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Friday, May 28, 2010
I wanted to try Corel Paint It! Photo (DVD-ROM)because I wanted something a little artier in the way of headshots to promote my poetry with. I was hoping it would be perfect for my little nontechy being because it is touted to be easy.
Paint It! did not fail me.
You can get Corel's Paint It! to turn a picture into a painting--anything from impressionistic (awful for a portrait) to modern (awful for marketing). My favorite for portraits is the "detailed watercolor."
It works on other kinds of photos, too. I got carried away and tried a little of everything.
I found some of the painting-style choices a bit slow. I found some met my needs (and taste!) better than others. But I never found working with this program hard. It is truly a pop-in-the-CD and use-with-no-instruction kind of deal. One that gets you (most times) a satisfactory painterly image.
If you're adept at photoshop, you can fool with fills, pixels, and brush techniques and do even better. That kind of toying may take a little more experience with photoshop type programs--or it may be necessary to read the instructions.
I was hoping for easy. Paint It! did not disappoint. And I think it is a product that authors may be able to use for promotion needs. I can see a "painting" used on a large poster to be set up behind the writer at book signings, as an example.
Once little non-techy me gets my Web site working again, I'll be putting a painterly headshot on my poetry page. I don't want anyone holding their breath until that happens, though!
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Reviewed by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, novelist, poet and author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books.
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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:
Thursday, May 20, 2010
How to Sell Books to Gift Shops and Specialty Retailers
Bookstores aren't the only retail outlet for books – in fact there are a number of other retail venues where books can be sold, including gift shops and specialty retailers.
Recently Dana Lynn Smith interviewed me and three other authors who have been successful in selling books to a variety of non-book retailers. In her comprehensive article, "How to Sell Books to Gift Shops and Specialty Retailers" , you'll learn:
· What type of stores may be a good fit for your book
· Tips for locating and contacting retailers
· How displays and promotions help sell books
· What type of re-seller discounts and sales terms to consider
This article will also be featured in an upcoming issue of The Independent, published by the Independent Book Publishers Association.
-----
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:
Recently Dana Lynn Smith interviewed me and three other authors who have been successful in selling books to a variety of non-book retailers. In her comprehensive article, "How to Sell Books to Gift Shops and Specialty Retailers" , you'll learn:
· What type of stores may be a good fit for your book
· Tips for locating and contacting retailers
· How displays and promotions help sell books
· What type of re-seller discounts and sales terms to consider
This article will also be featured in an upcoming issue of The Independent, published by the Independent Book Publishers Association.
-----
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:
Sunday, May 16, 2010
ON BEING A FRUGALISMO – Self Promotion I: DATABASING
Mindy Philips Lawrence writes a regular Itty Bitty Column for my newsletter, Sharing with Writers, as well as serving as line editor for it. This column received lots of response from readers (in spite of the fact that list building is the core of the plan I outline in The Frugal Book Promoter!). At least--one way or the other--Mindy and I are getting people to hear this message!
Cheap is a word with bad connotations. I’d say “frugalista” except I hear the word is now trademarked and I don’t want the legal system sending me cease-and-desist letters, so I will use the term “FRUGALISMO” to define doing things effectively but with as few monetary resources as possible.
Recently, I received an e-mail wanting to know if I was the publicist for Norris Church Mailer. I have no idea why anyone thought this but it made me drool to think that she has a new book out, a memoir called A Ticket to the Circus, and that anyone thought I had anything to do with it. Our only connection is that we are both from Arkansas. But it made me think. I began to wonder, if I WERE her publicist, how I would promote her work, a hypothetical dream job. From there I thought of how writers without Mailer’s resources could promote their creative work and still get the job done.
So, in the same vein of our fearless leader, Carolyn Howard-Johnson, here are some “frugalismo” ways to promote your work.
[If you have ideas, PLEASE forward them to me and I will post them in the Itty Bitty with your name and the title of your work (or work in progress).]
BUILD YOUR OWN DATABASE: Draw a radius around where you live. Stick a compass in your hometown and decide how far you are willing to travel to promote your book or other creative work. When you’ve done this, use the Internet to list every single media outlet within that radius. Build a database either in MS Excel or another database system such as ACT 2000 or FileMaker Pro. Include in this database Internet Web sites and phone numbers and e-mail addresses for local radio and television stations, newspapers, and magazines that might help get the word out on your work. You can branch out as your promotional plan begins to work, allowing you to travel farther cause you are selling your work.
USE A GOOD RESOURCE such as The Frugal Book Promoter, an Internet search, or both, to learn how to write an exceptional press release and query letter. You’ll have to do this in an incredibly professional way so go to school on professional releases you find from other writers and publicists. Go to publicists’ Web sites and see how they do what they do. LEARN!
KEEP TRACK OF WHAT YOU DO and when you do it. Make certain to update your contacts every six months. People move around in publishing and media often. Just call and ask if the person you have as your contact is still there and, if not, who has that position now. You’ll need to send a new letter to a new person to introduce yourself. This can be an e-letter or one by the good old US Mail, according to what the publisher wants.
IF YOU HAVE TROUBLE PROMOTING YOURSELF, as some do, think of yourself as a hypothetical big-name writer and promote that person. Of course, this person is actually YOU. You are worth promoting. Your work is worth promoting.
Writers like to write. Often, they don’t enjoy promoting their own work but it’s necessary. Unless you can afford to pay a publicist $1000 a month, it behooves you to learn to do this. And you want to be successful, don’t you? Of COURSE you do!
This is post number one in a series on self-promotion. In the next issue, I’ll have other ideas and, hopefully, some that others have sent me to put here. It’s spring. Let’s bloom! If you want to get in on the coming columns, send Carolyn an e-mail with SUBSCRIBE in the subject line. Her address is HoJoNews (at) AOL (dot) com.
Mindy
“Into Words ~ Into Print ~ Into Minds”
Link-A-Dinka-Dos
The Frugal Book Promoter
(if you don’t have this book, what are you doing without it?)
http://www.amazon.com/Frugal-Book-Promoter-What-Publisher/dp/193299310X
Be Your Own Publicist http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1563/is_n12_v8/ai_9685405/
How to Be Your Own Publicist
Publicity Hound: Free Publicity
How to Write a Press Release
Press Release Writing
Building Blocks to a Powerful Press Release
How to Write a Successful Query Letter
The how-to-write-a-great-query-letter chapter in The Frugal Editor--straight from the mouths of high-powered agents. Also find sample query letters in this book and The Frugal Book Promoter.
Sample Query Letter: Charlotte Dillon
Self-Promotion Guide: The Promotional Jigsaw
About the Guest Blogger:
Mindy Phillips Lawrence has written two poetry collections (One Blue Star and Above and Below) and co-authored The Complete Writer The Complete Writer's Journal
(Red Engine Press). She writes the "Itty Bitty Column on Writing" for Carolyn Howard-Johnson’s Sharing with Writers newsletter and is a publicist, editor and literary agent for the fiction work of Bev Sninchak (Star Ferris). She lives in Springfield, Missouri and is working on her first novel. She blogs at MPLCreative. You can find her online.
-----
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:
Cheap is a word with bad connotations. I’d say “frugalista” except I hear the word is now trademarked and I don’t want the legal system sending me cease-and-desist letters, so I will use the term “FRUGALISMO” to define doing things effectively but with as few monetary resources as possible.
Recently, I received an e-mail wanting to know if I was the publicist for Norris Church Mailer. I have no idea why anyone thought this but it made me drool to think that she has a new book out, a memoir called A Ticket to the Circus, and that anyone thought I had anything to do with it. Our only connection is that we are both from Arkansas. But it made me think. I began to wonder, if I WERE her publicist, how I would promote her work, a hypothetical dream job. From there I thought of how writers without Mailer’s resources could promote their creative work and still get the job done.
So, in the same vein of our fearless leader, Carolyn Howard-Johnson, here are some “frugalismo” ways to promote your work.
[If you have ideas, PLEASE forward them to me and I will post them in the Itty Bitty with your name and the title of your work (or work in progress).]
BUILD YOUR OWN DATABASE: Draw a radius around where you live. Stick a compass in your hometown and decide how far you are willing to travel to promote your book or other creative work. When you’ve done this, use the Internet to list every single media outlet within that radius. Build a database either in MS Excel or another database system such as ACT 2000 or FileMaker Pro. Include in this database Internet Web sites and phone numbers and e-mail addresses for local radio and television stations, newspapers, and magazines that might help get the word out on your work. You can branch out as your promotional plan begins to work, allowing you to travel farther cause you are selling your work.
USE A GOOD RESOURCE such as The Frugal Book Promoter, an Internet search, or both, to learn how to write an exceptional press release and query letter. You’ll have to do this in an incredibly professional way so go to school on professional releases you find from other writers and publicists. Go to publicists’ Web sites and see how they do what they do. LEARN!
KEEP TRACK OF WHAT YOU DO and when you do it. Make certain to update your contacts every six months. People move around in publishing and media often. Just call and ask if the person you have as your contact is still there and, if not, who has that position now. You’ll need to send a new letter to a new person to introduce yourself. This can be an e-letter or one by the good old US Mail, according to what the publisher wants.
IF YOU HAVE TROUBLE PROMOTING YOURSELF, as some do, think of yourself as a hypothetical big-name writer and promote that person. Of course, this person is actually YOU. You are worth promoting. Your work is worth promoting.
Writers like to write. Often, they don’t enjoy promoting their own work but it’s necessary. Unless you can afford to pay a publicist $1000 a month, it behooves you to learn to do this. And you want to be successful, don’t you? Of COURSE you do!
This is post number one in a series on self-promotion. In the next issue, I’ll have other ideas and, hopefully, some that others have sent me to put here. It’s spring. Let’s bloom! If you want to get in on the coming columns, send Carolyn an e-mail with SUBSCRIBE in the subject line. Her address is HoJoNews (at) AOL (dot) com.
Mindy
“Into Words ~ Into Print ~ Into Minds”
Link-A-Dinka-Dos
The Frugal Book Promoter
(if you don’t have this book, what are you doing without it?)
http://www.amazon.com/Frugal-Book-Promoter-What-Publisher/dp/193299310X
Be Your Own Publicist http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1563/is_n12_v8/ai_9685405/
How to Be Your Own Publicist
Publicity Hound: Free Publicity
How to Write a Press Release
Press Release Writing
Building Blocks to a Powerful Press Release
How to Write a Successful Query Letter
The how-to-write-a-great-query-letter chapter in The Frugal Editor--straight from the mouths of high-powered agents. Also find sample query letters in this book and The Frugal Book Promoter.
Sample Query Letter: Charlotte Dillon
Self-Promotion Guide: The Promotional Jigsaw
About the Guest Blogger:
Mindy Phillips Lawrence has written two poetry collections (One Blue Star and Above and Below) and co-authored The Complete Writer The Complete Writer's Journal
(Red Engine Press). She writes the "Itty Bitty Column on Writing" for Carolyn Howard-Johnson’s Sharing with Writers newsletter and is a publicist, editor and literary agent for the fiction work of Bev Sninchak (Star Ferris). She lives in Springfield, Missouri and is working on her first novel. She blogs at MPLCreative. You can find her online. -----
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:
Friday, May 14, 2010
Take Good Care of Yourself: Write! And Laugh!
You all know how I love guest posts. I love to spread the love, talent and wisdom around. (-: Georgia Richardson (also known as Queen Jaw Jaw) not only has good advice but her work is a model for using humor in your work. Enjoy!
Writing – Celebrate your life!
By Georgia Richardson
If I had a dime every time someone said, “Oh you’re a writer. I’m going to do that some day,” I would be a rich woman; or at least wear better underwear in case of a wreck. Sorry Mom.
When you commit your thoughts to streams of words, you will invariably learn things about yourself, and along the way, you will grow as a person and as a writer. It doesn’t matter what kind of writing you want to explore, whether it’s poetry, that novel in your head, or god forbid, humor; writing is an immediate gift you can give to the one who matters most; YOU. It is a celebration of sorts, and shouts to the world...I matter.
Isn’t that what everyone wants?
For those scared to begin, take comfort in knowing your writing doesn’t have to go public. If you love to write, and writing helps express your feelings, then why not follow that inner voice that craves the extension? Talk about a stress-reliever! Write about your hard day at work, your relief at passing that exam, your husband’s love affair with his lawncar (lawn mowers with cup holders, headlights, a horn, etc), or your waistline needing its own zip code. Whatever emotional event passes through your day, write it down and release the tension. Now you have a history trail, or in some cases, blackmail. Yes dear, Friday you promised you would go shopping with me TODAY. See? I wrote it down. Busted!
Time is probably the biggest excuse used by would-be writers; yet everyone has the same twenty-four hours. Investigate where your time is spent and you might be surprised to find that time is irrelevant. If you want to see a movie, go on vacation, or phone a friend, you always find the time. Why not squeeze in a few minutes each day to begin writing?
If you can’t produce the world’s greatest novel, then why bother, right? Very few writers I know are on the New York Times Best Seller List, yet there are millions of wonderful books, articles, and blogs available for escaping reality, for entertainment, or for learning something new. I once fixed a toilet via a “how-to” article on the net, which led to an article about the joys (insert rolling eyes) of grandchildren. Did you know there isn’t one toothpaste tube on the market that will flush? Writers never know when inspiration will strike. Or grandchildren, for that matter.
