I thought those of you who subscribe to this blog or drop by as visitors would enjoy this article on reviews by guest blogger Leora Krygier.
Review or Skew?
By Leora Krygier author of When She Sleeps
Recently, an encounter with a book review blogger got me thinking about the subject of honest reviewing. But I’ll get to that in a moment.
Along with the democratization of book publishing in the last two decades and the proliferation of self-published books, has come the democratization of reviews and reviewers. No longer are reviewers sitting exclusively in the ivory towers of the New York Times, the New Yorker and other major publications. Reviewers abound everywhere you look -- on Amazon and Barnes and Noble sites, on Library Thing, and a host of other book blog sites. And this is good, yes? Well, yes and no.
So, back to my encounter. I’d asked a book blogger of a certain genre to give me some comments on an unsold, unpublished manuscript. Besides the fact that she reviewed the manuscript without my permission and put the review on her blog (she later removed it) the more disheartening aspect of this story were the prejudicial comments she made, based, I learned later, on her narrow world view. I won’t go into specifics, but let’s just say she advised me not to include certain characters, in order to have a “larger audience” of readers. This and some other strangely backwater comments alerted me to her skewed views. Besides feeling completely stupid for not picking up on some of this earlier on, and besides my wanting to expose this as a cautionary tale for authors, it also got me thinking about reviews in general.
Should reviewers disclose their leanings and prejudices, and their world view? And on the other side of the coin, what about all those reviews we authors ask our friends to write on Amazon? Should “friend” connections be disclosed in honest reviewing? What about blurbs that come from authors who have the same publisher? Is that a conflict of interest? And reviews for money? Do we just stack it all up to…”it’s okay because it’s just promotion?” or is this an ethical issue that needs addressing?
I went straight to my good friend (full disclosure here) Bob Stone, also known as “EthicsBob” who writes and blogs about all things ethical and asked him to weigh in on this.
EthicsBob says, "Reviewers should have a clear conscience—they shouldn’t hope that their background remains hidden. If I write a review on Amazon for my pal Leora’s book I must disclose that she’s a friend, because there’s a clear conflict here: I hope her book succeeds and I want to write an honest review. If my publisher asks me to review a colleague’s book I have a slightly different conflict: I want to stay in my publisher’s good graces and I want to be honest. If I’m being paid for a review I want to please my patron and I want to be honest.
"I’m not saying that I can’t be honest in my reviews; in fact I did love and admire Leora’s novels—only that my conflict exists. Readers are entitled to know she’s my friend. [Full disclosure: I hadn’t thought this through when I posted reviews on Amazon. I’ve just now corrected my ethical lapse.] If I’m paid by the author to write a review readers are entitled to know. Then they can decide whether to heed my review or to discount it as hopelessly biased.
"As far as reviewers disclosing their world view and leanings, I don’t think so, as long as they write honestly. Their reviews can speak for themselves, and their readers can decide. I think comments can be stupid, narrow minded and offensive without being unethical. If, on the other hand, a book is panned as dull, thin, or badly written without disclosing that the reviewer is offended, for example ,by homosexuality, blasphemy or sex, then the reviewer is being deceptive and unethical.
“EthicsBob” is Bob Stone. You can read about him at http://bobstone.us/ and read his blog at http://ethicsbob.com/
Leora Krygier is the author of When She Sleeps and New York Public Library pick, Best Books for the Teen Age. It is Juvenile Court: A Judge's Guide for Young Adults and Their Parents. Follow her breezy Starbucks blog at http://www.starbuckled.blogspot.com/ and read more about Leora at http://www.leorakrygier.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 . The Great First Impression Book Proposal is her newest booklet for writers. 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:
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Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Monday, August 23, 2010
Catch Your Dream--Whatever That Dream May Be
Always wanted to write that memoir or finish that novel?
If you are a writer, then I'm pretty sure you have! Even experienced writers run up against a wall now and then.
My good friend Allyn Evans made her writing dream come true in 2005. Recently Allyn contacted me about a workshop she’s putting together for individuals who want to push forward and make things happen in their own lives. Lately I've been paying more attention to positive thinking, affirmations and manifesting my own good luck. Most of the readers of this blog know that I believe in providing self-help resources for writers, too, so I thought this would be something you'd want to know more about.
Allyn and her collaborator, Pam Boyer, have been very successful in planning and launching projects and ventures. Let’s see…since I met Allyn, she wrote her own memoir, she launched a successful résumé writing business and she cruised for free (because she got on board as an enrichment speaker)…just to name a few things. And Pam has had similar success. She’s done things like launch a corporate training business and established a successful coaching practice. Just last May, Pam joined forces with Wild Quest to offer workshops where you swim with wild dolphins in the Bahamas.
