Coaching KidLit Episode 43: Advice for Authorpreneurs with Guest Sara Fujimura
In this episode of Coaching KidLit, Sharon interviews guest Sara Fujimura about her writing journey and Authorpreneurial strategies, including networking, marketing, and maintaining a writing career, even when setbacks occur.
Emphasizing community building, Sara details her experiences in both indie and traditional publishing, the importance of identifying one’s audience, and how she overcame challenges. The episode provides actionable advice for aspiring authors, focusing on balancing writing and business aspects while achieving personal definitions of success.
Visit Sara online at: https://sarafujimura.com or https://www.tanabatawishes.com
Key Topics Covered:
- Building and leveraging writing community
- Transitioning between indie and traditional publishing
- Importance of professional presentation and media kits
- Effective pitching and sales strategies for authors
- Defining and measuring writing success
- Balancing writing with entrepreneurial tasks
Books Mentioned:
- Tanabata Wish by Sara Fujimura
- Breathe by Sara Fujimura
- Every Reason We Shouldn’t by Sara Fujimura
- Faking Reality by Sara Fujimura
Listen:
Transcript:
Coaching KidLit Episode 43: Advice for Authorpreneurs with Guest Sara Fujimura
[00:00:00] Sharon Skinner: Welcome to Coaching KidLit, a podcast about writing and publishing good KidLit.
[00:00:07] Christy Yaros: We dig into various aspects of writing craft through a KidLit lens and provide inspiration and clear actionable items to help writers like you move forward on their KidLit writing journeys.
[00:00:19] Sharon Skinner: I’m Sharon Skinner. Author Accelerator, certified book coach and author of Speculative Fiction and KidLit, including picture books, middle grade and young adult.
[00:00:31] Christy Yaros: And I’m Christy Yaros, author accelerator, certified book coach and story editor focusing on KidLit, including middle grade and young adult.
[00:00:41] Sharon Skinner: Hello, listeners. Today’s guest is Sara Fujimura. She’s the American half of her bicultural Japanese American family, and spends about a month. Each year in Japan, she started as a journalist. So it’s no surprise that Sarah’s young adult books contain a lot of facts to go along with the fiction.
Whether you want to know about Japan, Tanabata Wish, the Spanish Flu Pandemic of 1918, Breathe, what it’s like to be an Olympic caliber skater, Every Reason We Shouldn’t, or how unscripted television works, Faking Reality, Sarah takes readers on swoony journeys to unusual places. She’s a creative writing teacher and literacy advocate who’s excited to support the next generation of authors. If you go to AnimeCons, you may see Sarah as her alter ego, the obento lady. She is an active member of S-C-B-W-I and the Chicago North Romance Writers. Every Reason We Shouldn’t was named an NPR. Best Book of 2020. But beyond that, Sarah is an Author-preneur extraordinaire, and I. Want to talk to Sarah today about all of the things that go into the writing journey, but also about what are you doing once the book is written.
So welcome, Sarah. I’m so happy to have you here today.
[00:02:01] Sara Fujimura: Thank you, Sharon. I’m so glad to be here.
[00:02:03] Sharon Skinner: So is there anything that wasn’t in your bio that you’d like to highlight or talk about as far as your writing journey, how you came to be a writer and some of the steps along the way?
[00:02:16] Sara Fujimura: So I think the biggest thing is. As you’re moving forward and trying new things in your author-preneurial business that sometimes you don’t see how the dots are connecting together until you have some time out and then you can look back. It’s like that’s where I made a turning point. Didn’t know it.
I felt like I was going the wrong way, but that was the turning point to me. And then I met the right person at the right time and they opened other doors. So the biggest thing I think people can do to help their careers is to come with an open mind and an open spirit to like, I don’t know why I’m going this way, but I’m going this way.
And the biggest one was in December of 2022. I drove myself, my sister, and my cat from Arizona to Chicago to start a new life with my husband as empty nesters. And if you would’ve told 2020 Sarah that she was moving to Chicago. I’d be like, no, no, absolutely not. but I have watched what I thought would be career ending because I, you know, was in Phoenix for 20 years.
I had a very rich. group of friends there, both writers and personal friends and I thought, oh my gosh, I’m gonna have to start all over in Chicago. And there was a truth to that. I did have to start over again in Chicago, but I’ve been able to surpass what I had in Phoenix within like two years because I used the things that I learned
doing, different experiments in Phoenix. I learned a bunch of different things and I brought them forward to Chicago and I doubled down on the things that were working. And I’ve tried new things, and then every once in a while, life throws me a curve ball. I was like, okay, I didn’t know we were doing that.
But it works really well and I just made more money today than I have all month off of KDP. So let’s do that again.
[00:03:46] Sharon Skinner: Nice. You wanna dig a little bit into what that looks like for you.
