Children's Authors: You Don't HAVE To Do It All Yourself

Join Laurie as she speaks with Lori Orlinsky and Alysson Bourque, the founders of 'Foreword Publicity'.

As indie authors we have to wear all the hats and do all the things! It's overwhelming, time consuming and it can lead to authors giving up on their book dreams, because there is just so much to know. If you've felt like that before you are going to LOVE this episode - these two authors have recently started a PR company specializing in children's books.

Built by authors, for authors - they really know their stuff.

Find them at:
www.forewordpublicity.com
www.alycatseries.com
www.loriorlinskyauthor.com

Facebook:
@forewordpublicity

Instagram
@forewordpublicity

Transcript

Finally! A trustworthy PR company to help you grow your impact.

Foreword Publicity

Laurie: [00:00:00] Hello writers today. I am joined by two fantastic guests from forward publicity. It's Lori and Aly. Thank you so much for coming on.

[00:00:13]I was so thrilled to st ble upon you and it really was kind of a st bling because I was, I happened upon somebody else's post about a publicity company that she was not happy with. And it led me to you though. And something that new authors asked me, well, not just new authors, authors, all the time, ask me  "Who can you recommend to do publicity??" And up until now, there's really been nobody that I would recommend.

[00:00:36] So, I'd love to hear your stories. You're both published authors  and you've recently started this publishing company or publicity company. 

[00:00:43] So who wants to go first? 

[00:00:47] Lori: [00:00:47] Aly. 

[00:00:49] Laurie: [00:00:49] Okay. 

[00:00:50] Aly: [00:00:50] So a little background about me. So I have the alley cat series. I started that series in 2016. At the time I had just stopped practicing law.

[00:01:01] So I was practicing law for about seven years and I wanted to take like a temporary retirement. Be at home with my young kids for a little while, read them good stories. And so I started doing that and as I was reading them bedtime stories at night and more books for their bookshelf. So,  I love to write, I love to imagine and tell stories.

[00:01:20] And so I just told them that I would write them one and they j ped for joy, and they were super excited. And I think because they believed in me, I believed in myself. So I, we put them to bed and I went downstairs and ended up writing the first book, the Aly Cat series. And long story short. I haven't gone back to practicing law because I just love books and reading to kids and having storytimes and author visits.

[00:01:46] And so I now have four books in the Aly Cat series and I hope to continue that series. But yeah, while, while I was publishing this series, I would often talk with other authors about what they can do. And then I started my own segment on news 15 called 'Kid Lit Picks', where I would feature other authors books.

[00:02:10] And so I just love letting authors share their stories and helping them to promote and being a part of their journey. 

[00:02:20]Laurie: [00:02:20] Oh, I love that. Can you explain what, was it news 15?  What is that? 

[00:02:26] Aly: [00:02:26] So news 15 is a station here in Louisiana. And every week on Thursday, I go on the, on the show right now we're remote, but we've been on for two years.  And when I do is people send me their books from  all over the world and I choose different books. I want to feature and I give like a s mary of it. And we talk about the book and where you can buy it and just showcasing another author's book. And they can have the link to, to put on their website, share on their social media.

[00:02:57] Laurie: [00:02:57] Oh, that's amazing. That is so generous of  you. 

[00:03:00] Aly: [00:03:00] Well, I really enjoy it.

[00:03:02] Laurie: [00:03:02] Yeah, I hear what you mean. It really is a bucket filling when you can help other people achieve their dreams. Absolutely. Okay. We'll get into that later, but first, Lori, tell us about you. 

[00:03:12] Lori: [00:03:12] Very much like Aly, my story is also a bit non traditional. I have a journalism background and I've always been writing for newspapers and magazines.

[00:03:21] And my full time job is in marketing. And I always wanted to write a children's book, but it was a bucket list that I just sat down many times and I just. Felt like I was forcing myself to come up with a story and a storyline. And my aha moment came when my now seven and a half year old daughter, Haley was three.

[00:03:40] She was in preschool and she came home from school crying. And it turns out that the teachers in her class were redecorating the classroom and they hung a growth chart in the classroom. And all of Haley's names, Haley's friends names were at the top, in the middle of the growth chart and her name was all the way at the bottom.

