Get In on the Cutting Edge of iPad

I just received this from Gene Cartwright and his iFOGO team. Hot off the press. And I wanted you to know about it so you can stay abreast of developments. I know how much Kindle can do for a book and it's just possible iPad will match it. They are competitors, sure, but it's in the interest of anyone with a product to sell (for us that's books!) to let their customers buy it the way they want it (for us that's anything from paperback to iPad or Kindle). Note I didn't say hardback. Because of the expense, I think it is a dying breed, at least for any but the top selling authors in the world. So here is the message from iFOGO, as it came to me:


iPAD

This new technology ushers in a new approach to how books are presented and sold on the web. For authors published my major publishers, this will be a bonanza. However, for the millions of self-published, and micro-published authors, this platform of the future will not be so inclusive. They will be left behind.

But not to worry. We at iFOGO have been thinking ahead as well. We are certain we have the tools to make sure you are not left out. While your book may not appear in Apple's Bookstore (set to operate like iTunes, we have a solution that will present your books in an iPAD compatible, compact, and full-featured format that no other site can offer.

We have acquired and are developing iPadBookseller.com (available soon),
and added it to the iFOGO Family. It will be unlike anything on the web.

* One, slick, compact, iPad Compatible, non-scrolling page with access to:
Photos
Audio/Video
Digitized excerpts
Bio
Buy links
Contact form
Twitter/Facebook/MySpace and 225 networks
All designed for the iPAD and similar technology, including the smartphones.

For a personal email notification, send blank message to:
iPadbookseller@ifogo.com, with iPAD in the subject line.

Thanks,
Jane Austen Dickey, for iFOGO

Just to complete your round or research on this, here is CNN's take on iPad: http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/01/28/apple.ipad.publishers.reaction/index.html. And, in the meantime, keep up on your book promotion. Everything you do now will contribute to the new iterations of your book--whether it's print or electronic. (-:


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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 two how to books for writers, The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't and The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success. Her FRUGAL book for retailers is 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. She is also the author of the Amazon Short, "The Great First Impression Book Proposal". 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 .

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Promote and Give Books to Troops: And a Freebie for You

As some of you blog subscribers know, my grandson is back now from two tours of duty in Iraq and is now stationed (very luckily) near Monterrey, CA. Thus, the plight of our troops is a subject near and dear to my heart. Hang in there. This is about a way you can promote your book.

My poetry writing partner Magdalena Ball and I are giving away e-copies of chapbook of unconventional love poetry Cherished Pulse to our troops overseas as part of Operation e-book drop. They will get an e-mail with a coupon code for a free copy at Smashbooks.

We would love to have you have a copy, too. Partly to see how the program works. Partly to share our poetry with you. The coupon code to use to get it free is ZF39H (not case sensitive).You will enter the code prior to completing your checkout. It expires: February 28, 2010

You may want to do something similar for the troops. More about Op Ebook Drop is here:
http://blog.smashwords.com/2009/09/smashwords-supports-operation-ebook.html

And they have a Facebook group here:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Operation-EBook-Drop/172002003420

If you prefer to send a real copy to someone, that is easy, too. It is only $6.95 on Amazon (www.budurl.com/CherishedPulse), certainly a doable gift. And it is really beautiful with Vicki Thomas’s artwork.

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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 two how to books for writers, The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't and The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success. Her FRUGAL book for retailers is 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. She is also the author of the Amazon Short, "The Great First Impression Book Proposal". 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 .

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A Resource and a Little Bragging from Carolyn

Naturally, I love to shout to the world about journals I'm published in so I'm hoping this one will interest some of you for either reading or as a resource for submissions. Especially the poets and literary writers. Here is the notice that Front Range, a literary journal from Montana State University sent out asking for support in both instances:

The 2010 issue of Front Range (formerly MO: Writings from the River) is now out, and is bigger and better than ever! This year’s issue features the works of such talented writers and award-winners as Mark Gibbons, Robert Lee, Ellaraine Lockie, Joshua Gray, Carolyn Howard-Johnson, Tom Holmes, Alan Berecka, Donna D. Vittuci, Adrian S. Potter, and many, many others!

Copies are available delivered to your home annually for $11 plus $3 postage.

