“I’ve been marketing books for over twenty years and I’ve
never seen an idea take off as fast as Kids ♥ Authors
Day, an initiative between indie bookstores and children’s book
authors/illustrators
that began nearly two weeks ago with a Twitter message and has now grown into a
great big Valentine’s Day Indie-Author Love Fest. On Valentine’s Day,
Saturday, February 14, 2009, independent booksellers throughout New England
will host local kids book authors and illustrators, kicking off a new tradition
of signed literary Valentines for children, teens, and their families -- so
far, 40 children’s and teen authors and illustrators and 13 bookstores have signed
on. All this, with more signing on as we speak, in less than two weeks.
How did it start? From an author (as most
good ideas do, right?) and via Twitter.
“IDEA,” children’s book author Mitali Perkins
tweeted. “Indies partner with authors for a
‘give a signed book’ day, all Kid/YA authors in area show up at stores to sign
one afternoon.”
Strong response from Perkins’ Twitter followers gave way to discussions with regional
trade folks from the New England Children’s Booksellers Association (NECBA) and
New England Independent Booksellers Association (NEIBA), Perkins kept
twittering, fellow bloggers and twitters Sarah
Rettger and A.C. Gaughen helped
give the idea shape and they blogged and twittered, Perkins blogged and
Facebooked about it, a Facebook events page and Kids ♥ Authors
Day website and
twitter page were made, emails were sent, tweet tweet
went Meg Smith from the ABA as did Random House rep
Ann Kingman, and bloggers (Betsy Bird's SLJ Blog,
Booksellers Blog, Cynsations, Finding Wonderland,
Indyish) sounded
the trumpets. And yes, Publisher's Weekly
and Shelf Awareness covered
the story today.
As Ann Kingman wrote in her blog, “You don’t always need a meeting.”
This kind of idea would have been passed around conference room tables, awaiting approval from the powers-that-be; instead it grew from the passion and energy of an author who was “redoing her mission statement – connecting stories to kids – and understands social media. That’s what buzz is all about: energy, passion, and how to network. PS: any children’s/teen authors and NEngland bookstores reading this – join us! See www.kidsheartauthors.com to learn how to participate.”
I've been so busy with other stuff, that I haven't paid much attention to the Twitter phenomena. But when a friend of mine said that big name people were following her twitter posts, checking out her regular blogs and her website when no one had been before, I figured it was something I needed to look into. Even my mother, who hasn't a clue about website stuff, has said it's all over the news. :) So looks like Twitter is the place to be!
Posted by: Terry Spear | January 04, 2009 at 10:36 AM