School visits/promotion

One of the highlights of being a children's author is heading out to schools for presentations. I really enjoy the children and all the wonderful questions they ask. And I get to promote my books. Whoops. Am I not supposed to promote. There is the funny thing that authors talk about a lot and it's called BSP--Blatant Self Promotion. Some authors say BSP as if it's a swear word and others, like me, don't really know yet what it is. I've looked the acronym up in the dictionary and it's not there. What is it? Telling people about your books? Doing book signings? Trying to generate new readers? Phoning newspapers to try and get someone to write an article about you? I'm just not really sure. The way I look at it, you have to do some promotion or your book will sit on the shelf and no one will buy it. I don't believe in pushing my books but when I first published there were moments when I felt a bit like a vacuum cleaner salesperson. I have an author friend, Cheryl Kaye Tardif, and she lives in Edmonton and is the best promoter I've ever seen. Does she BSP? Probably. But she's awesome at it and I tell you being beside her at the Edmonton Women's show was an eye-opener. I took notes. I had a booth at the women's show beside her and I marvelled at how good she was at selling her books. She had is down to a fine art. And you know what, she's a super person, very friendly and a darn good salesperson. I don't think that how she draws people to her is wrong. In fact, I want her to write a book on what to do. Anyway, that's my bit on that. So, now I can tell you, I'm off to Vancouver on Friday to go to a Vancouver Giants game where they are giving some of my books away as prizes and setting up a table for me to sell my books. They are doing a sign for me and guess what--I'm thrilled. If I'm BSPing at the game too bad. I can't wait. And then I'm off to Penticton to be a part of the Penticton Read and Succeed program which is also a tremendous opportunity to promote my books. So, I say, authors, promote!! You can't sell books if you don't. Bottom line.