VICARIOUS Graphics Contest!!

ETA: I have extended the deadline of this through the end of August, because the majority of my graphics contest entrants are usually international readers, and someone brought to my attention that Vicarious does not release internationally until mid-September.

It's time for another great graphics contest!! VICARIOUS releases in two weeks and I'm looking for cool fan art or quote/image pairings to share on social media. These images should include the title of the book somewhere and can include quotes from the novel, suggested taglines, your own taglines, etc. You do not have to read the book to enter.

Here are some examples from my last contest for Girl Against the Universe!

By Aila from One Way or an Author

By Marian X

By Eli from The Silver Words

By Irene from Boghunden

My favorite entry (or a random selection from my top three faves if I can't pick) will win a finished copy of Vicarious + signed swag. Everyone, US and INT, who enters this contest is eligible to receive 2 signed bookmarks and a sticker, just for taking the time to help me promote my latest novel.

Possible text for your graphic:
Your graphic does not need to have text (aside from the book's title), but it can. If you've read the book, you can use anything that stood out to you. If you have a Net Galley account, you can check the first 100 pages of the story for inspiration. You can also use part or all of one of the quotes that are listed on Goodreads.  You can make up your own tagline or phrase. Or consider this list of possible taglines:

• Live through this.
• What is real?
• Perception is reality.
• How far would you go to protect someone you love?

Rules: 

• This contest is international and open to everyone ages 13 or older.
• You must share your graphic on Twitter, Instagram, or Tumblr at least once between now and Sept 1. Caption/tag the image similar to: Like thrillers? Check out #Vicarious by @pstokesbooks! Published by @torteen.
• Aside from the Vicarious cover, which can be freely used, any photography or imagery must belong to you. Polyvore, Wikipedia, etc. images cannot be used unless they are completely open source without even requiring crediting of the source. When in doubt, don't use it.
• You can enter up to three graphics, but each one must be shared on social media.
• Copyright of your design belongs to you, but I reserve the right to post/repost your designs on my own social media to promote the book and/or sequel, with credit given to you.

To be officially entered and to qualify for your signed swag, your designs need to be emailed to me as a .JPG for easy sharing at pstokesbooks [at] gmail [dot] com by Sept 1, 2016, subject: VICARIOUS graphics contest. In your email, also include a link or enough information so I can find your shared image on social media and your mailing address, including zip or postal code

General questions? Put them in the comments.

The Great GATU Graphics Contest!

Last month I was looking for sticker designs to help promote Girl Against the Universe. I got lots of awesome entries, and to be honest, I wish I could have printed them all. Picking a winner and a runner-up was really hard, but I based my judging off overall appearance, sticker message, and how well each design branded/promoted the book. In the end, I selected the design on the left (made by Ri) as the winner and the design on the right (made by Silvana) as the runner-up.

Both stickers will be used in a GATU pre-order campaign later this month. Bonus: Ri's sticker design, with her permission, was selected for use in a major industry campaign, the details of which must remain secret until the book's release. But thousands of her stickers will be printed and distributed. Pretty cool, huh? :)

If you didn't win, don't despair! You can tweak your entry just slightly and have two more chances to score a copy of Girl Against the Universe, because this month I'm just looking for cool fan art or quote/image pairings to share on social media. These images should include the title of the book somewhere and can include quotes from the novel, suggested taglines, your own taglines, etc. They can also be text-free. Here are some examples from last year's contest for Liars, Inc.

By Ri from Hiver et Cafe

By Kim from Divergent Gryffindor

By Eileen from Book Cat Pin (Mixed media)

By Eli from The Silver Words

I am picking two winners for this contest, one based on the artwork I like the best, and one randomly selected from all of the other entries that follow the rules. It's not always just about who has mad design skills. It's also about the fact you took the time to help me promote my book.

Each winner of this contest will get a signed hardcover of Girl Against the Universe if you have a U.S. address or a Book Depository pre-order of the novel + a signed bookplate if you live outside the U.S. If you live in a non TBD country, I will send you an e-book copy. [ETA: Anytime you win a copy of a book from me, if you want one of my other books instead, just ask. I have no problem subbing in a different title as long as it's available.] All winners, regardless of location, will receive swag to include signed bookmarks and a GATU magnet. All submitted designs will be fawned over by me and shared via my social media ;D


Possible text for your graphic:
Your graphic does not need to have text (aside from the book's title), but it can. If you've read the book, you can use anything that stood out to you. You can also use part of one of the quotes that are listed on Goodreads.  You can make up your own tagline or phrase. Or, like last month, consider this huge list of tags I submitted to my editor when I was flailing for a tagline myself.

• Life is risk.
• Luck is a game of inches.
• Worlds are about to collide.
• Everything is riding on this.
• It's time for an upset.
• Don't count out the underdog.
• The ball is in your court.
• Sometimes the Universe just takes what it wants.
• Sometimes you have to fight for everything.
• There's a fine line between luck and tragedy.
• You can't win if you don't play.

Rules: 

• You must share your graphic on Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, or Facebook at least once during the next six weeks. Caption/tag the image similar to: #GirlAgainstTheUniverse by @pstokesbooks releases May 17th from @HarperTeen #GATU @EpicReads
• Aside from the GATU cover which can be freely used, any photography or imagery must belong to you. Polyvore, Wikipedia, etc. images cannot be used unless they are completely open source without even requiring crediting of the source. When in doubt, don't use it.
• Designs can be any shape or size and do not need to be high resolution.
• If you entered the sticker design contest last month, you can use your same design for this contest, provided that you include the book title and share it on social media at least once.
• You can enter up to three graphics, but each one must be shared on social media.

