I'm excellent at doing this sort of thing for other people, but not for myself.

This is why I suck at marketing my business.

I'm sure you've thought about marketing Sam through zoos, natural history museums and the bat conservation people. Places like Bat World [link] which has won awards for developing ways to rehab bats, have pretty pathetic offerings for kids. You could offer a kids' section on bats for websites, featuring Sam, and work on making Sam a spokesbat for bat conservation.

You could offer a kids' section on bats for websites

Oooh, a bat pathfinder would be perfect!!

I really am very proud of it. I'm puzzled as to how to promote it.

Your editors are working on it.

Do you have, anywhere, a comprehensive list of who reviewed Vampire People? Big places, small places, print, blogs, LJ posts, doesn't matter. Anyone who liked your voice enough to say so out in public. If you do have such a list, ping us. You really don't have to do all the promotional heavy lifting yourself.

(Well, honestly, probably a good bit of the heavy lifting. But definitely not all of it, nuh uh and nope. There was a meeting. There are plans.)

eta: And, Ginger, we're already on it. Put together a contact list already, and drafting letters of inquiry with promo packets this week or next.

Book People in Austin loved Vampire People. I'd love to go there since Sam ends up there. And I won that Bronze Award for humor book awhile back. I'll send the list.

I know there are plans, but I have to get my ass in gear. I have tons of goodie bags ready to go, and I think I'll be taking Sam on a tour of comic book shops, soon, since I have the Batman/Dave Dorman angle to play on. Getting my website in gear is crucial.

I need to order my copy of Sam, and it is on my list of reviews to write on GCS.

and I think I'll be taking Sam on a tour of comic book shops, soon, since I have the Batman/Dave Dorman angle to play on

Ah-ha! When you get to that stage, let me know. A friend of mine owns a comic shop, and loves having author events.

I'd love to go there since Sam ends up there.

Also, Bat Conservation International is there.

Allyson, are you using Facebook and Twitter? And LJ? They're just good basic places to get word out.

And for reviews, try non-traditional review opportunities -- send a copy to National Geographic For Kids. There are a bunch of other kids' magazines out there, too.

intelligent people who are pissed that things aren't changing as fast as they want them to and are going to "punish" the people they voted for by letting them get voted out. Yeah, that's going to help.

I'm tired of basically left-wing people who unload with this scary vitriol of "You voted for Obama and things are still shitty! He sucks and WHAT ARE YOUUUUUUUUUUU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT? No, don't pass the buck and try to explain it [using rational discourse about the way a goddamn country the size of the US changes] -- I WANT YOU TO TELL ME WHAT YOU, personally, are going to do to MAKE THINGS CHANGE RIGHT NOW!!!"

Because it makes me think, Hi, Ativan is nice, and Wow, tone down the fucking rage.

It's weird that I'm defriending both right-wingers and left-wingers on Facebook. Anyone who does the textual version of screaming like Sam Kinnison automatically gets axed. I don't have to deal with that, so I won't.

I want to make a website that is just sort of, "Here's some good shit that happened today."

That is an excellent idea.

Could it be a group blog? We could all contribute to it. (By "all," I mean "whoever wants to," not "You MUST DOOOOOOO IT!!!!" like the political freak-o above.) Like maybe on Wordpress, or something?

perhaps Meg Whitman shoulda done a bit of research before basically handing Jerry Brown the best political ad this year.

That is beautiful! It's great when you can get your opponent to write your ad copy for you.