New Garden Makes Books Come Alive

What do you get when you combine a love of books and gardens? Keep reading & find out!

My friend Barb Techel (who I'm also so proud to say is a client of mine too) finds some of the most interesting places to hook up with to promote and sell her books. I imagine some of them find her too, but either way, she is definitely one to watch to get the creative juices going if yours have dried up.

Her latest adventure involves teaming up with an absolutely beautiful and cool place called Bookworm Gardens located in Sheboygan Wisconsin. It's called a literary garden and it brings to life several classic tales like Charlotte's Web and The Magic Treehouse. Barb's book Frankie the Walk 'n Roll Dog will soon be featured as well. However, it's more than just another attraction for families to visit and look at nice displays and flowers. It provides a place for imaginations of all ages to run free among the trees, flowers, words and rhymes. With so many stories being written about how kids/people are reading less I absolutely applaud this effort to make a difference and to make sure the future is full of book lovers. I hope my imagination and I get to visit soon.

Find out more about Barb and the Gardens at her site/blog Joyful Paws.

Good Writing & God Bless,
Cheryl Pickett

Follow Along or Even Participate in a Book Tour

One thing that's cool about the writing/author/publishing world is that it's often possible to go behind the scenes. You can't do that in just any industry. Try going to Pepsi, NIKE, or Ford and asking them how they do their research to come up with new ideas or if they can give you marketing advice. Most likely isn't going to happen, but author to author, a lot of times it can and does. I came across one such circumstance this week that I found particularly intriguing.

Author Chris Guillebeau recently launched his book The Art of Non-Conformity along with his Unconventional Book Tour. In a nutshell, he is, on his own, planning to go to all 50 states along with the 10 provinces of Canada between now and early January 2011. It's unconventional in that it's organized, but not in the traditional style that most big publishers have used for decades where big bookstores, big media are the targets and it costs quite a bit to do. He's partially planning as he goes and is willing to visit whatever location will have him whether bookstore, gift store, yoga studio or home. Besides selling and promoting the book, the thing is he wants most is to meet his readers whether they read the book, his blog or both.

Sounds like a plan to me and a pretty good one at that. I'll be following along though I don't know if I'll make it to his MI event. If you'd like to as well, click here to find out about the Unconventional Book Tour. If you get to meet I hope you'll pop back over here and share your experience/what you learned as a fellow author.

Good Writing & God Bless,
Cheryl Pickett