Buzz, Balls & Hype

Linktopia

Linktopia with stops that make us wonder if the iPad will be what brings advertising to the book world?

 "Some of the things you can do are just mind blowing," says Steve Pacheco, FedEx's director of advertising. "You are taking something that used to be flat on a page and making it interactive and have it jump off the page."

Keep reading to get a look at what's coming our way.

For the study, Psychster designed a multivariate online experimental survey. Mockups were created of seven ad types, appearing on one of two publisher Web sites (Allrecipes, or Facebook), and promoting one of two brands (a leading soup brand and a leading car brand), for a total of 28 combinations.

More on why we do what we do. Continue reading here.

This is the real pub day

So I was sort of crazed last week and posted this - it was the wrong pub day. (That's when you know you need to work less) So I'm posting it again today - the right pub day. I checked it really is today. 

The Memorist is out today in paperback. Just $7.99. When it came out last year in hard cover it got starred PW and LJ and the Washington Post said it was the "Gone with the Wind of reincarnationist fiction." It was also an Indie Next & People Book of the Week.

 

Nothing to do with books...

This made me smile...

A Dream Workshop

Doug Preston - who is an amazing thriller writer and one of the most thoughtful people I know is  teaching a workshop at Abiqui in New Mexico for both writers and photographers, and will be jointly hosted with the renowned photographer Walter Nelson. I would so love to do this if I could.

How Doug describes it:

The workshop will teach writing skills, but it goes beyond the mere technical. This is not a traditional workshop and there will be no ‘critiquing’ of work in classroom-like settings. The goal of the workshop isn’t so much to teach participants how to write but how to see. To do this, the workshop will engage body, mind, and spirit in a retreat-like atmosphere at a remote ranch outside Abiquiu, New Mexico. We will work mostly outdoors, in the heart of the high desert country where Georgia O’Keeffe painted her famous landscapes. The workshop involves intensive creative exercises, isolation in the landscape, close observation of nature, and mindfulness. We will employ various techniques to sweep away blockages and overcome fear—with the aim of helping participants achieve a profound creative breakthrough. But the heart of the workshop is something entirely new: the innovative use of photography to push participants into seeing the world in a fresh and original way. (My most influential writing teacher once said to me: You want to be a writer? Then you must become a photographer.)

THE DOCTOR IS IN

STAR (?) QUALITY

A number of my clients and friends are fine writers who have difficulty either getting published at all, or getting published at the level their writing deserves. They accept that they are working in a crowded and highly competitive field. What rankles is the knowledge that writers who are less talented and less serious often seem to have an easier time. It's not fair, they protest.

It isn't fair. And I would resent this phenomenon on my own behalf, as well as theirs, if I hadn't benefited from it in a different arena.

Here is the thing. I used to get a lot more attention for my acting than I deserved. It's not that I was a dabbler: I was talented and serious, and professional and conscientious. But I worked with people who were more gifted than I was--who immediately grasped concepts that I had to plod to--and who devoted their free time to seeing plays, reading books on technique, and talking and thinking about the theater, while I...didn't. I loved seeing plays but I also loved reading novels, hiking, writing stories, and going to parties with non-theatrical friends. I read the major texts, but often they bored me--there was no plot, no dramatic conflict. I thought about a lot of other things besides theater. And I'm sure this showed in my work. I was also physically clumsy, and though I took movement classes to try to correct the problem, I never threw myself into them, and I never achieved half the physical grace of many of my fellow actors. Yet people liked to watch me. Teachers praised and encouraged me, and forgave me transgressions my more talented peers couldn't get away with. And it drove my fellow students nuts. I heard about it, believe me. And I couldn't argue with it.

I sometimes thought it was because I was pretty. But it wasn't that. I was nice-looking, in a girl-next-door way, but the acting world was filled with fabulously beautiful people. And I didn't get cast in gorgeous parts--I was always the friend, the sister, the frazzled secretary, the comic relief, the foil to the beautiful ingenue--so clearly, I wasn't seen as a great beauty. Besides, something similar is happening now, in my voice class, and though my loved ones tell me I am irresistibly attractive, I turned 58 on Monday, and, well, you know. So, no, it's not that.

