Paid-For Reviews: Should You Buckle Down or Pay Up

Yep, it’s that time again. I am in the review process for the Great Little Last-Minute Editing Tips for Writers: The Ultimate Frugal Booklet for Avoiding Word Trippers and Crafting Gatekeeper-Perfect Copy (www.budurl.com/WordTrippersPB) and I ran into the pay-for-reviews or interviews conundrum--again.

I hadn’t heard about them for a while.

As much as I know how hard it for a new author to get a bona fide review, I’m not in favor of paid reviews. Because they aren’t bona fide reviews and probably never will be bona fide. A real review needs to be trusted by:

1. The author who needs reviews to sell books, certainly, but really needs them for the critique process, that is to learn what they do well and not so well so that their writing improves.

2. The reviewer who needs to trust him or herself to give an honest review.

3. The reader who needs to trust that what they are basing their book purchases on isn’t a bunch of biased hooey.

In fact, I advise readers to use other means of getting their information about books than a site or journal where reviews are paid for by the author or publisher.

Even reviews like the unpaid ones on Amazon.com aren’t trustworthy. They have been diluted.

1. Diluted by the average reader weighing in on an art it knows nothing about other than what it likes.

2. Diluted by the competitive meanness going on. I’m talking about authors posting biting reviews on a competitor’s sales page.

3. Diluted because the author—in most cases—isn’t getting the advantage of a knowledgeable critique.

Maybe I’m such a tough bean on this issue because of my journalism background. It's an ethics thing. How can someone give/get a fair review if they're being paid? The reader assumes reviews are given, no strings attached. That may be possible for some paid interviews and reviews, but it—by it’s nature—can’t be possible for all. Therefore it undermines the intent and trustworthiness of the review process. Paid reviews even taint the reviews that aren’t paid for. When trust is dead, it’s very hard to revive it.

In the old days of print journalism, the review journal paid the reviewer. It didn't have to be a lot of money, but that’s where the reviewer’s income came from. That kept the journal, the reviewer, and the author honest.

So, should you pay for a review. The choice is yours. Ask yourself what you will get from it. Ask yourself if you done everything you can to get a review the old-fashioned way--by asking.

Those who want to understand the review process better might read Mayra Calvani's book on reviewing (see the widget above) or the sections in The Frugal Book Promoter on getting reviews (www.budurl.com/FrugalBkPromo), or go to my Web site and search through the Resources for Writers section where you'll find sources for getting the-real-thing in reviews.

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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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Military Writers Society for Authors of Every Ilk

I belong to Military Writers Society of America.

So why would subscribers and readers of this blog who have nothing to do with the military care?

Because it supports writers of every ilk. You, too, might find that the awards they give and their support system can help your career.

Here's what MWSA does for writers. They offer:

~An opportunity to have your book posted on www.militarywriters.com
Opportunity for a review.
~ All books that are reviewed are also scored and considered for annual awards.
~A newsletter that promotes good reading about military-related topics. And it's entertaining!
~An opportunity to earn MWSA Bucks that can be used at the annual MWSA Buckaroo Auction
~An annual Conference and Awards Banquet
~Online writers' workshops
~Introductions to bloggers and radio hosts. Read that lots of networking opportunities!
~Scenes from award-winning books may be selected to be converted to a script that is performed at a theater for the public as kick off for Annual Conference.
~Regional events
~Discounts with third parties who support the military and writers.
~An opportunity to get to know and network with other authors--especially those with military background, veterans, and historians.
~An opportunity to participate in the growth and operation of the organization.
~Awards that are real, tangible medals, which also offer authors and their publicist opportunities to promote their work.
~An opportunity to perform at Open Mic at the annual Conference.
~And most of all, a great bookstore where readers can browse great reading!

There's more, too. The President is Joyce Faulkner who writes short stories and fiction, including lots that is and lots that is not military related.

My chapbook of poetry Tracings won their award of excellence and though there are some poems in it that touch on war, it is really a book that Traces the life of women (and writers) through one particular woman--the poet.

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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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Should You "Do" Book Fairs and Book Trade Shows?

My husband has a book published in China (Everything Asians Need to Know About America A to Z from Oriental Press).

