Resource: Getting Reviews...and Reviewing!

In the Frugal Book Promoter I recommend reviewing as way network with other authors and the editors of review Web sites, magazines and journals. Now one of the lovely folks who offered to help me with my August book launch for Frugal and Focused Tweeting for Retailers: Tweaking Your Tweets and Other Tips for Integrating Your Social Media is starting a new review site. She already has a stable of reviewers and they are looking for more reviewers and books to read in all genres except porngraphy. Send your query letter to Ivy (at)Forloveofreading (dot) com.

This information comes from my newsletter. I repeat only about 5% of that newsletter in this blog, so if you want lots of other resources and ideas on reading, book promotion, writing craft, and publishing, please subscribe by sending me an e-mail with SUBSCRIBE in the header to hojonews (at) aol (dot) com.

Frugal and Focused Tweeting

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

Amazon Offers AuthorConnect on Amazon.co.uk!

This is the note Amazon sent to those who participate in AuthorConnect. Once again, this is a benefit that Amazon offers authors whose books are for sale on Amazon. I can’t think of any sound reason why you wouldn’t want to have this exposure to millions of your targeted audience. That would, of course, be readers.

Greetings!

Here are your need-to-know Author Central updates:

• We’ve launched Author Central on Amazon.co.uk! If you have books available on Amazon.co.uk, visit https://authorcentral.amazon.co.uk to sign up and manage an Author Page. Some of the features available in the US are not yet available in the UK. Join us in our first international venture to promote your work and let us know what you think!

• Some of you may have stumbled onto this feature already, but here’s the official announcement: you can update content in the “Editorial Reviews” section of your books’ product pages directly in Author Central. We know that Editorial Reviews are important to a customer’s
discovery of your book on Amazon.com, and that you sometimes need to make updates or suggest corrections to them.

To learn about the feature, take a look at the Editorial Reviews help page. You can create up to five new Reviews, and request corrections to reviews that have already been submitted by your publisher. You can also update content for author-pertinent topics like “About the Author,” “From the Author,” and “Product Description.” Changes you make will appear on the Web site in 1-2 days; if you encounter any difficulty, don’t hesitate to contact our dedicated author support team.

Sincerely,
Author Central Team
AuthorCentral.Amazon.com
Please direct questions to the Author Central team.


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

Vivian Zabel Dishes On What She Learned at a Conference and How She's Using It

My guest blogger today is author and publisher Vivian Zabel. She has published the books of others and several of her own books, so she isn't new to this. Still, she found new ideas at a conference she recently attended, some of them with new twists I hadn't heard about before. She shares with you here:


One strong point brought out by a recent speaker and best-selling author, publishers don't do much for promotion unless the author is already famous. That idea isn't a surprise to most of us. Even James Patterson pitches his books on television. Therefore, Dana Stabenow decided she would do a major promotion for her books herself, using the Internet.

For her first major promotion Dana used her Web site to present one chapter of the book per month starting four months before its release, and she used only the first four chapters, no more. She gave a free ARC (Advance Reader Copy) of the book each month for those four months. For subsequent books, she only posted an excerpt once and didn't give out as many ARCs for prizes.

I'm using this idea, but with modification. I posted the first chapter of my upcoming novel Stolen on http://Stolen.yolasite.com, but I won't post other chapters. I'm holding a contest with two prongs:

1. Readers will post a short comment on my Web site and then send me an e-mail with an idea for the ending of my book (not the ending they're submitting, though, because we don't want others to copy them). Their name will go into a drawing to win one of two ARCs of my book, Stolen.

2. Anyone who promotes my book on their blog between June 15 and September and has at least 100 people, other than the host or author, will be eligible to win one of two other ARCs.

I will add a few contests in the months ahead.

Dana wrote and posted a transitional chapter linking book one to the next book, or the book before the current book to the current book. She covered what happened to her main characters (which includes a wolf) and community from one novel to the next. Since I don't have a previous book or prequel to Stolen, I can't do the transitional chapter. However, I'm keeping a blog written by Torri, the main character, giving background and "memories" she has about her life and family, helping readers to "know" her and be interested in her story.

