Hello from Elizabeth Vollstadt

/ evollstadt

liz

Hi!  I’m Elizabeth Weiss Vollstadt, a children’s writer, and I’m delighted to introduce myself to other authors on Marcia’s blog. I met Marcia when she spoke at the Victoria Gardens Book Club in January. I’ve been following her blog ever since.

As a children’s writer, I’ve been published three different ways:

––On contract for Lucent books, for four non-fiction books

––Traditionally with Boyds Mills Press, for the anthology, Young Patriots: Inspiring Stories of the American Revolution, written with co-author Marcella Anderson

––Independently for my preteen novel, Pairs on Ice.

I’ve discovered that the hardest things about publishing a book is not the writing, but the marketing, and I hope to exchange ideas with other writers about what works. One thing I’ve learned is that it’s especially difficult to market children’s books because most are purchased by libraries––and they rarely buy indie books. So far, I’ve used Amazon, social media, word of mouth, and one ad. My most successful book signings have been at ice rinks. Unfortunately, there are few in Florida.

Pairs on Ice, the first of a three-book series, was published in 2014. It’s about friendship, family, and the competitive world of figure skating.  My main character, Jamie, 12, is a singles skater who switches to pairs––and the sparks start to fly! The book was inspired by my years as a skating mom when my daughter competed. I’ve always marveled at skaters who could jump, spin, and glide over the ice. It’s been fun creating characters who can skate the way I’ve always wished I could.

I have just completed revisions on Pairs at Nationals, the second book in the series, and to celebrate, I’m offering the Kindle version of Pairs on Ice for only 99 cents, beginning today, May 17, and lasting through May 23rd.

Front Cover, small file2

Pairs On Ice On Sale Today Here

You can find out more about me and Pairs on Ice at my Amazon Author’s Page, http://www.amazon.com/author/elizabethvollstadt

and also at my blog, www.elizabethvollstadt.blogspot.com

I’d love to share marketing ideas with any writers who are interested. Thanks and hope to hear from you.

22 thoughts on “Hello from Elizabeth Vollstadt”

  1. Welcome to The Write Stuff, Liz! Your post came through beautifully. The only thing lacking is some cover images and your buy links. If you have some, you could edit them in, or send them to me, and I’ll do it for you. (A head shot of YOU would be great, too, so our readers can see who they’re talking to.) I’m looking forward to responses to your post, and I’ve already tweeted it and shared on Facebook. Thanks so much for introducing yourself, and sharing a bit about your work. AND, I’m heading over to take advantage of your promo price!

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    • Ooops, your amazon author’s page link isn’t working. Could you double check that URL for us? I don’t want anyone to miss out on your offer, either, so adding a link directly to your book on sale would help, too. Thanks, Liz! And good luck!

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      • Glad you like the post and thanks for letting me know about the URL to my Author’s Page. It’s working now. Also, I’d love to add the two pictures, but I couldn’t find a tab to let me do that. I’ll e-mail the images to you if you can insert them. The only links I have to buy the book is to enter the name on Amazon or click on the picture on the Author’s Page.

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        • Nope, you go to the page where the book is for sale, and you copy the URL from the top of the page. In this case, it’s https://www.amazon.com/Pairs-Ice-Elizabeth-Vollstadt-ebook/dp/B00L1ISEQ2?ie=UTF8&ref_=asap_bc I’ve used it under the photo of your book so folks can click straight through to buy. This is the link you should use in Tweets, etc, because only using your Author’s page link might mean some folks won’t bother. A direct link to your sale page is better. 🙂 You can do this for every book you have for sale, and save the links, so you have them for easy reference, when directing folks to your promos.

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  4. Good to meet you, Elizabeth. There’s an interesting link here, as my mother was a professional ice skater in her youth, and we are always glued to the major championships on TV. I’d have loved to have skated like that too, but my mother steered me away from it as being too easy to accumulate injuries.
    Funny, then, that I ended up becoming a professional horse rider – plenty of scope for injury there!
    Re marketing, I wish you plenty of luck – I’ve discovered how genre-specific much of what works can be, and children’s books is definitely one of the hardest, as far as I can see.

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  5. Thanks for your comment. Re horse riding, your mom might wish you had taken up skating !!! You’re right about marketing being genre specific. I’ve learning a lot since PAIRS ON ICE came out and hope to put it to use when the sequel is published.

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  6. Good to meet you, Elizabeth. This marketing malarkey is a steep learning curve for most writers – it doesn’t come naturally to us!
    I don’t know anything about promoting children’s books but if I have a sale on I use some of the promo sites which have mailing lists of readers. You can find out more about some of those sites and which are good on a site called eNovelAuthorsatWork. Here’s the link: http://enovelauthorsatwork.com There are links to Useful Links, Author Resources and Blogs – the blog posts are very informative and useful.
    Mary Smith

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  8. Hello Elizabeth! It is nice to meet you. I do not have personal experience in children’s books but I have a few that I follow. One I have followed for a while recently garnered some awards and featured in a series by Mother Daughter Book Reviews. Here is a link so that you can become familiar with both the Mother Daughter Book Reviews and Crystal Marcos http://motherdaughterbookreviews.com/100-book-blast-giveaway-novus-by-crystal-marcos/ – You may wish to go through the other posts and learn about other authors in your genre and possibly connect with them.

    I have picked up a copy of your book because it sounded interesting and sometimes I am able to share them with family and friends. I will definitely tweet out about your book in the hopes it will help you out.

    Have a great one!

    Lynn

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    • First of all, thanks for purchasing PAIRS ON ICE. I hope you enjoy it! I love Jamie and Matt and love writing about them. And . . . thanks for the link. I’m definitely going to check it out. I also signed up to follow you on Twitter. It looks like you are a book reviewer. Looking forward to reading your tweets.

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      • You’re most welcome. I did enjoy Pairs on Ice – 5 stars. Thanks for following me on twitter. I wear many hats, one is reviewing books, I write blogs, I proofread books, and I’m a published author while doing these things I also enjoy networking with fellow authors.

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        • So glad you enjoyed PAIRS ON ICE! Would you have time to write a brief review for Amazon? I would so appreciate it. Thanks. I’m on Twitter and I’ve enjoyed your tweets, but I don’t really use it as I should. It all takes so much time. Someday . . .

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  9. Hello Elizabeth, lovely to meet you. I agree with you, writing is the pleasure, marketing is the hard part and can be time consuming.
    I’m wondering if you are friends with any other children’s authors. They can be of some help by sharing their marketing strategies with children’s books. I know NIcholas Rossis has a few children’s books out as well as his writing in other genres. He markets to different audiences. Also Janice Spina of Gemsbooks is lovely and very helpful. They are both wonderful supporters of other writers. 🙂

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    • Thanks for taking the time to comment. I do know other children’s writers and we are all struggling with finding better ways to market. But I will look into the names you’ve given me. I also found your blog/web page and took advantage of your free book offer. THANK YOU! It looks interesting.

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