…last night. I was so tired. I’m feeling better today. Awfully hungry, though. Like my body is protesting the horrible food in Daytona by asking for real food non-stop.
How bad was the food? Well, lunch the first day was a hamburger bun, with two slices of Oscar Mayer lunchmeat on it, covered in canned gravy with an ice cream scoop of mashed potatoes. I’m not kidding. Seriously. Bun, processed lunchmeat, and canned gravy. Desert was cookies that were set in baskets in the center of the table.
Another lunch was an ice cream scoop of tuna salad on a single lettuce leaf and two slices of melon. That meal at least had Red Velvet cake for desert, but I didn’t stay. I saw the tuna and melon slices, and left.
Today, I’m writing and mailing out promo packets for ASK FOR IT to the overseas booksellers on my list. If I want to save on postage, I have to send them out now, so I can take the slow boat and still get there 4-6 weeks prior to release. I’m mentioning this because I get asked about promotion a lot. There were several people who approached me at RT, just tell me how I seemed to be “everywhere”. I’m not sure how many authors get compliments on their promotion campaigns, but I do get a lot of them, which is super nice. I’m so glad they say something. How else would I know that it worked?
Anyway, my editor pulled me aside to introduce me to certain people. Overseas booksellers were telling her about how my mailings had encouraged pre-orders, which they rely on. It’s too expensive for them to stock US books, what with the shipping and all. (It’s also expensive for me to ship promo to them when you factor in postage and the cost of the items. But when the entire 40 person bookclub at the bookstore preorders your book and then tells their friends about it, I think the payoff is definitely there.)
I expanded my packets this time. With BBA, I sent out excerpt booklets (just one per store), a magnet (just one per store), and bookmarks. With AFI, I’m sending out a short bio and sales facts (how many books I have coming out next year, which publishers I write for, bestseller lists BBA made, newsletter subscriber facts, etc.), excerpt booklet (just one per store), 5×7 promotional cards I had made up, Allure Author bookmarks, my own bookmarks, and some pens (just 3 per store).
Now, a better rule of thumb is to start out with large promo and downsize with each subsequent release until you’re hardly promoting at all. I’ll be working on doing that eventually. But this is my first ST. I’ll have to promote heavily for my Avon series, too, since it’s a whole new genre for me. *sigh* However, I do hope that by this time next year, I’ll be promoting on a much smaller scale. 
That’s great stuff, Sylvia! I really need to pick your brain about promotion!
by Jaci Burton May 24th, 2006 at 6:57 pmI’m seriously thinking of going next year since it’s in Houston where my Mom lives. Given your description of the food, however, I think I may pop over to her house on the Metro for at least some of the meals…
by Caro