The Stabenow URL (http://Stabenow.com) appeared on everything, everywhere she could place it. Her Web site offers great advice for writers, too. I discovered how to personalize a signature with my blog URL, my contacts on Twitter and Facebook, and to promote Stolen. \

This signature, includes logo/widgets to Facebook and Twitter and appears on everything except my business e-mails:

Vivian Zabel
Experience the Emotion
Love - Mystery - Love

Coming this fall: Stolen
Contact Me
Brain Cells & Bubble Wrap Asking for help - for others

Dana paid for a professional trailer, which she discovered was not cost effective. Not one not done by a professional, but of good quality, does the job. I'm planning on using Slider.com and put together a slide show for my novel once I can discover how to have some images other than the cover to complete the side show.

Dana puts out five newsletters each year, with an active "buy" link in each e-newsletter. This I need to learn how to do. I imagine I could manage to find the material for four or five newsletters a year, since I do more than that for Writing.Com, but I have no idea, yet, how to have active "buy" link.

The ARCs (Advance Reader Copies) of my novel will be sent to reviewers all over the country. They will be used for contests and to tempt people to want a copy of the novel. ARCs in themselves are great promotion tools.

Visit the Stolen Web site and learn more about the promotional activities and the novel itself.
----
Other books by Vivian include:



-----
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:

Never Too Early to Plan: Michelle Dunn Tells Top Five Things Learned at BEA

Top 5 things I learned at the Book Expo of America 2010

By Michelle Dunn

There was so much talk about how this years BEA was going to be
smaller, less attended by industry vendors and visitors and so much
less of a networking experience than previous years because of the
smaller size. It is true that there was only one floor of the Javits
Center this year and fewer people but I found that to be to my
advantage. Fewer booths to visit, so more time talking to the folks I
wanted to talk to, fewer crowds to get through and a much more relaxed
atmosphere.

According to the Book Expo of America Web site there were 21,919 people who attended the book expo this year, and there were over 29,000
industry professionals in attendance in 2009 and 20,000 in 2008,
though the 2009 and 2008 numbers include vendors.

I came prepared to meet publishers I had been published by, those I had
met at other networking events, and to speak to publishers who might be
interested in my book ideas. I brought business cards I had made up
especially for the BEA with pertinent information that publishers
would be interested in (how many on my mailing lists, my platform
information etc) and a few media kits. I did very well meeting and
talking with publishers all day on Wednesday and found 4 publishers
interested in my work. I have already had 2 publishers calling me about my book idea since I have been back! I landed my first book deal by attending the BEA so that was my goal this year as well.

I really enjoyed the book expo being smaller. There were fewer crowds, less waiting to talk to people you want to meet and talk to and less
walking! I received a newsletter that had a review of this years BEA
and they called it ?boring? and said ?that it was not a venue for
doing business and that if you hear differently it is simply
propaganda from the BEA folks?.

I am not affiliated with the BEA and in my opinion it WAS a venue for
doing business and that is not at all propaganda for the BEA. I
definitely found some publishers interested in my work and am sure I
will get another book deal out of the contacts I made there. In my
opinion if you go to the BEA with a clear goal, set up appointments
and present yourself in a professional way you can make good contacts
and do business attending the BEA. I have attended for the last 6
years and have always had good luck in gaining work and meeting and
networking with people that I keep in touch with in the industry.

Some things I noticed at the expo this year was that some of the
vendors were late in setting up their booths and when I tried to talk
to them, they were ?busy? setting up and asked me to come back
later. Others were so busy talking among themselves they would
literally just ignore you while chatting or texting or just walk away
from the booth leaving it unmanned. This is fine, I take that to mean
they are not serious and if that is how they approach their business,
I am not interested in working with them anyway. So by doing this
they really did me a favor and saved me from wasting time with them.

I was looking to talk to publishers of business books since that is
what I write and in some cases the representatives that I approached
at a publishers booth didn't know who was in charge of the business
books, or just didn't know where they were but they weren't worried
about it. They would ask me to come back later or would just tell me
that someone was there that was in charge of the business books but
they didn't know where they were and would walk away. I am still
trying to figure out why they were there, maybe to get a day out of
the office, or to network with other publishers, but certainly not to
meet new authors or look for new talent.

This surprised me since the economy is still in the toilet and the
publishing industry seems to be suffering but maybe not enough for
them to focus and really try to get the most out of the Expo. On the
other hand, the folks in the digital publishing sector were outgoing,
friendly, and helpful. Maybe because they know their formats are the wave of the future.

So, what did I learn from attending my 6th year at the Book Expo?

