Friday, October 23, 2009

This lovely is not actually my blog

Perhaps my blogger profile directed you here but...psst...this isn't actually my blog. This blog was created by a group of brilliant college women whose class project was to help me launch my book in spring 2009. If you want to read about their experiences, read on.

If, on the other hand, you're trying to find Janna Cawrse Esarey, author of The Motion of the Ocean, blogger of Happily Even After, maker of Book Club Dirty Little Secrets videos, then you should click on one of those links or go to my website.

Thanks for your interest!

Cheers,
Janna

Monday, July 20, 2009

Book Reading Tonight

Ahoy hoy cruisers!

Just a reminder that Janna will be at Powell's Books in Portland tonight at 7:30 PM. Hope that all of the Oregon fans can make it out there (and people in the vicinity of Vancouver, as well)!

We have also received a comment from a reader, and so hopefully we will have a book review coming soon to post here in the blog.

The blog is for the most part finished, but any reviews that readers would like to send in I will post for future readers!

Thanks for reading and following the blog!
Signing off,
Sarah

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Here At Last!

Sorry for the belated post here, folks!

The Motion of the Ocean was released on June 2nd, and I'm sure Janna was excited (not to mention relieved)! If you have already picked up a copy of the book, send us an email or leave us a comment here at the blog. We'd love to hear your feedback and post it here on the blog!

Happy sailing, and congratulations to Janna for her very first book!

Janna will still be making two appearances this summer:
Mon, July 20th, 7:30 pm - Reading
Powell's Books, Portland

Thurs, July 23rd, 7 pm - BOOK PARTY w/ Midge Raymond,
Richard Hugo House, Seattle

Stay tuned here for any future updates.

Signing off,
Sarah

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Upcoming Author Appearances

Hey there, Cruisers! Sarah here again!

School is out for the summer, and this class project is officially finished! However, The Motion of the Ocean is not yet out, and Janna is still working to promote her book!

Here is a list of dates for some appearances that Janna will be making in the Pacific Northwest to promote her book. Save the dates, and come join Janna!

Sat, June 6th, 6:30 pm - Reading
Third Place Books, Lake Forest Park near Seattle

Mon, June 22nd, 6:30 pm - Reading
Seattle Public Library, Ballard Branch

Thurs, July 2nd, 7 pm - Reading
Village Books
, Bellingham

Mon, July 20th, 7:30 pm - Reading
Powell's Books, Portland

Thurs, July 23rd, 7 pm - BOOK PARTY w/ Midge Raymond,
Richard Hugo House, Seattle

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Janna Gives Some Feedback on the Flyer

The Motion of the Ocean will be available in bookstores on June 2nd, 2009! You can preorder your book right now at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or Borders. Or you can wait until June 2nd and go to your local bookseller to pick up a copy of the book!

Hello Cruisers, Sarah here!

Tomorrow is the final class for Publishing Procedures, and Lindsay, Alice, and I are frantically working to complete our project! The three of us have written an awesome (and well-collaborated) paper about our marketing plan, Alice and Lindsay have finished two versions of the book trailer, and here I bring you some updates regarding that flyer!

Have you noticed how nothing is ever quite finished, even when we say it is? How something can always use more work--a few tweaks here and there? There is always room for improvement.

This is certainly the case with our flyer! Janna had given some feedback on our most recent versions of the flyer, and so I went in and made some edits according to Janna's comments.

Here is what Janna had to say about the last flyer that we came up with:

A couple thoughts:
- How about a feisty new travel memoir (instead of exciting)
- Lots of blue and white here; some of the writing fades into the background. What about adding a third color? Maybe picking up the brick red of the sail or something?
- Could you please change the quote (more prestigious than Cap'n Fatty, bless his heart):
"You'll be wildly entertained and glad to be on solid ground.” - PUBLISHERS WEEKLY summer pick
I really like the swervy way you wrote the title with the subtitle above and below. Very cool! Also, I prefer the 2nd flyer visually like you do, but not sure why (I definitely don't need my face on the poster).


So with this in mind, I created this version:


This one, however, still had a few errors in it (including a typo). Janna sent some more comments to us, and I created one more flyer . . . which we all are quite happy with!

- typo: memoir is misspelled
- I agree with Alice that red is difficult to read against dark blue, whereas the white pops so nicely
- can you put the thin outline around the subtitle so it can be better seen against the white clouds?


I love the layout here! Nice how you've lined up waterline on book to match waterline on poster--clever! Also love the curves you have here. You've done a beautiful job. Perfect balance.

My only concern is no info is really given about the book to spark a general female reader's interest. That's why I'd like to include the paint chip quote ("Choosing a mate is like picking house paint from one of those tiny color squares: You never know how it will look across a large expanse, or how it will change in different light"). I understand that adding another block of text will mess with the layout, but here are some ideas on how to do it:
- Move PW quote to where feisty memoir is currently, put in white; I like the imagery of this quote at the bottom; fits with solid ground idea
- One option is to put paint chip quote to upper right block in red, then shrink the subtitle text slightly and move entire subtitle to one line below title and put "an adventure love story by janna cawrse esarey" (instead of feisty new travel memoir--b/c I may use this several months from now) to top line--I might do all lowercase for both upper and lower lines of text to create a streamlined, contemporary look; just an idea.




With these comments in mind, I created the above two versions of the flyer. There are very subtle differences between these two images, and we like them both. Which do you prefer?

This is it for the flyer! It has been through a lot, with many revisions. It has certainly improved, however, and now Janna has a whole selection of flyers to work with while promoting her book. It's been a lot of work, but very fun.

That's all for the flyer and all for now, but we will be back in the near future to update you on our final class tomorrow morning!

Signing off,
Sarah

Monday, May 18, 2009

Preorder Your Copy Now, and a Call For Readers' Submissions!

Ahoy-hoy, Cruisers!

Sarah here, and as my overuse of exclamation points indicates, I bring you exciting news!

First things first: a very important bit of information that this blog does not yet feature! The release of Janna's book!

That's right, folks! The Motion of the Ocean will be available in bookstores on June 2nd, 2009! You can preorder your book right now at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or Borders. Or you can wait until June 2nd and go to your local bookseller to pick up a copy of the book!

In other important news:
We would like to feature readers' opinions and reviews of The Motion of the Ocean on this blog! If you are somebody fortunate enough to have read The Motion of the Ocean already and would like to have a bit of fame here on the blog, please send an email to us at motionoceanblog@gmail.com!

We only ask that you do not spoil the book in your review. Feel free to discuss topics, themes, how this book made you think--anything! This is your chance to have a say right here on the blog!

That's all for now! Stay tuned for some final updates on the book trailer and flyer, as well as for fan reviews of The Motion of the Ocean!

Signing off and sailing away (conveniently to the melody of a Styx song),
Sarah

Saturday, May 16, 2009

A Quiet Week in Lake Wobegon

Ahoy, Cruisers! Alice here.

Well, as you can tell from the subject, not much has been going on. At least, not much in the blog category of our lives. That's right: it's coming on to finals week, and the three of us have suddenly remembered that we actually do have other classes to worry about and thus have all been total gestresst--so stressed, in fact, that I can't even speak English properly anymore. Mensch.

I do, however, have a new and improved version of the book trailer to show you. This isn't the final cut, but it's pretty darn close. We've fiddled with a few things in this version--changed the font, changed the pacing, changed some pictures--and all in all we're happy with how it turned out. Just a few more things need tweaking before we're done! Total done! We shall keep you posted.