Phyllis Scheiber Models First Person Essay for Sharing with Writers Visitors

When I teach writing, I always find many in my class aren't sure about first person essays, even after I define the term. Part of the problem is that these essay differ so with each author--and with each title. I thought this one by Phyllis Scheiber a good example, one that will give new authors an idea of what they might write for themselves and entertain all my other Sharing with Writers visitors, too!

By Phyllis Schieber

One of the most important lessons I have learned as a writer is that I am not unique. I remember once many years ago, I had a meltdown and phoned my writing teacher of many years, the late Hayes Jacobs. I wailed, “I’ll never be successful. I don’t have any talent. I’m wasting my time in your seminar. There’s no point.” He listened without interruption. When I was done, he said, “You too, eh?” I laughed, but I felt better immediately. Apparently, all writers anguish at one time or another. The life of a writer is a solitary and often frustrating. Still, I celebrate that it is my daunting destiny to recreate my perceptions, and then put them in a form that makes sense to others. Sometimes I struggle, and sometimes the words seem to dance onto the page. When the words dance, a rare occurrence, I worry that it is too easy. There seems to be a happy medium. Writing is always a consequence of extremes. Mostly, however, I feel blessed that I am able to string words together in a way that has an impact on others. The ability to make someone laugh or cry, or even both, is a thrill that little else surpasses.

Recently, I watched the documentary Man on Wire, the breathtaking film about Philippe Petit, the twenty-four-year old French self-trained wire walker who pulled off the “artistic crime of the century” in 1974 when he walked and danced on a wire suspended between the two towers of the World Trade Center. For forty-five minutes, Petit performed a high-wire act without a safety net or a harness, mesmerizing the crowd that had gathered on the sidewalk 110 stories below. While I was fascinated by Petit’s skill and the daring feat that continues to amaze, I was perhaps even more taken with his attitude and response to the hordes of reporters who asked the same question over and over: “Why did you do it?” Petit’s frustration is almost as exquisite as his exploit. He responds, “Here I do something magnificent and beautiful and people ask why. There is no why.” And such is the response of that rare individual: a true artist, the person who creates and performs for the sake of art.

I am no Philippe Petit. I know why I write, but I understand what he means when he says, “There is no why.” If someone were to ask me why I write, I would have to say, “Because I have no choice.” In the years between the sales of my books, I continued to write, and I would have continued even if my agent was unable to sell The Sinner’s Guide to Confession. I write because I am a writer. I write because it is the way I make sense of the world. And I write because whatever I see or hear or experience has the potential to be translated into narrative. I notice the way a woman holds her bread at the edge of her husband’s plate, so his beans will not spill over. I record the subtlest exchange of looks between friends when someone else at the table mentions a name. I am aware of how a mother and daughter resemble each other as they shop together in a department store. When I attend a dinner for a friend and the hostess tells the story of how her previous home burned down, I am eager to leave and jot down the details because it is likely I will want to use not only the story, but the narrator’s wonderful tone and good humor as she tell about the unfortunate event. I will be sure to make mention of her crisp blue eyes and her throaty laughter. Often when I ask someone if he or she noticed something that was so apparent to me, I get a quizzical look. Always, however, I am the one who is perplexed. How is it possible that such an unusual expression, or such a surprisingly harsh tone or such an unexpected movement could go unnoticed when it is as plain as anything to me? I am always listening, always looking and always writing in my head.
Perhaps it is because I began to read early and never stopped that it feels as though what happens in books makes much more sense than what happens in real life. Books are simply a written record of the writer’s truth, and I have the wonderful job of delivering that truth to my readers. When a story begins to take shape in my consciousness, I always worry if it is a story worth telling. Is it original? Is it interesting enough? Once I move past that stage and allow myself to be swept along by the characters and their needs, I settle down to the real work of making the story come to life. I am in charge now, but not really. The story is in charge. I am merely its voice. I almost never grow tired of being a writer. There is always something that inspires me, or evokes a memory, or sparks an emotion. I sometimes have this image of myself holding a huge magnet, watching as all my thoughts and dreams come twirling at top speed, drawn to the magnet, eager to be captured and finally uncovered.

I am always on the lookout for a new story, an anecdote that can be turned into a novel, a few lines in the newspaper that catch my attention, or the way a couple holds hands on the train, staring wordlessly ahead. Something must have just happened. I study them surreptitiously for the duration of the ride, wondering, imagining, and planning. It is the beginning of chapter. There really is no why.