1. It works! It is important to go to the expo with a clear purpose in
mind and to be prepared. If you are going to look for a publisher
(like I did) make sure you research BEFORE you go, bring relevant
business cards and a few press kits. Know what your talking about and
present yourself in a professional manner. You have to stand out and
have a relevant book idea, as well as information about how you
market, your platform and your previous writing experience.

2. No matter what the size of the expo, it can be worthwhile. It was
for me, the publishers that did not attend did not affect my purpose.
I focused on business publishers, made sure I visited their booths,
asked relevant questions and spoke to the editors and people that
could help me get published.

3. Do your research! Check out the publishers Web sites before the
expo, be familiar with how they work. When they are talking with you
make sure to mention that you have researched their company, talked to
other authors that have worked with them, and know their background.
This is impressive and extremely helpful. The publishers and editors I
spoke with were much more receptive to me, knowing that I had done my
research.

4. Stop in to say hello to anyone who is there that you know.
Networking with these folks and just saying hello goes a long way.
Especially if you have only corresponded by e-mail; putting a face to
the e-mail is key in networking. For example, If you are a member of a
writers association or subscribe to Writers Digest magazine, you would want to stop by and introduce yourself. I like meeting the folks that put out the magazines I read, and meeting the folks that run the
writing associations I belong to and they do as well. Make an effort
and it will come back to you in a positive way.

5. Bring a helper. I have always brought an assistant with me to
the book expo, I have this person carry extra business cards, my press
kits and approach the next person I am going to speak with while I am
finishing up with my current conversations. Having someone give an
introduction about you, what you write and how successful you have
been is a very professional way to present yourself and you have help
carrying your materials and any books you pick up!

In closing I want to say that the publishers I did speak with were
very open and friendly, spent time talking with me to see if I was
worth their time and could be an author that would write a book that
was relevant to their company, and asking about my platform, other
writing and marketing experience.

Attending the Book Expo was once again, a rewarding experience for me.

~Michelle Dunn is the author of the award winning book "Starting a Collection Agency, how to make
money collecting money" and many other titles in her "Collecting Money
Series".
Join her on LinkedIn.
Also network with her at American Credit & Collections Association social networking site!

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

Fie on Ties: Let's Support Publishing for Father's Day

How about literature for Father’s Day instead of ties or dinner?

We know ties are a cliché and in a few years, Dad won’t remember one Father’s Day dinner from another. Let’s face it, not all literature is created equal, thus some books are just as fleeting, though most would be a step up from a gift certificate and certainly would help support the industry that we believe important for the future.

I’m proposing—selfishly—poetry. Frugally!

First, you may have never given your father, grandfather, or a favorite father figure in your life a book of poetry. Thus, it will be memorable.
A small book of poetry will also be flattering. He will appreciate being treated tenderly. In fact, present a small chapbook with a single rose or gladiolus spray. Who says that only women want romance and tenderness in their lives!

Some of the readers of this blog could easily write a poem—even if they don’t think poetry their forte. Print it out on some lineny paper and present it with any other gift you may be giving.

You might choose to tuck it inside the cover of the Chapbook Imagining the Future: Ruminations on Fathers and Other Masculine Apparitions that Magdalena Ball and I wrote for our Celebration Series of chapbooks. Our idea for this series is to have small books written for those who prefer something a little a little more literary than the typical greeting card, but still accessible for those who didn’t study literature in school. And at an affordable price. With cover art (and sometimes interior art) chosen from among our circle of talented writing and artist friends.

Most of our booklets are $6.95. We now have one for mothers (She Wore Emerald Then: Reflections on Motherhood, www.budurl.com/MotherChapbook), one that says love (Cherished Pulse: Unconventional Love Poetry, www.budurl.com/CherishedPulse) and one for men and fathers (Imagining the Future, www.budurl.com/Imagining). We’re working on one for Christmas (not the holidays, but Christmas). It will be called Blooming Red.

Think of your poetry presentation to Dad as a Father’s Day card; it costs little more than a really nice one. Or think of it as a tuck-in gift or a tie-on as part of the wrap. Any poetry book you choose can be made more personal if you tie in a little grosgrain or satin ribbon inside the crease of the book to be used as a bookmark.

And don’t forget the hug.

Here is a sample poem from Imagining the Future (www.budurl.com/Imagining) : It was originally published by Dash, a literary journal.