[00:03:50] Sara Fujimura: So one of the biggest things that I learned in Phoenix, so I write young adult romance. The romance community are some of the smartest marketers I have ever met. and these women really know what they were doing.
So when I got to Chicago, I reached out to a couple people who I already knew that were here, and I said, Hey, what are you guys doing? can I join in in it? And they connected me to the Chicago North Romance writers. in Chicago North, we have built out so much because, we broke off of the Romance Writers of America.
You can do a deep dive on that if you want to. But, there was a reason why we broke off and I left RWA also. So I came into Chicago North. We have people from around the world now, within the last year because people are looking for connections. I work locally with a, bunch of different authors.
I work with the Barnes and Nobles. I go in and I pitch us. I have a, roster of people. So when the Barnes and Nobles say, Hey, we, wanna do something for spring break, and I said, do you wanna do a family friendly event? Do you wanna do a romance event? Do you want a little bit of everything? You know, tell me what you want.And I will see what I have and who’s available, and so I’ve been able to bring that forward. I used to do that in Phoenix, also bring that forward to Chicago, and I continue to make new connections, in both Barnes and Nobles and independent bookstores. And the small chainstore like Barbara’s bookstore, which is more, I believe, either in Illinois only, or just in the Midwest,
[00:05:06] Sharon Skinner: you are a member of S-C-B-W-I, and you have been for many years
as well as being a member of romance writers organizations. talk a little bit about why both of those have been important to you on your writing journey.
[00:05:21] Sara Fujimura: Yeah, so I have been a member of S-C-B-W-I for 30 years. Almost, and some people don’t know this, but I belong to the Illinois chapter obviously, but you can belong to other chapters too. So I still have a lot of friends and my son is still in, Arizona, so I belong to the Arizona chapter.
I also belong to the Japan chapter, so that way when I’m in Japan, in the summer or visiting, that I can try to connect into what, they’re doing. I’ve done events with them in the past, so SCBWI is different from the romance community. But they are equally as important. So I connected into the Illinois chapter.
It took me a little bit longer to kind of get launched and connected into them, but I’ve met some great people and I learn about, Different events through them and it opens doors for me to move forward. For example, I just did an library events. It’s called ISLE and it’s for Illinois School librarians.
And how did I find out about that event? Through S-C-B-W-I Illinois. the person who was putting it together said they want more. YA authors and she had sat next to me at a, library event that we had done. And so she knows what I do, how I do it, and she’s like, would you like to be a part of it?
So there are the times where you have to chase down leads and do the tap dance, like, Hey, don’t you wanna work with me? And then there’s times where you’ve already proven what you do and you make their life easy because they know that you’re gonna always show up. Professionally, you always, bring fun things with you to do.
Their customers or their clients are happy, and so you become the go-to person because they know you’re gonna show up and it’s gonna be a positive experience versus like, okay, well I don’t know. We haven’t tried this person before. I know they’re supposed to be really, really big. And making sure that you protect your reputation and what you do.
So make sure you always show up. Professionally, every single time. Even if you go back to your car at the end and just cry in your car or, call up your husband or your friend or whatever and complain, do not do that in the store. Just make sure that you are always on point wherever you are.
[00:07:06] Sharon Skinner: I love that you talk about that and showing up professionally and how important that is, especially when you are out there in community building community and finding community for your writing and. Your marketing of your writing. Once we have a book and we are ready to bring it to the world, whether we self-publish or traditionally publish, we know both routes require marketing on behalf of the author. So talk a little bit about your Author-preneurial chops that you built and that you’ve, honed over time and I know that you also do a lot to help other authors in that realm, but can you talk about the top two or three things that you think an Author-preneur really needs to know? Where should we focus our energy?
[00:07:53] Sara Fujimura: The biggest one still coming back to community. Coming back in community all the time. So that is the people who are on the bookshelf with you, that’s your agency mates, that’s your debut class. That’s the people that are in your community that is the thing that will move you forward the most.
So. Invest time in your community before your book comes out. Don’t become that overachiever. It’s like now everybody’s bestie is like two months before their book. No. Be the person that other people want to champion and are excited to, come to your book launch. The second thing that you can work on is your media kit. And so having a file on your computer that has everything together, that’s your professional headshots, that’s your shorter bio, that’s your longer bio. These are your books. Here’s the ISBN numbers for them. Here are your social media handles. So you’re just doing cut and paste.
Cut and paste. Because when I put together group events when I have to hunt down people’s. Social media handles and things like that. Sometimes I can’t tell, especially if it’s not your name or it’s not like author so and so, or there’s like a lot of Mary Smiths and I don’t have time to find which of these Mary Smiths is you.
And so you’re, missing out on opportunities because you’re making it harder for people to find you. So try to put it all together. You wanna make it as easy as possible for people to be able to talk about you and what you wanna do. And the third thing. Is to make what I call the Golden Rolodex.
