Tuesday, January 13, 2015

Book Giveaway for President's Day

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Farmer George Plants a Nation by Peggy Thomas

Farmer George Plants a Nation

by Peggy Thomas

Giveaway ends February 16, 2015.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Monday, January 5, 2015

A Clean Desk

I always start the new year off by cleaning my office.  It isn't a nod to feng shui and good karma for the next 12 months. It's to put away the wrapping paper, receipts, shopping bags, and boxes of Christmas decorations that end up in the one room in the house no one needed to sleep in over the holidays.  It's reclaiming my space.

And this year it gives me a place to start now that I am in that odd freelance place between contracts. What should I work on next?  Which idea has percolated in my brain enough that it's ready to dive into. There are so many options, because like most writers I have several ideas brewing at once.  I wish I could work on more than one project at a time, but I'm not a very good multi-tasker, so I have to choose carefully. Is there a project that is time sensitive? Is a pertinent anniversary coming up? That is a good selling point for an editor. Have newer books on the same subject come on the market while I've been percolating? If so, is my idea different enough to compete successfully, or should I shuffle that idea lower in the deck and wait a few years?

How do you decide what your next project is going to be?  What are you working on now?

Saturday, January 3, 2015

Juvenile Nonfiction on the Rise

I  don't usually care about the industry numbers that come out each year ranking book sales, because I always know my category - children's nonfiction - will be mentioned somewhere in the last paragraph, or not at all. But, yesterday PW announced that the sale of juvenile NF increased 15.6% from 2013 (at least among the outlets that report to BookScan).  48,882,000 in 2014, up from 42,283,000 in 2013.  Hooray for us!  It doesn't even dampen my enthusiasm that the top 4 books in the category were handbooks for the Minecraft game. 

These numbers should perk up the ears of editors and agents, and make them more interested in those nonfiction stories that come across their desks.  So, get your manuscripts polished. Let's make 2015 an even better year for children's nonfiction.