“How Speak Spoke to Me” Creative Contest allows readers to explore their feelings about Speak through whatever medium they’d like. Write a poem, sing a song, make a movie, or draw a picture. Any type of expression is worth being heard. Finalists will have their work displayed on both RAINN’s andMacmillan’s websites and via their social media outreach. The winner will be selected by Laurie Halse Anderson and will receive a free skype visit with the author.

At this point, Laurie has helped RAINN raise $5000, which ins one quarter of its goal of raising $20,000.  Twenty thousand seems like a lot of money, and it is for a person, but for a cause like ending sexual violence and supports that affected by it, it’s not very much money at all when you think about how many lives are forever damaged by sexual assault.

Guys, men, boys, dudes, gentlemen, males, gents: It is time for us to step up for RAINN and causes like it. While not every survivor of sexual assault is female, most are. We all have women in out lives–mothers, wives, sisters, daughters, nieces, cousins, friends–who have survived sexual assault. You probably don’t know which, because sexual assault is an under-reoported crime, and it survivors face far more social stigma than almost those who report almost any crime. Their assaults remain invisible even to those closest to them, and that has to end.

Please support RAINN by giving a small donation at the link above.  If you aren’t in a position to do that, then spread the word by forwarding the info below on social media. Better yet, buy or check out a copy of SPEAK by Laurie Halse Anderson. Read it, then share it with your fathers, brothers, sons, nephews, cousins, and friends. If sexual assault is to be overcome, then everyone must be part of the solution, and the solution begins with understudying so that when the women we love need to speak, we will know how to listen.

Every 2 minutes someone in the U.S. is sexually assaulted.

Help Laurie and RAINN give survivors a voice by donating to the #Speak4RAINN campaign. Just $10 provides support for one victim via the National Sexual Assault Hotline. Check out RAINN’s donation page for great incentives like signed books and a manuscript critique by Laurie. The more money you give, the more people we can help.

Spread the word about #Speak4RAINN. Follow Laurie on Twitter at@halseanderson and RAINN at @RAINN01 for campaign updates and learn how to get involved.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=zabOtXWav6k

My favorite event of BEA, hands-down, is the annual Children’s Book Art Auction for the ABFFE. As a writer for teens and a long-time activist against censorship, I support this event and this cause whole-heartedly. The Art Auction is actively seeking donations from professonal artist for the auction. Here are the guidleines and a FAQ for anyone interested in donating work.

This year’s hosts are Jack Gantos and Lauren Myracle, the lethal combination of brains (both) and funny (both) that are worth the price of BEA admission alone. In fact, even though BEA wasn’t on my schedule this year, I may go just to watch these to in action.  So what is the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression (ABFFE), you may ask? “The American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression is the bookseller’s voice in the fight against censorship.”

Here is the letter Myracle and Gantos wrote requesting donations:

Dear friends,

A book is challenged in a school or library in the United States almost every day. Just this month the Chicago Public Schools banned Marjane Satrapi’s terrific graphic novel Persepolis in middle school classes.

The good news is that the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression (ABFFE)—the bookseller’s voice in the fight against censorship, is leading the fight against book censorship. Its Kids’ Right to Read Project, co-founded with the National Coalition Against Censorship, is providing critical support for the students, parents, teachers, and librarians who are fighting challenges in their local communities.

That’s why we have agreed to co-host the 19th annual Children’s Book Art Auction at BookExpo America. Proceeds will support ABFFE’s defense of the free speech rights of young readers. The event will be held on Wednesday, May 29, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. in the River Pavilion of the Jacob Javits Convention Center.

Please consider contributing a piece of your wonderful art to the auction. This year’s event will include a special section of pieces honoring Maurice Sendak, who inspired and supported so many artists and illustrators and was a champion of free speech. Consult the auction’s FAQs for details.

We hope to see you at the River Pavilion. Thank you for your support!

Jack Gantos & Lauren Myracle

If you are convinced, here is the PDF form for donating artwork to the auction. 

Hope to see you there!

Black Hole Sun

Black Hole Sun is still #free on #Kindle http://amzn.to/16eTiIA as of this writing, although the deal has ended for all other vendors. If you missed the chance to download it over the holiday weekend, here’s your chance. There’s no telling how long it will stay free, so carpe roman!

When this promotion started, I had certain goals: I wanted Black Hole Sun to be #1 in Teen Scifi, #1 in Teens, and #1 in all ebooks at both Amazon and BN.com. This is what was achieved.

• #1 in Teen scifi at both Amazon and BN.com
• #1 in Teen at both Amazon and BN.com
• #1 Nook ebook at  BN.com (not a surprise because it was Nook’s Free Ebook Friday choice)
• #24 Kindle ebook at Amazon (still trying, but it looks like this goal may elude us).
• #4 Bestselling Teen Nook for Rising Sun, the prequel to Black Hole Sun. This was an unexpected but completely awesome side-effect.

Overall, I would consider the promotion a success, even though my greedy heart would grow three sizes if Black Hole Sun reached the Top 20 today in the final hours before the promote ends.

Thanks to everyone who downloaded, shared, liked, and retweeted the news. I appreciate you all!

Reminder: Black Hole Sun is FREE for the Nook, Kindle, and iTunes until 4/1/2013. Get it while it’s hot. If you do download BHS first, then you should read it first.