Phyllis Schieber also writes a terrific bio:

The first great irony of my life was that I was born in a Catholic hospital. My parents, survivors of the Holocaust, had settled in the South Bronx among other new immigrants. .In the mid-fifties, my family moved to Washington Heights. The area offered scenic views of the Hudson River and the Palisades, as well as access to Fort Tryon Park and the mysteries of the Cloisters. Her first novel, Strictly Personal, for young adults, was published by Fawcett-Juniper. The Sinner’s Guide to Confession, was released by Berkley Putnam and in March 2008, Berkley Putnam issued the first paperback publication of Willing Spirits.

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This post is part of the Sinners Guide to Confession and Willing Spirits virtual tour. To learn more about the tour, visit http://bookpromotionservices.com/2010/05/04/phyllis-schieber-blog-outreach/. You can also learn more about Phyllis Schieber and her books at http://www.phyllisschieber.wordpress.com.


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Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and 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:

Everyone's Talking About Amazon's Kindle Sales vs. Hardcover!

Long time subscriber of my Sharing with Writers newsletter Virgil Jose, sent this link of an article on Amazon’s Kindle sales. And I’d already cut a clipping from the LA Times. I mean, this is some news, right?

http://www.latimes.com/business/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-us-amazon-kindle-sales,0,7931535.story

Wrong. Everyone is talking about it but most are misconstruing it (Virgil was not one of them. He just knew that it was news we should all be paying attention to.)

Amazon claims their Kindle sales are 80% higher than hardcover books at Amazon. I was having a hard time believing that because Kindle titles are so much more limited and because I could see how my own paperback sales compared to Kindle sales, so I reread the article. And lo! Read a little farther down in a very long article and we find those hardcover figures they’re comparing Kindle sales to do not include paperbacks! Duhh!

So where is the news? It is soooo misleading! A real newsmaker...but misleading! Paperbacks have outsold hardcovers for a long, long time, and these figures don’t include them. Further down in the article, they talk about the recent cut in the relatively expensive Kindle reader and how that may have spurred sales, too. After all, new Kindle customers must have something to read on their Kindles and may load up while they’re at it.

Something that wasn’t addressed at all is that Amazon has so many free titles on Kindle. Were they included in the Kindle sales column? What do you think?

Sometimes multi tasking, speed reading, and skimming headlines are not productive.

So, are e-book sales “up-ending” the industry. Hardly. That doesn’t mean e-books aren’t really, really important. My advice for independent authors and small publishers: Certainly pay attention. Get your titles onto Kindle while you can do it free. I’ve been lagging behind with my four new titles published this year (including booklets). I’m toodling over to Amazon right now to rectify that! But am I going to publish e-books exclusive with the notion that I’m looking to the future. Not on your life!

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and how to books for writers including, The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't; The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success; and Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers . 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 Michelle Dunn Shares Secrets for Getting Quoted Big Time

Michelle Dunn is a an author I fell in love with a long time ago because she is such a great marketer. You should know that my definition of great marketers is those who are so warm and sharing that their products sell on their own. Today Michelle is sharing--once again--as a guest blogger on Sharing with Writers.

How I landed a story on CNN & get quoted in the Wall Street Journal

by Michelle Dunn

It has taken me years and it is still slow sometimes but then suddenly
something like this CNN interview comes along and it seems
worthwhile.I have been being asked how I landed these stories and I
want to share with you what I did to get interviewed for stories like
this one and others in the Wall Street Journal or other publications:

I made a list of what I wanted to accomplish, getting to be a regular
contributor to the Wall Street Journal and getting on Television are
two examples. Then I made a ?sublist? for each of those goals, what
I would do to accomplish each one.

My sublist for getting on Television was to do more public speaking
and teaching, learn more about being on Television and how to do well
at it, such as learning how not to talk with my hands, always smiling,
listening, being clear and concise, learning what clothes and makeup
were best on TV to appear professional. Then I started out by pitching
myself to cable television shows locally and in my surrounding states,
NH, MA, CT. I landed many spots and was always asked back. Once I
taped these shows I would get a DVD copy of the shows and I had them
all put onto one DVD that I could then send out to the national
television networks showing I had experience.

My sublist for getting national print publicity, such as the WSJ, CNN,
or Forbes was to provide helpful content that focused on their
stories. To do this I had to get a subscription to the WSJ so I could
read it and know the journalists, what they wrote about, what was up
and coming, just to familiarize myself with their publication. I did
this for every publication I was going to try to get quoted in.

I would write letters to the editors about stories that pertained to
what I know and my books, I started including them on my medial list
to receive my press releases. I also joined HARO which is run by Peter
Shankman, Help a Reporter Out, it is free and you get an email each
day with listings from journalists on what stories they are working on
and what information they need. You can pitch them and if they are
interested, they email you or call you.

I hope this helps you to gain more publicity! If you want more tips
or information on how I have gained worldwide media attention you can
also check out my newest book ?Mosquito Marketing for Authors? it will
tell you how I self published an award winning book that is a
consistent best seller in its category as well as how you can get
worldwide media attention for yourself and your books or business.

Sincerely,
Michelle Dunn
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".
Now Available! "Mosquito Marketing for Authors"
http://www.amazon.com/Mosquito-Marketing-Authors-self-published-consistent/dp/1453605304/

Join her on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/creditmd



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Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and how to books for writers including, The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't; The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success; and Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers . 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:

Raff Ellis, Nation Weigh In on Book Profitability

My long-time subscribers to Sharing with Writer Raff Ellis sent me this note and link to an important issue that affects the future of publishing, more specifically the profitabiitty of publishing books, whether tradition on on our own. I hope you find it valuable. Weigh in with your concerns, please!

From Raff

This article should be interesting to anyone who is involved with the writing/publishing business. There has been an explosion in self-publishing. One million titles were published last year! This is a 500% increase in just the last five years!

Lost in Amazon's drive to lead with the lowest price (and ultimately drive traditional booksellers out of business) is the author, and the independent publisher. The are at the end of the line in sharing profits. They are the ones who will be unable to continue pursuing an unprofitable profession.

Publishers, who are continually faced with increasing costs, cannot afford to take chances with unknown authors, further limiting reader choices and mandating a homogenized product that is known to sell to the masses. Authors, who make books happen, won't be able to continue doing so if the price is driven down to the point that the market is left to a few established authors.

I see the events taking place as similar to what took place in the automobile business when robots replaced people. Since robots don't buy cars, manufacturers' costs were reduced right along with the sizeable chunk of their market. Robots can't author books, at least not yet, but this is where we're headed with the homogenized products the industry marketing gurus seem to want.

One other note: When you look at the overall cost and competition for the consumers' entertainment dollar, books come in at the lowest cost/hour of entertainment available. Will that cost be driven down to the point of extinction?

Here is the article in Nation that I want you to see. I know you will find it worthwhile:

http://www.thenation.com/article/37484/trouble-amazon


Sincerely,

Raff Ellis, Author/Lecturer
Author of Kisses from a Distance
KFAD Web Site
KFAD Video


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Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and how to books for writers including, The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't; The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success; and Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers . 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 Little Brag: A Big Resource for Writers

Military Writers Society of America member reviewers independently nominate books for awards using a scoring system each year—a very good reason for writers to join the group besides the access to a review! That's especially valuable for first-time authors. And they welcome writers of every ilk (military or non military), so why not? You should see how they publicize both winners and nominees!

Two of my books were nominated, my chapbook of poetry She Wore Emerald Then with Magdalena ball, and A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions. Winners will be announced on Veterans Radio Network (www.veteransradio.net) on July 31 at 9am Eastern time.

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and how to books for writers including, The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't; The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success; and Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers . 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 Den Announces New Benefit for Authors; Carolyn Raves About Old Ones

I have been a member of Authors Den (AD) for about eight or nine years. At first I just loved their free (very frugal!) way for a new author to have a Web site. Then I started using their Gold membership to publish my newsletter.

I'm not much of a date keeper but that newsletter (It goes by the same name as this blog--branding you know!) has been around for some years now! I've even partnered with Authors Den at the LA Times/UCLA Writers' Faire. Cross promotion always has its advantages, but it is an especially good marketing tool when one partners with those who already have lots of contacts and a great reputation.

The point of all this is that AD has some news. And I sure love spreading good news--especially when it comes from people I feel great about recommending. My AD friend Matt Miller writes:

"The AuthorsDen Services Marketplace is Open for Business!

"AuthorsDen.com, an online literary community established in 2000, has seen the toll researching the diverse components of the book industry has taken on writers. As a result, we recently launched the AuthorsDen Community MarketPlace...

"The MarketPlace brings together authors and community service providers to create a more artful product. It looks as if it will save us authors some promotion time. Find it at
http://marketplace.authorsden.com"

I can hardly wait to try all its features. Check it out for yourself. And while you're poking around, look at the different membership levels. At a bare minimum sigh up for the free level. Even if you have a Web site of your own, all those outside links coming back to your Web site make for very good Web site opitmizaton (SEO). And it is great backup when your server gives you fits. And, think of the networking opportunities among your fellow AD authors!


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Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and how to books for writers including, The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't; The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success; and Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers . 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:

I Know It's a Temptation, But Don't Do It!

Your Headshot and Your Career

When Uriah Carr joined a critique group I founded at the Glendale library a few years ago, I got lucky. (-:

That day I met a talented friend who writes poetry and plays, acts, and is a photographer to boot. Eventually he took most of the shots you see of me in my books and around the Web.

The other day he looked at one of my newer book covers (Frugal and Focused Tweeting for Retailers to be exact!) and said, I think it’s time you updated your photos. I didn’t dare ask him why he thought that. What!? You think I’m crazy?

I just nodded. I’m sure he didn’t see the gulp.

And we had a lot of fun at the photo session with my husband in the background kibitzing about the ham he married.

I figured if we had to put up with my husband’s brand of humor, we’d get him to push the button on the camera and make himself useful. So now I have some pictures of Uriah and me (yes, that is supposed to be “me,” not “I!”) after the shoot. It is one of the 167 he took of me that I now have at my disposal to use in my publicity--everything from book covers to biographies to media kits,well...you get the idea.

So, now is the time to take a good, hard look at the headshot you use for promotion. Is it working for you--or against you?

Now, this brings me to the important part. I’m still seeing lots of photos that aren’t professionally taken being used by lots of my author friends. Some are pretty good. Others not so. And some really awful. As I mention in The Frugal Book Promoter (www.budurl.com/FrugalBkPromo), your head shot is not the time to scrimp. You can also see some of those shots--both the old ones he took and the new--on my work-in-progress Web site at http://www.howtodoitfrugally.com.

Frugal is one thing. Cheap another.

You may not be able to see the difference, but an editor can. It’s in the facial shadows, the resolution, the background lighting, the position of the shoulders. Things most of us aren’t trained in. Most of us—unlike Uriah—are merely writers.

So, look at the photos you’re using for promotion one more time. Critically. If you live in the Southern California area, I’ll be pleased to give you Uriah’s contact information. If not, you’re on your own. One word of caution: Many studio photographers aren’t trained to catch the “writer you.” So, before you choose, look at some of the shots on the book flaps of some of the big publishers. Maybe ask some authors you know who took their photos. Ask the photographer if he or she has worked with authors or models or actors. Ask to see those shots, not just the family portraits.

I mean, if money is going to be spent, let’s be as careful about the research as we are when we hire our editors. Don’t you think?

PS: Do you know Aggie Villaneuva? You should! She can do for your book launch what she's done for my Frugal and Focused Tweeting for Retailers: http://budurl.com/TwitterLaunchSched. If your book has already been launched, don’t let it deter you. I’m calling the launch for Frugal and Focused Tweeting for Retailers (http://budurl.com/Tweeting4Retailers) an online launch (it’s still quite new!). You could call a launch for your book a belated online launch! (-: There are no launch cops! (-:

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and how to books for writers including, The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't; The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success; and Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers . 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:

Another Q & A a la Ann Landers: Publicist Dilemma

On Hiring Your Own Publicist ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
QUESTION:
Dear Carolyn,

I read your current Newsletter. Thanks. (I took a class of yours at UCLA Extension last year.)

My question might seem to contrast sharply with the spirit of frugality, but my publisher wants me to hire my own book publicist/promotion expert IN ADDITION to the efforts the publisher will be making on my book's behalf before and at publication time, early next year. Do some of your author/reader/bloggers have info about how important it might be to spend money on a publicist? How about this as a subject for a paragraph or two in your next news? I do remember your telling our class that there is MUCH the author can accomplish on her own, vis-a-vis promotion, and I am fully prepared to do that. Still... I want to do all I can for the book, and I can't open many of the doors that the pros can.

Many thanks,
Name withheld

ANSWER:

First of all, congratulations to your publisher for caring enough about your book to make suggestions and to handle some marketing and/or publicity on their own. I would be curious as to just what they plan to do!

As you know from my class, I am not much on spending money on any kind of service that an author can do for himself. There are exceptions to the rule.

~The author has plenty of money to spend.
~The author doesn't care if the entire advance goes to publicity services (he or she is in it for the readership and a long-term career and/or he or she is willing to take a chance).
~The author has absolutely no time and a little (or bigger!) budget for this. You get the idea.
~One of the above applies and the author can find a publicist with a track record and lots of the kind of contact required to get exposure in national venues, or at least the kind of exposure the author dreams of.

If you are determined, you will find information on how to assess and hire a publicist in The Frugal Book Promoter (www.budurl.com/FrugalBkPromo). You may already have a copy from the class you took with me. Keep in mind that many times publicists have tons of "contacts" but they are of the sort that anyone can make, including authors, small bloggers, radio programs with few listeners, etc. So a publicist’s Rolodex is very important.

Then ask yourself: Is my book on a topic that a high-powered publicist can interest big radio and TV shows in covering? Or are they just going to subcontract an online launch, blog tour, and other promotions to others and charge you top dollar for doing so.

In that case, you might do better by learning to do it yourself or by hiring experts piecemeal yourself. It would also be less expensive to hire someone to coach you through the process (and refer you) to these services. I can do that, of course. But after your course with me, I think you have the equipment to do it yourself. And honestly, many of the resources I'd give you have been in one of my newsletters in the past.

Having said that, there is another UCLA course (http://uclaextension.edu) coming up this August 7th. It may be just the refresher you need and it is just over $100 for a full day refresher. A real bargain rather than the price of a publicist which can easily run $5,000 to $35,000.

Last point: You didn't say what your advance is but that's an important thing to look at before deciding what you can spend on a publicist that may rocket you to stardom...or put you in the red on your book's earnings.

If any of my readers would like to weigh in with their experiences, that's what my letters-to-the-editor in my newsletter is for. That's what this blog is for I'll ask them! (-:

CHJ

PS: Watch for scams. If a plublicist promises you a certain number of blogs or radio program appearances, as an example, that may be an indication that they are all blogs and/or radio programs that you could access on your own.


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Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and how to books for writers including, The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't; The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success; and Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers . 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:

Advanced Twitter App for Those Who Want To Tweet Like Marketing Work Horses

Aggie Villaneuva is always generous with her time. The other day she answered one of my questions about the pro plan she has with SocialOoomph.com. I was curious why she would pay for a service to mange her Twitter account when that same service does a very fine job for me at its freebie level. I got such a fully thought-out answer (and convincing!), I thought I'd ask her to share it with my subscribers.


By Aggie Villaneuva


Marketing is as vital to writers as writing the book, but it can't take over our work days. For this reason, most of the professionals I know use at least the free version of SocialOomph. Originally it was called TweetLater because it was an advanced aggregate program for twitter only. They have long since evolved into a cockpit for posting and managing all your social media and more.

With the free version you can schedule your tweets, save and reuse tweet drafts for later use, set up automatic direct messages. You can even extend your twitter profile so that the one link you’re allowed in twitter profile leads to a whole page with photos, text, html, links and more.

You can also use their dld.bz URL shortening to track your clicks and get all kinds of useful and insightful statistics, auto follow/unfollow, vet new followers, view @mentions & retweets and much more.

There are a number of free aggregate type programs that do nearly as much as SocialOomph, (not all) but not nearly as seamlessly. And because I’m serious about the necessity of marketing, I upgraded to the professional version as soon as they offered it.

Here's what I get with those Additional Features in the Professional Upgrade for $29.97/mo:

(Note: Don’t bother with what follows unless you are serious about your social media marketing)

Ping.fm Integration

This alone changes our social media marketing life. Ping.fm is my core social media aggregate or program that composites them all from a central service, but Ping only brings all my social media sites together, it offers none of the advances functions.

SocialOomph integrates seamlessly with Ping so that every tweet scheduled to post shows up in each and every social site I’ve already added to our Ping account, which is dozens. Some other aggregates besides SocialOomph offer Ping integration also, but I have found few, if any, that do everything else the Professional upgrade to SocialOomph does, and certainly not as inexpensively.

Recurring updates

This, and Ping integration, are the main features for which I upgraded to Professional. I have dozens of these recurring updates: each holds up to 100 posts. Some of my recurring updates are for general writing tips, some for general photography tips, a separate one for each of my promotional clients’ launches, social media education, contests, news about Visual Arts Junction, news about Promotion á la Carte and Buzz Club, etc. (Editor's Note: See the biograpy for valuable links to these resources.)

Each of these updates are randomly posted, one every few days. You can schedule the recurrences as often as you wish. I include so many different posts there are seldom repeats, unless I purposely want something to repeat. This keeps me out of trouble with twitter about repeating tweets.

I add to the informational posts almost daily. When I do that, I set the exact time of day, how many times I want it to cycle. I can also pause it if I want to reuse it later. You can also save tweets as drafts to save tons of time never having to retype your posts.

Using this function I can offer posts that teach literally books worth of information to friends and followers. Just last month a man on Facebook wrote to tell me how much he’d learned from the info I post, and proclaimed himself a life-long follower. I often receive thank yous from followers for all the free education I provide.

I could go without writing one new tweet for four months and still be posting five to ten important and time-sensitive tweets per day that seldom repeated. Of course I sprinkle in recurring updates that talk about my own books, photography and promotion business. But you can see the value and power of this function, especially when you link it with your Ping.fm account.

Drip Feed to Your Social Accounts

Visualize a reservoir (or several) each holding all your posts about a certain time-sensitive subject. You want these to drip feed one by one to the social accounts you choose, or all of them, at times you specify. They don’t recur, as with the recurring updates above. Once the reservoir is empty the tweets stop.

Facebook Features for Your Profile and/or (formerly Fan) Pages

Sometimes you need to schedule status updates differently for Facebook or Facebook Pages than for twitter. There are several functions available. You can schedule to post to your social network Profile or your Pages, one of your Pages or all plus your Profiles. This is a great function as it gives such flexible choices.

When you combine this feature with the Ping integration that posts to all your dozens of sites including LinkedIn you can say goodbye to all your other apps. Don't worry about forgetting to apply those site-hash tags and ending up with duplicate after duplicate on your various social media. SocialOomph takes care of the fuss all from one dashboard.

Schedule & Publish Blog Post & Pages

This is a powerful feature. Add your own blog’s posts right from the dashboard, and add unlimited number of blogs. As long as your blog has one of the following remote publishing APIs, you can schedule posts for it: Tumblr, Posterous, WordPress API (wordpress.com and self-hosted), metaWeblogAPI, Movable Type API, Blogger API, and Atom API.

Find Friends in Your Niche & Auto Add to twitter Lists

What I like here is that the Friend Finder is about quality not quantity. Keyword searches are great for following friends whose interests are the same as yours. Attach certain keywords to one of your twitter lists and when you follow one of the those tweeters they will automatically be added to that list. These reports can be filtered to several criteria, such as following-to-follower ratio, and ignoring tweeter profiles that contain certain words.

You may also apply the decisions of other tweeters by ignoring all accounts flagged as spam or that have been blocked by fellow SocialOomph users. The report is sent to you with all these parameters applied. You just decide which of the hand-picked friends you want to add to your twitter list.

Define Channels

Choose a list of favorite friends, or those in the same business, and create your own twitter channel. It's like your own tweet timeline, except a channel contains only the tweets from those users that you include in the channel. You can define an unlimited number of channels. You don't even have to follow someone to include that person in a channel.

Followers With Clout

This is a good tool for business, but not just to list those most important. Do you know which of your followers have the largest reach in terms of the number of people who follow them? That is exactly what the follower clout list tells you. It shows you the fifty most influential people who are following you, judged by the number of people who are following them. They are already following you, so they will probably appreciate it if you reached out to build a better relationship with them.

Direct Message Broadcast

You can send and schedule a direct message to every one of your followers, but only your StatusNet followers. I listed this because I’m hoping that soon SocialOomph will include this for our twitter followers too.

And Much More, Such As…

Manage direct messages with auto spam control you define yourself, forward DMs to others, manage all your accounts in TweetCockpit, which has numerous controls, mute annoying tweeters (this avoids reporting them or blocking and putting their account in danger of cancellation by Twitter, delegateing account management to your assistant, scheduling replies and DMs to their own time zones, bulk uploading your posts, Syncing friends and followers list, wipeing your friends list and start anew, and running your own bots. And I still haven’t listed all the functions.

I’ve seen most of SocialOomp’s functions offered elsewhere but always in separate programs. Who wants to log in to a dozen programs daily when you can log in to one? SocialOomph is the only site to shave your marketing time so dramatically by giving all this to you in one place.

I hate automation for automation’s sake, or the sake of quantity vs. quality. But this is automation that doesn't seem automated. When I am offered a means to communicate to my social media friends on a very personal level within seamless automation, I’m a fan.

Seriously, if you’re serious about you’re writing business, at least check out SocialOomph Professional upgrade.


Please be advised that I so highly recommend this program I have become an affiliate of SocialOoomph, but this is by no means why I recommend it. I recommend it because I know it can save time and help authors market better.


Guest Blogger's Biography
Aggie Villanueva is bestselling author, author publicist, blogger, and critically acclaimed photographic artist represented by galleries nationwide, including Xanadu Gallery in Scottsdale, AZ. She was a published author at Thomas Nelson before she was 30, and founded local the Mid-America Fellowship of Christian Writers three–day conference. Aggie founded Visual Arts Junction blog February 2009 and by the end of the same year it was voted #5 at Preditors & Editors in the category “Writers’ Resource, Information & News Source” for 2009. To further help authors she launched the VAJ Buzz Club – a club where members combine their individual marketing power to create the ultimate BUZZ. Authors clamored for the options to purchase additional promotional services á la carte (as needed) so Aggie added Promotion á la Carte . Contact Villanueva at myaggie2@gmail.com.

Because so many new authors and tweeters seem confused by Twitter, I tried to keep my book Frugal and Focused Tweeting simple. So, advanced information like this isn't in that book. If you are ready for this kind automation, please print this post by Aggie and put a copy in the book. Hey! Even if you're not ready for it, you may be glad you have c copy tucked away in your book when the time comes!

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and how to books for writers including, The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't; The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success; and Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers . 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:

How Would Winning a Contest Affect Getting a Publisher or Agent in the Future?

Many of you know that I am an Ann Landers fan. I came to understand how valuable the questions from her readers and her own pithy answers to those readers were to living a less dysfunctional life when I was responsible for writing headlines for her column and for editing them down to the space we had available for said column in the what we then called the society section of the Salt Lake Tribune.

Now, I love to run occasional columns "A la Ann Landers." For writers. From writers. About writers. I hope you find them as much fun as I do.


QUESTION:

Hi, Carolyn,

My team mate Sarah Moore and I have a question from a client (read below). I've never had this question before and I'm not sure how to answer. It seems to me that a book having won an award would be one that a house would want to publish. However, to be sure, I am checking with you to see what insight you might have.

Thanks so much,

Yvonne Perry
Writers in the Sky Creative Writing Services
Author of More Than Meets the Eye
615-415-9861


THE LETTER FROM YVONNE’S CLIENT:

As you know I have entered my book for The Claymore Dagger Award. My question is if it is acceptable to continue to submit it to literary agents as well. I do not want to be unethical or anger the literary world before I even get my foot in the door. I have read the home page for the contest and all that is stated is that the manuscripts must be unpublished and not under contract. I need your professional opinion on what is acceptable. Thank you for your help.


ANSWER:

One can't be sure that any general statement applies to every agent and every publisher, but here goes: Generally speaking, an agent (and any publisher your client might contact) should be thrilled to have an author whose book has already won an award and who is a savvy enough promoter to have already garnered attention.

If I were consulting with her, I'd even advise her to put the Dagger win (once it becomes a win!) in her query letter. In other words, highlight it. Shout it out! If one publisher or one agent doesn't like that, perhaps he or she wouldn't be the right agent/publisher for this author in any case.

One question for an author to ask in a situation like this is:

Is the award given by an individual publishing company that includes publication of the winning submission?

If so--from an agent's point of view--it would only mean that it had been submitted to a publisher before they took it on. Ethically your client should be willing to let the agent with whom they sign a contract represent them for the book published by this publisher, should both publisher (the one who ran the contest) and author agree to a publishing contract. The agent may choose to advise the author during the negotiations, but even if they don't, the offer should be made. After all, the agent would have already invested time and effort into that author.

Sometimes we authors look to legalities, but it's lots better if we put ethics first. That means putting ourselves into the shoes of an agent and treating them with as much consideration as we would want to be treated.

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and how to books for writers including, The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't; The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success; and Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers . 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: