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Another Pitchapalooza Participant Lands a Book Deal!
Congratulations to Ann Ralph on the sale of her book, The Little Fruit Tree Book, to Storey publishing. Ann has one of the most memorable elevator pitches we’ve ever heard. Here it is: The Elements of Style for Fruit Trees.
Got a bookstore you love?
If you know of any great bookstores, writers groups, colleges/universities or book fairs and festivals that would like to host a Pitchapalooza and/or workshop, let us know.
The Book Doctors love making house calls.
Internships and Barters
We need interns! We’re also happy to barter services with writers–we’ll give you book doctoring services and any assistance you might require in your quest to get published.
We are looking for help in the following areas:
WordPress
Social Media updates (on our website, Facebook, Twitter, and various other feeds)
Outreach to continuing education departments
Outreach to local writers organizations
Maintaining our calendar
QuickBooks
Setting up Pitchapalooza consultations
Writing press releases and contacting media
Running a weekly Twitter event
Posting and finding content (stories and quotations about writing, writers, books and publishing)
Making/editing/posting movies about publishing and chronicling our Pitchapaloozas and workshops.
The Book Doctors Book Report: Milking Goats, Army Dogs, & Rocking New England
Radiant reds, opulent oranges, puffy pinks, burnt burgundies, and mellow yellows fill the trees, there’s a nip in the breeze, and as fall fades, old man winter slowly rolls his frozen bones into our hearts and homes. Since we last checked in, we milked goats in Santa Cruz; had an Obama sighting in Martha’s Vineyard; partied in an antebellum mansion in Richmond, ate pineapple shrimp taquitos in Austin, Texas; got free lunches and books in Madison; and basked in spectacular Technicolor foliage in Lake Placid.
We heard pitches from judges, lawyers, a former topless musician, a special ed teacher, a 13-year-old and an octogenarian, slackers and hackers, pet vets and Army vets. We heard pitches about menopausal dragons, catgut mythbusting, maniac murderers, New Age gurus, Austin boxing noir, cute kitties, dogs of war, an Australian graphic novel, soccer lunatics, rich girls, and bad dads. We went to some of the greatest bookstores in the country, from Book Passage in Marin, to RJ Julia and Flying Pig (read owner Elizabeth Bluemle’s most excellent blog in Publishers Weekly) in New England, to Bookshop Santa Cruz, to Bunch of Grapes in Martha’s Vineyard. Not to mention great book festivals in Cape Cod, Texas, Baltimore, and Richmond. We met so many generous and altogether awesome writers, booksellers, readers, mayors, dogs, and chickens.
We heard from our Kansas City Pitchapalooza winner Genn Albin (part 2, part 3, part 4) about her wild ride from unknown writer to published author with a juicy three-book, six-figure deal. We interviewed our friend Sam Benjamin on the Huffington Post about how he got his memoir published. We finally got ahold of the video of Helen Armstrong, our 15-year-old winner from Chester County, PA—it’s pretty astonishing if you haven’t seen it. We were made honorary citizens of Santa Cruz. We did two bi-coastal Pitchapaloozas in 24 hours. We were interviewed on Rick Kleffel’s on Bookotron. And here’s our very first Pitchapalooza Podcast, courtesy of Lori Culwell and Stephan Cox.
We are doing a Pitchapalooza Rocks New England Tour in November, then one last 2011 event at Book Revue in Huntington, Long Island—the first anniversary of our historic show there last year. In 2012, we already plan to go to New Orleans for the Tennessee Williams Festival, and it looks like a tour of Alaska and Hawaii are in the works.
We’d like to thank everyone who has given us a testimonial about our Pitchapaloozas and workshops. Check out what both writers and booksellers are saying.
See you at the bookstore, or in cyberspace. Thanks, Arielle & David
Arielle w/ 13 year old pitcher Caitlin MerrionThe Book Doctors w/ awesome panelistsThe Book Doctors w/ winner Aimee TeagueLouise Stevens: Woman's Fiction: woman and family’s secrets and liesRob Bass: Short Stories: mysticismMeg Cobb: Memoir: woman chases jazz hero Roland KirkAmiee Teague: Young Adult Fantasy: boy with a shape shifting sister (WINNER!)Caitlin Merrion: Young Adult Novel: best friend gets captured (author is 13 years old)Chad Tracy: Hard-boiled Fiction: Austin boxer noirCaroline Stanley: How To: career, money, wardrobe, personal shopping expertAlisha Gabriel: Middle Grade Non-Fiction: gruesome facts about musical instrumentsDavid Morris Parson: Experimental Fiction: Dante’s Inferno meets Bozo the clown meets Terry GilliamCindy Phillips: Trashy Mystery: southern sizzlePaul Ehrlich: Historic Novel: 1940s FranceFran Samuelsson: YA Novel: girls, horses and Basques
Keep Austin Weird! We kept seeing that slogan plastered everywhere: on clubs with Tex-Mex music blaring, on the sides of restaurants with Tex-Mex food wafting, on t-shirts sported by ancient shitkickers, dreaded-up post-hippies, and UT hook-’em-horns, Bevo loving students. And it is weird. In the best way. Where else could you be signing books across from Lisa Loeb, & the dude who wrote Go the F*ck to Sleep. We ate amazing “Interior Mexican” tacos, we swam in a Texas sized fresh water pool, we saw protesters fighting the death penalty.
The festival itself, thanks to Clay Davis and his legion of tireless helpers, is one of the best in the country, nee the world. we heard awesome pitches by a 13 year old girl, a trashy thriller writer, a Pynchon disciple, a cat gut myth buster, an Austin boxing noirist, & our winner, special education teacher Aimee Teague, whose middle grade novel, Devin and His Shape-Shifting Sister, rocked the house hard.
Olive, our 4 year old, proclaimed that she loved Austin even more than Hollywood. And she loves Hollywood. to see more pix go to: the book doctors page on facebook
One of the highlights of the day was attending Pitchapalooza with Arielle Eckstut and David Henry Sterry. The blurb in the festival schedule says they “are co-founders of The Book Doctors, a company dedicated to helping authors get their books published. They are also co-authors of The Essential Guide to Getting Your Book Published: How To Write It, Sell It, and Market It… Successfully. ”
Randomly selected audience members were given one minute to pitch their books and then received feedback about it. The panelists were nice about it, too, and gave every single person good advice. Guess what? I was randomly selected! It was scary, but exciting. My nonfiction book, Catgut and Toenails: A Guide to Musical Instruments, was met with enthusiasm and helpful comments for improvement, as well as ways to successfully market myself and the book. Every panelist chimed in, which was inspiring.
As I made my way back to my seat, a tween sitting nearby whispered, “I’d read your book!” It made my day.
