Monster Needs a Blog Tour, Second Edition

Another blog tour you say? Why yes! We're back and celebrating the second book by Paul Czajak and Wendy Grieb, Monster Needs His Sleep.

Monster and boy are here once more, 

Travelin' along a little blog tour!

So jump right in, discover a treat, 

One little click and your day is complete!

Carrie On…
April 8
We hear there is going to be a really hilarious video…

Find Paul HERE on the Scarletta blog!
April 15
He’s celebrating publication day by taking over the Scarletta blog!

Teach with Picture Books
April 17
The first giveaway you say? Better not miss it!

Kid Lit Reviews
April 21
Monster always has a lot to say, and this delightful character interview will be no different.

There’s a Book
May 6
Missed the first giveaway? Never fear, enter here!

Kid Lit Reviews
May 12
We’re back! This time for a review and giveaway to celebrate Children’s Book Week!

Sharpread
May 14
5,4,3,2,1… Find out the deets on Monster Needs His Sleep in this fast-paced, by-the-numbers interview to wrap up the tour.


And don't forget to pick up the book from your favorite vendor - it hits shelves April 15!

ANNOUNCING: New Acquisition!

©Lgsarutobi, DeviantArt

The Scarletta office is completely abuzz this morning.

After settling in (barely!) from our hectic and somewhat stressful move this weekend, we were greeted this morning with some spectacular news! 

After an exceptionally grueling and lengthy acquisition process, Scarletta received notification on Tuesday, April 1st, that our little press has been granted exclusive rights to publishing the next seven Harry Potter titles. Can you believe it, dear reader?! After hours of applications, elimination rounds, and Skype-interviews with JK Rowling, her publicist, and the big-wigs at Bloomsbury, Scarletta has been selected to publish the spin-off series Harry Potter and the Adult Years. 

 

Penned by Rowling herself, the seven book series will be published in its entirety by Scarletta in May 2014. 

Not only are we unbelievably fortunate to reveal this exciting news, but we are equally elated to announce the seven titles hitting shelves and our online store next month.

Book 1: Harry Potter and the Broken Dishwasher

Book 2: Harry Potter and the Reluctant Colonoscopy 

Book 3: Harry Potter and the Lackluster Benefits Package at the Ministry of Magic

Book 4: Harry Potter and Midlife Crisis

Book 5: Harry Potter and the Couples Counselor 

Book 6: Harry Potter and the Helicopter Quidditch Parenting 

Book 7: Harry Potter and Annual Auror Retreat

Thank you for sharing in this exciting news with our little press. We can't wait to enjoy these exciting new titles with you this spring!

Living Outside of the Target Audience

“No book is really worth reading at the age of ten which is not equally – and often far more – worth reading at the age of fifty and beyond.” ― C.S. Lewis

Time and time again people debate whether or not someone fits the target audience of a specific book. With the industry in such a competitive state currently and unfocused marketing being the death knell of most sales, it's important to know who your ideal reader is. Unfortunately, that creates a dialogue that keeps out a lot of people who would still very much benefit from the book.

So, let's start a dialogue. A fresh... no, a Garden Fresh dialogue. Let me tell you about the magic of Garden to Table, and why "a kid's guide" is so much more.

Monster Needs to Stay Awake for His Book Trailer!

As technology and media continue to change, so does our ability to utilize our creative outlets in fun and interesting ways. One of the coolest trends to jump out of the publishing industry over the last few years has been the book trailer. Feature films shouldn't have all the fun, right?

At first, the concept seemed like kind of a snooze to me. A trailer? For a book? Sounds pretty boring. I mean, books don't move, they don't dance, they don't sing--well, most books anyway. What could possibly be entertaining about a short preview for a book?

Well, as it turns out, there are a quite a few benefits to promoting books in this way. First, it's a different platform to garner support and exposure for your book. Not everyone in the world wants to sift through Amazon reviews or wade through pages and pages of new releases looking for the hottest picture books. It's far more enjoyable to get a hands on look at some art, some passages, and some reviews all contained within a two minute glance. Second, videos are far more dynamic than an image. You can garner so much more information with interactive text and artwork than with a cover photo. Even with the "look inside the book" feature on popular book vendor websites, there something much more deliberate about the specific art highlighted in book trailers.

The biggest reason to use a book trailer? It's FUN! You get music and movement, excitement and entertainment. The opportunity to captivate a new audience with your product is one any author and publishing press should look forward to. After all, that's sort of the name of the game, isn't it? Getting your book in to more hands?

We'd hardly complain!

So, of course, the point of this small discussion is that we have a new book trailer! Hooray! Take a look below and tell us what you think!

We promise: it's worth staying awake for.

A Book For Lunch

“Eating and reading are two pleasures that combine admirably.” - CS Lewis

I've talked before about the idea of book diets before, because I think the idea is magical and hilarious. This time though, I've decided to approach the idea of a book diet from a slightly more literal perspective. Not too literal because I'm pretty sure that ingesting books is relatively unhealthy, I highly doubt that there are many vitamins and minerals soaked into the pages of my favorite murder mystery.

Post-Winter Reading Lists, or Why Summer Can't Arrive Soon Enough

Typical Scarletta Employee Behavior

Winter has battered us all this year. Intense storms, bad road conditions, record lows... but I digress. This post is an ode to Summer, and the delicious books that we gobble up on our summer reading lists. This post is about why summer should already be here! Denzel has talked about book diets, the PW blog talked about vacation reading, and now as a publisher, it's time for us to start talking about summer reading.

Summer reading is important on so many levels. The majority of libraries create FANTASTIC reading programs designed to engage kids of all ages (we highly recommend you enroll your kids in one). Publishers come out with great lists for varying tastes (seriously, every publisher has summer recommendations). More people choose to read for fun - to engage themselves in books while on summer vacation (honestly, who doesn't enjoy a good book while getting a tan?).

So before you cover yourselves in books, here are our recommendations - a few books from the Scarletta catalog to add to the lists of our voracious readers...

The First Annual SEUSS! Awards: A Retrospective

With todays announcement of The Day the Crayons Quit as winner of the First Annual SEUSS Awards Choice Picture Book, we find ourselves at the end of one of the most exciting weeks in Scarletta history. A little chunk of that history hasn't been shared with you lovely people yet, and so I've asked the wonderful queen of all things Scarletta (Desiree) to share the details: