Like a Writer's Resume: Your Published Works Almanac and Media Kit

I often feature question and answer pieces on my #SharingwithWriters newsletter and share some of the ones that cover less-frequently asked questions on this blog, too.  You can subscribe to SharingwithWriters newsletter that comes directly to you in your e-mail box at http://howtodoitfrugally.com or by putting "Subscribe" in the window of an e-mail and sending it to hojonews@aol.com. Yes, it's frugal. It's free.

 

QUESTION:

Dear Carolyn,
You referred to a published works almanac on pp15-16 of your January SharingwithWriters newsletter. I wasn't sure how to create one or amend when I have more books.

Kind regards,
Chioma Nnani
Award-winning Author. BEFFTA-nominated Writer. Presenter. Producer.

ANSWER:

Aha!  I guess using a published works almanac on your Web site is a matter of knowing how to build a Web site or a matter of having a good Webmaster. I used to have a hired Web master but found it was both too expensive to hire the amount of work I wanted to do for my expanding Web site and way too slow. So now I do it myself, but it was a huge headache to learn. Here's an alternative approach to using an almanac even if you aren’t Webmaster savvy:

Use the media kit you are assembling to become a record-keeping kit as well. In it you'll have several sections including your published works almanac which will give those gatekeepers looking at your media kit a sense of your experience—your writing chops so to speak. It will do the same thing for you as a résumé but you won’t be applying for a job. More than likely you’ll be trying to get some free publicity or get a conference director to hire you to speak.

Sometimes (once you've been writing a long time) you may need to divide the published works almanac into genres, say freelance, poetry, short stories, etc.  But that's getting ahead of our needs here. An almanac works great to send out as part of a media kit, but once you have one it can be copied and pasted into a Web site or blog page or even a social networking profile. In the meantime, it's great for record keeping so you'll have it when you go to write a book proposal or a résumé. I’d be pleased to send my basic kit to as a .pdf to subscribers who want to use it as I did for Choma (It includes the published works page so you can use it as a sample). Just send a note to hojonews@aol.com asking me for it. The essentials can be adapted to any book, any author.]

 

[Note: Your media kit can be put into a .pdf file, installed on your Web site where it can then be downloaded from your site's media room just as I do with my media kits and newsletters. People (in this case feature editors, radio hosts, etc.) can go online and download your media kit with your almanac in it. It saves them from the time it takes to request it from you and having you send it to them as an attachment.

As you can see, your Published Works Almanac can be useful long before you have a Web site of your own!  And when the time comes to learn to make a Web site or to hire someone to do it for you, your Almanac will be ready to go except maybe for some last-minute editing and formatting.

-----
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 award-winning second edition of, The Frugal Book Promoter: How to get nearly free publicity on your own or by partnering with your publisher; The multi award-winning second edition of The Frugal Editor; 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 .