He’s on a promotion roll and wants to know why I’m not placing my books in all the publishing industry’s tradeshows. I figured this is the season for book tradeshows and book fairs and wanted to address these opportunities in my newsletter, Sharing with Writers.

"There are lots of people who’ll display your book in their booth for a reasonable price," he tells me. He's been getting notices in his e-mail box!

Here’s my frugal answer. No price is reasonable if the odds are (big odds!) that nothing will happen. For something good to come from one of these shows, you’d better tag along with your book to pitch it and let ‘em see your smile.

I know this from the school of hard knocks. Here's the scenario. I sign my book up, make fliers to send with my book so they can put them on display. A few weeks later I get a list of publishers from them, publishers "interested" in my book. I am supposed to follow up with them. I contact them. They don't remember my book nor do they remember me nor are they interested.

Oops! My good promotion dollars down the drain. I can guarantee you, if I'd been there, my gleaning of contacts would have been more thorough and it is much more likely they would have remembered me.

PS: If you'd like to receive my newsletter full of advice, rants and tips send an e-mail with SUBSCRIBE in the subject line to HoJoNews (at) AOL (dot) 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 .

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Mayra Calvani Reveals Her Great Query Letter Blurb/Synopsis Secret

Today old online friend Mayra Calvani is guest blogging with her secrets for getting using great blurbs (endorsements) and synopses to sell your book.





Sunstruck



Blogged by Mayra Calvani for Sharing with Writers


A great blurb can make the difference between a customer taking out his/her wallet to buy your book or putting the book back on the shelf. Great blurbs sell books.

But what is a blurb, exactly?

A blurb is the copy on the back cover of your book. After the cover, the blurb is the first thing a customer will check when considering to buy a book. It should hook, intrigue and grab the reader right away.

“Book blurbs are eye candy to the consumer,” says publicist Penny Sansevieri, founder of Author Marketing Experts.

Not only to customers. A great blurb can help you find a publisher or an agent, too.

A few years ago, I sent dozens of query letters in my search for an agent. As you probably know, most query letters are composed of a blurb of the book (the hook), some info about the book (genre, word count, etc), and a short author bio or list of qualifications. The agents who responded said “No, thanks.” I’m not surprised. The blurb was as flat as a French crepe. One of these agents wrote to say she wasn’t particularly excited about my book, but asked if I had something else to show her. By this time I had improved my blurb and had a completely new version. I mentioned this to her and asked her to consider my edited blurb, which she did. Her response was “Well, I have to admit this is a pretty convincing blurb.”

She requested the first three chapters. To make a long story short, she took me in based on the strength of those three chapters. In this case, my blurb was the key factor in getting the agent’s attention.

This is the blurb I first included in my query letter:

Can a good man be persuaded into committing murder and still retain his goodness?

Lullaby is about the restless soul of an aborted infant who, in order to become powerful enough to be reborn, must tempt humans into committing evil acts. Having temporarily acquired the form of a beautiful woman, this being plays mind games with the protagonist, bringing back memories of his tragic childhood. As deeply buried feelings of hate and revenge spring to the surface, the protagonist must struggle with his conscience to do the right thing. But will he, when his own ideas about justice and the higher good tell him it is right to kill?

Now compare it to the second one which got the agent’s attention:


At a trendy Turkish tavern one Friday night, astrophysicist Gabriel Diaz meets a mysterious young woman. Captivated out of his senses by her physical perfection as well as her views on good and evil, he spends the next several days with her. After a while, however, he begins to notice a strangeness in her—her skin’s abnormally high temperature, her obsession with milk products, her child-like and bizarre behavior as she seems to take pleasure in toying with his conscience.

The young woman, Kamilah, invites him to Rize, Turkey, where she claims her family owns a cottage in the woods. In spite of his heavy workload and the disturbing visions and nightmares about his sister’s baby that is due to be born soon, Gabriel agrees to go with her.

But nothing, not even the stunning beauty of the Black Sea, can disguise the horror of her nature. In a place where death dwells and illusion and reality seem as one, Gabriel must now come to terms with his own demons in order to save his sister’s unborn child, and ultimately, his own soul…

Here are some guidelines to help you create great these great sales tools:

*Keep it short (100-250 words). The aim is to convey what makes the book unique in a small amount of space.

