Author: Marissa DeCuir

A former award-winning journalist with national exposure, Marissa now oversees the day-to-day operation of the Books Forward author branding and book marketing firm, along with our indie publishing support sister company Books Fluent. Born and bred in Louisiana, currently living in New Orleans, she has lived and developed a strong base for our company and authors in Chicago and Nashville. Her journalism work has appeared in USA Today, National Geographic and other major publications. She is now interviewed by media on best practices for book marketing.

JKS Client Claire Applewhite recognized as a 2017 Woman of Achievement

Posted on | by Marissa DeCuir
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Women of Achievement Announces 2017 Award Honorees

10 area women recognized for their outstanding commitment to volunteer service and leadership

ST. LOUIS, MO – Women of Achievement is pleased to announce the 2017 Women of Achievement honorees—a selection of 10 extraordinary volunteers from the St. Louis metropolitan region. Founded in 1955, the St. Louis Women of Achievement Award is the oldest, ongoing program in the area whose sole mission is to honor and recognize the volunteer service and volunteer leadership of women. The recipients will be recognized at the 2017 Women of Achievement Luncheon on Tuesday, May 16 at the Ritz-Carlton, St. Louis. Doors open at 11:15 a.m. and the luncheon runs until 1:30 p.m. This year’s luncheon chair is Gin Wachter and the vice chair is Phyllis Langsdorf. Luncheon reservations are $60 per person and can be made online at www.woastl.org/luncheon-reservations or by contacting Women of Achievement at 314.896.4962 or woastlouis@gmail.com.

The 2017 Class of Honorees includes:
Claire Applewhite — Educational Enrichment
Christine Buck — Youth Dedication
Adrienne D. Davis — Arts Advocacy
Marlene Hammerman — Social Justice
Rosemary Hanley — Youth Services
Margaret Hopkins — Community Betterment
Kathy Lambert — Social Enterprise
Elizabeth Mannen — Volunteer Leadership
Colleen Kelly Starkloff — Human Welfare
Asha Zimmerman — Caring and Compassion

“Volunteers are the unsung heroes of our community,” said Women of Achievement President Joni Karandjeff. “The strength and longevity of the region’s nonprofit organizations and programs rely heavily on dedicated volunteers. We take pride in honoring some of these outstanding unsung heroes—women volunteers who have dedicated their time, energy, and leadership to helping the community in tremendous ways and inspire others to do the same.”

“The luncheon is a special way to honor and highlight our award winners,” said Gin Wachter, chair of the 2017 Luncheon. “Surrounded by family, friends, past Women of Achievement, and those affiliated with each honoree’s nonprofits and charities along with the general public, the feeling in the room is joyous and delightful. In addition to a delicious lunch and awarding the honorees, we also feature a dynamic 30-minute video about the volunteers and their history of service, which really hits home the message that helping others makes an enormous impact in our community.”

Women of Achievement honorees are selected from nominations from the St. Louis metropolitan area, including Metro East Illinois, who have demonstrated outstanding commitment to the betterment of the St. Louis region through voluntary contributions, volunteer leadership and a significant breadth of a volunteer career. Women of Achievement considers nominees with significant volunteer impact in areas such as, but not limited to, education, arts, health and human services, youth and family, philanthropy, social justice and advocacy. For additional information about the awards, luncheon and honorees, please visit www.woastl.org.

About Women of Achievement
In 1955, the St. Louis-Globe Democrat newspaper created an awards program that became known as the Women of Achievement Award, to recognize and honor the achievements of women who, through their volunteer efforts, have demonstrated their dedication and commitment to improving the quality of life in the St. Louis community. The St. Louis Women of Achievement organization, a 501c3, not-for-profit organization, was established in 1993 by former Women of Achievement who wanted to ensure the longevity of the award for future generations of St. Louis area women. The organization’s Board of Directors, comprised of past recipients of the award, continue to plan and implement the nomination, selection and award presentation process ensuring that this award will continue to enhance and honor the women volunteers in the St. Louis metropolitan region who positively impact the community, for many years to come. For more information visit the Women of Achievement website at www.woastl.org.

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2017 JKS Communications Authors-in-Residence Announced!

Posted on | by Marissa DeCuir

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Mystery novelist Lori Rader-Day, middle grade author Kristen Kittscher named 2017 JKS Communications Authors-in-Residence

Nashville, Tenn. – JKS Communications has selected Mary Higgins Clark Award–winning novelist Lori Rader-Day and 2014 James Thurber House Children’s Writer-in-Residence Kristen Kittscher as the book marketing and author publicity firm’s 2017 authors-in-residence.

Each year, JKS Communications chooses one adult genre author and one children’s author to honor and work closely with the company’s team of book publicists to gain a first-hand perspective on author promotions.

Rader-Day’s fantastic networking capabilities with industry professionals and Kittscher’s creativity throughout her book’s publication and publicity process, among their many other strengths and talents, will add unique insight to the book publicity firm.

Rader-Day and Kittscher succeed suspense writer Jenny Milchman and YA author Martina Boone, the JKS Communications 2016 authors-in-residence.

Based in Chicago, Rader-Day has turned heads with her intricate, complicated mystery novels. Her debut, “The Black Hour,” won the 2015 Anthony Award for Best First Novel and was a finalist for the 2015 Mary Higgins Clark Award. Her follow up novel, “Little Pretty Things,” won the 2016 Mary Higgins Clark Award and was named a 2015 “most arresting crime novel” by “Kirkus.”  Her third novel, “The Day I Died,” will be released by Harper Collins William Morrow on April 11. JKS Communications is working with Rader-Day on special pre-order and book club promotions to celebrate the new launch.

Kittscher is a former middle school teacher living in Pasadena, California, who turned to tween mystery writing and was the 2014 James Thurber House Children’s Writer-in-Residence. Her first novel, “The Wig in the Window,” received a starred review from “School Library Journal.” Her second novel, “Tiara on the Terrace,” was praised by “Kirkus” as “an entertaining mystery featuring kids who readily outsmart all the adults; what could be better?” Kittscher speaks to thousands of readers across the country in classrooms and at conferences and summer camps each year, and JKS Communications worked with Kittscher to develop a scavenger hunt to help libraries continue inspiring young readers.

JKS Communications is a full-service literary publicity firm offering cross-genre book marketing to authors across a variety of publishing platforms, including traditional, small press, indie and international. Learn more at www.JKSCommunications.com.

 

For more information:

Anglle Barbazon, publicist

angelle@JKSCommunications.com

(615) 928-2462

Gifts for book lovers, including new subscription service for kids, Lillypost

Posted on | by Marissa DeCuir

With the holidays quickly approaching, it’s never too early to start picking out gifts! Here are some great gift ideas that bookworms everywhere are sure to love!!

Another great gift idea for book lovers is a subscription box! Subscription box services are becoming increasingly popular, and what better gift to give than one that lasts all year? Lillypost, a new subscription service, is the perfect gift for the special children in your life! Lillypost provides monthly deliveries of carefully curated, age-appropriate books for kids. Each box arriving at a child’s home will include individually wrapped books and occasionally other goodies, giving each child a sense of surprise and anticipation surrounding the books’ arrival. Even better: your purchase of a Lillypost subscription will help children in need.

Created by Book Depot, one of North America’s largest book wholesalers, Lillypost hopes to strengthen literacy throughout local communities by encouraging each parent, grandparent and caregiver who gifts a subscription to a budding young reader to donate the books to local libraries after their child has progressed to the next level of reading ability.

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Lillypost is also partnering with Project Night Night, a charity that provides comforting nighttime essentials – stuffed animals, blankets and books – to homeless children through the United States. These items help children feel safe, warm and ready to learn. Each month, Lillypost will donate one new book to Project Night Night for every single box shipped.

“There is no greater gift in this world than seeing a child’s eyes light up when they discover the world of books,” Book Depot CEO Wilf Wikkerink said. “Lillypost wants to do it’s part in spreading this joy.”

Lillypost will launch its service on September 1, and subscription sign-up can be accessed at Lillypost.com.

JKS Celebrates 9 Books on the 2016 Beverly Hills Book Awards List

Posted on | by Marissa DeCuir

The International Beverly Hills Book Awards ® contest recognizes the best in fiction and non-fiction books across various genres, and JKS is proud to celebrate seven of our talented authors (nine books total!) who have made the list this year. The awards committee focuses on print books and considers cover and interior design, promotional text, aesthetic components and other factors that demonstrate outstanding presentation, in addition to the writing.

We are so excited our JKS winners and finalists in the 4th Annual Beverly Hills Book Awards!!

WINNERS:

The Power of 10 by Rugger Burke – Leadership

Marketing For Tomorrow, Not Yesterday by Zain Raj – Marketing & Public Relations

Things Unsaid by Diana Y. Paul – New Adult Fiction

The Coalition by Samuel Marquis – Political Thriller

FINALISTS:

Indy Writes Books: A Book Lover’s Anthology edited by Travis DiNicola – Anthology

Killer Nashville Noir: Cold-Blooded edited by Clay Stafford – Anthology

The Slush Pile Brigade by Samuel Marquis – Mystery

Blind Thrust by Samuel Marquis – Suspense

Money, Family, Murder by Timothy Patten – Mystery

Congratulations to all of our authors!!

You’ve GOT to budget for publicity

Posted on | by Marissa DeCuir

Publicity Budgeting

So often we hear from authors who are interested in publicity but are also cash-strapped from having already spent vast resources on preparing their books for publishing. Self-publishing is especially expensive and authors have to make huge upfront investments before their books even see the light of day.

Indie authors have the extra expenses of publishing their book that a traditionally published author does not incur. It’s important to budget for publicity for a book just as you would budget for a book cover, editing, formatting, distribution and all other aspects of publishing – no matter if you hire a publicist or choose to do your own promotion.

Unfortunately self-publishing has such an expense tied to it that a lot of people budget for everything to create the book and nothing to get the word out that it even exists. Kind of like the old saying, “If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?”

It’s scary to commit to the unknown. I get it. As a former journalist, I was very skeptical of publicity and if it actually made any sort of difference. After more than seven years as a book publicist, I can without a doubt say it does. Just at JKS Communications alone we have seen indie authors hit bestseller lists, become the go-to expert interviews for major mainstream media, receive daily book club requests, start movements, and even land six-figure publishing deals.

Every publicity campaign will differ in scope depending on the book, genre, author, messaging, budget and other factors. But one thing is for sure – without any publicity, your book will get lost among the millions published each year.

I wish for authors that writing the book would be the end of their hard work. That on its own is an incredible feat. But book publicity has become increasingly important over the last decade especially with the ever-changing publishing industry.

So regardless of whether you hire a publicist or not, treat publicity just as you would any part of publishing your book. Publicity is just as important as your cover, your content, your distribution, your editing and everything else that goes into not only making the book, but making it known.