Griffie World Happenings

With today being part of a holiday weekend, I really didn’t get to accomplish much today in the way of writing, marketing, etc. I’ve mulled over some ideas, but that has been about the extent of things.

The review from The Lulu Book Review has been posted to Amazon.com, so I was very happy to note that it was there. I was also happy to note that the review posted against both the paperback and Kindle versions of the book. Now all I have to do is post the review to Barnes & Noble.

All for now - tomorrow I’ll get back on the horse and get something (anything) accomplished.

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LK Gardner-Griffie
Visit me at Griffie World
To buy Misfit McCabe, visit my store at Lulu.com

Today has been about the book trailer. I have been searching for what I want to use and developing the concept. I have found the pictures that I want to use and have a part of the concept developed.

I am now trying out various software to assist me in putting the trailer together. I ran into a little bit of a snag because Windows Movie Maker is only importing 3:08 seconds of the video that I put together, but it may be due to the fact that the software used to create the video is a demo software. I will have to do some further testing.

The next step is to come up with the music to underscore the project and then I will be well on my way. Since it is late, that is all for now. I will continue to work on the trailer so I can get it completed and launched.

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LK Gardner-Griffie
Visit me at Griffie World
To buy Misfit McCabe, visit my store at Lulu.com

I am drifting on a cloud. . . my work has been compared to Judy Blume. Now, that may not seem like a big thing to some, but I remember a time when Judy Blume was THE author for young adult books, when the concept of young adult was in its infancy.

I have just received a review of my young adult novel, Misfit McCabe, from The Lulu Book Review, and it was a stellar review. I haven’t come down from the heights yet.

Waiting for a review can be a little nerve wracking because you have taken your work and actively sought out someone else’s opionion. Will they like it? Will they hate it? Will they be able to give you a quote you can use to help promote your work? When will they get to your book on the mounting pile of submissions?

My first experience with a review was not quite the experience I was hoping for. I submitted to a fairly new review site, and because they were new, the turn around on the review was faster than normal. The review was positive, but the reviewer was so green, that it was not a well constructed review, and left me with no quotable material.

My next experience was better. I submitted to a student reviewer site and the 11 year old student wrote a better constructed review of my work than the adult reviewer. Of course it was helpful that the student reviewer liked the work, and I finally had something to quote.

At the time I submitted my book for review to the above two sites, I also submitted my book to a third site, for which I am still awaiting a review. It will happen one day - and hopefully, I’ll still be checking the site when it does ~ otherwise I may never know.

Because The Lulu Book Review is a newer review site, I was able to get a quick turn around from submission to review (the fastest ever). I knew that the review itself, whether positive or not so positive, would be well constructed, because I had done my homework and read through the reviews on the site. The only remaining question was whether or not the reviewer would like the work.

I was absolutely amazed by the positive review. It started with the comparison to Judy Blume and continued to get better. Thanks so much to Shannon Yarbrough, author of Stealing Wishes, for his vision and drive and talent for writing.

Read the Complete Review

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LK Gardner-Griffie
Visit me at Griffie World

I joined my first social networking site today - FaceBook. So far, I am finding it a little frustrating, because they categorize groups and finding friends in a different manner than I would and the search functionality to me is a little cumbersome. Other than that, we will see.

My reason for joining was that Flamingnet.com, the young adult review site, is starting a Facebook presence, and I wanted to show my support for the site by joining as a fan.

I think that I am going to have to wait until this weekend to really be able to work on the book trailer for Misfit McCabe. I have been trying to devote some time to it, but have ended up getting involved in other things or had some distractions.

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LK Gardner-Griffie
Visit me at Griffie World

I had a brainwave today and have been able to put it together and get it posted to the website already. As I was driving along on my way to the dentist, I realized that I had a black and white copy of the cover of Misfit McCabe which would make an excellent coloring page companion piece to the book. I don’t even know what made me think of it, but once the idea was in my head it took root and by the time I got to the dentist’s office, I knew how I was going to put it together and what I am going to do as far as marketing uses.

I have made it available on my Lulu Storefront site as a free download, as well as making it available on Griffie World with a link on the home page. I will include several copies with the marketing kits that I am getting ready to send out to local schools as well. I also figure I will post the link on some of the Young Adult reader forums, such as Flamingnet.com and Young Adults (& Kids) Books Central. I don’t have all of these things done quite yet, but I am definitely on my way.

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LK Gardner-Griffie
Visit me at Griffie World

I have been doing my homework today and looking up book trailers on YouTube as I try to develop a book trailer for Misfit McCabe. A book trailer is a very good tool for marketing and in today’s publishing environment, pretty much a requirement. I haven’t started the process for obtaining all of the pictures that I want to use, or music for that matter as yet, but am starting by viewing book trailers in the young adult/juvenile fiction genre to see what I think works and what doesn’t work in my opinion.

I have taken some of the information posted by Brenda Coulter on her blog
No rules. Just write called Promoting Your Novel: How to Make a Book Trailer. I will keep track of my progress and setbacks via this blog.

I have seen some things I have liked, and some things I definitely haven’t so, I am starting to compile my list of things I want to include in the trailer. I definitely want it to be eye catching and to POP!

On with the homework.

