Newsletter #92 — Frankfurt Book Fair
October 15, 2024
Newsletter #92 — Frankfurt Book Fair
Frankfurt Book Fair — This year the Frankfurt Book Fair will take place October 15-19. Held at the Frankfurt Fair Grounds in Frankfurt, Germany, it's the world's largest book fair, with more than 4,000 exhibitors and more than 100,000 attendees. That's right: more than 100,000 people attend the Frankfurt Book Fair.
What the fair is most known for is the selling of international book rights. Publishers from all over meet with agents from all over to sell foreign rights to their books. It was at the Frankfurt Book Fair in 1987 that a Japanese publisher became interested in She's on First and bought Japanese publication rights.
A purchase of rights means that the publisher pays the author either a flat fee or a fee plus future royalties. The publisher then sees to having the book translated, designed, printed, distributed, and sold in their own country.
This year I'm taking advantage of the IBPA offer to represent individual member books at Frankfurt. Exit Velocity will be at Frankfurt with the IBPA. It will be interesting to see what comes of this. (Publication in other countries, I hope!)
Author Marketing Platform — Until now I've resisted each and every author marketing platform that has come to my attention. Perhaps I wasn't ready for it. Perhaps what was available just didn't appeal to me. But now I have one, offered by WroteByMe.
An author marketing platform is a one-spot web site on which book buyers, agents, editors, reviewers, readers, and so on can access all the information they need about an author and her books. I wish I'd had this platform back in February, when I started marketing Exit Velocity. It would have saved me a lot of work and a lot of attachments.
What you see in the graphic above is what's visible to the public. In addition to what you see, I have access to stats not available to the public — stats on how my social media marketing is going. I can see whether I'm doing better on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or YouTube. Based on stats, I can choose to concentrate more on one of these than another. Or not advertise at all on some sites. Or infrequently.
Here's the link to my WroteByMe platform.
Mule Power — As you know from following the news, western North Carolina was hit devastatingly hard by Hurricane Helene, and emergency aid was vitally necessary: food, shelter, medicine, and rescue from dangerous situations.
While planes can fly in supplies, they can usually only drop them and then somebody has to go get them. But mules can deliver emergency supplies right to a person's doorway. An organization called Mountain Mule Packer Ranch is aiding those in dire need. Mules are loaded with supplies (approximately 200 pounds per mule) and the leads are strung together, with one rider at the head. These mule trains make their way into the mountainous areas to bring life-saving aid to people.
My mule book will not be about mule trains, but many of the characteristics exhibited by the mountain mules are exhibited by "my" mule. And one of these days I will have time to rewrite and publish the mule book.
Windycon 50 Panel Survey — I already have a vendor's table at the November Windycon 50, held in Oakbrook, IL, November 8-10, and have been waiting to hear if I will be a panelist. Three weeks ago I received a lengthy Google Survey from Windycon, asking me to respond to what felt like 100 panel suggestions. For each panel I was asked if I wanted to be a speaker. A moderator? An attendee?
Wow! Many opportunities! I think I chose to be a possible speaker on eight or nine panels. Wide range of topics, my favorite of which was something like, "Why Do So Many Science Fiction Authors Knit or Crochet?" Who knew??!! I certainly didn't. But somehow crochet made its way into Exit Velocity, so it must be true. I chose to be a moderator on none, mainly because it's my first Windycon and what would I know about how they do things?
I feel that because I'll definitely be a vendor and probably be a panelist, Exit Velocity has a strong chance of doing well at the sales table. I hope that many humans and maybe even some extraterrestrial buy my book.
Columbus — In my October 15 blog I talk about my selling experiences at the Columbus Book Fair in July 2024. You, dear reader, have read about that in my newsletters. But people who read my blogs have not.