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Welcome to my book launch party to celebrate the release of my newest book, Frederick Douglass for Kids!

Since July 23, 2009, this book has been a major part of my life. From the idea stage, to the 2-week photo-research tour, to the weeks and months researching and writing the text, to the submission and revisions stage, and now to the release of the book into bookstores and museum stores all across the nation, this has definitely been a journey of a lifetime!

I invite you to come along and help celebrate the birth of this book about this amazing man. Frederick Douglass has been referred to as a giant, a true American hero, a brilliant spokesman, and one of the greatest leaders of all time.

Join in the celebration I’ll be hosting here on my blog for the next two weeks as I share stories behind the story, tips for writers, suggestions for teachers and homeschooling families, and much, much more!

Join in the fun! There will be prizes to win. We’ll be visiting exciting blogs of other authors and friends.

Join in the journey to help launch Frederick Douglass for Kids to the hearts and minds of children, parents, educators…and the world!

The first stop on my Book Launch Party is at the newsy and informative site for writers, Cheryl Reif Writes. Visit her site to learn more about my new book and the publisher who brought it to life!

PRIZES
Did I mention there would be prizes to celebrate my book launch party?! Yes!!! And the first prize is this: A free critique and evaluation of a 1-page query or cover letter for your book. Just post a comment here on my blog today and answer this question:

If you already heard about Frederick Douglass, what makes him a hero in your eyes? And if you have never yet heard of him, name one thing would you like to learn about this true American hero.

I’ll put everyone’s name in a hat who posts a comment here today. Come back tomorrow for another chance to win this prize, too. And on Wednesday, June 6, I’ll announce the name of the winner here on my blog.

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I just finished uploading several free products to the site Teachers Pay Teachers.

I uploaded free printable bookmarks for my new book, Frederick Douglass for Kids.

I also uploaded worksheets for a teacher’s guide (or study guide) to use with students as teachers are incorporating my book into their curriculum.

It’s part of the “behind-the-scenes” activities I’m doing to help launch my book into the world.

One of the hardest markets to tap into is to find ways to let teachers use your book in the classroom. First you have to find a way to connect with teachers. Then you have to provide them with material that supports the standards and that they can actually use.

So at Teachers Pay Teachers, they offer study guides for various books for teachers to download and fun stuff like printable bookmarks that they can print out and distribute to their students. I figured it was a win-win situation to offer these products for free to encourage the use of my book. Not only does this connect with teachers and let them know about my book, but it gives them something they can actually use in the classroom, too.

I just designed a set of bookmarks and a teacher’s guide on my publishing program I have on my computer. I also offer them as downloads on my book’s website. You can see them and get ideas for making your own by clicking here.

If you’re a teacher, sign up for Teachers Pay Teachers today! Take advantage of this great connecting tool. And if you’re not a teacher, perhaps you know a teacher who would be willing to post your stuff on there, too. They even offer material for adult education if your books are for adults.

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One of the things I’m busy doing right now is sending my new book, Frederick Douglass for Kids in for awards.

It’s a very tight window of time that your book has to be submitted for awards.

Most awards require a copy of your book sent to them the year it was published. Many places even have deadlines of June or August even if you book wasn’t released until October!

The key to staying on top of which awards have which deadlines is to make yourself a little calendar and then double check your book is submitted on time.

To help you with this process, I have included links to some of the bigger children’s awards on my site. Just click on the Awards tab at the top of my blog, then click the link for “Places to Submit.”

Also check in with your publisher to see which awards they’re submitting your book to. Then you can create a budget to send to the others.

My publisher is submitting my book for nearly a dozen big awards for nonfiction children’s books. So I’m going through that list on my blog for any names my publisher isn’t submitting to, and shipping out copies of my book to the ones that fit in my budget.