Long Before They Shut the Napster Down

my father collected blursounds
get out of town
downloaded into the night soft jazzy
lights, sweet pink smoke
the smell of Jack Daniel's hot
satin doll
to real applause, nothing canned

found in the night a voice
like a staccato bass Wes Bowen
at KSL croons ella and shearing
at midnight to benefit a crowd
of one, alone at the wheel
make believe

marimbas, smooth
lullaby of birdland
sweet humanbaby-whine of clarinets
and a moon
no electronic nothing
humthrum of base, brushswish metal on cymbals

tell you what it's all about
lucky to get it before they shut the music down
smokey joe's
dispenser of joy, free of charge
cut me a rose

Happy Father's Day!
Carolyn Howard-Johnson
www.howtodoitfrugally.com

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

Jim Cox Gives Writers the Inside Story on His Review Process

If you receive (and love!) the Midwest Review newsletter that gets delivered directly to your e-mail box as much as I do, you may disregard this post for you will have already read it. To all others, Jim Cox, trusted leader of Midwest Review, always has a valuable perspective on some aspect of publishing, in this case an aspect of our world that he probably knows more about than any other. Here is an excerpt from his letter. Read and take heed! (-:


Dear Publisher Folk, Friends & Family:

When I started my career as a book reviewer more than thirty years ago, I had the basics -- a desk, a bookshelf, a typewriter, a telephone, a rolodex with 60+ publisher's contact information, letterhead stationary, and a roll of stamps.

I worked part-time at what was pretty much the glorified hobby of a dedicated and life-long bookworm. I would get 2 or 3 packages of books a day and took the greatest delight in opening them up to see what was inside. It was pretty much Christmas Morning six days a week.

Now some 32 years later it's more like 30 to 50 packages a day coming into a mail room for one of my guys to open for me. So I thought I give a brief description of what happens to these books being submitted for review that now number about 2300 a month. Here's the process:

Basically when a book arrives in our mail room it is taken out of its packaging or box. The flattened out cardboard boxes and bags of packing material (foam chips and bubblewrap) are taken to a recycling center -- a trip which happens once a week.

The cover letters and publicity releases are placed physically inside the book. They are then piled in a carton with all the other titles to have arrived that day (and the numbers of books arriving on any given day will fill between two and four cartons).

These cartons of books are then taken to my office where their contents are piled on my desk. It's a very big 1950s era L-shaped steel secretarial desk that must weigh half a ton -- and th one enduring component that has been in my office from the beginning. Desktop computer systems and telephone systems have come and gone, but that big old desk is forever!

I then perform my daily literary triage and separate the books into three stacks: Rejection, Immediate Acceptance, and Provisional Acceptance.

The rejections are placed back into cartons to await their ultimate fate ranging from donation, to liquidation, to recycling centers. Those that are Immediately Accepted outright are set aside for their assigned reviewers. Those that are Provisionally Accepted are placed upon our bookshelves to await review assignment sometime within the next 14 to 16 weeks before they lose their eligibility for assignment and must be removed to make room for newly arrived review submissions.

So that's basically the daily process, Monday through Saturday.

A word about cover letters and publicity releases that absolutely must accompany a submitted book if it is to not be automatically rejected from consideration. The cover letter and the publicity release should both be printed out on business letterhead stationary. All too many self-published authors just jot down a note on plain paper, have no publicity release, or simply resort to a newspaper clipping in lieu of a formal PR.

As to what should be in those to essential documents and how they differ from each other, I've written it all down in simple, thoroughly 'user friendly' instructions that you will find on the Midwest Book Review website at:

Writing An Effective Cover Letter:
http://www.midwestbookreview.com/bookbiz/advice/cvr-ltr.htm

Writing An Effective Publicity Release:
http://www.midwestbookreview.com/bookbiz/advice/prelease.htm

Jim Cox
Midwest Book Review
Midwest Book Review
278 Orchard Drive, Oregon, WI, 53575

Note: It'd like to add that The Frugal Editor gives even more advice (and samples) on writing great query letters and my The Frugal Book Promoter gives the most complete information on putting together a media kit specifically designed for authors I've ever seen (if I do say so myself!).

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

Authors! Change Your Records!