If writing one genre leaves you flat, then try another. Maybe poetry holds your voice and makes your heart sing. It could be non-fiction; how-to articles, copywriting, or even writing catchy jingles for cereal boxes or greeting cards. Discover which one(s) speaks to you. Break free of the mindset that novels are the only path and you could find a new, exciting, and often profitable way of highlighting your abilities.
Writing publicly isn’t for everyone, and if that doesn’t appeal to you, try journaling. One major benefit is that writing thoughts down can bring clarity to problems that often seem to swirl around in our heads like a carousel. Seeing the problem in print can often bring you to place of understanding; an awakening or “A-ha!” moment.
Journaling is also very important as it is an imprint of your life. Where would we be today without the records of those passed on before us? You may think, “Oh, but what if someone reads this?” I say, wouldn’t it be sad if someone doesn’t. They would be missing a golden opportunity to know the real you. Nonetheless, if this concern persists, there’s always time capsules or bank vaults, or better yet, that best friend who will pinkie swear to swoop in and grab your secrets should you transcend to a better place.
Remember, writing is a choice and a very valuable tool in getting to know yourself, and to celebrate your life. I get a high every time I complete an article, write a blog, or even send a humorous email. I’m higher than a kite right now. Where’s my Oreo’s? I must celebrate!
How will you celebrate your life?
Author Biography
Georgia Richardson, official humorist for the National Association of Baby Boomer Women (NABBW), is also a motivational speaker/gablogist, Southern humorist, author, and stretcher of the truth. Better known as Queen Jaw Jaw or JJ, her work has appeared in GRAND magazine, Chicken Soup for the Soul magazine, Woman's World, Guidepost online, BOOMER—for Central Iowa, Boomer Magazine, Missouri, Shoals Woman and a host of other regional and national magazines.
Her debut book, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Throne, consists of every day life experiences with just a twist of the imagination. Her second book, an anthology, Pink Jasper- Gems from the Journey, was written by Georgia and five other women across the United States, Canada, and England. Amazingly, these women have never met. Mixing her sharp sense of humor with everyday life observations, the Queen says, “Every single story is true, honest injun… I'd rather walk on my lips than tell a lie.” Visit her Queendom where you can read all about her Lunch Hour Specials. Don't forget to “paws” a while and see what her good friend and writer-dog Trixie, a.k.a., da Trixster, has been up to. E-mail her at gjawjaw1@bellsouth.net
-----
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:
Writing – Celebrate your life!
By Georgia Richardson
If I had a dime every time someone said, “Oh you’re a writer. I’m going to do that some day,” I would be a rich woman; or at least wear better underwear in case of a wreck. Sorry Mom.
When you commit your thoughts to streams of words, you will invariably learn things about yourself, and along the way, you will grow as a person and as a writer. It doesn’t matter what kind of writing you want to explore, whether it’s poetry, that novel in your head, or god forbid, humor; writing is an immediate gift you can give to the one who matters most; YOU. It is a celebration of sorts, and shouts to the world...I matter.
Isn’t that what everyone wants?
For those scared to begin, take comfort in knowing your writing doesn’t have to go public. If you love to write, and writing helps express your feelings, then why not follow that inner voice that craves the extension? Talk about a stress-reliever! Write about your hard day at work, your relief at passing that exam, your husband’s love affair with his lawncar (lawn mowers with cup holders, headlights, a horn, etc), or your waistline needing its own zip code. Whatever emotional event passes through your day, write it down and release the tension. Now you have a history trail, or in some cases, blackmail. Yes dear, Friday you promised you would go shopping with me TODAY. See? I wrote it down. Busted!
Time is probably the biggest excuse used by would-be writers; yet everyone has the same twenty-four hours. Investigate where your time is spent and you might be surprised to find that time is irrelevant. If you want to see a movie, go on vacation, or phone a friend, you always find the time. Why not squeeze in a few minutes each day to begin writing?
If you can’t produce the world’s greatest novel, then why bother, right? Very few writers I know are on the New York Times Best Seller List, yet there are millions of wonderful books, articles, and blogs available for escaping reality, for entertainment, or for learning something new. I once fixed a toilet via a “how-to” article on the net, which led to an article about the joys (insert rolling eyes) of grandchildren. Did you know there isn’t one toothpaste tube on the market that will flush? Writers never know when inspiration will strike. Or grandchildren, for that matter.
If writing one genre leaves you flat, then try another. Maybe poetry holds your voice and makes your heart sing. It could be non-fiction; how-to articles, copywriting, or even writing catchy jingles for cereal boxes or greeting cards. Discover which one(s) speaks to you. Break free of the mindset that novels are the only path and you could find a new, exciting, and often profitable way of highlighting your abilities.
Writing publicly isn’t for everyone, and if that doesn’t appeal to you, try journaling. One major benefit is that writing thoughts down can bring clarity to problems that often seem to swirl around in our heads like a carousel. Seeing the problem in print can often bring you to place of understanding; an awakening or “A-ha!” moment.
Journaling is also very important as it is an imprint of your life. Where would we be today without the records of those passed on before us? You may think, “Oh, but what if someone reads this?” I say, wouldn’t it be sad if someone doesn’t. They would be missing a golden opportunity to know the real you. Nonetheless, if this concern persists, there’s always time capsules or bank vaults, or better yet, that best friend who will pinkie swear to swoop in and grab your secrets should you transcend to a better place.
Remember, writing is a choice and a very valuable tool in getting to know yourself, and to celebrate your life. I get a high every time I complete an article, write a blog, or even send a humorous email. I’m higher than a kite right now. Where’s my Oreo’s? I must celebrate!
How will you celebrate your life?
Author Biography
Georgia Richardson, official humorist for the National Association of Baby Boomer Women (NABBW), is also a motivational speaker/gablogist, Southern humorist, author, and stretcher of the truth. Better known as Queen Jaw Jaw or JJ, her work has appeared in GRAND magazine, Chicken Soup for the Soul magazine, Woman's World, Guidepost online, BOOMER—for Central Iowa, Boomer Magazine, Missouri, Shoals Woman and a host of other regional and national magazines.
Her debut book, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Throne, consists of every day life experiences with just a twist of the imagination. Her second book, an anthology, Pink Jasper- Gems from the Journey, was written by Georgia and five other women across the United States, Canada, and England. Amazingly, these women have never met. Mixing her sharp sense of humor with everyday life observations, the Queen says, “Every single story is true, honest injun… I'd rather walk on my lips than tell a lie.” Visit her Queendom where you can read all about her Lunch Hour Specials. Don't forget to “paws” a while and see what her good friend and writer-dog Trixie, a.k.a., da Trixster, has been up to. E-mail her at gjawjaw1@bellsouth.net
-----
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:
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Create a Compelling Point of View
Printed with permission of the award-winning author Suzette Martinez Standring.
Based on the author's book, The Art of Column Writing
Wanted: a strong, personal point of view, emphasis on “personal.” No other form of journalism but column writing allows the writer’s individuality to shape both a message and a self-portrait. A columnist or blogger with a unique perspective will stand out amid the competition.
Viewpoint is different from “voice.” Voice is the writing style of the columnist. Point of view is the writer’s perspective, her fixed identity in print. For example, readers expected columnist Molly Ivins’ point of view to be politically liberal, while her writing voice conveyed a “don’t-this-beat-all” sense of humor.
Clear examples of point of view writing can be found in commentary where one’s politics color personal opinion. Advice columnists offer their special slant on handling life’s problems. Humorists personalize their view of a world gone awry.
Personal bias is acceptable in column writing. In fact, objectivity is not required, according to a majority of columnists polled in a survey by the National Society of Newspaper Columnists. A columnist is not expected to give equal weight to both sides of an issue. Indeed, many fiercely opinionated columnists boast large and very loyal readerships.
However, in offering written bias, a columnist is obligated to support it with facts. Project passion, but keep it fair with research and accuracy because readers look to a columnist’s viewpoint for help in interpreting events or forming opinions.
“It requires you to be almost like a lawyer. Through your arguments, you will need to convince the jury (your readers) that your client (your viewpoint) is right. Shaping a powerful argument takes practice and requires both breadth and depth of knowledge as well as the ability to critically analyze a particular issue,” wrote Oon Yeoh, a writing consultant and columnist for Today, a Singapore daily and The Edge, a Malaysian business weekly.
Walter Brasch is a university professor of journalism and mass communications as well as an author of a biweekly syndicated newspaper column. A recipient of numerous journalism awards, Brasch strongly offers two point-of-view tips.
Fight Homogeneous Style: Don’t imitate popular columnists. Offer readers something different. “Too often columnists read each other and they start to write like each other,” he said.
Don’t modify your message: Your audience is the reader. Don’t adjust your message to please editors or just to get published. Editors fail their readers when they expect writers to mirror the styles of big newspaper columnists.
“The problem is convincing editors they need to have a vast number of views from all parts of the country from all kinds of writers,” said Brasch.
An original viewpoint is irresistible. Columnist Robin Givhan of The Washington Post won the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for Criticism. This was a first-ever for a fashion columnist. Her work is a good example of a writer who broke away from the pack to develop a strikingly different perspective.
Givhan has covered an international global fashion industry, presidential inaugurals and the Academy Awards as an editor and columnist for The Washington Post since 1995. Previously, she worked for Vogue, The Detroit Free Press and The San Francisco Chronicle.
Her fashion column is popular for its unique point of view: What subliminal messages do politicians and celebrities seek to send by wearing certain clothes? It’s not about designers or trends. Instead she reveals how powerful people use their fashion choices to convey symbolism, create a façade or to further a crusade. Also, clothes can symbolize a national faux pas or disrespect.
“Gown watch” during the Clinton inaugural was her light bulb moment when Washington politics and fashion came together to create her column’s point of view.
Givhan said, “I asked myself why do we care so much about what this gown looks like? I wrote a piece about it and realized the first lady’s role and her clothes are so symbolic.
“Being First Lady is not defined as a job with something specific you have to do, other than essentially represent the American people. As a symbol, as a package, you want her to reflect the best of what we think of ourselves as being. That helped me understand better why the inaugural gown was something significant.
“There are a lot of little moments like when candidates visit factories and take off their coats, roll up their sleeves and talk to blue collar guys. It’s the visual language of, “Hey, I’m a regular guy.”
“I make a unique connection between attire and its national or cultural message. I tell people about the power of that type of symbolism.”
Givhan took her long time experience in the fashion industry and created a viewpoint that is deeply insightful. Explore your own familiarity in a subject or field and offer a perspective not easily found elsewhere. A unique point of view will place a columnist ahead of the competition.
Every writer offers observations that are uniquely enriched, according to journalist and columnist Walter Brasch, “Everything that has gone into a writer’s life from birth to the present helps to develop a point of view. Whenever somebody asks me how long it took me to write a book or column, I say all my life.”
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Suzette Martinez Standring is the award-winning author of The Art of Column Writing: Insider Secrets from Art Buchwald, Dave Barry, Arianna Huffington, Pete Hamill and Other Great Columnists. This excerpt is based on her book. Suzette is the past president of National Society of Newspaper Columnists and teaches writing workshops nationally. Visit www.readsuzette.com or email her: suzmar@comcast.net
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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:
Based on the author's book, The Art of Column Writing
Wanted: a strong, personal point of view, emphasis on “personal.” No other form of journalism but column writing allows the writer’s individuality to shape both a message and a self-portrait. A columnist or blogger with a unique perspective will stand out amid the competition.
Viewpoint is different from “voice.” Voice is the writing style of the columnist. Point of view is the writer’s perspective, her fixed identity in print. For example, readers expected columnist Molly Ivins’ point of view to be politically liberal, while her writing voice conveyed a “don’t-this-beat-all” sense of humor.
Clear examples of point of view writing can be found in commentary where one’s politics color personal opinion. Advice columnists offer their special slant on handling life’s problems. Humorists personalize their view of a world gone awry.
Personal bias is acceptable in column writing. In fact, objectivity is not required, according to a majority of columnists polled in a survey by the National Society of Newspaper Columnists. A columnist is not expected to give equal weight to both sides of an issue. Indeed, many fiercely opinionated columnists boast large and very loyal readerships.
However, in offering written bias, a columnist is obligated to support it with facts. Project passion, but keep it fair with research and accuracy because readers look to a columnist’s viewpoint for help in interpreting events or forming opinions.
“It requires you to be almost like a lawyer. Through your arguments, you will need to convince the jury (your readers) that your client (your viewpoint) is right. Shaping a powerful argument takes practice and requires both breadth and depth of knowledge as well as the ability to critically analyze a particular issue,” wrote Oon Yeoh, a writing consultant and columnist for Today, a Singapore daily and The Edge, a Malaysian business weekly.
Walter Brasch is a university professor of journalism and mass communications as well as an author of a biweekly syndicated newspaper column. A recipient of numerous journalism awards, Brasch strongly offers two point-of-view tips.
Fight Homogeneous Style: Don’t imitate popular columnists. Offer readers something different. “Too often columnists read each other and they start to write like each other,” he said.
Don’t modify your message: Your audience is the reader. Don’t adjust your message to please editors or just to get published. Editors fail their readers when they expect writers to mirror the styles of big newspaper columnists.
“The problem is convincing editors they need to have a vast number of views from all parts of the country from all kinds of writers,” said Brasch.
An original viewpoint is irresistible. Columnist Robin Givhan of The Washington Post won the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for Criticism. This was a first-ever for a fashion columnist. Her work is a good example of a writer who broke away from the pack to develop a strikingly different perspective.
