Category: Spread the Word

It Takes a Village to Sell a Book: Tips to Help Your Favorite Author

If YOU know an author, or if you have a favorite author you’d like to support (hint, hint) what can YOU do to make a difference?  Here are some ideas for meaningful things you can do to help spread your enthusiasm for any author dear to you.

Help! It takes a village to sell a book

By C. Kuusisto

Now that books can actually be published online with a few key strokes (compared to bygone days) chances are you know someone who has written a book.  Or an eBook.  Think about it for a minute.  Browse the shelves of a library or your local bookstore or on Amazon.com and you’re looking at exceptional efforts made by some extraordinary individuals, each with a passion to share his or her message with the world.  Granted, some books are better than others but that’s another story.  Story – get it?!

Not everyone has the inclination or ambition to make such a mark on the world.  For those of us who don’t, unless you know an author personally, it is very easy to take their efforts for granted.  A book, just one book, represents hours, months, sometimes years of toil and trouble. While some consider it a labor of love, others may consider their book the worst “assignment” ever.

I know; I’m married to an author.

So if YOU know an author, or if you have a favorite author you’d like to support (hint, hint) what can YOU do to make a difference?  If you’re reading this post, I’m assuming you have an interest in doing so.  Well then, here are some ideas for meaningful things you can do to help spread your enthusiasm for any author dear to you.

• Check out the author’s web site and buy a book!  Buy another one and gift it to a loved one.  Or a friend.  Or both.

• Buy another copy and donate it to your local library.

• TALK about the book.  Word-of-mouth advertising is priceless!

• Follow his/her Virtual Book Tour.  But don’t just read the introductory blog posts.  Click the links!  Visit the hosts’ blogs; write comments.  Show some love!  Bloggers LOVE comments!  Internet search engines love links.  Follow an author on a virtual book tour, participate, and you’ll help make “noise” online.

• If he or she is offering a reading at a local bookstore or other venue,  GO!  And buy a book!  Ask him/her to sign your book.

• Bring a friend with you! Treat him/her to a copy.

• Help arrange for a reading at a local venue.

• Write a book review.

• Visit Goodreads.  “Like” the book.  Add it to your bookshelf.  Recommend the book.  Leave a comment/review.

• Visit Amazon.com. “Like” the author.  Like the book.  Recommend the book.  Leave a review.  Same goes for any other online book seller site…

• Are you a Twitter user?  Connect!  Then borrow the link from either Amazon or Barnes and Noble and share with your followers.  Or share your favorite quote.

• Are you on Facebook?  “Like” the author and/or the book and tell your friends why you like it.  Important: Leave Comments!  SHARE!

• Are you a blogger?  Ask your favorite author if he/she will provide a guest post.

• If you are a blogger, offer to interview your favorite author and publish it to your blog.

• Make a video of your interview and post it to YouTube and to Facebook.

• What other social media platforms do you use?  Google+?  Pinterest?  Instagram?  Use them to help spread the word.

• Share the book with your book club.  Ask the author if he/she will do a virtual online meeting with club members to discuss the book.

• Start a book club!

• Contact your favorite author and ask “what can I do to help spread the word?”

You may have some other ideas.  Please feel free to share them in the comments.

Oh, and just for the record, Stephen Kuusisto’s new book “Have Dog, Will Travel” is now available for pre-order on both Amazon and Barnes and Noble.  It will take a village to sell his book, too.  No doubt he would appreciate YOUR help.  Share the news, will you?  Steve’s book “Planet of the Blind“, a NY TIMES Notable Book of the Year (1998), touched a lot of lives; this we know.  The hope – the expectation – is that this one will, too.

Have Dog, Will Travel: a Poet's Journey by Stephen Kuusisto

Notes:

First Image: The word HELP spelled out in red by a hand holding a pen. Underneath HELP it says “It Takes a Village to Sell a Book” in black letters.

Second Image: Cover of author Stephen Kuusisto’s new book. Light blue background with white lettering: Have Dog, Will Travel A Poet’s Journey. Included is an graphic image of a gold-colored dog wearing a harness and at the top of the cover is a testimonial by poet Billy Collins.

Jim Ferris, Laurie Clements Lambeth and Stephen Kuusisto Reading at Syracuse University

Disabilities as Ways of Knowing: A Series of Creative Writing Conversations: Part II

The Disability Experience and Poetic Verse

Reading by Poets Jim Ferris, Laurie Clements Lambeth, and Stephen Kuusisto

March 28, 2013
Reading 7:00 to 8:00 pm at Watson Theater
Reception and book signing from 8:00 to 9:00 pm at Light Work
SU Campus

Jim Ferris, Laurie Clements Lambeth and Stephen Kuusisto will be reading from a selection of their poetry, followed by a reception and book signing, for all members of the S.U. community. While this event is geared specifically to raise and support awareness among undergraduates, everyone is welcomed to participate in this exciting set of opportunities. This event will feature works from Beauty is a Verb: The New Poetry of Disability (Cinco Puntos Press) and launch Letters to Borges (Copper Canyon Press), where “best-selling memoirist Stephen Kuusisto uses the themes of travel, place, religion, music, art, and loneliness to explore the relationship between seeing, blindness, and being. In poems addressed to Jorge Luis Borges—another poet who lived with blindness—Kuusisto leverages seeing as negative capability, creating intimacy with deep imagination and uncommon perceptions” (from http://www.stephenkuusisto.com).

