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.

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.