The Golden Rolodex. it could be an Excel sheet, it can be a Google Doc on your phone or whatever you like to do. But it’s the name of the people that you meet. Where you met them, how to get in contact with them. And so that’s the person who is the manager of the Barnes and Noble versus the event coordinator.
So the event coordinator is actually who you wanna talk to. that person will change all the time. The good thing about Barnes and Noble, that’s usually the person who does the events. they might change, but their email address does not. So that’s really nice.
But if you go to events that you want to go to, so maybe you haven’t been able to crack into. The Tucson Festival books or in Illinois we have printers. Row, did you meet somebody? It’s really doubling down on your personal connection so you know when to do things, who to talk to, and even if you send it to the wrong person that can get pushed to the right person versus just like, dear blank person that you don’t know, or doing the info bot kind of thing.
I have had more success here in Illinois. Doing the in-person sales pitches and that’s not for everybody. And it’s not easy. I assure you that it is not easy. If you were a drama kid, it helps a little bit. ’cause you can just put on your drama kid mask and go in there.
Number four, go do sales call. So you gotta really come into the business of. Selling yourself, selling your book. So I have not had a new book out since July of 2021. So a lot of people say, well, your career must be dead.
Nope. I’ve sold more books last year than I have, in the last couple of years. because I’m going to the different libraries, I’m going to the bookstores, and I am. Telling them about my books and how they can sell the books. ’cause at the end of the day, it’s not about me, it’s about them.
It’s like, here, let give you the right product so you have. Parents, you have grandparents, you have librarians and teachers coming in saying, our sixth graders love romance. They’re reading Colleen Hoover. They’re reading Icebreaker. They’re reading very adult books. And I wish we had romance that was more teen friendly, books that are more about the first love experience versus the first physical experience. And I’m like, that’s me. So I know who my audience is and that’s what I pitched to them. I write what they, used to call clean teen and we are moving away from that and I love that we are now calling it middle grade ya a crossover. So that means it is appropriate for middle graders who want something a little bit meatier and want to know about the emotions of First Love, but don’t need a tutorial on how to have sex.
So that’s what I write. They used to call it clean teen. Now it’s called Middle Grade. Ya. Crossover And it’s also called Sweet Romance versus spicy book talk. And I even when I go into talk to teachers or librarians or bookstore sellers, I say, there’s like spicy book Talk Colleen Hoover on one side.
And I’m like, that’s not me. I am on the other side. I am over here with Korean dramas all the feels. And if that’s not you, that’s fine, but I’m, not setting you up like, oh, this is the perfect romance for everybody. It’s like, no, it’s not. It’s not the perfect romance for everybody, but if you like Korean dramas, if you like a lot of sweet ya, this might be the book for you.
So being the right person with the right product at the right time.
[00:12:02] Sharon Skinner: That’s just like when you’re querying hitting the right person with the right query and the right book at the right time, it all matters,
[00:12:09] Sara Fujimura: Can we talk about that?
[00:12:10] Sharon Skinner: Let’s talk about that. I do wanna say that I totally get the whole theater kid thing. ‘ I did a lot of theater and I can put that mask on.
I’m not an extrovert. People think I’m this total extrovert, especially when I’m doing events and I’m really not. I’m on. And when I’m done, I go collapse because I’m done being on.
[00:12:30] Sara Fujimura: Yeah. Oh, I feel that That’s me.
[00:12:32] Sharon Skinner: I encourage people to learn how to do that. Even if you don’t have a theater background, you can learn to be on when you need to be on. but yeah, let’s circle back and let’s talk a little bit about hitting the right person at the right time with the right thing.
[00:12:45] Sara Fujimura: Yes. So my first two books are independently published. I was out on submission with them for a long time for both of them, and I kept getting, oh, I love the characters. I love the setting, I love the voice. I just don’t love it enough.
And I kept getting, I just don’t love it enough over and over and over. And there’s really nothing you can do with that. If you got like, I don’t really like this character, I’m not connecting with it, you can do something or the pacing is off, you can do something. But I didn’t love it enough. There’s nothing you can do with that.
So I ended up self-publishing these two books. In the meantime, I had my third book, which is Every Reason We Shouldn’t, which is not, the title that I started with had been out on submission for a while and I kept getting, I just didn’t love it enough. Just didn’t love enough, and I just could not get it through the last gate. And then in it was either November or December, 2017, I did Pit Mad or Pit Wars or one of those online contests on Twitter that they used to have. And I had exactly one agent park my pitch that I put on there. And she was a newer agent and she was with a smaller agency, but she was excited about this little ice skating book. And she said, I would like to see a full, I’m like, okay. And she’s like, I would like to have a conversation okay. So I remember having a conversation with my mom because by this time it’s December and I’m like, I think I’m gonna go ahead and have this conversation. I don’t feel like this is probably the agent for me.
I want somebody a little bit bigger who has a little bit more of a track record, but I need the practice ’cause I’m totally nervous. I need the practice. So I’ll go ahead and talk to this lady. we really hit it off. We had the same goals and she was ready to go. And so we went out on submission.
In the beginning of 2018, like probably like January, I didn’t change one word, not literally not one word, in the same manuscript that I had been circling for a while. She actually took a large chunk of my query letter that I had written in the past and used that as part of her query letter, and we got a nibble.
We got a sale. So we went from 2017 to April of 2018 with nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing. Nibble. No, nothing, nothing. Oh, pow then we sold the book into book deal. So. That idea of nothing changed. The manuscript was still the same one, but it just hit the right person at the right time.
And I have to thank BTS because before then you didn’t see a lot of Asian men, Asian boys, mixed Asian boys as the love interests in media, period. And then we had a little band called BTS that blew up and K-pop blew up. And publishers like, why don’t we have stories? Featuring Asian boys as the love interest and my books except historical fiction they do, because that’s what my family looks like.
And so I wrote books about what my family looks like. And so I had the right product at the right time. Did not expect to be whammied by COVID ‘ cause my book came out two weeks before we went into lockdown. And I was never the lead titles, but I was getting. The support from Tor Teen, which is under McMillan’s umbrella, getting support from their marketing team.
And I was doing many more things than I’d ever done before solo. we were gonna launch really, really big and ready to go, and then everything fell apart. And that’s where being an indie first. Because it made me scrappy. I know how to think outside the box and the things that I learned from that trial, the putting authors together and pitching the Barnes and Nobles and going in and doing sales calls.
I didn’t do that when my books first came out. November, 2020 is when I started doing the sales calls and they started working because they were looking for authors to come in to do signings and do events. Not until in 2021 was when we really started taking off, but McMillan was not sending anybody, whether you were the biggest fish or a little tiny minnow like me, nobody was going out on rollout to do signings and stuff, and you know, we’re still social distancing and all. So I brought them the right thing at the right time. We’re all local. We’re happy to drive over here.
You don’t have to pay to put us in a hotel. we’re happy to give you our time and energy. We’ll have games, we’ll have interactive events and I made sure I said to the authors like, you have to have something. You don’t just show up with like your sharpie and a sticker. have a this or that game.
I have a candy game that I play with kids. There needs to be an interactive, fun thing to bring joy to what their customers are. And that’s what helps sells books and that’s what helps. have you invited back.
[00:16:42] Sharon Skinner: you said you and your agent had goals and that you focused on that, and then COVID happened, and you also haven’t had a book out since 2021. But you’re still having success. So let’s talk a little bit about that side of it.
What success feels like, what success looks like. Because I work with a lot of clients who have this. picture in their mind that, well, once I get the book written, then all the doors will open. And then they have to query and they go through what you went through where nobody is really picking up what you’re putting down.
And then maybe somebody does and they think that that’s the answer and then they get the agent, but then the agent has to query. So each step of the way, we feel like, well that next thing that will feel like success. And yet there’s always, another step and I always try to coach them to know going in that that’s what it’s gonna look like.
So do you wanna talk a little bit about that?
[00:17:33] Sara Fujimura: Sure So I’m sure you’ve heard the term new levels, new devils. Yes. So came out in 2020, getting some traction, got picked up as one of the NPR best books of 2020. I’m like, okay, we’re cooking with gas now. Okay. What you didn’t see behind the scenes is my agent at that time, quit agenting altogether, they fired my editor.
They put me onto another editor for book two. So if you’ve ever worked somewhere like, Hey, so Sharon left and so now you get to do her work too on top of yours. So that idea of like, we didn’t have, a great connection to start with. We built a great connection and I actually really enjoyed working with my second editor.
But she left, so they gave me to a third editor and then she left and then the books came out and now there is nobody there. That is my champion. There’s no champion for that books last one came out in 2021, that, So, so long
[00:18:16] Sharon Skinner: in the publishing world. Yes.
[00:18:17] Sara Fujimura: Yeah, that’s like ancient, ancient. And if you don’t know the idea of, I call it being Miss America. So when you have a book that’s coming out, you have about a three month window. It might be a little bit longer in each other, but you have about a three month window where you are Miss America at your publishing company. That’s when they’re doing the biggest pushes on, social media, and you might be doing podcasts and stuff.
Okay. After that. They have to move on to the next set you were in the spring, so now they’re doing the summer releases, and then after the summer releases, they’re doing the fall releases and you’ll still get some energy, but just know that now it’s falling more and more and more on you, and eventually it will completely fall on you.
So being prepared that you need to maximize whatever anybody will give you. When you’re Miss America, and then continue to nurture those relationships after you’re not Miss America anymore. So that way when you have a new book out, whether it’s self-published with a different publishing house or something like that, that you can come back to like, Hey, I have a new book out and we did that podcast together.
I would love to be back on your podcast to talk about my newest book. So putting those people in your golden Rolodex so you don’t have to remember that’s, really important.