*In it set the mood, the scene, and the conflict or enigma.

*It should have mounting tension. The beginning should have a “hint” of the conflict or threat, yet remain pretty innocuous (look at my blurb number two: boy meets girl in a tavern). By the end of the blurb, the conflict or threat should be imminent (protagonist must save his sister’s unborn child and his own soul).

*Think of the best angle to approach your story. Both of my blurbs describe what happens in my novel, yet the second one sounds much more exciting.

*As with a good book review, never put “spoilers” in the blurb. You can do this in a book summary or synopsis, but never in a blurb. (Look again at my blurb number one. In it I make the big mistake of revealing the nature of my “evil” female protagonist—she is the soul of an aborted infant. In blurb number two, you suspect there’s something wrong with her, but you don’t know what. You’re left wondering).

*Think about what makes your book different.

*Question marks can be used to leave the reader intrigued.

*Often ellipsis are used at the end to leave reader asking questions.

*Keep adverbs and adjectives to a minimum and use action verbs.

*Needless to say, make sure there are no spelling or grammatical errors.

*If your book is nonfiction, does it have special features like pictures or diagrams? What is the aim of the book? What are you trying to accomplish? Does it teach anything? How is this book different from others in the field?

*Remember that blurbs are not summaries! Don’t tell the whole story—only the exciting part of it so that the reader will want to know more.

*Don’t exaggerate or sugar coat it. Be professional.

*Study the blurbs from your book shelves, paying special attention to their style, language, and content.

*Write and rewrite, rewrite, rewrite. Then show it to people who can offer honest feedback.

One last tip:


Do you know that powerful, dramatic voice that you hear in the cinemas during movie trailers? That alluring voice, often exaggerated, that describes the movies? Well, read your own blurb with this voice in your mind, matching its tone and pitch. You’ll be surprised to find out how much that helps!

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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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UCLA Instructor Chris Meeks Shares Writing Prompt

My fellow UCLA Writers’ Program instructor and author Christopher Meeks shared this excercise he uses to help beginning students perfect their understanding for metaphor. I thought teachers among you would love it, and that literary writers and poets among my subscribers could use the prompt for their own creative juices.

“On the first day of class, I ask my students to take a mini-field trip outside the classroom and find one object and stare at it. Then they must write three similes and three metaphors for the single object. I explain what each is before they go out, and then when they return six minutes later, I listen to each person's six comparisons. Those who don't do it well learn from others who bring a spark to what they see. Thus I set the idea that I like simile and metaphor.

"The reason I have them write six comparisons, by the way, is that they're likely to burn through the clichés and then be forced to look at their object anew. 'The clouds look like cotton balls, like white cotton candy... like my dead grandmother's doilies that she always spilt chicken broth on.'"

Meeks's own books are featured in the Amazon Widgets in this post. The first a book of short stories, the second a novel.
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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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L. Diane Wolfe Speaks Gives Us the Publishing Word(s)

When I talk to audiences of new authors I try to get the vocabulary straight so that we're all on the same page. What sometimes surprises me is how many veteran authors misuse publishing terms. We really do need to understand the terms to communicate well. Soooo, my friend Diane Wolfe is guest blogging for me today with a little rundown on that subject:



Publishing Industry Defined

By L. Diane Wolfe "Spunk On A Stick"

The road to publishing is often confusing.

There are numerous publishing paths and e-books have added some loops. However, everything comes down to three basic models.

Traditional publishing

Manuscript is accepted by publisher (directly or with an agent’s help) and author is paid royalties on the sale of the book. Publisher often retains many of the rights to the book, such as foreign, paperback, or movie rights. Publisher does some marketing and author is also expected to market his or her book. Publisher owns the ISBN.

Self Publishing

Author owns the ISBN, the publishing company, and controls all rights. Author occasionally farms out individual aspects of book production such as book designing and formatting. Author selects printer and acquires distributor. Author does all marketing.