If you are keeping a list of review possibilities for your next book as I suggest in The Frugal Book Promoter, it is update time. I can't keep you informed on every change that comes up but there are times when it seems essential. Library Journal is one of those powerhouse magazines that can make a difference for your book, so here is its new address:


Library Journal
160 Varick St., 11th fl.
New York, NY 10013

For those of you new to this review game, address changes are just one of the picky little things that can trip you up.

Yep, not keeping a contact list is another.

But there are many others. And, if you want reviews for your book, you'd better know them. Find them in The Frugal Book Promoter. Just look up "reviews" in the index and find references to evrything including how to get reviews in some places even though your book is already published. You'll also find information at www.budurl.com/WritersResources. Look for the link that takes you to the page with review suggestions on it.



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

Author Opportunities Offered at a Special FRUGAL Discount

I know. I know. One more organization.

But here's the thing. If we authors join organizations and then get involved, they can do wonders for our careers. I highly recommend the National Association of Baby Boomer Women at many levels (they take such good care of their members!), but it is also an amazing vehicle for networking, especially if an author has a book that might appeal to the Boomer demographic. There are so many authors who are members that they have a special forum for them. So won't you check them out with this special FRUGAL offer for my visitors and subscribers from the "Boomer-in-Chief:"

If you are a baby boomer aged (born between 1946-1964) woman author whose work – fiction or non-fiction – targets or assists the burgeoning Baby Boomer Audience, here is a wonderful self-marketing opportunity which will benefit you every day.

Join the National Association of Baby Boomer Women. While there are dozens of great reasons for any baby boomer-aged women to belong, membership is a no-brainer for you if you are an author, as well.

Here’s Why You Need to Join the NABBW:

As an NABBW member who is also an author, you are eligible to receive the following:

• A review in our monthly newsletter, where it will be seen by our 7,000+ subscribers of any book you author and send to us.
• The same book review posted to our NABBW site, which you can link to on Amazon.com or use in any other way you desire
• The option for us to do a teleseminar together in which we can explore your topic of choice in an interview, and offer some sort of benefit to those listening on the call. Not to mention that all of our teleseminars are recorded, transcribed and archived, so NABBW members can listen to them at their convenience. (Note: a teleseminar is not something that we can guarantee all members will receive, but we select the experts for our monthly topics from among our members.)
• The opportunity to submit an article a month to be published on our site (See below for more details.)
• COMING SOON: Member blogs.
• COMING SOON: An integrated member directory, which will allow you to list your areas of expertise and interest, as well as contact information. Beneficial, especially if you also offer a service, like coaching.
• Both sites are top-ranked with Google with regard to the keyword phrase “baby boomer women,” and Google actually considers the NABBW site to be the authority site on that phrase. Which means we get a lot of traffic – all people who are your ideal audience.

AND occasional writing contests!

NOTE: Should you be interested in submitting articles or personal stories to share with your fellow NABBW members:

Look on the homepages of both sites for the guidelines on submitting articles (NABBW) or stories (Boomer Women Speak). You’ll find the rules posted under Member Articles on NABBW.com and under OUR VOICES, for the BoomerWomenSpeak.com site.

Here are a few additional pointers for submitting articles to the NABBW:
• NABBW Members can submit one instructional or "how-to" article per month.
• All articles must be in context and should not be stories or essays; however there is a category for humor.
• Once the article is approved, NABBW staff post it and send you a link to share your post with your audiences.
Finally, be sure to visit the Boomer Women Speak forums. There you’ll find loads of people to chat with on a variety of topics (hundreds of them), doubtless there are discussions of interest to you.

And here’s the biggest reason why you should join NABBW now. I have made arrangements with Anne Holmes, NABBW’s “Boomer in Chief” to get you a special “Starving Author” discount.

That’s right. Normally, membership is an all-out bargain at just $75/year. But if you join in the next 7 days – by June 17th – you can join for just $50, which is a full 33% off the normal rate of $75.

But don’t wait! I was only able to convince Anne to make this special offer for the next seven days.

Go check out the site. Don’t be put off by the fact that the site looks a bit dated. A new site is in the works. Meanwhile, Google considers the NABBW site an authority site for the keyword “baby boomer women,” and it gets a TON of traffic. Isn’t that just what you need to help you market your book?

