Originally posted HERE
I just got back from the BookExpo. Wow! Can I just say WOW! I had more movie producers and TV producers talk to me, as well as a talent agency (Gwyn Foxx) who may be interested in selling my book to the movie industry--which is good, since the other talent agency I met at the LA Times Festival of Books never showed up. I got a solid offer from a Canadian independent publisher (robotpress.net) as well as some solid interest from large publishers, including an affiliate of Disney (ModernPublishing.com). The head acquisitions director for Sony (eBooks) talked to me for nearly 30 minutes and is very excited about my book. She even offered to connect me with Richard Curtis (literary agent). When I got home, an email from another literary agent, Katie Menick from Howard Morhaim Literary Agency, awaited me. She asked for a copy of my book. The agent I met on day 2 was Jenoyne Adams with Bliss Literary Agency International. After doing some research, I’ve discovered that there are pluses and minuses with both of the agencies. I’m debating whether I should shop around for some more agents, while the excitement is still strong. Oh, I got invited to present at several school/library events and to speak on several radio stations. Not a bad way to end the BookExpo.
Now the key to all of this is follow-up. Will any of these people actually call me like they said they will? Most of them gave me their business cards, so at least I can follow up myself if they don't contact me. I’ve proven that my book is marketable (it hit the BarnesAndNoble.com bestseller list and is now placing in contests). And I have a strong offer on the table and some interest from some bigger fish. The offer from Robot Binaries & Press would probably entail a 15,000 print run with about $15,000 set aside for promotions, and a great distributor with a national sales force. The owner of the company asked me what I was looking for in an advance, but I didn't give him a figure, because I wanted to leave that to an agent.
I'm concerned about going with another independent press, however, especially because their first book hasn't even come out yet (it will come out in September, and it's called "I, robot" -- Foreword Magazine actually said it was better than the original book and movie) and because they might have shipping issues by being located in Canada. They don’t have a track record, but I know the president, Howard Smith, has spent maybe $60,000 on the first book, and after talking to him for a while I could see that he really means business and knows what he’s talking about. Heck, he spent $5,000+ for a booth at the BookExpo to promote a book that’s not even coming out for four more months! Every question I asked was answered with a positive answer such as distribution, promotion, etc.
I do have real concerns regarding the pricing of the book, however. The headquarters of Borders or B&N (I can’t remember which) sent me a letter once telling me they didn’t want to stock my book, Paraworld Zero, because it couldn’t compete price-wise with the other books. Many stores stocked it anyway because of the demand. But they told me in their letter that $14.95 is too much for a trade paperback. I somewhat agree. If you go into Borders and B&N, you’ll see some hardbacks for that price, but no paperbacks that high. Robot Binaries is selling “I, robot” for $17.95. I’ve had complaints from bookstores regarding the price of $16.95 that Paraworld Zero is currently at. I can only imagine how hard it’s going to be for a B&N or Borders to sell a $17.95 trade paperback book when all the other books are going for $5 less than that.
All those uncertainties are troubling. What if the first and second book he has lined up don’t do well? What if he can’t pay me a decent advance? The mistake I made with my current publisher is that I opted for a higher royalty instead of an advance, with the intentions of making even more money in the long run. What happened was that my publisher wasn’t vested enough in the project because they didn’t have as much to lose. I now see the value in a good advance. High advance = High interest in making the book successful (so they can get their money back). Regardless of all this, I’m betting an agent would push the Disney-affiliated company first. But I certainly like Howard's zeal. He seems to be doing a lot of the right things.
So, to wrap things up, the BEA was a WONDERFUL event! I can't say it was wonderful for most of the other authors there. Many were very discouraged. I seemed to strike gold, though. I had a wonderful pitch: "Harry Potter meets Star Wars!" I gave away about 400 books. My booth was very nice to look at as well (I had an 8x8 foot backdrop of the characters from my book). I had a laptop which showed my video trailer, and I think that's what got all of the movie peoples' attention. What's funny is that quite a few people told me that they had already seen the video trailer or that they had already bought my book. Several MySpace friends came to see me in person for the first time, including John Kremer (book marketing guru).
I was so fired up that I drove home right after the BEA (6 hour drive) and then stayed up another 6 hours working until my boys woke up. Then I realized I better get a couple hours of sleep. Oh boy, am I tired!
