The Healdsburg Tribune was kind enough to post my upcoming event at the Hotel Healdsburg on their website. Check it out if you get a chance.
In the Media – Raggedy Chan at the Hotel Healdsburg
February 6th, 2010Presentation at James Monroe Elementary – “I’ve wanted to be an author my whole life.”
January 31st, 2010“I’ve wanted to be an author my whole life.” That’s what a young 6th grade boy said to me last week when I visited James Monroe Elementary. “You’re an inspiration to me. Thank you for visiting our school.” He made my heart melt. It’s moments like this that are just priceless and make me love what I do. School visits are definitely one of the highlights of book promotion.
James Monroe Elementary is small school in Santa Rosa, CA. I was fortunate enough to have the library for my presentation. The school library is beautiful — tons of books and an impressive computer lab to boot. There’s even a cozy reading corner set up with a cushy chair. The library tech was kind enough to let me use her space and her furniture for my presentation.
Camille Picott preparing for her presentation at James Monroe Elementary School
My first presentation was for the 5th graders. I talked about comic books, graphic novels, and illustrated novels, and the similarities and differences between them. The second presentation was for the 6th graders. We talked about Chinese Mythology.
Camille Picott presenting a lesson on Chinese Mythology to students at James Monroe Elementary
The students had a wonderful curiosity. They asked a lot of questions about my book and writing. Some of them were curious about me: Am I married, do I have children, what do I do on the weekend, etc.
I ask questions during the presentation to help the kids focus on the lesson. When a student answers a question correctly, I give him or her a Raggedy Chan bookmark. After the presentation, the students asked me to autograph the bookmarks. A few girls also asked me to sign their hands. One wanted me to sign her sweatshirt (with a permanent marker!). Thank goodness the librarian was nearby and supplied paper instead. I really enjoyed myself and look forward to my next school presentation.
Camille autographing Raggedy Chan bookmarks for students
*You’ll notice that I purposely only post pictures where you cannot clearly see the faces of the children. This is to protect the privacy of the students.*
Raggedy Chan reading at the Hotel Healdsburg, Sunday Feb 7th 1 – 2pm
January 31st, 2010In celebration of Chinese New Year, I will be reading from Raggedy Chan at the Hotel Healdsburg on Sunday, February 7th, from 1:00 – 2:00pm. The event is free and open to the public. Almond cookies and hot apple cider will be served. A Raggedy Chan coloring activity will follow immediately after the reading. Hope to see some of you there!
Raggedy Chan ‘landing page’ operational at last
January 23rd, 2010After some minor/major website issues, I finally got the Raggedy Chan landing page up. Check it out at: http://www.raggedychan.com/ (Next time, will someone remind me not to pull the old site down until the new one is up and operational?) It now links directly to Pixiu Press and eliminates the worry of having to take care of 2 websites.
BAIPA (Bay Area Independent Publishers Assoc.) Meeting, 1/9/10 – An innovative approach to EBooks
January 16th, 2010At this month’s meeting of the Bay Area Independent Publishers Assoc, we were given a special treat: a power point presentation by E.M. Ginger of 42-Line. 42-Line is a publishing company specializing in converting rare manuscripts into digital books.
What I loved most about this presentation was the innovative use of digital media and eBooks. There are lots of eBooks out there, but let’s face it: nothing beats the smell and feel of a real book. But 42-Line realizes there are in fact a lot of rare books out there that can’tbe held and touched and smelled by the common public–books like the Guttenberg Bible, of which there are only 3 in the world. 42-Line makes rare and special books available to common public though digital media. A rare book that carries a price tag of $143,000 can be purchased as a digital book for anywhere from $20 – $80 from 42-Line.
42-Line gained access to the Library of Congress, where they used specialized equipment to photograph every page of rare books such as the Guttenberg Bible. They use the highest resolution available, so that buyers of their ebooks can zoom in on rare illustrations found inside the books. They also take high-res photos of the book covers, so the details can be enjoyed by bibliophiles.
The photographs of the books and all the interior pages are only one facet of 42-Line’s digital books. Each eBook is designed so reader can print the entire content. They also include translations. They even embed a search engine into the eBook, so readers can search for special passages. This isn’t as easy as it sounds. The eBook software can’t scan the pictures of the text. Instead, every word of the books has to be manually embedded into the software for the search engine.
To produce these digital formats of rare books, 42-Line employed designers, photographers, typographers, writers, translators, etc. — everything you would need to produce a print book, and in some cases, more.
And where does the name of the company, “42-Line,” come from? Apparently, the Guttenburg Bible is famous for having 42 lines of text on each page. From what I understood from Ginger’s presentation, this was the first time 42 lines of text was made standard.
I’ve seen a lot of great presentations at the monthly BAIPA meetings, but this one was by far the most exciting. I love to see how other publishers are distinguishing themselves through creative innovation.
