I’m very excited for Alex Lidell, a writer I met recently: Her debut YA novel, The Cadet of Tildor, is slated to be published in January by Penguin. What a tremendous accomplishment! To fuel anticipation about the book, Penguin has orchestrated a campaign featuring a cover “reveal” and giveaways for YA bloggers.

Penguin’s program also features a media kit and special materials for teachers designed to encourage them to include The Cadet of Tildor on their reading lists. There are flash cards geared to SAT words and other teaching tools — and Alex is also happy to share her experiences about writing her novel as a guest author.

Looking at all the supplemental materials created made me think about what a major job it is being an author these days. Not only do you have to write your book, you also have to develop school study guides and readers’ guides, and promotional materials. For Birthing the Elephant, I ended up writing the back-cover copy, the FAQ’s, and author bios. All of this is now part of the territory.

The more inventive you can be, the better. Alex has come up with some appealing giveaways for her book, including a pouch that features her cover artwork. She also has some great ideas for teachers: Since her story poses some tricky moral dilemmas, it sounds like it will spark some lively classroom debates. All this is part of building buzz and a brand that hopefully will have a long and lucrative life. If you’d like to see The Cadet of Tildor’s fabulous cover — and/or if you are a YA blogger or teacher who’d like to get in touch with Alex — just go to her Web site: http://www.alexlidell.com. Write on, Alex!