Saturday night Bob and I went to Sunset Speedway Park in Banks to watch the races. One of my marketing plans is to sponsor a race car, and Sunset has a class called Tracers, which features cars that follow the Pure Stock and Street Stock rules but have 12 to 15-year-old drivers. After watching the trophy dashes and heats, I decided I liked Jared Myers, who was making his debut. Jared is 12 years old, and he’s driving the car his grandpa, Mike Jermann, runs in the Pure Stock class. His brother, Jacob, has also been competing since he was twelve ( I think he’s sixteen now) and is currently leading the points in the Pure Stock class. We plan to go back on July 9th and hang out in the pits with Jared and his family, so stay tuned for a more detailed report.
Car number 81 (lower right) is driven by Jared Myers
In other news, I received my print proof of Running Wide Open a little over a week ago. I decided to change the margins a bit, so I uploaded the new file Friday and should have the final proof Tuesday or Wednesday. If everything checks out, I’ll approve it and the print version will be available through Barnes and Noble and Amazon.com in a few weeks.
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The kid is twelve? Wow! I’m impressed and terrified, lol. But what a clever idea and tie in to your novel. I love it!
And the proof, how exciting! Did you get someone to do the interior of the book or did you do it yourself? Was it tough to format the print version?
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Nina, I did the interior design myself. I didn’t find it that much harder to format the print version than the ebook, but formatting comes pretty easily to me so I don’t know that I’m the person to ask. 🙂 There was more research involved, and more details to attend to, but it wasn’t particularly difficult. I read Aaron Shepard’s book, Perfect Pages, and that told me just about everything I needed to know.
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What a great idea! I bet Jared will be stoked.
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Chris, all I can say is things like this are much more fun than trying to do promotions on Twitter.
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I asked my 15 yr old grandkid if he’s like to go to the races on the 9th. He said he would. So we might be there. I wish I could get a copy of RWO to him to read first, since I doubt he know anything about the sport. I’ll check with his Mom to see if he would read it if I can dl it to her computer.
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Well, Beth, you can bring a kid to a book, but you can’t force him to read. 🙂
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This is a stroke of genius. You have the right crowd, the right age group, and great advertising! I hope I can get to one of those races and actually see Jared driving a car with your book and Logo (?) on the side.
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Alice, you should hitch a ride with Beth out to the track on the 9th. It’s a long drive out to Banks.
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This may be a great idea to promote the books!
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Thanks, Rose.
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What a great way to make a kid feel wonderful. Was he excited to have someone walk in the pits and offer sponsorship? What’d he say?
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Barb, he was a very polite kid, and he seemed a little shocked by the offer. 🙂
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What a great idea! I see that Will Writer’s has a session on “branding yourself” on Fri. afternoon. You are ahead of the curve here. It would be fun to go to the track sometime this summer and watch Jared.
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Helen, if you decide to go, you should carpool with someone. I know there are a few people in Chrysalis who are interested.
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What a great way for a young person to spend their Saturday night. Good clean fun, lots of good role models, and very little time to get in trouble….that is unless you hit the wall with your car. I wish there were more opportunities like this for the younger generation.
I do have to admit that I am somewhat prejudiced, as Jared and his brother Jake are my niece’s boys.
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Thanks for stopping by, Paul. Someone in your family must be doing something right, because Jared and Jake are really great kids. 🙂 I agree, racing is a great outlet for kids. In fact, that’s one of the themes of my books.
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I finished your book on the plane ride home for New York. It tied up spectacularly. I really enjoyed it. c: Cody grew just as much as I’d hoped.
Anyway, that’s a fantastic marketing idea. It hits home to your major audience and makes Jared’s life in one swoop.
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I’m so glad you enjoyed it, McKenzie. 🙂
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I really did. It was great. Here’s the principal at Grant’s email:
Don’t know her name. Sorry…
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Thanks for the info, McKenzie. I edited your comment to delete her name in case she wants to remain anonymous. You wouldn’t want to let a poor, innocent HS principal get a bunch of spam, would you? 😉
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