Blog -- Shelftalker

One thing a writer needs to be aware of is bookstores. We writers should support independent bookstores because they are special places run by people who love books.

And a blog that is written by a bookstore owner who talks about books, customers, and the publishing business is Shelftalker, written by the owner of the Flying Pig bookstore, Elizabeth Bluemle and her partner, Josie Leavitt.

Elizabeth Bluemle is a published author herself, as well as being the sponsor of the Flying Pig Humor Award at Vermont College of Fine Arts in Writing for Children and Young Adults.

Corrected -- the award is called, The Flying Pig Grade-A, Number-one Ham Humor Award.

You'll enjoy reading this bookstore view of the publishing business.

-wo

Promotional Materials that Work

Elizabeth Bluemle from the Flying Pig bookstore in Vermont has a great post this week on the School Library Journal Blog, Shelftalker, about promotional materials -- what's useful -- and what people won't pick up and what people/ booksellers throw away.

Useful information for authors/ illustrators as well as publisher's reps.

(I've always loved LONG bookmarks (not those half-sized bookmarks) and pencils with advertising on them, myself. If you come to my signing at the Albert Whitman booth at ALA this summer, be sure to pick up both of these handouts. Even if you don't buy a signed book.)
-wendieO