Book Catalogs from Indie Bookstores: Is Your Book a Fit?

This little notice is from an upcoming Sharing with Writers newsletter. It will be in the regular "Opportunities" section. Most of the great tips in that letter don't get included in this blog (and many blog posts don't get included in the newsletter!) So, if you want to subscribe, send me an e-mail with SUBSCRIBE in the subjectline. HoJoNews@aol.com.

Your Book Needs To Be Seen in an Indie Holiday Catalog 

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An adorable bookstore in my community called Once Upon a Time puts out a holiday season catalog each year. That is a very expensive thing to do, especially for a small indie. But they have a catalog secret (which I explain in its entirety The Frugal Book Promoter (http://budurl.com/FrugalBkPromo).) But here’s part of it: Once Upon a Time doesn’t put that catalog out all by itself.

Once Upon a Time (and other indies like it) has help from an organization that produces catalogs for Southern California bookstores. In their case the secret  is the Southern California Independent Booksellers Association. This particular catalog relies on suggestions from their independent bookstores to ascertain what titles will go into the catalog, a very good reason for authors to stay connected to their favorite indie.

There are sure to be similar organizations who have similar services for bookstores in other parts of the country. But here’s the other secret. If you have a book published YOU don’t have to live in that area. They choose what they deem the best of the best. Perhaps you could ask to be put on Once Upon A Time’s mailing list. Call them at 818 248 9668. If they are kind enough to send you a copy, buy a book from them. (It’s Karma!)

And check http://www.bookweb.org/resources/regionals.html for other Independent Booksellers Associations throughout the US. Ask how you apply. Get their application dates and deadlines installed on your calendar with an alert to get it done. Your book may be especially suitable for one of them but if your book is mainstream, it may be a fit for all of them.

If application is difficult, think “back door” (another concept explained for getting reviews in The Frugal Book Promoter). Notice that some of these regional organizations have contests. If your book wins one of them, you are probably a shoo-in to be considered for inclusion in their catalog.

Your book may not get selected but, hey, it may have a shot. My mother used to say, "You never know if you could have won if you don't try."

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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:

The Spirit of the Seasons Catalog

Most of my subscribers know that I don't believe marketing is about book sales so much as exposure, branding, and networking. Today I'm sharing with you a cross promotion effort spearheaded by my friend Denise Cassino because, in addition  to the three marketing essentials I just listed, the machine that drives successful books best is cross-promotion. And a holiday catalog is cross-promotion at its best.
The Spirit of the Seasons Catalog (www.spiritoftheseasoncatalog.com) is a transformational way of giving gifts and promoting books.. Now, if you subscribe to the mailing list, you'll get a free booklet, 11 Inexpensive Holidays Gifts You Can Make. Between the catalog and the booklet you'll be set for all that last-minute gift giving.

Many of the gifts in the catalog can be downloaded and e-mailed and are wonderful items your friends and family will enjoy. Others must be shipped, but there's still time. So if you're sick of the mall and just want to shop from home for something unique, check it out - the special gifts in the Spirit of the Season Catalog are just what you need.  You’ll find gifts in the Spirit of the Seasons Catalog in the following categories: art, inspirational, motivational, business opps, success & wealth building,and  health and energy healing. You'll find Law of Attraction workshops, intuitive healing, all genres of fiction, and a variety of nonfiction. So, won't you go browse? After all, if authors don't keep the heart of the publishing world beating, who will? And a free gift is involved, so why not check into it?


OR, if you want to network with Denise so you can do something like this next year, now's your chance. http://www.spiritoftheseasoncatalog.com .

The Spirit of the Seasons Catalog is the catalog that keeps on giving throughout the season(s). Please share it with your friends, family and contacts! As you've heard me say before, we're all in this together. (-:.
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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:

Holiday Catalog Opportunity for Books and Other Snazzy Gifts

I am participating in a holiday catalog spearheaded by book launch guru Denise Cassino. I'm excited because she will use many of the same contacts and methods to promote the catalog that she uses for her spectacularly successful online book launches. Here's how she explains it--just in case you'd like to give your book a holiday boost:

We are creating a spectacular online Spirit of Christmas Catalog. This exclusive catalog will feature books, products and even services for your friends and followers to consider for holiday gifts. Our plan is to launch the catalog with each participant mailing to all of our contacts and social networks on December 1. We'll provide everything you need for the announcement.

Each product will offer a detailed description, product image, price and buy button. If your response is strong, we’ll create a page where you can submit your info as we do on the book launches we do.

We want to give Sharing with Writers subscribers and visitors first dibs on featuring your books, products, and services in this beautiful online catalog. Our contact lists have grown immensely and what better way to utilize our expertise than to allow you to sell via our Spirit of Christmas Catalog.

December is a busy gift buying season. What a great opportunity for you all to make money selling your stuff and to bring in a little extra cash for the holidays.
The Spirit of Christmas Catalog will be organized by sections such as Spiritual, Motivational, Abundance, Body, Mind, Transformational, Fiction, NonFiction, Children etc. We can even offer handmade products. Your item will be placed in the category you indicate. The actual purchases will be made from your own page when they click the Buy Button. This way you keep control of your sales and fulfillment.

We will design, create and organize the catalog. The cost per person is $69 for the entire season. This includes placement of up to 5 items for that price. If this catalog goes well, we will continue with a Spring, Summer and Fall edition. That’s only $23. per month and we handle the website design, labor costs, staffing, etc. You will keep all the sales proceeds yourself. In this difficult economy, we can all benefit from inexpensive advertising. We want you to have a great experience and at the same time benefit from the tremendous number of contacts that we have accrued.

All items will have standard alphabetical ad placement. However, we are also offering specialized featured placement for an additional cost. In other words, we will have special ads on the home page that click through to the buy page. We will also offer ads on every page in the various categories. So, if you want your spiritual book to appear on every spiritual product page, we will have an additional fee for that. Let me know if you have an interest in the special placement.

We will launch on December 1. We will provide you with our ad copy and banners to that you can place them on your site or in your newsletters, blogs, tweets and social networking.

We are so excited by this venture and know this will be a great opportunity for all of us to get our products and services in front of perhaps 2-3 million people! Let us know by return email if you are interested. We can only take so many, so it's a first come first serve basis. When we assess the interest level, we will take the next step. You payment can be made via PayPal.

Be sure to share this with your friends who might also want to be a part of this exciting opportunity! We want to reward those who supported our launches and their friends and Carolyn is one of those supporters. Our way of giving back. Let's make this the most prosperous Christmas ever!

Here’s the link: www.spiritofchristmascatalog.com – you can fill out the form here.

Merry Christmas!
Denise Cassino
303 838 3399


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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.

Get Exposure for Your Book at Book Fairs Without Being There!

Recessionary times are NOT the time to give up promoting, only to find more--ahem...FRUGAL ways to do it! I thought this opportunity a great way to market a book at two book fairs without traveling.


Let your book be seen in a catalog distributed to readers at the Clark County Fair & Rodeo, April 9-12, 2009. The opportunity includes display of your book for four days to an estimated 84,000 fair-goers. If you have more than 1 book, that’s OK! The cost of advertising is one, low, flat fee!


What you get:~Your book(s) on display for 4 days at the Clark County Fair & Rodeo, April 9-12, 2009

~A full-page advertisement in the 1000 give-away, interactive digital catalogs

~A full-page advertisement for one-full year on the Association of Local Authors Website

~ADDED BONUS! Digital catalogs will also be distributed at the LA Times Festival of Books. (Estimated 140 visitors.)

Cost: $100 (That’s only 10 cents per catalog. It’s cheaper than giving a bookmark!)
Online Registration

Deadline: February 28, 2009
http://www.mcssl.com/SecureCart/ViewCart.aspx?sctoken=8c80a4ee149044ac87ce5939171e0770&mid=67FE6E6B-55E5-4491-9FA7-50B05B858341&bhcp=1

Or send payment and order form (http://www.associationoflocalauthors.com/index_files/2009ALARegistration.pdf ) to: Fabulist Flash Publishing, PO Box 570368, Las Vegas, NV 89157

Additional instructions will be given once you’re registered.
To take advantage of this exhibition opportunity visit www.associationoflocalauthors.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 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.

