Marketing Our Self Published Book

"The Bay Gull" is our first book which was self published and if you have followed our story, you'll know that the decision to go this route was so we could launch our book while on a trip to Rhode Island. We needed a fast way to get the book from the computer to a finished format. We already had the completed book and illustrations and in March, 2009, we began our journey to self publishing. Four months later, just in time for our vacation, the book was available for the public.
Our deadline was a great motivator and we highly recommend having a firm date in mind. We worked backwards knowing that we had to have the book finished, completing the multitude of activities that needed to get done in order to make it happen. We had a very busy 7 day trip filled with book readings and author appearances.
Before having the first date set, we created a Facebook Group (which is now a Facebook Fan page - please join!) to get the word out about the book, asking people to join our group and for their suggestions on book reading locations. In addition, we created a website for TINK INK Publishing which has a calendar where we could add upcoming events.
About six weeks before the trip, we started scheduling author appearances by calling people who we already knew, letting them know we would be in town debuting the book and that we wanted to have an event at their location. As you can see by the list, all but one of the events were a result of working with people who we already knew:

• A daycare owned by a friend
• A gift shop owned by a friend
• The bagel shop featured in the book and owned by a friend
• The book store down the street from the bagel shop referred to us by our friends at the bagel shop
• Our parent's driveway on the parade route for the Fourth of July parade
• A bookstore that we arranged by contacting a local person who holds weekly storytimes
• A bookstore where a friend's father works

Through another friend, we received a list of almost 60 local news contacts. Two weeks before our arrival on the east coast, we e-mailed press releases which included information about the book and our scheduled appearances. The press release also went out to about 400 personal contacts through e-mail and to all our Facebook friends. Several news contacts picked up our appearances for their local calendars of communtiy activities. Our weekly storytime new friend, Anika Denise, wrote a review of the book for her widely read children's book story blog which came out in the paper on the same day as our first book reading.
In addition to sales the day of the event, most of the locations purchased books to have in inventory. People gave us great suggestions on other stores who may be interested in carrying the book. For two days, we traveled around visiting some of the recommendations and our favorite shops. Our opening usually went something like, "Hi, my name is Mona and this is my husband, Emerson. Emerson recently wrote a children's book about Rhode Island and our friend .... from .... thought you might be interested in carrying it." Or, if we didn't have a referral, we would mention that we loved their store and thought it would be a good location. By the end of the trip, we were excited to have the book available in 13 stores.
We owe a world of thanks to our printing company, Premier Graphics, who did an amazing job meeting our deadline which enabled us to sell over two hundred books in seven busy days.
Since July, our marketing efforts have continued and we are now working with 20 independent businesses including non-profit organizations (Save the Bay, The Herreshoff Marine Museum and Linden Place) and an on-line store for children's books, Winmark Communications. We are always looking for new organizations to work with and new sites to feature our books so if you have any great ideas, please share!!
Mona & Emerson

Marketing Our Self Published Book

Writers, Authors, Speakers and Publishers Getting Together for Holiday Mixer

Thanks to our gracious hostess, Kas Winters of Winmark Communications, author of Mother Lode and Get that Book out of your Head and into Print, and her husband, Roger Winters, local writers, authors, speakers and publishers had the opportunity to mingle for a few hours this holiday season.


Guests included Kay Wallach, Ed. D., Educator, (pictured right with an aspiring writer, Jeanne Scofield, on her left) and Jeanette Chaplin, Ed. D., Author/ Educator (pictured below with one of Kas' friends, Mary Lynn Mason, on her left). It is no surprise that with this fabulous crowd, the topic of literacy dominated our conversation.

Deborah Brown, Producer/Co-Host of The Boomer and The Babe Show, (pictured below with Joseph Marotta, author of The Drapery Workroom, and Author/Speaker Coach Larry James) is interested in continuing our conversation on the air. We may all be getting together again soon at her studio over the next few months.

Kas and Roger did a fabulous job bringing together an amazing group of people who share a common goal of reaching children through reading.

