You Are Invited to Share Your Booky Tips

Did you know that subscribers to my SharingwithWriters newsletter can send me tips they want to share with other writers. Tips on the craft of writing. Tips on marketing books. Tips on useful tech. Send them with your name, book title or service you provide and a link and I'll credit them to you. Here's a tip! Those inks help your Google search engine position!

It's easy to subscribe. Just go to http://howtodoitfrugally.com and use the little subscribe window in the upper right corner of every page. And you'll get a free e-copy of Great Little Last-Minute Editing Tips, too. Yay!

Here's an example of a tip from my last newsletter:

Tip:Different books do require different features on their Web sites. And sometimes we choose to ignore the rules for very good reasons. The one feature most authors miss, though, is one the Independent Publishers of America (IBPA) newsletter suggests. That is, "Showing some personality." It's especially easy to forget to let our voices shine through when we're using pre-formatted services like AuthorsDen.com. Revisit your Web site—whatever it is—and see if you can spark up different features, from your biography to your media kit.

 

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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 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 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 .

Q&A a la Ann Landers: That "Selling Books" Thing Again

As you know, I often answer authors' questions in this blog. Here is a recent one:

Question:

Q&A: Linden wanted to know if I sell very many books from my Authors Den site (http://authorsden.com/carolynhowardjohnson  ).

Answer:

Linden, I don't use Authors Den to sell books. In fact, I (almost) don't do anything to sell books. It's my theory that if we get exposure for our books and ourselves, the books sell themselves. 'Course, we have to have a great book! (-: AD has a huge number of benefits. I use it mostly to distribute my newsletter, as a backup for my regular Web site (www.howtodoitfrugally.com), for networking, and, yep, for exposure! (-: Besides, you'll hear me say over and over again, when a book sells, it's really hard to know exactly what "sold" it. Usually it isn't one site or one promotion. Usually it's a combination of things the reader has seen or heard that finally gets them interested enough to buy a book. I hope you'll read my The Frugal Book Promoter for lots of basic concepts on public relations, getting publcity and marketing in general.

CHJ

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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:

AuthorsDen Offers New Free E-Book Program

Even though I have a Web site of my own, I have been a member of AuthorsDen for a number of years. For a number of reasons. But lately they are on a roll. I thought my subscribers would want to know about their new e-book program. Here is the letter directly from the AuthorsDen president:

Free Service Coming Soon!

We have a big surprise for you!

On Monday November 15th, at 12:00PM PST you will be able to sell your books right from your pages on AuthorsDen.com and earn 100% of the profits!

This is a huge new release, so we are staging it in two parts:

Stage 1: November 15th, you can participate by simply uploading your existing PDF files of your books and book covers so, get your files ready!

Stage 2: Mid-December time-frame, we will launch an online suite of writing and collaborating tools to write, edit, publish, and sell your books. Again, you keep all the profits.
I'd like to take this opportunity say thank you for your participation on AuthorsDen!

You have helped make AuthorsDen.com a wonderful author and reader community for all to enjoy. The community support that we witness everyday we login is amazing and the feedback you've provided has been incredible over the 10 years we've been online. I believe you will be delighted with our new service as it is a reflection of my strong belief that Authors create their works and should hold onto the profits as well.

Please let us know what you think.

Matt Miller
Founder of www.AuthorsDen.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:

Is This YOUR Web Site or Bookmark Faux Pas?

I recently spoke at a writers' club and, of course, came back with a stack of business cards and bookmarks. I am giving all those authors applause for having cards or bookmarks, but after visiting their Web sites I was so disappointed!

Many of them had no way to contact the author. Their main Web site page is only a marketing page and the link takes visitors directly to a sell page on Amazon or elsewhere). One didn't even include a review. None included a media room. 

This kind of inaccessibility violates one of the most important Web site rules for authors.  It appears on one of the first pages of The Frugal Book Promoter. That is: " Don't pretend that people have come to your Web site only to buy a book."
A free page at AuthorsDen.com is better than something like this. AD doesn't have the ability to offer a media room per se, but an author could just offer a media kit using e-mail.

But more heinous even than no media room is that there was no way to reach the author. Sometimes there was no e-mail address even on their business card!

Authors! These are your READERS. Or your future readers. Let's treat them with respect. If you are one of those who are doing this for security reasons, for heaven's sake, get an e-mail address separate from your personal one. Put it on you business cards, bookmarks, Web site and everywhere else you can. Your readers will respond with book sales and with compliments that can be used as blurbs or endorsements.



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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:

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:

Q&A a la Ann Landers: This Is a Multiple Part Question on the Great American Publishing Dream

Note: This letter from Cindy Cadelo is printed in segments with dashes between them so that you can read my comments to in context:

Question: Dear Carolyn, Literally in the dark at the time, I signed on with a print-on-demand publisher for my debut novel and have lived to regret it ever since. I suppose the worst part was having a paperback priced at $29.99.
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Answer: Yes, the price of your book was out of whack. I'm guessing that no one bothered to give you advice on the size of the book. It sounds as if -- putting Michener aside (and he isn't writing in today's publishing world) -- that you should have figured a way to shorten your work. Many subsidy publishers just don't know so can't advise their clients. Others do know but don't rock the boat for fear they will lose their clients to another subsidy publisher who will publish just as the author wants -- regardless of the outcome.
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Question: A "no returns" book store policy on POD books meant I had to buy my own books for promotions and sales which I couldn't afford because of the price, neither would the publisher pay royalties on author-purchased books.
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Answer: Subsidy publishers that arrange to take books back do exist. Generally the author must pay for the returns, of course. Having said that, in the Frugal Book Promoter, I talk about how bookstores aren't the best place to sell books anyway. So, there's hope. It's not too late for you. You could change publishers or arrange to guarantee sales on your own or concentrate on a different way of selling books.
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Question: How, I wondered, did books find their way to reviews by the NY Times? How did it work that new authors were recognized with awards and mentions in literary circles? How did one's book get into the libraries all over the country? Book clubs?
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Answer: Your experience resonates. Those are the things I hear from authors all the time. Those are the things I learned with my first novel, This Is the Place. In fact that's why I wrote the Frugal Book Promoter and now the Frugal Editor. To share what I learned. To answer these questions and others and to help authors get these very things done to get their book read! Both books were a labor of love. I like writing them, but I'd rather be writing my second novel or book of short stories or book of poetry. (-:
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Question: My lovely book was invisible; unnecessarily sacrificed. On the verge of completing a second manuscript, will the stigma of the first book reflect on the next one as for my chances of finding a reputable agent?
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Answer: It might. It depends on lots of things but also on the way you handle it. Don't try to hide that first book. Own up. Basically you say something like, "I didn't know the ropes so missed out on these things. I think my experience will make me a better promoter of my own work and partner for a publisher." Something like that. You can't hide it. Not in this electronic age.
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Question: Is it ever possible to resurrect an invisible first novel, and what are the chances it could work as made-for-TV movie or a screenplay? I still get wonderful letters from those who bought the book used, or found copies at yard or library sales where I donated the copies. I'm sure I'm not the only writer who has such grisly first-time novel woes, so we writers can all learn from such experiences as well as from your valued professional opinion on how a writer proceeds from this point forward.
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Answer: Yes, absolutely. All is not lost. But it will take lots of work and maybe discarding the idea that you will make lots of money on it. The idea will be to get your work into the hands of people who might make a difference for you. You could republish it POD. On your own. (See the Frugal Editor before you do this, PLEASE!) Or you could serialize it. Perhaps on a blog or on your website. There are other possibilities, of course. But again, this TV/Movie Miracle Dream doesn't just happen. We think they do because others look like overnight successes but usually they worked years at their craft and at networking. And, yes, a very, very few just get lucky. (-:
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From Cindy: Thanks for your advice and patience!
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Comment: Your story breaks my heart. It is so common. I encourage you not to give up. Take classes (that's networking, too!) Enlist a great editor. Republish. Keep writing. Do keep promoting.

Sincerely,
Carolyn Howard-Johnson
Temporary website: http://www.Authorsden.com/carolynhowardjohnson
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Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author THIS IS THE PLACE; HARKENING: A COLLECTION OF STORIES REMEMBERED; TRACINGS, a chapbook of poetry; and two how to books, 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 other blogs include TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com and AuthorsCoalition.blogspot.com, a blog that helps writers and publishers turn a ho-hum book fair booth into a sizzler.