Final designs need to be emailed to me as a .JPG for easy sharing at pstokesbooks [at] gmail [dot] com by May 15, 2016, subject: GATU graphics contest. In your email, also include a link or enough information so I can find your shared image on social media.

General questions? Put them in the comments.

The Fan Art of Lainey!!

A few weeks ago, I ran a contest with my awesome street team and challenged them to make some fan art. Here are the fun responses I got, along with a couple additional fan art moments thrown in from last year when the cover first released.

Inky from Book Haven Extraordinaire did her best cover pose. It's eerie how much she looks like the cover model!

Nikki  from Fiction Freak gave the cover a fun Halloween makeover!

Kayla from The Bibliophilic Nerds redoes the cover with her fave Pokemon!

Lorena from Brasilian Book Lover went with a Pokemon theme too!

Nikki from Fiction Freak redid the cover Nikki-style!

Kim from Divergent Gryffindor created a cool cover-themed outfit!

Sara from Forever 17 Books had her son draw this pic of the cover!

 

Eli and Frances turned Lainey into an anime girl!

Got fan art? Anyone, anywhere, who emails me some LAINEY-related art will automatically win an extended swag pack to include bookmarks, postcards, magnets, and buttons. I'm also going to put all of my fan art in my blog sidebar because I appreciate your efforts so much :) Happy reading and art-making!

Happy Birthday Nikki: Thoughts on Serendipity

When I was in elementary school, I was obsessed with a series of books by Stephen Cosgrove. One of them was called Serendipity.

Isn't she the cutest? I don't honestly remember the storyline, but I remember this was my introduction to the word serendipity. Even as a seven-year-old, I loved the idea of stumbling across something awesome purely by chance.

This happened to me in June of 2012, at a book event called Teen Author Carnival that took place in NYC. I got invited as Fiona Paul because I was going to be at Book Expo America with the 2012 debut group, the Apocalypsies. I remember being overwhelmed by BEA, being exhausted as I hurried from the conference to the library with a group of other authors. I remember feeling outclassed and outperformed by many of the other writers doing panels with me. They were all so polished, so professional. Me, I was sweaty and shy and scared.

After the panels were over, the authors hung out to sign books. My first book wasn't out yet so I was signing ARCs and bookmarks. One of my editors came up to me and gave me an ARC of Venom that someone had won as part of a box of books but forgotten at the library. "I figured you might want this," she said. My first thought was: Yikes. One more thing to fit in my already overstuffed luggage. But I put it away and kept talking to readers. I was sitting next to Lauren Morrill, another 2012 debut (she's awesome, buy her books!), when a tiny sprite of a girl bounced up to me. "Do you know if they'll be giving away more ARCs of Venom at BEA tomorrow?" she asked.

"I'm not sure." (Authors are usually the last to know anything). I paused. "How old are you?"

"Thirteen," the girl replied.

"Hmm. Venom is technically age 14 and up." I looked at Lauren Morrill. She looked at me. This girl looked younger than thirteen. But she was so cute and enthusiastic and it wasn't like the people at BEA were carding book readers to make sure they were old enough to get the free ARCs. I made one of those split-second decisions. "Here." I pulled out the copy of Venom my editor had just given me. "I just happen to have an ARC with me. You can have it, but if any of the material makes you uncomfortable, just skip over it, okay?"


The girl nodded happily. I signed the ARC for her and she bounded off. That girl was blogger Nikki Wang from the blog Fiction Freak. I didn't think too much about the interaction, aside from praying that I wouldn't get an angry email from Nikki's mom if she found the ARC and deemed it too adult for her daughter.

After I got home from the conference, Nikki emailed me about doing a feature on her blog. I said yes. We got to talking. We got to talking some more. Slowly, via the magic of the interwebz, Nikki and I became friends.

Since then, Nikki has been a such huge motivational and promotional force in my writing career that I wanted to write this happy birthday blog post just to thank her. THANK YOU, NIKKI! Many other bloggers have inspired and promoted and motivated me too, and I am grateful to all of them. But Nikki truly has gone above and beyond, in so many ways. Here's just a smattering of things she is to me:

1. One-girl focus group if I have a question about teenspeak or whether teens do or don't like something.

2. Reviewer extraordinaire. The PenguinTeen catalog even blurbed her:

3a. Epic supporter. She sponsored a readalong with blogger Annabelle from Sparkles and Lightning:

3b. She also made my first fan art for both the Eternal Rose series and The Art of Lainey:

3c. She also personally encouraged her friends to read my books.

3d. She also had me on her blog multiple times to promote my writing.

3e. She's also heading up THE ART OF LAINEY blog tour via the company she started with her friends, Merp Squad.

3f. She's also done a lot of other little things to promote me, like being first to sign up for my street team and tweeting and FB likings and sharing my bookmarks, etc.

4. Graphic designer. She made the banner and button I'll be using as part of a multi-author tour this July. More info on that coming soon.

5. Last, but never least, friend :) Maybe it's weird for a "grownup" to have teens as friends, but I like to think of it as one of the best things about the internet. Cyberspace breaks down barriers that might keep people apart in real life.

I am so glad I made that random serendipitous decision to give my extra copy of Venom to Nikki almost 2 years ago. Whether you're Team Fate or a big believer in free will, I encourage you to remain open to the idea of serendipity. Life hands you amazing things sometimes when you're not even looking for them. You never know--the next person you meet might become your Nikki Wang :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NIKKI! <333