Author: Dan Blank

Helping Kids Find Their Voices as Writers

How does a child find their voice? How are they given the skills and the freedom to express the world they experience?

I have worked with a public school in Harlem, PS 123, for about a decade now, and have recently started a new project with them focused on “student voice.” The goal is to bring in writers, artists, photographers and other creative professionals to show kids unique ways to find and express their voices.

When I first thought of this series, one person came to mind immediately as a guest speaker: Rachel Fershleiser. She does literary and nonprofit outreach at Tumblr, is the co-creator of Six-Word Memoirs, and helped create hundreds of events at Housing Works Bookstore in NYC. Rachel is just freaking amazing.

This week, Rachel came up to PS 123 and helped a group of fifth graders learn how to write their own six-word memoirs. The results were powerful, and represent the tip of the iceberg of who these kids are and what they can create in the world:

What most blows me away by this is that this was created within 45 minutes. Imagine if these kids kept writing, kept honing their ability to share and create.

A Tumblr was created to publish the students’ work, again representing the nearly immediate way that someone can not just express their voice, but share it with the world: http://5-501.tumblr.com

Here is a look at the workshop:

I would like to thank Rachel for being so generous of her time, it’s not an easy thing to work with a group of 5th graders and help them create something special within a single hour!

I would also like to thank Sarah Chesson from PENCIL, a nonprofit that helps coordinate partnerships like the one I have with PS 123. And of course: THANK YOU to the faculty (esp Principal Hernandez, Ms. Stewart and Ms. Mann), students and community of PS 123 who allowed us to be a very small part of their lives.

My partnership with PS 123 started years ago, and I often wonder where these students are now, what they may be doing, and of course, if they are writing:

Thanks.
-Dan

 

 

The Calm Before Publication Date

This is part of the Bittersweet Book Launch case study, where Dan Blank and Miranda Beverly-Whittemore share the yearlong process of launching her novel. You can view all posts here.

It is funny how for both Miranda and I, now that we are firmly in the “book launch” period, it has felt less natural to update this blog!

I suppose that could be because with a year’s worth of preparation, things sort of “happen” now. There is a LOT of behind the scenes chatter about book reviews and placement that has been confirmed, but I am never sure what can be shared publicly, and when.

Miranda and I had lunch earlier in the week, and stopped to get a shot of ourselves afterwards. I couldn’t quite get the exposure right, so you will have to blend these two images in your mind:

I think that once publication date arrives, (um, REALLY SOON!), we will be able to reflect more on what has worked best in this process.

Thanks!
-Dan

How You Fail Determines How You Succeed

My recent guest post on Writer Unboxed:

“Even if you have something really good. Even if people really like it. It takes so much MORE in order to succeed.”
These are words from my friend Andrea, at a meetup I helped run last night that brought together local creative professionals.

The group shared stories of their own journey to craft a creative life & business, and observations from friends and colleagues.

Andrea shared another quote, from a local shop owner who, after opening her doors and struggled to develop a clientele:

“I didn’t realize how hard it would be to just bring in $100.”

This is akin to an author dreaming of their book launch, and wondering how many hundreds or thousands of books they will sell, and plateauing at 75 books sold.

It is so difficult to write a book, and to then publish a book, that the concept of developing an audience and selling books can be downright paralyzing to any reasonable author. (luckily, most authors live in a dreamworld, to their credit!)
🙂

There is so much risk in choosing to write and publish a book…

Read the full post here.

Two Weeks Until Publication = All The Feels

This is part of the Bittersweet Book Launch case study, where Dan Blank and Miranda Beverly-Whittemore share the yearlong process of launching her novel. You can view all posts here.

By Miranda Beverly-Whittemore

Dan and I had lunch together yesterday and it was this kind of amazing firestorm of Ohmygoodnessit’shappening!!! combined with Howarewesupposedtofeel??? crossed with Whathappensnext??? In between, I stole his french fries.

So what do I feel? Well, of course I feel excited. In two weeks the bookstore I walked into today will (hopefully) be selling Bittersweet! But if there’s one thing book publishing has taught me is that there are many other feelings, good and bad, that come along with this whole big old process. I’ve been talking to a few other writers who have books coming out in the next little bit of time, and they’re running the gamut of feelings too, perhaps best summed up in this fantastic Facebook post written by Porochista Khakpour, whose novel, The Last Illusion, is the featured book in today’s OMG! All The Books! Giveaway:

Here are my feels for today, in no particular order:

– I’m feeling guilty that I haven’t been posting on this site in recent weeks!

– I’m feeling nervous that none of the possibilities that my publicist mentioned in our phone meeting today might come true.

– And then I’m feeling chagrinned, because *one* of those possibilities will probably happen, right? Right???

– I’m feeling a general wash of anxiety when I first wake up every morning. I’ve learned the best solution to that problem is to just get my butt out of bed and start the day, but the anxiety still comes in little waves of ohmygoodness as the day goes on.

– I’m feeling distracted- I can’t really focus on much of anything for a long period of time. So I’ve started lots of small projects in my house, but my husband can attest to the fact that the dishes really aren’t being washed all that regularly. Still, I like to think that all that distraction is making me a fun mom, since I’m much more likely to curl up with a book or suggest we watch some Tom & Jerry or be up for a trip to the ice cream shop.

– I’m feeling moved and honored to see so many people I know and love (and a growing number of people I haven’t met yet) feeling enthusiastic about Bittersweet as we near publication.

– I’m also prone to burst into tears much more often than usual. Like, about anything.

My mantra for these next two weeks: be easy on yourself. A good mantra to adopt for the rest of my life, I suppose, and yours too!

Status Update: Two Weeks Into a Month-Long Giveaway!

This is part of the Bittersweet Book Launch case study, where Dan Blank and Miranda Beverly-Whittemore share the yearlong process of launching her novel. You can view all posts here.

It’s funny how much a daily giveaway just becomes a normal part of your daily existence. Julia, Miranda and I now coordinate in the mornings and evenings every day, and there is often a flurry of emails with the participating authors to just check, double-check, and triple check a million details.

So how are things going so far? Well, let’s look at some basic data:

Included here are the number of entries per day, and then the TOTAL website traffic for this time period. We saw around 75 entries per day in the first week, and around 50 per day the second week. Also, you can see that the site overall had a lot more traffic in that first launch week.

Does this mean the giveaway is a roaring success or a pathetic failure? Well, for that, we have to consider the qualitative stuff:

  • To enter the giveaways, people need to answer a question related to the books being given away. The answers have been incredible to read. Many are very personal, and have been so much fun to read and share (anonymously) with the authors.
  • There is a lot of conversation about the contest on the authors’ social media feeds and the #OMGbooks hashtag on Twitter. That’s just fun to have a reason to promote these authors’ books each day.
  • Private emails between Julia, Miranda, myself and the authors have been so much fun. Lots of enthusiasm and encouragement.

The result: this feels like fun! And Google Analytics can never tell you that.
🙂

Thanks.
-Dan