Subsidy or Vanity Publishing

Author pays a servicing company to package, print, and distribute his or her book. Company owns the ISBN. Author pays a fee for marketing or does it all. Subsidy publishers are not true publishing companies. Examples - Lulu, BookSurge, Trafford, IUniverse, AuthorHouse, Taft, etc.
For more information on subsidy publishing, visit: http://www.aeonix.com/vanity.htm

If you’re still confused, here’s an easy checklist:

Do I own my book’s ISBN?
Yes - I am self-published
No - go to next question

Did I pay to have my book published?
Yes - I am subsidy published
No - I am traditionally published

There are always variables. I know one traditional publisher who does require her authors to foot part of the bill and they receive 100% in royalties until they recoup their investment. (She also screens her submissions like any other traditional publisher.) Is that still traditional publishing? One can also self publish with the help of another small publisher by accessing that company’s printer and distributor. Where exactly does that fall?

The publishing industry is such a fascinating place!

It’s pretty darned screwy, too.

- L. Diane Wolfe, Professional Speaker & Author
www.spunkonastick.net
www.thecircleoffriends.net
www.circleoffriendsbooks.blogspot.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 .

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"Extra Innings" with Marshall Cook: A New Resouce for Writers and Readers

Finding a person knowledgeable in literature who has the time to support emerging authors is never an easy thing. I've found one in Marshall J. Cook. The calls himself "the coach." A retired professor, he continues to publish works by writers of all kinds in his Extra Innings journal. You'll find the fourth issue (February) at http://www.dcs.wisc.edu/lsa/writing/extrainnings/extra-innings4.pdf As it happens, this one includes a poem by one of my faithful subscribers, Norma Sundberg. But more about the journal. It's sure to be a resource writers can use regularly for submissions. When published, one they can proudly refer to as having been published there. And one readers who love good literature or who want to write better will enjoy. Here is more on Marshall and his journal.

From Extra Innings, the free journal associated with the University of Wisconsin at Madison's Continuing Studies program. It is sponsored by University of Wisconsin-Madison Continuing Studies and edited by Marshall J. Cook, the “Coach.”

"Extra Innings is a place for sharing your news and views on writing and publishing. Fiction and nonfiction writers, poets, screenwriters, editors—anybody who loves writing and publishing—is welcomed. Each newsletter is filled with tips, funny stuff, wisdom, and camaraderie.

"Created by Marshall J. Cook, Extra Innings replaces his long-running Creativity Connection, which retired when Marshall retired from teaching in 2009. Copies of Creativity Connection are also available in the archives on the Extra Innings page.

Marshall loves to hear from you. He’s always looking for potential contributors, columnists, and creative sorts to weigh in with news and opinions. You’ll find his contact information in each newsletter. You can visit this web page each month to download a new edition of Extra Innings, or subscribe to receive notification by email when a new issue is ready. To subscribe, simply send a blank e-mail message to: join-creativity-connection@lists.wisc.edu.

Marshall's old Creativity Connection archived issues will also soon be posted on the entry page to Extra Innings.


Marshall wants you to put Extra Innings into your writing life.

I think it would be only smart! (-:



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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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Selling Books from Own Web Site Vs. Amazon

This came in as a comment to my recent post on this blog. The subject was "Ten Ways to Up Your Ratings on Amazon." Because it is from an independent publishing expert, Michael N. Marcus, I thought my subscribers would like to see his views, especially because I hear so often that small publishers and independent authors are eschewing Amazon. The original post is at http://sharingwithwriters.blogspot.com/2010/01/ten-ways-to-up-your-ratings-by-selling.html.

By Michael N. Marcus

I can't understand why writers want to sell books from their own websites (or from vanity publishers' websites) instead of from Amazon or B&N, etc.
The 20% that the online booksellers keep on a $20 book is $4.
If a self-publisher ships it from the publisher's own inventory, the flat-rate Priority Mail fee is $4.85 (more than what would be paid to Amazon).
The fee for shipping one pound by Media Mail is $2.38 (less than what would be paid to Amazon), but the service is slower than Priority Mail and does not include delivery confirmation. Confirmation adds about 70 cents.
Lightning Source charges from $3.80 to over $40 to drop-ship a book to a publisher's customer. However, the shipping fee is built-into the printing fee for orders placed through online booksellers. (Printing and shipping a 300-page book to an Amazon customer costs $5.40.)

