K. Lang-Slattery's Blog, page 8
December 30, 2016
Book Promotion for the Self-Published Author
As a self-published author, the job of book promotion landed directly on my shoulders. It also soon became clear that some venues for sales were not open to Immigrant Soldier because it was self-published, or at best, were difficult to break into.
Book Promotion for the Self-Published Author
As a self-published author, the job of book promotion landed directly on my shoulders. It also soon became clear that some venues for sales were not open to Immigrant Soldier because it was self-published, or at best, were difficult to break into.
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.
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.
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.
The post Book Promotion for the Self-Published Author appeared first on Klang Slattery.
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.
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 action in the Pacific was crucial to World War II.
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/
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/
The post December 7, 2016 – The 75th anniversary of the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor. appeared first on Klang Slattery.
October 15, 2016
Hitler’s Adjutant - The SS Officer, Richard Schulze-Kossens
[image error]One of the more complicated and controversial minor characters in
Immigrant Soldier
is SS-Obersturmbannführer Richard Schulze. I have had several readers comment about the friendship between the novel’s hero, Herman, and this German SS officer.
World War II POWs in the United States
In
Immigrant Soldier,
Herman and his unit captured a young German soldier who hated the fighting and killing. After Herman interrogated the youth, he sent the soldier to the prisoners’ infirmary. “He hoped that the boy would be on the next transport to the coast and a ship to the United States. Maybe he would be picking cotton stateside by summer.” (page 300)
The Real Clara Lang
When I speak with book groups, they almost always ask me questions about the real people behind the novel’s characters. Women readers especially want to know more about Herman’s mother, Clara. “Did she ever see Albert again?” is one of their most frequently asked questions.
October 2, 2016
A Writers’ Workshop -"Turning a True Story into Fiction."
Last summer, as I planned a trip to the Dayton area, I contacted several organizations in southwestern Ohio which I thought might be interested in hearing one of my presentations. Usually the most popular one is "Discovering the Ritchie Boys of WWII," an overview of Camp Ritchie and the Ritchie Boys, their contributions to the WWII effort, and profiles of a few of the men I have interviewed or researched.
September 16, 2016
Camp Ritchie, Maryland - Development of the Intelligence Training Center
[image error]The 400 acres that was to become the Camp Ritchie Intelligence Training Center, began life in 1889 as the property of the Buena Vista Ice Company. They created two manmade lakes where winter allowed natural ice to form which could be shipped via the nearby railroad spur to Washington, DC. The lakes also served as a recreation destination in the summer tourist season.
Recently, I was contacted by the former Post Historian for Fort Ritchie and she agreed to write the following guest blog about the development of Camp Ritchie after it was sold to the Maryland National Guard.
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Recently, I was contacted by the former Post Historian for Fort Ritchie and she agreed to write the following guest blog about the development of Camp Ritchie after it was sold to the Maryland National Guard.
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September 3, 2016
World War II Posters and the War Advertising Council
When I visited the Military Heritage Museum in Punta Gorda, Florida, last October, I paused in the meeting room after my talk to enjoy their display of World War II posters. They reminded me vividly of the passion and self-sacrifice the American people were expected to display at that time in our history. They also started me thinking about the art and effort that went into producing these posters, as well as the radio, newspaper, and magazine ads that infused US citizens with patriotism during World War II.
