Banners, Contest, and Rent!

My super-b webmistress, Jenny Hassler, created the hott banners that you see above. You can get them at http://www.stephaniekuehnert.com/downloads.html. She also posted the code you need to put the banner of your choice on your website, myspace page, etc.

We are officially less than 5 months away from IWBYJR’s release, so I can use all the help I can get to get the word out about my book. So if you would be so kind as to post these banners on your website, blog or myspace I would really appreciate it. In fact I’ve decided to create a little contest involving the banners and a little mission I’m calling PLASTER THE WEB!

When I was a crazy riot grrrl punk in the early nineties, we plastered every available surface stickers and flyers to promote bands and awareness of social issues. Of course that bordered on vandalism sometimes and I could never encourage that ;) but fortunately now we can do the totally legal cyber version of stickering and flyering.

Here are some other ways you can help me plaster the web:

1. Post IWBYJR banners on your web pages, myspace, blog, etc.
2. Ask friends to post IWBYJR banners on their web pages and myspace.
3. Join my street team or refer friends to join.
4. Be my myspace friend and tell your friends to be myspace friend. You can friend me at www.myspace.com/theblacknotebooks
5. Become a fan (and encourage friends to become fans) on facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Stephanie-Kuehnert/8148781156
6. Mention the book in your email signature or signature on message boards. You can create a sig that says something like "I can't wait to read I WANNA BE YOUR JOEY RAMONE, out July 2008, MTV Books, stephaniekuehnert.com"
7. If you have another idea, go for it! I will probably love it!

Here's how the contest part of this works: Send me (via email or myspace message) a list of links to where you posted a banner/info about IWBYJR as well as any other web activities you did (ie. I put info in my signature here, I became your myspace friend and/or your facebook fan, this friend of mine joined the street team, etc). For each link or web activity, you get one contest entry. So, if you get the word out about IWBYJR in 10 ways, your name will be entered 10 times and you'll have a better shot at winning.

Deadline: The contest will end on March 31, 2008. So you have plenty of time to enter as many times as you want and find creative ways to plaster the web with IWBYJR. Oh and you don't have to send me one big list at the end, you can email me a few times throughout the contest period. I'll be excited to see all the places where IWBYJR is mentioned.

What are the prizes? I will draw 7 names at random and those people will receive IWBYJR swag packs including bookmarks and, most exciting, official IWBYJR guitar picks. I will give you enough swag so you have some to keep and some to pass out around town.

In addition to that, I will award a grand prize to the person who did the most cyber IWBYJR plastering and a second place award for the person who did the second most. (Of course both these winners get swag packs, too.)

Second Place gets the IWBYJR soundtrack and the newspaper with my first interview in it (though if you won this stuff in the last contest, I will find a cool substitution for you).

The Grand Prize is a gift certificate to DownloadPunk (my fave place to download MP3s and the songs work with iPods and other kinds of players) AND a signed, Advanced Review Copy of IWBYJR (this means you are getting the uncorrected proof that reviewers get, so it may have a few typos, but it will be a rare version of the book and you get to read it like 3 months before most people). Please note: while this contest is open to anybody, you have to be a member of my street team to be eligible for the grand prize.

Final Clarifications: I know this is kind of a complicated contest. They won't usually be like this, but this is probably one of the most important contests, so I hope you'll participate and feel free to ask questions. One thing I do want to explain is asking your friends to post banners or join the street team. Maybe you have friends who will just put a banner up, but don't want to be involved otherwise, that's fine. Send me a link to where the banner is posted and you get a contest entry for that. But maybe when you talk to them about it, they get excited about the book and want to join the street team or enter the contest. If that's the case, all you have to do is let me know that you referred them and you will both get an entry. Make sense? Basically I want as many people to be able to enter the contest as many times as possible, makes things more fun.

Oh and if you want to put up a banner but not enter the contest, more power to ya! I appreciate it!

Ok, I hope everyone is having an absolutely lovely Valentines Day. I’m looking forward to going to home have a faux steak (thank you vegweb) and mashed potato dinner with my bf. Ooh and I just have to swoon briefly and say that I took my mom to see the Broadway production of Rent last night and it was sooooooo amazing. Way better than the movie. Reminded me of how much I love theater. I could never be a playwright, but I am so envious of how they tell a story from the stage with limited sets and particularly in a musical like Rent, how they find unique ways to push the story forward outside of the songs using brief monologues or voicemails like they did in Rent. Ah, it was just so cool. I hope you all can treat yourselves to a play or musical soon. And please, tell me about your favorite plays and musicals!