Thank you for a great time!
Mona and Emerson

Writers, Authors, Speakers and Publishers Getting Together for Holiday Mixer

Self Publishing "The Bay Gull"

Our decision to self publish was based on a cheap flight to RI. In March, 2009, we got a travel e-mail about some inexpensive flights and confirmed that these rates were available for the Fourth of July.
Timing was a major factor as the Fourth of July Parade in Bristol, RI is a HUGE event, probably the biggest thing in the town for the whole year. The book starts at Bristol Bagel Works which is located on Hope Street in Bristol and the sea gull travels south through Narragansett Bay ending his journey on Block Island. If you have had the opportunity to read "The Bay Gull," you may have noticed the red, white & blue road which is how the town paints the streets for the parade route on the Fourth.
The cheap flight was a sign to us that we should launch the book during our trip back east. After booking the flight, we started looking into how to publish our own book.
Our first call was to Mona's brother-in-law who works for a marketing company in CT. He gave us some leads on printing companies who he has done business with in the past. We contacted the companies, gave them access to the book and got some printing quotes. It was important for us that the book had a perfect bind and some companies were not able to create the binding we wanted. We did contact a bindery in MA which gave us a very expensive quote on a hard bound book.
The first contacts didn't work out too well and a couple of months had already gone by so now it was early May. Our enthusiasm about self publishing was starting to diminish but a visit from some friends helped re-ignite our spark to get the job done. We shared with them our goal and they were excited to get behind the project to support us in any way.
We geared up to get busy and starting searching the internet for publishing options, plus we had a local contact through a networking event in Arizona. Ultimately, we had 4 different companies giving us quotes on the project. It took almost four weeks for us to have 4 firm quotes for the job. Premier Graphics in Arizona had a talented staff, excellent customer service, a decent price and they knew we had a deadline (which was now only about 5 weeks away) that they were able to meet.
During this time as we were working to secure a printer, there were many other steps that we were completing including licensing our company, TINK INK Publishing, purchasing ISBN numbers and creating a website for the company. In addition, we created a group on Facebook for TINK INK Publishing to get the word out that the book would be published soon.
Next we began setting up Author Appearances for our trip to RI. The first few scheduled events were with friends who owned businesses (Social Expressions, Bristol Bagel Works, Out and About Kids) and were open to helping us debut the book. We followed up on some recommendations and secured a few more spots including A Novel Idea which is next to Bristol Bagel Works and The Armchair Sailor in Newport thanks to our friend's father who works there. One event was scheduled through an e-mail connection we made with Anika Denise who is a children's author and weekly contributor to a local Newspaper. She holds a weekly storytime at a local bookshop and she graciously invited us to be a guest for the week when we were in town.
About 2 weeks before we left for the east coast, we had 7 events scheduled. Our calendar was posted on our website and Facebook plus we sent out over 60 Press Releases, several who picked up our events for their event calendars.
The rough copy of the book was available a week before the trip and after some final editing, the first 20 soft cover books were produced. Premier Graphics continued the printing and shipped the books to the east coast for us. Thankfully, they arrived the day before the first book reading!
Our journey over those few months was busy, hectic and sometimes stressful. Our "to do" list was long and this is certainly simplifying the steps. There were a few nights where we didn't get to sleep very much at all. By having a deadline, it pushed us to stay focused, getting everything done quickly so we could move on to the next thing that needed to get done.

Self Publishing "The Bay Gull"

2 months, 11 days since our debut date of "The Bay Gull"

Thank you to everyone who has supported the launch of our first children's book, "The Bay Gull," which was officially released on July 1, 2009.
Since those first 7 author appearances, children's readings and book signings, over 400 copies of the book have been sold and we are currently working with 15 independent stores in RI plus one in AZ (we haven't had too much time to promote the book here in AZ!) We are excited for the success and know that there is much more activity to come in the near future so check back to hear about everything going on.
Many people have approached us about writing children's books and wanting to be published. One of our greatest joys is to share with others our road in hopes that it helps motivate and/or inspire someone else to follow a dream. This has truly been a team effort between myself and my wife. Combined, we are able to bring the artistic/creative elements together with business tools needed to take an idea, make a product and promote it. We are both complete novices in the realm of publishing and we have no idea whether we would be considered a failure or success in the world of children's book publishing. We have hit some of our goals, missed others and have a long road ahead of us if the cash flow from the book ever goes beyond enough to reinvest. Our paychecks so far have been for the heart and we continue to put in lots of hours to promote the book knowing that as soon as "The Bay Gull" is making money, our business will be investing in our next project!
If you don't know the story about the idea behind the book, check it out on our website, http://www.thebaygull.com/. We also have lots of great information on our group page TINK INK Publishing on Facebook so please become a Fan!!
We'll be blogging about our journey and would love to take you along for the ride so feel free to join us as a member on the site, subscribe, comment and all that fun stuff!
Thanks!!
Emerson & Mona

2 months, 11 days since our debut date of "The Bay Gull"