Sherman of Sherman & Company, is going to have an additional focus: getting my book reviewed. That, surprisingly enough (for me at least), is something that needs focused attention before the book's release date. Some important reviewers won't review a book once it comes out.
My day-job skills as a FileMaker database developer are again serving me well, just as they did for the querying process. For this publicity effort, I have 11614 records in my database (with many of them containing multiple contact persons to fire emails or snailmails or phone calls off to). Of those, 864 are college campus women's and/or gender studies programs; 412 are LGBT community centers, a mixture of on-campus and independent. Then I have 1552 academic libraries and a whopping 7263 public libraries, any and all of whom could theoretically acquire a copy of my book for their shelves. I have no experience pitching this possibility to libraries, but with any luck I will learn as I gain experience. Then I have 32 LGBT-focused bookstores (a declining phenomenon, unfortunately, although part of the decline may be that the subject matter is more mainstream and more often carried by mainstream bookstores), and 1351 other (generic) independent bookstores. The independent bookstores and libraries are dual-opportunity: they could book me to speak, and purchase copies of my book to stock and sell as well. Finally, I have 139 reviewers, bloggers, booktubers, and individual people who asked me to alert them when the book becomes available.
———————
This LiveJournal blog is echoed on DreamWidth, WordPress, and Blogger. Please friend/link me from any of those environments on which you have an account.
————————
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