Please feel free to check out archives and submission guidelines at http://www.frontrangemt.org

Frederick Bridger, PhD, Editor, 219 12 St. N., Great Falls, MT 59401

My story that appears in Front Range this issue is "Grandfather Rock." It is a story told to me by an American Indian woman I met when I was on a retreat for cancer survivors several years ago, a kind of magical realism piece. I am truly proud to be part of the literary effort.
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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 two how to books for writers, The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't and The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success. Her FRUGAL book for retailers is 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. She is also the author of the Amazon Short, "The Great First Impression Book Proposal". 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 it:

Roman Retreat, E-Books and, Yes, Promotion

Traveling makes my pen happy.

I’ll admit. I’m addicted to travel. My writing is addicted to travel. And I’m not even a travel writer. So, I don’t know why it’s taken me so long to do this (keep reading!). Sometimes we just need a little help from our friends.

That’s where Eve Caram comes in. She was my first teacher when I was refining my novel-writing craft back in about 2000. She rented a villa in Italy last year and had access to one in Rome when we started talking about how convenient and inspirational time in Italy would be for writers.

Then, once we had settled into the idea, I remembered that Jo Linsdell lives in Rome. I had worked with her on her free seminar day that focuses on book promotion. Excuse me if I say, we were an instant hit, The Three Writing Musketeers. Jo will be giving a couple seminars, too.

We are ready to go at this full steam. We are arranging for attendees to get hundreds of dollars in free e-books on writing. Dawn McDine's new self-help book for writers is one of them.

If you have one, we can use it as a way to talk about free as a marketing engine, about cross-promotion and to encourage attendees to recommend ones they like to their critique partners, online groups, and more. We're also accepting paperback but they'd have to be sent to Jo by ship well in advance and that can be costly. Reach me at HoJoNews@aol.com.

No, we won’t limit our offers to how-to books only. No matter what you offer, your job is to send fliers with a pitch on what it’s about and the link for free access. Contact me at hojonews@aol.com for information on where to send your fliers.

We are also planning to have a welcome dinner (no host) at the restaurant where Jo’s husband works--right in the heart of Rome. And we may have a table at the restaurant to display (and sell?) our books.

Keep in mind this is not a conference. It is a casual retreat. Very small. Full of love and inspiration. There are few if any requirements other than sharing with expenses and an interest in writing. And that sharing thing is a frugal way to go.

You should see the gorgeous town house we’ll be staying in! My gawd! A dream come true with a roof garden for getting together to talk writing and for some seminars. We’ll even be tailoring the seminars to the interests of those attending. Go to www.budurl.com/RomanRetreat to see pictures of "our place." We only have a couple more spots left so please hurry. We want you with us!

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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 two how to books for writers, The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't and The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success. Her FRUGAL book for retailers is 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. She is also the author of the Amazon Short, "The Great First Impression Book Proposal". 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 blog.

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

How Frequent Changes on Big Web Sites Affect Our Publishing Plans

What do the constant changes on Facebook and Amazon, etc. mean to us writers of nonfiction? Do they only mean that we have something new to learn all the time?

Yes. But for those who write how-to books (or buy them) that feature lots of online tips with links, they mean you need to consider their shelf life. You new book will be outdated with the first change any of the tech giants make if you are trying to help people through the step-by-step practicalities.

So, what to do? Consider eschewing paperbacks that are more expensive to update. A good alternative is the e-book format. It can be updated reasonably quickly.

The alternative is to avoid specific navigation steps in your print edtion. See the new changes expected on Facebook soon at http://www.switched.com/2009/12/28/facebook-gets-another-facelift-in-other-news-sun-rises-grass/?icid=main|htmlws-main-n|dl6|link3|http%3A%2F%2Fwww.switched.com%2F2009%2F12%2F28%2Ffacebook-gets-another-facelift-in-other-news-sun-rises-grass%2F

And, now go rework anything you've already published or plan to publishes that helps people with Facebook.

It does seem a shame, doesn't it? Some of these changes don't really feel like improvement and they discourage us from writing anything but the most general of guidelines for our readers. If you're a techie, you may not agree. You may not want to discourage progress.

Where do you stand?

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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 two how to books for writers, The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't and The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success. Her FRUGAL book for retailers is 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. She is also the author of the Amazon Short, "The Great First Impression Book Proposal". 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 blog.

