Marva Collins - International Educator	Posted: 04/30/2008
“Readers are leaders. The Tate’s  series seasons the imagination, and feeds the mind.” - Marva Collins Marva Collins  - International Educator - Founder of the Westside Preparatory School in Garfield Park, Chicago, Illinois.

Bernice and Andy Tate discuss Implementation of Global PR Campaign with Newswire Plus service

Posted: 04/25/2008

Bernice and Andy Tate are the publishers of Storybooks-4-Kids, featuring titles with themes of multiculturalism, acceptance, bullying, and the power of diversity. In the last year, the pair has utilized AuthorHouse’s Newswire Plus service to help create a professionally written press release about their books and distribute them to a wide media audience across the world. The Tates share their experience with Newswire Plus and discuss the strategy they developed to implement their highly successful international PR campaign. How did you utilize the Newswire Plus service? While we understood the Newswire Plus press release is sent to a wide audience of subscribers, it was not clear that interested parties of Storybooks-4-Kids were actually seeing our message. The challenge was to exploit market opportunities to subscribers of Newswire Plus and potential high-value targets that were not subscribers. The solution was to simply forward selected links of high-profile Newswire Plus subscribers who had picked up our press release. The idea was that the visible presence of our news release on high-profile Web sites would tacitly convey an implied endorsement and support of our storybooks. The press release suddenly began popping up in unexpected places that had no apparent connection with storybooks for children, causing a “Hey look at this!” curiosity. At first, our presence appeared to be an anomaly.  We established a presence via Newswire Plus in a few important financial news and entertainment industry magazines and organization Web sites, such as Forbes.com, Market Watch, CNBC.com, The Hollywood Reporter, and Publicity Insider.  With the content of PR Newswire banner headlines, Authors Tell Story of Diversity in New Children’s Book, the story simply seemed to pop out. We pushed the Newswire Plus service links as a part of our promotional material to our real target market: i.e. moms, teachers, grandparents, educational groups, children’s organizations, institutions, cultural groups of every description that did not subscribe to the Newswire Plus service. We asked them to get the word out. They spread the word, and we waited. At first nothing happened, then little by little and then more each day, the buzz began. Almost like magic, we got invitations from local cable TV outlets for on-air guest spots, a two-book review (our only two at that time) in an important regional magazine (November 2007) and a follow-up invitation to appear on the cover of two regional magazines, The Hilton Head and Lowcountry magazine, for a cover story in the January 2008 issues. Most recently, we were interviewed for an Indianapolis Star Sunday April 10 business feature article. Regional South Carolina schools and cultural groups around our home state invited us to come and speak on a variety of child-related issues, relevant to our book themes of diversity, acceptance, bullying, and multiculturalism. Newswire Plus had obviously helped get the attention of somebody, somewhere.  The effects continue to this day, as we are doing an Atlanta, Ga.-based  Christian radio interview talk show on Monday about “following your passion.” The Newswire Plus service product was the solution that made it possible for us to move forward and understand that we had a tool and inspired us to be our own advocate. How did the Newswire Plus service help market your book? There is no question that Newswire Plus service put us on the global media map. We were picked up on multiple international book-selling Web sites for Amazon, in Japanese, German, French, Spanish; we are carried on Australian bookseller sites, and we are popping up on educational, social service, and children’s specialty sites as well. The Newswire Plus service is a formidable tool that supports powerful search engine spidering sites, making it possible to appear on Google and Yahoo top 10 hit slots. Try it yourself, and key in: Storybooks4kids or Bernice and Andy Tate.     Newswire Plus got us noticed by serious players who are beginning to network us into other market opportunities.  For example, our third children’s book, How the Dalmatian Got its Spots, now in final stage, and due out by April 30—comes with a significant endorsement from Marva Collins, international educator and founder of the Westside Preparatory School in Garfield Park, Chicago, Illinois. What tips would you give to other authors for promoting their book? Be imaginative and creative Rule #1. (There are no rules!)  Be your own advocate Nothing is free! You need spend a few dollars on a professional promotional service product of some kind: TV spots, radio, or Newswire Plus, for example. And you absolutely need an e-commerce type Web site or page of some type. Have a sense of humor Accidentally” forget and leave a few brochures/flyers in the seat pocket of airlines. (Somebody will read it.) Stuff those annoying, junk mail return postage-paid envelopes with your brochures and cards, etc. and send them back to the credit card companies (somebody will see it) we actually got sales from  a major bank credit card mailroom clerk. Make a deal with a local newsstand or newspaper to have flyer inserted in the Sunday paper or ask the delivery person to do you a favor (for a fee). http://www.authorhouse.com/AuthorResources/BookMarketing/newswireplus.asp

Bernice and Andy Tate appear on Radio Sandy Springs' Georgia 1620 am - Netcast

Posted: 04/22/2008

Radio Sandy Springs'  Georgia 1620 am - Netcast  Following Your Passions     Host Bernard Kearse Interviews people about work, hobbies, and the things that make life worth living. Listen to Bernard Kearse as he discovers the true passions of his guests.   On Tuesday, April 22, 2008, Bernice and Andy Tate, co-authors of the meaningful and entertaining children’s books such as, The Wormleys, appeared on Following Your Passions. This self-published couple use charming stories, like the tale of a family made of very different worms that learn to accept each other as individuals in order to become a more united family to instill values in children. Hear how their passion for writing inspired them to piece together stories that will stay with their readers for years to come.

