Consultations

I highly recommend Katie Davis’s services. Katie was able to take all of my goals and outline a way to prioritize and attain them. As part of her services she created a “consultation packet” filled with information relating to each goal. Where to get stock photos, how to use social media, ways to get people to my website and how to keep them interested as well as information about school visits and author events. Katie’s wealth of knowledge and technological skill have been instrumental in putting me on the right path. I appreciated the way Katie provided options and ideas but always came back to what I wanted and what I could manage making my journey my own. She is efficient, knowledgeable, highly skilled! My next stop, Video Idiot Boot Camp! Thank you Katie.

Susan Verde, author of The Museum

Last year I drove over 2 hours each way to hear Katie Davis speak about social media and I was not disappointed. So when I was matched with her for my NetWit Social Media and Promotion Consultation, I eagerly anticipated an informative and interesting meeting. As I expected, she was very helpful and in a short period of time, I learned a variety of new things I could implement such as updating the look and clarity of my web page, establishing myself on facebook, and various ways of utlizing the web to locate target audiences. Katie explains things with a “can do perspective” that is very encouraging in a somewhat daunting arena – taking on the latest in technology to market my books effectively. I highly recommend her!

Debbie Blackington, Author/Illustrator

 

Katie Davis is way out ahead of the rest of us in her social media expertise and anticipation of her client’s needs.

I recently met with her at the NESCBWI conference and Katie deftly set me up with a customized brand and start up marketing plan in a matter of minutes. And she followed up our meeting with an invaluable email with answers to all the other questions I would soon have.

Sarah Ragsdale

How to Promote Your Children’s Book

Picture book writers looking to chart a course through the publicity maze should check out  Katie Davis’s e-book How to Promote Your Children’s Book: Tips, Tricks, and Secrets to Create a Bestseller. Katie covers everything an author might need. She provides an overview of the options and gives step by step guidance about  where to begin and how to continue. She’s enthusiastic and experienced and her message is clear: you CAN do this – and have fun at the same time. Packed with resources, samples and examples, and saturated with Katie’s warmth and enthusiasm…this book could save your promotional life.

Simone Kaplan
picture book editor, consultant, coach

 

Cheers for this mighty useful, mighty rich new book! This is a great tool!

Emma D Dryden
children’s editorial & publishing consultant, drydenbks LLC

 

“…this one publication is better than every other article I have read on promotion…EVERY other thing….I joined all the organizations and have researched lots of sites on writing children’s lit and promotion in particular, but your book covered it better than all the others…plus I loved all the links. Thanks for such an in-depth, yet easy to understand book. Bless your heart Katie Davis.”

Sharon Stanley
aspiring author

 

How do you keep your children’s book from drowning in the “sea of books” published every year? In her book, How to Promote Your Children’s Book, Author/Illustrator Katie Davis has put together many “tips, tricks, and secrets” in a helpful, informative, and entertaining way. I highly recommend this book to anyone wanting innovative ideas for promoting a new book.

Ruth Sanderson
author/illustrator

 

Katie Davis is my hero! How to Promote Your Children’s Book is an amazing reference that no author should be without. Katie cuts through the hype, confusion and fear of self-promotion with sound advice, practical application and a ton of how-to resources. Her tone is down-to-earth as she generously shares what she knows, shows what works and what doesn’t and encourages us to shine with easy-to-complete homework tasks. Above all, she reminds us to keep our marketing real and to genuinely connect with our readers – something she has elevated to an art form!

Lisa Tiffin
freelance writer

Webinar

Thank you so much for the program this evening! I learned more from Katie in one hour than all the research I’d done for months now. She is an amazingly talented and articulate teacher.

Blessings and gratitude,

-Lorraine Castro, LMFT

Thank you Katie and Deborah for an amazing, inspiring and wonderful webinar. I can’t wait to put your helpful suggestions into practice. It was an engaging, often hilarious presentation (the slides rocked my socks!) that is sure to stay with me long after this event. Thank you for all the work you did and continue to do. I would love to attend more of these webinars, and it would be amazing if your Podcasting workshop was also made into a webinar.

-Eti Berland

Wonderful stuff…clear…right to it…excellent specifics…thank you!!!!!!

