What is a#BookPosse, you may ask? I’m happy to explain. It’s a group of avid middle school and high school teachers, as well as some school librarians who read newly published books appropriate for their young audience. From what I can gather, they ask literary agents and/or authors for a single copy of the book, and this wonderful group of people then stand in line, almost like a queue. The first person will read the book, talk about it on social media (mostly on Twitter/X, but some have blogs and other social media outlets), and then send the book to the next person in line. My agent, Ali Herring from SpencerHill Associates, helped me get in touch with them.
#BookAllies is asimilar middle-grade/young adult interest group, and I was delighted to send Burrowed to them too.
#BookPosse and #BookAllies can read either an ARC copy or if you’re like me, the fully published versionworks just as well.
I sent these groups my book, andBurrowedtraveled from person to person.These lovely, complete strangersgushed about Zuzan and her story while I blushed and secretly loved all their kind words, and then eagerly awaited for the next person to receive the (by the end, wellworn) copy of Burrowed. Each person took a picture of the book, and some of them staged it with themed backgrounds, posting the picture to Twitter.
Sure, sure—Zuzan was not technically published as a young adult book, but the truth is, I love young adult readers and I wrote it to be read by them (and adults too).The book is actually ranked in the Science Fiction for Young Adults and Science Fiction for Children categories in the United Kingdom Amazon list. At any rate, I love that U.S. teachers and librarians are sharing it with the kids they know. One of the librarians also runs a book club at her local high school and she was going to run a book club for her teen students onBurrowed!
If you’re an agent or writer of middle-grade and/or young adult books, these two groups were terrific megaphones after my book launch.
If you run a book club for young adults or participate in a reading-for-kids type group like #BookPosse or #BookAllies, reach out to me. I’d love to connect.