Blog to Book at BlogPaws™

We were so sorry our own Nadine (who has contributed to this blog regularly and will continue to do so) could not be at  BlogPaws due to a family emergency. Because of that, I was called in to moderate the book publishing panel which consisted of Penny Sansevieri from Author Marketing Experts,  @bookgal and Ret Hot Internet Publicity; Edie Jarolim of Will My  Dog Hate Me? and Am I Boring My Dog? , @willmydoghateme; and Janiss Garza, Sparkle the Cat who wrote the book (with Janiss's help, we think) Dear Sparkle: Advice From One Cat to Another , @sparklecat.

There was far too much information shared for one blog post, but I'll give you my overview and direct you to each panelists' blog or website for their take on the conference and their panel.

Penny spoke first. She encouraged the audience to write, to keep in mind that their blog posts could be made into a book simply and easily using readily available tools - check out Lulu or other POD sites. POD stands for print-on-demand, a form of self-publishing that creates the book and only prints it "on demand" or when someone orders it.

Penny was extremely helpful in giving the audience tips. For instance, get a real book cover designer. Not all designers understand how to make a book cover. And, have two people edit and proofread your work. One will catch many of the errors, but the second one will catch those that the first one didn't. And, be confident. Your self-published book could easily catch the eye of a traditional publisher, if you are hoping to go that route. Having a blog builds credibility because you show your ability to do the writing, and you have a built-in audience. Sign up for Penny's newsletter, here.

Janiss shared her fabulous book proposal with us. It was for the second Sparkle the Cat book, and displayed Sparkle's whimsy, her wit, and her unique ability to communicate her cat needs to humans. Janiss was smart to focus on using the success of Sparkle the Cat's blog persona to create a book proposal editors fell in love with. She included pictures of Sparkle - always a plus. That's not necessarily the way to go for all books - adding humor and pictures - but it worked for Janiss because her book is a humorous book about/for pets and their people.

We will have her proposal up for your review, soon!

Edie shared her terrific book trailers with us. In Am I Boring My Dog? she shares thoughts from the dog's point of view ... and does a fabulous job of being informative but funny. Don't we all agree that our pets can be hilarious and if they COULD speak, they would say the things these women write? Seriously!

I was so impressed with Edie's honesty and her willingness to share some of the struggles she's had with the book publishing world. Case in point, the publishers don't always support you once the book is published. And, many publishers only want to talk to people from NYC. As if living in NYC gives you an edge!

At the end, Edie shared a delightful article in a book newsletter (we'll have to ask her to share the link if she reads this) which was a take-off on how book publicity works. It was only funny because...it was so true! The marketing departments of big publishers just don't support their authors the way the authors expect. Not always, of course. Janiss aka Sparkle, was lucky enough to find editors at her publishering house that believed in her book and printed post cards to bring to BlogPaws!

When you see Edie's book trailers, you'll agree that this is a must-read book for dog lovers! Buy it to read to your dog. He or she will send you some cross-eyed looks, no doubt (maybe your dog will want to discuss it all with Frankie, Edie's dog, and ask why Frankie is giving away so many secrets!)

Everyone who attended the session said they learned something. We did not have time for questions, unfortunately. One of the things we BlogPaws people learned is that we need to tweak the timing of sessions and make sure presenters and audience members get to engage. Still, Penny, Janiss and Edie were available afterwards, and for the entire rest of the conference, for conversation on how to write and publish your first or second or 99th book.

We thank them!

(watch for more reports on sessions...I did not have a chance to attend them all, so I will need to tap into others for more info...if you attended a session and have insight to share here, please email me. Thanks! Yvonne)

Comments

[Martha Smith]

This sounds like it was a great session--I wish I could have attended them all. Thanks for the recap!

[Edie]

First, thank you and your fellow conference organizers so much for giving me the opportunity to participate in BlogPaws. What an inspiring event! And thank you too for filling in at the last minute to moderate our panel.

In answer to your question. The piece on publicity (or lack thereof) I read from at the end of the session was an Authors Guild Bulletin reprint of a story that initially appeared in the New Yorker: The link is here: http://www.newyorker.com/humor/2009/10/19/091019sh_shouts_weiner

And just one clarification: Though Frankie rules my life and starred in the book trailer you were nice enough to link to, so far he hasn't taken over my writing. Am I Boring My Dog -- and my blog -- allude to incidents from his life but are in my voice, not his. So far.

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I hope the advice is not catty.

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I think this would have been great and interesting session specially for who have pets and will get an idea that how to deal with them properly. After reading i m thinking of having a pet. Thanks for sharing interesting blog.

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When some one leaves it affects the blog so much specially when people only visit that blog because of that person. I hope that person come soon and join the blog otherwise they will loose their audience.