Shauna Holyoak On Creating Swag That Attracts Middle Graders... Hint: Have A Prize Wheel

Most authors will agree that the creative part of the job is where we excel, the business and marketing side, slightly less. It’s lovely when the two can meet in the form of SWAG – Shit We All Generate. I’ve invited some published authors to share with us their secret to swag… little freebies that can sell a book longer after the author is no longer standing in front of a prospective reader. In order to create great swag, you have to be crafty – in more ways than one.

Today's guest for the SHIT is Shauna Holyoak. She writes for kids and teens and thinks it’s kinda the best job ever. Kazu Jones and the Denver Dognappers is her debut novel.

First of all, thanks so much, Mindy, for having me on your blog! I think topics like these are helpful to debut authors (like me!) who often need help navigating self-promotion!

Finding something that represents your book and hasn’t been played out by a million authors before is difficult. What’s your swag?

I’m an MG author, so I think there’s some tried and true swag that appeals to kids. Buttons, bookmarks, posters, stickers. As I try to schedule school visits pre-release, I’m hoping the lure of free signed posters at my signings helps draw kids out. And I just ordered some stickers to hand out after assemblies, etc. that will remind kids where and when to drag their parents for my books.

On my website I also offer some swag that I hope readers enjoy. I’ve written a short story about my characters that anyone can download and read. In addition to that, I’ve created a mystery packet that presents The Case of the Misplaced Tiara with puzzles and clues readers can use to solve the mystery. I’m hoping teachers and families might find it fun and educational, while also introducing kids to my characters.

How much money per piece did your swag cost out of pocket?

I live in Shadow Mountain country. Shadow Mountain is a Utah-based publisher that has worked on quite a few successful middle-grade books, and they do a lot of promotion in my area. They follow a model that seems to work well in promoting their MG novels. They send their authors on a book tour that includes multiple school visits per location, following which they hold a signing at the local bookstore. They send the kids home with reminders and usually hand out fun swag like free signed posters and bookmarks at the event. I’ve had a couple of my own children beg me to attend signings for Shadow-Mountain authors after an engaging school visit, so I know they work.

I say all this to explain how I decided to spend my money on book swag, because I was hoping to apply the Shadow-Mountain model to my own attempts at self-promotion.

Here’s the breakdown:

Posters: $265

• $230 of this covered 1K 11x17in posters of my cover from uprinting.com. This is the most I’ve paid on any one item. I plan on handing them out to everyone who comes to a signing.

• $35 on a 16x20in mounted (on foam board) poster of my cover to display at signings and other events (also, uprinting.com).

Reminder stickers: $80

I have two local events I’m hoping to invite kids to, one bigger than the other (the second is for my launch party).

• $34 covered 200 2x3in stickers, also from uprinting.com

• $47 covered 1K 2x3in stickers, also from uprinting.com

Bookmarks: $70 (just ordered)

This went toward 2500 2x8 double-sided bookmarks (from gotprint.com)

Buttons: $45

Okay, so this was the first item of swag I ever bought, and I may have just been a little too excited at the prospect of being able to order something, anything! But the buttons are cute, and I’m hoping kids will like them. Although I think once they’re gone, they’re gone—not sure if I’ll invest in them again. (Although I may change my mind depending on how kids respond.)

• $24 for 100 1.25in round buttons of my MC’s face (purebuttons.com)

• $30 for 50 1.75x2.75in buttons of my cover (also, purebuttons.com)

Do you find that swag helps you stand out at an event? Does your swag draw people to your table at an event or conference?

I’ll have to get back to you on that, since my first event is in a few weeks. But I’m hoping it does!

One thing I’m going to try, that *fingers crossed* draws kids to my table at cons and other table-events, is a prize wheel. Kids spin that wheel and leave with their prize. Whatever they win will be promo for my book, so win, win, right? And who doesn’t like a prize wheel?!

What do you think of big item swag pieces versus cheaper, yet more easily discarded swag like bookmarks?

I think more expensive swag might work with YA audiences, but I’m not sure it’s worth it for middle-grade readers, who tend to be hard on things anyway.

What’s the most clever / best swag by another author?

Personally, I adore customized enamel pins. *swoon* Character cards are cool and other types of artwork commissioned by the author. I have a friend who’s currently painting/customizing funko pops for each of the characters in her debut for her preorder campaign, so she probably wins!

And the biggest question – do you think swag helps sell books?

Honestly, no. I think people who purchase a book are planning to buy it anyway, regardless of swag. There may be a small margin of potential readers swayed by swag, but I don’t think it’s enough to justify investing loads on money on it (especially, if like most authors, your publisher isn’t paying for it).

Haha! And here I just told you about the near $500 I’ve spent on swag hoping to draw kids out to signings. We’ll see if it works. But, in the end, I guess I offer swag to let readers and potential readers know I care and appreciate them taking a chance on my books.

The Saturday Slash

Don't be afraid to ask for help with the most critical first step of your writing journey - the query.

I’ve been blogging since 2011 and have critiqued over 200 queries here on the blog using my Hatchet of Death. This is how I edit myself, it is how I edit others. If you think you want to play with me and my hatchet, shoot me an email.

If the Saturday Slash has been helpful to you in the past, or if you’d like for me to take a look at your query please consider making a donation, if you are able.

If you’re ready to take the next step, I also offer editing services.

Fifteen-year-old Jerri Campbell, who despises all things popular, gets taken in by the queen bee at her new school and uses the opportunity to redefine what it means to be popular. This is cute, and a decent hook, but it could be the lead in to anything from a horror movie to a self-help. Is she redefining it by promoting body positivity? Or is she redefining it by murdering the queen bee and replacing her? Just a tiny bit more info here in the lead in to give us a touch more feel for the genre. You've also got an echo with the word "popular."

Jerri Campbell wants to be invisible. Ever since her dad’s recent anxiety attacks, she’s done her best to avoid drama, even when he made her change schools in the middle of sophomore year. What's the connection to her wanting to be invisible and his anxiety attacks? Same question for her changing schools? Instead, she focuses on reconnecting with her best friend Lucy back home, who seems to have ghosted her. But when Jerri gets paired with popular girl Celebrity Orion as her student tour guide, she is unwillingly thrust into the spotlight. Not understanding why a simple (one day, I assume?) tour guide pairing would thrust her into the spotlight? Did something remarkable happen?

Jerri’s natural instinct is to resist, but she realizes she might get Lucy’s attention by documenting the inner workings of the popular crowd for a laugh. Documenting how? Online? Like a blog? Or only to Lucy? Only Celebrity isn’t what Jerri expects her to be. At least, not at first. Maybe there is a way to do this popularity thing right. And Jerri is determined to find it. If she can pull this off, she will prove to everyone, even Lucy, that popular girls can be kind and loyal, too. If she can’t, she will become what she despises: selfish and disloyal. Why? What is this thing she's trying to pull off that will either prove that everyone is great, or that she herself is horrible?

Fans of Morgan Matson’s Since You’ve Been Gone will enjoy the aspect of proving something to a friend who has disappeared, while fans of Mean Girls will enjoy the popularity showdown. Is there a showdown though? It sounds like Celebrity is a decent person...

You've got the bones here, but they're disjointed and out of place. Did Lucy ghost her b/c there was an argument regarding popularity? Or is that an unrelated issue to her falling out of touch? What does Dad's anxiety have to do with anything, and why the school change? Why does Jerri want to be invisible? Is it connected to any of the things above? You say, if she can pull this off, she will prove to everyone... But what does that mean? Is she documenting a single event that will serve as proof? Does Celebrity know her actions are being documented? Is there a fallout between those two? Does Jerri have to prove loyalty to one or the other?

