Thanks to BookBaby.com you can have my multi award-winning The Frugal Book Promoter free!

This month I’m doing something kind of special for my readers. I have partnered with BookBaby.com, online publishers that offers a free track for publishing books and lots of professional help, too. They are offering the e-book iteration of the second edition of my The Frugal Book Promoter to their customers free because they believe in it as an aid for their—well, book babies. 

I figured my SharingwithWriters subscribers and visitors should benefit from this promotion, too. If you already have the paperback, you will benefit from having an e-copy because of the ease of using it as a reference by searching important keywords for promotion. If you only have the first edition, this edition has been updated and expanded. If you already have the e-book, why not pass this link along to a friend you have been coaxing to get it: http://bit.ly/1JVMv8n. 

This is one of BookBaby’s ads. I love that they agree with me that "you need this book." (-:

Welcome to BookBaby!

You need to read this book.
So we’ll give it to you for free!

For a limited time BookBaby is offering you a free copy of the second-edition of Carolyn Howard-Johnson’s classic, The Frugal Book Promoter. http://bit.ly/1JVMv8n

Get it at http://bit.ly/1JVMv8n

PS: You know how fast things on the Web change? Well, as hard as I try to use permanent links to resources in my books, sometimes the worst happens. The Bookbaby’s e-book offer iteration has been updated just for this promotion. Eventually the updates will take effect in the regular books, too. But until then, you’ll have the most recent links.

PPS: And an after-after thought that it also a lesson in asking for what you need. It's great promotion as long as you let your reader or contact know it comes from a place of caring and passion. Won’t you please look into Bookbaby’s services if you:

1.   Have a book that has been with an agent too long.

2.   Are considering self-publishing a book and weren’t one hundred percent satisfied with the last publisher/printer who published a book for you.

3.   Just need a little nudge or some inspiration. This offer of The Frugal Book Promoter will cost you nothing; you are certain to get a new tip or whole new idea for marketing your book; and it will be the nicest thank you possible for this newsletter that comes to you with my love every month.

No, BookBaby didn't ask me to say this. As you know from the title of this blog, I believe in sharing good resources

-----
 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 .

Make People WANT What You're Giving Away Free

Many thanks to Karen Cioffi for today's guest post.  Too many of us forget to explain the benefits of the services we offer and we're even more lax when it comes to letting our visitors know why we're the one with the credibility to help them.

Shout Your Author-Writer Qualifications
on Your Email Opt-in Landing Page

 By Karen Cioffi

All writers, including an author and writer, must have a Web site. It’s just the way it is. Whether you write fiction or nonfiction, you still need a Web site.

Everyone from Writer’s Digest’s Chuck Sambuchino to Jane Friedman (formerly with Writer’s Digest, now an editor for the Virginia Quarterly Review) to agents to publishers, adamantly proclaim the need for an author Web site, even before your book is published.

While a Web site is mandatory, another must-have is a separate landing page to entice visitors to subscribe to your mailing list. Many offer a freebie to entice them to do so.

 

Having a separate landing page for your email opt-in offer is a good marketing move. The primary purpose of this separate page is to avoid visitor distraction. On a regular author Web site or freelance writer site there are usually too many options and that translates into distractions for the visitor.

Think about it.

Do you have a Home page, About page, Reviews page, Events page, Awards page, Excerpts and Illustration pages? Audio? Video? Do you have ads or other sidebar content?

 

These are all distracting features. They may have their purpose, but they are counterproductive in regard to focusing in on building your subscriber list.

 

When it comes to building an e-mail list, your site must be focused – NO distractions – No visitor anxiety. It should have clear call-to-action content with a simple opt-in process.

 

This page should fully explain the benefits the potential subscriber will get if he opts in, and it should also include what your qualifications are for offering this particular information, for claiming to be an authority in your niche.

Let Your Qualifications be Known

People need to be persuaded into subscribing to yet another mailing list and into buying what you’re offering, so you need to make the YES decision and process as easy as possible. Conveying your qualifications for writing your book and the book’s merits are part of this process. For example, if you write fiction:

 

·       Do you have a ‘big name’ publisher?