Thank You Note #3
January 10th, 2010I just love these notes from the students. I can’t resist posting one last one. It’s my very favorite of the bunch. (Hey, be glad I’m not posting all 60!)
The note reads: “November 19,2009. Dear Camille Picott, Thank you for coming to our school on Tuesday November 17. I love your book and that you came. Thank you for doing the presentation of Raggedy Chan. Thank you for making Raggedy Chan for all the kids in the world. Can I say thank you 1 thousand times. From, xxx”
“Thank you for making Raggedy Chan for all the kids in the world.” Seriously, it makes my heart just melt.
Thank You Note #2
January 9th, 2010Here’s the next thank-you note from a student at Waldo Rohnert Elementary:
It reads: “Dear Ms. Picott, Thank you for coming to our school and thank you for telling us about the story. Raggedy Chan is a cool story. Thank you for the book mark. Sincerely, xxx” (Again, name omitted to protect student’s privacy.)
I asked a lot of questions during my presentations. When a student answered correctly, I gave him or her a Raggedy Chan bookmark. That’s what the student is referring to in the letter. I think this letter is so sweet!
Thank You Note #1
January 7th, 2010Back in November, I went to Waldo Rohnert Elementary School to do a presentation on Chinese Mythology for the kids. I recently received a packet of thank-you notes from the children. Each note was accompanied by an illustration of a character of scene from Raggedy Chan. I was so impressed by the thank you notes. The students’ penmanship and writing skills were fantastic. I was blown away by the little details so many of them recalled from the presentation. I’ve scanned a few of the letters and will be posting them over the next few days. I have removed the name of the student from the letter to protect their identity.
The letter reads:
“Dear Picott, I like the dragons that you showed us. I can’t believe dragons in China are nice to people. I thought that they were mean to people! I think it is interesting that one of the dragons can swim under water. I can’t believe that you have been writing books since you were nine! Sincerely, xxx” At the very bottom of the letter is an illustration of Raggedy Chan.
12/12 BAIPA Meeting: Marketing is Everything
December 26th, 2009I’m a little ate posting on this month’s BAIPA meeting, but better late than never, right?
First off, I had the pleasure of attending the meeting with Amanda Baker, a local illustrator from Sonoma County. You can learn more about Amanda and see samples of her fabulous illustrations at: http://amandakaybaker.com/ She is actively seeking work as an illustrator, so if you know of any opportunities, please contact her. Most impressive are her fairies.
This month’s BAIPA presenter was David Cole of Bay Tree Publishing. His book is The Complete Guide to Book Marketing. (Check it out on Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Guide-Book-Marketing/dp/1581153228.) David gave us several great handouts. One handout covered the Bay Tree publishing model, and the other was a list of marketing resources. Some of the resources on his marketing resources handout include: Independent Book Publishers Association and Northern California Book Publicity and Marketing Association.
David Cole had some neat insights into the publishing industry. Here are a few of the things he covered in his presentation:
- Writing in only about 10% of the work; the other 90% of the work is marketing/publicity. I think this is true whether or not you are a publishers or an author or both. If you want people to buy your stuff, you have to let them know it exists through marketing and publicity.
- Marketing is Everything & Everything is Marketing. This is one of my favorite tips that I picked up from David. When he says everything is marketing, he means EVERYTHING: from the author, to the interior of the book, to the title, to the target audience, to the book cover, to the publisher — EVERYTHING is an aspect of marketing, it’s just a matter of finding out how it fits into the puzzle. This made me think more about some of the marketing plans I’m working on.
- The intent of a writer is to find a reader, to share his/her story with others. If this wasn’t the intent, all of us would be writing and just sticking our stories away in a drawer or computer file. Some of us do this anyway. It’s always a bit scary for any artist to put his or her work out for the public, whether it’s a painting or a sculpture or a magazine or a book. But it part of the process, and a part of intent behind the writing (for most of us, anyway).
- Marketing is the process of putting the writer and the reader together. You don’t have to reach 1 million people, just the people who are most likely to buy your book.
- How do you make a small fortune in the publishing business? Start with a large fortune. Enough said.
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Raggedy Chan at the Sonoma County Office of Education
December 14th, 2009About a week ago, I had the pleasure of being a presenter at the annual Best Book Workshop at the Sonoma County Office of Education.
The workshop was organized by Michael Powell, one of the district librarians. It was attended by approximately twenty-five local librarians and teachers.
My presentation had two segments. Since part of the workshop involved “book talk,” I presented a power point show of my book. I included many of the illutrations and gave a summary of Raggedy Chan. This gave me a chance to highlight some of the themes in the book, such as ‘immigration’ and ‘fitting in’.
Next I did a presentation on speculative fiction. I discussed why I thought it was important to education, and I talked about some of the free resources out there for educators interested in incorporating speculative fiction into their lessons. (One of the free resources of course being my website, where I give away free teaching curricula.)
Here is a picture of me with Raggedy Chan and Michael Powell.
