Thanks, thanks and more thanks!

This seems like the appropriate way to start a guest post for Book Blogger Appreciation Week. Too Tall Alice, the first children’s book I’ve authored and Dom Rodi illustrated with me, was released on March 15, 2009.

My publicists, Gail Kearns and Lucy Levenson at To Press and Beyond, put together a marketing program which emailed to Book Bloggers. The first Too Tall Alice press release went out, and within 48 hours, we had received approximately 80 requests for review copies. We’d never seen a response like that before.

I sent copies of Too Tall Alice, and virtually everyone who had requested a book posted a review. The Book Bloggers had links from their sites to Amazon, posted their reviews in newsletters and magazines, and some even sold my book in their virtual and brick and mortar bookstores. All but a handful of reviews were four or five stars, the rest three stars—which isn’t bad. Your reviews also landed me online and broadcast radio interviews and started a very effective viral marketing campaign.

For me, however, the most exciting thing about getting the reviews was reading them. I was so touched by how Too Tall Alice really touched the reviewers who read it. YOU GOT WHAT I WAS TRYING TO SAY, and moments like that are very rare in life. Thank you, again.

It’s not easy to be an independent publisher—particularly when you’re a small start-up. You’re bucking the big houses on the bookshelves and in the major magazines. The retail environment is tough, and buyers are going with household names. How does a new writer and publisher get a break? Book Bloggers—and here’s the beauty of this. You’re readers. You’re the people who love and buy books. You eliminate the middleman and let writers know what readers really think about their books. That’s a gift. The reviews I received from all of you opened doors for me. They made a difference when my distributor made sales calls, and they really helped my new business to get off to a strong start. Thank you.