So, Priority Mail costs a little bit more than what Amazon or B&N or other online booksellers would keep, and Media Mail costs a little bit less. The numbers change depending on the cover price and weight of a book.
But when you consider that many millions of potential buyers can find a book by searching on Amazon.com or B&N, but almost no one will find the book on an author's own site without a lot of PR and paid advertising to send them there, relying on the big booksellers should be a no-brainer.

Michael N. Marcus
~president of the Independent Self-Publishers Alliance, http://www.independentselfpublishers.org
~author of "Become a Real Self-Publisher: Don’t be a Victim of a Vanity Press," http://www.amazon.com/dp/0981661742
~author of "Stories I'd Tell My Children (but maybe not until they're adults)," coming 4/1/10. http://www.silversandsbooks.com/storiesbookinfo.html
~Blogging at http://BookMakingBlog.blogspot.com
~http://www.SilverSandsBooks.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 .

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

Outsourcing: One Way to Beat Time at It's Game

I am writing a book on tweeting and integrating social networking for retailers and have begun to realize how time consuming the job of online promotion can become for them and for my fellow authors. I asked my friend Teresa Morrow to talk about one way to alleviate the pressure of these new but essential calls on our time. Here is what she has to say:

Guest post by Teresa Morrow


In the last couple of years, entrepreneurs have read and been told the great benefits of outsourcing various business tasks. Writers and authors are no different in the arena of looking for people to outsource some of the workload to help with the marketing, promoting and selling of their books. Still some authors and writers are hesitant to take the step to outsource some of these time taxing activities.

Below are five reasons writers and authors should consider hiring an online book promoter:

1) Increase Productivity. When you allow yourself time to focus on those activities that are your passions, your productivity increases. When you are doing everything yourself, not only does your productivity in the creative areas of your life decrease (your writing), it can affect other areas as well such as lack of sleep and caring for yourself.

2) Focus on Strengths. You are a writer. You have a passion for words. Online Book Promotion may not be one of your strengths and that is okay. It is best to focus on your strengths and let those shine. This will give you allow your online book promoter time to concentrate on their strength, which will benefit you in the long run.

3) New possibilities. With a online book promoter on your side, you are able to have at your disposal an expert who has connections, resources and tools you may not have access to by yourself.

4) Branding Boost. By increasing your exposure to new organizations, communities and people, you can also give a huge boost to the branding of you and your book.

5) Save Time. As you may have heard before, time is money. By having someone else manage your online promotion for your book, you free your time to pursue more possiblibilities like joint ventures and partnerships to increase your business and exposure.

6) New Resources. A professional online marketer will have contacts and resources that an author doesn't have. By pooling resources, your online exposure may easily double.

So to you authors and writers whom are overwhelmed because you want more people to know about your book, remember the reasons above and e-mail an online book promoter today to ease your stress level.

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Teresa Morrow, owner of Key Business Partners, LLC eliminates the stress of online book promotion for authors and writers by managing the non-stop pace of the internet marketplace to get your book noticed through various outlets such as virtual book tours, internet radio show interviews, and social media marketing. Learn more about Teresa Morrow and Key Business Partners by visiting http://keybusinesspartners.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 .

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

How to Sell More Books on Amazon by Increasing Your Book's Visibility

Dana Lynn Smith, well known to most authors who spend time social networking, is guest blogging for me today. I have read her e-book on marketing online and highly recommend it. It's very complete. I follow her on Twitter, too!

By Dana Lynn Smith

A good way to sell more books on Amazon is to increase your book's visibility in the Amazon search results.

Amazon.com customers typically search for books by author, title, or keyword. Like search engines, Amazon uses several criteria in deciding which products to display on the search results page and in what order to display them. Popularity (the number of books already sold on Amazon) and how well the book matches the keywords are major factors in determining the results of keyword searches.

The more books you sell on Amazon, the more books you will sell in the future, because your book will appear higher in the search results. In addition, many customers assume that the best-selling book must be the best one on the topic.

One way to increase your book's popularity, and therefore its search results placement is to direct all of your online book orders to Amazon.com rather than offering links to several online bookstores or selling directly to consumers.

It's also important to make sure your book matches popular search terms entered by customers. If your book is not yet published, you can add important keywords to the book's title and subtitle. Some publishers use long subtitles in order to pack in as many keywords as possible.

To capitalize on keyword searches, enter important keywords or "tags" into Amazon's Search Tag feature. About halfway down your book's page on Amazon, look for "Tags Customers Associate with This Product." Add a check mark next to existing tags and add new tags by entering keywords in the little box below.

Word order matters, so create different search tags with variations on your most important keywords. You can personally submit up to ten search tags for your book. If you have additional tags to enter, ask a colleague to enter some for you.

Another way to increase your popularity on Amazon.com is do a virtual book tour or an "Amazon best-seller campaign," designed to push up your Amazon sales rank by generating a large number of orders on a single day.

There are a number of other ways to sell more books on Amazon, including getting lots of good book reviews on Amazon, writing reviews of other related books, participating in the Look Inside program, enhancing your book description, participating in Amazon forums for your book's topic, and creating Listmania lists and So You'd Like To guides.

For a more in-depth look at how to sell more books on Amazon, I recommend reading Aiming at Amazon, by Aaron Shepard.

Author Biography:

Dana Lynn Smith is a book marketing coach and author of the Savvy Book Marketer Guides. For more tips, follow @BookMarketer on Twitter, visit Dana's blog at www.TheSavvyBookMarketer.com, and get a copy of the Top Book Marketing Tips e-book when you sign up for her free newsletter at www.BookMarketingNewsletter.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 .

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Free IS Future (and Past) of E-Book Promotion

In its Trade E-Book Publishing 2009 Report and Book Publishing Report, Simba Information (SimbaInformation.com) reports that 10% of the adult population has read an e-book but only 10% has bought one. That tells me many are giving away e-books at no cost, that many are sharing e-books the same way that people share other books (which isn’t as kosher), or both.

If it’s the former, there must be some big benefits to giving away an e-book. They are:

~Free e-books can--without guilt or qualm--contain ads for other books by that author or publisher. That practice is exactly the same concept as the one used by movie theaters when they run trailers. By the way, literary journals have for years included ads from their sponsors or supporters and we have seen similar business-card size and other display ads in publications like programs and yearbooks for decades.

~Free e-books are sought after by many with readers and thus an author’s style can easily be exposed to people they would never otherwise reach.

~Free e-books can be used as incentives to buy something else. They must, of course, have a high perceived value in order to work that way. The model for this kind of freebie has been used for years by the likes of Estee Lauder and other cosmetic companies. They’re called gifts-with-purchase, or purchase-with-purchase.

I’ve long advised that writers give away e-books at one time or another. I’ve given away my poetry e-books to subscribers and readers of this blog. And I’m planning to do more of it soon. Books--even novels--that have been around for a long time are good candidates for this kind of promotion. Their sales have slowed but they are still ultimately as readable as ever.

Authors can also write books expressly to give away. If you aren’t quite ready for this freebie step, read Chris Anderson’s FREE: The Future of a Radical Price. You’ll get tons of ideas.

If you’re still not ready, publish something with a very low price as an e-book or booklet and see what you can do with it in terms of furthering your writing career. An example of that model is my $6.95 paperback Great Little Last-Minute Editing Tips for Writers: The Ultimate Frugal Booklet for Avoiding Word Trippers and Crafting Gatekeeper-Perfect Copy. (www.budurl.com/WordTripperPB). It will soon be out on Kindle, 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 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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Tips for Busting Through Writer’s Block from Dallas Woodburn

Today I've featuring a special guest. Dallas Woodburn and I have the same alma mater but maybe a dozen or so generations apart. (-: I first met her online and then later she attended some of my presentations. I was immediately impressed at the head start she had on her writing career. I know you'll agree she is wise beyond her years.


Guest blogged by Dallas Woodburn

Is your story in a rut? Are you feeling stuck? Writer’s block is a problem that most every writer has to deal with. It can be so frustrating! Here are some ideas that might help you get through it:

* Set your story aside for a couple of weeks and work on something else. Sometimes, like a watched pot that never boils, a story idea never comes when we are fretting over it. In my experience, the best ideas for my stories often arrive when I am thinking about something else -- walking my dog, cooking dinner, browsing a farmer’s market.