American Sign Language (ASL) interpretation will be provided during both the reading and the reception/book signing. Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) will be provided during the reading.

If you require accommodations or need information on parking for this event, please contact Radell Roberts at 443-4424 or rrober02@syr.edu.

This event is made possible through the Co-Curricular Departmental Initiatives program within the Division of Student Affairs, and cosponsorship by the Disability Cultural Center, the Renée Crown University Honors Program, the Center on Human Policy, Disability Studies, the Burton Blatt Institute, the Dept. of Women’s and Gender Studies, the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Resource Center, the Office of Multicultural Affairs, the Slutzker Center for International Services, the Creative Writing Program, the Disability Law and Policy Program, the Disability Student Union, the Beyond Compliance Coordinating Committee, and the Disability Law Society.

As aspects of variance and diversity, disability cultures and identities enrich the tapestry of life on and off the SU campus.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Professor Stephen Kuusisto is the author of “Eavesdropping: A Memoir of Blindness and Listening” and the acclaimed memoir “Planet of the Blind”, a New York Times “Notable Book of the Year”. His second collection of poems from Copper Canyon Press, “Letters to Borges“ has just been released. Listen to Steve read “Letter to Borges in His Parlor” in this fireside reading via YouTube. He is currently working on a book tentatively titled What a Dog Can Do. Steve speaks widely on diversity, disability, education, and public policy. www.stephenkuusisto.com, www.planet-of-the-blind.com

Just Released! Letters to Borges by Stephen Kuusisto (Copper Canyon Press)

Stephen Kuusisto Reads from Letters to Borges, His New Book of Poems

JUST RELEASED!  Best-selling memoirist Stephen Kuusisto uses the themes of travel, place, religion, music, art, and loneliness to explore the relationship between seeing, blindness, and being. In poems addressed to Jorge Luis Borges—another poet who lived with blindness—Kuusisto leverages seeing as negative capability, creating intimacy with deep imagination and uncommon perceptions.

If you enjoyed this reading and would like to listen to several more poems from Letters to Borges, it’s easy enough to arrange.  This FREE recording is yours to enjoy at your leisure, preferably from your favorite cozy chair with a cup of coffee or a nice glass of wine in hand. Simply fill in the “Join me for a cozy ‘fireside’ poetry reading…” form found to the right of this blog post or make your request below.

REVIEWS:

Seth Abramson Seth Abramson, Poet

Kuusisto’s is a life one wants to know, detailed sparingly by a man one wants to know, inscribed in a generic form one finds oneself not merely compelled but honored to read. Letters to Borges is highly recommended for those who still find honor and beauty in both simplicity and–can it be?–actually having something to say.  Read more of Seth Abramson’s reviewfrom the Huffington Post,  Huff Post Books, November 2012


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If we account for Kuusisto’s restricted sight, the brilliance of his verse acquires deeper resonance, for his work imagines a realm between sight and sound composed of the sensory stimuli we all know and recognize, but split, fractured, and juxtaposed to inhabit the mind’s ear of his readers, a feat unique to this truly gifted poet. — Diego Báez, Booklist Advanced Review

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Professor Stephen Kuusisto is the author of “Eavesdropping: A Memoir of Blindness and Listening” and the acclaimed memoir “Planet of the Blind”, a New York Times “Notable Book of the Year”.  His second collection of poems from Copper Canyon Press, “Letters to Borges“ has just been released.  He is currently working on a book tentatively titled What a Dog Can Do.  Steve speaks widely on diversity, disability, education, and public policy. www.stephenkuusisto.com, www.planet-of-the-blind.com
 

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 Join me for a cozy “fireside” poetry reading…

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A Disability History of the United States

“What emerges in this volume is a history of several ideas. The first is the definition of disability, which has been the subject of an ongoing and spirited debate.” ~ Stephen Kuusisto

    http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=wwwstephenkuu-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=0807022020&ref=qf_sp_asin_til&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=FFFFFF&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr

Free poetry book: "Only Bread, Only Light"

Congratulations – and thank you – to Cindy Leland!

Cindy purchased a copy of Stephen Kuusisto’s new book, , “Letters to Borges“, and saved $ by taking
advantage of the pre-order price. In so doing, she also entered a random drawing and is the winner this week of an autographed copy of “Only Bread, OnlyLight”, Steve’s first book of poetry (Copper Canyon Press).

Will you be next week’s winner?