Showing posts with label BookExpo America. Show all posts
Showing posts with label BookExpo America. Show all posts
Monday, June 02, 2008
Saturday, May 31, 2008
BookExpo America 2008: Day 2
Originally posted HERE
Today I was invited to be interviewed by 3 radio stations. Several audiobook and ebook publishers showed interest in Paraworld Zero (some of them said they'd call me). About 4 movie producers showed some interest in my book (they each took a book, so that's something).
Several U.S. publishers showed great interest in my book. One publisher is owned by Disney and is thinking about doing YA books. Another promising independent publisher sought me out because they had seen my book everywhere (I guess they've been tracking its progress). I was impressed with the print runs and marketing dollars they are willing to spend. The president was very excited to meet me and left his booth to talk to me. Nice guy. Oh, the owner of Edge/Dragon Moon Press (largest sf/f publisher in Canada) stopped by. We've met several times. I really like him and his company. Too bad his publishing company doesn't do young adult novels.
A couple other publishers were extremely interested in my book, but they were too small for me to look at them seriously. I've plugged in so much money (well over $100,000) and time into promoting my book, that I won't sign with another publisher unless they give me a large advance to prove to me that they will back up my promotions and book. Ingram has placed 4 orders in the past 4 months and my current publisher hasn't fulfilled any of them.... grumble... grumble. In fact, a library invited me to speak a couple of weeks ago and they told me that they had ordered books 4 months ago and still hadn't received them. Grumble... grumble... But don't get me started on that.
On to happier things such as the last 5 minutes of the day. I mentioned to the person in the booth next to me that I hadn't seen a single agent all day, and then lo and behold an agent appeared at my booth. I read her name tag wrong and made a silly impression (she had to explain to me that she sold books to publishers), but I recovered quickly and she seemed interested in my book. She even told me that I am "a publisher's dream." I just did some research on her and she looks like the type of agent I'd like to have. I'm crossing my fingers double-time on that one. I have too much interest in my book with foreign and U.S. publishers for me to not have an agent. I will definitely pursue an agent when I get back home.
I was flattered today to hear that more people had already bought my book and enjoyed it. It's very satisfying when people mention that they've seen my ads, video trailer, or read my book. Over a dozen people specifically visited me today because they had been keeping track of my book and website. Several MySpace friends introduced themselves to me (how strange is that?!). I felt like I knew one of them so well, I even gave her a hug (she's from my home town). A whole bunch of teachers and librarians said they'd like me to visit their schools, and several people invited me to speak at book events. I have a ton of business cards to sort through.
I think I'll note lastly how impressed I've been with the people. Sometimes when I go to the science fiction or fantasy conventions I tend to see a few people who are a little strange, unkempt, and socially challenged, but at the BEA, I've seen mostly professional people. For example, I met a friend who modeled for her father's book. She and her aunt were so sweet. It brightened my day every time they came to say hi. These little social interactions made standing ALL DAY LONG more bearable. Just one more day to go...
Today I was invited to be interviewed by 3 radio stations. Several audiobook and ebook publishers showed interest in Paraworld Zero (some of them said they'd call me). About 4 movie producers showed some interest in my book (they each took a book, so that's something).
Several U.S. publishers showed great interest in my book. One publisher is owned by Disney and is thinking about doing YA books. Another promising independent publisher sought me out because they had seen my book everywhere (I guess they've been tracking its progress). I was impressed with the print runs and marketing dollars they are willing to spend. The president was very excited to meet me and left his booth to talk to me. Nice guy. Oh, the owner of Edge/Dragon Moon Press (largest sf/f publisher in Canada) stopped by. We've met several times. I really like him and his company. Too bad his publishing company doesn't do young adult novels.
A couple other publishers were extremely interested in my book, but they were too small for me to look at them seriously. I've plugged in so much money (well over $100,000) and time into promoting my book, that I won't sign with another publisher unless they give me a large advance to prove to me that they will back up my promotions and book. Ingram has placed 4 orders in the past 4 months and my current publisher hasn't fulfilled any of them.... grumble... grumble. In fact, a library invited me to speak a couple of weeks ago and they told me that they had ordered books 4 months ago and still hadn't received them. Grumble... grumble... But don't get me started on that.
On to happier things such as the last 5 minutes of the day. I mentioned to the person in the booth next to me that I hadn't seen a single agent all day, and then lo and behold an agent appeared at my booth. I read her name tag wrong and made a silly impression (she had to explain to me that she sold books to publishers), but I recovered quickly and she seemed interested in my book. She even told me that I am "a publisher's dream." I just did some research on her and she looks like the type of agent I'd like to have. I'm crossing my fingers double-time on that one. I have too much interest in my book with foreign and U.S. publishers for me to not have an agent. I will definitely pursue an agent when I get back home.
I was flattered today to hear that more people had already bought my book and enjoyed it. It's very satisfying when people mention that they've seen my ads, video trailer, or read my book. Over a dozen people specifically visited me today because they had been keeping track of my book and website. Several MySpace friends introduced themselves to me (how strange is that?!). I felt like I knew one of them so well, I even gave her a hug (she's from my home town). A whole bunch of teachers and librarians said they'd like me to visit their schools, and several people invited me to speak at book events. I have a ton of business cards to sort through.
I think I'll note lastly how impressed I've been with the people. Sometimes when I go to the science fiction or fantasy conventions I tend to see a few people who are a little strange, unkempt, and socially challenged, but at the BEA, I've seen mostly professional people. For example, I met a friend who modeled for her father's book. She and her aunt were so sweet. It brightened my day every time they came to say hi. These little social interactions made standing ALL DAY LONG more bearable. Just one more day to go...
Friday, May 30, 2008
BookExpo America: Day 1
Originally posted HERE
BookExpo America: Day 1. I'm at booth 5741 in the Authors Row. The person right next to me is the voice talent for most of the characters of South Park (hard to believe that such fowl language is coming out of such a pretty girl).
It's been a very interesting day. A publisher from India said that he'd like to publish my book and will call me when he gets back to India (in about 3 weeks). There's no telling if this will actually happen or not, but he did give me his card and told me to call him if he hasn't called me by June 23rd. That's encouraging. What's funny is that he wasn't even going to stop at my booth until I got his attention. He started out very wary and didn't even want to take an audio CD. Then he relented and took a CD. Then he took my business card. As our conversation progressed, he asked me to mail him my book because he didn't want to lug it back to India, but by the end of the conversation, he asked for a copy right then and said he'd like to publish it in perhaps a 5 to 10,000 print run. How funny that 10 minutes before this, he wasn't even going to talk to me. It pays to open your mouth. Again, no contracts have been signed yet. He hasn't even read it yet! But I'm crossing my fingers. I still have publishers and agents in Croatia, Serbia, and Korea looking at my book, so I have a lot of fingers to cross.
Today, movie producers, agents, and publishers all came to my booth and spoke with me. It's a lot of fun, but I'm all alone (the person who was going to go with me bailed), so I can't visit any of the other booths! I might abandon my booth for a few minutes to visit TOR or Scholastic. I'm hoping that some more publishers and agents will speak to me. None of the U.S. ones I spoke with publish my type of book. Rights buyers tend to be very unapproachable as they walk by, but they're very easy to spot because they have orange tags and they are the only people in the convention center not carrying around a load of books.
I gave away about 150 books today, so hopefully, something good will come of that. It was nice to get the occasional comment, "Oh, I just bought your book last week," or "Oh, I've seen your video trailer on youtube." I was surprised at how many people recognized my back drop or remembered me from the L.A. Times Festival of Books. A handful of people have really been keeping track of my book and life. It was nice to meet them in person. I'm hopeful for tomorrow.
BookExpo America: Day 1. I'm at booth 5741 in the Authors Row. The person right next to me is the voice talent for most of the characters of South Park (hard to believe that such fowl language is coming out of such a pretty girl).
It's been a very interesting day. A publisher from India said that he'd like to publish my book and will call me when he gets back to India (in about 3 weeks). There's no telling if this will actually happen or not, but he did give me his card and told me to call him if he hasn't called me by June 23rd. That's encouraging. What's funny is that he wasn't even going to stop at my booth until I got his attention. He started out very wary and didn't even want to take an audio CD. Then he relented and took a CD. Then he took my business card. As our conversation progressed, he asked me to mail him my book because he didn't want to lug it back to India, but by the end of the conversation, he asked for a copy right then and said he'd like to publish it in perhaps a 5 to 10,000 print run. How funny that 10 minutes before this, he wasn't even going to talk to me. It pays to open your mouth. Again, no contracts have been signed yet. He hasn't even read it yet! But I'm crossing my fingers. I still have publishers and agents in Croatia, Serbia, and Korea looking at my book, so I have a lot of fingers to cross.
Today, movie producers, agents, and publishers all came to my booth and spoke with me. It's a lot of fun, but I'm all alone (the person who was going to go with me bailed), so I can't visit any of the other booths! I might abandon my booth for a few minutes to visit TOR or Scholastic. I'm hoping that some more publishers and agents will speak to me. None of the U.S. ones I spoke with publish my type of book. Rights buyers tend to be very unapproachable as they walk by, but they're very easy to spot because they have orange tags and they are the only people in the convention center not carrying around a load of books.
I gave away about 150 books today, so hopefully, something good will come of that. It was nice to get the occasional comment, "Oh, I just bought your book last week," or "Oh, I've seen your video trailer on youtube." I was surprised at how many people recognized my back drop or remembered me from the L.A. Times Festival of Books. A handful of people have really been keeping track of my book and life. It was nice to meet them in person. I'm hopeful for tomorrow.
Wednesday, May 07, 2008
BookExpo America
[Press Release May 7, 2008]
BookExpo America Attracts Bestselling Author, Matthew Peterson
Matthew Peterson, author of the bestselling young adult fantasy novel, Paraworld Zero, has announced that he will be attending the 2008 BookExpo America in Los Angeles. Mr. Peterson, under the banner of Parallel Worlds LLC, will be in the Authors Row, booth #5741, between May 30th and June 1st.
The BookExpo America is held every year in the United States at alternating locations. This year it will be held at the Los Angeles Convention Center, where over 35,000 people are expected to attend. The BookExpo is a place where everyone who’s anyone in the U.S. book industry, including publishers, agents, authors, booksellers, librarians, film, audio, and foreign rights representatives, can come and network with each other.
At the conference, Mr. Peterson will be giving away free copies of his award-winning novel, Paraworld Zero, as well as complimentary audiobook CDs and DVDs. Paraworld Zero was just published in January by Windstorm Creative. It soon hit the top-50 BarnesAndNoble.com bestseller list and garnered numerous reviews. Paraworld Zero received the Flamingnet TOP CHOICE Award and was recently given an honorable mention at the Beach Book Festival in Atlantic City. Reviewers are calling it a “Harry Potter meets Star Wars!”
In addition to selling the hardback and mass-market rights to his Parallel Worlds series, Mr. Peterson will also be available to everyone interested in foreign and subsidiary rights. Agents from Serbia and Korea have already shown great interest, as well as an agent in the U.S. film industry.
About the Author:
Matthew Peterson is an award-winning short story writer, second degree black belt in karate, Eagle scout, computer programmer, and former missionary. He lives in Arizona with his wife, five boys and their giant African tortoise. Matthew’s debut young adult novel, Paraworld Zero (ISBN # 978-1-59092-491-4), hit the BarnesAndNoble.com bestseller list and garnered many favorable reviews. Reviewers are comparing it to Harry Potter, Star Wars, and Artemis Fowl. Go to www.ParaWorlds.com to learn more.
BookExpo America Attracts Bestselling Author, Matthew Peterson
Matthew Peterson, author of the bestselling young adult fantasy novel, Paraworld Zero, has announced that he will be attending the 2008 BookExpo America in Los Angeles. Mr. Peterson, under the banner of Parallel Worlds LLC, will be in the Authors Row, booth #5741, between May 30th and June 1st.
The BookExpo America is held every year in the United States at alternating locations. This year it will be held at the Los Angeles Convention Center, where over 35,000 people are expected to attend. The BookExpo is a place where everyone who’s anyone in the U.S. book industry, including publishers, agents, authors, booksellers, librarians, film, audio, and foreign rights representatives, can come and network with each other.
At the conference, Mr. Peterson will be giving away free copies of his award-winning novel, Paraworld Zero, as well as complimentary audiobook CDs and DVDs. Paraworld Zero was just published in January by Windstorm Creative. It soon hit the top-50 BarnesAndNoble.com bestseller list and garnered numerous reviews. Paraworld Zero received the Flamingnet TOP CHOICE Award and was recently given an honorable mention at the Beach Book Festival in Atlantic City. Reviewers are calling it a “Harry Potter meets Star Wars!”
In addition to selling the hardback and mass-market rights to his Parallel Worlds series, Mr. Peterson will also be available to everyone interested in foreign and subsidiary rights. Agents from Serbia and Korea have already shown great interest, as well as an agent in the U.S. film industry.
About the Author:
Matthew Peterson is an award-winning short story writer, second degree black belt in karate, Eagle scout, computer programmer, and former missionary. He lives in Arizona with his wife, five boys and their giant African tortoise. Matthew’s debut young adult novel, Paraworld Zero (ISBN # 978-1-59092-491-4), hit the BarnesAndNoble.com bestseller list and garnered many favorable reviews. Reviewers are comparing it to Harry Potter, Star Wars, and Artemis Fowl. Go to www.ParaWorlds.com to learn more.
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