Dick Youngblood: Tickled over book's success

HUTCHINSON, MINN. -- Amelia Frahm's deft publicity campaign for a children's book she wrote and published about her struggle with cancer has generated plaudits from cancer-awareness groups, a prominent mention on national TV and even a $10,000 check from a manufacturer of cancer drugs.

But the most heartening review she has received so far came recently from her daughter, Tabitha, 12, whom I had asked to write about her reactions to the book.

The e-mailed response was touching, bordering on eloquent: "What I like about my mom's book is that it isn't a sad story about dying; it's a funny story about someone living," wrote Tabitha, who was 4 when her mother wrote the book during a successful battle with breast cancer.

"It explains, if your mother has breast cancer, why she acts so angry and mean," Tabitha wrote. "Overall, my mom's book is my favorite," she added, "except [for] Harry Potter."

Ah, the innocent candor of youth.

"Tickles Tabitha's Cancer-tankerous Mommy" is the lone product of Frahm's Nutcracker Publishing Company. It was her attempt to explain to Tabitha and son, Jordan, 10, the reason for her mood swings, short temper and depression after her diagnosis in 1994.

The title refers to Tabitha's favorite diversion, a tickle-and-giggle game that Frahm was too sick to play with Tabitha because of cancer drugs.

Good prognosis, bad attitude

"My prognosis was excellent, but my attitude didn't always reflect my gratitude," said Frahm, 42. "I went looking for a book that would help my kids deal with my illness, but I couldn't find any. So I sat down and wrote one."

Unable to find a publisher, she put the manuscript aside until 2000, when a friend who also was a young mother died of cancer. Convinced her book was needed, Frahm hired an illustrator, withdrew $10,000 from family savings and had 5,000 copies of the 38-page book printed in October 2001.

The accompanying publicity campaign, an appealing blend of creativity and chutzpah that Frahm claims has made her "an almost-famous author," is what lured me to her home north of Hutchinson.

Although Frahm, a public relations graduate of the University of Florida, had persuaded a Twin Cities distributor to handle her book, she understood that "it was up to me to create the demand."

So, even before publication, Frahm began writing to TV talk-show hosts, sending copies of the manuscript along with models of the nutcracker dolls she makes for Christmas out of clay pots. ("I'd had that sort of thing in mind as an attention-getter when I named my company," she confided.)

The thing is, she scored: With the book being published during Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Frahm was invited to appear on Rosie O'Donnell's show. Alas, five days before her appearance, anthrax was discovered at the NBC studios where the show is taped and it was canceled for the upcoming week -- the origin of Frahm's "almost famous" line.

Rosie plugs the book

All was not lost, however. A week later, O'Donnell plugged the book on her show, distributed 200 autographed copies to her studio audience and urged viewers to find the book on Amazon.com. As a result, orders for several hundred books came in from Borders and Barnes & Noble.

Meanwhile, Frahm kept busy sending out press releases about her "PR disaster," which inspired the Publishers Marketing Association newsletter and the online Independent Publisher magazine to ask for first-person accounts. This in turn helped Frahm sign up five more distributors.

The upshot: Her name was added to the 2002 National Cancer Survivors Day Speaker's Bureau, along with such truly famous folks as CNN's Paula Zahn and ABC's Cokie Roberts. And her book was nominated in the health category for a 2002 Benjamin Franklin Award.

Another of Frahm's ploys involved sending manuscripts and nutcracker dolls to pharmaceutical companies, hoping they might buy the book as sales premiums.

Once again, she succeeded: Barr Laboratories photographed Frahm with her kids and the book for its 2001 annual report. The exposure raised her credibility in the medical community and led to significant book sales to hospitals, clinics and cancer-awareness groups.

Better yet, in February, Barr Labs sent her the $10,000 check to help her marketing effort.

The bottom line: With the sale of about 2,000 books and the contribution from Barr Labs, her gross since October reached $30,000 -- several bucks short of a fortune, but more than enough to cover publishing costs.

Dick Youngblood can be reached at 612-673-4439 or at yblood@startribune.com.