You can see there are a lot of questions that this query raises - and that's a good thing, you want the reader to be curious. But you also don't want them to be confused, and right now you've got too many questions raised, not enough answers. Draw the lines between the related elements in the query, and let us know a little more about the driving plot points. Like I said - good bones. You just need to put the skeleton together :)

Jamie Beth Cohen On Using Real Life Experiences For Fiction

Inspiration is a funny thing. It can come to us like a lightning bolt, through the lyrics of a song, or in the fog of a dream. Ask any writer where their stories come from and you’ll get a myriad of answers, and in that vein I created the WHAT (What the Hell Are you Thinking?) interview. Always including in the WHAT is one random question to really dig down into the interviewees mind, and probably supply some illumination into my own as well.

Today's guest for the WHAT is Jamie Beth Cohen, whose non-fiction has appeared in The Baltimore Sun, The Washington Post, TeenVogue.com and many other outlets. Her poems have been published in Loyalhanna Review and Crossing Limits: African Americans and American Jews.

Ideas for our books can come from just about anywhere, and sometimes even we can’t pinpoint exactly how or why. Did you have a specific origin point for your book?

The actual germ of the idea came from a conversation my husband and I were having about whether or not we would track our kids when they were old enough to go places without us. In this very theoretical conversation, we were weighing their right to freedom and privacy and the obvious need for safety, but all I could think about was what I had learned about myself when my parents had no idea where I was. I’m not sure I want to deprive my kids of those moments without a safety net. Alice, the main character in Wasted Pretty is often not where her parents think she is. Everything grew out of that.

Once the original concept existed, how did you build a plot around it?

Very, very badly. One of my first readers said, very gently, “It’s very ‘slice of life.’ I liked it, but I like all kind of stories. I’m not sure it’s for everyone.” So, maybe it wasn’t a lack of plot so much as it was a lack of tension and stakes. A lot of stuff happened in that first draft, but none of it really mattered.

Between the first and second draft I lopped off the entire second half, expanded what used to be “Part 1” and raised the stakes considerably. But Wasted Pretty didn’t really come together until a few years later when I figured out a subplot that has become central to the story.

Have you ever had the plot firmly in place, only to find it changing as the story moved from your mind to paper?

There are elements of Wasted Pretty that come from my own time as a teen (and it’s actually set in 1992 when I was in high school). That first draft was more closely related to my real life than the published book. The longer I worked with the material – to turn it from rambling unconnected anecdotes that only I found interesting to a story with a narrative arc – the further it drifted from my lived experiences. It went places I never imagined, and I had a blast letting my imagination run wild.

Do story ideas come to you often, or is fresh material hard to come by?

This is my first novel, but I’ve published dozens of essays and have dozens more in the works, so the ideas come often, but I’m selective about what ideas deserve the investment a full-length project requires.

I’m currently working on a sequel to Wasted Pretty. I was 40,000 words into the sequel when I did a major overhaul on Wasted Pretty, so I had to put the sequel aside until I sold it, and locked the text. I’m really enjoying diving back into the sequel, but I’m realizing I’ve learned so much in writing my first novel that I may have to scrap those 40,000 words and start fresh.

How do you choose which story to write next, if you’ve got more than one percolating?

Luckily I’m able to work on essays at the same time I work on novels, so I’m always working on a few things at once. I also do live storytelling at a series in my town, so the theme of the event is forefront on my mind and often drives what I’m working on.

I have lots of cats (seriously, check my Instagram feed) and I usually have at least one or two snuggling with me when I write. Do you have a writing buddy, or do you find it distracting?

I’m an extrovert and like to be around other people. I also have a horrible social media addiction (that I justify by saying social media is how I get freelance work and stay in touch with readers and writers). Luckily, there’s one solution for both of these issues: I co-founded an adult study hall! Once a month, a bunch of writers in my town take over a really cool co-working space and bring food and drink and hang out for a bit and then set the timer for 60-minutes and write silently. I get invigorated being around other writers who are writing, and I’m too embarrassed to check social media when I’m supposed to be working. It’s the best possible kind of positive peer pressure. We’ve been doing it for more than three years and it’s usually the highlight of my month.