I was talking about this with a friend who occasionally casts plays, and he agreed: "We often don't use the most talented people who audition, even if they're physically right for the part. Someone can come in and drop lines, bump into furniture--but they have a quality, a reality. You feel for them, or with them. Those tend to be the ones we want."

I don't think I have this gift in regular life--or if I do, it translates differently. I don't walk into a room and make a big impression. But my favorite acting teacher used to say that I had a "transparent" quality, that all of my thoughts and feelings showed in my face and body language, and that made me interesting and exciting to watch. He once told me that I was the only person he had ever seen who actually blushed onstage. So it may be that the same attributes that "read" as thin-skinnedness and absence of coolness in ordinary life are transformed into "transparency," expressiveness, and spontaneity onstage. Or maybe it's something else.

Whatever it is, it is absolutely, definitely unfair. And I want to figure out how to get some of it into my writing.

Susan O'Doherty, Ph.D.,is a clinical psychologist with a New York City-based practice. A fiction writer herself,she specializes in issues affecting writers and other creative artists. She is the author of Getting Unstuck without Coming Unglued: A Woman's Guide to Unblocking Creativity(Seal, 2007). Her Career Coach column appears every Monday on Inside Higher Ed's Mama, Ph.D. blog, and she is a regular monthly panelist on Litopia After Dark. Send your questions to her at Dr.Sue at mindspring dot com.

 

Linktopia

Linktopia stops in at Neuro Science Marketing where they are asking and answering some questions that writers will find interesting.

Do you need to convince a customer to complete an application form? Or, for a non-profit, do you need volunteers for a charity event? In both cases, you will be more successful if 

Keep reading for the whole story.

The Ad Man Answers #79

Thursday + Gregory Huffstutter = The Ad Man Answers

Advertising Make-Over #3

For the final Advertising Makeover, our “winner” is Alma Alexander, who entered the contest by contacting the Ad Man’s website.  (Another example that a fully-functional homepage is a must-have, not a wish-I-had.)

Alma is the author of THE SECRETS OF JIN-SHEI (HarperOne) and the YA Fantasy trilogy:  WORLDWEAVERS (HarperTeen).  She’s specifically asked for help around the three Worldweavers books:  GIFT OF THE UNMAGE, SPELLSPAM, and CYBERMAGE.  Here’s the book jacket copy from the series opener:

“When there is a battle to be fought, it is you who can choose the place of the battlefield.” Thus says Cheveyo: mage, teacher, and the first person in Thea’s life to remain unimpressed by her lineage. From birth, great things were expected of Thea, but her magical abilities are, at most, minimal. Now, with Cheveyo, Thea has begun to weave herself a new magical identity, infused with elements of the original worlds.

Back in her everyday life, she attends the Wandless Academy, the one school on Earth for those who, like her, can’t do magic. It is at the Academy that Thea realizes she will indeed have to fight, since her enemies are hungrier and more dangerous than she thought. Fortunately, her greatest strength may be the very powerlessness she has resisted for so long…

Looking over Alma’s author website, there’s several positives:

- A microsite specific for her Worldweaver books

- Links to interviews

- FAQ

- Easy links to buy

There are a few elements, however, that could be improved to streamline the user experience:

- The microsite doesn’t easily link back to the author’s homepage, so when you’re in it, you might never realize the larger AlmaAlexnder.com exists

- There should be more cohesion between elements of microsite and homepage.  For example, Alma’s bio is much more extensive on homepage than microsite. 

- Alma has a nice bit of social networking on her microsite (Facebook stream), but why is that not incorporated into her larger homepage?

One additional morsel of constructive website criticism for Alma.  And this one goes out to all published and un-published writers.  Forgive my bluntness, but: 

NO… PICTURES… OF… YOUR… CATS

Just don’t.

