K. Lang-Slattery's Blog, page 7
April 26, 2017
A Summer Book for Young Readers
After two years promoting my adult novel, Immigrant Soldier, I decided go back to my roots – children’s literature. As a result of the publication of the novel, I now have my very own publishing company. Why not publish a children’s book?
A Summer Book for Young Readers
After two years promoting my adult novel, Immigrant Soldier, I decided go back to my roots – children’s literature. As a result of the publication of the novel, I now have my very own publishing company. Why not publish a children’s book?
Last February, I pulled out one of my favorite children’s manuscripts – a work where I continue to own the rights. Based on a childhood memory, it tells the story of a little girl with a big idea in early chapter-book format. I checked the manuscript over, made a few changes and improvements, and sent it to my editor, Lorraine Fico-White. She encouraged me to go ahead with the project. “I love Caitlin and can easily see this becoming a series,” she wrote. So preparation work for publishing the manuscript began!
In a children’s book, illustrations are primary. However, I never wanted to do the illustrations myself. I turned to a friend who is a professional artist and asked if he would create the illustrations. Ron is a sculptor first and foremost, but he is also a talented draftsman in both pen and ink and pencil renderings. He agreed to help, and we worked together on ideas for the illustrations. The result is a delightful selection of pencil and ink drawings, including four full-page illustrations, one half-page picture, and more than a dozen small pencil vignettes scattered throughout.
Most delightfully, a charming lizard, developed a personality. He greets the reader at the start of each chapter, giving one more reason to turn the pages.
As the result of teamwork between the editor, the book designer Lori DeWorken, our illustrator Ron Whitacre, and myself, Pacific Bookworks’ second book is ready for publication in time for summer reading by children ages six through nine.
Pacific Bookworks is proud to present Tagalong Caitlin, an early chapter book available on Amazon on May 1, and as a Kindle e-book a few days later.
Caitlin loves summer camp!
She has spent every summer she can remember at camp with her mom, who is a counselor. This summer, Caitlin wants to join the difficult, three-day hike with the older girls. But Caitlin’s mom says she’s not old enough yet. Caitlin is determined to change everyone’s mind and prove she is strong enough for the hike. Will Caitlin be allowed to go on the overnight hike? And if so, will she be able to do the full three days?
“Tagalong Caitlin is about growing up, about setting a goal and working to get there, and about sticking to it when the going gets tough. Young readers will love the outdoor setting and enjoy Caitlin’s ‘can-do’ attitude as she tries to become just like the other campers.”
Marion Coste, award-winning author of seven children’s books.
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March 11, 2017
My Mother's Secret - A Self-Publication Success
I have to admit, Amazon has my number! Whenever I sign in to my account on their website, I get a display of “featured recommendations,” and when I order a book, I am shown selections that “Customers who bought this item also bought.” It was one of these suggestions that lead me to the wonderful little novel, My Mother’s Secret by J. L. Witterick.
My Mother’s Secret – A Self-Publication Success
I have to admit, Amazon has my number! Whenever I sign in to my account on their website, I get a display of “featured recommendations,” and when I order a book, I am shown selections that “customers who bought this item also bought.” It was one of these suggestions that lead me to the wonderful little novel, My Mother’s Secret by J. L. Witterick.
The description on Amazon says, “Inspired by a true story, My Mother’s Secret is a captivating and ultimately uplifting tale intertwining the lives of two Jewish families in hiding from the Nazis, a fleeing German soldier, and the mother and daughter who team up to save them all.” There was no way I could resist this introduction.
Last week, after finishing a group of three dense nonfiction books, I chose this thin book from the huge stack on my bookshelf because I needed a quick read with a compelling plot. Thumbing through the pages, I saw well-spaced lines and short chapters. More importantly, I spied simple but beautiful sentences like this one from the middle of the book: “People are like water in a pond where you cannot see the bottom.”
I read the book in three days, though I could have finished it in a day if I hadn’t forced myself to set it down occasionally and attend to things such as preparing my taxes, working on my current writing project, and attending meetings.
Like Immigrant Soldier, Witterick’s novel is based on a true story. She learned about the bravery of Franciszka Halamajowa and her daughter Helena from a 2009 film documentary, No. 4 Street of Our Lady. The story so inspired the Taiwanese-Canadian, money-and-investment manager turned writer, that she determined to write a novel about Franciszka. When she had a draft, she wisely sought input and advice from a myriad of connections and friends. In her acknowledgments at the end of the book, Witterick says, “Every time I think the story has reached its destination and cannot possibly be improved, fate sends me someone to take it one level higher.” The result is a truly powerful story told with pathos and understanding.
The novel, a story of courage, fear, love, and determination during the dark days of Nazi occupation in Poland, is told in first person by four different characters. Helena, the daughter, begins the tale. Following sections are told by the father of one on the Jewish families saved, the eight-year-old boy of the other hidden Jewish family, and the pacifist German soldier that also finds refuge in Franciszka’s home when he deserts. Finally, the end of the tale returns to Helena as the narrator. Witterick made only minor changes from the true story—notably she added an appealing and believable romance and softened the ending for the German deserter.
The author used her business acumen to aggressively market the book that she self-published with iUniverse in 2012. Unlike most self-published authors, she seems to have had thousands of dollars available to pay for advertising on the radio, on bus shelters, and in newspapers and magazines. Now, I am happy this worked for her, but I admit to the wish that I could front a similar advertising campaign.
G. P. Putnam’s Sons, one of the world’s leading trade imprints picked up My Mother’s Secret almost immediately. They republished it as part of their 2013 list. This is a huge success for a self-published author, one I often dream of, and the book certainly deserves this window to millions of additional readers. The National Jewish Book Awards of 2013 named the book “Outstanding Debut Fiction Finalist.”
My Mother’s Secret is appropriate and readable for anyone over the age of 12 and would make a great curriculum supplement for students. Adult readers will find it an unforgettable book and one they will want to share with friends. I highly recommend it!
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December 30, 2016
Book Promotion for the Self-Published Author
Book Promotion for the Self-Published Author
Over the last year, I have tried a variety of promotional avenues —some have worked out better than others. Often assessing the benefit is impossible and it is necessary to proceed on faith and the hope that some of your efforts will hit the mark.
Early on, I concentrated on contacting independent bookstores (difficult and often fruitless) and museum gift shops, especially the shops at various Holocaust museums (more successful if I was persistent). Stores and gift shops interested in putting Immigrant Soldier on their shelves could purchase books from the distributor (Ingram Content) or from Pacific Bookworks (my publishing company), either for a wholesale price or on a consignment basis. But without the media/advertising backing of a traditional publisher, sales are very slow and often the bookstores take advantage of the Ingram return policy, which can put my account in the red as far as royalties go. Worst of all, in November of this year, Ingram charged me for all the returns, a sum of well over $200! However, in order to be in bookstores or libraries at all, I must keep Immigrant Soldier available through Ingram.
Direct customer sales through Amazon have picked up gradually as the book gathers more and more positive reviews.
https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=Immigrant+Soldier%2C+The+Story+of+a+Ritchie+Boy .
If you follow this link, don’t buy the used book on offer for $65.54! Do people really fall for this? In fact, though I am happy for any sales and all readers, the sale of used books earns me nothing.
I also spent quite a bit of time in the first six months after publication getting interviews and reviews — slow and difficult work. I was able to land two appearances on a local FM radio station and a couple of articles in the local newspaper. One venue that did result in some recordable sales was an article in the Sunday section of a regional newspaper. This article also garnered me an invitation to participate in a local (Newport Beach) book fair, one of two book fairs where I have set up a table and talked to prospective readers. Unfortunately, the big book fairs, like the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books have prohibitively high entrance fees for a self-published author.
Another avenue I tried was entering my book in contests. Many of these are little more than promotional set-ups, but it looks good to promote your book as an award winner at a local book festival. However, all these contests have entry fees and require you to send one or more copies of the book for judging. Thus, I needed to be judicious in selecting the contests I would enter. I am especially proud of the IPPY and the Eric Hoffer awards.
The following are awards Immigrant Soldier has earned:
• Independent Publishers Bronze medal award (2015) in the military/wartime fiction category
• Runner-up in genre fiction from the Los Angeles Book Festival
• Silver medal rating from Mom’s Choice Awards
• Honorable mention in general fiction from the Southern California Book Festival
• Eric Hoffer Award (2016), finalist in general fiction
• National Indie Excellence Award, finalist in the Military Fiction category
• Florida Book Festival (2017), Honorable Mention in History category
• Two awards from Hollywood Book Festival, which honors work worthy of consideration by the film, television, and multimedia industries.
1. Runner-up, Biography/Autobiography
2. Honorable Mention, History
Since the beginning, I have promoted myself as a speaker and have sent out hundreds of letters and emails to veterans’ groups, museums, bookstores, community organizations, senior centers, retirement communities, and libraries offering to come and speak to their members and customers. At first, the idea of speaking to a group was stressful, but as I do it more and more, I find I love presenting my talks to an interested and attentive audience. Sometimes, especially for informal groups, like reading groups or senior centers, I speak extemporaneously about my inspiration for writing Immigrant Soldier, my experiences doing the research, and the journey to self-publication.
For groups that would like a prepared talk accompanied by PowerPoint slides, I have developed two different presentations: “Discovering the Ritchie Boys, Secret Heroes of World War II” and “Turning Fact into Fiction: The Evolution of Immigrant Soldier.” Both have been well received and are especially popular with libraries. In fact, I have recently expanded the “Fact into Fiction” presentation into a mini writing workshop. (See blog posted October 2 titled “Turning a True Story into Fiction.”) Most exciting of all, I have discovered most libraries and some senior residences have a budget that allows them to pay speakers, so now I am occasionally earning a small honorarium to help defray travel expenses. For a list of my upcoming events and presentations you can go to http://www.klangslattery.com/schedule-of-upcoming-author-events.
One exciting development is that I now have a downloadable classroom PowerPoint available for teachers. One day, when I was randomly searching the internet for possibilities, I discovered a site called “Teachers Pay Teachers” that allows educators to create and market classroom materials to others. It is a great resource for teachers who are always overstressed and overworked. (I remember this from my own days as a classroom teacher back in the late 1960s and I’m sure it’s worse today).
I have been able to partner with a husband-and-wife team who already have quite a good selection of materials on the site and have a special interest in history. My PowerPoint materials on the Ritchie Boys to work when someone other than myself acts as presenter. The husband of the team helped by upgrading the animation elements for the slides so the presentation can maintain the interest of students in a high school class. This classroom curriculum supplement material is now available to purchase for the low cost of $5.99. https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/World-War-II-The-Ritchie-Boys-Heroes-of-World-War-II-2522062 My partners and I are planning to add some extra items (lesson plan outline and a couple of handouts) to the offering soon so that it can be purchased as a “bundle.”
The association with my education partners has also yielded an unexpected bonus. The husband, a computer guy, has a travel website that allows hotel booking. He offers non-profits a 5% kickback for all reservations made through a link on their website, and he offered the same to me. Check out the travel possibilities by going to my home page www.klangslattery.com and clicking on the Favorite Hotel Collections link on the bottom left. Or you can go directly to http://favoritehotelscollection.com/partners/ritchie. If you make hotel reservations through this site, you will be helping me finance my continuing trips to speak about the Ritchie Boys around the country.
After two full years devoted to the promotion of Immigrant Soldier , I need to shift my concentration back to writing. My intention is to begin work on a new book. As part of this shift, my blogs will be posted only about once a month. If you want to continue reading my thoughts about writing, books, and history, please subscribe to the blog so you will be automatically notified of new blogs via email.
To subscribe, go to dark gray column on right of page under “Subscribe to Blog via Email.” Enter your email address and click the blue “Subscribe” button.
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December 3, 2016
December 7, 2016 – The 75th anniversary of the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor.
Though my blogs and my interest center on the Holocaust and the European experience of Nazi dominance in the 1930s and 40s, I never forget that there is another very important aspect of World War II.
December 7, 2016 – The 75th anniversary of the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor.
The “War in the Pacific” began with the bombing of Pearl Harbor, an event that killed and wounded thousands of Americans in one terrible day 75 years ago. It took the events at Pearl Harbor to finally push the United States into World War II — the war we all hoped would protect and preserve world-wide freedom and democracy.
Recent events have reminded us how fragile these freedoms can be. Out of respect for and gratitude to the veterans of World War II, those who fought and died to preserve personal freedom for generations to come, we need to remember how easily these freedoms can die under a dictator. We must not forget the lessons of the past.
I am a great believer that the future of this nation depends on the education of our youth. I encourage all teachers and parents to teach our children what can happen when governments take away the rights and freedoms of their citizens because of race or ethnicity. Books on the US government internment of Japanese-American citizens after Pearl Harbor, the terror of the Holocaust perpetrated by the German Third Reich against Jews, Gypsies, gays, and others , and the Turkish government’s Armenian Genocide (1915 to 1920) are readily available in literature appropriate for children and young adults. These government mandated acts of racial profiling, segregation, prejudice, and murder resulted in some of the darkest moments in human history. Our youth needs to know about these events and the suffering they caused so that they know the importance of standing united against their recurrence. This message is especially important in today’s emerging climate of hate and distrust of immigrants and refugees.
To find books for children and young adults about genocide and racism, I recommend the following:
My blog, Beyond Ann Frank, Holocaust Books for Youth and Teens , posted June 12, 2015, http://www.klangslattery.com/blog/entry/beyond-anne-frank-holocaust-books-for-youth-and-teens
Article in Los Angeles Times, November 20, 2016, Timely Stories of Upheaval for Youths, by Amy E. Robertson.
https://www.pressreader.com/usa/los-angeles-times/20161120/282849370574545
Armenian Genocide Resource Library for (Secondary School) Teachers, http://www.teachgenocide.org/books/more.htm
An Armenian Genocide education site. Scroll down to find a listing of fiction that deals with the Armenian Genocide and includes grade level recommendations. https://genocideeducation.org/resources/books/
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