Laura Purdie Salas

Small Reads for Brighters Days

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Home
  • Laura’s Books
  • Poetry
    • Poems Published Elsewhere
    • My Poetry–a Sampler
    • Poetry Videos
    • How To Write Poetry
      • Poetic Pursuits
  • For Teachers
  • Presentations
  • Freelancer
  • About
    • Press Kit
      • Short Bios
      • Awards & Honors
      • Author Photos
      • Book Covers
      • Book Reviews
      • In the Press
    • Who Am I?
    • How I Became a Writer
  • Blog
    • Review Policy
  • For Writers
You are here: Home / Writing for Children / Nikki Grimes Talks About Promotion

Nikki Grimes Talks About Promotion

July 23, 2008 By Laura

I attended a CLN (in the picture, I’ve got my legs crossed and back to the camera) Nikki Grimes event a couple of weeks ago. Shoot. I’m having major computer issues this morning and am not even sure this post will be able to go live. I can’t add any more links, either!

Anyway, Nikki Grimes is a fabulous poet, writer, and marketer! Hearing her speak at the L.A. SCBWI event several years ago helped me shape the poetry collection that is now coming out next year from Clarion (STAMPEDE: POEMS ABOUT THE WILD SIDE OF SCHOOL). She spoke about promotion and her attitude toward it. Here are a few of my notes. Geez, even cutting and pasting is not working properly. Trying this again. And again. And again.

To be truly successful, you have to be willing to step back and view your own work the same way that publishers do. Think about situating it in the marketplace.

For instance, she wrote 100 urban haiku and organized them by season. She kept hearing from editors, ?Why are you writing haiku?? So she looked at it again. ?What have I been selling? What are people responding to?? Narrative. So she redid it. She added narrative. It became A Pocketful of Poems. The rest of the poems weren’t lost, either. They’ve shown up in lots of her other works, including Praying with Daddy, and in anthologies.

Try to be flexible and objective. Ask “What has been working for me?”

?Don’t alter your vision. But let it be informed by marketplace realities.?

She thinks of promotion as theater. 

Rehearse it until it sounds natural. 

“I psych myself up for it. I was not gonna not write. So the question became, How do I make a living at it?”

“Great. I have to walk up to total strangers.” [Which you’d never know if you watched her in action.] It’s not natural for her. It’s not her druther. ?If it were my choice, I’d hang out in the corner with my writing friends and talk art?But that’s not gonna get books sold.?

“If you’re going to go to the trouble of writing a book for kids, you need to take it to the next level. Make it work.”

“Or make it a hobby, which is fine and can be very fulfilling.”

She works with an agent, most especially because of new media issues.

Every profession has that aspect?that part of it that isn’t what you love. Librarians become librarians because they love books and reading to kids, etc.?not because they love meetings and acquisition forms, etc. For most writers, that aspect is promotion, but it’s necessary in order to get to the parts you do love.

Tagged With: Nikki Grimes, the business side

Share:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • More
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)

Related

« Camp du Nord pictures
Make Art! »

JANUARY NEWS

I loved the holidays! And I'm so glad they're over. A quiet, snowy January is just what I need. This month, I'm working on two board book manuscripts, and I'm making materials to go with my 3 spring 2023 books.

I'm also busy prepping for upcoming author visits and setting my goals and priorities for 2023. Wishing you a lovely start to your own new year!

Are You Looking For…?

  • Poems for the Classroom
  • Poetryactions
  • 15 Words or Less Poems
  • Poetry Activities for Teachers

Tags

15 Words or Less Poems 30 Painless Classroom Poems anthologies A Rock Can Be... BookSpeak! Can Be... books classroom connections conferences and conventions equation poems events free verse haiku imagepoems image poems J. Patrick Lewis Kidlit Combos Laura's books Laura's poems my writing process National Poetry Month 2014 (riddle-ku) National Poetry Month 2016 nifty news nonfiction books personal photopoetry poems poemsketch Poetry 7 poetryactions poetry books Poetry Friday Poetry Princesses poetry prompts poetry sisters Putrid rhyming nonfiction rhyming poems Riddle-ku school visits snowman-cold student poems teen/adult poems the business side videos Water Can Be...

Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org

Laura’s Press Kit Components

Who Am I?
Short Bios
Awards & Honors
Author Photos
Book Covers
Book Reviews
In the Press
How I Became a Writer

Laura’s Author Visit Info

VISITS TO SCHOOLS
A Video Intro to Laura’s Author Visits
Virtual Visits with Laura
Small Writes: Write-Along Videos
Printable Flyer (print page 1 only)
Author Visit Programs
Typical Schedules
Author Visit Materials
Multi-Day Visits
Fees
Ordering Books for Events
Where Laura’s Been
Laura’s Report Card from Educators

OTHER PRESENTATIONS

For Libraries & Book Festivals
For Educators
For Writers

Post Categories

Copyright © 2009–2023 · Laura Purdie Salas · WordPress · Log in