By Carole Estby Dagg
For the debut of my first book, The Year
We Were Famous, I was advised to set up a website, tweet, Skype, blog,
prepare a PowerPoint talk, make a trailer, print bookmarks and postcards, and
get active on Facebook. Trouble was, I still didn’t have a cell phone and my
attempts to figure out Skype, Facebook, PowerPoint, and all the other
reportedly essential elements of today’s book marketing were pathetic.
I hired out the website, trailer, and bookmark
design, but decided that rather than spend any more time learning the high-tech
promoting tools most new authors were using, I’d draw on what I already
knew—puppet show costuming and props, from my days as a children’s
librarian back in the 1960’s.
Costume
I began by costuming myself like one of my old
puppets. Clara Estby, the narrator in The Year We Were
Famous, was a young woman of 1896, so I found patterns for a Gibson Girl
blouse and spent a weekend sewing. I found an appropriate skirt at a thrift
shop and bought reproduction high-topped shoes.
Props
Clara and her mother had walked 4,000 miles from
Spokane to New York City carrying only what would fit in small satchels, so I
started with a satchel I found in a catalog of Victoriana. A year before
launch, I began the search to fill the satchel with replicas of everything
newspaper articles mentioned in their interviews of Clara and her Mother as
they crossed the country. I combed antique stores and specialty
catalogs, bid on items on eBay, and begged loans from relatives.
What I found or made for my satchel:
Authentically styled under-drawers with no seam
up the middle, which made it easier to answer the calls of nature. It took a
week of evenings to put in flat-felled seamed gussets and rows of pin-tucked
ruffles, but this item has been the hit of every program. I did not model them.
High lace-up shoes – I did walk a mile in them
just to say I did it, but would not choose to wear them every day.
Curling iron, battered canteen, linen
handkerchiefs with crocheted edging, and match safe (antique stores)
Rubberized poncho which converted to ground
cloth or tent (on-line Civil War re-enactment store)
First-aid kit with iodine, a roll of adhesive
bandage, cotton balls, and a tin of salve (antique stores)
Paper cut-out of a pocket pistol and a rubber
bulb stand-in for the insect sprayer Helga converted to pepper spray to deter
attackers
Composition book and pencils
Toiletries: hand-made soap, wooden-handled
toothbrush, a small canning jar of baking soda and salt they would have used
for tooth powder, and a hand towel I wove of linen and cotton.
Backdrop
My backdrop was a 36” X 48” tri-fold foam board,
big enough for a map of Clara and Helga Estby’s trek across the country, period
postcards, copies of newspaper articles, and a photograph of my real-life
characters. I covered the panel with black Velcro sold by the yard on the
internet, sandwiched newspaper articles between layers of transparent
shelf-liner (available at drugstores) and applied self-stick Velcro dots
(available at fabric stores) to the backs of each item.
Once I had a costume, props, and backdrop, I was
ready to take the show on the road! In the next few months I visited four
bookstores, a book festival, two libraries, three middle schools, three book
clubs, a trade show, and a museum. Ten bookings have already been scheduled
next year with women’s groups and book clubs, a library, and another historical
society.
The Advantages of Low-Tech:
Realia broadens the appeal of programs. My show
and tell has gone on the road to a wide range of audiences from 5th-graders
to adults interested in women’s history.
Objects provide a crutch for an
off-the-scale introvert. Just as I hid behind the puppet stage for library
performances, I hide myself in my costume and use my collected props as memory
aids when shyness-panic threatens to short-circuit my brain during a presentation.
I have more than a reading to offer bookstores,
schools, community groups, book clubs, and historical societies. I’m not just
plugging my book, I’m offering a program on the role of women in the 1890’s.
My props are relatively light-weight,
inexpensive, and disaster resistant. Venues don’t have to have screen or
computer projector and I don’t have to worry about bulbs burning out or cord
compatibility.
Realia increases audience involvement. Attendees
can come up after a program to examine the items they are particularly
interested in and ask more questions.
Touchable objects and newspaper articles
reinforce the point that The Year We Were Famous is
based on a true story.
This approach won’t work for every book, but in
the panicked rush to new technology, don’t overlook the power of old-fashioned
show and tell.
You can visit Carole at www.CaroleEstbyDagg.com, see her trailer here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32EWPJt8i_A. Her book is: The Year We Were Famous
Would you walk over four thousand miles to save your family's home?
(Clarion Books, an imprint of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, April 4, 2011)
(Clarion Books, an imprint of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, April 4, 2011)
Thank you for having me on your blog, Sarah!
ReplyDeleteWhat a delightful way to promote your book. I salute you for all the work you did. Learning high tech is indeed a tough one, but what you did was tough too. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteCarole, I love this. Your book is such a delight, and I'm sure those who hear you speak really walk away with a strong sense of what Clara and Helga's world was like.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Carole! Not only was this a great idea, but you worked so hard on it.
ReplyDeleteFABULOUS IDEA!! excellent. :-)
ReplyDeleteGreat post, Carole. Based on other reading, I think what you are doing has become important to get into "reading" venues. Hosts want show-and-tell more than straight reading, I understand. Your costume and kit are fascinating! When I was on my own book tour, I brought photographs of the mines, the town (Kellogg), and for a while had a mining hat and safety canister, although I had to return them to the museum I borrowed them from. I had great audiences, too! Thanks for your information. I'd love to see you.
ReplyDeleteGreat idea. I've read about Clara and Helga in Bold Spirit by Linda Lawrence Hunt. I'd love to see your presentation.
ReplyDeleteVery creative, Carole. You put mind and imagination together beautifully and steers us all in a new direction. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteI think I'd much prefer something like this over a straight reading. You've got my wheels turning!
ReplyDeleteInspiring! Thanks for sharing your creative techniques!
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting this, Carole! I am somewhat of a techno-phobe, too, so it's great to hear that there are other ways to go about giving presentations.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your great ideas, Carole! Having seen this presentation in action....I can say it's a very good one!
ReplyDelete