Just to let you know an actual breakdown of what that budget looks like, here’s some numbers:

* I ordered 20 copies of my book with my author’s discount for around $200.
* I get the priority mail cardboard envelopes for free at my post office. One book fits inside each envelope. (I can fit 3 of my books inside a legal sized priority mail envelope.)
* It costs about $6 to mail each book.
* Some awards don’t require anything except the book. Some require marketing materials. So I designed a promotional flyer to include with these books, plus tuck in one of the full-color bookmarks my publisher designed for me to hand out. (Click here to see the promotional flyer as an example of one you can make. Just scroll to the bottom to download the flyer.)
* Some awards are free to submit to. Many cost $50. Some such as Teacher’s Choice cost $195 or $300 if your publisher isn’t a member of their organization.
* Some awards require one copy of the book mailed to them. Others require multiple copies of the book mailed to each chairperson helping with the event. And still other awards, such as state reading lists, don’t require a book at all…just the name of the book’s title and they’ll get it to read themselves.

Hope this helps as you’re thinking about submitting your book for an award! If you don’t have any budget for submitting your children’s book for awards, don’t despair! Just go over the list of state reading awards that I posted on my award site here on my blog and submit yours for those.

Here’s a picture of some of my books packaged and ready to take to the post office!

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As some of you know, I taught at a local OCCWF writer’s conference this past weekend. It was a great event! The keynote speaker was sooo inspirational. The one-on-one sessions where I got to meet with people attending the conference was so meaningful. And the classes I taught were so much fun! (Hey, how can you NOT have fun when you’re teaching a class on writing humor for kids?!) I hope you were blessed if you were at the conference, too.

Since my new book, Frederick Douglass for Kids had just arrived in the mail, I decided to take it along for its debut. And since we’ve been talking about how to market your book and get it ready for its launch, I thought I’d show you some behind-the-scenes peeks at what went on getting ready for the big event.

To help organize all my stuff that I wanted to take to the conference, I set up a 6-foot card table I bought at Walmart for handy times like this. Since I was teaching and one of the faculty, I was able to sell my books at the conference bookstore. So I carefully chose which books to take.

Since I’ve taught at these kinds of things before, I knew what kinds of books most people who attend writing conferences purchase at the conference bookstore: how-to-write books.

So I took a along a bunch of my books, Yes! You Can Learn How to Write Children’s Books, Get Them Published, and Build a Successful Writing Career.

But I also know that most people don’t buy other kinds of books at a writing conference such as middle grade novels or picture books unless
A) you’re a famous author
B) you have a famous book

So I brought some of my other books more for EXPOSURE to show people what kind of books I’ve written so that when they ARE ready to purchase a middle grade novel for their nephew’s birthday or a picture book for their niece’s teacher at Christmas, my book will hopefully come to their mind. Plus I handed out lots of bookmarks, too.

Here’s a picture of Sandman helping me get my books ready for the conference!

Sure enough, when all was said and done, I sold all my “how-to-write” books at the conference and didn’t bring a single one back home. I only sold a couple of my other books. But I wasn’t disappointed because I knew that’s what this type of crowd usually buys. Even the famous million-copy seller keynote speaker only sold a handful of his middle grade novels. The biggest seller at the event was the new Christian market guide…a how-to-write book once again.

So if you have a book come out and you plan on going to an event, don’t be disappointed if your book doesn’t sell well at the event. Unless the book relates to the people attending the event (such as a writing book sells well at a writing conference) it probably won’t sell much. That’s just the name of the game. But it still is good exposure to get it out there and introduce your book to the world.

(And wow, did I have fun showing my new book to everyone I met!)

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First Page Picture Book Rubric

Rubrics are great tools to use as writers. They’re a kind of check list you can go through to evaluate your own manuscripts, manuscripts people bring to a critique group, and published articles or books.

The first page of a picture book is very important. The first page of a successful picture book contains essential ingredients.

To make the first page of a picture book manuscript shine to catch an agent’s or editor’s eye, use this rubric and evaluate it. Mark its strengths and weaknesses. Then brainstorm ideas to take it up a notch based on your evaluation.

And if you’re studying a picture book that’s already published in the market today, use this rubric to learn why it works…or doesn’t.

To download a copy of your very own FIRST PAGE PICTURE BOOK RUBRIC, visit the site of my writing buddies, Writing According to Humphrey and Friends. Click on the link for the FIRST PAGE PICTURE BOOK RUBRIC, download it, print it out and add it to your personal writer’s notebook.

And if there’s something on this rubric that you don’t understand, please post a comment here and I’ll answer your questions. Or better yet…if you have a group of writer friends and would like me to teach a Virtual Workshop on how to write awesome First Pages for your picture books, find out more information about scheduling a workshop at my site, Virtual Visit Zone.

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What a great conference we had together at Orange County Christian Writer’s Conference in Newport Beach this past weekend!

It was fun to meet new writers, make new friends, reconnect with writing friends, and see what the Lord had in store to bless us with.

I taught two writing workshops for children’s writers:
Writing with Humor
First Page Critiques

And at each workshop, I distributed a handout to use. If you’d like a copy of those worksheets (plus others that I told you about), visit the site of my writing buddies, Writing According to Humphrey and Friends, click on the links, and download the worksheets to print out on your printer. Then put them in your very own writer’s notebook, too!

And for those of you who follow along here on my writing journey with me, I’ve decided to add a new feature to my blog!

Writer’s Notebook Worksheets!

I have my own writer’s notebook where I design lots and lots of worksheets to help me improve my writing skills. I also distribute many of these worksheets as handouts for the teleclasses I teach at the Working Writer’s Club and in writing conferences or workshops where I teach as well.

So I decided from time to time to start adding these worksheets to my blog here along the right side column. I’ll also be posting guidelines on how to use these each time I do. And eventually, these worksheets will hopefully all make it into a new book that you can purchase and use as your very own writer’s notebook.

But for now…I’ll be offering these worksheets to you for free! So keep an eye out for them. And I hope they help you take your manuscripts from blah to brilliant!!!

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The first thing I did to schedule stops on my upcoming Virtual Book Tour was to take advantage of the FREE…(did I say FREE?)…5-day Virtual Book Tour that is offered to every member of the Working Writer’s Club.

Okay. I guess that’s not exactly free because it does cost $9.99 each month to be a member of this club. (But that’s only until May 31!) After that, membership will be about $25 per month.

But if you’re serious about establishing your business as a freelance writer, then this club is for you! And if you sign up to join it by May 31, you’ll have a lifetime membership locked into place at $9.99 per month. Personally, I can’t think of any other writing community that gives you the benefits this club gives for that low price. For that membership price, you get teleclasses, advice from a professional writing coach, opportunities to get articles published…and fantastic stuff like Virtual Book Tours–which can cost thousands of dollars elsewhere! So if you want to join the Working Writers Club and schedule a week-long Virtual Book Tour through them, just click on the link of this picture and follow the instructions to join.

For the launch of my book, however, I wanted longer than one week for my tour. I wanted to host a 2-week tour. So for the second week of my tour, I posted a message in a writer’s group that I belong to for nonfiction children’s writers. If you’d like to check out this yahoo group, just send an e-mail to:

NFforKids-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

This is basically a forum where children’s nonfiction writers talk about nonfiction writing for kids!

Well, the response was so great from that group that I just might be extending the tour a little bit longer than planned, but that makes it even more fun!!!!

My publicist, Josh, checked in with me to see what spots I’m hosting on my tour. So I’ll keep him linked in to the tour as well. Plus, I told him that as he arranges some really big online sites to post review of my book, I’ll host another tour later on in the year to include the links to those.

It’s great to host Virtual Book Tours when you can…anytime you can increase exposure on other people’s sites about your book, your audience just keeps on growing!

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For the next couple of weeks, I’ll be sharing an inside peek on what’s going on in my house as I’m preparing to celebrate the release of my new book, Frederick Douglass for Kids.

I’m getting reading to host a 2-week Virtual Book Tour.

Now, I know some of you have books out already and some of you are just getting ready to launch your own new book to the world. Whether your book is already out there or is just getting ready to hit the bookshelves, you can always host a Virtual Book Tour! In a nutshell, this kind of tour helps get info about your book on other people’s blogs and helps spread the word through cyberspace. It helps create a buzz for your book.

So I hope you glean lots of tips that will help you experience success. And if you have any questions about all this, just ask!

And during the first 2 weeks of June, I’ll be posting the Virtual Book Tour here on my blog with links to all sorts of other writers’ blogs on the Internet who will be featuring my book on their site for each day.

