250 review copies (150 prepub, 100 postpub) sent to reviewers, booksellers, librarians, bloggers, others.
We will seek early blurbs from graphic novelists and writers such as Loyiso Mkize, Marguerite Abouet and Setor Fiadzigbey.
Available as an e-ARC on Edelweiss and Netgalley.
Leveled and aligned with Common Core.
We will seek to host an author Q&A chat on Goodreads.
Teaching guide available on website.
Marketing to library market begins with galleys in the Baker and Taylor ARC program.
Promoted at Comic Con, ALA annual, mid-winter ALA, NCTE, NCSS, and African Studies Association annual conferences.
Blog tour with book giveaways.
Goodreads and LibraryThing giveaways.
We will send review copies to relevant young women's and Black and minority ethnic empowerment organizations, LGBTQIA+ groups, youth activism organizations, and environmental groups.
We will specifically engage with comic book stores, environmental book stores, youth bookstores, and LGBTQIA+, black-owned, and women's interest indie bookstores who may be interested in featuring the book or hosting a virtual event with the authors.We will seek out book clubs who are interested in the book and will create a reading guide for book clubs and others interested in reading the book in a group setting.
We will submit the book for all relevant awards.
Promotion online via Catalyst's website as well as email lists and social media (blog, twitter, facebook, instagram, and youtube) with author and publisher interviews, chats, and guest posts.
Submission to the Junior Library Guild
Simultaneous e-book and trade paper print release.
A joint interview/event with other FW 2022 title author Bridget Pitt (Eye Brother Horn) on African environmentalism and animal conservation, moderated by Catalyst Press author David Muirhead (Cat Among the Pigeons)We will promote and seek ways to promote within the secular, progressive homeschooling community.
FROM THE AWARD-WINNING ANIMATION TEAM BEHIND THE FILMS KHUMBA, ZAMBEZIA, AND SEAL TEAM
Pearl has always felt more comfortable in the sea than surrounded by the people in her sleepy South African town who always seem to let her down. But when a new friend from below the surface is taken by poachers, Pearl may need a little help after all.
Since her mother left, Pearl has spent more and more time in the ocean, fishing to help her father pay the bills. But when she gets mixed up with a group of illegal abalone poachers and starts diving near a restricted wreck, Pearl meets an ancient sea monster named Otto—who isn’t quite as monstrous as she thought. And when Otto’s enemies come back to finish what they started, Pearl is the only one who can save him, but only if she has the courage to let go of her past and open up to others—including the girl from class she’s got a crush on.
With her one-eyed pup sidekick and a whole lot of nerve, Pearl may just be able to save Otto and finally tell the truth to her father… and, more importantly, to herself. With vibrant full-color illustrations, Pearl of the Sea is a South African adventure story exploring how we are both bound to and freed by nature, seen through the eyes of a tough teen-aged heroine determined to live life by her own rules.
