I took part in the 2010 Iowa Authors Fair last week and it was quite an amazing and eye opening event. Lots of other authors there to share ideas with and get info from. It coincided with the Iowa Librarians Association conference and that opened a whole new venue for me.
I had always been advertising my book series as Fantasy Adventure. I had never thought of it as a Young Adult book before but, when you take everything into account, I suppose it really is. It was pointed out to me that the Young Adult market is what librarians are looking for and, thanks to Harry Potter and Twilight, the best selling genre in the world. As I spoke with them I explained that the main character is a 17 year old girl and her friend who is 15 year old boy. I also explained that when I write I keep in mind a good PG-13 rating but there there is a lot more intense stuff seen on TV these days than in my books. They loved that.
I'm going to keep checking for a second round of sales over the next few weeks. One of the librarians said she had to check through their regular distributor first and then could go outside. I also told them there is a discount now if you buy then through Lulu.com. One said she wanted to assign it to her junior high class.
I've also started the process of making it available for digital media at Amazon for Kindle. I've held off on this for a long time but some of the other authors, and news reports on CNN, say how digital sales are bigger than printed books. I just set it up yesterday at Amazon and it should be available sometime this week.
I had always been advertising my book series as Fantasy Adventure. I had never thought of it as a Young Adult book before but, when you take everything into account, I suppose it really is. It was pointed out to me that the Young Adult market is what librarians are looking for and, thanks to Harry Potter and Twilight, the best selling genre in the world. As I spoke with them I explained that the main character is a 17 year old girl and her friend who is 15 year old boy. I also explained that when I write I keep in mind a good PG-13 rating but there there is a lot more intense stuff seen on TV these days than in my books. They loved that.
I'm going to keep checking for a second round of sales over the next few weeks. One of the librarians said she had to check through their regular distributor first and then could go outside. I also told them there is a discount now if you buy then through Lulu.com. One said she wanted to assign it to her junior high class.
I've also started the process of making it available for digital media at Amazon for Kindle. I've held off on this for a long time but some of the other authors, and news reports on CNN, say how digital sales are bigger than printed books. I just set it up yesterday at Amazon and it should be available sometime this week.
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