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LK Gardner-Griffie
Visit me at Griffie World

Upon signing on to my computer after work today, I found that I had actually become a prize winner. Now mind you, I never win prizes. I enter contests from time to time, but wins usually don’t come my way. So, I was absolutely delighted to win a copy of John Kremer’s 1001 Ways to Market Your Books, which is very apt for a writer. I happened to win this volume by entering a contest held by The Lulu Book Review. This site has gained over 10,000 visitors in less than a six month time frame and provides well thought out reviews for those writers who publish using Lulu.com

Anyway, I can’t wait to receive my prize as I am currently working on the marketing materials and strategy for my book Misfit McCabe, and more ideas will never hurt.

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LK Gardner-Griffie
Visit me at Griffie World
To buy Misfit McCabe, visit my store at Lulu.com or purchase at Amazon.com
To track Misfit McCabe across the country, visit:
Where in the World is Misfit McCabe?
Own a Kindle? Download Misfit McCabe in an instant.
To read book reviews by LK Gardner-Griffie, visit: The Lulu Book Review

Tonight I took a little break from writing to assist my in-laws with the installation of their DSL line. I have finally brought them into the technological age. It took a little longer than it should have. . . ok - a lot longer than it should have, as the phone company canceled their account, but installed the line and sent them the equipment. It was a snafu from start to finish. But the good thing is that they are now up and running and it only cost me about an hour and a half on the phone (most of it waiting to talk to SOMEONE - ANYONE.)

The girls, Gryphon, Phoenix and Elsa, hung out with their Papa while I worked on trying to get the account issue resolved. They played in the back yard and ran away from their crazy cousin dog, Daisy. Ultimately, I did get everything resolved and everyone is happy.

I was even able to show them my website Griffie World, and this blog. What was funny to me was they apparently didn’t realize that I am working on the sequel to Misfit McCabe. They received a letter from a friend of theirs in Omaha, who happens to be a librarian and is currently reading my book and she had checked out the website and told them I was working on a sequel. I thought I had told them that - oh well.

It is gratifying to think that a librarian in another state is reading my book and liking it well enough to look at the website. Oh, the Omaha connection is that every year, my in-laws go to Omaha for the College World Series and they have met several people of Omaha and have developed friendships over the years. I think it is a great tradition and hope that it continues. Of course, they like it best when Cal State Fullerton goes to the College World Series, because that is our “home” team that we root for (and support in the stands).

Well - it’s back to the writing desk tomorrow.

PS - It was nice to see that Shannon Yarbrough saw the article that I wrote about the Lulu Book Review on Author’s Den. He also posted a comment along the lines of my previous blog, stating that not all reviews are positive (nor should they be or they would be meaningless), but his strive to provide a positive slant mixed with constructive criticism. As a writer, that is the best we can hope for. Someone to tell us what they liked, why they liked it, as well as what didn’t work quite so well, so we can improve upon it the next time.
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LK Gardner-Griffie
Visit me at Griffie World

Interesting happening today (well to me anyway). Last night I wrote and posted an article on Author’s Den about the Lulu Book Review site. The intent of the article was to make the author’s at Author’s Den aware of the site. When you are a POD (print on demand) author, it is sometimes difficult to get a review for your work. I was very pleased to find this site, especially since it looks so well put together and already a lot of information is appearing on it for such a new site.

Anyway, the intent of the article was to hopefully entice some authors to take a look at the site and maybe, if they felt it was right for them, to submit their own work for review. Let me make very clear, that I am not affilitated with the Lulu Book Review site in any way at this time, and was simply helping someone who is helping out authors (as I see it).

Wouldn’t you know, but the first comment posted to the article was by someone who advised that they personally would not use the review site because there are so many nasty people out there, and if you get a bad review it sticks like mud.

Well, I did post a response back to that, but here is my candid response. If the person posting the comment had actually look at the site and read some of the reviews (as was my recommendation in the article), then they might have noticed that the reviews on the site are positive, and in fact there is a post stating that no negative commnets would be posted to the site. A little ironic perhaps that a person cautioning against negativity is doing so in a negative fashion.

I would expect that anyone who would submit their work for review would first do an assessment of the review site, because not every review site is for every author. you need to make sure that you are submitting your work to a party who appreciates/reads your genre. For example, I would NEVER submit my work to a site which had an emphasis on romance/erotica because that is not what I write. Generally the people reviewing those do not necessarily read Young Adult, which is my main area.

Now to work.
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LK Gardner-Griffie
Visit me at Griffie World
To buy Misfit McCabe, visit my store at Lulu.com or purchase at Amazon.com
To track Misfit McCabe across the country, visit:
Where in the World is Misfit McCabe?
Own a Kindle? Download Misfit McCabe in an instant.
To read book reviews by LK Gardner-Griffie, visit: The Lulu Book Review

I am so jazzed to have completed the posting of the 17 articles that I have written (so far) that are geared for Young Writers. I wanted to get that off my plate before really getting into the purpose of this blog which is to talk about writing, the writing process, my novels, articles, etc. Reformatting them for the blog took a little bit of time. . . it wasn’t a simple copy/paste job.

I have been writing for several years, but intermittently and have recently decided that this is something that I need to do on a more regular basis. One reason is that I definitely have been bitten by the writing bug again, another is that writing allows me to get rid of some of my creative energy that would otherwise drive me insane.

The WritingBug

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LK Gardner-Griffie
Visit me at Griffie World
To buy Misfit McCabe, visit my store at Lulu.com or purchase at Amazon.com
To track Misfit McCabe across the country, visit:
Where in the World is Misfit McCabe?
Own a Kindle? Download Misfit McCabe in an instant.
To read book reviews by LK Gardner-Griffie, visit: The Lulu Book Review