Unsuspecting Authors Get Lead Into Scammy Marketing Schemes

 

When I was taking a class offered to UCLA instructors in ethics, my master professor (those who teach the teachers) said, "Leadership means ethics." He knew that wasn’t the dictionary's definition, but he knew it was a good start for his class.

I had taken ethics classes before—as part of my journalism minor and as part of a marketing class at USC. I didn’t really see a reason for another—this one with a focus on classroom ethics. My theory was that by the time we reach a certain stage in life, we’ve probably absorbed theories on ethics anyway. But as I began to teach new authors, I was glad to have this update because so many new authors get lead astray by what at first appear to be brilliant marketing ideas for their books. It’s a whole new field for us and we may be as starry-eyed as we are ignorant of the end results of our actions.

Authors often get lead astray because they are so focused on their passion—sharing their books with others—but when we look a bit more closely, many of these ideas smack of dishonesty at the best and are scammy at their worst. Things like, "If a library doesn’t have your book, ask your friends go into libraries and ask them to order one, you know, even if that friend has already read your book." This idea is not only unfair to the library but it deters an author from building a relationship with libraries on her own. 

Another one: "If you can afford it, buy a ton of books just before its release date so it will hit the LA Times or NY Times bestseller lists." In the early 2000s, one traditionally published author did this and got caught. The story hit national news and it was not a pretty thing to see—either for him or for the publishing industry.

Authors, like other celebrities, must lead by example. It's part of great branding and great branding is part of great marketing. This is such an important part of an author's marketing plan that I mention branding, ethics, and scams (author scams as well as scams perpetrated on authors) quite frequently in The Frugal Book Promoter.

On the other hand, marketing is part of the game. In fact, it's an essential part of the game.  As long as it's tempered by a good, strong dose of ethics, you can be a power marketer who does your writing career—and your book—proud. The reason at the lowest rung of the ladder that ethics are so important is Karma. Bad actions can come bite you in the butt. The reason at the highest run of the ladder is also Karma. You and your readers will reap the highest benefit when you do things for the highest possible reasons.

Here is a quote from The Frugal Book Promoter that I hope convinces you that ethics are important.

“I think the word "humble" is used far too often. The thing is, we should be proud of what we do. It's part of doing the right thing. Pride is the stuff that self-esteem is made of and by extension the stuff people (that includes authors) need to do good in the world. Friends may mean well when they preach modesty or being humble but they also may be exhibiting passive aggressive tendencies. In either case, it is probable that they don't understand the heart of a writer who usually only wants to share.”

It’s true. The more we "brag" (or "market") the more good we can do. The trick is, we must learn to do it right. It isn’t about us as authors or even about our books. It’s about the reader. If it’s clear to the people we target with our marketing (our future readers) that we have their interests at heart, we’ll be successful with it. They’ll be grateful. We’ll be happy we shared. Everyone benefits.

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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 .

Carolyn's Scam Alert

Now even the big publishers are culpable in scamming authors. When you read this post, keep in mind that all the scams they list are also available—cheaper—from others, but they're still usually scams. I wrote The Frugal Book Promoter (http://budurl.com/FrugalBkPromo) to help authors avoid this kind of thing. Most scams are based on promotions people can do themselves or for very little money. 

http://davidgaughran.wordpress.com/2013/07/16/penguin-random-house-merger-helps-author-solutions-exploit-writers/

I think that often authors get taken in because they think of themselves—or the topic of their books—as exceptional. I've seen writer friends and clients spend money on scams because they're sure the "service" will work for their books--even though they've just been told that it didn't work for many others.

 

By the way, anyone falling for paid reviews? Even Kirkus offers them and they certainly don't fool bookstore buyers, librarians, or any other knowledgeable person in the industry. They're also journalistically unethical. If you want more detail on why paid-for-reviews aren’t such a good idea check out this post on this SharingwithWriters blog:  http://sharingwithwriters.blogspot.com/2010/04/paid-for-reviews-should-you-buckle-down.html

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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 .

