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Matthew Peterson
Upcoming Events
March 25 - 29, 2008
Public Library Association Conference in Minneapolis
Booth #1326
April 26 - 27, 2008
Los Angeles Times Festival of Books Booth # 929 (Children's Area South)
May 29 - June 1, 2008
Book Expo America in LA
Booth #5741 |
| My First Official Newsletter! |
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Hello there! I know many people have been patiently waiting for me to get on the ball and write this newsletter Thanks for your patience. I'd like to make these newsletters fun and informative. From time to time, I'll share personal experiences, writing and publishing tips, reviews, etc. |
| Paraworld Zero had a Good and Bad Start |
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My debut novel, Paraworld Zero, was just published in January by Windstorm Creative, and it soon hit the top-50 BarnesAndNoble.com Bestseller list and received over a dozen rave reviews! I was asked to be on a few TV shows. Over 5 million people heard me on the radio. Several million people read about my book in newspapers and magazines. I was so excited. Things looked very good.... but then.... we ran into some distribution issues. My publisher had (and is still having) difficulties getting books to the distributors so that bookstores can order my book. In the end, I'm guessing that thousands of orders were lost because libraries and bookstores couldn't order the book without going directly to my publisher (few booksellers want to order directly from the publisher). It's very frustrating, indeed, but I hope my publisher can get this fixed shortly. For now, you can order from Amazon.com, BookSense.com (your local bookstore), or from me at www.Paraworlds.com/shop.
Publishing Tip: Distribution is the key to successful book sales to libraries, schools, and bookstores. Why? Imagine you're a bookstore who stocks books from hundreds or even thousands of publishers. Each publisher has different guidelines, discounts, and return policies that you'd have to keep track of. You could write hundreds of checks every month to the various publishers you've set up in your system (a process in itself that requires research, phone calls, and inevitable delays in orders), or you could just write one check to a distributor like Ingram or Baker & Taylor who will then handle all the work for you. With a distributor, you don't have to deal with the publisher at all. Placing an order from thousands of publishers only takes one minute with a distributor. As a side note, Ingram and Baker & Taylor are actually "wholesalers," not true distributors, but that's a topic for another newsletter. |
| My First Solo Book Signing |
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My first solo book signing was at Borders Books in Glendale. We had over 100 people show up and we sold 70 books. The employees were flabbergasted. They said they'd never seen this happen before and that they weren't prepared. They had to scour the store for more books. |
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I did a couple of school presentations recently in Peoria. One at Parkridge Elementary (500 kids) and one at Apache Elementary (300+ kids). What I discovered is that it's really fun to get in front of an audience and answer questions and present.
First off, I created a PowerPoint presentation which demonstrates all sorts of things like cover and chapter art, audiobook creation, book publishing, video trailers, etc. I had a blast doing it. The kids asked great questions, and I couldn't believe how captivated they were.
I'd love to do more school presentations, so if you know of any schools who need a guest author, send them my way. I'm willing to travel as well.
Author Tip: Start out with something that will catch the audience's attention. The same applies for writing books. I chose to show some funny pictures of when I was a kid. This allowed the students to relate to me better... and they got a laugh out of it as well. |
| Book Trailer, Audio and TV Interviews |
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