'Tis Almost the Shopping Season

Holiday shopping season is quickly approaching. If you are looking for new children's picture books, check out ALPHABET ZOO as well as all the other wonderful kid lit on the SCBWI Bookstop site. They make shopping easy!

Here is a link for my book, Bookstop: Alphabet Zoo. Have fun learning about the animals of Alphabet Zoo!

Go Vote!

Congratulations to all of the finalists on the short list for the Crystal Kite Awards!

Round 2 voting has begun and will close on April 30 at 5pm PDT.

Check out the finalists in your division at www.scbwi.org. Once you are on your Member Home page, go to the left navigation bar, scroll to the bottom, and click on Vote in the Crystal Kite Awards to cast your vote.

I was pleased and excited to see my top choice is still in the running.  Good luck to all!

Opportunity for Writers in the Area

We have a wonderful SCBWI Dakotas writing opportunity in September.  Consider joining us if able. It sounds amazing! Thank you to Kendra Levin for providing this terrific conference and to Betty Raum, our fearless leader, for organizing it.

Click here for more information...https://dakotas.scbwi.org/events/dakotas-2017-writing-workshop/

Hope to see you there!

Summer Reading Fun

I am excited to announce that Bedtime Kisses is part of the SCBWI Summer Reading List in the West division.  There are over 1400 titles from 350 publishers for your summer reading pleasure.  If you are a member of SCBWI, you can find the list at http://www.scbwi.org/list-of-pal-publishers/.

Enjoy!

While you are reading, I will be a bit MIA from this blog, and I apologize.  I will be checking in from time to time over the next couple weeks but am wrapping up our school year (and thus my work year), my daughter is graduating from high school this weekend and we are heading out on a family vacation shortly thereafter; therefore, I am firmly in Mom mode right now.  I will return with my author hat back in place mid-June and will be posting on a much more regular schedule thereafter.

Enjoy the beginning of summer and happy reading and writing.  May creativity and good fortune be yours!

Crystal Kite Awards

The final day to vote in the first round is here! For any of you SCBWI members out there in the West division, please consider voting if you have not.  There are five pages of great books in our division.

Cast your vote at http://www.scbwi.org/.  Guidelines are at http://www.scbwi.org/awards/crystal-kite-member-choice-award/  if needed.

Don't miss your chance!

SCBWI Book Launch Party

The SCBWI Book Launch Party goes live today!  You can find my children's picture book, Little Bug, as well as lots of other great books released in 2015. 

Come join the fun on my Book Launch Page at http://www.scbwi.org/display-book-launch-party/?id=363527   

Check out my contest details and help name Little Bug.  The winner receives a free autographed copy in time for the holidays.

Start or continue your holiday shopping with a terrific selection of children's books.  Hope to see you there!

Generating Book Sales

I've been thinking lately about how to re-energize book sales of Bedtime Kisses as sales seem to be in a bit of a slump lately.  Granted, it has been a crazy summer as of late and I haven't been very good at promotion; however, I've been mulling ways to creatively generate new book sales.

Today, I was perusing a new book, The Book: The Essential Guide to Publishing for Children 2015 (www.scbwi.org), and found a chapter entitled, "Keeping Your Book Alive."  That is just what I have been trying to figure out how to do.

This chapter discusses considerations pre-acceptance (hard and softcover, publishers, contract negotiations, etc.), post-acceptance/pre-publication (checking for accuracy, cover copy, inclusion in catalogs, etc.), marketing (reviews and awards) and book life post-publication (availability, rights, print life, etc.). 

There were certainly many great ideas, and I will be following through with those I have not already; however, it really made me start to wonder what all of you find most effective in re-kindling the sales fire when it subsides a bit.

If you are willing to share your ideas and tips for generating sales, I would love to hear them as I am sure would many others.  Perhaps we can all learn new techniques and ideas from each other.

If you are interested in this book, you can find more information at www.scbwi.org.  I haven't had it long and have only browsed through a few chapters thus far, but it seems well worth the investment.

Crystal Kite Awards

The first round of voting for the Crystal Kite Awards is now open and runs through April 14 at 5:00 PM, Pacific time.  Top vote getters will be placed on a short list for a second round of voting which will begin on April 18th.  If you are a member of SCBWI and are so inclined, consider logging in and voting.  South Dakota is in the West Division. 

"The annual Crystal Kite Award is a peer-given award to recognize great books from 15 SCBWI regional divisions around the world." 

You can log in here...https://www.scbwi.org/login/

Way to go, Chris!

Chris Rylander is the Regional Advisor for our SCBWI Dakotas group. I had the privilege of meeting him at last year's Spring Conference. His book, THE FOURTH STALL, is now available. Below is what I read in the EXPRESSION ONLINE SCBWI International Newsletter this morning. Way to go, Chris!

. Bravo!! Chris, Kristy, Bridget

* Chris Rylander (SCBWI Dakotas) - New spin on an Old Story - "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" meets "The Sopranos"---that's how publisher Walden Pond Press, an imprint of HarperCollins, bills Chris' first children's book THE FOURTH STALL. According to Andrea Johnson in the Minot Daily News, Minot native Chris said his idea for his book came from a lot of different places. "Part of it was that I just thought it might be kind of cool and fun to put a kid-friendly spin on organized crime, and that it had a lot of potential for action and humor, two things I never could get enough of as a reader," said Rylander, who now lives in Grand Forks and works for Noridian. <>

Chris has been an SCBWI member since 2008. Here's an excerpt of Paul Michael Murphy's interview of Chris in Murphblog:

Murphblog: I’ve seen the book described as "The Godfather for kids". . . What made you think of it and did you run into any problems that might explain why less courageous writers . . . have been reluctant to bring the world of organized crime into children’s fiction?

Rylander: . . . I thought to myself how fun it might be to take organized crime and put a kid-friendly spin on it. There were some challenges, sure, like trying to walk the line between the right amount of violence and having the kids use severed horse heads as pillows and everything. But in the end, I always just asked myself this question: "Is there enough blood and gratuitous violence in this scene?" And if the answer was "no," then I simply added more. And I think it turned out pretty well. One dead body per page is usually a pretty good rule for children’s books. No, but seriously it was a challenge to get that part just right---because I didn't want to soften it to the point where it was cheesy. But I also didn't want to glorify grade-school gang wars. <>