Here’s the special link to join NABBW for just $50 for the year, which is 1/3 off the normal rate of $75. http://nabbw.com/bws50.php



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

A Seldom Seen Article on Craft: Shoring Up the Sagging Middle

Shore Up Your Sagging Middle

Guest Blog by Heidi Thomas

Writing is a lot like building a bridge. Each scene serves as scaffolding or supports for your entire story to rest on without sagging.
Maybe you’ve made a great start. You have a dynamite hook (some of my favorites: “The last camel collapsed at noon.” Ken Follet, and “The man with ten minutes to live was laughing.” Frederick Forsyth). You’ve gotten off to a good strong start. Maybe you know how your book is going to end, and even have the final scene written.

Now, how do you get through the middle part without it sagging and possibly collapsing?

First of all, you don’t need to write chronologically. You can write scenes out of order. Pick out some highlights and write those scenes, then see if you can figure out what you might be able to fill in between A and G.

Now, send your inner “nice guy” out for ice cream and figure out just how mean you can be to your character. Conflict is the key to keeping a story moving, to shoring it up. You’ve introduced your character and the problem she has to solve. You know what the goal is at the end.

Let’s say Cathy Character wants to be the first teenage girl to climb Mount Huge. What are her obstacles? Her parents are against the idea. It’s too expensive, too dangerous, she’s not in shape, who else is going, etc. Cathy has to overcome each objection, solve each problem.

Maybe her neighbor is a banker, so she approaches him for a loan. If he smiles and says,” Sure, Cathy, anything for you,” the problem is solved too quickly. The story can get boring and the reader’s interest will sag quickly.

But what if he says no? Now Cathy has to figure out another way to raise money. What should she do – a bake sale, a part-time job, rob the local drive-in? (You can see the various paths this story could take.) There are all kinds of ideas and none of them should be easy.

Every time your character figures out a way over, around or through a problem, throw up another obstacle, within reason, of course. You don’t want her to fail at everything.

But when she solves the money part of the problem, there should be another one waiting. Who, besides her parents, are going to oppose her? Does she have a rival? Or is there a friend who is supposedly helping her, but is actually sabotaging Cathy’s efforts?

Building a story is like constructing a bridge. You need conflict as the pillars that shore up the middle.

For each scene you write, ask yourself:
• What is the purpose of this scene?
• Does it move the story forward? (What if I take it out? Does the story flow well without it?)
• Can the reader identify with the character’s problem and struggles?
• Have you created suspense? (Will the reader want to keep reading to find out how your character solves this one? What’s at stake for him/her?)
Have fun being mean to your character and building your bridge!

Author Biography

Raised on a ranch in isolated eastern Montana, Heidi Thomas has loved reading and writing since she was a child. Armed with a degree in journalism from the University of Montana, she worked for the Daily Missoulian newspaper, and has had numerous magazine articles published.
A tidbit of family history, that her grandmother rode steers in rodeos during the 1920s, spurred Heidi to write a novel based on that grandmother’s life.

Heidi's novel Cowgirl Dreams is the first in a series about strong, independent Montana Women. The sequel, Follow the Dream, will be released this year.

Heidi is a member of Women Writing the West, Skagit Valley Writers League, Skagit Women in Business, and the Northwest Independent Editors Guild. She is an avid reader of all kinds of books, enjoys hiking the Pacific Northwest, where she writes, edits, and teaches memoir and fiction writing classes. She blogs, too!

About Heidi's Novel

Defying family and social pressure, Nettie Brady bucks 1920s convention with her dream of becoming a rodeo star. That means competing with men, and cowgirls who ride the rodeo circuit are considered “loose women.” Addicted to the thrill of pitting her strength and wits against a half-ton steer in a rodeo, Nettie exchanges skirts for pants, rides with her brothers on their Montana ranch, and competes in neighborhood rodeos.

Broken bones, killer influenza, flash floods, and family hardship team up to keep Nettie from her dreams. Then she meets a young neighbor cowboy who rides broncs and raises rodeo stock. Will this be Nettie’s ticket to freedom and happiness? Will her rodeo dreams come true?

Based on the life of the author’s grandmother, a real Montana cowgirl.
Cowgirl Dreams is available from the publisher, Treble Heart Books, Amazon.com or the author website. It is suitable for both adult and young adult readers.

-----

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

What We Authors Can Learn from Apple and Jobs

I tutor accent reduction and American culture on Wednesday mornings and last week I explained the concept of marketing to my Korean student who has a beauty salon. It occurred to me that it isn’t only immigrants who might benefit from a refresher course on marketing. It’s been a while since we got down to marketing basics for authors in this blog. Sort of a Marketing 101 plan. One that will inspire you to market. Inspire you to be proud of the marketing you do.

It’s always amazing to me that in a country of capitalists (many of them pretty rabid capitalists) that so many of us feel uncomfortable with words like “marketing,” “promotion,” “publicity,” and even “advertising.” If you don’t believe me, look at the furor over Twitter’s plans to earn some money by accepting advertising.

So here is some reassurance for you. The best marketing is not selfish. It never has been. It’s caring. It’s understanding your customer or audience and giving them what they want.

The best marketing is careful and detailed.

The best marketing is personal.

Let’s look at one of the best marketing machines in the world. Apple. They don’t even do focus groups. They know their customer so well they can tell the customer what she wants before the customer knows she wants it. The new iPad is an example of that.

Detail? Look at their products. That’s detail. Inside and out. Efficient. Gorgeous to look at. Look at Steve Jobs. He even dresses to the image of his company. Casual--501 jeans, a black turtleneck and a sort of stubbly computer-hacker kind of half-bearded face. Smart, too. His little squarish glasses. Warm--those eyes full of delight for what he does.

Personal? There is no hesitation at Apple or from Jobs to exploit his charisma. But we’re also aware that this is a company of other people. Similar--we assume--to Jobs. We sometimes get to peer into the campus where they work. We are aware that they are treated well. Our feelings about the company (even if we don’t own an Apple or Mac or any of the other gadgets) is warm and appreciative because it feels familiar.

As authors or publishers, we can do all of that. In fact, it may be easier. We are starting with a warm, fuzzy product that everyone loves, books. It’s a lot easier to think in terms of an audience for cozy mysteries or poetry than it is for a hunk of wires and metal. It’s a lot easier to think in terms of some books than it is others! Still, there is an audience for every book. If you haven’t figured out what yours is, you’d better read it again donning your maketing-magic beanie first. There are some things to look for as you read in the “Know Your Angles” section of Chapter 15 of The Frugal Book Promoter (www.budurl.com/FrugalBkPromo).

So go for it! I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again. If you can’t be proud to promote (market) your book, how can you expect anyone else to pass on the good word for you?

----- 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:

Boyd Sutton Thinking Here: Unusual Book Promotions Anyone?

Networking is such an amazing thing. In a recent e-mail conversation I had with Boyd Sutton, he mentioned a book promotion idea he had read about. I had originally met Boyd on an Yahoogroups (word_friends if anyone is interested in exploring it). At the time he was editor of the Wisconsin Regional Writers Association. That relationship has led to all kinds of projects, including today's guest post.

A series of posts on Facebook discussed how an author in New York City
promoted her book by hiring actors to read from it in various public places
around the city. Read more about that event.

Marketing like this seemed like an unorthodox, but imaginative way to gain attention for a book. But is it practical? Would it be too expensive? Of course, one might have some out-of-work struggling actor friends who would do it for free (and for some exposure of their own). I wonder whether it led to book sales?

That gave me a related thought. If having someone read a book in public
might generate buzz--and sales--how about extending the approach to YouTube?

Authors regularly create book "trailers" on YouTube. But how about
additional YouTube posts where someone reads one or more chapters? With a
blurb at the end about where the full book could be purchased. Is that being done? Does it work?

Carolyn and I would love to hear if you've done something similar? Or about your own ideas for book promotion!
-----
Guest blogger Boyd Sutton is active with the Wisconsin Regional Writers Association (www.wrwa.net) He invites you to come to their Fall Conference in Madison, WI, September 24-26, to hear me speak on "How to Do It Frugally," and present a workshop on promotion.

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

Amazon & Google Blogger Make Great Pair

Amazon and Google put their giant heads together to help you blog more professionally and make some money for you, too.

I reported on this Blogger benefit in my Sharing with Writers newsletter before, but this message came directly from Blogger and I wanted you to see it. So, in effect, Blogger is my guest blogger today:

Do you link to Amazon.com in your blog posts? If so, a recent Blogger integration (http://buzz.blogger.com/2009/12/blogger-integrates-with-amazon.html) may be just the thing for you. Blogger now integrates directly with Amazon Associates (https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/gp/associates/join/landing/main.html), giving you the ability to search the entire Amazon.com product catalog without ever leaving the Blogger post editor. Writing a review of Avatar and want to point your readers to the DVD that just came out? Not only can you link to the DVD, you can also include the cover art and buy it now info from Amazon so your readers know how much it costs without ever leaving your site.

You might even make some money in the process! Amazon pays an advertising fee to a Blogger user who is a participant in Amazon's Associates Program* and whose visitors buy products linked from their blog. Sign up is simple - just click on the "Monetize" tab in Blogger, then click on "Amazon Associates" to get started. Once enabled, you will see a new Amazon gadget next to the familiar Blogger post editor:

Whether you want to make some extra money, or you just want to add some pizzazz to your blog posts, the Amazon Associates integration is a great way to add color to any blog post about books, movies, electronics, music or any other product sold at Amazon.com.

More details at Blogger Buzz (http://buzz.blogger.com/2009/12/blogger-integrates-with-amazon.html ), or just click Monetize in your blog's dashboard to get started.

Thanks for using Blogger!
Regards,
The Blogger Team
2010 Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Pkwy, Mountain View CA 94043

*Some Blogger users may be ineligible to participate in Amazon's Associates Program. See the Associates Program Operating Agreement for more information.


I use this feature in all of my blogs including www.TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com (always available for you to use for your own book promotion—guidelines are in the left column), www.TheFrugalEditor.blogspot.com, this one , and even my www.WarPeaceTolerance.blogspot.com. You can get more information on great, focused blogging with my book Your Blog, Your Business: A Retailer’s Guide to Garnering Customer Loyalty and Sales Online and In Store (www.budurl.com/Blogging4Retailers).

The widgets in this blog post for one of the books in my new book in the HowToDoItFrugally series are examples of things you can do with this new, nifty tool. The Corel program is one I once reviewed for Amazon. It is here to show you that anything that is being sold on Amazon can be displayed on your blog. Anything! Including books for Kindle.

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

Robert J. Medak Reviews Classic The Frugal Book Promoter

The Frugal Book Promoter: How to do What Your Publisher Won’t
By Carolyn Howard-Johnson
Star Publish
ISBN: 193299310X
Pages 283
Genre: Nonfiction: Writers/Marketing/

Reviewed by Robert J. Medak

In today’s publishing environment, the author is often responsible for promoting their book. There are ways to do this, this book lists many of them, and you may come up with some of your own after reading The Frugal Book Promoter.

It would be nice if your publisher did the promoting for you, but most authors do not have names like King, Bradbury, or Rice to name a few that might have their publishers doing more for them than the average writer. The Frugal Promoter to the rescue, in this book you will find out about press kits, and more. There is also information about how to do media releases, and ways to get publicity for you, and your book.

This reviewer believes that this book can be good for promoting anything, just replace the word “book”, with a service, product, or anything you are trying to let the public know about.

It is up to the author to have the willingness to get out and do the work. Anyone can do it, if he or she is of the mindset to get out and promote your book. Many publishers are not going to do it for you, and may ask you for a promotion plan. Without one, you may not get far in the publishing game unless you decide to self-publish. If you choose a nontraditional way to publish your book, you will have to do the promotion for it to sell. Either way, it is up to the author to promote these days. If you are lucky, you may get some help from a publisher, but do not rely on getting it.

The authors best bet is to have this book handy for ways to promote your book. This reviewer found the information in this book to be valuable to anyone wishing to promote his or her book.

The Frugal Book Promoter receives a five star rating from this reviewer.

Reviewer Information:
Reviewer Robert J. Medak is a freelance writer and editor. Learn more at http://www.stormywriter.com/
"The time to begin writing an article is when you have finished it to your satisfaction. By that time you begin to clearly and logically perceive what it is that you really want to say."
- Mark Twain's Notebook, 1902-1903


Endorsement Disclaimer:
All reviews written by this Robert J. Medak are personal opinions of the book. The reviews are NOT paid endorsements of the book or the author. They are not advertisements. All reviews are honest, forthright and the opinion of this individual reviewer. This reviewer’s opinions are not for sale. (There is however, a small fee for some reviews, and sometimes this reviewer receives complementary copies from the author.) Federal Trade Commission 16 CFR Part 255 (http://www.ftc.gov/os/2009/10/091005revisedendorsementguides.pdf)

-----
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: