Sharing with Writers and Readers

Important Tip for Writers: BEA a Must for New Releases

noreply@blogger.com (Carolyn Howard-Johnson) — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 09:37:00 +0000

Just a quick tip. Consider a trip to Book Book Expo America for June of 2012. Remember that at least part of your trip is tax deductible. There are learning and promotion opportunities galore at BEA. Check the index of your copy of The Frugal Book Promoter for entries on “trade shows,” “conferences,” and “Book Expo America” to plan your BEA marketing attack, or at least to convince yourself you need to be in New York in June. (-: www.bookexpoamerica.com

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and how to books for writers including the award-winning second ediction of, The Frugal Book Promoter: How to get nearly free publicity on your own or by partnering with your publisher; The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success; and Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers . The Great First Impression Book Proposal is her newest booklet for writers. She has three FRUGAL books for retailers including A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques. Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use the little Green widget to let them know about this blog:

On Dictionaries, Word-Throwaways, and New Words

noreply@blogger.com (Carolyn Howard-Johnson) — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 09:07:00 +0000

When I was very young, my grandfather brought home a huge dictionary. It was about two feet thick—the kind they put on pedestals in libraries in the old days. Everyone in the family thought he was nuts but me. I was awarded it by default, put it in the basket of my blue and white Schwinn, and pedaled it home. It was a bit unwieldy so eventually it was stowed in the rafters of a basement room. Then when I was in New York learning the ropes of publicity, my mom and dad sold the house. “Oh, no! My dictionary!” I asked them to try to retrieve it from the new owners but the story hadn’t changed much. They thought I was crazy.

So a couple years later when I went home to visit, I stopped by our old home on a whim. It took chutzpah! “Hello, I used to live here and there may be something in your basement that belongs to me—that is, if you don’t have a need for it.”

Now this was not yesterday. In those days people actually let strangers into their homes occasionally, but there was still a chance they’d consider an ax-murder possibiity. I trailed behind the new owners to the basement and there it was. It hadn’t been moved an inch but it was covered with cobwebs and dust. I was ecstatic and the new owners were either happy to let me have it or eager to get rid of me.

I still have that dictionary. It has those little thumbprint cutouts for the different letters of the alphabet and the edges of each page are gilded. It has a linen cover. It can’t really be used because it has none of the new words in it.

Ahhh, yes. But it does have four color plates of the flags of countries that existed then. There are even a few that still exist. Most of the changes have been in Africa. There are other pages that illustrate flowers and the human skeleton. Stuff like that. I mean, this is a real dictionary. So I kept it for the smell (however smudgey—that’s my own word for moldy-but-I-don’t-care-how-bad-it-stinks!), the memories, the feel of the silky thin but still substantial pages. And because I kept reading that dictionaries discarded old words to make room for the new. And, naturally, I couldn’t discard any words, right? Fiction writers can find old words valuable.

By the time computers came along, I was attached to this volume, this tome, this giant doorstop! And now the kicker!

National Geographic tells me that the words in the Oxford English Dictionary never disappear. Once a word has been very carefully vetted, it stays there. “The OED is unique,” says the new words editor of the book, “in that we never remove a word once it has been included.”

Just in case you’re interested, they add some 4,000 words of 6,000 considered each year. Including the new meaning of the word “unplugged.” It now also means the “state of living without electronic devices.”

Now wouldn’t that be awful! Almost as bad as living without my near-ancient dictionary!

PS: Can’t resist another just-added word. You know when you put your Coke bottle on a manuscript and it leaves a caramel-colored ring that can’t be erased? Rejoice. You have made a “dringle.”

PS: My articles, essays—even my rants—are available for reprint in your blog or Web site. Just let me know what article you like and I’ll supply you with an appropriate credit line with links. HoJoNews @ aol (dot) com.

Trader Joe's: What Authors Can Learn from Their Growing Pains

noreply@blogger.com (Carolyn Howard-Johnson) — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 09:49:00 +0000

The Trader Joe’s in my hometown is having growing pains. They have closed down one of their stores in a kind of nondescript strip mall and opening another with a lot of pizzazz. And they’re hoping that we won’t notice too much. Ahem.

The LA Times business page explains: “…after decades cultivating an image as the cozy neighborhood grocer, the 14,670 square-foot store …highlights the conundrum facing the Monrovia company: how to maintain the eclectic, friendly vibe that has garnered it legions of faithful shoppers, while expanding at a brisk pace.”

Mmm. This sounds like a problem facing retailers and other business people in the fast-growing 90s. But it happens now, too. In fact, I’d bet that most anyone in business (and that includes authors, whether we like the idea or not!), will face it at some time. I remember when my husband and I moved one of our retail stores from one end of the mall to another because we were out of space. Some of our customers thought we were getting too fancy.

I remember the day I decided to write a little e-book for my UCLA students that turned out to be the multi award-winningThe Frugal Book Promoter (http://budurl.com/FrugalBkPromo ), now in its second edition. That’s a far cry from being a novelist and poet.

I remember when, after the success of the HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers, I decided to do a HowToDoItFrugally series of books for retailers (www.howtodoitfrugally.com/retailers_books.htm) because I had started speaking at national retail tradeshows and, heck, I needed handouts anyway, right?

As you can tell, I believe in taking opportunity when it steps up and plops itself in my lap. Having said that, once we’ve made the momentous decision to veer from our intended path or to grow, we need to immediately think about branding.

Here are some of the things that I think can help people or business in situations like this. Mind you, these are not the result of huge marketing studies. They’re all just seat-of-the-pants lessons learned from trial and error—though some are based on tried-and-true marketing principles.

Drag out your mission statement and paste it to your bulletin board (or make computer wallpaper out of it). You do have a mission statement don’t you? If not, write down the goals you’ve had since you started in your career path and use it instead (until you get your mission statement written.)

2. Look at your idea for your new project. Write down the reasons you want to do it. Then write down the pluses and minuses—and weight them. This list will help you make better decisions for the entire project as well as the marketing of it.

3. Now make a list of how you think your present customers (yes, readers, too!) will view these changes.

4. Using the benefits you found for your present customers in the above list, plan a marketing/promotion campaign around those benefits.

5. Now make a list of the benefits you see for the new customers your upcoming project will attract. Draw up a marketing campaign for these folks, too. I know it looks like double work but…well, you’ll see why.

6. Now see if you can find similarities between the two lists. That’s where you start. You can branch out to target the fringes of the two groups later.

These are general planning aids, but here is a Web site tip specifically for you. Think very hard before you open a completely new Web site for your new project. Consider instead using one site with different sections for your projects. Think how there might be crossover between customers. Keep your branding similar (maybe colors from a similar palette), but not necessarily identical. Don’t expect too much in crossover sales, but don’t discard the possibility. New efforts need support from whatever quarter we can find them. If you decide against that, at least make links from one site to the other plentiful and obvious. And make sure you’ve given your visitor reasons (benefits) they will find when they click to the new section—or the new Web site.

If you would like to see how smarty MaAnna Stephenson helped me get all my projects from consulting and editing to my books (from poetry to how-to books!) arranged on one Web site, go to www.howtodoitfrugally.com. And find her at MaAnna@Blogaid.com.

CHJ
Reprints of all my articles are available at no charge. Please contact me at HoJoNews@aol.com for a suitable credit and add a byline and links where appropriate.

Using QR Codes in E-Books

noreply@blogger.com (Carolyn Howard-Johnson) — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 09:51:00 +0000

I often run a Q&A a la Ann Landers in my Sharing with Writers newsletter. I thought I'd recycle this one to my blog because it shows how confused even veteran marketers still are about how to use them. Those who would like to subscribe to the letter that comes directly to your e-mail box may send me an e-mail with SUBSCRIBE in the subject line and I'll do it for you. The address is HoJoNews@aol.com

Q&A a la Ann Landers

Using QR Codes in E-Books?

Question on a blog I write at BookBuzzr.com:

Great info, Carolyn. I’ll share this everywhere! Authors need to know stuff like this.

Is there QR code automatically embedded in some of the more interactive of the conversion softwares, such as epub?

I’ll definitely check out your link for getting a f ree QRCode. Thanks again for all your informative articles and books. Very helpful!

Aggie Villaneuva

Answer:

To make this as simple as possible, Aggie. A QR (quick response) code can direct people to ANYTHING you can put on a Web page, an autoresponder or on a recording for a phone line (and maybe a lot more. If you go to the new edition of the The Frugal Book Promoter, I know you have a copy!--www.budurl.com/FrugalBkPromo), it gives you lots more information on this. Once you start to explore the sites where you sign up for a free code, you'll see what I mean. I know you are tech savvy. This is going to be a cinch for you.

BTW, I’m suggesting here you make that discount more than 10% on your new e-book. I know you'll get many more results from the campaign if you do. Or do a double-bubble. 10% Off and a free white paper. I know you have tons of those!

And, I'd use QR Codes to lead to:

Discounts
Resources
The buy pages of your other books (you are listing your other books in the backmatter, aren't you?)

Having said that, I think the greatest use for them is to expose a lot of material to people who don't have time for a lot of material--people on the run with their smartphones in their pockets. (-:

Best,

Carolyn

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and how to books for writers including, The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't; The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success; and Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers . The Great First Impression Book Proposal is her newest booklet for writers. She has three FRUGAL books for retailers including A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques. Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use the little Green widget to let them know about this blog:

Kristine Lowder Gives Tips on Writing Humor--In a Humorous Way

noreply@blogger.com (Carolyn Howard-Johnson) — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 23:50:00 +0000

I know you will be tickled by the post from Kristine Lowder today!

Tickling Funny Bones: 8 Tips for Writing Humor

By Kristine Lowder

What makes something humorous? Responses vary, but “humor” usually involves unexpecteds, unforeseens or exaggeration. Humor breaks the routine and whisks us into smiles and silliness. Think Lucy and Ethel in the bon-bon factory. Abbot and Costello and Who’s on First?

When I was young and foolish I decided to try my hand at writing humor. Folks cheered me on, insisting that mine was a truly wry – if not wicked – sense of humor.

I crashed and burned.

After weeks of staring at the computer, all I had to show for my efforts was a headache that’d give the Marquis de Sade cause for pause. I not only hadn’t written anything that could be dubbed “humorous” by any charitable extreme, but the only “funny” ideas I came up with wouldn’t outlast the expiration date on a milk carton.

Sound familiar? If so, take heart. If not, kindly quit reading and order out for dessert.

Well. On my way to publishing a couple humor books and some side-splitting, insanely funny and Pultizer-Prize winning articles (I made that last one up), I learned a lot about humor writing. Since I’m such a nice lady, I’m passing these tips along for free:

1. Is Joke-Writing Different from Writing Humor?

Is the Pope Catholic? Is rain wet? Is Obama running for re-election?

There may be some “spill over,” but writing jokes and writing humor are two different genres.

A joke writer pursues the “ta-da!” moment followed by a canned laugh track. Writing humor is more of an art form. It’s a sustained chord as opposed to a tympanic crash. Humor is to writing what a seven-course meal is to cooking. Jokes are a quick trip to the drive-thru. Comprende?

2. Write what you know.

Doesn’t this sound like an echo from your long-lost junior high English teacher? That’s because she (or he) was right. Don’t try to impress people with how funny you can make an unfamiliar topic or event. Start with your own experience and stamp it with your own brand of kooky. (You can take that any way you like.) If you get really good at charting the hilarious in territory you know nothing about, run for Congress.

3. Put yourself in your story.

Unless you’re dull as dirt – and you know who you are – your readers want to hear from you in the first-person. If you don’t think your stuff is funny, chances are no one else will, either. So unsheath your rapier wit, trot out your droll conviviality and craft your magnum opus like it’s the best thing since raspberry white chocolate cheesecake. Try this: Tell your story as if you’re sharing it over a cup of coffee at the kitchen table with an old friend. You could also picture yourself sharing your story with a new enemy, but I won’t be responsible for the consequences.

4. Write in the first-person whenever possible.

Related to the incredibly incisive and sagacious advice above, use “I” in your story, vignette or article whenever possible. Inject some of your personality into your writing. Find your “voice.” Keep it active rather than passive. This may take some tinkering and experimenting. That’s alright. Questions to ask along the way:

What are you passionate about? Where do you like to go, spend your time, invest your day? What makes this incident or event funny to you? Who else will relate to this topic?

Give people a chance to get to know you. Write from the heart. This doesn’t mean sharing every minute detail of your life. If you do, readers will doubtless expire of boredom by or before the end of your story. So use your best judgment. (This tip is null and void if you’re a felon on the lam, oyster eater, or cat lover.)

5. Study the Masters

Stroll over to your local library and take a gander at some established humor authors. Skim some books. Are you chuckling wildly after a chapter or two? What makes that chapter, paragraph, person or topic humorous? How did the author construct his or her plot, characters, setting, tempo, and transitions? Sometimes an ordinary occurrence can turn into an adventure in hilarity if the author tells it that way. (Sometimes it can wind up a wrong turn down a one-way street, but let’s not go there.)

6. Double check everything!

Thoroughly proof your manuscript before sending it out. Nothing screams “amateur!” like typpos, missspeld werds or pore grammur. Ask a family member or friend to read your work. They may catch mistakes you haven’t.

Read your piece out loud. U’d bee soo-prized howe meny “oopses” yul find wen u reed yer werk alowd. You’ll also get a better “feel” for important elements of humor writing such as pacing, dialogue, and voice.

7. Rewrite, rewrite, rewrite.

How long did it take me to write my first humor book, Guys and Other Near-Humans? Or my next, how I got to be fifty and other atrocities? (Subtle plug here, in case you missed it.) Do you want the whole nine yards or the condensed version? Okay. Condensed version: about four years. Each. Just keep at it and be sure to pack a lunch.

8. A final tip: Be patient with yourself.

Don’t take rejection letters personally. Learn from them and those kindly acquisition editors - yes, there are one or two - so you’ll avoid repeating the same mistakes.

Keep writing and learning. Keep an eye out for new material. It materializes in the most unusual places: dead of night, while driving, in the shower, or arguing the nutritional merits of broccoli with an eight year-old. Keep submitting and practice, practice, practice.

Humor writing is hard work. What?! Do you think I was born this funny? So if you’re warming up your funny bone and planning to join the literary luminaries of the humor world, good for you! Now stop reading and knock out some silliness and smiles! Lord knows we can use more of both – and lots more dessert!

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A multi-published author, Kristine Lowder resides in the Pacific Northwest with her husband, their four sons and one loveable yellow Lab. Visit her at: www.KristineLowder.com or http://www.kristinelowder.wordpress.com.-----
Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and how to books for writers including the award-winning second ediction of, The Frugal Book Promoter: How to get nearly free publicity on your own or by partnering with your publisher; The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success; and Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers . The Great First Impression Book Proposal is her newest booklet for writers. She has three FRUGAL books for retailers including A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques. Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use the little Green widget to let them know about this blog:

Itty Bitty Gratitude Prompt for New Year

noreply@blogger.com (Carolyn Howard-Johnson) — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 09:51:00 +0000

Mindy Philips Lawrence line edits my Sharing with Writers newsletter and contributes an Itty Bitty column each issue. They are always loaded with links and resources for authors. I thought you'd like this one--a little inspiration on this first day of a year of gratitude. By the way, if you'd like to subscribe to the newsletter that gives back to writers, send me an e-mail with SUBSCRIBE in the subject window. HoJoNews @ AOL . com.

Gratefulness: A Perspective on Being Thankful
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ By Mindy Phillips Lawrence

“Pied Beauty” ~ Gerald Manley Hopkins

Glory be to God for dappled things—
For skies of couple - colour as a brinded cow;
For rose - moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;
Fresh - firecoal chestnut - falls; finches' wings;
Landscape plotted and pieced—fold, fallow, and plough;
And all trades, their gear and tackle and trim.
All things counter, original, spare, strange;
Whatever is fickle, frecklèd (who knows how?)
With swíft, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;
He fathers - forth whose beauty is past change:
Praise hím.
Hopkins’ poem, written in 1877 but not published until 1918, celebrates creation in all its variety. Although the work has layers of meaning, I’ve been thinking of it as a poem of gratitude.

Life is complicated. We have to deal with money problems, relationship problems, and the challenges tomorrow brings. Because we are consumed by our troubles, we often don’t stop to see the dappled sunshine dancing in a park or take the opportunity to see the fish shining as they move in
the water. We lose out.

Some people I know make a daily list of what they are thankful for and post it to Facebook. When I thought about doing this, I realized how grateful I was for simple things: That I got to know my sister Rose before I lost her, that I’ve had the same job for twenty years, that my electricity works and I have a place to live. I live in a little town with a small area where I love to park and just look at the trees.

Uncomplicated. Tranquil.

Why not take a piece of paper and write down at least ten things that make you grateful. Periodically add to the list. When you get frustrated and the world comes at you too fast, read your entries over again and realize how fortunate you are.

May you be well.

LINKS

“Pied Beauty"

http://www.potw.org/archive/potw162.html

Gratefulness
http://www.gratefulness.org/

Light a Candle
http://www.gratefulness.org/candles/enter.cfm?l=eng

Create a Life of Gratitude
http://zenhabits.net/three - truths - to - help - you - create - a -
life - of - gratitude/

I Am Thankful: Everyday Gratefulness
http://www.iamthankful.com/category/everyday - gratefulness

~ Mindy Phillips Lawrence, www.freewebs.com/mplcreative, is the author of the poetry collections One Blue Star and Above and Below. She is co-author of The Complete Writer and a publicist. She is in the process of putting together an e-book and paperback based on her Itty-Bitty Column for Sharing with Writers. Blogging at: http://mplcreative.blogspot.com/. Her specialty is helping writers with their media releases. Reach her at mplcreative1@aol.com.

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and how to books for writers including, The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't; The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success; and Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers . The Great First Impression Book Proposal is her newest booklet for writers. She has three FRUGAL books for retailers including A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques. Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use the little Green widget to let them know about this blog:

Your Book Should Be an Audio Book, Too!

noreply@blogger.com (Carolyn Howard-Johnson) — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 09:44:00 +0000

I've been thinking about republishing my novel as an audio book. My first inclination came when my aunt became blind. I waited too long. She died a peaceful death with me at her side at the age of 82. Then, when I was on a cruise recently I met a woman who wanted to read This Is the Place because of the them of tolerance, but used only audios for the blind. This, my friends is called procrastination. So here is an article for a long time writing pal, Aaron Lazar. I may get to it yet! There are some readers we just don't want to miss!

AUDIO BOOKS: HOW IT’S DONE THROUGH ACX.COM Part I

By Aaron Paul Lazar

Have you ever wondered how to get your published book produced as an audio book?

If so, read on. I currently have five books in production with ACX, an Audible (Amazon) company. I’m going to document the process for you in a few articles so you can give it a try yourself. You’ll need to know how to get started, how to get through the editing process, and what to do once your book is available for sale.

A little bit of history:

I’ve tried to record my own books. Lord knows, I’ve tried. I spent a week downloading various (free) audio programs, playing with the settings, recording just a few chapters over and over again every time I messed up a word, or a loud truck went by, or the dogs barked.

I drove myself nuts. Finally, after hours of labor, I created some audio files of me reading the first few chapters in TREMOLO: CRY OF THE LOON (http://www.legardemysteries.com/tremolocryoftheloon.htm), and posted them up on my website.

Don’t get me wrong. I enjoyed it. I really did. But while I was doing this, I wasn’t writing. And if I had ever hoped to get my complete set of sixteen books recorded as audio books, it would have taken months for each project. I’d never get my current book finished at that rate.

I sent off a few of the mp3 samples to my publisher. She had her “audio guy” listen to them, and he said they had too much “hiss,” that I’d need a different mike. Of course, I had used the simple microphone that comes with my MacBook Pro, and that naturally isn’t geared for serious recording.

For the time being, I let it go at that. After all, I had seven books to edit that were scheduled for 2012 release, and was working on the third book in my Tall Pines mystery series. With the full time day job, there wasn’t must time left for anything extra.

The tip:

The dream of getting my books into audio books didn’t die, it just simmered under the surface for a little while, until a good friend gave me a tip. Her Simon & Schuster book was going to audio book format through a company called ACX, part of Audible, which is owned by Amazon.

Excited, I started to investigate. ACX is a wonderful site where authors, producers, and actors can network and pair up. The nicest part of this is one available option called “Royalty Share” where the narrators/actors/producers and authors to do the recording work up front, put no money down, and then share the royalties when the sales start coming in. Of course you can also simply hire a narrator and his studio to do the recordings, and keep your share of the royalties for yourself, if you want.

Alternatively, you can record your own books, but you’d probably have to invest in a good mike, become well-versed in manipulating audio files, or have a an audio-techie colleague to help you.

Important stuff to know:

Now this part is really important. Please read this carefully:

You need to find out who owns the audio rights for your book(s).

Check your book contracts, and if you’re not sure, call your publisher.

I hadn’t really paid attention to that part of the contract(s) with my publisher, Twilight Times Books, but soon discovered that she hadn’t included audio rights in our contract, so the rights were mine.

For those whose publishers’ have retained the rights, don’t panic. Your publisher or agent can submit your books to ACX if he or she is so inclined, you’ll just have to share the royalties with her and your actor/narrator/producer.

If you establish that you own the audio rights, the next step is to register. Please note that I’m pretty sure you must already have books in the Amazon bookstore for all this to work.

I was surprised that Twilight Times Books wasn’t on the list (lots of companies weren’t, since this is a new program and they are still growing their lists), but didn’t let that stop me. I knew my publisher was highly-regarded in the industry, that she’d been interviewed by Publisher’s Weekly, and that our company was a member in good standing of Mystery Writers of America (MWA) and International Thriller Writers. These credentials were legit and impressive.

I was able to chat with Nicole O., one of the ACX customer support folks, who was extremely helpful. We talked on the phone several times about my publisher and my books, and I provided all the information needed. After a while, the books were listed on the site for actors to listen to and (hopefully) submit auditions. Of course, I had to upload all the details about the work – number of pages, genre, synopsis, and a short excerpt for the actors to use in their audition.

The first audition:

I was thrilled to receive an audition almost immediately for TREMOLO: CRY OF THE LOON. (http://www.legardemysteries.com/tremolocryoftheloon.htm)

The voice actor/narrator, Erik S, did a great job, creating a very young-sounding voice for my eleven-year-old Gus LeGarde. I was pleased with his accents for Gus’s grandparents who live in Maine, Oscar and Millie Stone (British transplants), Elsbeth and Siegfried (German twins, Gus’s friends,) etc. Each voice was consistent and unique, and wonderful rendered.

You can hear a sample chapter HERE: http://www.legardemysteries.com/audiobooks.htm

The First Fifteen Minute Sample:

After we started work on TREMOLO, Erik prepared the first fifteen-minute sample. I listened, made a few minor suggestions, and then approved the posted files. This is important for many reasons. For one thing, you need to confirm that the voices for each character are suitable and hopefully match the “voices in your head”.

Well, that sounded a little weird, but if you’re like me and consider your stories like parallel universes, then you know exactly how your characters’ sound, and you often picture them in movies with actors you’ve already chosen for them.

Am I right?

Okay, so the whole idea of checking out the first fifteen minutes is so your British character doesn’t sound like he’s from the Bronx, or your plucky heroine doesn’t sound too frail. Also, it gives you a good chance to check the quality level of the recording facilities that your producer is using.

We didn’t have to do much adjusting, frankly, because Erik really nailed the accents without any coaching. He recorded the entire book over a period of a month, sending me batches of audio files to listen to, and when we were done catching any errors that might have crept into the files, he worked on the technical items that needed fixing.

I panicked!

Erik went back to working on the files, and it was at that point that I panicked. I was trying to upload my book cover art into the required field on my TREMOLO ACX page, when I discovered that the cover art needed to be a square image.

Square? All of my covers were rectangular, in roughly 5x8 inch format.

I tried to cut the book cover down by cropping it, but there was no way it was going to work and look proper in a square format.

Finally, like most guys, I finally looked at the directions. I studied the examples on the webpage of what was “acceptable” and what wasn’t. Right there in front of me was the botched up cover just like the one I’d attempted, with top and bottom cropped. Next to it was another stuck in a square with white borders.

Nope. The cropping or squeezing-it-all-into-a-little-box approach was not going to cut it!

The “acceptable” cover was designed from the beginning to fit in a square template.

It was at this point that I started to worry about my rights again. I would need the layered version of my covers so I could play with the original art and design it to fit in a square box.

Who owns your cover art?

Did I own the rights to my cover art? Would my publisher object to me using them, since she wasn’t involved in this venture? I helped with the designs, and yes, many of my own photos and concepts were used, but I soon discovered I didn’t own the designs. My publisher was very sweet about it, but she pointed out that she’d paid an artist to do the designs, and that they were legally hers. I love my publisher and would never try to cross the line. So, off I went to create new, square audio book covers.

Fortunately I have used Photoshop for years and knew how to go about it. I’ve been designing “place holder” covers for years, even before I submitted my manuscripts to my publisher, so I had lots of images to play with. I like having a colorful image in my head (and on my websites) that gives a feeling for what’s coming in the books.

I set about creating new, square covers using my Photoshop Elements application.

There are specs you need to follow. For example, the cover must be over 1200 by 1200 pixels, etc.

Erik uploaded the final files to ACX, and I automatically approved them, since I’d already listened to each one so many times and felt comfortable that they’d be fine.

My first mistake:

I always say, “Double check! Triple check!” and am usually quite obsessed with being absolutely sure all is good.

Just recently, I received notification from ACX that some of the chapters were missing or repeated. Both Erik and I had missed the uploading errors. But thankfully, the Quality group at ACX does a screening up front, and the errors were quickly corrected.

We’re waiting now to see TREMOLO pop up on the Audible website. It’s supposed to take a few weeks after we approve the final version.

More auditions came in!

Meanwhile, in the midst of the TREMOLO efforts, I received and enthusiastically accepted an audition from a Canadian Recording Studio, (Agile Sound) for HEALEY’S CAVE (http://mooremysteries.com), book 1 in Moore Mysteries, otherwise known as “the green marble series.” The actor’s name is Dr. Tom Fraser, and he’s a genius. Really.

A true kindred spirit, I met Tom just in time to bring all of my characters and books to life. I was floored by the recordings, and even after I’d heard just a few chapters, I knew I wanted this actor to record as many of my books as possible. His mature, warm, earthy voice was perfect for my Sam Moore character (HEALEY’S CAVE), but he also would be a wonderful Gus LeGarde, hero of my first mystery series with six books in production and four more written and waiting to be submitted to my publisher.

Since I accepted his audition for HEALEY’S CAVE, he’s also auditioned for and been accepted to record MAZURKA (http://www.legardemysteries.com/mazurka.htm) and FIRESONG (http://www.legardemysteries.com/firesong.htm). We are working on them all, and HEALEY’S CAVE is now available on Audible.com, Amazon.com and iTunes. (http://tinyurl.com/cype3f2). What a whirlwind!

Tom was born to be Sam Moore, and also fits perfectly for Gus LeGarde. He seemed to agree, and we decided that from now on, he would record all except the YA books.

If you’ve ever wanted to have your books recorded and available for folks to listen to, give it a try!

www.ACX.com

You can listen to some samples of my upcoming audio-books here: http://www.legardemysteries.com/audiobooks.htm

You can buy the TREMOLO: CRY OF THE LOON book here: http://tinyurl.com/84zupmt

And HEALEY’S CAVE audio book here: http://tinyurl.com/cype3f2

Part II will discuss what to do if you don’t get an audition right away, and will explain how to find the perfect narrator. Contact Aaron at aaronlazar@yahoo.com.

About the Author

Aaron Paul Lazar www.legardemysteries.com writes to soothe his soul. The award-winning and bestselling Kindle author of three addictive mystery series, Aaron enjoys the Genesee Valley countryside in upstate New York, where his characters embrace life, play with their dogs and grandkids, grow sumptuous gardens, and chase bad guys. Visit his website at www.legardemysteries.com and watch for his upcoming Twilight Times Books releases, ESSENTIALLY YOURS (MAR 2012), TERROR COMES KNOCKING (FEB 2011), FOR KEEPS (MAY 2012), DON’T LET THE WIND CATCH YOU (APRIL 2012), and the author’s preferred editions of DOUBLE FORTÉ (FEB 2012) and UPSTAGED (JUNE 2012).

Should YOU Use a Pseudonyn: Is Nora Roberts a Good Reason Why You Shouldn't

noreply@blogger.com (Carolyn Howard-Johnson) — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 09:14:00 +0000

Nora Roberts, the author of more than 150 romance novels, was asked why she writes romantic suspense novels under a pen name. Here is her answer:

"It's marketing."

She says because she writes quickly that makes it difficult for her publisher to publish all of her work with an appropriate amount of time between each of them. So she writes works which are “edgier” than her romance novels under the pseudonym J. D. Robb. She says. "Putting it under a pseudonym helps brand it for the reader."

Writers will find information on the concept of branding in the second edition of The Frugal Book Promoter (www.budurl.com/FrugalBkPromo) including some of the reasons why you shouldn’t use a pen name. You will, of course, have to weigh the pros and cons, but keep in mind that Ms. Roberts has a powerhouse publisher and its marketing department to help her navigate the difficulties inherent in using a pseudonym. If you are considering using a pen name, here's a taste of what you should know:

1. It is very hard to keep a pen name secret. Everyone knows who Kristie Leigh Maguire is, as an example, but most know that it is a pen name. If people didn't know before that Robb was Nora Roberts' pen name, most of them will know that Time magazine let the cat out of the bag. They also revealed (big time) that Nora Roberts is also a pen name!

2. It is very hard to promote a book in person when you use a pen name—especially if you choose an opposite-sex pen name. In fact, promotion of all kinds can become touchy if you use a pen name because you are intent upon keeping your real identity a secret.

3. Using a pen name isn't necessarily an effective barrier against law suits.

Read more about Roberts in Time magazine's "10 Questions" feature, page 6 of the Dec. 10, 2007, issue.

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and how to books for writers including, The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't; The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success; and Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers . The Great First Impression Book Proposal is her newest booklet for writers. She has three FRUGAL books for retailers including A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques. Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use the little Green widget to let them know about this blog:

Newsletters: The New/Old Way to Market Books

noreply@blogger.com (Carolyn Howard-Johnson) — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 18:46:00 +0000

The new year is almost upon us and I gleaned this editorial from one of my old SharingwithWriters newsletters. Because I believe old-fashioned newsletters delivered by e-mail are second only to social networking (and that includes blogs) for the marketing of a book. And because I believe in recycling the writing we do. Ahem! (-: And because this is the time of the year to promise yourself you'll start a newsletter!

How many e-mail newsletters do you subscribe to? Do you put one out yourself? I think they’re very important! I recommended having one in the first edition of The Frugal Book Promoter and I continue to do so in the 2^nd edition (www.budurl.com/FrugalBkPromo) (with new ideas for making them successful, of course!). And I’m not the only one who thinks newsletters are a good idea.

Noelle Skodzinski, editorial director of Book Business magazine thinks so, too. But she touts them for publishers. She says the best example of a good publisher newsletter is HarperCollins’ Author Tracker. You may want to subscribe to see what they’re doing that you can adapt to your letter and find new, great reading while you’re there.

Harper’s letter lets readers track their favorite authors. It lets them know when the author will be doing an event in their area. When their next book is being released. When it is being made into a film. But, hey! We authors can do that for ourselves!

She also suggests cross promoting other books with similarities. Themes. Genres. Historical periods. The list could be endless. So, I’m thinking why couldn’t authors do the same thing? They could partner with other authors to announce one another’s books. And if those authors write in the same genre so much the better. They aren’t competitors. They’re comrades. A reader who reads horror, as an example, probably reads more than one horror book a year. So why not promote your book and one written by a horror-writing friend?

By the way, I also think authors should read more than one book on marketing. Each book we read offers new inspiration, new ideas, new approaches or techniques for old ideas.

Noelle says that to convince yourself that this is effective, “Think of Amazon’s ‘others who ordered [this book] also ordered [this other book]’” feature.

She also suggests embedding video in the e-mail. That gives readers a personal connection to the author!

She suggests some of the same things I do in the second edition of The Frugal Book Promoter. How can you get subscribers to your letter to sign up for something? What can you give them free? What about a quote of the day or week? How about using QR (quick response) codes I’ve been talking about for the last few issues of this newsletter? Look on the back of the new Frugal Book Promoter to see one, or check the index for one I used inside the book.

Noelle reminds us, “Books have power. Authors have power. That power can be used to benefit the reader—who craves more content that will impact their lives…”

Oh, while we’re at it. You have in your power to share newsletters with valuable information with others. Your newsletter readers have the power to do the same. Have you asked them to share? I’m asking now. Send the link for this newsletter with a personal recommendation and invitation to subscribe. http://www.AuthorsDen.com/adstorage/1713/SharingwithWriters_Nov5_2011.pdf

All they need do is send me an e-mail with SUBSCRIBE in the subject line and I’ll do it for them!

See how easy that is? See how important a newsletter can be?

(And, in this case, how important a blog can be?)

----- Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and how to books for writers including, The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't; The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success; and Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers . The Great First Impression Book Proposal is her newest booklet for writers. She has three FRUGAL books for retailers including A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques. Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use the little Green widget to let them know about this blog:

Those Who Love Language Improve Their Writing

noreply@blogger.com (Carolyn Howard-Johnson) — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 09:54:00 +0000

I very occasionally run reviews for books I think will help writers on Sharing with Writers. Hope you'll consider this one. An explanation is contained within. (-:

Euphemania

Subtitle: Our love affair with euphemisms
By Ralph Keyes
Little Brown and Co.
ISBN: 9780316056564
Nonfiction/ (Writing/Language)
Contact Reviewer: hojoreviews@aol.com

Reviewed by Carolyn Howard-Johnson originally for MyShelf.com

If you don’t love language, it’s a good bet you aren’t a writer. But if you’re a writer, reading more about language (linguistics (?)) may not be high on your list of priorities. It’s so integral to the way you think, you believe you don’t need it.

I believe that Euphemania by Ralph Keyes will change your mind. Written with humor (because euphemisms are just naturally funny?) this book will certainly entertain. If you’ve ever wondered about the intricacies of our euphemisms—the origins as an example—this is the book for you. But who would have guessed that it also might be the perfect book to hone the skills of writers of dialogue and humor?

Academic writers? Use it as a quick-study on how to write a book that will sell to a wide market. The secret? Voice. Humor. Colloquialisms. Yep, and euphemisms. A book does not have to have the lack of moisture content (dry!) of a text book to be a textbook. I know about academic expectations. My daughter is a Ph.D. candidate. She explains it to me all the time. Having said that, if you’d like to actually sell something rather than giving everything away to unappreciative academic journals, try rewriting your brilliant theory for the general public!

Anthropologists and linguists will love this book, too. But mostly, it’s just fun learning why we use asterisks for words like sh*t and the euphemisms like the f-word. It’s also tons of fun to identify phrases we’ve stopped thinking of as euphemisms (love handles, anyone?), just because they are so part of our everyday language.

If I were rating this book for an Amazon review, it would give it a true (not a fake) five-star rating. For usefulness. For fun. For the love of language.

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson’s The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success covers writing successful query letters and includes helpful hints from twenty of the nation's top agents. Purchased it at Amazon, www.budurl.com/TheFrugalEditor. Learn more at her Web site http://HowToDoItFrugally.com.

If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use the little Green widget to let them know about this blog:

Ten Reasons Why Your Book Should Be an E-Book, Too

noreply@blogger.com (Carolyn Howard-Johnson) — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 00:34:00 +0000

I love, love, love e-books. It took me a long time to get a Kindle but the potential for book promotion using e-books got me busy promoting that way when e-books were still controversial.

In fact, there is an anatomy of how some twenty-six fiction writers and I cross-promoted our way to marketing heaven in the new edition of my Frugal Book Promoter (www.budurl.com/FrugalBkPromo). I hope you’ll grab the opportunity to learn from the case study to learn what cross-promotion and promotional e-books can be at their best.

Still, I worry because I keep hearing (especially from novelists) that they love real books and don’t want to support e-books. Freya at the great BookBuzzr.com blog recently ran a little post I wrote on “Ten Reasons Your Book Should Be an E-Book, Too!” It’s my answer to any author who is reluctant to have their book out there for e-readers. Especially notice the "too." I suppose there are a few books that would prosper as e-books only, but why limit the way your readers can read your work. Let them do it the way they want. It's a basic tenet of book marketing.

Find the article at http://www.bookbuzzr.com/blog/book-marketing/ten-reasons-your-book-should-be-an-e-book-too/

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and how to books for writers including, The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't; The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success; and Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers . The Great First Impression Book Proposal is her newest booklet for writers. She has three FRUGAL books for retailers including A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques. Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use the little Green widget to let them know about this blog:

Anthology Scams: Authors Beware

noreply@blogger.com (Carolyn Howard-Johnson) — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 09:34:00 +0000

In a newsletter on marketing, I read a call for help from one of that letter’s subscribers. I was appalled because it sounded as if someone had decided to charge authors $595 to contribute their work (what amounts to a freelance article) and their videos (what amounts to a freelance production) to what amounted to a self-published e-book. The would-be author/editor of this book needed help in roping in more authors to pay that hefty fee and admits that the "media typically aren't interested [in contributing]."

Well, if the media aren’t interested in contributing, there may be a reason beyond the fact that this "anthology" is self-published. What would that be? Here it is: The chapters are paid-for advertorials. That means editors would be complicit in getting their readers to pay to participate in what feels, well, a bit shady to them. At least newspapers’ advertorials are labeled as “advertisements.”

Hint: If you don’t know what an advertorial is, please look it up in your copy of the second edition of The Frugal Book Promoter (http://budurl.com/FrugalBkPromo). It’s in the chapter on why you generally shouldn’t pay for advertising, anyway.

And if the media aren't interested in contributing to this project, will they be any more interested in covering the book with features, reviews or other kinds of exposure for the book when it comes out? I'm afraid I don't see the benefit to the author of a project like this. Sure, they’ll get a credit line and a byline but without much exposure in the media, who will read it?

Giving away free articles in trade for a byline/nice credit/and links is one thing. Paying to have someone to put together a book that may sell very few copies anyway is entirely something else. In fact, if feels scammy to me.

The help I would give the subscriber to this newsletter is: Please find another way to involve experts and cross promote with them. There are ways to do that where everyone benefits and participants don't have to pay more than they'll ever get back in royalties--or prestige.

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and how to books for writers including, The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't; The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success; and Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers . The Great First Impression Book Proposal is her newest booklet for writers. She has three FRUGAL books for retailers including A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques. Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use the little Green widget to let them know about this blog:

Still Debating Self-Publishing?

noreply@blogger.com (Carolyn Howard-Johnson) — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 09:26:00 +0000

I have had two letters this week from SWW readers who believe that because I publish some of my books myself that I endorse self-publishing for all books. Well, yes and no. I believe that there is a right way to publish any given title but not only one right way. And I think that an author needs to carefully weigh her dreams for publishing, the capacity of her pocketbook, the time and willingness she has to promote, and her skill set before deciding. Oh, yeah, and her personality. Think of that last part as a zodiac check.

And I believe that we should give readers the opportunity to read our books any old way they prefer (which means, yes, that all books should eventually be rendered as an e-book—by the publisher or by the author—for those who want to read it that way.)

But what prompted me to talk about self-publishing here is that a student at Rutgers University journalism department contacted me. Her professor said that I was the definitive person to talk to about publishing. I am flattered, but there are others who know a whole lot more about publishing than I do. Having said that, I think I am darn good at consulting with authors about their paths to publishing if only because I have personally done it every which way, including some combinations of ways.

Here is a bit of what I told her about my own paths to publishing:

My novel, This Is the Place, was published by a now-defunct subsidiary of a large publisher that specialized in literary novels and, back then, that subsidiary was more or less traditional. The year was 2001 and they gave their authors an advance (like traditional publishers), did the editing for them (like traditional publishers), and a little marketing for them (which I quickly became disillusioned with). But they published digitally (sometimes called POD), and that was something I was unfamiliar with at the time. I quickly learned there is something out there that I called "publisher prejudice."

I am happy to report that publisher prejudice is diminishing, but it still exists. Later my first chapbook of poetry was also published traditionally by Finishing Line Press, a press well-respected in poetry circles. Still I found little difference in terms of what they did in terms of marketing my books.

With backgrounds in journalism, publicity, marketing, and retailing (authors are in fact retailers by virtue of the fact that they at least occasionally need to sell their books directly to consumers at book signings, speaking engagements and writers' conferences), I quickly realized that I must do the marketing for my books no matter how I published. I eventually also realized that as long as I was doing all the work of publishing (true publishing includes the marketing of a book), I might as well do it all myself and reap all the profit and all the satisfaction.

The poetry chapbooks Magdalena Ball and I chose to publish ourselves are a little on the commercial side of poetry--not the poetry itself, but the concept of having a combination of greeting card and chapbooks for people to give away at holidays. That concept seemed only suitable for self-publishing because most traditional publishers interested in poetry are quite literary and most likely would not have been at all interested in selling Christmas chapbooks as holiday cards (see www.howtodoitfrugally.com/more_on_blooming_red.htm )! Further, with our two heads, we are a publishing/marketing whiz-kid team.

I do want to clarify, though. I think there is a right way to publish for every author, every genre. No two books or authors are alike. So what is right for me today may not be right tomorrow. What is right for one book may not be right for the next.

So, what is your publishing path? I’d be interested to know what you’ve done, how you’ve done it and what you learned from the path (or paths) you chose.

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and how to books for writers including, The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't; The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success; and Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers . The Great First Impression Book Proposal is her newest booklet for writers. She has three FRUGAL books for retailers including A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques. Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use the little Green widget to let them know about this blog:

Review of Must-Have Book on Publishing

noreply@blogger.com (Carolyn Howard-Johnson) — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 09:57:00 +0000

Get Published Today

Subtitle: An Insider’s Guide to Publishing Success

By Penny C. Sansevieri

Publisher: Wheatmark 2011

ISBN: 9781604945591

Nonfiction/ (Writing/Publishing)

Contact Reviewer: hojonews@aol.com

Let the Expert Make an Expert of You

Marketing Guru Shares Publishing Secrets

Reviewed by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, award-winning author of This Is the Place and Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered, Tracings, a chapbook of poetry and the How To Do It Frugally Series of books for writers and retailers.

Many of my consulting clients first come to me because they’ve self-published or used a partner publisher and run into some serious mistakes (and misunderstandings) along the way. When Dan Poynter endorsed the second edition of my Frugal Book Promoter (http://budurl.com/FrugalBkPromo) he noted that “The most expensive parts of book promotion are the mistakes.” That’s true of publishing a book, too.

In Get Published Today, Penny C. Sansevieri has written a definitive book on self-publishing. One glance at the Contents (a reliable resource for being reasonably sure a book will give us the information we need), tells us this book will do the job for any author who has chosen the self-publishing route because they don’t want to bide their time during the long and emotionally strenuous agent/traditional publishing route. Or they know that self-publishing is the best way to make more money for their particular title.

Sansevieri covers the basics in the first section, “Let’s Get Published.” In fact she even covers the different publishing models that will help a writer make the best choice. She doesn’t neglect the publishing process, discussions of where you can get help and what you’re likely to need help with.

The third section works at convincing authors that marketing is indeed part of publishing—an essential part. Thank heaven for that! After the thorough job she does of helping a writer bring their book to market, what would be the point of letting it languish!

I am a big proponent of learning by reading. Any author considering the self-publishing route should have a go at this book. The information in it will stand them in good stead no matter what publishing decisions they finally make. The more any writer knows about the publishing world, the less chance there is of having unrealistic expectations, the less chance of making those expensive mistakes.

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson’s first novel, This is the Place, has won eight awards. Her book of creative nonfiction Harkening, won three. A UCLA Writers' Program instructor, she also is the author of another book essential for writers, USA Book News' Best Professional Book , The Frugal Book Promoter: How to get nearly free publicity on your own or partnering with your publisher to get nearly free publicity on your own or by partnering with your publisher (http://budurl.com/FrugalBkPromo). The second in the HowToDoItFrugally series, The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success (also a multi award-winner) covers writing successful query letters and includes helpful hints from twenty of the nation's top agents. Purchase it at Amazon, http://budurl.com/TheFrugalEditor. Learn more at her Web site http://HowToDoItFrugally.com.

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and how to books for writers including, The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't; The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success; and Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers . The Great First Impression Book Proposal is her newest booklet for writers. She has three FRUGAL books for retailers including A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques. Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use the little Green widget to let them know about this blog:

The Big Virtual Book Tour Question: Dana Lynn Smith Give You the Answer!

noreply@blogger.com (Carolyn Howard-Johnson) — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 09:21:00 +0000

Dana Lynn Smith is the amazing possessor of two related skills, marketing and Internet know how of the tech dimension. Today she is my guest in honor of her own book tour for her new book on, yep! Book Tour Magic!

Should You Hire Someone to Organize Your Virtual Book Tour?

Today's guest post from Dana Lynn Smith, The Savvy Book Marketer, is part of the virtual book tour for her newest book marketing guide, Virtual Book Tour Magic.

The beauty of a virtual book tour is that you can reach a large audience of targeted book buyers by appearing on blogs, podcasts, social networks and other venues, all from the comfort of home.

Organizing a virtual book tour isn't difficult, but it does require good planning and organization, along with an investment of time. Some authors plan their own tours, while others turn to outside help. Here are three ways to organize your virtual book tour:

Do It Yourself

The main advantages of organizing your own virtual book tour are that you will save money and you'll have complete control over the entire process. As the author, you're in the best position to understand your audience and who would make ideal tour hosts. You'll also have more opportunity to develop relationships with your tour hosts, who may be valuable contacts in the future. The disadvantage of the DIY approach is the investment of time.

Hire Assistance

Another option is to use an assistant to help you. You'll need to consider all of the tasks involved in planning and executing the virtual book tour and decide which ones can be delegated. Researching tour hosts is one task that's commonly delegated.

Hiring help will save you time, but you'll still need to do some of the planning yourself and you'll probably need to write all or most of the content for the tour. If the person you're working with isn't familiar with researching venues and organizing virtual book tours, you'll need to educate them.

If you don't already have an assistant, you can search online for an "author assistant" or "virtual assistant" or hire someone from a freelance service such as Elance or Odesk.