-Drew Lamm

TERRIFIC webinar, ladies! You’ve kept me awake until 4 AM here in Brussels. 🙂

Thanks!

-Mayra Calvani

Thanks for a great writing webinar tonight @KatieDavisBurps and @Dear_Editor . If you get a chance, attend one!

-Lizann Flatt

Thanks for hosting the Meet The Editor webinar tonight. It was wonderful! I have two pages full of notes from it. 🙂

-Sharon Mayhew

I learned about the July 27 webinar with Deborah Halverson through the Cultural Arts of Fairfield County e-newsletter. Thank you both for presenting this material – I filled four pages of my notebook with useful information tonight!

-Marika Ford

Fantastic job, ladies!

I feel inspired and plan to “dust off” some manuscripts and get them out there. Also, I belonged to a writers’ group in PA, but have not joined one since moving back to get back into one. As a K-8 school media specialist, I found the comments on the different genre very helpful, but think that this could be another webinar in itself. As teachers we are always struggling to help the kids become aware of the nuances within the different genres.

I did not mind one bit that we ran over time. It was definitely worth it.

Thanks again,

-Judy Ignasiak

This webinar was fabulous! Great advice and some gems in the Q and A as well! Bring on more webinars, Katie!!!!

-Gail Handler

Thanks for the entertaining and pragmatic webinar. I felt like I was chatting with friends in our writer’s group!

-Gail Swift

What a fantastic Webinar- really entertaining and specifically helpful! Thanks for offering this terrific opportunity for all of us. Can’t wait to get the transcript/podcasts/or other archive of it.

I loved the slides, too! So much fun!

-Sandy Brehl

Your webinar was awesome! It was so helpful and both you and Deborah Halverson are so knowledgeable.

-Wendy B.

THANKS! GREAT JOB!!!

-Jerry Craft

Wow…what a fabulous first time experience you gave me! Thank you so much. I can wait to get more…of “Writing YA for Dummies” that is…The intro was enticing, the speaker inviting and the presentation was fulfilling …an aspiring author just couldn’t ask for more, but I will. I simply can’t wait to have my own copy. Thank you, Great presentation tonight. I’m totally hooked!

-K. MT King

Thanks for putting together a valuable hour and a half for children’s authors!

-Sandy Grubb

Thanks so much for this webinar! I’m excited to employ your techniques to ban the dreaded “f-word” (FLAT!) from my manuscripts!

-Veronica Bartles

Thanks for this webinar. I really appreciate sharing the wealth!

-Caryn Neidhold

Thanks for such a great and informative webinar. Loved it!

-Laurie Young

This webinar was fabulous. I feel like a learned a conference full of information in just an hour and a half. Thanks for doing this for us.

-Jodelle Brohard

the Webinar was so well done! I’ve listened to others where the participants just talked among themselves and thought it was all a joke. You gave straight, thoughtful answers, and my critique group listened.

-Barbara Schneider

The webinar was fabulous with lots of good info. and advice. I appreciate the time and effort you ladies put into it! Thank you!

-Liz Illenberger

Speeches and Keynotes

(Connecticut Children’s Medical Center’s Storybook Gala – Keynote) “…thank you for all you contributed to our recent Storybook Gala….for your humorous and inspiring remarks during the program…you gave of yourself so graciously and we are most grateful.”

-Donna Hires and Gretchen Lunsford, co-chairs

(AAUW Fundraiser luncheon) Good morning. I am writing to say thank you for coming to our AAUW luncheon and for sharing your writing adventures. You … had everyone’s undivided attention.  Afterwards I heard wonderful comments on how engaging your talk was and how you tied in the AAUW theme Breaking Barriers. Your mention of meeting a scholarship winner was great.  Good luck.

–Sonja Gibbs, committee member

Each year the AAUW has a book author luncheon and the proceeds from the luncheon fund a scholarship for a young woman.

This year our luncheon was held on November 5,2011 at the Clinton Country Club. We had three authors speaking: Diane Smith, Carlos Eire and Katie Davis. All of the authors were fabulous.

Katie spoke last and produced a video presentation which was superb!  She was so enthusiastic and displayed a great sense of humor during the presentation.  A quiet room turned into a lot of laughter.

I would highly recommend Katie for future speaking engagements.

Carolyn Dugan
Co-chair -AAUW Book Author Luncheon

(Keynote) Katie Davis was an outstanding keynote speaker at this year’s Connecticut Writing Project’s Annual Student Writers Award Ceremony. She demystified the notion of “writer as genius” through engaging personal anecdotes, as well as projected artwork, photographs, and film. She also systematically debunked common myths associated with the writing life. The young writers present not only received kudos and awards, they were encouraged by a wonderful writer and human being to keep at it (even when there are no awards). Katie Davis’s warm, self-deprecating sense of humor invited students to engage in writing as play…at any age. Thanks Katie Davis and CWP for a truly inspiring evening celebrating student writers!

–Denise Abercrombie, English teacher, E.O. Smith High School in Mansfield, CT.

 

Presentations

(Highlights Foundation) Successful children’s authors and illustrators know that it takes more than a good book to grab an audience. In today’s social media arena, authors and illustrators have to create a buzz for their books and a name for themselves. In a recent workshop at The Highlights Foundation, Katie Davis taught us how to do just that.

Katie joined us for Life in the Spotlight with Peter Jacobi. This workshop was designed to offer both published and beginning writers useful tips and strategies for promoting themselves and their books. Katie connected with the group on a very difficult subject: using Twitter and all kinds of social media for self-promotion. Her presentation was engaging, fast-paced, and full of humor and encouragement.

Carol P. Saucier, an attendee, summed up Katie’s presentation well, “She made a complex subject easy to understand. Useful information and she is fun, too!” Katie’s knowledge of social marketing and branding is astounding and, as Carol mentioned, her enthuses for the topic made learning fun. We look forward to having Katie on our faculty again and again.

-Alison M. Myers, Program Consultant, Highlights Foundation

(NAEYC National Conference, with Hope Vestergaard) “Katie, it was wonderful to hear you and Hope at the NAEYC 2011 Conference. I can’t believe how behind I actually am concerning technology.  My first successful us of a QR Code is here on this site! And I love the idea of book trailers… BTW my next comment stop will be on Little Chicken’s Big Day book trailer. I can’t believe there isn’t already one comment there.

Thanks again for allowing me to continue learning and loving while I do it.

–Terera Gastone, attendee

(NE SCBWI 2011 Conference) Hi Katie–thanks for the hugely helpful workshop today. You did a great job explaining a lot of information to a group of people at very different levels of tech-saviness!

–Sarah Albee, attendee

(Skype Visit) Hi, I was lucky enough to be in my daughters K classroom the day we skyped with you at Prospect Valley in Wheat Rigde, CO. Thanks! –Katy

 

School Visits

“I’m usually a bit ‘ho-hum’ when it comes to author visits but (Katie was) one to change my mind! (She) connects in a very positive way to kindergarteners. (She also knew how to efficiently manage behavior and I do have a few challenges this year!) I love how (Katie) ‘thinks out loud’ when talking about imagination – very powerful.” Katie gave us…the best ever writing session, and I truly mean it!”
— Jayne Pitt, Kindergarten teacher, Julian Curtis Elementary School, Greenwich, Ct.

“I just wanted to thank you for your great visits with our kindergarten classes today. It is so clear how well you understand kindergarten and engage them in your presentation. They had a fabulous time. Kindergarten has field day next week and they are all going to wear their Little Chicken tattoos. I can’t wait to get some pictures!

The kindergarten teachers were most impressed as well. If possible, I would like to schedule something again in the fall with our new group of kindergarteners. Have a great day!”

Amy O’Neill, Teacher Librarian, Prospect Valley Elementary

“Katie met with our K-2 students in their classrooms and they LOVED her! Her presentations were lively, animated and fun. The teachers were all thrileld and impressed with how Katie led the students through the narrative and illustrating process. It was a perfect complement to their classroom approach and lessons.”
— Anonymous teacher input on evaluation form, Julian Curtis Elementary School, Greenwich, Ct.

“Katie Davis appeared at King recently in conjunction with our Lower School Book Fair. She is a dynamic speaker who relates well to children. Most impressive was the drawing technique that Katie demonstrated. Her method of turning photographs into fictional characters was fascinating, and really got students interested in trying her method.”
— Jonathan Gillies, Dean of Lower School Students, King Stamford, Connecticut

“Katie was very well prepared and completely at ease to speak in front of such a large crowd of approximately 200 children. Her performance was interactive and fun. The students enjoyed learning about Katie’s life and how she came to writing. They enjoyed watching her draw and recognized how much hard work goes into each of her books. All in all, I can whole heartedly recommend Katie Davis for a school or library visit, be it in a small or a large setting: Katie will delight them all!”
— Olivia Korsun, owner of Booktopia Fairs

“You were fabulous and we loved having you at the Savannah Children’s Book Festival. You were great – so easy to work with. Not only that, you were a lot of fun…we enjoyed you immensely. Apparently, so did the crowds – your tent was full for both your sessions – nice work.”
— Robin Shader, Liberty County Coordinator Live Oak Public Libraries, Savannah, GA

“As an intermediate teacher in a very high-performing school district, it was quite obvious to me that my students,many of whom are identified as gifted and talented, benefited greatly from Katie Davis’ wonderful and exuberant writing and illustrating workshops. My students said: “Mrs. Davis helped me to improve the way I plan for writing a story”; “She made it very easy to brainstorm ideas before writing a story”; “She helped me to realize that it takes a long time to write a book, and adding detail is something that you need to do a lot. It’s an important priority in writing”; “I was never a very good cartoonist or illustrator, but now, since she showed us how to copy photos and make them into cartoons, it’s much easier to illustrate my stories.” Katie’s workshops provide students the opportunity to see themselves as capable writers, which is the primary goal of writing educators. Therefore, I wholly recommend Katie’s wonderful workshop, and hope that you allow your students the opportunity to strive for a goal within their reach, which these workshops do, indeed, provide.”
— Ian Banner, 5th Grade Teacher, Fairfield Public Schools, CT

“Katie Davis had these kids eating out of her hands. Such talented hands! This may be the most entertaining author we’ve ever had. Katie is not only a talented artist, but she is a special performer who knows how to work a crowd. Without missing a beat, she quieted a show-off, raised up a tired child, and made sure every eye was on her. These students will remember this author/illustrator for years to come.”
— Rosemary Jordal, Program Coordinator Groton Public Library, Groton, CT

Educator and Librarian Presentations

I had a great time at Katie’s workshop at the SLMSSENY Spring Symposium on March 27,2011. The topics were relevant and exciting (QR codes – wow!). It was a pleasure to see her book and to learn how she incorporates technology into her work as an author and illustrator – it was truly inspiring. I would love to have Katie as a guest speaker at my school!
— Julie Zwiebel, LMS

(NCCATS Teacher Seminar in North Carolina) I loved talking to you during our Skype this week at NCCAT. I am still working on my book about Kindergarteners taking over the school and the chaos that follows. I do have a voice of reason little K’r that is rather funny I think you would like. Thank you for your advice. You rock!
— Royanna Jackson, attendee & Bellamy Elementary School

I love Love LOVE skyping with you! Thanks for all the advice for us North Carolina teachers.
— Loree Smith

I REALLY enjoyed your skype visit today as well as your books, which are perfect for my 3-4 year-old students with disabilities. I will definately keep up with your website, which has fantastic info. Thanks for sharing your knowledge! If I can figure out twitter I will write something 🙂
— Debbie Gebbie, Union County Public Schools

Fab Fan Letters

THANK YOU for writing Kindergarten Rocks. My son who will be 5 next month was so scared of going to kindergarten that he cried throughout the registration process. After reading your book, he’s very excited to start school in the fall. Thank you for making this an easier transition for us as a family!

–Wendy Smith-Wilczynski

 

Hi Katie,

I have just listened to your last 5 podcasts as well as the ones from New England (SCBWI conference). I am a very newly retired preschool teacher. It is my hope to write down those stories which my children asked for again and again at nap time. Okay so in part they were trying to find ways to stay awake, but I know in my heart that the stories also held their interest and spoke to them. At any rate thanks for your enthusiasm and interest in helping other aspiring writers to learn the ropes!!! I am learning so much from your podcasts!!!

Best Regards, Margaret