Therese Says: These two Field Trips are short and included in entirety. However, Morgan's World Building Workshop is a must see so be sure to click the link on the title or TO SEE MORE link.
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
What’s your favorite
breakfast cereal? Hot or cold, there are a plethora of products to choose from
on the grocery store shelf. Brightly colored boxes from various brands
and manufacturer’s tout the nutritional value and healthy benefits of these
products.
If you haven’t guessed,
this week’s field trip takes you to the cereal aisle of your local grocery
store or corner food market.
Here are the questions I
would like for you to consider:
Note the different kinds of Chex, Cheerios, and Quaker Oatmeal that are on the shelf…
·
How are the different
kinds of Chex (or Cheerios, or Quaker Oatmeal) tied together as a family?
o
What do the boxes have
in common?
o
What’s different?
·
How are the different
families of products grouped together on the shelves?
o
Are all the Chex (or Cheerios
or Quaker Oatmeal) group together or spread out?
o
Where are the children’s
cereals placed relative to the adult cereals?
If you are
self-publishing a series of books, are you using common visual cues and layouts
for the series covers?
If you are traditionally
published, how did your publisher connect your series of books together for
readers?
For Everyone: How are you marketing
your series of books? Do your pieces show them as a “family” of products?
If your audience has to read your books in a
specific order, is the correct order clearly stated or illustrated in your
marketing campaign?
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Ok, so your latest
work-in-progress (WIP) features a new spin on an old fairy tale, danger,
adventure, and all manner of mayhem. It is completely different from
anything you have ever written before and you really aren't sure of where it is
going, let alone how to market it.
Today's field trip takes you to your favorite bookstore.
With an eye for marketing, I want you to take note of the following things:
Today's field trip takes you to your favorite bookstore.
With an eye for marketing, I want you to take note of the following things:
·
How is the bookstore
organized?
·
Where are the YA books
placed in the store relative to the adult fiction? Inspirational? Home decor?
·
How are the latest books
positioned in the store?
·
Which books are placed
at eye level versus being placed lower on the shelf?
·
How are the end caps
structured? (End caps are the displays at the end of each row.)
·
What other non-book
products are placed on the book displays? (These are the 'pull through'
products.)
Where will you books be placed on the shelf?
Now that you are aware of your product placement, how can you use this
information to design a better marketing campaign?
Morgan, here, with
another workshop to get your creative juices flowing. One of the things I
love about writing, is world building. Some authors use giant poster
boards to collect images, scraps, and pictures for inspiration. Since my
day job requires tons of travel, I decided to combine my love of scrapbooking
and collage to create a portable world building journal.
Morgan says: My latest WIP is a steampunk novel. I plotted the story and started writing. After consulting with some of my dear writing friends, I came to the conclusion that my story would fit well in YA. This decision on product placement will help me formulate my marketing strategy. Since writing steampunk YA is such a HUGE departure from anything I've written before, I've decided to take a new pen name for this project. My product placement decision will have a ripple effect on other aspects of my writing career. Note: I started by plotting and planning a story that really got my blood pumping, THEN I investigated where it would fit with regards to audience and genre. Always start with a story you LOVE and everything else will eventually fall into place. [ TO SEE MORE of"My Steampunk World" journal ]
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