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

Nancy Famolari Shares On Writing with Your Senses

Today Nancy Famolari reminds us to Write with Your Senses Wide Open", something we often forget to do, probably because we get so tied up in tapping on our computer keyboards. Thank you for this guest post, Nancy!You even teach by showing rather than telling!


I don't have trouble putting down a book. I can do it for an hour, a day, a month, a year, or never pick it up again. Eternal on the Water by Joseph Monninger (available from Simon and Schuster in February) is different. I couldn't put it down, not because of the tragic love story, the spunky heroine, or the honorable hero. Monniger's strong sensory images drew me into that world. I felt the fine spray of paddles dipping in the racing river, tasted the first bittersweet sip of hot coffee on a brisk morning, saw sunlight filter though the pines to awaken iridescent colors from a black bird wing.

To show rather than tell, we must use all five senses to draw the reader into the story. I love camping, so the images in Eternal on the Water, appealed to my senses stimulating emotion. Emotion drives the story. The more our senses are awakened to the emotions we once experienced, the more we feel a part of the story. Senses not only connect us to the story, they announce the emotion. Slimy things crawling on the floor hint at something unsavory afoot. Champagne bubbling on the tongue telegraphs happiness and celebration.

Fit the images into the story. Long paragraphs of description are unnecessary. The trick is to pick the exact image to bring the story to life. A shower of sparks erupting from the campfire when a pocket of sap in a pine log bursts, the murmur of the river drifting through the pines, the smell of bacon frying over a campfire on a windy morning, streams of water twisting like dark rope in the current: these images tucked into the movement of the story bring us into the world and make it ours.
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Nancy Famolari's stories and poems have appeared in Long Story Short, Flash Shot, Fiction Flyer, Lyrica, Alienskin Magazine Clockwise Cat, and Matters of the Heart from the Museitup Press. Her young adult novel, Unwelcome Guest at Fair Hill Farm, is available from Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/Unwelcome-Guest-Fair-Hill-Farm/dp/1448697123/).









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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 two how to books for writers, The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't and The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success. Her FRUGAL book for retailers is 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. She is also the author of the Amazon Short, "The Great First Impression Book Proposal". 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 blog.

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

Interviewer Wendy Burt Shares Top Tips from Her Friends

Wendy Burt-Thomas is generous enough to interview people like crazy--for her blog-- and also to share some of the best tips they've given her with my subscribers and visitors while I am on vacation. Thank you, Wendy!


Best Advice from a Year’s Worth of Author Interviews

By Wendy Burt-Thomas

For the past year, one of the main staples on my blog has been the “10 Questions for…” format. I estimate that I hosted some 150 authors in 2009, most of who answered the same 10 questions. One of the questions that my blog visitors most want answered is, “What is your advice for other writers?”

The most common answer from the authors was “Don’t ever give up.” There were, however, some other more specific responses. Here are 10 of my favorites:

1. “Read stories about other writers and how many dark times they had to overcome before achieving whatever they consider success.” – Lynda Hilburn, “The Vampire Shrink” and “Dark Harvest”

2. “Learn about the industry from ALL aspects, not just that of the writer and a reader. You also need to understand more about the agent’s role, publisher’s role and the bookseller’s role so that you can view the industry from all five perspectives. This will help you have more reasonable expectations and make your efficient and effective when you seek publication.” – Laura Hayden, author of “Red, White and Blue” and 10 other books

3. “Find people who will give you honest, constructive feedback. It’s not enough to say, ‘This is just great!’ or ‘This isn’t working.’ You need someone who can say, ‘This is great and here’s how I think it can be better.’ Or, ‘This isn’t working but I think this is how you can make it work.’” – Frances Cole Jones, “The WOW Factor”

4. “You can’t do anything about the luck except not quit five minutes before the miracle. Beyond that, it’s persistence, persistence, persistence. And get critique. Be willing to kill your darlings.” – Elizabeth Zelvin, “Death Will Help You Leave Him” and “Death Will Get You Sober”

5. “One of the best pieces of advice I’ve ever gotten was to put your protagonist someplace he or she doesn’t want to be. Also, your characters have to want something, and there needs to be something or someone to keep them from getting it.” – Elisa Lorello, “Faking It”

6. “Fight writer’s block by writing the middle of your story first. Then go back and craft/polish your work by adding the beginning and end.” – Praveen Puri, “Stock Trading Riches”