Make Bookstore Book Buyers Sit Up and Take Notice

Calling booksellers on the phone can be a futile effort if they have no reason to know you.

Worse, it's impossible to call every book buyer and expensive to send info on your book out to hundreds of them.

And, yes, you need some credibility. There could be some past experience with the bookstores (you were a guest on a panel perhaps?). Or you could be part of a professional organization and that is evident in the first contact you make with them.

Authors' Coalition to the rescue!

Authors' Coalition sends out a catalog under our name. But we also tie it to our booth at the LA Times/UCLA Festival of Books. That's Double Credibility!

Participating authors provide the names of the book buyers we send it to, 500 or more. That means that it many cases the bookseller will know at least one author featured in the catalog. That's another level of credibility, another reason for them to pay attention to that book and the others in the catalog.

And it gives the author a way to follow up with a phone call that will be better received. They simply ask, "Just calling to see if your received the LATimes/UCLA catalog sent by Authors Coalition. My book, Great Expectations, was featured."

Then, of course, it's a four color catalog. It comes in the mail, a rarity these days. And, did I mention that it's less expensive than going it alone?

Learn more about this and all the Authors' Coalition programs at: http://www.authorscoalitionandredenginepress.com/fair_booths.htm.

The catalog and others are designed so you don't have to be at the fair or even in LA to benefit.

After you've peeked at the AC page, e-mail me with CATALOG in the subject line. I'll help you pick and choose the programs right for you. HoJoNews@aol.com.
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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.

Why Book Fairs Are Like Tulips

It may be dead-of-winter in your neck of the woods, but spring is creeping up on us. That means book fairs will be sprouting about the same time as the tulips. So put on your promotion hat and your get-with-it boots and be thinking about how you can take advantage of fairs. There are all kinds of ways and the most likely way, surprisingly enough, may not be to take a booth at a fair.

Here are alternatives.

 Share a booth with one or more authors. Or rent an hour's signing time with an organization like Authors' Coalition of Book Publicists of Southern California.

 Just go to the fair. In costume or not. Take fliers. Hand them out. Put them on the tables in the refreshment area. This works best for authors who have exhausted those on their local lists meaning there may not be one on the list who hasn't purchased their book anyway. It's also great for authors who haven't yet published.

 Pitch yourself as a speaker or panel moderator. If no one bites on your offer, the fair planners will know you are out there.

 Take part in value-added promotions that Authors' Coalition builds around the fairs it does. You don't have to live in the area or be willing to pay travel expenses in order to participate in them with us. The organization provides what might be termed long distance promotion. This year they'll have CDs for readers, a slideshow for those who are active speakers, a catalog that goes out by mail to booksellers and maybe even totes (more about that in about a month).

 As an information source - Read book fair fliers and catalogs. Research the names of the publishers - of the writers' organizations - of the services offered authors for promotion. Last year I ran across the US Postal Service booth and learned about the stamps they will print for you--with your book cover on them!

 If you consult, edit or provide any other book-related service, a fair may be the place for you. Authors' Den partnered with Authors' Coalition last year by providing fliers and a contest to win an iPod. Bet they got lots of new associates that way because the interest was huge.

 Your book club or writers' organization can help other writers by sponsoring a speaker at a book fair. The Tennessee Writers' Alliance sponsored me at the Southern Festival of Books , and they certainly did me a favor as well as -- I hope -- providing a service for the betterment of their writing community.

Now is the time to do your research, make your plans. Check out Authors' Coalition, whether you can make it in person to the LA Times/UCLA Festival of Books , or want them to work for you from a distance with their value-added programs. See if there's a fair in your stomping grounds that you can support or utilize. Learn how to make any fair work for you with AC's blog that explores what worked best for the ones they have done in the past (yes, they are your laboratory!).

Find a way to use a fair to reach readers, booksellers, the people you speak to and to cross promote. Writers need each other to make our efforts go farther and farther.

Happy writing, promoting and, yes, editing,

Carolyn Howard-Johnson, HoJoNews@aol.com
Find details on participating in the Authors' Coalition booth at the LA Times/UCLA Festival of Books at http://www.authorscoalitionandredenginepress.com/fair_booths.htm.

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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.