Hire a Tour Manager

If you don't have time to organize everything yourself, or you'd just prefer to have someone else handle the details, you can hire a virtual book tour manager. But keep in mind that you will still need to devote time to creating content and promoting the tour.

One advantage of hiring a tour manager is that someone who specializes in doing tours in your book genre may have valuable contacts with bloggers who would be good tour hosts. The disadvantage is the cost and the lack of control over details.

Some book publicity and promotion firms offer virtual book tour management as part of their services, and there are also individuals and companies that specialize in organizing virtual book tours.

Tour services and prices vary widely, so be sure to compare services and be clear about exactly what you're getting. Also, find out if the company specializes in any particular type of book and how much experience they have.

Regardless of which method you choose, you'll still benefit from a thorough understanding of virtual book tours and how to produce compelling content to showcase you and your book.

If you're organizing your own tour, you'll find everything you need to know about planning and creating tour content in my new Virtual Book Tour Magic guidebook. It's also a good tool to educate your assistant in how to help you.

If you hire a tour manager, the information in this book will give you a thorough understand of the process, help you find the best tour manager and work effectively with them, and guide you in choosing the style of tour and creating great content.

About the Author

Dana Lynn Smith, The Savvy Book Marketer, helps authors and indie publishers learn how to sell more books through her how-to guides, blog, newsletter, and private coaching. For more book promotion tips, get her free Top Book Marketing Tips ebooks at www.TheSavvyBookMarketer.com

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and how to books for writers including, The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't; The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success; and Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers . The Great First Impression Book Proposal is her newest booklet for writers. She has three FRUGAL books for retailers including A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques. Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use the little Green widget to let them know about this blog:

Author Privacy: Some Want It, Others Don't. . .

noreply@blogger.com (Carolyn Howard-Johnson) — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 21:46:00 +0000

...but most of us want to stay in control of what is out there. This is a reprint from my Sharing with Writers newsletter that will help you do that. To get the whole letter once a month in your e-mail box (free!), send an e-mail post with SUBSCRIBE in the subject box to HoJoNews @ AOL. com.

Keep Facebook from Automatically Identifying Your Photo… ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You’ve heard the old story. Some classmate from the 1970s dug up a photo of you and him at the local pub looking slightly pie-eyed. Facebook’s magic face recognition software identifies you by name and now everyone knows it’s you and—worse—can find this picture of you with hardly any effort. You’d like to avoid that kind of thing? Here’s how to opt out:

Go to your “Account” link. Click
Find the “Privacy Settings” in the drop down menu. Click
Now find the ”Sharing on Facebook” section. Click.
Find “Customize Settings. ”Click.
Scroll to find “Suggested Photos of Me to Friends.” Click.
Next click on “Edit Settings.”
You then find “Disable.” Click.

They don’t make this process easy, so while you’re there you can check your other privacy settings. You can do the same kind of thing with your phone number, your e-mail address, etc.

Here’s a caveat, though. Because you are an author, you want people to find you, recognize pictures of your book covers, even send you fan mail, etc. If you use your account to reach readers as well as your old high school buds (and they are readers—well, they could be readers, no?) you may not want to get too private or you’ll lose some of the things Facebook does to benefit your marketing campaign.

This may be one reason that many authors keep their Facebook accounts and “Like” or “Fan” pages separate. I don’t. I like to communicate with my readers and I don’t like to two jobs when one will do. But “like” pages are another way—other than using stringent privacy measure—to keep your private life private and your growing fame no secret.

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and how to books for writers including, The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't; The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success; and Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers . The Great First Impression Book Proposal is her newest booklet for writers. She has three FRUGAL books for retailers including A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques. Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use the little Green widget to let them know about this blog:

Still Time to Give Multi Award-Winning Author's Pick to Your Fave Author for Holidays

noreply@blogger.com (Carolyn Howard-Johnson) — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 09:49:00 +0000

I thought you'd like to see this great, practical review of the second edition of my Frugal Book Promoter, updated and expanded. Especially with Christmas around the corner. Amazon still promises delivery by Christmas. The author in your life needs this holiday gift. (-:

The Frugal Book Promoter
By Carolyn Howard-Johnson416 pages
ISBN: 9781463743291
Available in paperback or for Kindle
Also available as an e-book at http://createspace.com/3656422
Author's Web site: http://www.howtodoitfrugally.com

Everything you wanted to know about book promoting and much

much more., September 25, 2011

Reviewed by

mary greenwood

originally for Amazon

This review is from: The Frugal Book Promoter: Second Edition: How to get nearly free publicity on your own or by partnering with your publisher. (Paperback)

When I saw the Table of Contents for this promoting bible, I was hooked. There was a chapter on everything I wanted or needed to know. I have written three "How To" books and have had a number of reviews and awards, but I am looking to go to the next level with some fresh new ideas. In other words, I had reached a plateau and did not want to repeat the same old methods.

When I first started reading the book I immediately liked the tone. It was as though the author was in my living room saying: Mary, why don't you try this and maybe you don't want to do this." Her books, like mine, are based on her personal experience. She has done book fairs; she has taught classes and consulted with authors; she has written award-winning books. She is an expert. That is what makes the book so powerful. I have read books that make me feel guilty if I haven't done ten things for my book that day.

Yesterday, I exhibited at a book festival and most of the authors were complaining that they had few sales. I looked up the topic in my new book. The author says "Book festivals are for readers." I knew intuitively that she was right. She goes on to say that these are really networking opportunities for the writers and not that many books are sold. That shift made me feel encouraged rather than discouraged at the book festival's results. Even though I did not sell tons of books, I did meet a lot of people: readers, writers and bookstore owners. I got a few tips and gave a few tips. I reconnected with people I had seen at previous events and got some recommendations for the best venues for future events. The author was spot on.

I also checked the chapter on book awards. I have won a total of 28 book awards for my three books and thought I knew all there was to know about awards and have spoken on the subject. However, after reading that section on book awards, I realized that I was not doing enough publicizing after I won the book awards and I am going to remedy that situation. Another tip I picked up. I am now going to say Mary Greenwood, multi-award winning author, instead of award-winning author.

Of course, I wished I had seen this book when my first book came out, but I can see that this book is useful for all authors, those working on their first book and authors who already have published several books and need some new ideas. I know I will go back and reread a chapter when I am starting a new task such as a press release or am thinking about doing a new blog or sprucing up my website.

I am just starting on my new book about "How to Negotiate With Your Dog" (hint: you don't.) I am going to use The Frugal Book Promoter Second Edition, the whole way. I can't wait to get started!
~Reviewer Green is author of How to Interview Like A Pro: Forty-Three Rules for Getting Your Next Job

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and how to books for writers including, The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't; The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success; and Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers . The Great First Impression Book Proposal is her newest booklet for writers. She has three FRUGAL books for retailers including A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques. Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use the little Green widget to let them know about this blog:

Getting the Most Out of Organizations

noreply@blogger.com (Carolyn Howard-Johnson) — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 02:51:00 +0000

I just joined (or rejoined!) IBPA (formerly PMA). Right after I received this rundown of benefits from Terry Nathan, the leader personified. (-: I thought I'd pass them to my blog readers. I think it's essential that authors who want to network, promote and otherwise build a writing career join organizations--goo ones. But here's my caveat. Look at what they have to offer before you spend your money. And determine what you will use, how you can be active and contribute, how you will benefit. Then weigh those things. Whether or not the organization will be worth the money spent is strictly up to us--the joiners. (-:

I have permission from Terry to reprint his letter:

Dear Carolyn,

Instead of going it alone and spending thousands on direct marketing campaigns, join your fellow IBPA members and get the maximum bang for the minimum buck with IBPA's marketing programs.

Take a look at the marketing opportunities below with immediate and upcoming deadlines. Please remember November 30th is the registration deadline only. For most programs, materials will need to be here by December 10th

NOVEMBER 30th DEADLINES

COOKBOOKS CATALOG MAILINGThis catalog produced by IBPA mails to 3,400 bookstore buyers, 3,000 reviewers, and 3,900 acquisition librarians. We will be featuring books in the following categories: Cookbooks/Cooking, Entertaining, Food Reference, etc. $350 per title. Click here: http://www.ibpa-online.org/programs/coopcats_target.aspx

PUBLIC LIBRARY MAILINGSend your fliers to 4,000 acquisition librarians at public libraries. $215 per flier. Click here for details: http://www.ibpa-online.org/programs/library.aspx

PUBLIC LIBRARY ASSOCIATION (PLA) SHOWGet your own booth or display your book(s) at this every-other-year show, which attracts public librarians and support staff. $125 per title or $2,300 for your own booth. This year's show will be in Philadelphia, PA. Click here for more details.: https://www.ibpa-online.org/pubresources/exhibits_pma.aspx

OTHER UPCOMING OPPORTUNITIES

THE 24th ANNUAL BENJAMIN FRANKLIN AWARDSRecognizing excellence in both editorial and design, this award is regarded as one of the highest national honors in book publishing. Books with a copyright of 2011 are eligible to enter. Click here for more details: http://ibpabenjaminfranklinawards.com/

RELIGIOUS/SPIRITUAL CATALOG MAILINGThis catalog produced by IBPA mails to 3,400 bookstore buyers, 3,000 reviewers, and 3,900 acquisition librarians We will be featuring books in the following categories: Religion, Spirituality, Inspirational, etc. Sign up now. $350 per title. Click here: http://www.ibpa-online.org/programs/coopcats_target.aspx

BOOKEXPO AMERICA (BEA) SHOWGet your own booth or display your book(s) at this annual show attracting everyone involved in the world of publishing. This is the largest show in the US each year and this year's show will take place in New York City. $125 per title or $3,800 for your own booth. Click here for more details.: https://www.ibpa-online.org/pubresources/exhibits_pma.aspx

AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION (ALA) SHOWGet your own booth or display your book(s) at this annual show attracting librarians from around the country. This is the annual show of the American Library Association and this year's show will take place in New Orleans, LA. $125 per title or $2,450 for your own booth. Click here for more details.: https://www.ibpa-online.org/pubresources/exhibits_pma.aspx

K-12 LIBRARY MAILINGSend your fliers to 4,000 acquisition librarians at Elementary, Middle, Jr. High and High School libraries. $215 per flier. Click here for details: http://www.ibpa-online.org/programs/library.aspx

COLLEGE LIBRARY MAILINGSend your fliers to 3,200 acquisition librarians at College, Jr. College and University libraries. $215 per flier. Click here for details: http://www.ibpa-online.org/programs/library.aspx

IBPA/INGRAM MARKETING PROGRAMSDirect mail and electronic marketing catalogs will expose your books to Ingram Content Group's 28,000 retailers and libraries worldwide.
Click here for details: https://www.ibpa-online.org/Programs/ingramprogram.aspx

AND MORE. . .

PW'S ADULT SPRING ANNOUNCEMENTS - LIST YOUR TITLES FOR FREEPublishers Weekly, the leading trade publication, has partnered with Above the Treeline to collect title information for its very popular Spring Announcement issue. Title collection procedure for PW's spring adult and children's announcements-the Jan. 23 and Feb. 20 issues, respectively, is under way. The deadline for information, to be entered through the PW/Edelweiss portal, is Dec. 5 for adult titles publishing between Feb. 1, 2012, and July 31, 2012, and for children's titles, between Jan. 1, 2012, and June 30, 2012. Click here for more details and to register:
http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/calls-for-information/index.html?record=63

If I can help in any way, please feel free to call on me anytime.

Terry

P.S. If you are receiving this after the deadline, please contact the IBPA office to see if there is still time to get into these programs.

--

Terry Nathan
Executive Director

PLEASE NOTE OUR NEW ADDRESS AND PHONE NUMBERSIBPA, the Independent Book Publishers Association
1020 Manhattan Beach Blvd., Suite 204
Manhattan Beach, CA 90266

Tel: 310.546.1818
Fax: 310.546.3939

terry@ibpa-online.org
http://www.ibpa-online.org

If you would rather not receive these reminders, please just let me know.

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and how to books for writers including, The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't; The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success; and Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers . The Great First Impression Book Proposal is her newest booklet for writers. She has three FRUGAL books for retailers including A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques. Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use the little Green widget to let them know about this blog:

Charity-Driven Promotion: Author Sets an Example

noreply@blogger.com (Carolyn Howard-Johnson) — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 09:32:00 +0000

I've long reccommended partnering with a charity for the purposes of promotion, branding and--yes! making our little author-selves feel better. When this arrived in my e-mail box from an old online friend Karina Fabian, I thought I'd get casual and share it with you. Perhaps it will serve as inspiration for your own charity-driven campaign, today. It' is Thanksgiving!

GUEST POST BY KARINA FABIAN

I’d heard about serial stories on websites from a friend who has apparently made money at it—better than if she’d published in a magazine—so I decided to give it a try this year. I chose “Christmas Spirits,” a DragonEye, P.I. mystery, because of the season and because the next DragonEye, P.I .book, Live and Let Fly, comes out in April. (A little extra promotion and a chance for folks to fall in love with my characters.) However, since the story deals with poverty and homelessness, I wanted to do something other than raise some spending cash. Thus I decided to make it a charity fundraiser.

I chose Food for the Poor, because I know it well and they have the added benefit of letting your choose what you give. A cow is an option, and since Vern makes jokes about how he appreciated a fat cow over a skinny virgin, it seemed an appropriate goal. I divided the story into nine segments, planned a start date for mid-November, and set a goal of posting every Tues and Thurs as long as I got $5 in donations between episodes. In the sidebar, I put up a paypal link. Also (since I’m promoting the books), I gave the option to make a bigger donation and get a copy of one of the DragonEye books. Finally, I sent notices to everyone and every group I’m in, plus to all the people who have blogged or interviewed me in the past.

It’s still too early to tell how successful the campaign will be.

I invite you to check out the story at http://christmasspirits.karinafabian.com to see how I set it up. And if you like it, please consider donating and telling your friends!

Find the story at http://christmasspirits.karinafabian.com. You can also get to it via my website, http://fabianspace.com. Look under the Christmas dragon for the link. You can learn more about Food for the Poor at http://www.foodforthepoor.org.

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and how to books for writers including, The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't; The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success; and Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers . The Great First Impression Book Proposal is her newest booklet for writers. She has three FRUGAL books for retailers including A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques. Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use the little Green widget to let them know about this blog:

Free Promotion and Artistic Opportunity for Southwest Writers

noreply@blogger.com (Carolyn Howard-Johnson) — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 20:58:00 +0000

Connie Gotsch, author and host of "Write On" for KSJE that broadcasts to the Four Corners area of the US, tells me she she needs you if you or your book fit into the parameters she needs for her radio program. Over the years I've appeared on the show several times; her program is a great opportunity to have listeners hear your written word and your voice. Connie sent me this by way of explnation:

ATTENTION WRITERS :

IF YOU ARE WORKING IN UTAH, ARIZONA, COLORADO, NEW MEXICO, TEXAS, OKLAHOMA, CALIFORNIA, OR NEVADA, OR LIVE ELSEWHERE AND ARE WRITING ABOUT THE SOUTHWEST, KSJE FM FARMINGTON WILL CONSIDER YOUR BOOK FOR ITS AUTHORS PROGRAM, "WRITE ON FOUR CORNERS."

KSJE IS A FULL SERVICE PUBLIC RADIO STATION IN FARMINGTON , NEW MEXICO. WRITE ON FOUR CORNERS IS A HALF HOUR INTERVIEW PROGRAM WHICH AIRS AT 10:30 WED. MORNING AND 2:30 FRIDAY AFTERNOON. AUTHORS READ FROM THEIR BOOKS AND WE CHAT ABOUT HOW THOSE BOOKS CAME TO BE AND THE WRITING PROCESS.

TO LEARN MORE ABOUT WRITE ON FOUR CORNERS, GO TO WWW.KSJE.COM CLICK ON PODCASTS AND THEN ON WRITE ON FOUR CORNERS TO HEAR PAST RECORDINGS, OR CLICK LISTEN LIVE AT 10:30 AM ON FRIDAY AT 2:30 PM MOUNTAIN TIME TO HEAR LIV E BROADCASTS.

IF YOU COME ON THE SHOW, YOU WILL BE ALLOWED TO DOWNLOAD A COPY OF YOUR SEGMENT AND USE IT ON YOUR WEB SITE. WE WILL ALSO GIVE AWAY A COPY OF YOUR BOOK IF YOU WOULD LIKE.

TO BE CONSIDERED FOR WRITE ON FOUR CORNERS, SEND OR HAVE YOUR PUBLICIST SEND YOUR BOOK AND CONTACT INFORMATION TO ME:

Connie GotschKSJE 4601 College BlvdFarmington NM, 87402

To find out about me, click on conniegotsch.com or http://apbooks.net http://casadesnapdragon.com or http://KSJE.com

To contact me via email gotschc@sanjuancollege.edu
Phone 505 566 3377

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and how to books for writers including, The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't; The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success; and Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers . The Great First Impression Book Proposal is her newest booklet for writers. She has three FRUGAL books for retailers including A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques. Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use the little Green widget to let them know about this blog:

Reviewer Ron Klug Reviews Helpful Book for Writers

noreply@blogger.com (Carolyn Howard-Johnson) — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 09:23:00 +0000

Occasionally I run legitimage (not paid-for) reviews of books that will help writers on this blog. This one is reviewed by a writer who knows how important good books can be to the career of a writer--both in the writing-of-them and in the learning-from-them. (-:

Write-a-thon: Write your book in 26 days and live to tell about it

By Rochelle Melander

Author's Web site: www.writenowcoach.com

Genre: Writing Reference

ISBN 978-1-5996-3391-6

Available at www.writersdigestshop.com/product/write-a-thon

Reviewed by Ron Klug

Drawing on her experiences as a writer and writing coach, Melander offers in Write-a-Thon a valuable toolkit for the new writer or practiced writer in need of renewal . Around the idea of a 26-day writing marathon, she provides realistic advice for both fiction and nonfiction projects, guiding the writer through the idea-gathering, preparation, writing and recovery.

I wish I had had this book 40 years ago when I started to write for publication. It would have helped me be more productive with less stress. Now it has led me to a new nonfiction book idea that I plan to write in 26 days.

Even if you're not thinking of writing a book in 26 days, you'll find in Melander's book inspiration, guidance on craft, writing exercises , and a comprehensive bibliography.

~Reviewer Ronald Klug has been a book editor for Harper San Francisco and Ausgburg Fortress and a free-lance writer and editor for 20 years. Author of 20 books including How to Keep a Spiritual Journal and A 40-Day Journey with Dietrich Bonhoefer. Now retired, he lives in a log cabin where he splits wood, reads, hikes, reads, gardens, reads, canoes, reads. Reach him at ronklug1331@yahoo.com.

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and how to books for writers including, The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't; The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success; and Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers . The Great First Impression Book Proposal is her newest booklet for writers. She has three FRUGAL books for retailers including A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques. Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use the little Green widget to let them know about this blog:

Book Catalogs from Indie Bookstores: Is Your Book a Fit?

noreply@blogger.com (Carolyn Howard-Johnson) — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 09:43:00 +0000

This little notice is from an upcoming Sharing with Writers newsletter. It will be in the regular "Opportunities" section. Most of the great tips in that letter don't get included in this blog (and many blog posts don't get included in the newsletter!) So, if you want to subscribe, send me an e-mail with SUBSCRIBE in the subjectline. HoJoNews@aol.com.

Your Book Needs To Be Seen in an Indie Holiday Catalog

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
An adorable bookstore in my community called Once Upon a Time puts out a holiday season catalog each year. That is a very expensive thing to do, especially for a small indie. But they have a catalog secret (which I explain in its entirety The Frugal Book Promoter (http://budurl.com/FrugalBkPromo).) But here’s part of it: Once Upon a Time doesn’t put that catalog out all by itself.

Once Upon a Time (and other indies like it) has help from an organization that produces catalogs for Southern California bookstores. In their case the secret is the Southern California Independent Booksellers Association. This particular catalog relies on suggestions from their independent bookstores to ascertain what titles will go into the catalog, a very good reason for authors to stay connected to their favorite indie.

There are sure to be similar organizations who have similar services for bookstores in other parts of the country. But here’s the other secret. If you have a book published YOU don’t have to live in that area. They choose what they deem the best of the best. Perhaps you could ask to be put on Once Upon A Time’s mailing list. Call them at 818 248 9668. If they are kind enough to send you a copy, buy a book from them. (It’s Karma!)

And check http://www.bookweb.org/resources/regionals.html for other Independent Booksellers Associations throughout the US. Ask how you apply. Get their application dates and deadlines installed on your calendar with an alert to get it done. Your book may be especially suitable for one of them but if your book is mainstream, it may be a fit for all of them.

If application is difficult, think “back door” (another concept explained for getting reviews in The Frugal Book Promoter). Notice that some of these regional organizations have contests. If your book wins one of them, you are probably a shoo-in to be considered for inclusion in their catalog.

Your book may not get selected but, hey, it may have a shot. My mother used to say, "You never know if you could have won if you don't try."

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and how to books for writers including, The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't; The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success; and Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers . The Great First Impression Book Proposal is her newest booklet for writers. She has three FRUGAL books for retailers including A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques. Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use the little Green widget to let them know about this blog:

Book Promotion: A Book for Writers with "Enduring Value"

noreply@blogger.com (Carolyn Howard-Johnson) — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 09:02:00 +0000

The Frugal Book Promoter, second edition
Carolyn Howard-Johnson
HowToDoItFrugally Publishing
Author's Web site: www.carolynhoward-johnson.com
ISBN: 9781463743291,

$17.95

Available: Paperback on Amazon

Kindle on Amazon

Reviewed by Jim Cox, Editor of The Midwest Book Review
Originally for the Midwest Book Review and newsletter

Carolyn Howard-Johnson draws upon her many years of experience and expertise as a professional book publicist and marketing specialist to author "The Frugal Book Promoter". The 416-page compendium of commentary, advice, tips, tricks and 'real world' techniques on how to authors can obtain nearly free publicity on your own or by partnering with their publishers will prove to be an invaluable, practical, profitable, and thoroughly 'user friendly' instructional reference.

It should be noted that the Midwest Book Review is cited four times. Of special note in this newly expanded and completely updated second edition are the sample letters query letters, media releases, blog entries, trade show invitations, phone pitch scripts, email auto-signatures, and tip sheets.

Simply stated, The Frugal Book Promoter is the single most valuable addition any aspiring author or novice small press publishers can add to their personal and professional book marketing reference shelves -- and has a great deal of enduring value for even the more experienced publisher marketing directors and publicists.

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and how to books for writers including, The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't; The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success; and Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers . The Great First Impression Book Proposal is her newest booklet for writers. She has three FRUGAL books for retailers including A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques. Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use the little Green widget to let them know about this blog:

Autistic Author's Story Interests Sharing with Writers Reader

noreply@blogger.com (Carolyn Howard-Johnson) — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 22:49:00 +0000

Today a Sharing with Writers reader is sharing with us about a feature story about an autistic author she rant across on the Web. I thought it would give my readers ideas for angles that the media (press) likes to cover and find it fascinating in its own right. What wonderful things writing can do! What a wonderful thing it is to be a writer.

Introducing Authors with Autism to Children with Autism

By Denise Keene

A recent article published on www.WashingtonTimes.com covered Jane Meyerding, an author who wrote “Mapping Charlie.” A murder mystery novel that has received great reviews since its release, “Mapping Charlie” is about a woman with autism (who is also face blind) who is suspected of murdering her college classmate.

Like the character in her mystery novel, Meyerding is also autistic and face blind (a disorder also known as prosopagnosia where the ability to recognize faces is impaired, making it difficult to remember information about people). Meyerding was diagnosed with autism much later in life than most; she actually noticed autism symptoms in herself and made an informal self-diagnosis before being officially diagnosed. In the Washington Times article (http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/autism-unexpected/2011/nov/8/focus-autistic-author-jane-meyerding/ ), Meyerding says that her novels are “a way to help people understand that most assumptions about autism so far are based on stereotypes and simply don't fit the reality of autistic lives.”

Meyerding’s novel seems like a great read for all, as it has received five out of five stars on both Amazon and Lulu reviews. But besides the book, I find Meyerding a great role model for those like her who aspire to be a writer. As a special education teacher, I am always trying to find ways in which to inspire my students. For those students with special needs who express an interest in writing and storytelling, introducing authors like Jane Meyerding to them is a great way to provide inspiration. Students love to know that there are others like them who share their interest and have succeeded at what they love to do. Presenting author’s with autism to students with special needs is a great way to help them realize that they can indeed pursue their passions in life.

Meyerding is just one of many people who have excelled and overcome the obstacles placed in front of her. One more well-known author with autism, Temple Grandin, is another role model I like to introduce to my students. Other writer’s with a disorder on the autism spectrum include Pulitzer Prize winner Tim Page, Jerry Newport, Luke Jackson and Dawn Prince-Hughes; among many others.

“Mapping Charlie” can be purchased on Amazon.com or Lulu.com.

~ Denise Keene has been a special ed teacher for 15 years now and likes to write articles about related topics. She also owns the site http://www.mastersinspecialeducation.org and has a Masters In Special Education.

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and how to books for writers including, The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't; The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success; and Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers . The Great First Impression Book Proposal is her newest booklet for writers. She has three FRUGAL books for retailers including A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques. Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use the little Green widget to let them know about this blog:

Discover the Secrets of Book Promotion with a Weekly Program

noreply@blogger.com (Carolyn Howard-Johnson) — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 21:49:00 +0000

I've always said that one of the best (and most frugal!) ways for an author to learn more about book promotion is by reading books written by the pros, and that's why I wrote The Frugal Book Promoter (www.budurl.com/FrugalBkPromo). Having said that, this new program from Dan Poynter sounds like a perfect aid and would be especially useful for anyone who has read at least one good book on book promotion. That's because educators tell us that we learn fast and retain better ideas that we've already been introduced to. At any rate here is more information from Dan:

Discover the Secrets of Book Promotion with
Personal Guidance and Proven, Weekly Learning Opportunities

Dan Poynter’s Para Promotion Program celebrates books and honors authors
by bringing public attention to your books.

The Para Promotion Program is a series of book promotion projects the
author can accomplish without leaving home. The weekly assignments show
the author what to do to reach his or her target audience.

For both fiction and nonfiction, there are readers who are as fascinated
about your subject/category as you are. This program shows you how to find
them—all over the world.

Each week, authors receive a book promotion assignment from Dan Poynter.
Each of the 42 book-promotion projects takes the author anywhere from five
to 120 minutes to complete. The program not only shows the author how to
promote his or her current book, it is a crash course in book promotion
that can be applied to future books.

This program does not recite traditional book promotion. It is guided by
Dan Poynter’s exciting, proven program of the future.

Meanwhile, Program PR expert Barbara Gaughen is spinning her electronic
Rolodex to get notice for your books. Gaughen (“gone”) has been in the
public relations business for decades and she focuses on books.

Dan Poynter’s Para Promotion Program is not an overwhelming list of
projects for authors; it is a collection of individual lessons with full
instructions and personal guidance by successful industry experts.

And there is an added bonus: authors who understand how to reach their
audience tend to write books their readers want. They begin to understand
who their readers are, what their readers want, and how to reach their
buyers. The Para Promotion program makes authors more successful.

Authors of one or more books may sign up for $497.
Publishers may sign up several of their authors for just $397 each.
That's less than $12 a week to reach your buyers.

Dan Poynter has been in the book publishing business since 1969 and has
written more than 125 books. He is often referred to as a “book futurist.”

The Para Promotion Program debuts on November 1, 2011, may be started at
any time—and runs for 42 weeks.

For details, see: http://parapromotion.com and begin your book promotion
today.
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Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and how to books for writers including, The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't; The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success; and Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers . The Great First Impression Book Proposal is her newest booklet for writers. She has three FRUGAL books for retailers including A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques. Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use the little Green widget to let them know about this blog: