Caroline Starr Rose

picture book and middle-grade author

  • home
  • Bio
  • Blog
  • Books
    • Anthologies
    • Blue Birds
    • The Burning Season
    • Jasper and the Riddle of Riley’s Mine
    • May B.
    • Miraculous
    • Over in the Wetlands
    • A Race Around the World
    • Ride On, Will Cody!
  • Author Visits
  • Virtual Visits
  • Events
  • Teacher Resources
  • Contact
  • Writing One to One

Marketing Plan: Part II

4 Comments

Here are the next three parts of a marketing plan:

Target Audience: Remember to think beyond your initial audience (the reader typical to your genre). Brainstorm a list (as I did here) to broaden your thinking about those who might find your book appealing.

“Remember: By defining your audience, you can figure out which media to approach – or suggest that your publicist approach – to get publicity coverage for your book that will reach your readership.”

Positioning Statement (or Pitch): “The positioning statement is one or two appealing sentences that make the listener highly curious about the book…A finely honed positioning statement will become the basis of how everyone in your publishing house can talk about the book…Why should we care about the book? The positioning statement answers this question.”

Scan your query. Ask your agent how she’s pitching your story to editors.

MAY B.’s pitch:
This is a hard one for me. I’ve come up with nothing on my own. Agent Michelle has pitched MAY B. as LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE with a modern feel.

The Background Story: “A short background piece – a couple of paragraphs to a couple of pages long – about how and why you wrote the book.” This can include your publication journey, “any unusual events in the research and writing of the book or specific influences on your work.”

This is the story of your story. It’s a chance for publicists (and hopefully readers!) to talk about your book. (We all know the background story on HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER’S STONE. Next week I’ll post about the big word-of-mouth seller, THE HELP, which has an amazing background story.)

MAY B.’s background story:

I’ve always been interested in the women of the frontier, most likely stemming from my love for the Little House on the Prairie books. As a child, I’d talk about Laura as if she were someone I personally knew. I’d devote a lot of time wondering about her world: how she’d never seen a town until she was five, how she hadn’t gone to school (or even lived near one) until she was seven, how a penny in her Christmas stocking was such a big deal (and how the first time she saw a Christmas tree, she didn’t know what it was!)

When I began teaching, I thought a lot about learning on the frontier, where the schoolhouse focus on recitation and memorization favored students able to do these things well. There’s a character in the Laura books named Willie Olsen, an ill-mannered school boy who often sat in the corner during lesson time. As a kid, I labeled him a bad boy; as a teacher, I wondered if there was something more going on. Maybe Willie was a poor student and a goof-off because he had a learning disability. Maybe he couldn’t grasp his school work not because he wasn’t capable but because no one had taught him how.

MAY B. is part tribute to the frontier woman, part exploration of what it means to be capable as a child, as a daughter, as a student, as a girl, and as a human being.

This story didn’t start as a novel-in-verse. I tried several scenes as straight prose, never getting to the heart of the character or story. The more first-hand accounts of pioneer women I read, the more I understood why. Journals and letters from this era were terse accounts of the mundane, literal and immediate. The recording of daily events served as a safe, predictable pattern. When something “happened,” and the pattern was broken, stability ended. Once I noticed these themes, I knew how to tackle my story.

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • Email

Filed Under: books and reading, publication, the writing life

Comments

  1. Jen says

    March 9, 2010 at 12:46 pm

    I love all the information you’re sharing with us! It’s brilliant!

    Reply
  2. TerryLynnJohnson says

    March 9, 2010 at 1:06 pm

    This is all great stuff. Little House of the Prairie with a modern feel sounds awesome!

    Reply
  3. Theresa Milstein says

    March 9, 2010 at 1:31 pm

    Selling myself to get an agent, editor, and beyond is the hardest aspect of being a writer for me.

    I like how you explained this, to show how an author can come off accessible to potential readers with a personal and appealing approach.

    Reply
  4. Jemi Fraser says

    March 9, 2010 at 11:03 pm

    Really good advice – I’m going to bookmark this one for when I (hopefully) need it 🙂

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Meet Caroline Starr Rose
  • Email
  • Instagram
  • RSS
  • Twitter

my books

Subscribe to my newsletter + to receive regular blog posts

categories

  • A Race Around the World
  • authors
  • Blue Birds
  • books and reading
  • classroom connections
  • encouragement
  • faith
  • family
  • historical fiction
  • home
  • Jasper and the Riddle of Riley's Mine
  • May B.
  • Miraculous
  • non-fiction
  • Over in the Wetlands
  • poetry
  • publication
  • Ride On, Will Cody!
  • Song of the Raven
  • teaching
  • The Burning Season
  • The Notebook Series
  • the writing life
  • this and that

Copyright © 2023 · Caroline Starr Rose · Site by Design by Insight

I participate in Amazon Services LLC Associates and Bookshop.org, affiliate programs that allow me to make a small commission if you click through and make a purchase. Thank you for supporting this site!

Sign up for biweekly blog posts + my quarterly author newsletter and receive a printable quote from my novel, Blue Birds.