Just Plain Bad-Karma Review Scam

I share spam and scam alerts in my SharingwithWriters newsletter and sometimes I let them do double duty by posting them in this blog, too.  Here is one from a recent newsletter:

Scam Alert: OMG! Talk about using the Web for evil purposes! Authors beware. This review scam is the polar opposite of Zen Marketing that we should be using to benefit our books. Do be on the alert and check your online bookstore buy pages frequently to be sure it isn't being used against you. Here are details from The New York Times:

 http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/21/business/a-casualty-on-the-battlefield-of-amazons-partisan-book-reviews.html .

If you should become a victim of tactics like these, there is a pale blue box on your Amazon buy page with links for reaching Amazon people to request changes. Use those links. Don’t rant. Amazon folks are just like anyone else. They’re more likely to help those who remember their manners—including thank yous. (-: 

If you'd like to subscribe to my newsletter, just put SUBSCRIBE in the subject line of an e-mail and send it to HoJoNews@aol.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 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 .

True Pestilence: Scammy, Spammy Blog Comments

I often run scam alerts and sometimes I cop them from my own SharingwithWriters newsletter.  If you think regular information like this will be helpful to your writing career, please subscribe and get a free booklet on wordtrippers on my HowToDoItFrugally Web site.  The subscription form is on the top right of nearly every page of the site.

 

Scam Alert: There is a spate of comments on blogs these days that come from anonymous sources that are designed to send your readers to anything from porn sites to search engine optimization sales pages. They may be convincing as authentic conversation, but they're usually  not. Often you can spot them by the format they use, the fragmented English some are written in, and the separate line they use to tout their Web site.

I'd love to know of a great way to stop them, but for now the only thing I know how to do is to turn on the blog filter that allows you to accept or reject comments and vet each one. They can became truly a nuisance with blogs getting 50 a day to sort through. If anyone knows a better way, please let me know using the little comment link below. Now that would be a comment I'd love to get.(_: I'd be happy to run your tip in my next SharingwithWriters newsletter.

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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 . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use the little Green widget to let them know about this blog:

Scam Alert. Something Authors Don't Need to Pay For!

Just popping in today with a scam alert from my SharingwithWriters newsletter, something I do every now and then. If you'd like to never miss one, send me an e-mail with SUBSCRIBE in the subject line and I'll subscribe you myself. (-:  The address is HoJoNews@aol.com.

 

 

Scam Alert: Don’t let e-mails from people who "know" your name fool you.  The familiarity isn't love or friendship, it's more like heartless algorithms!

 

There is an offer going around. You get an interview you if you but pay them $30. You're so privileged! You get all kinds of wonderful benefits like a free  CD for suckering into this. Now, I’m not saying to never pay for anything. What I am saying is, don’t pay for something you can get plenty of free. Like interviews—online, on radio, or any other old way. (And these really aren't free because the interviewer gets your expertise!) Interviews should be a win-win situation and even steven. Both entities benefit. Neither host nor author pay for the opportunity they afford one another. 

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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 .

Maria Danforth Shares on the Pitfalls of Anthologies

Anthologies are a good way for writers to gain credibility, get exposure for their writing, make valuable new contacts and more. But they aren't trouble free as Maria Danforth points out in her essay on the  risks. If you have positive or negative anthology experiences to share, please leave them in the comments section.

The Pitfalls of Participating in Unvetted Anthologies

By Maria Danforth

 

When you get that acceptance letter that says your story is going to appear in a horror anthology collection, it's usually a cause for celebration. However, as any writer with a little experience under his or her belt knows that before you even consider giving up the rights to that dark little darling you've written you need to be sure that it's going somewhere you can trust.

New and Unvetted Anthologies
Lots of publishers, both big and small, and individuals put out anthology collections of one sort of another. It's a great way to capitalize on the love of short stories, it gets people to buy a new product and it ensures that lots of writers get a piece of the pie. However, if an anthology hasn't been up and running for some time there's every possibility that it could be a scam. And even if it's not a scam, there is every chance that your story will be taken and twisted, poorly edited and that your payment will be much delayed.

What are the Risks?
They are legion, but some of them are a bigger worry than others. For instance, one of the biggest concerns you should worry about as a newer writer is that the anthology you're submitting to is a fraud, or a vanity publisher. The second is much easier to deduce than the former. All you have to do is find out the name of the publisher that's running the anthology and see what its reputation is. Companies that fall into the same boat as Publish America and other, print-on-demand, publish-anything companies will be easy to spot because any author that's ever been burned will put up big, red warnings for anyone that's looking.

For out and out scams it's harder to tell just what it is you're looking at. However, if the "anthology" asks for a fee for you to be included, flatters you with generic praise for your story (even to the point that it doesn't mention the title), or the description focuses more on what the final volume will look like than what the content will be, you should be very suspicious. This goes double for anthologies for new companies, or for companies that are running a first year anthology. This is not to say you shouldn't take a risk as a writer if it looks legitimate, but if it's more concerned with you paying a fee or selling you the dream of being in a leather bound edition, you might want to move on.

Professionalism Issues
Even anthologies that aren't out and out scams can still give authors fits with how unprofessional they are. For instance, an anthology could accept your story and then change around your sequence of events, alter the names of your main characters or even re-write the ending. A professional anthology won't do that, and it would never even contemplate doing so without your express permission as the writer, but it can and has happened in the past.

Even if a company doesn't completely re-write your story, making it something unrecognizable from the source material, there is still the chance that you have to deal with unprofessional or amateur editors. For instance, you should always make sure that you will get a final version of your story and how it will appear in the anthology. If edits will be made then you should have the chance to see and approve them. So before you sign over your story to an unvetted anthology and hope for the best, you need to ask a few pointed questions to see what will happen once you've signed off.

~Maria Danforth writes about blogging, literature & more at http://creditreport.org.

--
Guest Post U

The University of Great Content: www.guestpostu.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 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 . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use the little Green widget to let them know about this blog:

Secret of Reporting Theft of Your Facebook Account

Today's guest post was written by Mindy Phillips Lawrence. She edits my SharingwithWriters newsletter and also writes the regular Itty Bitty column for writers for that same newsletter. Because this information is so essential, I thought I'd get this out to you right away, rather than waiting for my next newsletter. As a favor to a fellow writer and because Mindy has provided a hard-to-find resource for reporting abuse.

A HEADS UP FOR WRITERS WHO USE FACEBOOK

 

By Mindy Phillips Lawrence

I’ve only met Patricia Fry, founder of SPAWN, once or twice but I know she’s a literate person. When I began getting messages from her on my Facebook Account with grammatical errors in them, I knew I wasn’t getting them from her. I sent a message to her REAL e-mail account and told her what was happening. She said one other person had contacted her and had said the same thing.

Anyone who is a Facebook Friend of Patricia Fry should know that her site has been compromised and cloned by some despicable individual. She unfortunately closed her account before she contacted her friends there to let them know. If you have been communicating with her on Facebook, or know someone who has, please get the message out that she is not there anymore and the messages that it appears she is sending are NOT from her. Anything you are getting from "Patricia Fry" on Facebook asking you to contact a Dr. Somebody and asking for money are NOT FROM PATRICIA!!!

We are all trying to promote ourselves on social media because it’s the hot place to promote, but it also opens us up for having our accounts stolen by unscrupulous people. We must publicize our work with an eye toward our personal protection and the protection of our business friends.

Patricia has already reported this situation to Facebook. Below is the link to go to if you find yourself in a similar situation. Let’s hope you never have to use it. You may also want to protect yourself by changing your Facebook password frequently.