[00:03:58] Not only did her teachers and friends realize that she was different because she was short, but she felt like the worst. Because as a kid, when you see things at the top conditioned to think they're the best. And when things are at the bottom, they have a lower value. So she went through a phase where she was being picked on and bullied. And so I just finally said, okay, that's enough. I'm going to go on Amazon. And I'm going to find a book about short kids. I'm going to read it to her. And hopefully she will look at those, look at the lessons from the book and take it to heart. And there were no books about short kids.

[00:04:36] And so. That was my moment where I said, I'm going to write it, the book about the benefits of being small. And so it's everything from you're the last one to get wet when it rains, and you're the best at limbo. And that book was very successful. It was named a top pick by the national bullying prevention center. And it catapulted my career because it gave me the confidence, like Aly, to believe in myself. And so subsequently I've written one other published book called The Tooth Fairy's T myAche, and I have a third one coming out this May called, Balloons For Tiger. 

[00:05:12] So it was really taking a horrible negative situation and making the best out of it. And even though it was,  one of those weird situations as a parent, it changed my life. And so I'm thankful for that moment in time. 

[00:05:29] Laurie: [00:05:29] It's nice that something good came out of that. It's hard to think of a three year old being made to feel bad. That's so sad, but it makes an impact on them that lasts for a long time. My daughter,  when she was about three or four, I used to do her hair and adorable, poof,  at the top of her head.

[00:05:45] And it was so cute. And one day, another four year old called it baby hair. And so I am not allowed to do anything but a braid right down the back. 

[00:05:57] I had a girl, I want to do your hair, let me do your hair.... 

[00:06:00] But 

[00:06:01] Lori: [00:06:01] kids can  be mean and you know what? I hope people take away too, from that focus, it wasn't full blown bullying.

[00:06:07] It was microaggressions, but that is the age that kids could become bullies. And also the victims. You can go into kind of the fight flight or freeze. And I wanted Haley to fight in the sense that I wanted her to stand up for herself. 

[00:06:21] Laurie: [00:06:21] To learn that early on. And thank you for saying that that's the age where bullies can be made as well, because often,  that stems from issues they've had  - microaggressions or are bullying themselves.

[00:06:33] So they're not always the bad guy in the beginning. Right. It starts somewhere. So that's great. What did you tell us what the title of your first book was? 

[00:06:42] Lori: [00:06:42] It's called 'Being Small  Isn't So Bad After All.' And the, the pictures actually look just like Hailey. So she now,  as I said, I wanted to point to a girl in the book or child in a book, and now she is the kid in the book that kids can look to.

[00:06:58] Laurie: [00:06:58] Oh, I love that. That's so great that you did that. It's cool. That all three of us were inspired by our kids. So many books are created because we see a meet a need and there isn't something already out there. So I think that's that's really cool.  So you both had your books. Did you know each other before?.

[00:07:18] Lori: [00:07:18] We've kind of met on the, in the kid lit space, as  the message boards and the Facebook groups are really popular. And so Aly and I have talked, we're both authors for mascot and Aly has been kind enough to put my books on Kid Lit Picks. So that was awesome. But really the way that we formed this company is during coronavirus.

[00:07:42] We were talking a lot about what this meant for authors and how we couldn't go into schools and we couldn't go into libraries and do readings. And so we thought, can we do a podcast, to talk to different authors and bring the virtual school visits essentially to people in the comfort of their own homes.

[00:08:01] And so Aly was that back in March that we launched 'Ask An Author'. 

[00:08:06] Aly: [00:08:06] Yes. Right? Whenever the pandemic started. 

[00:08:10] Lori: [00:08:10] And we talked to different authors that we know, and all the authors had different stories to share. We talked to some authors about Kickstarter campaigns. We talked to some authors about how they found their illustrators.

[00:08:23] We talked to some about how they use their animals in books, and these are what authors would talk about in there visits. And we had some great two way conversation. People were logging on and they were asking questions and it was just such an exciting way to show authors. And also we heard from parents.

[00:08:42] It was really nice because this was a time when the kids were remote learning, but it wasn't a perfect science. And so the kids were sitting sit in front of the screen and watch this author visit and chat and ask real questions. 

[00:08:57] Aly: [00:08:57] And also some of the schools at the time when they were remote learning, they would have their class tune in to our asking author as part of like library time.

[00:09:08] So that was super cool. 

[00:09:11] Laurie: [00:09:11] Yeah. Are you still doing it?  

[00:09:14] Aly: [00:09:14] We haven't continued it since probably August. At that point we've transformed into a, a PR firm for authors. And so we are super busy with that.  But we still talk about how fun that was for us and that we would like to continue it.

[00:09:34] And, it was really great in the beginning. When we all didn't know what was going to happen with the world and, having that time to be able to. FaceTime with with me, with Laurie and then other authors, it just gave us a sense of normalcy too. During that time, 

[00:09:53] Laurie: [00:09:53] that connection that all of a sudden we were all missing.

[00:09:57] Lori: [00:09:57] They were kids missing our author visits, but we were missing them. We love sharing our story with kids and teachers and. When the pandemic happened, everything closed abruptly with no end in sight. And so it gave us also an opportunity to be ourselves and to continue the work that we love to do. 

[00:10:16] Laurie: [00:10:16] I love that.

[00:10:17] And so many authors were all of a sudden like, Oh, well my visits got canceled and  they were left sort of floundering. So you did the good author podcast for a few months and then had a conversation and decided you were going to go further. Is that what happened? 

[00:10:34] Lori: [00:10:34] We did. We had,  especially after asking author, we had a lot of people asking us for just different advice.

[00:10:41] A lot of people will follow both of our social media accounts and ask about whether it's a specific award we won. Was it worth it for us? Or how do they best use reviews and Aly and I talk daily. Somebody approached one of us. I can't even remember how it happened and said, Are you interested in helping me promote my book?

[00:11:02] And we were talking about it. And we said, well, let's do it together because we both have very different skill sets that compliment each other. And so we had one client and then from there, the word kept spreading. And so we decided to make it official. 

[00:11:18] Laurie: [00:11:18] Cool. And then the name of it Foreword Publicity, is that just 'moving forward' or is there another....

[00:11:24] Aly: [00:11:24] And it was kind of funny because, 

[00:11:26] Lori: [00:11:26]  

[00:11:27] Aly: [00:11:27] Lori and I, once it started getting going, they're like we need a name. And so I 

[00:11:32] Lori: [00:11:32] think gather back 

[00:11:33] Aly: [00:11:33] and forth. And we knew that when we came up with that combined name, something that we both agreed that it would just like spark. And so the great thing with Lori and I is that I can start a project and kind of get to that dead end where I'm like, okay, even if it's a graphic, if it's a name and she can finish it, like it's.

[00:11:55] Like it's, you know exactly how it's supposed to be. 

[00:11:58] and 

[00:11:59] Lori: [00:11:59] vice versa. 

[00:12:02] Aly: [00:12:02] So we came up with Foreword Publicity because we wanted others to be able to move forward, actually, during a pandemic, especially during this change in, in the world and society move forward, keep looking at keeping positive and keep just pushing through, because there's going to be a time where we have, we are back to this quote, normal time and you just got to stay relevant and you got to stay in it.

[00:12:31] And so, then we have a tagline is, Built by Authors for Authors. And we think that's super important because we've been there. We've done it between Lori and I. We have about 22 awards. We have different editorial reviews,  between the two of us. We've kind of been the Guinea pigs of, of everything out there for authors and.

[00:12:55] We know it works and we know it doesn't work. So it just kind of evolved that way. 

[00:13:00] Lori: [00:13:00] And we, one thing that also makes us stand out is we would never recommend anything to our clients that we haven't tried. And even though we know,  one thing that might work for me might not work for Aly and vice versa, but we've been there.

[00:13:14] We can recommend whether it's a service, a company review and award. We've been there and we wouldn't ever say, just try it, let's see how it goes. Have that firsthand experience because when you're an author,  it's, it's one thing to publish a book and it's great, but that's just the beginning of the journey.

[00:13:33] And Aly and I have found that the shelf life of a book is traditionally three to six months. And if you want to extend that shelf life of a book, it's up to you to get that PR to get that marketing. And, we say publishing the book is just the beginning of the journey. There's so much more, we've both been able to sustain the shelf life of our first books for many years.

[00:13:56] And that's what you have to do. You have to keep it in the forefront of people's minds. While still promoting your other books and maintaining credibility and relevancy in the author world. 

[00:14:07] Laurie: [00:14:07] Yeah, I love that you talk about staying relevant because it's huge and things change so quickly. the outside world and the online world, right.

[00:14:16] And it can be hard for us. We're living our lives. And for a lot of us, it's a side hustle,  or, or part time, job or whatnot. So it can be really 

[00:14:24] Lori: [00:14:24] hard to dream it, to make it a full time job. And so that's what we tried to do as well. And it's possible.

[00:14:34] Laurie: [00:14:34] Excuse me. Sorry. okay, so, so let's talk about what you, well, first, what I really want to know is what should people look for if they're looking for, a publicist or a published, uh, I struggle with this word. A publicity company, because I know there's a few to choose from and it's kind of like realtors,  you're always best to do your research and, and pick somebody that will do the best job for you.

[00:15:00] So do you have recommendations us for people, looking for a publicity company? 

[00:15:06] Aly: [00:15:06] you definitely want to do your research. You want to reach out to people, ask for referrals, get as much information as you can before hiring a PR firm. And so, also find out what that PR firms goals are. And so with our publicity, we have a three tiered approach designed to maximize the shelf life of your book.

[00:15:32] And so what we usually do tell our clients is that phase one is typically a hype base. You want to build the hype, you want to generate your initial buzz. Based too. You want to build on that height. So we call it the build phase and you want to establish your credibility as an author so that you can be.

[00:15:51] A longstanding author out there in the world. And then our, our third phase is the grow phase. And we want you to think beyond your bookstores, maybe your muse s, your apps. And so you really want to find a PR firm that is in line with your goals as an author. Do you want to continue with, with one book for a very long time?

[00:16:15] Do you want to series, do you want to build on that? And so it's important to ask those questions to your PR firm and also ask other authors and ask for referrals. Make sure they're very transparent. 

[00:16:30] Laurie: [00:16:30] When the company is transparent. 

[00:16:34] Lori: [00:16:34] Yeah. Yeah. Okay. One thing you don't want to do is you don't want to find a PR company and say, what are your rates?

[00:16:42] And have them just send rates because. That's what they call a one size fits all approach here, three packages, and they're going to work for every author. And that is what we are against. Because as I mentioned before, what works for one author might not work for another and everyone's goals are different and some people may need to build the hype very quickly, glee and then go into the.

[00:17:06] The build and the growth phase, and some people might just need the growth phase. For example, they might just, they might have the hype built and they might have the credibility and they might just need a little assistance in getting their book out there and,  to go back to transparency. It is very important that,  you're paying for,  you want to pay a publicity from, to do services for you, that will benefit your book.

[00:17:33] And so many times those look like a bundled plan. So maybe five or 10 different things, what you don't ever want to pay anyone for is a fee to get you on. A new show or a podcast. There are no costs associated with those things. The only associated costs with getting on a podcast or a news outreach segment are going to be the briefing doc ents that the publicity firm prepared for you.

[00:18:01] And the time it takes to actually facilitate getting you on the show. So you're going to want to look out for red flags like that. If a publicity firm says to you. It's going to be X dollars to get on this show. That's never the case. 

[00:18:16] Laurie: [00:18:16] Right. Okay. I find it surprise, sorry. I'm giggling because I find it surprising that anybody would charge for that. But obviously I'm new to this. 

[00:18:27] Laurie: [00:18:27]  So I have some questions like, so I have nine books. That's let's say I have some old books. So would your services work for me? And maybe just generally, like where would you start if I have, books that are a couple of years old, they're past their shelf life, are they past their shelf life?

[00:18:48] Aly: [00:18:48] I don't, I don't believe so. I think that they can be revived. if a client came to us with a book that was about nine years old, we would say, let's start with a virtual book tour. Let's put it out there. There are new bloggers out there than there were nine years ago. Let's revive it, send it on a virtual book tour.

[00:19:11] That's where the book goes on a tour instead of the author, which is really great for SEO. 

[00:19:18] Lori: [00:19:18] Really great. Now, because during a pandemic, you can't actually go on tour, 

[00:19:23] Laurie: [00:19:23] right? You don't have to say now it's just not an option currently. 

[00:19:29] Aly: [00:19:29] Yes. And then these, these book bloggers will in turn, write a review for you on Amazon and good reads.

[00:19:36] And then you can share that all over your social media and your website. And so another thing that I would do another outreach is to do a social outreach. So. put it on Instagram. There are so many great books or grammars out there that would love to review a book and people want to see books that they haven't seen recently.

[00:20:00] And that's why I started writing books is because children had all of the new books and they wanted, I think from maybe something different. And so I would do a social influencer outrage, a virtual book tour, and some. Some reviewers actually review books and, and don't have a cutoff years. So if, if you're submitting for reviews or for awards, that's a great way to revive a book.

[00:20:27] Lori: [00:20:27] And one really interesting point that Aly touched on is the books to grammars. And here's a go, this wasn't a thing, but now there's books to grammars in every genre, there's STEM books to grammars, there's teacher books to grammars. And then if you even break down the teacher books to grammars, there's ones that's focused on special needs or learning language or reading.

[00:20:49] And there's just so many options to find the right books to grammar for you. And so. Aly. And I really focus on creating long lasting relationships with the books of grammars that have very high engagement.  unfortunately with Instagram, there is, an issue out there where people are buying their followers.

[00:21:11] Yeah. Let's say with 19,000 followers, but one really easy way to see if their followers are legitimate is look at their posts and see are they having three likes and one comment that might be a red flag. And so. We're working with the people that we know and trust and, and give very honest and positive reviews.

[00:21:31] And then not only that, they might be reading it to their classroom. They might be then taking the book and donating it to their local library and creating a two way conversation where people are posting questions about the book and that are really engaging with the poster. 

[00:21:49] Laurie: [00:21:49] That sounds amazing.

[00:21:52] Like how much time do you have to work on this? I think you're going to get a slew of people, especially before the Christmas season. My goodness. Is it just the two of you, is there spent plans to expand. 

[00:22:03] Lori: [00:22:03] For now, it's just the two of us, Aly and I are very, very similar. We both have kind of type a perfectionist personality.

[00:22:11] And, but what's one amazing thing is that we're, we finish each other's sentences. So where I might leave off, Aly will pick right up where I leave off and it'll be right as I needed it to be. And so. Right now we're keeping it just the two of us, but we really focus. And, and when I say creating the relationship with the bookstagrammers is the relationships date back to the creation of our own books.

[00:22:34] And we've been able to stay in touch with these books. And, also as a result, meet their friends and meet people in their circle. And so these are also people that get approached. Daily,  maybe even more than daily from people wanting to review their books and they trust us because,  we've worked with them before and it's a very transparent process.

[00:22:58] Right. And, so we make sure that we're delivering. If somebody's works with us on an influencer engagement strategy. We want to make sure we're delivering quality books to grammars that create two way conversation and have a high engagement rate. And they're transparent. They don't buy they're following.

[00:23:18] Laurie: [00:23:18] That's so important. on the flip side of that, cause you make sure that you have high quality books to grammars. Will you only accept certain authors and books? Like is there some kind of review process for that? 

[00:23:32] Lori: [00:23:32] We want to just make sure that we believe in a client's book so far, we haven't had any issues.

[00:23:38] Aly and I are very honest, but we want to both,  read the book to our own children and have our own children enjoy the book, because if we believe in the book, It's going to naturally be a better fit for both parties. And so we've been very fortunate that the clients we have have amazing, adorable blocks that our kids practice daily for us to read.

[00:23:58] Laurie: [00:23:58] Oh, that's good. That's good. Okay. Okay. So we've been talking for half an hour. I feel like we could talk for another half an hour, but I do try to keep this,  easy to listen to for all of us busy moms. I saw on your website, you have an offer for a free consultation. Is that right? 

[00:24:17] Aly: [00:24:17] Yes, we do. We offer a free consultation and on our website it says a 15 minute free consultation, but Laurie and I go a whole lot longer explaining our different outreaches, our approaches, and getting to know the author.

[00:24:34] And so it's never. Just like with our work, it's never, cut off at any point,  we're, we're so willing to help. And so yes, we do offer free consultations and they can contact us at info at fall or publicity dot. If 

[00:24:49] Lori: [00:24:49] we also have a slew of references that we're happy to pass along to any potential clients, that'll give honest and transparent feedback about the process of working with us.

[00:24:59] Laurie: [00:24:59] Oh, I love that.  I feel like so many, indie children's authors, they're coming, not from any kind of business background. YouTube, both kind of had that, but I know myself, I was a kindergarten teacher, lots of people that I work with were teachers or, Other careers. And they just were really passionate about their story.

[00:25:17] And so they made it happen. But when it comes to sort of business practices, uh, they really have no experience. And so even even to ask some people probably wouldn't we know to ask for references or,  the name of somebody that they could speak to directly. So I really appreciate you saying that.

[00:25:32] And I love the transparency that you're, that you're really promoting with your company. And I think that's. That's really important. So I hope people listening will take that and apply it to more than just PR firms,  for lots of different things. just ask for references and,  ask the deep questions and see how they answer.

[00:25:49] And sometimes it is a gut feeling about whether or not you want to work with somebody. and I think it's really important. 

[00:25:57] Lori: [00:25:57] pardon me? 

[00:25:59] Laurie: [00:25:59] You know that you're offering to meet with people for free, I think that says a lot about, about your work ethic. And I appreciate that. So thank you for that. All on the show notes, I'll have your website and that input forewordpublicity.com.

[00:26:12] Is there any last parting sort of advice you'd give to people when it comes to PR and their own books? any quick tips you could give out here for people to start get started?  think for me, my, my quick tips would be, 

[00:26:33] Aly: [00:26:33] I think to continue to believe in your book because it is a passion. And, even if it's been released a few years prior to revive it, do podcasts, do editorial reviews, awards, social influencers,  there's such, there's such great avenues for a book.

[00:26:52] And, We welcome new clients that have books that maybe. When we released a few years ago in the Gregg with our clients, I wanted to mention earlier too, is that we've also become mentors to them. So not only are they using our services,  they'll message us just for advice on things like an ebook or, printing.

[00:27:15] And so we love talking about books. We have such a passion for books. And so can you talk to us about books? It's just right up our alley and,  it just. It's such a great, a great working relationship. 

[00:27:30] Laurie: [00:27:30] you might have loads of messages. Now, 

[00:27:35] Lori: [00:27:35] piece of advice I would have mentioned is I think authors, especially as it comes to re revival, you want to build your credibility as an author.

[00:27:43] It's very, very important because it can make all the difference to go on a new segment or go on a podcast and be an author versus being an award winning author or being an author reviewed by professional publications. And so I think. Every author should have credibility, whether it's through awards or third party reviews, that's very important.

[00:28:05] And that, that kind of sets you off on a positive PR journey. 

[00:28:10] Laurie: [00:28:10]  there's been a lot of discussion recently in some of the Facebook groups I'm in about those awards. And, how helpful, I guess they are. I'd love to have you to come back and maybe talk about that more specifically, because I know where there's a lot of confusion about, whether or not to pay for them, how much,  which ones are legit or not legit and all that kind of stuff.

[00:28:31] But I feel like that that's another show. Maybe I'm going to ask you on it right here. So

[00:28:39] Lori: [00:28:39] the short answer is yes.  especially as an Andy author, when you're paying for reviews or excuse me, when you're paying for rewards, it's okay. As long as you go with the credible companies and you're not actually paying for the awards, you're paying for the process and for them to keep up their administrative costs, they're hiring judges, they're paying for their website to run.

[00:28:58] So you're not actually paying for an award you're paying for the process just as you would pay for third party review, or you would pay for something,  a promotional item. Thank you. That 

[00:29:10] Laurie: [00:29:10] makes a lot of sense. Cause he knew how things get talked about, right? 

[00:29:15] Lori: [00:29:15] Yes. More depth, anytime about that. Cool.

[00:29:19] Okay, 

[00:29:19] Laurie: [00:29:19] awesome. We'll set it up. Thank you so much, Laurie and Aly for coming on with me today and I can't wait to put this out to everybody. 

[00:29:25] Lori: [00:29:25] Thank you so much for having us. It was such a pleasure speaking with you.

[00:29:32] Laurie: [00:29:32] Thank you.