Then, after the celebration is over, I’ve got some great fun planned for you during summer! We’ll be celebrating picture books. This past spring, I hosted a picture book mentoring group in my home with professional, published writers where we each read over 80 current picture books, discussed our favorites and why they resonated within our hearts, and wrote original picture book manuscripts. I’ll be sharing lots of exciting things I learned from that amazing group.

But for now…what am I doing to get ready for my Virtual Book Tour in June? First of all, I just finished setting up the 10 hosts for all 10 days. I’ll tell you how that was done in my next post.

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It’s been busy now that my new book, Frederick Douglass for Kids has arrived from the printer and is officially released!

For one thing, I just heard this past weekend from my publicist, Josh, that Booklist posted a favorable review that will be officially released June 1. As soon as that link goes live, I’ll add it to a page of Reviews on my book’s site.

It’s exciting to wait for the reviews to start coming in, but hey…why wait?

When you have a new book coming out, go ahead and start generating some reviews of your own. Contact your author friends and invite them to swap 5 star reviews of your books. One of my online friends graciously posted a review on Goodreads and when her new book comes out, I’m going to read it and post a review for her book, too! That’s part of what networking is all about…to help create a buzz for your book.

And if you don’t know who to ask to post your review, start with your family members as well as your local or cyberspace writer friends. It’s great for networking. It’s great for your book. It’s a win-win deal!

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Meet Author Mayra Calvani!

Blog: Mayra’s Secret Bookcase
Web site: Mayra’s Secret Bookcase
Facebook Fan Club: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Mayra-Calvanis-Fan-Page/162383023775888
Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/mcalvani

Bio:
Mayra Calvani writes fiction and nonfiction for children and adults and has authored over a dozen books, some of which have won awards. Her stories, reviews, interviews and articles have appeared on numerous publications such as The Writer, Writer’s Journal, Multicultural Review, and Bloomsbury Review, among many others. Visit her website at Mayra’s Secret Bookcase and get the first two lessons of her popular Walking on a Rainbow Picture Book Workshop free!

Featured Book:
The Water Cycle: Water Play Series, Book 1
Author: Mayra Calvani
Illustrator: Alexander Morris

Follow the water droplets in their journey from the clouds to the earth and back to the clouds again. Written in a lyrical style, the book takes a new angle on the water cycle by showing the feelings it evokes in people. Quaint and quirky art adds a light-hearted touch to the reader’s experience of learning about the weather. Pencil activities included in the back. Suggested age for readers: 4-8

Interview:
Q: Describe a highlight for you personally while you were writing this book.
A: This is my first nonfiction picture book, so it was a new experience. I enjoyed going to the library to do research and also reading all the picture books I could find about the water cycle. So the research stage was quite enjoyable. Also, trying to approach the topic from a fresh angle was a challenge—and challenges can be hard but pretty exciting, too!

Q: Share one goal you have as a children’s writer and the steps you are taking to achieve it.
A: My main goal right now is to break in with the big publishers. I’m fortunate and sublimely grateful to have two agents. One is representing one of my picture books and the other one a couple of my other works. At the moment I’m revising a middle-grade novel and working on a YA (the first book of four). If I could land a contract with either of these projects…well, what can I say? It’d be a dream come true.

Q: What writing project are you currently working on?
A: I’m currently working on a YA paranormal novel titled Moon Goddess, the first of a series of four books based on ancient Egyptian mythology. I’ve always been an avid fan of ancient Egypt, so I’m really excited about this project. I’ve spent months doing research and I even took a 48-lecture course. One of my dreams is to visit Cairo and take a cruise down the Nile in the near future. I went there twice during my teens, but that was a long time ago.

Q: What is one word of advice you received as a writer that you would like to share with others?
A: Don’t let anyone get in the way of your vision, then take the necessary steps to make that vision a reality.

Thanks, Mayra!!!
And to learn even more about Mayra and glean some very helpful writing tips, join in on the final day of her Virtual Book Tour by visiting the site of Launch Pad Publishing. Be sure to post a comment and congratulate Mayra on her new book.