The whole Black Hole Sun series:

Rising Sun, Book 0

Black Hole Sun, Book 1

Black Hole Sun, Book 2

Shadow on the Sun, Book 3

The sad truth is, there isn’t one way for you to do that. So what’s an author to do? The answer, I think, is to diversify by using multiple tools to give you several snapshots that you can put together for a better view of how your promotion is going.

There are several sales tracking tools that authors can use to track sales, both free and paid. I’ve listed some that I use now or may use in the future. I’ve left of Amazon’s Author Central and Bookscan. If you haven’t signed up for Author Central, you should do that now. It does far more for you as an author than track sales. Books can is too expensive for most authors to bother with.

For easier reference, I’ve indicated if a book tracking service is free (F), paid℗, or both(F/P); if it tracks Amazon (A), Barnes & Noble (BN), other Other retailers (O)

• Books & Writers: ℗ (A/BN): “Books & Writers provides a service that tracks book and other items’ rankings on Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble (bn.com). The Rank Monitoring Service allows you to receive hourly, daily, or weekly email updates of Amazon.com and bn.com rankings and view charts tracking a book’s ranking over those intervals.” (I haven’t used this service yet.)
• eBook Tracker: (F)(A): This is a free “tool that provides both real-time and historical Amazon sales rank and pricing data for Kindle books.” I use this free service. Sign-up is easy, as is adding books. It allows you to see how your Kindle sales are going on a single, easy to read page.
• Metric Junkie: (F)(A): This free service tracks Amazon Sales Rank for books, CDs, DVDs, MP3s and Kindle, and displays it in a charts and graphs. (I haven’t used this service yet, but the sample graphs look interesting.)
• NovelRank: (F)(A): I’ve used NovelRank for years. It’s easy to sign up and track many books on your own page. One caveat is that it’s accuracy  varies, especially if you sell a lot of books.
• Rankforest: (F/P)(A): This service lets you “monitor market performance and Amazon sales trends and view historical data, export, read reviews, set up alerts, compare multiple titles.” (I haven’t used this service yet.)
• Sales Rank Express F)(A):This service lets you check Amazon rales rank in all countries. I’ve used this service many times. It gives excellent information beyond sales rank numbers, including which books books your books are being paired with.

Have a tracking service that you’ve used and recommend? Please feel free to share with us in the comments section.

Megan Whalen Turner’s debut novel, The Thief, is a Newbery Honor-winning masterpiece of beguiling plotting and sleight-of-hand narration. It would have been very difficult for a writer to top that success, but Turner did it with the second book in the Queen’s Thief series, The Queen of Attolia. A perfect balance of character, setting, prose, and plot twists that make a Rubik’s Cube look like a preschooler’s jigsaw puzzle, The Queen of Attolia reunites the Thief, Eugenides, and his archrival, the cunning and ambitious Queen, who would love nothing more than to get her hands on the man who stole everything from her. But as the adage goes, be careful what you wish for …Read more…

You can find the whole post, as well as link to downloading your free copy of Black Hole Sun at: http://bit.ly/13DRdsb

If you prefer Kindle: http://amzn.to/10lqhXP

Rising Sun is a pre-quel novella to Black Hole Sun. It’s the story of how Durango and Vienne became mercenaries and how Durango and Mimi learned to live in the same headspace. I think Rising Sun can be read either first or second, depending on whether you like backstory or not. If you like to dive straight into action, read Black Hole Sun first, then Rising Sun. Here’s where it gets tricky: Invisible Sun can be read as a stand-alone, which means it can be the first book you read. If you do that, then you should definitely read Black Hole Sun next.  Either, way, you should read books 0, 1, and 2 before reading Shadow on the Sun because it is absolutely not a stand-alone, and it should be the last book you read in the series. Unless of course, you’ve already read it first, then I would suggest reading the other books starting with 0 or 1 but definitely not 2.

Clear as mud, right?

Reminder: Black Hole Sun is FREE for the Nook, Kindle, and iTunes until 4/1/2013. Get it while it’s hot. If you do download BHS first, then you should read it first.

The whole Black Hole Sun series:

Rising Sun, Book 0

Black Hole Sun, Book 1

Black Hole Sun, Book 2

Shadow on the Sun, Book 3

I would be remiss in not  publicly thanking Suzanne Collins for allowing us to use the wonderful blurb that graced the covers of the three hardcovers. Thanks, Suzanne.

The flap cover copy of Shadow on the Sun:

Durango has always relied on Mimi—once his tough-as-nails squad leader, she is now the bitingly sarcastic artificial intelligence flash-cloned to his brain. Mimi is the only reason he is alive. Durango has always looked out for his devastatingly beautiful and brave second-in-command, Vienne—now wounded, crushed, missing. Vienne is the only reason he wants to live. Durango hasn’t always despised his father. But he does now. Lyme wants Durango to be the Prince of Mars, and he’ll stop at nothing to realize that dream. He’ll sacrifice anything and anyone in the name of domination. Even Mimi. Especially Vienne. Lyme forgot one thing. You don’t want to mess with Durango.

The whole Black Hole Sun series:

Rising Sun, Book 0

Black Hole Sun, Book 1

Black Hole Sun, Book 2

Shadow on the Sun, Book 3