[00:19:21] Sharon Skinner: So there is a time and a season for the writing and the business side of it. Sometimes you’re trying to do both. Can you talk a little bit about how you balance that?
[00:19:30] Sara Fujimura: Yes. So the first thing to know is that you’ll never be in balance. There will always be a push pull and what I want to help other authors like me who maybe they debuted in 2020, they got off to a great start. They got, just slammed by COVID and maybe other family kind of things, and they’re like, well, that’s it.
Career’s over nothing moving forward. And I’m like, that’s not true. I think you can continue to pull forward and still have. A gap in your publishing career well, we’ll see. ’cause that’s what I’m trying to do right now, but I want to help other authors, mid list authors feel comfortable and proud in what they’ve created and leaving their legacy behind.
So maybe you weren’t the media darling where you sold a million copies and you were on everybody’s TikTok and stuff like that. That’s okay. Did you connect with. A hundred people who really saw themselves in your book and that makes you feel proud. And so that’s when I’m working one-on-one with authors, I ask them like, what’s your audacious goal?
Like a just huge, big goal. So we can at least head in that direction. I can’t promise that we’ll make it happen, but then also, you know, picking a goal that is more attainable, something that’s like, it would make me feel good. If I could sell 10 books to 10 people who do not know me, and they actually read the books and then if they wanna do like a little flat lay or they wanna put it on their shelf and, do a thing that, that would be awesome.
So the smaller, more satisfying goals. That we can really actively work on. And then the big audacious goals were don’t take yourself outta the race. If you want to have Netflix, buy your book and make it into a a ya show that’s me.
[00:20:59] Sharon Skinner: Me too.
[00:20:59] Sara Fujimura: how do we do that? So let’s head in that direction.
I can’t promise that, but let’s, put you on the path. where do you need to go? Did you see this event over here where you get to pitch to. agents in the film industry, so trying to make sure you insert yourself in the best place that can help you get to those goals.
And maybe you get it, maybe you don’t.
[00:21:16] Sharon Skinner: And again, success is what you make of it, right? We get into a trap of measuring our success by what other people are doing and accomplishing in the world, and especially with social media nowadays. All we hear are these big success stories or these what sound like overnight successes.
People who have been writing for 12, 15 years, but now, they have a breakout book or they have a debut book that is finally. commercially viable and it’s out in the world and, we see it as this overnight success. We don’t see, like you said, all that stuff that’s going on in the background.
And I think it’s really important to understand that success is what you deem it to be, and knowing why you’re doing what you’re doing as you’re going in. And that’s one of the things I established with my clients, up front, is why are you doing this? And what do you want your book to be when it grows up?
How do you want it to be in the world? What is it you really want out of it? And there’s no reason why connecting with readers who really get you shouldn’t be a great goal and a measure of success. When I have fans come to me and say, they loved my book, that makes my heart swell, that makes me super happy.
Was it a million people who loved my book? Maybe not. But the people who love my books really love my books, and that makes me super happy.
[00:22:31] Sara Fujimura: So jumping on that point. my version of success is my books resonating deeply with people. So there are a lot of people who read voraciously and they may read two or three books a week, but if you said, well, which one’s your favorite? They’re like, um So they’re reading one thing, but They consumed it like potato chips and when you want to read or you wanna be distracted, sometimes potato chip book reading is, great, but I wanna go deeper. I don’t necessarily want to be the thing that, English classes digest and, break apart. Okay, I don’t need to do that, but I wanna be that book where if you found it 10 years from now, they get a emotional reaction from. It’s like that book made me feel seen, it made me feel comfort, it made me feel inspired. It, made me go to Japan. I want you to remember how you felt when you read my book, even if you can’t remember what the character’s names were or something like that. So I don’t wanna be a potato chip book.
I don’t need to be the caviar book, but I would like to be a nice steak dinner.
[00:23:22] Sharon Skinner: Or even comfort food, right?
[00:23:24] Sara Fujimura: Yes. Macaroni and cheese. I will be your macaroni and cheese.
[00:23:26] Sharon Skinner: That’s basically why I do what I do. I want to reach out and connect with readers in a way that books connected with me all my life, right? Those ones that I emotionally connect with. I want people to close the book and feel like they’ve had an emotional experience with the characters, with the books.
So it makes my heart feel really good to hear you say that. ‘ cause I have a similar reason for why I. Write books. I never started on this path to make money overnight. and I always tell my clients, if you’re doing this to get rich quick, buy a lottery ticket and a nice drink because you’ll enjoy that a lot more with just as likely an outcome.
[00:24:04] Sara Fujimura: I agree. Yeah. So going back to why I independently published my book, is I’ve been on submission again, just don’t love it enough kind of thing. And then in 2016, my son was hit by a car while he was skateboarding, and my father-in-law had a massive health crisis. And so it just reinforced to me that life is fleeting.
I wasn’t gonna wait anymore. I wasn’t gonna wait until somebody told me I was good enough to do it. So my promise to God, the universe, whatever you believe in, is that if I could sell 10 books to 10 people, I do not know of this one book. Then I would feel like
I have finished what I’ve been asked to do. I will put it aside and I will go do something else. And so I sold more than 10 books. it won some awards competing against traditionally published books. And so I was like, okay, I guess this, goal is not finished yet. Let’s try another one.
Let’s try Breathe. So Breathe came out in 2018. For the hundredth anniversary of the Spanish Flu. And then two years later, we all became experts in Pandemic Living. And at some point Breathe was outselling all my other books, I’m like, why would anybody wanna read about a Pandemic during a Pandemic?
And the answer was, they were looking for hope that we made it through last time because it looked very similar. So many things that were in breathe in 1918. We’re reverberating in 2020, so that became a comfort in some ways, just people ’cause it, let them know we got through it last time and we will get through it again.
[00:25:19] Sharon Skinner: You were talking earlier about how you’ve sold more books this past year than you have. Before, and these are not brand new books. These are not launch books. These are not a big splash right now books. This is a long tail for you.
Talk a little bit about how that long tail works and maybe the difference between the long tail in independent publishing and traditional publishing?
[00:25:44] Sara Fujimura: So with independent books, there are pros and cons. The pro is it goes out of print. When you say it goes out of print because you’re buying print on demand. you can show up to places, the Tucson Festival books or printers row or whatever, and you have a product that’s ready to go once you’re traditionally published, keeping your book in play is a little bit harder. So the hard back of fake reality is already gone and I think every reason we shouldn’t, I don’t know how much longer it’s gonna be around, and that’s okay because I actually prefer paperbacks ’cause a, they’re cheaper. and they’re just more accessible.
And so I don’t mind that I use the traditional books to get my foot in the door. ’cause I introduce myself as a McMillan author, with Tor Teen. But the truth is my independent books outsell when I’m standing in like Barnes and Noble and stuff, they outsell my other books because they are very niche and I know what people are looking for and I know how to market those to them.
I say, Hey, can you put me in the anime section? In the manga section? With all the K-pop stuff. ’cause that’s where my people hang out. So can you put me over there? Because I know who my audience is and if I get their attention with Tanabata Wish, then I can say, you know, the other two contemporary books are not set in Japan, but they do feature a lot of Japanese culture and language.
So the entry point is Tanabata Wish, but I have other books that can help you continue on that path if you. Want to.
[00:26:57] Sharon Skinner: Well, and that goes back to knowing, your audience, right? I talk all the time with writers about knowing who you’re writing for, picturing that one reader who is going to feel seen, who’s going to have that emotional connection with your book, and that’s who you’re writing for.
That doesn’t mean that’s the only person who will love your book. It just means that you have a specific person in mind so that when you hit that mark, it’s like you’re throwing at a target. If you hit the bullseye, there’s all those rings around it where you’re still going to have audience.
You have this thing that you do with authors, called, finding your Secret Sauce, and I think that ties very directly to the whole knowing your audience. Do you wanna talk a little bit about what that is?
[00:27:40] Sara Fujimura: Finding your secret sauce. So part of that is helping you find your audience, because you’re probably part of that audience too. So you can double down on what would make you stop, what would make you stop and pick up this book. if I see this or I hear that, it’s gonna make me automatically stop and wanna have a conversation with you.
So that’s everything from. How you dress, where you are. So if you write sci-fi, you obviously want to be at a Comic-Con type of place. And if you write like Elven Fantasy and you love to, dress in Elven cosplay, that would be the place to do it. Barnes and Noble, maybe not, but going to where your people are so that you can signal to them, don’t you wanna come and talk to me?
So. Trying not to be the potato chip author, so you don’t have to be the caviar author, just be the, filet mignon or the macaroni cheese, but finding what you’re good at and then going to the places that make you feel happy. Because I’ve done signings with people who were big fish author. They were writing More of the school library kind of thing. So things that might be dissected and stuff they don’t do well in Barnes Noble. ’cause the people who go to Barnes Noble. Read a lot of fantasy. They read a lot of romance and they read a lot of ya. They read manga. And so my books fit better there because that’s who the audience is.
If I go to maybe, educator’s conference or something, maybe, maybe not. I have to pitch it in a different way. But, so knowing who you are, what your secret sauce is, and being able to connect to people’s like, oh, we love that too. Tell me about who’s your favorite character or, and maybe you wear that shirt, or when I see them come by and I see like a little charm, I’m like, Ooh, you like Stray Kids.
Who’s your favorite member? And they look at me like, what? but they have a charm and I know what I’m looking for. And with other fandoms and stuff too, you know, the difference between, star Wars and Star Trek you can connect with people and even if they don’t buy your book, it doesn’t mean that they aren’t gonna loop back around.
’cause maybe they just came to use the bathroom or they just needed a coffee or something like that. They may come and loop back around and talk to you. They may go home and buy it off of Amazon. Sorry. But they do, or they may be waiting till payday. So making sure that you get them something to take with them.
So again, that, how did I make you feel? You felt seen? You like K-pop. I like K-pop. You both like stray kids but you have my postcard that you take home and maybe it gets lost in your bag and you know, you come back to it. Six months ago I was like, oh, this lady, she made me feel seen. We both like K-pop.
but that idea of that circling around, so putting A pin in it so they can find you again, but being okay with fleeting interactions that you might have and that’s why we get so tired because we’re showing up and we’re not like,
See my book!. It’s I see you. welcome. Come over. Let’s chat.
[00:30:10] Sharon Skinner: Yeah. the seven habits, whenever I’m at an event, come into play because I always seek first to understand and then to be understood. So I’m always looking to the reader to tell me what do they like and who are they, and. And can I connect with them? And if my book’s not the right book for them, I usually know someone like a Sara down the row who I can say, well, I have a friend and I can direct you to their book.
They’ll think of Meek fondly down the road when they’re looking for a gift or they’re buying for someone else, or maybe they’ve decided they wanna take a chance on the kind of book that I write because I have. Done them a service. I don’t wanna push my book on, someone who it isn’t right for.
I want the right readers to read my books because those are the people who are gonna go back and tell their friends about it. Those are the people who are going to review. It
[00:30:56] Sara Fujimura: yes, super fans. So one good thing about moving to Chicago and having to start over with people I don’t know that well, but I’m trying to build on it, is getting away from the expectation of I am expecting my friends and family to show up at my signing events. ’cause like nobody knows who I am.
I assure you, they’re not coming to see me. So having to put more energy into my table and being inviting and teaching kids how to use chopsticks to pick up candy. putting on a little bit more of a show and that works so well that it’s like, oh no, I should continue to do this. Even though I have people are coming, I still don’t have a lot of people who come to see me directly.
I think this really upsets a lot of authors. It’s like I did a signing and my friends didn’t come. But I don’t wanna have a big conversation with you when I’m working, I actually want to not have a lot of friends and family around. When I’m working, I wanna focus on, the people that are coming in and then, we’ll do a little coffee or something afterwards. But, the amount of authors who are hurt when they say, oh, nobody came, none of my friends came.
you’re asking them to drop what they’re doing, drive across town to have a five minute conversation. And especially if it’s a Saturday and maybe they’re parents, so they, have little league and, swim lessons and birthday parties.
They’re not going to, and don’t take it personally.
[00:32:03] Sharon Skinner: Besides, they already love you. You are out there making new fans. You are out there making new connections. For me, that personal engagement out at a book signing is all about making those new connections, making new friends. Yes, I love my old fans to show up, don’t get me wrong, Tucson Festival of Books.
I have a lot of fans who come. Looking specifically for me, my favorites are the ones who come with a list of what they don’t already have and they come early. So they make sure that they don’t miss out on getting those books before they’re sold out. So those are great and, you love them, but you’re also there making new connections and new fans,
one reader at a time.
[00:32:38] Sara Fujimura: Don’t forget about your gatekeepers. That’s an important part. I think that we’re up to six tips now. So don’t forget your gatekeepers, those are your librarians and your teachers, underneath your table or on your table’s, you have something that’s especially for them about your school visits that you do, or the workshops that you do. And then I like to put a little present with us. So it’s usually a Japanese bath fizz. It’s not huge.
but I just want to make sure. I’m going after different prongs. I’m going after the one-to-one reader, but I’m also going after the librarian, so it’s like one to 10. So maybe they’re buying a classroom set or they’re, the librarian who buys for all the school system, and maybe it’s a one to 100 kind of thing.
So making sure that you recognize what your different prongs are in your entrepreneurial business, and having things specific for each of those. And some of them you won’t know until they just fall on your lap. You’re like, okay, I totally bumbled that, but next time i’m gonna have this ready.
[00:33:26] Sharon Skinner: Every interaction is a learning interaction. I can’t tell you how often I have to remind authors who are trying to develop an elevator pitch or a reader pitch that until you’ve done it a. A few hundred times, you won’t have the pitch. You’ll have a pitch, but you may not have the pitch until you get to interact with people and give them the pitch and see their face and their reaction.
And do they buy the book and which people buy the book based on what you’re saying. All of those things are, all practice, it’s all rehearsals to get better and better and better.
[00:33:58] Sara Fujimura: So do the legwork, but at the same time, just jump in and iterate and experiment, find the flow, and just go.
[00:34:05] Sharon Skinner: That’s fabulous advice. And gosh, I could talk to you all day about this stuff. Sara. But we are coming to the end of our time and so before we leave off, there are a couple of items we have to attend to, and the first one is, where can people find You ?
[00:34:22] Sara Fujimura: You can find me on all of the platforms, all the social media platforms. Right now, the biggest ones including Blue Sky
but if you want to find out more about my, books and my author career, you can go to my website, which is www.sarafujimura.com. If you want to find out more about my Authorpreneurial Business my online workshop, I have a new one called Embark on your Authorpreneurial Journey If you wanna do a one-on-one with me, so some consultation to help you find your secret sauce or help you figure out how to launch your next book, you can find out about that. And I also have a free. Newsletter that has actionable little tips in that, and that’s on my website.
So my first book is Tanabata Wish. The Business Online is Tanabata Wishes, so it’s T-A-N-A-B-A-T-A Wishes. And that’s more for my author friends who want to up their business.
[00:35:13] Sharon Skinner: Awesome. so now we’ve come to the end of our episode where we ask you to provide listeners with an actionable item. So Sara, what actionable item do you have for our listeners today?
[00:35:26] Sara Fujimura: Listen to your gut. Especially the bigger you become and you have more. Opportunities and more distractions of like, Hey, you should have a TikTok. Oh, hey, you should do your KDP ads. Oh, you should try all these different things. Start using a gut check and this is what I use. So when I get something to me, I sit with it. It’s like, am I feeling contracted? Is my stomach feeling contracted about it or is it feeling bubbly? Because I’m, sometimes I’m scared, so sometimes it’s scared and I’m like, oh no, but it’s is it scared and contracted or scared and bubbly? If it’s scared and bubbly, I need to get over myself, like this interview, get over myself, and just come out scared and contracting, then it’s not for me.
And what’s really hard is sometimes. On paper, it sounds like the perfect thing. You might have FOMO about something, but it’s not the right event. It’s not the right time, it’s not the right time or season in your life, and you have to let stuff go. So it’s like, oh, I would love to take part in that event, but I’m an accountant.
It’s March, I’m in the tax season. It’s not the right time for me and not the right lining up of things. So being okay with fomo. So are you feeling contracted about it? Are you feeling bubbly? You can still feel scared. go for the bubbly and then you can look back later and like that. I knew I needed to do that.
It was a disaster. It rained. I sold two books, but I met so and so and so and so just invited me to do the library panel or something like that.
[00:36:41] Sharon Skinner: That’s going back to connecting the dots too. So when you do the things, whether it feels successful at the time or not, keep in mind that it may connect to another dot down the road. That’s really important. So that’s a great action item for me. I want to circle back to the whole idea of deciding what success looks like to you.
You talked about Stars aligning kind of goal, but also having those smaller attainable. That’s a success kind of goal. I think that it’s really important as we continue along this writing journey that we’re on, is to make sure that we count our successes and hold them close because we may not always get that, one in a million, but we can make a difference.
We can make a connection. We can achieve those smaller successes.
[00:37:29] Sara Fujimura: So, when I moved up here to Illinois, I almost cried in the middle of the library. ‘ cause I went to our local library when we first moved here and I saw Every Reason We Shouldn’t and Faking Reality on the shelf. I had not paid any sales calls.
They don’t know who I am. I didn’t do a big push. I had no community to see my books on their shelves, and again, this was 2022, so they’d already been out for a while. I almost cried in the middle of the library. And they’re still there because for people who don’t know, library books have a shelf life.
So if they’re not taken out, then they disappear, after a while. So they’re still on the shelf. And I did, nothing. So it kind of helped me with the idea of your success is all about you. That you’re not working hard enough, you need to do more. Why aren’t you doing more? And I was like, no, they’re already there. And I didn’t do anything.
[00:38:10] Sharon Skinner: Yeah, again, we don’t always know what’s happening out there in the world with other people and, readers and books and librarians and all of that. so knowing what you can. Achieve that’s attainable, that you can count as a success. That’s really important.
Sara, like I said, I could talk to you all day. I love hanging out with you. I’m sorry that you’re so far away and we don’t get the time that we used to.
But thank you so much for being on the podcast today and sharing all of this fabulous information with our listeners. I so appreciate you. Thank you so much.
[00:38:44] Sara Fujimura: Thank you, Sharon. This was absolute pleasure. You know, I, would truly talk to you all day long,
[00:38:48] Sharon Skinner: Thank you listeners for being here as well, and I hope that you really enjoy and take away all of the important goodness from this talk with Sara. Bye for now.
[00:38:59] Christy Yaros: We hope you enjoyed this episode of Coaching KidLit, a writing and book coaching podcast for writers who want to level up their KidLit writing game.
[00:39:06] Sharon Skinner: For more about us and to discover what a book coach could do for you, check out coaching KidLit dot com and follow us on social media.
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For more information about Sharon Skinner, visit bookcoachingbysharon.com or follow her on Instagram @sharon_skinner_author_bookcoach
For more information about Christy Yaros, visit christyyaros.com or follow her on Instagram and Twitter @ChristyYaros.
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