* Is there a later part of the story you want to write or know what’s going to happen, but the middle is tripping you up? Sometimes writers know the beginning and the end, but not the middle. If this is the case for your story, my advice would be to skip forward and write the ending. Then, you can go back and write the middle – ideas might come to you once the ending is in place.

* Sometimes I get blocked when I am at a “fork in the road” in my story: there are multiple routes my story could take, and I'm not sure which one is the “right” one. If you suspect this is the case for your subconscious, I would try just picking one route – one way the story could go, one thing that could happen next – and write that. Just see what happens! If it doesn’t feel right, you can always go back and change it. But maybe it will be the thing to get you through the block.

* Try putting yourself in your character’s head. Let her or him take the reins of the story. Close your eyes and really get inside that character. What are they thinking, feeling, worrying, wondering, fearing? What would they do next in this situation they are in? Try to “freewrite” without thinking too much or editing yourself. Write for eight or ten minutes without stopping. Then, see what you have. Maybe it will be enough to re-start the story again.

* Try something new. Nothing fills my “idea well” more quickly than traveling – experiencing new things, embarking on new adventures, meeting new people. But even if you don’t have a vacation or trip planned for the near future, you can still rejuvenate your creative life by trying new things. Learn a recipe for a different type of food than you usually eat. Dabble in a different art form, such as painting or music.

* Change up your routine. Walk or bicycle rather than drive to work or school. When you slow down your daily trip a bit, little things like hummingbirds, squirrels, and the unique hue of the sky on a particular day seem to stand out. Take a notebook with you to jot down notes when you feel inspired.

Hope these ideas help you bust through the dam of writer's block so your river of words can run freely!

BIO:
Dallas Woodburn is the author of two collections of short stories and a forthcoming novel. Her short fiction has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and has appeared in Monkeybicycle, Arcadia Journal, flashquake, and The Newport Review, among others. She has also written more than 80 articles for national publications including Family Circle, Writer’s Digest, CO-ED, Justine, and The Los Angeles Times, and she writes a regular column for Listen magazine. Dallas is the founder of the nonprofit organization “Write On! For Literacy” that has donated more than 11,000 new books to disadvantaged children. Her latest endeavor is starting a publishing company, Write On! Books, that publishes the work of young writers. In addition, she hosts frequent writing contests, teaches writing camps for kids, and is Youth Director of the Small Publishers, Artists and Writers Network (SPAWN). Dallas studied creative writing at the University of Southern California and at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, England. Contact her at her website www.writeonbooks.org or blog http://dallaswoodburn.blogspot.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 .

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The "Frugalest" of All Opportunities for Children's Writers

Thought many of you would want to know about this Muse Online Writers Workshop especially for writers interested in writing for children:

Writing for Children: A Beginner's Workshop

To register for this FREE workshop to be held in the password protected room in the Muse Online Writers Conference General Forum (link in the navigational area in the conference Web site) click on this link:

http://www.themuseonlinewritersconference.com

Register by giving yourself a username and password, wait for a confirmation that you have been accepted, then you can link into our forum (the password will be issued to all who register a few days before the workshop begins). Send me the following within the body of an email:

Your name

Your e-mail

Place Karen Cioffi in the subject heading and send it to museitupeditor AT yahoo DOT ca

For workshop details stop by: http://karenandrobyn.blogspot.com/2010/04/may-1st-free-childrens-writing.html

PS: The widget Day's End Lullaby is the book by Karen Cioffi, leader of this workshop.
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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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So What IS In It for You?

This is one of those quotes that says bucketloads without writing a whole article. (-: It's from my Sharing with Writers newsletter where I pass along more than just tips on writing and promotion but my passion for publishing in general. Here it is:


Quote from Richard Rubin, a consultant with Innodat Isogen and author of a whitepaper on publishing strategies in the emerging e-book market:

“These days even writers who are working with [major publishers] have to set up Facebook accounts, they have to go on Twitter, they have to set up a blog. At the end of the day [the publishers] are taking their typical cut [of profits] and the writers are saying, ‘What’s in it for me?’”

If you want all kinds of tidbits on every aspect of publishing, subscribe by sending me an e-mail with SUBSCRIBE in the subject line to hojonews@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 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: