Before our posts about fire roosters and focus groups, I posed a question, who puts your book into these categories? Looking back, I’m not sure why I asked that question, because I don’t know the answer except to say that YOU do, as the self-published author.

I wonder if I REALLY meant to ask, who decides what the categories are? Aha! Excuse me for my senior moment. But truly, this IS important, because although you don’t get to decide the categories, you do have a say into which ones your book will go. So, here are some things to keep in mind when you are selecting categories:

1) Select as many categories as you are allowed: if you’re given 3 options, as BISAC allows, take them all (see http://bisg.org/page/JuvenileFiction just for fun!).
2) Try to be as diverse with those categories as possible. For instance, if your book is about a glum baby panda (yeah like THOSE exist) living at the local zoo, your BISAC categories shouldn’t all be under Animals. Think, what is the problem glum baby P is facing? How does s/he solve it? Use those clues to lead you to different categories altogether (seriously, look at http://bisg.org/page/JuvenileFiction).
3) Despite the belief that casting the widest net is the best strategy, I recently heard advice that we should be as specific about categorizing our book as possible. This is because, like the example above, if the only categories you’ve placed your book into is Animals: bears, Animals: baby animals, and Animals: Zoos, how many OTHER books do you think exist in these fields? Yup, A LOT. Ergo, the search will returns hundreds if not thousands of books. And you are no closer to selling a book.
4) If you’re truly split between or among a few categories, like if you HAD to put your book into one category container, WHAT box would that be? I've heard the argument that putting it into the hottest or trendiest category is a good strategy, because the hottest books are selling, and there are a lot of sales that happen just by association. In my opinion, it's worth trying.
5) Always remember that you are allowed to change these categories. See how you’re sales are going, ask anyone who tells you they have bought your book how they found it, and simply ask anyone who has read the book, how would YOU categorize it?

Now, I leave you with a game where I would love for you to post answers back. In the categories I have listed for Centipede Dragon, which three would YOU choose for my book?

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! Thanks for spending a few minutes with Centipede Dragon on this day.

You’ve all read about the numerous ups and downs in my journey to produce the first Centipede Dragon book. And as I’ve shared with you my failures, I hope that somehow, you all will keep in mind the silver linings as I do.

On January 24, I held my focus group for book 2, which I had planned to publish at end of January. But then I realized I had completely forgotten about taking this important step. I quickly turned to a friend, the librarian for Youth Services at Charles Beatley Central Library, who has been a wonderful advocate for Centipede Dragon.

Unfortunately, with having to reschedule this event once already, the intervening holidays, the cold months, and the kids' return to school, our event was attended by only one. HOWEVER, that one, a young lady, ended up being a productive and brilliant participant after I read her both books. Then I essentially got to grill her one-on-one with the questions I had prepared to test for character motivation and plot comprehension.

The success of a focus group lies in polling and numbers, but simply talking to a kid about her take on your book can still bear significant impact. I ended up with A LOT of insight, as well as confirmation that the holes I suspected I had in the plot were indeed there.

My librarian and her assistant also gave invaluable information about how they interpreted some of my choices for visual imagery; in my mind, these illustrations which I had lovingly crafted were absolutely clear to me, but clearly not to others. And now, from my focus group of three, I have critical information to incorporate into the new book that will make it better.

My point in telling you this, is despite the time we (the librarian and I) put into prepping for this event, it's easy to be disappointed by the lack of attendance. But if you persevere, you just might get your silver lining: for me, it was that one actively engaged young lady.

No matter what, I will produce the best book that I possibly can. In the coming months, look out for snippets from the book and a new trailer, as well as a final launch date!