Givhan has covered an international global fashion industry, presidential inaugurals and the Academy Awards as an editor and columnist for The Washington Post since 1995. Previously, she worked for Vogue, The Detroit Free Press and The San Francisco Chronicle.
Her fashion column is popular for its unique point of view: What subliminal messages do politicians and celebrities seek to send by wearing certain clothes? It’s not about designers or trends. Instead she reveals how powerful people use their fashion choices to convey symbolism, create a façade or to further a crusade. Also, clothes can symbolize a national faux pas or disrespect.
“Gown watch” during the Clinton inaugural was her light bulb moment when Washington politics and fashion came together to create her column’s point of view.
Givhan said, “I asked myself why do we care so much about what this gown looks like? I wrote a piece about it and realized the first lady’s role and her clothes are so symbolic.
“Being First Lady is not defined as a job with something specific you have to do, other than essentially represent the American people. As a symbol, as a package, you want her to reflect the best of what we think of ourselves as being. That helped me understand better why the inaugural gown was something significant.
“There are a lot of little moments like when candidates visit factories and take off their coats, roll up their sleeves and talk to blue collar guys. It’s the visual language of, “Hey, I’m a regular guy.”
“I make a unique connection between attire and its national or cultural message. I tell people about the power of that type of symbolism.”
Givhan took her long time experience in the fashion industry and created a viewpoint that is deeply insightful. Explore your own familiarity in a subject or field and offer a perspective not easily found elsewhere. A unique point of view will place a columnist ahead of the competition.
Every writer offers observations that are uniquely enriched, according to journalist and columnist Walter Brasch, “Everything that has gone into a writer’s life from birth to the present helps to develop a point of view. Whenever somebody asks me how long it took me to write a book or column, I say all my life.”
-----
Suzette Martinez Standring is the award-winning author of The Art of Column Writing: Insider Secrets from Art Buchwald, Dave Barry, Arianna Huffington, Pete Hamill and Other Great Columnists. This excerpt is based on her book. Suzette is the past president of National Society of Newspaper Columnists and teaches writing workshops nationally. Visit www.readsuzette.com or email her: suzmar@comcast.net
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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:
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Quickie: Easing Your Amazon Online Book Marketing Process
I know many authors are at odds with Amazon. But Amazon is where the readers are. Not only does Amazon offer benefits like AuthorsConnect to authors, but they continue to make managing our online book marketing with them easier. Here is a link that will help you with a new feature that will let you update or begin adding review excerpts and other information to your Amazon sales pages:
https://authorcentral.amazon.com/gp/help?topicID=200436740
By the way, I use my Amazon profile often; I even have a shortened address for it: www.budurl.com/CarolynsAmazProfile.
Also, you should know that information like this (detailed, practical information and lots more information than I can give you in this blog) may be found in my SharingwithWriters newsletter. You can subscribe using the form/window on this blog or a similar sign-up form at my Web site, www.howtodoitfrugally.com. Or just send me an e-mail with SUBSCRIBE in the window and I'll do it for you. 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 . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use the little Green widget to let them know about it:
https://authorcentral.amazon.com/gp/help?topicID=200436740
By the way, I use my Amazon profile often; I even have a shortened address for it: www.budurl.com/CarolynsAmazProfile.
Also, you should know that information like this (detailed, practical information and lots more information than I can give you in this blog) may be found in my SharingwithWriters newsletter. You can subscribe using the form/window on this blog or a similar sign-up form at my Web site, www.howtodoitfrugally.com. Or just send me an e-mail with SUBSCRIBE in the window and I'll do it for you. 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 . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use the little Green widget to let them know about it:
Saturday, May 08, 2010
On Writing Dialogue: Yes, for Fiction and Nonfiction
A writer’s dialogue is often an editor’s first indication that a submission is written by someone without training in the craft of writing.
1. Keep it simple. "He said" and "She said" will usually do. Your reader is trained to accept this repetition.
2. Forget you ever heard of strong verbs. Skip the "He yelped" and the "She sighed." They slow your dialogue down. If you feel need them, look at the words—the actual dialogue— your character used when he was yelping. Maybe it doesn't reflect the way someone would sound if he yelped. Maybe if you strengthen the dialogue, you can ditch the overblown tag.
3. When you can, reveal who is saying something by the voice or tone of the dialogue. That way you may be able to skip tags occasionally, especially when you have only two people speaking to one another. Your dialogue will ring truer, too.
4. Avoid having characters use other characters' names. In real life, we don't use people's names in our speech much. We tend to reserve using names for when we're angry or disapproving or we just met in a room full of people and we're practicing out social skills. Having a character direct her speech to one character or another by using her name is a lazy writer's way of directing dialogue and it will annoy the reader. When a reader is annoyed, she will not be immersed in the story you are trying to tell.
5. Avoid putting internal dialogue in italics. Trust your reader and your own ability to write in a character's point of view. She will know who is thinking the words from the point of view of the narrative.
6. Be cautious about using dialogue to tell something that should be shown. It doesn't help much to transfer telling from the narrator to the dialogue. It just makes the character who is speaking sound long winded. Putting quotation marks around exposition won't draw the reader into the scene or involve him more than if you'd left it part of the narrative.
7. And magic number seven is, don't break up dialogue sequences with long or overly frequent blocks of narrative. One of dialogue's greatest advantages is that it moves a story along. If a writer inserts too much stage direction, it will lose the forward motion and any tension it is building.
8. Avoid having every character answer a question directly. Some people do that (say a sensitive young girl who has been reared to obey her elders) but many don't. Some veer off with an answer that doesn't follow from the question asked. Some are silent. Some characters do any one of these things as a matter of course. Some do them purposefully, say to avoid fibbing or to change the subject or because they are passive aggressive.
9. Avoid dull dialogue that doesn't help draw better characters or move the action forward. Forcing a reader to hear people introduce themselves to one another without a very good reason to do so is cruel and unusual punishment.
10. Use dialogue to unobtrusive plant a seed of intrigue. If a character brings up a concern that isn't solved immediately, you can heighten the page-turning effect.
For more on writing dialogue check out Tom Chiarella's Writing Dialogue (Writers' Digest) and for more on editing in general—from editing query letters to turning unattractive adverbs into metaphoric gold—find The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success (Red Engine Press) on Amazon (www.budurl.com/TheFrugalEditor). A famous book that touches on dialogue issues is Stephen King’s On Writing.
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This article and others are available for use on your blog, your Web site, and in your newsletter. They are free for the taking at www.budurl.com/FreeArticlesReviews or with a request by e-mail: hojonews@aol.com. Learn more on the elements of writing including grammar and syntax at www.thefrugaleditor.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 . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use the little Green widget to let them know about it:
1. Keep it simple. "He said" and "She said" will usually do. Your reader is trained to accept this repetition.
2. Forget you ever heard of strong verbs. Skip the "He yelped" and the "She sighed." They slow your dialogue down. If you feel need them, look at the words—the actual dialogue— your character used when he was yelping. Maybe it doesn't reflect the way someone would sound if he yelped. Maybe if you strengthen the dialogue, you can ditch the overblown tag.
3. When you can, reveal who is saying something by the voice or tone of the dialogue. That way you may be able to skip tags occasionally, especially when you have only two people speaking to one another. Your dialogue will ring truer, too.
4. Avoid having characters use other characters' names. In real life, we don't use people's names in our speech much. We tend to reserve using names for when we're angry or disapproving or we just met in a room full of people and we're practicing out social skills. Having a character direct her speech to one character or another by using her name is a lazy writer's way of directing dialogue and it will annoy the reader. When a reader is annoyed, she will not be immersed in the story you are trying to tell.
5. Avoid putting internal dialogue in italics. Trust your reader and your own ability to write in a character's point of view. She will know who is thinking the words from the point of view of the narrative.
6. Be cautious about using dialogue to tell something that should be shown. It doesn't help much to transfer telling from the narrator to the dialogue. It just makes the character who is speaking sound long winded. Putting quotation marks around exposition won't draw the reader into the scene or involve him more than if you'd left it part of the narrative.
7. And magic number seven is, don't break up dialogue sequences with long or overly frequent blocks of narrative. One of dialogue's greatest advantages is that it moves a story along. If a writer inserts too much stage direction, it will lose the forward motion and any tension it is building.
8. Avoid having every character answer a question directly. Some people do that (say a sensitive young girl who has been reared to obey her elders) but many don't. Some veer off with an answer that doesn't follow from the question asked. Some are silent. Some characters do any one of these things as a matter of course. Some do them purposefully, say to avoid fibbing or to change the subject or because they are passive aggressive.
9. Avoid dull dialogue that doesn't help draw better characters or move the action forward. Forcing a reader to hear people introduce themselves to one another without a very good reason to do so is cruel and unusual punishment.
10. Use dialogue to unobtrusive plant a seed of intrigue. If a character brings up a concern that isn't solved immediately, you can heighten the page-turning effect.
For more on writing dialogue check out Tom Chiarella's Writing Dialogue (Writers' Digest) and for more on editing in general—from editing query letters to turning unattractive adverbs into metaphoric gold—find The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success (Red Engine Press) on Amazon (www.budurl.com/TheFrugalEditor). A famous book that touches on dialogue issues is Stephen King’s On Writing.
----
This article and others are available for use on your blog, your Web site, and in your newsletter. They are free for the taking at www.budurl.com/FreeArticlesReviews or with a request by e-mail: hojonews@aol.com. Learn more on the elements of writing including grammar and syntax at www.thefrugaleditor.blogspot.com.
-----
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:
Cyberhouse: UCLA Writers' Program Free Online Open House
My two favorite schools are cross-town rivals. I was graduated from USC and so was my son. Though not a sports fan, I love that school. I am an instructor for UCLA's Extension Writers' Program and my daughter is studhing for her Ph.D. there. I don't find that the least bit of a conflict. They are both wonderful institutions. I am able to fly both flage, put stickers in my car windows for both schools and not feel like a traitor to either. It's about education. Great educations.
Though I teach only on-campus classes, I am especially enthused about the freebie Cyberhouse UCLA sponsors. That's because so many of my readers can't come to me for classes. This blog is--obviously--a great place to let them know about this opportunity to learn online from Writers' Program instructors because these classes are available to writers no matter where they live. Those who attend receive a 10% reduction in the cost of a course they choose (no pressure, though!) and they get the benefit of rubbing virtual elbows with topflight instructors for the day whether they take a class or not.
Here's what the department planners say:
"Cyberhouse is held June 1 -4, this free event features more than 35 summer instructors engaged in spirited discussions about their courses. We also provide live chats, direct links to instructors' biographies and statements, and a Cyberhouse writing contest for screenwriters, fiction writers and nonfiction writers. A 10% discount will be available for students who enroll in a selected Writers' Program online course during this four-day event.
"The Cyberhouse is free, but you must be register to participate. Call (310) 825-9971 and ask for V5504. We'll see you in Cyberspace!
This is what writers say about it:
"Thank you, this was an extraordinary event. I was able to have a dialogue with several of the instructor-participants and got answers to all of my questions. One thing that often eludes us is determining which class to take from among so many wonderful choices. I was able to get the answers I needed and enroll in the best class for me based upon my goals and experiences...thanks! I intend to try and implement this program at my college." ~ Charles "Buck" Stapleton, Professor-chair, Behavioral Social Sciences division, West Los Angeles College
If you should live in Southern California or find it an exciting (and doable) idea to combine my one-day seminar on marketing books the frugal way (online and off) on August 7, please consider enrolling at http://www.uclaextension.edu. Those of you who don't, might want to combine a work and play. UCLA's campus is not so far from the Will Rogers State Beach and Disneyland! And the campus is just gorgeous.
The Writers’ Program hosts or attends several events throughout the year that are free and open to the public. For specific information about each of these events, please click on the links to the right at this Web site page: http://www2.uclaextension.edu/writers/events.php
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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:
Though I teach only on-campus classes, I am especially enthused about the freebie Cyberhouse UCLA sponsors. That's because so many of my readers can't come to me for classes. This blog is--obviously--a great place to let them know about this opportunity to learn online from Writers' Program instructors because these classes are available to writers no matter where they live. Those who attend receive a 10% reduction in the cost of a course they choose (no pressure, though!) and they get the benefit of rubbing virtual elbows with topflight instructors for the day whether they take a class or not.
Here's what the department planners say:
"Cyberhouse is held June 1 -4, this free event features more than 35 summer instructors engaged in spirited discussions about their courses. We also provide live chats, direct links to instructors' biographies and statements, and a Cyberhouse writing contest for screenwriters, fiction writers and nonfiction writers. A 10% discount will be available for students who enroll in a selected Writers' Program online course during this four-day event.
"The Cyberhouse is free, but you must be register to participate. Call (310) 825-9971 and ask for V5504. We'll see you in Cyberspace!
This is what writers say about it:
"Thank you, this was an extraordinary event. I was able to have a dialogue with several of the instructor-participants and got answers to all of my questions. One thing that often eludes us is determining which class to take from among so many wonderful choices. I was able to get the answers I needed and enroll in the best class for me based upon my goals and experiences...thanks! I intend to try and implement this program at my college." ~ Charles "Buck" Stapleton, Professor-chair, Behavioral Social Sciences division, West Los Angeles College
If you should live in Southern California or find it an exciting (and doable) idea to combine my one-day seminar on marketing books the frugal way (online and off) on August 7, please consider enrolling at http://www.uclaextension.edu. Those of you who don't, might want to combine a work and play. UCLA's campus is not so far from the Will Rogers State Beach and Disneyland! And the campus is just gorgeous.
The Writers’ Program hosts or attends several events throughout the year that are free and open to the public. For specific information about each of these events, please click on the links to the right at this Web site page: http://www2.uclaextension.edu/writers/events.php
-----
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:
Friday, May 07, 2010
What Praise for the iPad Means for Authors
Reviews for iPAD Used As a Reader Is Positive! What Does That Mean for You?
Reviews for the iPad--like the one on the front page of the LA Times Calendar section this week--universally praise, laud, and acclaim the iPad as a reader. Most have a few good things to say about Kindle, too. But, generally, reviewers seem to love, love, love! iPad and seem willing to forego the features on Kindle they deem better for the color, book-like feel and design of the Pad.
What does that mean for us writers? Well, in addition to my raving on and on that a smart author in any genre should get their books available as e-books as soon as possible, getting your book available on iPAD will get you in on the ground floor of a new, VERY popular toy. You can use Smashwords.com or iFOGOvillage.ning.com to do that.
Should YOU buy one. There is a big, big difference between the cost of these tech toys. Given a choice, well--you know how frugal I am. When it comes to making my books availalbe on one or the other, well, it isn't a choice! As good marketers, we authors want to make our books available whatever ways people want to buy them!
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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:
Thursday, May 06, 2010
Baby Boomer Women Offers Writing Contest
I thought many of my subscribers would be interested in this legitimate, fun and helpful contest from BoomerWomenSpeak.com. See what you think!
What if YOU Owned the Remote to Change Your Life?
As Baby Boomers, we've explored, researched, traveled, loved and lost. We've reinvented ourselves and how the world views us. At midlife, we are tech savvy, so much wiser and gentler, and we've unearthed many ways to love and nourish the most important person in the world—Ourselves.
We've also come to believe that sometimes family, friends, or events in our lives would serve us better if we could pause, fast forward, and sometimes even rewind them.
What if…you own a remote that could change your life? Tell us…
Are there parts of your life you want to “pause” in order to reflect on them more deeply, maybe cherish them, or possibly you want to savor and stay in the moment?
Do you want to fast forward through some obligatory event, boring experience, or unpleasant scene?
Need more time to make that all important decision?
Go ahead. You can change your life with a click of a button—so tell us—What button you would push…and why?
GUIDELINES
Submit an essay (no poetry) in 500 words or less using the helpful hints above and tell us—WHICH BUTTON WOULD YOU CHOOSE? AND WHY?
All women entering must be a current subscriber to Boomer Women's World newsletter. (Subscribe HERE)
Submit your essay entry in a Word document to georgia@nabbw.com with “Who Owns the Remote?” in the subject line
Inside your entry, include name, email address, and bio (75 words max) at the top of your essay plus a word count
Attachments only--DO NOT send in the body of an email or you will be disqualified.
No previously published material is eligible
Deadline - May 31, 2010
Winners announced in the June 15, Boomer Women's World newsletter
PRIZES:
FIRST PLACE - One winner
F-R-E-E membership or renewal in the NABBW,
Your story will be published in the Our Voices section at www.boomerwomenspeak.com.
Your choice of THREE FREE books (see below), OR Anne Holmes will host a teleseminar with you as her guest. NOTE: This teleseminar can be on any topic of interest to Baby Boomer women. Here's your chance to promote your book, champion a cause or discuss an issue dear to your heart. (Plus, you get a copy of the teleseminar, to use in your own marketing efforts.)
Fearless Confessions: A Writer's Guide to Memoir, by award winning author, Sue William Silverman
In Fearless Confessions, a Writer's Guide to Memoir, author Sue William Silverman offers the reader a clearly marked path into the world of memoir writing. Chapter by chapter the author breaks down the preconceived notion that writing one's memoir is too complex, difficult, and in some cases, too controversial. For a full review, click HERE.
Defying Gravity, by author Prill Boyle.
Defying Gravity recounts the stories of 12 "ordinary" women who have done extraordinary things later in life. One woman didn't graduate from high school until she was 42 and is now a professor at an Ivy League university. Another was a shy housewife until she was 52 and is now the CEO of a multi-million dollar corporation.
Our Lady of Weight Loss, by author, artist, and weight loss specialist, Janice Taylor (An OPRAH Book Club pick!)
Our Lady of Weight Loss offers FaToids throughout which are dashes of fat trivia, and shares her reader's letters which are often seeking forgiveness for overeating. She forgives and tells them to carry on, almost like the priest who forgave our sins in the confessional.
SECOND PLACE - One winner
F-R-E-E membership or renewal in the NABBW,
Your story will be published in the Our Voices section at www.boomerwomenspeak.com
THIRD PLACE - Three Honorable Mentions
Your story will be published in the Our Voices section at www.boomerwomenspeak.com
An official National Association of Baby Boomer Women Coffee Mug
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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:
Tuesday, May 04, 2010
Karen Cioffi Presents Model Review for Those Who Would Review
I'm in love with this review written by Karen Cioffi. Not because it is a rave review (really, it's quite matter-of-fact), but because it gives readers what they need to make a buying decision. So, I think of this not only as a brag about my new little booklet, but as an example of what a well-written review looks like.
Title: Great Little Last-Minute Editing Tips for Writers
Author: Carolyn Howard-Johnson
Publisher: HowToDoItFrugally.com
ISBN: 1450507654
What’s more important to a writer than words? Not much . . . maybe how to put words together properly, using correct grammar, weaving them together to create descriptive or informative content . . . but, we still go back to the foundation of every writer’s manuscript or article . . . words.
Carolyn Howard Johnson’s latest book, Great Little Last-Minute Editing Tips for Writers, is a little 55 page book (or e-book) that a writer can refer back to over and over and over to find help with some of the most common word trippers.
In the Before You Get Started section of this book, Howard-Johnson explains, “Great Little Last-Minute Editing Tips for Writers is full of words that are trouble causers. They either sound alike or are spelled similarly. They are not arcane words that you will seldom have an occasion to use. They are not words the writer knows but still mistypes.”
Words such as climactic and climatic used improperly or misspelled can mean a rejection when submitting to the “gatekeepers.” The addition or deletion of that little second “c” makes a huge difference in the meaning of the word.
Or, how about the words: all together / altogether; demur / demure; one in the same / one and the same; and peeked / peaked / piqued. These are just a few of the word trippers added in the Great Little Last-Minute Editing Tips for Writers.
Listed in an A – Z format, the words chosen for this book are thoroughly explained with the aid of examples. This all makes for an easy to understand and easy to read guide. The author also provides two resource sections at the end of the book: Reading: One Editing Book at a Time, and Other Writers’ Aids.
I happen to be a fan of Carolyn Howard-Johnson’s Frugal series and have the Frugal Editor as well as the Frugal Book Promoter. They are a part of my writing and marketing toolkit. The author has done it again with the Great Little Last-Minute Editing Tips for Writers. She has compiled this much needed booklet as an addendum to a list in the appendix of her book, The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success.
I learned a great deal from Great Little Last-Minute Editing Tips for Writers and will be referring to it often; I highly recommend it.
Reviewed by Karen Cioffi, author, writer-for-hire, freelance writer. She blogs at
http://karenandrobyn.blogspot.com and is co-author of Day's End Lullaby. She is the author of The Self-Publisher's Guide, Writing, Publishing, and Marketing - You Can Do It!, and Walking Through Walls - In contract with 4RV Publishing. She also reviews for BookPleasures.com and Muse Book Reviews
Follow her at http://twitter.com/KarenCV
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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:
Title: Great Little Last-Minute Editing Tips for Writers
Author: Carolyn Howard-Johnson
Publisher: HowToDoItFrugally.com
ISBN: 1450507654
What’s more important to a writer than words? Not much . . . maybe how to put words together properly, using correct grammar, weaving them together to create descriptive or informative content . . . but, we still go back to the foundation of every writer’s manuscript or article . . . words.
Carolyn Howard Johnson’s latest book, Great Little Last-Minute Editing Tips for Writers, is a little 55 page book (or e-book) that a writer can refer back to over and over and over to find help with some of the most common word trippers.
In the Before You Get Started section of this book, Howard-Johnson explains, “Great Little Last-Minute Editing Tips for Writers is full of words that are trouble causers. They either sound alike or are spelled similarly. They are not arcane words that you will seldom have an occasion to use. They are not words the writer knows but still mistypes.”
Words such as climactic and climatic used improperly or misspelled can mean a rejection when submitting to the “gatekeepers.” The addition or deletion of that little second “c” makes a huge difference in the meaning of the word.
Or, how about the words: all together / altogether; demur / demure; one in the same / one and the same; and peeked / peaked / piqued. These are just a few of the word trippers added in the Great Little Last-Minute Editing Tips for Writers.
Listed in an A – Z format, the words chosen for this book are thoroughly explained with the aid of examples. This all makes for an easy to understand and easy to read guide. The author also provides two resource sections at the end of the book: Reading: One Editing Book at a Time, and Other Writers’ Aids.
I happen to be a fan of Carolyn Howard-Johnson’s Frugal series and have the Frugal Editor as well as the Frugal Book Promoter. They are a part of my writing and marketing toolkit. The author has done it again with the Great Little Last-Minute Editing Tips for Writers. She has compiled this much needed booklet as an addendum to a list in the appendix of her book, The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success.
I learned a great deal from Great Little Last-Minute Editing Tips for Writers and will be referring to it often; I highly recommend it.
Reviewed by Karen Cioffi, author, writer-for-hire, freelance writer. She blogs at
http://karenandrobyn.blogspot.com and is co-author of Day's End Lullaby. She is the author of The Self-Publisher's Guide, Writing, Publishing, and Marketing - You Can Do It!, and Walking Through Walls - In contract with 4RV Publishing. She also reviews for BookPleasures.com and Muse Book Reviews
Follow her at http://twitter.com/KarenCV
-----
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:
Sunday, May 02, 2010
A Rant!: You KNOW You Wanted to Hear About Your E-Mails!
I am feeling a rant coming on! You might as well benefit from it.
For the sixth time in a week, I received e-mail from authors (all six were different authors!). I could tell they were authors by their e-mail monikers, but didn't necessarily know who they were from their address or the subject line. Still, being the little bluebird of light that I am, I open them. And there I find a Web address. That's all. Just a Web address.
Now, if I were that person's sister, I might click on a link like that.
But here's the thing:
Links sometimes carry viruses. Ouch!
Another Ouch! I don’t read much of anything unless I have an inkling that I will learn something, be entertained, or be able to use the message in an article or this newsletter. There were no pitches in these e-mails, nothing to indicate why I should open it. Studies show that most people are like me in this regard. They don’t even buy books without a good reason!
If you are guilty of this kind of thing, even if you're only sending something to your relatives who think you are talented and brilliant, stop now. If it's worth the time to send an e-mail, it's worth writing at least a one line pitch about what someone is getting.
Another Ouch! Some of these e-mails didn’t use blind copies for their list, either. It's only good etiquette not to expose your contacts e-mails for spammers to see. When I get follow-ups to this same e-mail from people who click on the reply all button, I get even more annoyed.
Mind you, I'm not annoyed because people are trying to promote. I'm not annoyed even if the e-mail feels spammy. I'm annoyed because this mail lacks common courtesy.
Thus, If you've been doing something vaguely related to this, know that it is mostly a waste of time. Your relatives all have your book or they don't read the genre you book is written in. Your editors, radio hosts, and other promotion contacts won't open it because of possible viruses, lack of time or because they’re ticked. So they won't print it. I doubt if they did open it, they would know what the author wanted them to do with it.
And then there are those subject lines! Arghhhhh!
So here's my plea! Direct. To the point. But with a pitch so the recipient knows if your message is a media release, a query, a submission, or a personal note. Also it wouldn’t hurt to give the recipient just a hint at what it’s all about.
To avoid these kinds of faux pas that cause more bad will than good, please read a book on promotion, preferably one written for authors. You may be missing some of other refinements like asking what else you might do to help your contact. Sure, I want you to read The Frugal Book Promoter: How to Do What Your Publisher Won't (or reread it) (www.budurl.com/FrugalBkPromo) but any similar book is likely to help.
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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:
Saturday, May 01, 2010
Inspiration for Career Building in a Video
Dear Sharing with Writers Subscribers and Visitors:
I am including this video because it is inspirational and because I believe in UCLA's Extension program, particularly its Writers' Program where I learned to polish my fiction skills after a career as a journalist. (Many of us writers don't realize that each new genre we try requires a whole new skill set.)
I have been teaching at UCLA Extension for several years now. It's a way to pass on the joy that writing has brought to me. If you are interested in my next one-day seminar on August 7th, please let me know at HoJoNews@aol.com. Or just go to UCLA Extension and sign up for the class.
Here is a video that came to me by e-mail. I love the little anecdotes about how furthering our educations can make such a difference in our lives:
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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:
I am including this video because it is inspirational and because I believe in UCLA's Extension program, particularly its Writers' Program where I learned to polish my fiction skills after a career as a journalist. (Many of us writers don't realize that each new genre we try requires a whole new skill set.)
I have been teaching at UCLA Extension for several years now. It's a way to pass on the joy that writing has brought to me. If you are interested in my next one-day seminar on August 7th, please let me know at HoJoNews@aol.com. Or just go to UCLA Extension and sign up for the class.
Here is a video that came to me by e-mail. I love the little anecdotes about how furthering our educations can make such a difference in our lives:
-----
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:
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