7. “One of the wisest things that I learned early on is that agents and publishers want to represent careers not simply books. Do you have an idea for your next book? How about the one after that? Could your book / idea be turned into a movie (theatrical or made-for-TV), a miniseries or a television series? What about a CD or DVD series? You will be asked about subsequent books and multimedia possibilities – have answers ready when the question is asked.” – Carole Brody Fleet, “Widows Wear Stilettos”

8. “If you attach your worth as a writer to what some critic has said about your work (again good or bad) then you have a very fragile foundation upon which you stand. Ultimately, a review is just an opinion.” – Chad Corrie, World of Tralodren® fantasy series

9. “Write a little every day. Blog, Twitter, Facebook … continue to market yourself because no one else will. Hire people to do what you aren’t good at doing – don’t try to be everything.” – Lisa Jander, “Dater’s Ed; The Instruction Manual for Parents”

10. “Capture your research, thoughts and interpretations in your computer. You can use it later. Do not start writing at the beginning. Computers allow us to start with that story or suddenly inspired segment. Assemble all your written pieces later.” – Dan Poynter, author of 126 books, world’s top self-publishing guru

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Wendy Burt-Thomas is the author of four books, including, “The Writer’s Digest Guide to Query Letters.” Her blog, “Ask Wendy, the Query Queen,” focuses on author interviews and writing contests. http://AskWendy.wordpress.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 two how to books for writers, The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't and The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success. Her FRUGAL book for retailers is 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. She is also the author of the Amazon Short, "The Great First Impression Book Proposal". 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 blog.

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

What Do You Talk About On Your Blog If You Write Fiction?

It's harder to promote fiction on a blog (or about anything else) than nonfiction, but it's not impossible. Here are some ideas. Note that sometimes you have to make your own news.

1. Review others' books and post the review. Choose ones in the same genre as yours or related to your book in other ways, like setting. Ask the author to promote your review post. If you need more information on this process, read the section on how to promote with your writing in The Frugal Book Promoter and for everything you need to know on the subject read Mayra Calvani's The Slippery Art of Book Reviewing.

2. Use the voice of your protagonist (or villain) in your post and let him or her tell some new stories, stories not found in your book. Be sure she or he mentions your book during the little story-telling spree.

3. Let your readers endorse your book. Ask them to. Post pictures of them and your book cover and talk about more than the book, make it about them. It could be a feature story of some interesting aspect of their lives or an interview. But interviews are common and if you wrote a feature story, you might end up selling the article to a print periodical or some other media.

4. Talk about trends in your genre. How does your book fit into them?

5. Answer reader's questions. Sometimes readers think of characters as real. Offer to expound or flesh out characters, including minor ones. You may end up using what you write as part of a sequel.

6. It seems obvious from the above but you could explore your next novel and let people weigh in with ideas.

7. Feature or link to the blogs of other authors or other review sites. Ask for reviews of your book on those same review sites.

8. Start an award. Contests are old news and often don't work well. But if you give an award once a year for a book in your genre? Well, I'm just starting to think of the possible benefits inherent with this including an opportunity to send out a media release with some real news in it, cross promotion with the winning author or authors.... Do you have other ideas for how awards could work? Leave them in the comments. Subscribers would love to hear them.

Oh! A resource for you. Go to Phyllis Zimbler Miller's and my Fiction Marketing page to read the chapter on blogs. There are even more ideas there.It is at www.fictionmarketing.com. And if you know an agent who might be interested in the concept, will you let them know about the site?

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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 two how to books for writers, The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't and The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success. Her FRUGAL book for retailers is 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. She is also the author of the Amazon Short, "The Great First Impression Book Proposal". 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 blog.

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

Jo-Anne’s 10 Sure Ways To Draw Viewers to Your Blog

In my absence, guest blogger Jo-Anne Vandermeulen is stepping in to talk book promotion. A veteran publicist, she has just released a book that I found was kin to the PR principles that I espouse. I think you will love her and her book as much as I do.


By Jo-Anne Vandermeulen


1. Produce amazing comment replies.

Visit other blogs in your niche or area of expertise, and leave well-written comments that contain valuable content. Leave your signature. Follow the discussion.

2. Provide a solution; it goes a long way.

Get out to other social media sites and prove you are an expert. Scan the discussions for questions you can answer simply. Contribute by sharing similar experiences, and empathize with the participants.

