The SCBWI-NY Winter Conference has come and, too quickly, gone. I had a grand time roaming the city, but had even more fun sharing viral marketing and promotional information with my fellow SCBWI members. For me, the most interesting part of gathering that data was the “wee little survey” results. I had hoped I might get 25 – 30 of you to respond. After all, the idea for the On Reading and Books questionnaire was rather last minute on my part. But, over 120 of you responded and that is just incredible! Before I share the results, I must say “Thank You” to all who participated.
To the Brothers Cook, the Brothers Gephart, the Sisters Peek, the Siblings Minns, the Sanger Duo and Freckles McYoungest – Huge Hugs and Thanks.
The families Brown, Stilphen, Johnson and Mattson also took part and the Lovely Alexis Ceule didn’t just rope in her kids but other kids as well. Kudos to you all.
To Dan Schwabauer and his OYAN (One Year Adventure Novel) students – applause and love. I’m humbled by your willingness to help a virtual stranger. I could tell when word of the survey spread among you because the user tally jumped and respondents skewed older. Thank you for taking the time and showing your love of books and reading. You’re wonderful.
To Mrs. Sanger and the 5th grade kids from Staunton, Virginia, not to mention the computer teacher who brought down the firewalls long enough to let the kids take the survey and the other 5th grade teachers who agreed it could be fun and let their students take part – Thank you, thank you, thank you. Your kids were honest, endearing and fun. What joy when I saw them hit the graphs.
Now, to share with you what you taught me, and at least 300 other writers, authors and illustrators, in New York.
- The majority of you came from Elementary School (Hello, Staunton) at 44% but 33% of you are in High School and 6% of you old Out Of School folks couldn’t help yourselves and gave an opinion too. 12% were in Middle School and 5% in College.
- A joyful 81% of you talk with your friends about books (often or sometimes).
- Likewise, the majority of you (71.5% most often, sometimes) learn about books from your friends. You also take advise on what to read from your parents (64%). Huh? Well, that’s what you said! And a good portion (65%) of you browse the shelves on your own and take your own advice. Good for you. *remember you could choose more than one answer here*
- Most of you, most often, get the books you read from Public (57%) and School (43%) libraries. That’s just plain cool. The discount stores – Walmart, Target, Costco – aren’t as powerful as I thought. Only 13% of you go there “most often” to get your books.
- When asked if you would like to chat with Authors/Illustrators, only 9% of you said “No” and an interesting 20% of you said you “Already Do.”
- Most of you wanted to chat with authors and illustrators on their websites, but connecting on Facebook and Blogs were close runners up. Not surprisingly, MySpace was a distant last. Guess nobody goes there anymore.
- You were very honest when asked if chatting with authors might cause you to read more of their books. 25% of you said “Yes” and a whopping 65% of you said “Maybe.” I love that “Maybe.” I got the sense that knowing an author wouldn’t be enough for you. That author would need to write well and produce a great story. You’ve got high standards.
- Likewise, someone else’s opinion, like the winning of an award, wouldn’t necessarily sway you either. Only 20% of you felt you’d be more likely to read an award-winning book. Seems you all have varied and interesting tastes.
- Lastly, you knew I was grateful for you time. I really and truly was, and am. If any of you would like a more thorough accounting of the survey – graphs, numbers, etc. – don’t hesitate to ask me. There was no personal information collected so I don’t mind sharing. It is your data after all.
I hope I haven’t missed anyone with my heartfelt “Thanks.” Please know I appreciate your help. Since I didn’t collect emails or links from participants I can’t make sure. If you stumbled upon the survey and took it, WOW, you’re awesome. More love to come later in the week.
Tell me what you think. 
This is a wee bitty survey (especially for kids) about how you find new reads and where you get the books. Easy to fill out. All multiple click. It’s so quick, if you blink, you’ll miss it.
No personal information is collected although I promise to make your answers famous when I go to New York.
Click here to take survey
Here are the folks working for YOU! I’ve known these folks since the beginning of the SMCKC and been really lucky to have worked with them before. You, Kansas City, have chosen wisely! You’ve got a group of dedicated, passionate and effective people. (Except for that Jenn Bailey girl. I’m not so sure about her.)
Your President: Lisa Qualls – @lqualls4444 She will keep us in line and on task. Lisa has the project management and organizational skills we’ll need and a strong whip hand for when we get too rowdy.
Your Vice-President: Ryan Flannagan – @ryanflannagan If any of us start lagging in energy or motivation, we’ll just ramp up Ryan. He’s got enough for all of us.
Your Awareness Chairperson: Whitney Mathews – @whitneymathews Whitney was born to this medium. With her connections, intellect and savvy we won’t just be on the social media map we’ll BE the social media map!
Your Education Chairperson: Mark Van Baale – @markvanbaale Mark’s already taken on educating big business. Keeping the rest of us up to speed ought to be a cake walk. Tune in to Mark’s tweet stream for great info.
Your Industry Leader/Adoption of Standards Chairperson: Michael Burns – @wrytir Michael has already handled this role for other organizations and has exceptional taste in wine. I’m willing to be lead by anybody who is going to bring me to a good Malbec.
Your Technology Chairperson: Jeff Smith – @jeffisageek I’m pretty sure Jeff managed to UStream his own birth. And when the google cranial implants are available, Jeff will get the Beta invite. We are in awesomely geeky hands here, folks!
Your Advocacy Chairperson: Jenn Bailey – @jennbailey That’s me. All I can say is, I’ll do my best.
The boys and I like to Letterbox. That’s what geeks do when they play outside. You may not know this, but hidden all over the United States, and many other countries as well, are watertight boxes that contain ink stamps and books. Go to letterboxing.org, find your state, county, etc, choose an adventure, print off your directions/instructions and hit the trail. My sons and I have been doing this off and on for about 7 years.
This last weekend, the guys and I decided we’d tackle the “Harry Potter series” hidden in the Overland Park Arboretum. It would be great. We’d knock out 7 letterboxes in one go. I printed out our instructions, we grabbed our stamps, books and some water and away we went. In the old days, when the kids were young, I used to do more prep work before we’d head out on a hunt, i.e. read over the directions, make sure the hike and search wouldn’t be too hard, etc. But I’ve got big kids now, 10, 13 and 15. What could thwart us in an Arboretum?
Gathering at the Visitor’s Center we perused the instructions for the 1st box. Half of them were in code. A Vigenere cipher to be exact. Yeah. I had the same blank look on my face. We grabbed a site map, hoping to be able to reason out enough of the clues so we could find the box without having to decode the cipher. After 20 minutes of tracking down one path then another it became pretty clear we needed those coded instructions.
That’s when we thought of the iPhone.
Within a minute we’d found a Vigenere cipher website. We typed in the gobblety gook, provided the key word (answer to a Harry Potter question) and hit “decrypt”. Ta Daa! There were our essential directions. We were on our way.
Until we weren’t. We had to take a compass reading. I scrounged through our pack even though I KNEW there was no compass in there. That’s when my oldest said, “Mom. There’s probably an App for it.” He snatched the iPhone out of its mesh pocket and, yes, found us a compass application from the App Store. And it was free. Onward we go!
The iPhone compass sent us deeper into the forest. Further from other hikers. Which was lovely, because that is why we saw the deer. You can see them too because the iPhone has a pretty good camera (for a phone). As the sun lowered and we grew weary, the iPhone gave us one last treat. A call from home. Kevin (my husband, their dad) said dinner would be on the table in 1/2 hour. Awesome. According to iPhone’s GPS, we could make it in 20 minutes.
So it was a good weekend. A grand weekend. But it could have been crap! Want to turn sad kids into glad kids? The iPhone’s got an App for that, too.
No! Not like that. I mean it’s Personal. Companies stepping into the social media space need to understand they have to get social. They have to get generous. They have to get interested. They have to get personal. It is what more and more customers demand.
Customers want a personal relationship.
- 78% of consumers use peer recommendations when considering products.
- 90% of people who can TiVo through advertisements do.
- 96% of Generation Y (ages 16 – 27) are on social networks.
- Only 14% of consumers say they trust traditional advertising.
Business. What does this mean for you?
If you refuse to know, like and trust your customers, they won’t want to know, like and trust you. They won’t listen.
If you’re shouting your message at people who have the ability to turn you off, they will.
Your customers aren’t going to go looking for you. You have to go where they are and they are on the internet.
If you’re excited by reaching 14% of your potential, keep doing what you’re doing.
There’s an old saw – The Cobbler’s kids have the worst shoes. That is definitely how I’ve been feeling about this blog lately. Hectic schedule, wild shifts in computer access while I roam about the wifi world, pleas from my children to “Get OFF the Computer!” It’s made blog writing a bit of a challenge, and I’ve failed at it.
Currently I am sitting at my hotel room, hunched over the desk in the early smog of an LA morning, praying that the wonderful people I taught about blogging yesterday haven’t yet clicked through to this page yet. So sorry, SCBWI-ers. I’ve set a poor example for all of the strong words, opinions and urgings I gave you yesterday. I’ve been using the excuse of the cobbler – so busy fixing other people’s shoes, I’ve had no time for my own. I’m throwing out a last bit of advice on that. (Consider it a bonus for yesterday’s session.)
There are no excuses. Your blog is your baby. You Must feed it and love it.
So, to prove my own renewed commitment to my blog, that it will receive the same love and care I lavish on others,
I present this updated post, this apology – “I’m sorry blog” and my shoes. (They may be a little weird looking, but they’re mine and I love them.)
The BIG Omaha came. The BIG Omaha went (way too soon, we might add). If you missed BIG Omaha, you missed Awesomeness and Grand Ideas. But don’t worry. We’re going to share.
Overheard in Omaha
Jason Fried with 37 Signals – “Planning is really guessing. Don’t focus on planning. Focus on Doing.”
Jason gets some "visual assistance" from Gary.
Joe Olsen with Phenomblue – “Look for opportunities around you. Find other companies that can help you do bigger business.”
Christina Maki with The Social Lites – “They’re throwing a Vegan Feast at the Secret Penguin? I haz a happy!”
Micah Baldwin with Lijit – “Since we’re supposed to be transparent, this is my DNA. Those 3 lines on the left say I’m male. That huge blob in the middle. That’s my brain capacity. And those 3 big lines over there, that’s my penis size.”
Micah gets transparent.
Unknown woman to Simon Kuo with LightThread – “Is this like a Star Trek convention or something?”
Jeffrey Kalmikoff with Threadless – “If your brand was a person, would you be friends with it?”
Gary Vaynerchuk with Wine Library – “Story telling IS the game.”
Gary does his best impression of the ShamWow guy.
It was a difficult decision, but we did manage to come to one. Congratulations to . . .
Steve Klein – Steve is a self-employed web designer and was nominate by his sister, Linda. She was hoping this would be a way to “give a little back” for all that Steve does for her, their family and others.
Mike Wasmer – Mike is an Autism advocate who is hoping Social Media will help him educate and influence people, communities and lawmakers.
Gentlemen, welcome to the Boot Camp. Now drop and give me 20!!
Wow!
Great to hear from you all. What wonderful feedback we got on our offer of 2 scholarships to the Social Media Boot Camp. We will be announcing the winners at noon on Monday. Thank you to all who participated and good luck. Wish we had more spaces to offer,
