The Go Teen Writers Points Store Is Open!

Yes, we're:

Today the Go Teen Writers Store opens! A store where you can "buy" critiques in a variety of shapes and sizes. Here's how it works:

1. You do something that helps promote Stephanie’s latest release, The Revised Life of Ellie Sweet, or Jill’s latest release, Captives, between the dates of May 1 and May 31st. When you do something to promote, that earns you points.
2. As you earn points, you send Stephanie emails (Stephanie(at)StephanieMorrillBooks.com) detailing what you did. She will note it on a spreadsheet that her wonderful, spreadsheet-loving husband helped her build.
3. Stephanie will email you a confirmation along with an updated amount of how many points are in your account.
4. Between June 1st 2013 and June 1st 2014, you may cash in your points for a critique.
5. Stephanie and Jill will divide the critiques between them as evenly as possible. If you have a preference between us, we’ll take that into account and do our best to accommodate you. We hope to have critiques returned to you within 6-8 weeks. If we have to request additional time, we'll notify you.

Here's how you earn points:

• Buying a new copy of Captives, either ebook or paperback: 50 points 
• Buying a copy of The Revised Life of Ellie Sweet: 50 points
• Buying a copy for a friend: 50 points

(To earn points for purchase, we’ll need to see a receipt. If you have questions or concerns about this, please email Stephanie to discuss.)

• Writing a review for Captives, The Revised Life of Ellie Sweet, and/or Go Teen Writers: How to Turn Your First Draft into a Published Book and posting it on Amazon, Goodreads, Barnes and Noble, and other sites: 15 points per review posted (Limit 5 reviews per book. If you have a question about this, you can email Stephanie.)
• Blogging about The Revised Life of Ellie Sweet: 15 points (Must be a dedicated post, not just a mention of the book in a post.)
• Blogging about Captives: 15 points (Must be a dedicated post, not just a mention of the book in a post.)
• Subscribing to Stephanie’s author newsletter: 10 points
• Subscribing to Jill’s author newsletter: 10 points
• Creating a Pin board for Captives:10 points
• Creating a Pin board for The Revised Life of Ellie Sweet: 10 points (Here's an example of one made by Tonya LaCourse.)
• "Liking" Stephanie on Facebook: 5 points
• “Liking” Jill on Facebook: 5 points
• Following Stephanie on Twitter: 5 points
• Following Jill on Twitter: 5 points
• Referring a friend to liking/following Stephanie on Twitter and/or Facebook - 5 points for each site, for each friend you refer. (Your friend will need to comment or message us that they were referred by you.)
• Referring a friend to liking/following Jill on Twitter and/or Facebook - 5 points for each site, for each friend you refer. (Your friend will need to comment or message us that they were referred by you.)
• Following Go Teen Writers on Google Connect (that little thingy on the right sidebar): 5 points
• A Facebook and/or Twitter post that relates to Captives and/or The Revised Life of Ellie Sweet. 5 points per post (limited to one Facebook post per day and one Tweet per day) 
• Here are some examples of what you could post:
• A mention that you're reading the book.
• A picture of you reading the book.
• A link to a video trailer (here’s one for Captives) or how to purchase the book.
• A link to a sample chapter. Here's one for The Revised Life of Ellie Sweet.
• A quote from the book that resonated with you.
• Something else creative.
• Pinning any of Stephanie and Jill’s book covers to your Pinterest boards: 5 points per cover pinned.
• Emailing Stephanie the answers to these questions:
• Which character from The Reinvention of Skylar Hoyt series makes a guest appearance in The Revised Life of Ellie Sweet? 10 points
• Which classic novel is quoted in both Captives and The Revised Life of Ellie Sweet? 10 points
• In Captives, which two characters quote from The Princess Bride? 10 points

• Something else you come up with: If you do something you feel promoted The Revised Life of Ellie Sweet or Captives but isn't listed above (writing a book report or requesting that your library carry books by Stephanie and Jill) send Stephanie an email, and we’ll hook you up with some points.

With your points, you may purchase:

Details about our products:

Feedback on your story idea (250 points)

This is a one page, single-spaced write-up about your story idea. Our feedback will include thoughts on the idea's strengths/weaknesses, its uniqueness, and any books on the market that we know of that seem similar.

Chapter critique (500 points)

This is a critique of a single chapter in your manuscript and cannot exceed 3,500 words. We will make our changes and suggestions using Microsoft Word's track changes feature.

10,000 word critique plus 2-3 page synopsis (1,000 points)

The synopsis is optional. Again, we'll make our changes and suggestions using Microsoft Word's track changes feature.

25,000 word critique plus a 2-3 page synopsis (1,700 points)

Again, the synopsis is optional and we'll make our changes and suggestions using Microsoft Word's track changes feature.

Questions you might have:

Q: Why can’t I earn points for promoting other books of yours? Why does it have to be The Revised Life of Ellie Sweet or Captives?

A: Because these are the books for which we’re in an active season of promotion. The only exception you’ll notice on the above list is that you can earn points for posting reviews of the Go Teen Writers book. That’s because we’ve heard privately from many of you who have found it helpful and we’d like to reward you for sharing your thoughts about it on-line.

Q: Should I wait to send you my points until the very end of May?

A: Please send them as you earn them. That way Stephanie doesn’t have a thousand emails on May 31st that she has to log.

Q: What if I have already done some of the things on the list? What should I do? I'm feeling confused about how I communicate all of this to you.

A: You'll get points for anything you've already done on the list. Let’s do a sample of how this works.

Say you already follow both of us on Twitter and Facebook, and you already follow Go Teen Writers on Google connect. That’s 25 points right there.

Then you can pop over to YouTube, watch Jill’s trailer, link to it on Facebook and earn 5 points. Tweet about it for another 5. The next day, you could get on Facebook and Twitter and post the link to Stephanie’s first chapter of The Revised Life of Ellie Sweet on her website and earn yourself another 10.

Here’s how an email to Stephanie might look:

My name is such-and-such and here are the points I’ve earned:

I already follow Go Teen Writers (I’m listed as “BookGirl”)
I follow you and Jill on Twitter, and I’ve liked both of you on Facebook.
I made a pin board for The Revised Life of Ellie Sweet. Here’s a link to it:
I wrote a review for Go Teen Writers on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Here’s a link to it:
I bought a copy of Captives. A scan of my receipt is attached.
Also, I requested that my library order Captives, which isn’t on the list. Can I get some points for that?

Any other questions we can answer for you?