Shanta Newlin is executive director of Publicity for Penguin Young Readers.
Emily Romero is vice president of Marketing for Penguin Young Readers.
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| Right to Left: Felicia Frazier, Shanta Newlin and Emily Romero |
There's a ton shared in this session, as they walked us through the homework they give their authors, discussed Launch Meetings, and described the opportunities authors have to team with them on marketing, publicity and sales.
Some highlights:
You need to identify the audience for your book. What are the other books your audience are reading before they pick up yours?
Think about the two-sentence pitch. What's the essence of your book? That pitch can even help marketing come up with tag lines
Know your backstory - how can sales talk about you?
The session was full of great advice, including:
Don't mimic other people's success. Play to your own strengths. Be authentic!
Do not contact media directly - better to tell them your contacts and suggestions and let them contact the media outlets for you.
Do not respond to negative reviews. Don't.
Ruta Sepetys, one of Penguin's authors, was in the audience, and was called on a few times as a "master" at publicity and marketing. (She demurred, saying she was there to learn. We can always learn more!) In particular, Ruta's author video for "Between Shades of Gray" (you can see it at Ruta's website here) was cited as a great example of what an author video - well done - can do.
