Publicity

Instead of sending out a boiler-plate press release about his new book, author Rob Salkowitz tapped a great comic book artist to create the first illustrated press release this GalleyCat editor has ever received (complete with a comic blurb from Stan Lee.

We’ve embedded the release for Comic-Con and the Business of Pop Culture above–how does it compare to your average text-based release? Click here if you want to see a full-size version of the release.

Here’s more from his publisher: “What better way to illustrate a visually-driven business – the business of comics – than with a comic-style press release?  … Salkowitz turned to Eisner Award-winning veteran comics illustrator Steve Lieber to craft a four-color one-sheet, which explains the book in the classic comic vernacular, complete with comic book font, eye-popping colors, and even the head of a Tyrannosaurus Rex.”

Launch a social media campaign that will build your brand and deliver results in our online Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting June 7. Speakers include Abigail Cusick (Bravo Digital), Gregory Galant (Sawhorse Media), Alex Leo (Thomson Reuters Digital), Jim Tobin (Ignite Social Media), and many more. Read the reviews.

Graffiti and street artist Toofly painted the Strand Bookstore in New York City last week. Above, we’ve embedded a snapshot of the mural. More photographs follow below…

The street art project promoted the release of XCIA’s Street Art Project: The First Four Decades, a collection of photographs taken by former CIA officer turned photographer Hank O’Neal. The book came out last week, and the publisher Siman Media Works will release an app version in April.

Check it out: “The Strand Bookstore, New York City’s legendary home of 18 miles of new, used, and rare books, will celebrate the publication of XCIA’s Street Art Project: The First Four Decades by Hank O’Neal (aka XCIA) by having street artist Toofly–paint in hand and feet on ladder–create street art on the 12th Street side of the store on walls that have long been blank.”

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Nine-year-old author and cupcake blogger Carrie Berk just co-wrote Peace, Love and Cupcakes with her mom, former Life & Style Weekly editor-in-chief Sheryl Berk.

To celebrate the release of the novel (published by Sourcebooks Jabberwocky imprint), Berk (pictured) hosted a book party at Dylan’s Candy Bar in New York City. Author and cupcake blogger Rachel Kramer Bussel covered the event at Cupcakes Take the Cake.

Check it out: “[The book] is about a group of little girls who form a cupcake club at their school, start a cupcake business, fight bullies and have fun baking, decorating and learning about each other … [the candy store] was set up with a chocolate fountain where you could get Peeps, marshmallows, Rice Krispie treats, pretzels, strawberries or bananas dipped in it, a cupcaketini cocktail, which had Frangelico, Bailey’s and Kahlua (adults only, obviously) and adorable custom mini cupcakes courtesy of Georgetown Cupcake, which managed to replicate the book cover exactly, with glitter!”

GalleyCat contributor Jeff Rivera interviewed self-publishing success story Amanda Hocking for mediabistro.com’s So What Do You Do? feature.

When asked about why most writers who self-publish are not able to achieve what she has, she replied:

A lot of authors tend to over market or they don’t take criticisms very well. They think that their book is perfect. They don’t want to get bogged down with editing or covers, because they think their book is so good. Or they market too hard. All they do is talk about their book and nobody wants to hear, ‘Buy my book.’ They want to have a conversation with you … Also, new writers respond to negative reviews and have great catastrophic meltdowns. You can’t respond to reviews at all except to say ‘thank you for reading the book.’ That’s the best you can do; otherwise, you’re just going to look bad even if the reviewer is totally out of line.

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To celebrate the release of All My Friends Are Still Dead, the authors have created a free animated GIF graphic that gives readers a quick preview of the book.

Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre member Avery Monsen and author Jory John wrote this sequel to their dark cartoon book, All My Friends Are Dead.

Check it out: “Feel free to post these GIFs where ever you’d like! It’d be neat if you made them link back to nomorefriends.net, but let’s be honest, we’ve got no way to force you. You’re your own boss, chief. You’re the master of your fate; the captain of your soul. Enjoy.”

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When was the last time you listened to an 8-track tape?

To promote his time travel book The Man from Primrose Lane, debut novelist James Renner mailed 8-track players and a homemade 8-track audiobook to readers around the country (including this GalleyCat editor).

On the Morning Media Menu today, the journalist and novelist shared how he built this unique publicity campaign for his book, published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux’s Sarah Crichton Books imprint.

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Authors Marie Lu, Beth Revis, Jessica Spotwood and Andrea Cremer teamed up for Penguin Books for Young Readers’ annual “Breathless Reads” tour this year.

The tour ends tonight at 7 p.m. in Los Angeles at Once Upon a Time bookstore. Here’s more about the event: “This event is free and open to the public. In order to go through the priority signing line, though, you must purchase one of the authors’  books from us.”

We covered the tour last year and Macmillan launched a Pen Fatale group tour this year, so we wanted to find out more about how to run a group book tour. We caught up with Penguin Books for Young Readers assistant marketing director Lisa Kelly to find out more. Her answers follow below…

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The online marketplace CafePress has launched an official store for merchandise promoting the upcoming adaptation of The Hunger Games.

The store stocks 250 items, ranging from dog t’s to aprons to stadium blankets to $18 teddy bears. If you visit the Hunger Games Facebook application, fans can create a free ID card and pretend they are doomed characters inside the popular book series.

Here’s more about the card: “Readers who have already registered as citizens of Panem can also claim their The Hunger Games ID card through the Facebook app. The physical District ID card displays your unique district and job assignment and is available to any fan that registers.”

Boston-based publisher Beacon Press and New York-based Other Press have a promotional wager riding on the Super Bowl.

Here’s more from the release: “the publisher whose home team loses (Beacon’s New England Patriots or Other’s New York Giants) will promote two of the other publisher’s titles for a week on the web, featuring the two titles on their web site and promoting the titles across social media platforms. In addition, the publisher whose team brings home the trophy will give away a selection of its books to a handful of winners selected from online entries, and both publishers will use their web presences to endorse the giveaway.”

Follow this link for more details about the giveaways. Who do you think is on the losing side of this publishing bet?

Reader Views, a company dedicated to reviewing books and author publicity, has been banned from posting their reviews on Amazon.

According to an email from the company’s founder Irene Watson yesterday, Amazon has banned reviews from 15 sites. Watson explained in the email: “At first it seems it was just review sites like us but then it flowed over to removing reviews from individual reviews unrelated to any site or blog. There is no consistency except a stock email that says ‘you violated the guidelines’ but the specific violation is never disclosed by Amazon.com.”

Unlike a traditional media review, Reader Views, gets paid for some of its reviews through selling publicity services to authors. Their website explains: “We give free reviews but due to the overwhelming amount of submissions and high costs of processing we are limiting the number of free reviews we will give each week. There is no guarantee your book will be reviewed because the reviewers choose what books they want to read. For a guaranteed review we suggest one of our budget friendly Publicity Packages.” Read more