***************************************

Professor Stephen Kuusisto is the author of “Eavesdropping: A Memoir of Blindness and Listening” and the acclaimed memoir “Planet of the Blind”, a New York Times “Notable Book of the Year”. His second collection of poems from Copper Canyon Press, “Letters to Borges“,
is scheduled for release in October 2012.  In addition to giving
literary readings, Steve speaks widely on diversity, disability,
education, and public policy. www.stephenkuusisto.com

Yes, Amy Wallace; I enjoyed your Bus 52 video.

Amy Wallace forwarded this note to me and I’m glad she did.  Take a look at what the folks on Bus 52 are up to.  (Thanks for sharing, Amy.)

Bus 52's Bus

Photo: front of a converted 1984 International School Bus.  It looks to be painted green with a cream colored hood.

Hello,

My name’s Amy Wallace, I’m part of a nonprofit project called Bus 52. We travel around the country making videos about people who are doing inspiring things for their community.

We made a video about Our Thrift Store in Franklin, Tennessee, which is a nonprofit thrift store that employs people with disabilities and puts back all the profits of the store into employing community members.

I thought you and your readers might enjoy the video we make about it, which can be seen here: http://youtu.be/neF-hekUpKM

Please let me know if you have any questions,

Thanks! Amy

Amy Wallace
www.bus52.com

*****************
Professor Stephen Kuusisto is the author of “Eavesdropping: A Memoir of Blindness and Listening” and the acclaimed memoir “Planet of the Blind”, a New York Times “Notable Book of the Year”. His second collection of poems from Copper Canyon Press, “Letters to Borges“, is scheduled for release in November 2012.  In addition to giving literary readings, Steve speaks widely on diversity, disability, education, and public policy. www.stephenkuusisto.com

Congrats – and thank you – to Erin Coughlin Hollowell

Congrats – and thank you – to Erin Coughlin Hollowell.

Erin purchased Stephen Kuusisto’s new book of poems and saved $ by taking advantage of the pre-order price. In so doing, she also entered a random drawing and is the winner this week of an autographed copy of “Only Bread, Only Light”, Steve’s first book of poetry (Copper Canyon Press).

Will you be next week’s winner?

 

 

Letters to Borges: Pre-order and save!

Hey friends and poetry lovers!

UPDATE: “Letters to Borges” is now scheduled for a mid-November release.

We are now counting down to the release next month of Steve’s new book! Amazon is offering a special pre-order price (details below!) and Steve would like to sweeten the deal.  Take advantage of Amazon’s offer,  email a copy of your receipt to authorsvirtualsolutions@gmail.com and you will automatically be entered into a drawing to win an autographed copy of  “Only Bread, Only Light”, Steve’s first book of poems  (Copper Canyon Press).  (If you already have a copy, it would make a great gift for another poetry lover!)

Unless notified otherwise, the scheduled publication date of “Letters to Borges” is October 15th.  Steve will hold one random drawing a week between now and then, and the final drawing will be held on the actual date his new book is released.  That means you will have a minimum of 5 chances to win if you order now.  Winners names will be posted.

1st random drawing: Sept. 19 – Congrats and thank you to Erin Coughlin Hollowell!
2nd random drawing: Sept. 26 – Congrats and thank you to Cindy Leland!
3rd random drawing: Oct. 3 – Congrats and thank you to Shirley Merrill!
4th random drawing: Oct. 10 – Congrats and thank you Karen Rudloff!
Final drawing: actual release date of “Letters to Borges” (scheduled for Oct. 15)

DETAILS:

Letters to Borges [Paperback]
Stephen Kuusisto (Author)
List Price: $16.00
Price: $10.88 Eligible for free shipping with Amazon Prime.
You Save: $5.12 (32%)
Pre-order Price Guarantee. Learn more.

http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=wwwstephenkuu-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=1556593864&ref=qf_sp_asin_til&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=FFFFFF&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr

This title has not yet been released.
You may pre-order it now and we will deliver it to you when it arrives.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.

The Projected Image: A History of Disability in Film

 Kudos to all involved in making this happen.  It is so long overdue:

Turner Classic Movies (TCM) will dedicate the month of October to exploring the ways people with disabilities have been portrayed in film. On behalf of Inclusion in the Arts, Lawrence Carter-Long will join TCM host Robert Osborne for The Projected Image: A History of Disability in Film. The special month-long exploration will air Tuesdays in October, beginning Oct. 2 at 8 p.m. (ET).

TCM makes today’s announcement to coincide with the 22nd anniversary of the signing of the Americans with Disability Act (ADA) on July 26. And in a first for TCM, all films will be presented with both closed captioning and audio description (via secondary audio) for audience members with auditory and visual disabilities.

Read on…

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Professor Stephen Kuusisto is the author of “Eavesdropping: A Memoir of Blindness and Listening” and the acclaimed memoir “Planet of the Blind”, a New York Times “Notable Book of the Year”. His second collection of poems from Copper Canyon Press, “Letters to Borges“, is scheduled for release in October 2012.  As director of the Renee Crown University Honors Program and a University Professor at Syracuse University, Steve speaks widely on diversity, disability, education, and public policy. www.stephenkuusisto.com, www.planet-of-the-blind.com