Really, the same goes for all pets.  It’s the equivalent of showing up to a job interview in flip flops and cargo shorts.  You’ve just made it nearly impossible to envision you as a working professional.  All that hard work creating a “writer’s persona” from book covers, reviews, links to Amazon… all shattered with one JPEG of your pet tabby. 

Let’s examine the websites of the authors currently ranked high on Amazon for YA Fantasy:

Phillip Pullman

Garth Nix

Eoin Colfer

Christopher Paolini

How many corgi’s, calico’s, and cockatu’s do you see on those four websites?  None.  Because pet pictures scream “Hobbiest,” not “The Next JK Rowling.”  And if you aspire to the same success as these talented writers, study at how they conduct themselves online and emulate it. 

(Of the 4 authors listed above, Garth Nix has the most dynamic site with special fan content – podcasts, polls, sweepstakes, e-cards, message boards – and clean navigation thru his series novels.  We’ll be further discussing Garth’s website in an upcoming Ad Man interview with this NY Times Bestselling author.)

The only author I’m giving a free pass on the “No Pets In Your Website” rule is Marshall Karp… partially because I love the guy, partially because he does it organically, with humor.  Karp’s dearly-departed Jett had a “cameo” in his latest book, has a Bio page on Marshall’s website on par with other characters, and even wrote her own book review.   Note how Marshall uses his pets’ book review to cleverly drop important pieces of marketing information – book release date April 1, hardback edition – so there’s a hidden agenda.  It’s not just “look at snapshots of my fuzzy four-legged children.”  (No surprise Marshall is himself a former Ad Man).

If you must indulge in pet pictures, relegate them to your Facebook page, your blog, or your Shutterfly account, not your professional author website.

OK, rant over.  Back to Alma.

Alma has created a book trailer around her Worldweavers series:

Book trailers are a great way to bring your novel alive with sight, sound and motion.  The most effective author videos also entertain while capturing the flavor of the narrative.  Here’s some of my personal faves:

The preceding videos from Toby Barlow and SG Browne don’t regurgitate book-jacket copy, but rather use their respective novels as jumping off points.  But if you decide to include some plot summary, here’s two authors who executed it well:

 

There’s an old saying in advertising:  “Sell a good night’s sleep, not the mattress.”  To that point, look no farther than the TV commercial for MJ Rose’s first REINCARNATIONIST novel:

 

Notice how MJ doesn’t even try to sum up her entire novel in the short 15-second commercial.  Instead, she sells the experience of staying up all hours engrossed in a good thriller.

So what is Alma selling?

Is it a 400-page hardback that weighs one pound and has a pretty cover?  Or is it, according to the graphics of her book video, the following story:

From the time of her birth

Great things were expected of Thea

But her magical abilities were, at most, minimal

So after she enrolls in the Wandless academy

She begins to weave herself

A new magical identity

Which aids her as she battles

Magically sinister email

And unlocks the secrets

Of a mysterious white cube…

 

Could Alma somehow sell an experience, instead of summarizing her plot?

From what I can tell, the Worldweavers novels tap into the wellspring of feminine teen angst – being a misfit, feeling powerless, yearning to find your place in society.

These are powerful, universal emotions that can form the backbone of Alma’s advertising campaign.  Instead of spending 90 seconds talking about Wandless academies and mysterious white cubes, what if her video were to take a different approach:

Have you ever wondered if you belonged somewhere else?

A different family?

A different school?

A different world?

Born into a family of magicians

Thea was The Girl Who Couldn’t

Worldweavers.  The trilogy by Alma Alexander.

For every young woman struggling to find her place

Weave your new identity

Weave your dreams into reality

“If you thought Harry Potter wasn’t fair to the fairer sex,

Worldweavers is for you” – Wands & Worlds Reviews

Now available by HarperTeen everywhere books are sold

www.Almaalexander.com

OK, so I fabricated the blurb.  But it’s a good one and could be solicited to help place Alma in the same category as JK Rowling’s The Boy Who Lived, while creating a point of differentiation.  Note that very little of the above copy was focused on the plot, and instead went after the emotional core that speaks to hormonal teens. 