3. Publicize your articles.

Gain “Expert Author” status by submitting excellent articles from your blog. Ezine.com is one of many examples of recognized published postings (article directory) that not only attracts viewers, but is another method to get your name and niche out there.

4. Guest post or contribute articles on other blogs.

Each stream comes with its own readers. Many streams turn into a flow of traffic back to your site.

5. Build your list of followers.

Reach out into various social media networks and gather friends. Interact to form trusting relationships.

6. Vary your source of posts by incorporating audio and visual podcasts.

Presentation is everything. Create catchy titles with eye-drawing photographs. Supply the captions and posts with links back to your site. Include long tailed tags/keywords.

7. Target the 3 largest media sites.

YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter are the going fad today. Leave your signature with your site link. Update your profile within the joined media site. Interested participants will want to know more about you, so make you and your site accessible through simple navigation.

8. Educate your followers.

Provide simple guidelines or reminders. Encourage your followers to subscribe and tell them exactly how. Request your followers to promote you to others (their friends). “Spread the word” or “tell a friend.”

9. Find potential new followers.

Know who you want to attract and where to find them. Choose sites with major traffic, and take note of where these secondary sites are linked. Vary your target audience—do not always pitch to the same viewers.

10. Activate the webcrawlers and social bookmark each post.

Register your blog in Google, Yahoo, and MSN. After each post, ping the article (Digg,Delicious, Stumbleupon, etc.). Optimize your ranking in the search engines so your potential viewers can find you.

This excerpt is from Jo-Anne Vandermeulen's Premium Promotional Tips for Writers, pg.75.< For more marketing articles, read “PREMIUM PROMOTIONAL TIPS FOR WRITERS”. FREE Sneak-A-Peek and to purchase: http://vandermeulen.laurusbooks.com/ 5-Star Rating -“I recommend “Premium Promotional Tips for Writers” to writers and ALL who dream to be seen and heard on the Internet. Whether it be for fun or business, this inspirational book is a must read. The huge marketing benefits from this book are astounding.” >Brian Knight at PPS< Author Jo-Anne Vandermeulen has advised a multitude of people on her blog *Conquer All Obstacles*. Time and again, her knowledge and direction has guided these same people to huge followings and large numbers of friendships. Now she has put that knowledge and experience on paper in Premium Promotional Tips for Writers. With such a powerful tool at your fingertips, there are no limits on the exposure you can generate.” >Brian Knight from Premium Promotional Services Find her business at http://www.premiumpromotions.biz . She is also the author of Conquer All Obstacles.


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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 two how to books for writers, The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't and The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success. Her FRUGAL book for retailers is 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. She is also the author of the Amazon Short, "The Great First Impression Book Proposal". 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 blog.

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

A Writer's Worst Creative Enemy: Fear of Suits

This Copyright Tip is from a recent newsletter and I'm publishing it aa a filler--a subsitute for a real post--while I am away from my computer. That doesn't mean that it isn't worth a read.(-:

Copyright Tip: A Camden, New Jersey judge threw out Donald Trump's libel case against an author because Trump failed to prove malice on the part of the author (Timothy O'Brien). Anyone can bring a suit in the US courts, of course, but it is much harder to win one (even with money behind it) than authors tend to suppose.

Our courts and the laws are predisposed to free speech. A class I took from a copyright lawyer at the San Diego State writers' conference said that the author who plagiarizes--a different thing altogether from libel-- must have made some money from stealing the idea for there to be awarded any money.

Now, here's my legal disclaimer: This post meant both to put my blog visitors and subscribers' minds at ease so they won't be paralyzed by their fears. Too many writers--especially new writers--worry so much about protecting their work they cripple their ability to produce.

It is also meant to encourage my readers to get expert legal advice when they have questions. It's hard to believe that Trump wouldn't have done that before he spent his money suing. He either got bad advice, the case was iffy, or he just didn't care.

By the way, I talk about the fear of writing, the fear of plagiarism, and the fear of success in The Frugal Book Promoter. There are lots of little things a writer can do to help overcome these fears. Copyright is, indeed, one of them but other steps may be needed--some of them merely psychological-- long before a book is ready to be sent to the copyright office.

Those who would like to receive the Sharing with Writers newsletter (most of the articles and tips in are different from what you receive in this blog), may sign up using the subscription form in the left of this blog or send an e-mail with SUBSCRIBE in the subject line to HoJoNews@ aol.com and I'll do it for you.

