Hitting the Southern California Indie Bestseller List

When Kristen Kittscher launched her second middle-grade mystery, The Tiara on the Terrace, our team had terrific fun working on out-of-the-box promotions!

Cracking the Code with Librarians

First, Books Forward organized a special mailing to booksellers and librarians nationwide. Our box included some usual goodies – a copy of the book and swag like bookmarks, stickers, etc. – but we wanted to go bigger.

Kristen’s mystery relies on code-breaking tween sleuths, so we designed and produced an interactive scavenger hunt game, complete with a decoding activity to solve the final puzzle. Needless to say, it was a huge hit with libraries!

Meeting Her Fans

Second, we coordinated her national book tour with over a dozen events at prestigious bookstores, including Warwicks, Chevaliers, RJ Julia and a massive NYC launch party at Mysterious Bookshop. We also organized school visits for Kristen, so she could connect with her favorite audience – middle school readers!

A Royal Win

Last but not least, we organized great media coverage with School Library Journal’s Fuse #8, a Publisher’s Weekly Photo of the Day and a book trailer feature in Shelf Awareness.

Our multi-pronged campaign paid off: The Tiara on the Terrace hit the Southern California Indie Bestseller list! We were proud to bolster Kristen’s reputation as a fan-favorite author, showing that a little creative strategy can lead to big success.