What if Alma were to take it a step farther and ask teen fans to submit videos of them talking about their life struggles?  Especially if they could speak to how reading Worldweavers affected them:

“My best friend told me that she was moving to Houston…”

“I want to be an artist, but my parents won't pay for college unless I go into Engineering…”

“My older sister went into rehab and I didn’t know how to handle it, but then I read Worldweavers -- and thinking of Thea gave me the strength to redefine my relationship with my sister…”

Alma could incentivize fans into submitting these videos by giving away prizes – say a Dreamcatcher or custom knitting needles – then post the clips on her microsite as companion pieces to her book trailer.

Again, the point would be to emphasize that she gets what girls are going through in this formative stage, and her books speak to those emotions.

In any case, if Alma just removes the pictures of her cats, she’ll already be on her way to further literary success.

Thanks to all the readers who submitted their books for advertising makeovers – golf claps for your bravery.  We’ll do it again sometime!

 

Gregory Huffstutter has been punching Ad Agency timecards for over a dozen years, working on accounts like McDonald's, KIA Motors, Suzuki Automotive, and the San Diego Padres. His first mystery, KATZ CRADLE is on submission while he's working on the sequel. The first 100 pages of his novel are linked here. For general advertising questions, leave a comment or send e-mail to katz @ gregoryhuffstutter dot com with 'Ask The Ad Man' in the subject line.

The Hypnotist

Just so proud my May 1 book, The Hypnotist has been chosen as PW's Review of the week.

 

  

THE DOCTOR IS IN

LEARNING FROM THE PROS

 

The theater school where I study singing offers a monologue class, and my friend Laurie and I took a trial class last week with a view to possibly enrolling next semester. Laurie hoped it would increase her confidence in public speaking, and I hoped it would help me to address the emotional content of songs, which are, after all, monologues set to music.

 

The first student up presented Doña Elvira's monologue from Molière's Don Juan. The student was in the beginning stages of analyzing the piece, and the teacher started with a basic question: "What is your character's motivation here?"

 

"Well, I'm in love with him."

 

"That's the situation, not the motivation. What do you want to accomplish?"

 

"To warn him that he's going to hell? To save him?"

 

"Okay, that's what the words say. But think a bit more about the situation. You're in love with him, yes--he's chamring, handsome--but he seduced you, then dumped you. Maybe you're angry at him? Maybe you want to frighten him, to punish him?"

 

None of this material was new to me--I'd studied intensively at this Stanislavsky-oriented school, and though it was over 20 years ago, the basic methods and techniques don't change. But I found I was listening with new ears, thinking as much about how the play was written as how an actor could get inside the character, reflecting that taking apart someone else's clock to see what makes it run can teach you to make your own clock.

 

This morning, looking over a story I'm working on, I thought, I'm writing the situation, not the motivation--and that gave me an important tool to address something that was not working.

 

I'm not sure I'll be able to take the class anytime soon--I'm already on overload, and one more activity could push me over the edge--but I'm grateful for the boost this class offered, and hope that my schedule will allow more inadvertent writing lessons in the near future.

Susan O'Doherty, Ph.D.,is a clinical psychologist with a New York City-based practice. A fiction writer herself,she specializes in issues affecting writers and other creative artists. She is the author of Getting Unstuck without Coming Unglued: A Woman's Guide to Unblocking Creativity(Seal, 2007). Her Career Coach column appears every Monday on Inside Higher Ed's Mama, Ph.D. blog, and she is a regular monthly panelist on Litopia After Dark. Send your questions to her at Dr.Sue at mindspring dot com.

 

Linktopia

Linktopia stops off in Austin, TX via the LA Times and listens in on the future of publishing.

And editors, too, can no longer view their red pencils as the only tool in the kit. They must start thinking of manuscripts or proposals as intellectual property, a kernel of an idea that could be launched into multiple formats. Publishers should stop emulating the old music industry and start picturing themselves as movie studios and books as film development. Max Perkins, meet David Selznick.

Continue looking at the crystal ball here.