Indianapolis Star News Article Re: Author Solutions featuring Bernice & Andy Tate

Posted: 04/10/2008

Author Solutions rewrites self-publishing Acquisition of rival iUniverse, innovations fuel climb to No. 1 ASHLEY PETRY STAR CORRESPONDENT New York may be the center of the publishing universe, but Indiana is the largest player in the self-publishing industry. On March 31, Bloomington-based Author Solutions moved iUniverse from Nebraska to Indiana, completing an acquisition process begun last September. As part of the deal, Author Solutions added 30,000 of its former rival's books to its library of more than 50,000 titles, making it the world's largest self-publishing company in number of book titles published and placed in distribution. iUniverse survives as one of several brands in the Author Solutions fold. The company also owns AuthorHouse, a self-publishing and author-services company, and Wordclay, a free, Web-based self-publishing tool. In unifying the three brands, Author Solutions now has infrastructure and capital it needs to invest in new technologies, which are fueling growth in the self-publishing industry, said Kevin Weiss, president and chief executive. "No matter where you are in the services industry, you must be big enough to withstand a hip check from somebody," he said. "AuthorHouse was a successful brand, iUniverse was a successful brand . . . but we would be stronger together than apart." The company's largest U.S. competitor is Lulu, an online service that lets users publish software, music, artwork and video content, as well as books. The site has more than 1.3 million users, who have published 1.6 million titles. Another of Author Solutions' competitors is Amazon, which launched its own self-publishing division, BookSurge, last year. Wordclay, which Author Solutions launched in January, is the company's attempt to compete in that Web-focused self-publishing environment. In its first three months, Wordclay attracted 14,000 users who submitted 4,000 manuscripts via the software that can convert text documents into formatted books. In recent years, the success of Web-based self-publishing tools like Wordclay has fueled significant industry growth. "I've seen the industry sort of mushroom in the last four or five years," said Florrie Binford Kichler, president of the Independent Book Publishers Association and publisher and founder of Indianapolis-based Patria Press. "All of a sudden, everybody has access," she said. Publishing groups haven't tracked growth in the self-publishing industry, but Weiss estimates it grew 20 percent last year in number of titles issued. Author Solutions calculates growth by tracking how many ISBNs, or international standard book numbers, are issued, and whether they go to traditional or self-publishers. Each ISBN represents one new title. In 2008, Author Solutions expects to publish one of every 15 ISBNs issued in the United States, or about 20,000 titles. At Author Solutions, 45 percent of its authors are older than 55. Some self-publish to fulfill a dream of writing a book, while others hope being published will boost their opportunities for consulting work. Retirees Andy and Bernice Tate have spent about $13,000 with AuthorHouse to self-publish four illustrated children's books focusing on themes of diversity, tolerance and bullying. The Tates have sold about 500 copies but say the books help in their consulting company, which offers school presentations and cultural arts programs. "There's not much of an appetite among mainstream publishers. They deal with known people and agents," Andy Tate said. But "known" authors increasingly are shunning traditional deals in favor of self-publishing. Author Solutions has published books by Sen. Richard Lugar, Mayor Greg Ballard, comedian Rita Rudner and others. Another of the company's authors is Kathi Macias, who published her first book through a mainstream publisher in 1989. Since then, she has sold about 400,000 copies of 21 titles. Three years ago, Macias turned to AuthorHouse to self-publish a writers' workbook. "If you have the platform to sell (books), you're actually going to come out ahead financially" by self-publishing, she said. With a mainstream publishing contract, an author may earn royalties of up to 20 percent. For self-published books, royalties can be as high as 50 percent. That difference helps authors recoup up-front costs. A typical Author Solutions self-publishing package costs less than $1,000. Many authors see mainstream contracts as more lucrative and credible. "Vanity publishing does have this stigma about a cheap romance novel piled high in (the author's) garage, trying to figure out how to sell them or give them away," Weiss said. Macias even admits she once had an "attitude" about the self-publishing industry, but her experience with AuthorHouse has changed her viewpoint. "The bottom line is, do the readers care or even know? No," she said. "If it's in book form, they don't care."

'F U N S P E L L' - (new book) - Now in production - COMING SOON

Posted: 04/03/2008

COMIN SOON:  Bernice and Andy Tate have brought to print yet another imaginative  children's tale with colorful illustrations in their forth publication, FunSpell, now in production.  FunSpell, promises to be something very new, and quite different. FunSpell, explores the wisdom, wonder and the spiritual life of children via the world of imagination, the single area in which all kids seem to connect. This story follows the tremendously  successful publication of their first, second  and  third books, The Wormleys, What The Elephant Forgot, and  How The Dalmatian Got Its Spots. These books in totality adeptly integrates lessons about environmental awareness, personal safety, the power of diversity, acceptance, multiculturalism, bullying, actions, choice, and consequences - all original works with a universal messages that children everywhere can understand. FunSpell, promises to be exceptional.