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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 two how to books for writers, The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't and The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success. Her FRUGAL book for retailers is 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. She is also the author of the Amazon Short, "The Great First Impression Book Proposal". 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 blog.

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Hey! A Frugal Contest for Novelists

In case you haven't heard about this contest, I thought I'd pass this letter that Amazon sent to its Advantage accounts to you. It's a darn frugal way to enter a contest with an excellent prize. Yes, there will be lots of competiton, but the world is full of competition. And there is always room in the universe for one more winner!

Hello from Amazon.com,

As a valued member of Amazon.com Advantage, we want to let you know about an exciting opportunity for authors: the third annual Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award (ABNA).

The Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award is an international competition seeking fresh new writing voices. One of the great new aspects of the contest is that self-published novels are now eligible. There will also be two categories this year: Young Adult Fiction and General Fiction. One grand prize winner from each category will receive a full publishing contract with Penguin, including a $15,000 advance. Contest details are listed below, and further information and official rules can be found at www.amazon.com/abna.

What is the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award?

The Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award is an opportunity for emerging fiction writers to join a community of authors on Amazon.com, showcase their work, and compete for a chance to get published. Sponsored in partnership with Penguin Group (USA) and CreateSpace, the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award first launched in October 2007 and received more than 5,000 initial entries. In the inaugural contest, Amazon customers voted and named Bill Loehfelm the winner with his novel, Fresh Kills. Several of the other Top 10 finalists also received publishing deals with Penguin.

The 2009 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award started out even bigger than the first contest, with over 6,500 authors signing up. After narrowing the field, the top 500 excerpts were available to Amazon customers to read and review while Publishers Weekly reviewed the full manuscripts. From that information, Penguin selected 100 semifinalists which were then reviewed by a group of Penguin editors who chose the three finalists. Excerpts from Ian Gibson (Stuff of Legends), James King (Bill Warrington's Last Chance), and Brandi-Lynn Ryder (In Malice, Quite Close) were voted on by Amazon customers, and in a ceremony in New York, James King was announced as the 2009 winner.

What are the grand prizes?
The grand prize winner in each category will receive a full publishing contract with Penguin to market and distribute the grand prize winner's winning manuscript as a published book, including promotion for the published book on Amazon.com and a $15,000 advance.

How do interested authors enter?
Contest submission period begins January 25th, 2010 at 12:01 a.m. (U.S. Eastern Standard Time) and ends February 7th, 2010 at 11:59 p.m. (U.S. Eastern Standard Time), or when the first 5,000 entries have been received in each category, whichever is earlier. There is no entry fee.

How do interested authors get more information about the contest?
Visit www.amazon.com/abna to get more information, participate on the ABNA message boards and read the rules and contest FAQ. Visit www.createspace.com/abna to sign up to receive contest updates and get tips on how to enter.

Best regards,

The Amazon Advantage Team

P.S. You'll find another list of contests in the Resources for Writers segment of my Web site, www.howtodoitfrugally.com. On that page is an article on how to make contests work as a vital part of our overall marketing campaign.

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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 two how to books for writers, The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't and The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success. Her FRUGAL book for retailers is 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. She is also the author of the Amazon Short, "The Great First Impression Book Proposal". 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 blog.

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You've Been Interviewed for Radio or TV and You Didn't Do What?

Here's what you may be missing after your TV or radio interview is over:

~You were too excited to ask the name of the producer (or other person helping with the interview) before the show, and you're too embarrassed to do it now. N-n-n-no. Do it now.

~You didn't ask for a video or audio copy of your interview? You want to critique it and ask for permission to promote with it.

~You didn't put a copy of your interview on your Web site?

~You didn't give your host a copy of your book? What about the camera man or woman? She always gets neglected. She'll remember you (and talk about you to people who should know about you) if you don't forget her!

~You just said thanks and maybe gave people your book, but you did no follow up with a formal thank you note a few days later? You would like to cement your name in their memories, wouldn't you? If not, you would like them to know you really are thankful, right?

~You didn't add all those names to your contact list or Outlook file for future reference, future books?

Find more tips on getting interviews and making the most of them in The Frugal Book Promoter.

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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 two how to books for writers, The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't and The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success. Her FRUGAL book for retailers is 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. She is also the author of the Amazon Short, "The Great First Impression Book Proposal". 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 blog.

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