FACEBOOK:Report Abuse

http://www.facebook.com/report/

 

~ Mindy Phillips Lawrence, owner MPL Creative Resources,

http://www.freewebs.com/mplcreative
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Editing ~ Writing ~ Publicity ~ Creative Arts

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Into Words ~ Into Print ~ Into Minds

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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 . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use the little Green widget to let them know about this blog:

Anthology Scams: Authors Beware

In a newsletter on marketing, I read a call for help from one of that letter’s subscribers. I was appalled because it sounded as if someone had decided to charge authors $595 to contribute their work (what amounts to a freelance article) and their videos (what amounts to a freelance production) to what amounted to a self-published e-book. The would-be author/editor of this book needed help in roping in more authors to pay that hefty fee and admits that the "media typically aren't interested [in contributing]."

Well, if the media aren’t interested in contributing, there may be a reason beyond the fact that this "anthology"  is self-published. What would that be? Here it is: The chapters are paid-for advertorials. That means editors would be complicit in getting their readers to pay to participate in what feels, well, a bit shady to them. At least newspapers’ advertorials are labeled as “advertisements.”

Hint: If you don’t know what an advertorial is, please look it up in your copy of the second edition of The Frugal Book Promoter (http://budurl.com/FrugalBkPromo). It’s in the chapter on why you generally shouldn’t pay for advertising, anyway.

And if the media aren't interested in contributing to this project, will they be any more interested in covering the book with features, reviews or other kinds of exposure for the book when it comes out? I'm afraid I don't see the benefit to the author of a project like this. Sure, they’ll get a credit line and a byline but without much exposure in the media, who will read it?

Giving away free articles in trade for a byline/nice credit/and links is one thing. Paying to have someone to put together a book that may sell very few copies anyway is entirely something else. In fact, if feels scammy to me.

The help I would give the subscriber to this newsletter is: Please find another way to involve experts and cross promote with them. There are ways to do that where everyone benefits and participants don't have to pay more than they'll ever get back in royalties--or prestige.

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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:

Kindle and Authors Victimized by Spam Producers

This "In the News" post is from a feature that runs regularly in my Sharing with Writers newsletter. Writers can subscribe by sending me an e-mail with SUBSCRIBE in the subject line at HoJoNews (at) AOL (dot) com. 

In the News:  Oh, my gosh. Could authors be doing this? LA Times reports that spam is clogging Amazon’s Kindle. Here’s what is happening:

Amazon offers Kindle uploads f r ^ ^. That is a wonderful privilege. But it’s being abused. Books that “are not written in the traditional sense” are being uploaded to Kindle. The article from Reuters says they are “built using something known as Private Label Rights or PLR content, which is information that can be bought very cheaply [or stolen] online and then reformatted into a digital book.” There is even a DVD box set available that teaches people to do it so they can write/publish up to twenty books a day! Then they load these pseudo books onto Kindle for 99 cents and after they have enough of them up there, they sit back and reap the profits! It’s all about volume. Enough 99 cent books at 70% royalties equals a nice check each month. Some of these books seem to be copies of others’ work, too!

I just finished writing a piece on authors who take advantage of the benefits offered by certain online entities like Amazon. I’ve seen great benefits come, then get abused, then disappear because the online entities can’t continue to support bad behavior.

Here’s the thing. If something feels dishonest or destructive, it probably is. But new authors often don’t have the experience to effectively analyze a marketing or publishing idea that they read about so they get roped into destructive behavior. I hope my readers will be vigilant. Sometimes the line between ethical behavior and fraud or plagiarism is not as evident as one would like. Avoid anything that feels like ballot stuffing, paying for or demanding payment for services that should be free, or plagiarizing. And continue to do what you are doing—that is producing the best possible manuscripts you can. It’s best for you and best for the publishing industry as a whole. It’s also what will eventually give all self publishers a fighting chance against publishing prejudice.

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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 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


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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:

Promotion for the Shy Writer and Newbies

In The Frugal Book Promoter , I advise the shy writer to promote by what they love to do most, writing. Yes, you can sit behind your computer and promote. There are a litany of ways for both publishers and writers to get the message about a book out there; they’re all listed in The Frugal Book Promoter with advice for how to do each of them. But the ones that seem most appreciated are the ones that authors (and their publishers!) can utilize from behind their own computer screens. I also include methods that are accessible to those who haven't yet developed a lot of contacts.

Among those are publishing in anthologies and lesser-known or beginning journals. The emerging writer has a better chance of recognition with these kinds of publications and the shy writer need never show his or her face or even pick up a phone. And "anthology" and "lesser-known" does not mean you don’t have to sacrifice quality. New or small or online does not necessarily mean that a journal isn’t respected.

One of my poems about morning glories and chicken poop was just published in Writings from the River edited by Frederick Bridger (www.frontrangereview.org). It is Montana State University’s journal (so it has the academic cache), but they specialize in a Midwest sensibility which this little poem (borrowed from my childhood experiences) had in abundance. By the way, they will soon be publishing under the name Front Range Review.

I had a similar experience with Mary, a journal put out by St. Mary’s College in Los Angeles.

I also had the luck to publish with a brand new journal Pear Noir . When one submits to something brand new, one has no idea of what to expect. It turned out to be beautiful and this note today is mostly to urge you poets and short story writers to submit to them. When I received this well-designed volume, I was surprised to see that a fellow UCLA instructor, Les Plesko, was also published in it along with quite a few recognizable names in the literary world.

So, one can luck out. But even if the newbie journal doesn’t turn out to be all that you’d hope, it is always a thrill to have someone think enough of your work to want to include it.

Keep in mind that payment for some of these journals is often very low. Sometimes they pay only in copies. I wouldn’t submit, though, if they don’t offer at least one copy in return for using your work. That feels a little scammy. You’ll want to see your work, after all, and you shouldn’t be forced to buy a copy to see it. In fact, that’s one of the ways you can determine the difference between an authentic literary journal and one that will publish anything to get unsuspecting authors to buy lots of copies or one big, thin-paged, unedited, and generally awful volume.

On the other hand, it is nice to buy an extra copy or two of a legitimate journal to support the people who cared enough to publish the very best--YOU.


PS: All of these literary journals will qualify for Poets and Writers'list of published poets (and other writers)--even if they don’t presently have these journals on their list of publications. It is a nice little literary touch to be listed among the nation’s greatest authors on that magazine’s site.
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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 blog.

Scams Prey Primarily on Newbies--But Also Desperate--Authors

I am tired.

I am tired of people trying to take money from authors--particularly new, unsuspecting authors--for services that they can get for themselves or do for themselves. That's bad enough. But the ones that take money from authors for services that also enlists them in something deceitful--well, that's even worse.

There's a whole list of such services. Paid reviews. Let's face it, an author can write her own review and that review is may be just as credible as one she's paid for.

The games authors play getting to be a "bestseller" on Amazon is another. They may pay hundreds of dollars to teleseminar leaders to show them how to do it. And don't think that those seminar leaders don't realize that booksellers, editors, publishers and all the other knowledgeable people in the publishing industry are onto the game. So they're selling a technique designed to make us look like dolts at the least and like scam artists at our worst.

Then there are authors who figure if they buy up enough books from a bookstore, they'll hit the LA Times bestseller list. One author was caught red handed and his story (not his novel!) hit front pages and the six o'clock news.

And now the New York Times reports on a new "service" that will let authors buy blurbs or endorsements. Apparently they sell 10 of them for $19.95, with no guarantee that the endorsement has any credibility or for that matter that the endorser even read the book.

Many current endorsement practices are considered acceptable because they have been around so long they're part of the tradition, but most of us have a sense that even these smack of institutionalized rubbing of backs. We tend to go along with the practice because it's almost essential to getting your book read. But to pay someone who pretends to read a book and give an honest opinion adds a dimension that is just plain unacceptable. That these reviewers lead readers to think their opinions are freely given is perverse.

Furthermore, it's a scam. For a little more than half of that fee, that same author could get The Frugal book Promoter or most any other book on promotion. For less than their $19.95 they'll get a whole lot of information and also learn them how to get blurbs from fellow authors and celebrities ethically and frugally.

Of course, the endorsers they get may not have well-known names. But then the ones one gets for $19.95 won't be either.

The endorsers an author gets on her own will probably give her the most positive blurb possible or at least level with her and say that her book isn't ready for that yet or that endorser and author aren't a match. The beauty of this sort of input is that it's honest and the author didn't have to pay anything to get it.

Not only that but an author can promote without ever getting a blurb. Again, he or she can learn to do that by buying one of those books.

But mostly, authors need to do their homework. They can subscribe to newsletters like mine (see the subscription form in the left column of this blog), read blogs (see the list of writing/oriented blogs in one of the segments of this blog), and do Google searches for articles.

If an author doesn't do those things, they're more likely to get roped into scams of all kinds. Geez.

So, this comes with a plea to pass information you've learned about the dangers out there. You're writers. You speak to groups. You blog. You talk on listserves and forums. Let's try to protect one another. It isn't really the $19.95. It's the principle of the thing.

Even if we we are newbies, we don't need to be desperate. All we need to be is well informed.

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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, 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. 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 blog.

The Good and Bad of Literary Agents

The essay below is a reprint of comments I contributed after a member of a list-serve came to the defense of agents and admitted that some of her agent-friends critiqued her work but "couldn't/wouldn't" sell it.)
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Ms. X, I'd like to add something to your comments, even though you did a great job on your defense of agents and, admirably, admitted that some manuscripts deserve to be put in a drawer or at least rewritten. That takes courage when it is your own manuscript (-: ; it not only takes courage but shows that writers do grow and get to be better writers if they work it. When that happens they can see the flaws in their own writing. That's not an indictment. It's the way we improve.

Now, back to agents.

I had the privilege of working with several dozen of the nation's top agents for my new release The Frugal Editor. They helped me help other writers by sharing with me what they find in query letters that mark writers as amateurs. They did it with humor and some with a certain sweetness of soul. They did it because it helps them if writers submit professional, helpful query letters but also because the more we all know about good editing and publishing in general, the better off the industry is. Some agents asked I not use their names but more than 20 let me quote them, and they were supremely quotable. They gave me a gift (a great chapter on writing and editing queries!). Through me, they gave writers in general a gift.

Having said that, these were all reputable agents, not the fly-by-nighters who charge for reading manuscripts, have editing businesses on the side that they try to pawn off on writers for an additional charge as well as a subsidy-publishing business that they hawk (at a hefty fee!) after they've roped writers in under the guise of being an agent.

There are scoundrels everywhere. And there are ways to avoid the ones who call themselves agents, something else I address in The Frugal Editor. The number one way on my list in TFE is -- surprisingly -- not to check complaint sites like Preditors and Editors. Too many naïve authors who know nothing about the publishing industry and didn't do their homework choose to go there and berate their agents who have really committed no other sin than taking their books on and working their bottoms off trying to sell their books so they can both make some money.

Nope, the number one best way to avoid them is to get references from someone experienced, like writing department instructors at universities, or some of the people on my favorite (self-publishing-subscribe@yahoogroups.com ) who give lots of their time to help other writers.
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Carolyn Howard-Johnson, is the award-winning author of the HowToDoItFrugally Series of Books for authors. She is introducing The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success, now available for pre-orders at http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0978515870/ .

Please sign up for my "Sharing with Writers" newsletter: Put "Subscribe" in an e-mail to HoJoNews@aol.com. Learn more at http://www.HowToDoItFrugally.com . The next AllTips Edition will be issued in September.