Recommending a Digital Book to your Library

With the influx of "digital only" and "digital first" books on the market, how does a library stay current? I've been approached recently by several YA librarians who have asked about getting Any Way You Slice It into their kids' hands, so I've done a bit of research.

Most digital books are going to be available through Overdrive. Overdrive is a giant online clearinghouse of books, in their digital format. The thing is...your library STILL has to purchase the digital title from Overdrive in order to house it on their own virtual shelves. Just as you would recommend they purchase a physical copy of your favorite title, you can request they purchase a digital title.

Consider doing this for all your favorite digital books at your local library.

Here's how it works:

1. Go to Overdrive and sign in: https://www.overdrive.com/
2. Search for your own library/library consortium and save it as a favorite library, then click on the library name to search what's available in their list of digital titles.
3. You will need your library card, so it must be library to which you have a card!
4. Put Any Way You Slice It (or your favorite digital title--you can do this as many times as you want) into the search engine. If it doesn't come up in your library's collection, hit the button that says "search for more titles" and the search engine will go to Overdrive and pull up the cover.
5. Recommend it as a book your library or consortium should consider making available to their digital readers. 

Personally, I'd love to get my book into the hands of teen and tween readers, and having it available through libraries is a good way to start! But if you're not inclined to recommend my book, consider any of the other Bloomsbury Spark titles listed here: http://bloomsbury.com/us/bloomsbury-spark/

Blog Tour Schedule for AWYSI

I'm so excited that ANY WAY YOU SLICE IT will be out in the world on April 21. I'm doing a blog tour to celebrate!

Here's the schedule for anyone who is interested.

April 19th Curling Up With A Good Book REVIEW + INTERVIEW
April 20th LuLo Fan Girl REVIEW
April 21st Bookhounds YA REVIEW + WHAT'S IN KRISTINE'S BAG?
April 21st Sporty Girl Books INTERVIEW
April 22nd Swoony Boys Podcast REVIEW + TEN RANDOM THINGS
April 23rd Her Book Thoughts REVIEW
April 24th The Unofficial Book Addiction Club REVIEW + INSPIRATION BOARD
April 24th Writers Rumpus, Guest Post
April 25th Bibliophilia: A Love Story REVIEW +  TENS LIST

Recap of My #pitmad tips

As some of you know, I'm a #pitmad success story. Back in 2013,  I attracted the attention of Meredith Rich of Bloomsbury Spark with my pitch for my novel THE SWEET SPOT. That's not the book that I ultimately ended up writing with Bloomsbury, but it started our relationship. Link

Needless to say, I love #pitmad. This past week, I got to help out Brenda Drake by co-hosting the most recent. I spent the day tweeting tips, so I thought I'd put them all here in one place.

I'd love to answer questions about pitches. Let me know in the comments if you have any questions about my experience!

***

Be professional on twitter. An agent during #pitmad mentioned being turned off by someone's negative tweets & chose not to favorite. #pubtip

Tweets are public. Expect industry pros to look at your feed and bio. Act accordingly if you expect to be treated professionally. #pitmad

#pitmad tip. Now that you have your pitch, practice it out loud so you can answer "what's your book about?" in line at the grocery store.

If agent is open to queries and reps what you write, query traditionally, even if they don't favorite. #pitmad.

Pitching today during #pitmad? Be sure you have a MS ready to send in case someone "favorites" it! Be prepared to submit!

#pitmad tip. Change your pitch to focus on different angles of the story. Include specifics.

Share the #pitmad love. If you like a pitch, retweet it. Leave stars (favorites) for the pros. Total heart attack for the author. #pitmad

The best pitches are specific. MC, goal, stakes, and genre. Hard to do, but worth the effort. #pitmad

DELIVER ME by Kate Jarvik Birch

I am so happy to be a part of the cover reveal for DELIVER ME by Kate Jarvik Birch, coming April 15^th from Bloomsbury Spark.

Blurb:

One People. One Union. One Future. 

Wynne’s entire life is dictated by the Union: the clothes she wears, the books she reads, even the genes she inherited. And like every other girl in the Union, Wynne dreams of being chosen as a Carrier on her 16^th birthday—one of the elite selected to carry the future generation within her womb. Wynne and her best friend Odessa are certain they will both make the cut, but when Odessa is chosen and whisked off to a life of privilege, Wynne is left behind to work as an assistant, delivering babies for the Union.

As Odessa slips deeper and deeper into the role of Carrier, Wynne begins to see the Union for what it really is: a society that criminalizes the notion of love, and forbids words like mother and family.

For the first time in her life, Wynne is faced with a choice: submit to the will of the Union, or find a way to escape and save Odessa before she is lost forever.

Goodreads |

About the Author

Kate Jarvik Birch is a visual artist and writer living in Salt Lake City, Utah with her husband and three kids. She wrote her first novel in fourth grade. The main character was suspiciously similar to herself and the love interest bore quite a strong resemblance to the boy she had a crush on. As an adult, her essays and short stories have been published in Isotope: A Journal of Literary Nature and Science Writing, Saint Ann's Review, Scissors and Spackle and Indiana Review. Her first play, (a man enters), co-written with Elaine Jarvik, was produced in 2011 by Salt Lake Acting Co.

Kate’s debut novel, DELIVER ME, comes out April 15^th from Bloomsbury Spark. PERFECTED will be released July 1^st from Entangled Teen.

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Giveaway

Enter the giveaway below to win an electronic copy of DELIVER ME from Bloomsbury Spark as well as a $20 Amazon gift card!

Click here to Enter