Turns out now that these two women want to help you no matter how complicated or out-of-reach you believe your dream to be. The two have put together a new workshop titled:
Catch Your Dream: And Live It! To sign up go to: http://www.kickstartcart.com/app/?af=1233453
The essentials of making life work for you can help build careers, too—specifically your writing career. The other thing is, I know this event will be catch your attention, too. I've watched Allyn's speaking career bloom. She is is an honored member of Toastmasters and had has charmed audiences the world over.
For more details click here.
Contact Allyn Evans: E-mail: allynevans (at) suddenlink.net) Phone: 1-405-612-7782
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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:
If you are a writer, then I'm pretty sure you have! Even experienced writers run up against a wall now and then.
My good friend Allyn Evans made her writing dream come true in 2005. Recently Allyn contacted me about a workshop she’s putting together for individuals who want to push forward and make things happen in their own lives. Lately I've been paying more attention to positive thinking, affirmations and manifesting my own good luck. Most of the readers of this blog know that I believe in providing self-help resources for writers, too, so I thought this would be something you'd want to know more about.
Allyn and her collaborator, Pam Boyer, have been very successful in planning and launching projects and ventures. Let’s see…since I met Allyn, she wrote her own memoir, she launched a successful résumé writing business and she cruised for free (because she got on board as an enrichment speaker)…just to name a few things. And Pam has had similar success. She’s done things like launch a corporate training business and established a successful coaching practice. Just last May, Pam joined forces with Wild Quest to offer workshops where you swim with wild dolphins in the Bahamas.
Turns out now that these two women want to help you no matter how complicated or out-of-reach you believe your dream to be. The two have put together a new workshop titled:
Catch Your Dream: And Live It! To sign up go to: http://www.kickstartcart.com/app/?af=1233453
The essentials of making life work for you can help build careers, too—specifically your writing career. The other thing is, I know this event will be catch your attention, too. I've watched Allyn's speaking career bloom. She is is an honored member of Toastmasters and had has charmed audiences the world over.
For more details click here.
Contact Allyn Evans: E-mail: allynevans (at) suddenlink.net) Phone: 1-405-612-7782
-----
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:
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Your First-Person Essay and Why You Need One for Your Marketing
Just dropping in to let you know about the new review I just posted at http://thenewbookreview.blogspot.com/2010/08/your-first-person-essay-or-memoir-your.html . Writers will want to know about this book, they should also know about The New Book Review. It's open to all books, all reviewers. Guidelines for submissions are in the left column.
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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:
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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:
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Do as Galileo Did, Not as Harriot Did
Yeah, I know you want to know who Harriot is. Read on for what National Geographic's explanation of why you don't know the name:
“Everyone knows Galileo was the first astronomer to point a telescope at the night sky. But like many facts that everyone knows, this one isn’t true. Precedence should probably to Thomas Harriot. What Harriot didn’t do was publish his observations. Bing first is important, but so is publicity.”
How to you do what Galileo did in today's world. Do your research or put forth your creative effort. Then promote using The Frugal Book Promoter (www.budurl.com/FrugalBkPromo).-----
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:
“Everyone knows Galileo was the first astronomer to point a telescope at the night sky. But like many facts that everyone knows, this one isn’t true. Precedence should probably to Thomas Harriot. What Harriot didn’t do was publish his observations. Bing first is important, but so is publicity.”
How to you do what Galileo did in today's world. Do your research or put forth your creative effort. Then promote using The Frugal Book Promoter (www.budurl.com/FrugalBkPromo).-----
Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and two how to books for writers, The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't and The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success. Her FRUGAL book for retailers is A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques. She is also the author of the Amazon Short, "The Great First Impression Book Proposal". Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor .
If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use the little Green widget to let them know about it:
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Website Marketing: Great Web Sites and Beyond (The Promotion of the Web Site Is Essential!)
Patricia Norins, editor of Gift Shop magazine, and I will be doing a Webinar on how to reach more people by integrating your online marketing and how to save time by doing that very thing. It’s at 10 am Pacific Time on Thursday, August 12. The fee for the Webinar includes a copy of 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 Webinar is priced $79. But my Sharing with Writers blog friends can pay only $49 for it by entering the code “starvingwriter.” Don't use caps or quotation marks.
Go to http://www.retailconferenceseries.com/ . This is the second in a series of Webinars. Did I say that attendees get a free book? (-: Did I tell you I love Webinars. You get the visual and the auditory benefits. Not quite like being there in person, but close.
And, though this Webinar is angled toward retailers, I have a new mantra. Marketing is marketing is marketing. What is good for one industry work for another. So I hope to see some of my promotion-savvy author friends take advantage of this offer.
Did I mention that I love working with Patricia. She believes--as I do--that personal contact is important. Webinars, in their way, help us do that.
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Carolyn Howard-Johnson's 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 launched at the National Stationery Show at Javits Center. Because she is the author of the multi award-winning 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, retailers will also find essentials of writing for blogs, Web sites, and newsletters on this blog. She is the author of an award-winning novel, This Is the Place; and other fiction and poetry. She blogs on better writing at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor blog. Find her tweeting for retailers at @frugalretailing . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use this little green widget to let them know about it:
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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:
Go to http://www.retailconferenceseries.com/ . This is the second in a series of Webinars. Did I say that attendees get a free book? (-: Did I tell you I love Webinars. You get the visual and the auditory benefits. Not quite like being there in person, but close.
And, though this Webinar is angled toward retailers, I have a new mantra. Marketing is marketing is marketing. What is good for one industry work for another. So I hope to see some of my promotion-savvy author friends take advantage of this offer.
Did I mention that I love working with Patricia. She believes--as I do--that personal contact is important. Webinars, in their way, help us do that.
-----
Carolyn Howard-Johnson's 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 launched at the National Stationery Show at Javits Center. Because she is the author of the multi award-winning 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, retailers will also find essentials of writing for blogs, Web sites, and newsletters on this blog. She is the author of an award-winning novel, This Is the Place; and other fiction and poetry. She blogs on better writing at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor blog. Find her tweeting for retailers at @frugalretailing . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use this little green widget to let them know about it:
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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:
Monday, August 09, 2010
Shel Horowitz To Restart His Great Newsletter
I've been a fan of Shel Horowitz (author of Guerrilla Marketing Goes Green, Grassroots Marketing for Authors and Publishers, and many other books) for many years. We've even had dinner together at a lovely and inexpensive restaurant in New York--he's just as frugal as I am, and knows great places to eat. I was disappointed when he suspended his long-running free newsletters earlier this year, in favor of a paid option. After some months to regroup, he's reintroducing a single monthly newsletter, Clean and Green Marketing--a continuation of the monthly marketing newsletter he began all the way back in 1997. Shel's offering some great bonuses just for signing up to his list: a special report called "Seven Tips to Gain Marketing Traction," and a series of one-pagers to help you go Green and save money (I told you he was frugal!) http://guerrillamarketinggoesgreen.com/clean-green-marketing
Shel is always very transparent about what works and doesn't work, and you can learn from his candor. This is what he writes about his decision to abandon paid subscriptions for his four monthly newsletters and go back to zero-cost, but down to one issue per month:
1. I missed it.
2. Not enough of you wanted to pay, and the amount of work I was doing to support the members and subscribers was just as much as it had been before I went to a paid model, but the revenue that would have compensated me wasn't there.
3. Doing a newsletter offers benefits not only to you, but also to me--and I was not receiving those benefits.
4. There is no way I'm going back to four newsletters a month. If I am going to make a newsletter work, it has to be simple to do and not nearly as time-consuming.
So, what do you have to lose? Try the letter and make yourself another great marketing partner!
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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:
Shel is always very transparent about what works and doesn't work, and you can learn from his candor. This is what he writes about his decision to abandon paid subscriptions for his four monthly newsletters and go back to zero-cost, but down to one issue per month:
1. I missed it.
2. Not enough of you wanted to pay, and the amount of work I was doing to support the members and subscribers was just as much as it had been before I went to a paid model, but the revenue that would have compensated me wasn't there.
3. Doing a newsletter offers benefits not only to you, but also to me--and I was not receiving those benefits.
4. There is no way I'm going back to four newsletters a month. If I am going to make a newsletter work, it has to be simple to do and not nearly as time-consuming.
So, what do you have to lose? Try the letter and make yourself another great marketing partner!
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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:
Saturday, August 07, 2010
Compulsive Reader's Magdalena Ball Rills on The Perfect Word
I thought I'd include an essay with with a more serious tone than my usual tidbits on book marketing, more of an inspirational piece--this one from Magdalena Ball, the guru behind The Compulsive Reader. She is my poetry writing partner, and so I know that she knows whereof she speaks. (-:
Why You Should Care About the Words You Share
As a poet, much of my time is spent searching for the perfect word—le mot juste. There are reasons for this, that go beyond wanting to create something pleasurable or even beautiful. It’s because words have power. They can change the way we see the world. They can change the way we relate to one another. They can create meaning or destroy it, instantly, and sometimes thoughtlessly. The open our eyes and challenge our understanding in the deepest, most powerful way.
Don’t believe me? Just look through the pages of any history book and you’ll see, at the heart of any major historical event (minor one too), is a powerful speaker rallying people, for good or evil, towards a shared goal. Look through the pages of any advertisement critically, and you’ll begin to see the motivational messages that drive people to put their hands into their pockets. There are all sorts of ways to influence people, but words are always the key. Words create images which build expectation, emotion, impressions, and ultimately action. So choosing the right word is important, and not just for poets, though poetry goes into the heart of humanity and winkles out all those little shiny bits you’d missed, forgotten, lost. If you allow yourself to live only in easy cliché, letting the advertisements, catch-phrases, and trite sentiments slip easily from your tongue in conversation, you may find that you don’t end up saying much at all. Your perceptions dull. Because you aren’t trying too hard, you don’t make connections with people in the same way, and nothing really sparkles.
Try looking just a little harder. Even casually, you can move beyond “fine” when someone asks how you are. Try the truth. And then give them time to speak the truth in response, and really listen to what they’re saying, and before you know it, you’re communicating. That’s something real, and special. Next time you’re writing (or better, making) a greeting card for someone, trying saying something to them that really encapsulates what you feel about them—something fresh and deep, or light and fun, but something that no one else can say, because it’s come from your own individual years of experience, your own emotions, and your own unique perception on that person. That’s a gift you can’t buy. Of course not everyone’s a poet, and not everyone has a way with words, but there is plenty of poetry on offer, and poets ready to force you, willing or unwilling, to look at your own life and the lives of those around you in different ways--to close in and see things from a perspective you’ve never see, or to open out and grasp the totality of an experience in ways that change you. Real, deep, thoughtful words—the words of poetry—are as vital now as ever, and not just for formal occasions. Words form a critical link between us—a critical bridge to ourselves—that exists beyond the quick and easy media grabs and sloppy exchanges that surround us. We should care about the words we share. We should share words that matter.
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Magdalena Ball is the spirit behindThe Compulsive Reader and its accompanying newsletter. You can learn more about her at http://www.magdalenaball.com You may even want to sample some of her books or those we partnered on like She Wore Emerald Then, which is better than the usual greeting card for mothers on their birthdays.
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Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and two how to books for writers, The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't and The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success. Her FRUGAL book for retailers is A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques. She is also the author of the Amazon Short, "The Great First Impression Book Proposal". Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use the little Green widget to let them know about it:
Why You Should Care About the Words You Share
As a poet, much of my time is spent searching for the perfect word—le mot juste. There are reasons for this, that go beyond wanting to create something pleasurable or even beautiful. It’s because words have power. They can change the way we see the world. They can change the way we relate to one another. They can create meaning or destroy it, instantly, and sometimes thoughtlessly. The open our eyes and challenge our understanding in the deepest, most powerful way.
Don’t believe me? Just look through the pages of any history book and you’ll see, at the heart of any major historical event (minor one too), is a powerful speaker rallying people, for good or evil, towards a shared goal. Look through the pages of any advertisement critically, and you’ll begin to see the motivational messages that drive people to put their hands into their pockets. There are all sorts of ways to influence people, but words are always the key. Words create images which build expectation, emotion, impressions, and ultimately action. So choosing the right word is important, and not just for poets, though poetry goes into the heart of humanity and winkles out all those little shiny bits you’d missed, forgotten, lost. If you allow yourself to live only in easy cliché, letting the advertisements, catch-phrases, and trite sentiments slip easily from your tongue in conversation, you may find that you don’t end up saying much at all. Your perceptions dull. Because you aren’t trying too hard, you don’t make connections with people in the same way, and nothing really sparkles.
Try looking just a little harder. Even casually, you can move beyond “fine” when someone asks how you are. Try the truth. And then give them time to speak the truth in response, and really listen to what they’re saying, and before you know it, you’re communicating. That’s something real, and special. Next time you’re writing (or better, making) a greeting card for someone, trying saying something to them that really encapsulates what you feel about them—something fresh and deep, or light and fun, but something that no one else can say, because it’s come from your own individual years of experience, your own emotions, and your own unique perception on that person. That’s a gift you can’t buy. Of course not everyone’s a poet, and not everyone has a way with words, but there is plenty of poetry on offer, and poets ready to force you, willing or unwilling, to look at your own life and the lives of those around you in different ways--to close in and see things from a perspective you’ve never see, or to open out and grasp the totality of an experience in ways that change you. Real, deep, thoughtful words—the words of poetry—are as vital now as ever, and not just for formal occasions. Words form a critical link between us—a critical bridge to ourselves—that exists beyond the quick and easy media grabs and sloppy exchanges that surround us. We should care about the words we share. We should share words that matter.
----
Magdalena Ball is the spirit behind
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Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and two how to books for writers, The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't and The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success. Her FRUGAL book for retailers is A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques. She is also the author of the Amazon Short, "The Great First Impression Book Proposal". Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use the little Green widget to let them know about it:
Friday, August 06, 2010
Authors Beware The Oprah Scam
I think I’m ready for another rant. I’ll try to save you from a near scam. Let's call it the Playing-On-Oprah's-Name Scam.
Many marketers are still trying to coax writers into spending the money they’ve set aside for book promotion to get that one in a million chance to be on Oprah. Still!!
The odds are not crapshoot odds. They are lottery odds.
Here's my story, one from my early days as the author of This Is the Place, a woman's coming-of-age story. Let's call it my naive period.
A friend of mine had a friend who lived across the street from Oprah's cousin (or aunt, or best friend--can't quite remember). Anyway, Oprah spends every Thanksgiving with her. So my friend sweetly offered to take my book (package of course--with a professional media kit and a cover letter with nice pitch on the benefits of my tolerance-related book and how it fit with Oprah's mission!) to them on Thanksgiving day. I never heard a word. In fact, the most it did for me is give me visions of everyone sitting around the dining room table laughing at the chutzpa (and stupidity!) of we “little” authors.
Then later another woman--a newly-minted fantasy author--got the idea of following one of the many Oprah-success-plans to the letter but with a twist. It was a packet from several of the best-known authors she knew. Our e-mails went on endlessly and she was always positive, always sure that her next ploy would work. Still, nada. And, by the way, her presentations were meticulous and the credentials of the authors she chose quite stellar. They also all fit into what might be considered Oprah's mission for good reading and reading that opens the minds of women to possibilities for women of all races. The only thing some didn't have was prestigious publishers.
To continue the saga, another friend had success--of a sort!
Keep reading!
Her book was a nonfiction book on finance about working from home.
She was chosen for a panel/group segment on Oprah. Just before that she had been featured on the cover(!) of Money magazine working from her bubble bath tub, phone and computer nearby. Now that's a pretty stupendous platform even though her book, too, was self published. Here's what she said, as nearly as I can remember it: "I think I sold ten books and the new edition I printed for the occasion is still sitting in my garage--a couple thousand of them! With nowhere to go."
That's when I decided that if an author is determined to use their promotion time seeking the big splash instead of working hard, one step at a time--which eventually assures success (assuming they have a great product, of course!)--I won't take them on as clients.
Nope. They can use one of those others who slap enticing Oprah-titled articles around the Web because they know they'll get lots of readership! I'd rather be there to show them how to build a career. Most of those who appear to be "instant successes" have done just that. “Instant” successes are usually writers who have taken the time to first learn their craft, and then used the elbow grease necessary to get their books read. Usually without Oprah.
This blog post is an excerpt from my Sharing with Writers newsletter. The editorial. To subscribe send me an e-mail message with SUBSCRIBE in the subject line. HoJoNews@aol.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:
Many marketers are still trying to coax writers into spending the money they’ve set aside for book promotion to get that one in a million chance to be on Oprah. Still!!
The odds are not crapshoot odds. They are lottery odds.
Here's my story, one from my early days as the author of This Is the Place, a woman's coming-of-age story. Let's call it my naive period.
A friend of mine had a friend who lived across the street from Oprah's cousin (or aunt, or best friend--can't quite remember). Anyway, Oprah spends every Thanksgiving with her. So my friend sweetly offered to take my book (package of course--with a professional media kit and a cover letter with nice pitch on the benefits of my tolerance-related book and how it fit with Oprah's mission!) to them on Thanksgiving day. I never heard a word. In fact, the most it did for me is give me visions of everyone sitting around the dining room table laughing at the chutzpa (and stupidity!) of we “little” authors.
Then later another woman--a newly-minted fantasy author--got the idea of following one of the many Oprah-success-plans to the letter but with a twist. It was a packet from several of the best-known authors she knew. Our e-mails went on endlessly and she was always positive, always sure that her next ploy would work. Still, nada. And, by the way, her presentations were meticulous and the credentials of the authors she chose quite stellar. They also all fit into what might be considered Oprah's mission for good reading and reading that opens the minds of women to possibilities for women of all races. The only thing some didn't have was prestigious publishers.
To continue the saga, another friend had success--of a sort!
Keep reading!
Her book was a nonfiction book on finance about working from home.
She was chosen for a panel/group segment on Oprah. Just before that she had been featured on the cover(!) of Money magazine working from her bubble bath tub, phone and computer nearby. Now that's a pretty stupendous platform even though her book, too, was self published. Here's what she said, as nearly as I can remember it: "I think I sold ten books and the new edition I printed for the occasion is still sitting in my garage--a couple thousand of them! With nowhere to go."
That's when I decided that if an author is determined to use their promotion time seeking the big splash instead of working hard, one step at a time--which eventually assures success (assuming they have a great product, of course!)--I won't take them on as clients.
Nope. They can use one of those others who slap enticing Oprah-titled articles around the Web because they know they'll get lots of readership! I'd rather be there to show them how to build a career. Most of those who appear to be "instant successes" have done just that. “Instant” successes are usually writers who have taken the time to first learn their craft, and then used the elbow grease necessary to get their books read. Usually without Oprah.
This blog post is an excerpt from my Sharing with Writers newsletter. The editorial. To subscribe send me an e-mail message with SUBSCRIBE in the subject line. HoJoNews@aol.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:
Thursday, August 05, 2010
Advice from Veteran Editor and Reviewer Jim Cox
This guest blog post is from Jim Cox's Midwest Review newsletter, which I highly recommend. It is printed with Cox’s permission. To subscribe go to http://www.midwestbookreview.com. He especially likes to review writing-related books and includes many of those reviews in his newsletter.
Dear Publisher Folk, Friends & Family:
I want to make a few observations and comments about why it is so difficult for self-published authors to successfully attract the attention of book reviewers, distributors, wholesalers, and retail booksellers. -- And then some suggestions on what to do about it.
As well as authors that set up their own publishing company to produce their books, I include in the category of self-published authors those that utilize POD companies like iUniverse, AuthorHouse, Trafford, Infinity, Booksurge, Outskirts, PublishAmerica, Lulu, Vantage, Tate, and the dozens of other companies who, for a price, will take any author's manuscript and turn it into a book.
It is very well known (or should be) that the Midwest Book Review has championed self-published authors from our very beginning in 1976 down to the present day. And will continue to do so for as long as I remain its editor-in-chief.
Our current book review publications for May 2010 feature reviews for 47 POD published titles and reviews for six books whose self-published authors didn't even bother to create a publishing company name for themselves and so were identified in the 'info block' that is a part of all our reviews as being 'Privately Published'.
There's about a half-dozen reviews for self-published books that didn't even have snail-mail addresses available for their 'info blocks' -- only e-mail ones.
Those self-published authors who did make up their own company names (complete with intact address contact information), the number of reviews runs to somewhere around a hundred or so.
Therefore my comments on why self-published authors tend to labor under a prejudice within the publishing industry are well-meant by a truly sympathetic observer.
Here they are:
1. Substandard covers which render a book to be uncompetitive on esthetic grounds to the casual bookstore browser. You can have pure literary gold inside, but if the outside screams 'amateur' or is otherwise repellent, it will get passed over as it's competition on the shelf proves more attractive in seducing the buyer's attention. This lack of competitive appeal also applies to reviewers, bookstore managers, and everyone else in the between the publisher and the reader, when consider to accept or reject a title.
2. Interior flaws that run the gamut from excessive typos, to grammatical errors, to exasperating font selection.
3. Content categories that are flooded in the marketplace with competition and/or have limited mainstream audience appeal. The market for poetry is minuscule. The demand for personal memoirs of overcoming medical, psychological, or flawed upbringing adversities is even smaller. Because of the ease of desk-top publishing, each year sees works of general fiction increasingly flooding a marketplace where each of those years sees a smaller percentage of people spending their leisure time reading general fiction.
4. Ignorance and/or naivety in dealing with the various elements of the publishing industry and therefore coming across as non-professionals. With respect to reviewers, this is often displayed by inadequate review copy submissions where the requirements were not met. With respect to booksellers it is very much the same.
5. When it comes to reviewers, the single most grievous thing a few (and in my experience, very few) self-published authors do to 'spoil it' for all other self-published authors is to harass a reviewer about the review process -- that is, persistent and frequent questioning as to when their book will be reviewed, why their book was not selected for review, taking personal offense with respect to the actual review when one is done. It only takes a handful of such experiences to sour a professional reviewer or a book review editor into not wanting to deal with someone who is not a seasoned, experienced, professional author. For wanting to avoid authors who are so emotionally and/or financially invested in their self-published book that they become rude, and even down right abusive.
And please believe me when I say that in the thirty-four years I've been doing this I've had these kinds of encounters more times that I can count.
So how can a self-published author overcome this publishing industry reluctance to get involved with a self-published book?
1. Appear and act as professionally and maturely as you possibly can in every aspect of your contacts with reviewers, booksellers, and everyone else in the publishing industry you encounter, solicit, or market to.
2. Insure that your book is flawless with respect to what's inside, and competitive in terms of its outside appearance.
3. If your book is in a category where the numbers of competing titles is enormous, concentrate on marketing your title as if it were something very special, identifying and capitalizing on something that would make it 'stand out in the crowd'. If your book is in a category of a minimal or a specialized readership, target your marketing efforts directly to that niche group.
4. Don't expect to make a profit, or even recoup your initial investment, in the short term. Be prepared to engage in a long-term effort, one in which the months will turn into years, and the years into decades -- with you plugging away in your marketing efforts throughout it all. And expect to learn new (and hone existing) publishing and book marketing tips, tricks and techniques throughout it all.
Jim Cox
Midwest Book Review
278 Orchard Drive, Oregon, WI, 53575
-----
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:
Dear Publisher Folk, Friends & Family:
I want to make a few observations and comments about why it is so difficult for self-published authors to successfully attract the attention of book reviewers, distributors, wholesalers, and retail booksellers. -- And then some suggestions on what to do about it.
As well as authors that set up their own publishing company to produce their books, I include in the category of self-published authors those that utilize POD companies like iUniverse, AuthorHouse, Trafford, Infinity, Booksurge, Outskirts, PublishAmerica, Lulu, Vantage, Tate, and the dozens of other companies who, for a price, will take any author's manuscript and turn it into a book.
It is very well known (or should be) that the Midwest Book Review has championed self-published authors from our very beginning in 1976 down to the present day. And will continue to do so for as long as I remain its editor-in-chief.
Our current book review publications for May 2010 feature reviews for 47 POD published titles and reviews for six books whose self-published authors didn't even bother to create a publishing company name for themselves and so were identified in the 'info block' that is a part of all our reviews as being 'Privately Published'.
There's about a half-dozen reviews for self-published books that didn't even have snail-mail addresses available for their 'info blocks' -- only e-mail ones.
Those self-published authors who did make up their own company names (complete with intact address contact information), the number of reviews runs to somewhere around a hundred or so.
Therefore my comments on why self-published authors tend to labor under a prejudice within the publishing industry are well-meant by a truly sympathetic observer.
Here they are:
1. Substandard covers which render a book to be uncompetitive on esthetic grounds to the casual bookstore browser. You can have pure literary gold inside, but if the outside screams 'amateur' or is otherwise repellent, it will get passed over as it's competition on the shelf proves more attractive in seducing the buyer's attention. This lack of competitive appeal also applies to reviewers, bookstore managers, and everyone else in the between the publisher and the reader, when consider to accept or reject a title.
2. Interior flaws that run the gamut from excessive typos, to grammatical errors, to exasperating font selection.
3. Content categories that are flooded in the marketplace with competition and/or have limited mainstream audience appeal. The market for poetry is minuscule. The demand for personal memoirs of overcoming medical, psychological, or flawed upbringing adversities is even smaller. Because of the ease of desk-top publishing, each year sees works of general fiction increasingly flooding a marketplace where each of those years sees a smaller percentage of people spending their leisure time reading general fiction.
4. Ignorance and/or naivety in dealing with the various elements of the publishing industry and therefore coming across as non-professionals. With respect to reviewers, this is often displayed by inadequate review copy submissions where the requirements were not met. With respect to booksellers it is very much the same.
5. When it comes to reviewers, the single most grievous thing a few (and in my experience, very few) self-published authors do to 'spoil it' for all other self-published authors is to harass a reviewer about the review process -- that is, persistent and frequent questioning as to when their book will be reviewed, why their book was not selected for review, taking personal offense with respect to the actual review when one is done. It only takes a handful of such experiences to sour a professional reviewer or a book review editor into not wanting to deal with someone who is not a seasoned, experienced, professional author. For wanting to avoid authors who are so emotionally and/or financially invested in their self-published book that they become rude, and even down right abusive.
And please believe me when I say that in the thirty-four years I've been doing this I've had these kinds of encounters more times that I can count.
So how can a self-published author overcome this publishing industry reluctance to get involved with a self-published book?
1. Appear and act as professionally and maturely as you possibly can in every aspect of your contacts with reviewers, booksellers, and everyone else in the publishing industry you encounter, solicit, or market to.
2. Insure that your book is flawless with respect to what's inside, and competitive in terms of its outside appearance.
3. If your book is in a category where the numbers of competing titles is enormous, concentrate on marketing your title as if it were something very special, identifying and capitalizing on something that would make it 'stand out in the crowd'. If your book is in a category of a minimal or a specialized readership, target your marketing efforts directly to that niche group.
4. Don't expect to make a profit, or even recoup your initial investment, in the short term. Be prepared to engage in a long-term effort, one in which the months will turn into years, and the years into decades -- with you plugging away in your marketing efforts throughout it all. And expect to learn new (and hone existing) publishing and book marketing tips, tricks and techniques throughout it all.
Jim Cox
Midwest Book Review
278 Orchard Drive, Oregon, WI, 53575
-----
Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and two how to books for writers, The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't and The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success. Her FRUGAL book for retailers is A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques. She is also the author of the Amazon Short, "The Great First Impression Book Proposal". Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use the little Green widget to let them know about it:
Sunday, August 01, 2010
Writer Talks About Reading Books Written for Other Industries
Sylvia McClain wrote this note to me after we had a discussion about Twitter for writers and I told her I though she would get lots from my new book on Tweeting, even though it isn't written specifically for writers! She made me pretty happy when she wrote back:
Carolyn:
Just read your book on tweeting and what struck me most is Branding, Branding, and more Branding. Whew! Where do I begin? No, I am not a retailer but as you said, there might be something in it for writers, too!
The book, Frugal and Focused Tweeting, said:
YOUR TWITTER MONIKER is as important for your Twitter branding as it is for your e-mail addresses.
My Epiphany:
Duh! was my first thought; no one knew that my Twitter Moniker "rpmenter" stood for RPM Enterprises (my company name) but me. What everyone knew me by was "Scribal Press," my company imprint publishing name, my Web site and my news calendar of writer events. So before I could finish reading the book, I jumped online and immediately changed my Twitter Moniker everywhere not just on Twitter, from "rpmenter" to "Scribal Press." So my Twitter name is now www.twitter.com/scribalpress.
In Chapter Two, page 30, of Frugal and Focused Tweeting for Retailers, you suggested:
I will make ____ useful contacts a week. Twitter contacts include possible customers, but connecting with vendors, bloggers who write about shopping, and business editors at print and online media, etc., can be equally profitable in the long run.
My Epiphany:
I had no idea what number to use but it made me take notice and start thinking.
In Chapter Three, page 36, Frugal and Focused Tweeting talked... about branding using our Twitter biographies and you gave an example of what you would use for your own store.
I needed to go do a new bio on my Twitter account. Why? Branding that's why.
In Chapter Four, page 57, Frugal and Focused Tweeting said:
Tweet about new blog posts, newsletter editions, Web pages. More on this when we talk about integrating your marketing efforts in Chapter Seven.
My Epiphany:
Why I have never thought of this is beyond me.
Anyway, yes you were right again. There is something in this book for everyone, even those who don't think they want to to tweet.
Sincerely,
Sylvia McClain
Blogging at View Points at http://sylviaspeaks.blogspot.com
Book Reviewer at MyShelf.com and Atlantic Publishing Company
Now available, the 2nd Edition of The Write Life
-----
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:
Carolyn:
Just read your book on tweeting and what struck me most is Branding, Branding, and more Branding. Whew! Where do I begin? No, I am not a retailer but as you said, there might be something in it for writers, too!
The book, Frugal and Focused Tweeting, said:
YOUR TWITTER MONIKER is as important for your Twitter branding as it is for your e-mail addresses.
My Epiphany:
Duh! was my first thought; no one knew that my Twitter Moniker "rpmenter" stood for RPM Enterprises (my company name) but me. What everyone knew me by was "Scribal Press," my company imprint publishing name, my Web site and my news calendar of writer events. So before I could finish reading the book, I jumped online and immediately changed my Twitter Moniker everywhere not just on Twitter, from "rpmenter" to "Scribal Press." So my Twitter name is now www.twitter.com/scribalpress.
In Chapter Two, page 30, of Frugal and Focused Tweeting for Retailers, you suggested:
I will make ____ useful contacts a week. Twitter contacts include possible customers, but connecting with vendors, bloggers who write about shopping, and business editors at print and online media, etc., can be equally profitable in the long run.
My Epiphany:
I had no idea what number to use but it made me take notice and start thinking.
In Chapter Three, page 36, Frugal and Focused Tweeting talked... about branding using our Twitter biographies and you gave an example of what you would use for your own store.
I needed to go do a new bio on my Twitter account. Why? Branding that's why.
In Chapter Four, page 57, Frugal and Focused Tweeting said:
Tweet about new blog posts, newsletter editions, Web pages. More on this when we talk about integrating your marketing efforts in Chapter Seven.
My Epiphany:
Why I have never thought of this is beyond me.
Anyway, yes you were right again. There is something in this book for everyone, even those who don't think they want to to tweet.
Sincerely,
Sylvia McClain
Blogging at View Points at http://sylviaspeaks.blogspot.com
Book Reviewer at MyShelf.com and Atlantic Publishing Company
Now available, the 2nd Edition of The Write Life
-----
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:
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