·       Did your book win any awards?

·       Is your book a best seller?

·       Do you have positive reviews and feedback?

·       Are there book illustrations you can share?

·       How about a brief excerpt?

·       Do you have a book trailer?

·       Do you have good sales numbers?

 

Carolyn Howard-Johnson, the Frugal Book Promoter, suggests you also “include a pitch or logline for that piece of fiction that will intrigue your Web site visitor” and “include praise (blurbs) for it.”

Even your social networking numbers matter (e.g., number of Twitter followers, number of Facebook connections, and so on).

Getting a bit more specific as to your actual qualifications for writing the book, particularly if you’re writing nonfiction, or for offering freelance writing services or products:

·       Did you take special training (e.g., classes, ecourses)?

·       Do you have a degree or certification in the topic?

·       Do you have ‘good’ clips?

·       Do you have great testimonials?

·       Have you won awards?

·       Do you belong to relevant groups/clubs?

·       How in depth was your research?

·       Do you teach the topic?

Whatever gives you authority in your niche, whether fiction or nonfiction, be sure to include it in your list.

Sites claiming to be an expert in a particular niche are a dime-a-dozen. Let the visitor know you and your book are the ‘real deal.’

--------- 

Karen Cioffi is an author/writer online platform instructor and provides Web site critiques and optimization services. Take a moment and check out what she can do for your site:
http://www.karencioffi.com/website-services/

----
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 .

Unlocking Query Letter Secrets By Example

21 Query Letters That Sold is a free e-book offered to subscribers of Mridu Khullar Relph's weekly newsletter, featuring queries that sold to The New York Times, Time, Ms., The Christian Science Monitor, and many more. You get the full story behind each query as well as the published article at the end. Sign up for your (free) copy at http://www.mridukhullar.com/ebook-queries/ .

Mridu Khullar Relph is a multiple award-winning freelance journalist currently based in New Delhi, India, and I trust her expertise. She has lived and worked in Asia, Africa, and North America, and writes for The New York Times, Time,The International Herald Tribune, ABC News (Australia), The Independent, Global Post, Parade.com, Ms., and the Christian Science Monitor, among others. Visit her website at www.mridukhullar.com

 

You'll also find query letter templates that were successful in my The Frugal Editor (http://budurl.com/TheFrugalEditor).  You'll also find the results of more than 100 of my interviews with agents about their query letter pet peeves in that book. The agents generously (and often humorously!) contributed in the interest of helping authors avoid booboos.

-----
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 .

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.

 

-----
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 .

Celebrating Read and E-Book Week with Free E-Gift

This comes to subscribers and visitors as a gift, but also as an example of how authors--yep, even poets!--might use promotional week and month designations as an excuse to promote. This is, after all, what they were designef for! (-:  It is copied from a special edition of my newsletter but could easily be made into a media release.  If you want the freebie, use the link in the letter, not the Amazon widgets; they will let you buy paperbacks, though!

Magdalena Ball and I are celebrating Read an E-book Week by giving e-book copies of our poetry to all comers from March 6 to 12.


Our chapbooks of poetry include Cherished Pulse (for anyone you love) with artwork from California artist Vicki Thomas, She Wore Emerald Then (for mothers on your gift list) with photographs by May Lattanzio, Imagining the Future (for Fathers), and Blooming Red, a Christmas chapbook. All are priced to compete with greeting cards at any time of year but this is a celebration of F r ^ ^ (and e-books!).

Chapbooks have been a tradition in the poetry world since Elizabethan times. The Celebration Series goes beyond the clichéd sentiments in most greeting cards—and does it for about the same price.

Now the full series is being offered for f r ^ ^ during Read an E-book Week from March 6 to 12 to help raise public awareness of electronic reading. Read an E-book Week’s Web site (http://www.ebookweek.com ) provides information on the latest e-book reading devices, different e-book stores, benefits of e-books, as well as the history and the future of e-books. Visitors will be able to download free reads from different major retailers, authors and publishers during the Read an E-book Week event period. The Celebration books can be read in over nine digital formats on any computer or portable reading device anywhere in the world. This is a revolution for both authors, both of whom started their writing careers when the latest technology was a typewriter and carbon paper for copies. To access the free books, visit:

http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/maggieball


Magdalena Ball runs the highly respected www.compulsivereader.com review site. She is the author of the poetry book Repulsion Thrust, published to unanimous 5-star reviews. Her novel Sleep Before Evening, published in 2007, was a Next Generation Indie Book Award finalist. You all probably know about my poetry except for the one published quite a while ago by Finishing Line Press, (www.budurl.com/CarolynsTracings ), which isn’t being offered f r ^^ by contractual agreement. For more information on any of the chapbooks in this poetry series, contact either of the authors or visit media rooms at http://www.howtodoitfrugally.com/
 or http://www.magdalenaball.com/
.

Happy promoting, writing and poetry reading!

Carolyn Howard-Johnson

PS: I just learned that Aggie Villaneuva is also celebrating e-book week by offering hers at  Smashwords for I've at 50-75% off until the 12th: http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/myaggie2 . Aren't we all just so smart!






-----
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:

Everyone's Talking About Amazon's Kindle Sales vs. Hardcover!

Long time subscriber of my Sharing with Writers newsletter Virgil Jose, sent this link of an article on Amazon’s Kindle sales. And I’d already cut a clipping from the LA Times. I mean, this is some news, right?

http://www.latimes.com/business/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-us-amazon-kindle-sales,0,7931535.story

Wrong. Everyone is talking about it but most are misconstruing it (Virgil was not one of them. He just knew that it was news we should all be paying attention to.)

Amazon claims their Kindle sales are 80% higher than hardcover books at Amazon. I was having a hard time believing that because Kindle titles are so much more limited and because I could see how my own paperback sales compared to Kindle sales, so I reread the article. And lo! Read a little farther down in a very long article and we find those hardcover figures they’re comparing Kindle sales to do not include paperbacks! Duhh!

So where is the news? It is soooo misleading! A real newsmaker...but misleading! Paperbacks have outsold hardcovers for a long, long time, and these figures don’t include them. Further down in the article, they talk about the recent cut in the relatively expensive Kindle reader and how that may have spurred sales, too. After all, new Kindle customers must have something to read on their Kindles and may load up while they’re at it.

Something that wasn’t addressed at all is that Amazon has so many free titles on Kindle. Were they included in the Kindle sales column? What do you think?

Sometimes multi tasking, speed reading, and skimming headlines are not productive.

So, are e-book sales “up-ending” the industry. Hardly. That doesn’t mean e-books aren’t really, really important. My advice for independent authors and small publishers: Certainly pay attention. Get your titles onto Kindle while you can do it free. I’ve been lagging behind with my four new titles published this year (including booklets). I’m toodling over to Amazon right now to rectify that! But am I going to publish e-books exclusive with the notion that I’m looking to the future. Not on your 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:

Free Books All Week

It's Read an E-Book Week!

From March 7 (that's today!) to the 13th, retailers, authors, and publishers are urging you to get hold of and read their books for free, or deeply discounted.

This is read an e-book week's 7th year, and creator Rita Toews has gathered together a welter of resources, free books, and tools to help you read an e-book (or two). So where do you go to get your free books and begin exploring the future of reading?

First, there's Rita's own site: http://ebookweek.com/ which has lots of information and an online bookstore chock full of freebies from participants.

You can pick up the poetry chapbooks I wrote with Magadalena Ball, Cherished Pulse and She Wore Emerald Then for free at: http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/maggieball. Maggie's novel, Sleep Before Evening and her book of poetry, Repulsion Thrust are available for whatever you want to pay (including nothing!) at Smashwords. If you do decide to pay anything, all proceeds will go to the Red Cross effort on the earthquake-devastated island of Haiti.

And above all, you can celebrate the diversity and availability of the written word, in all its forms and variations. Enjoy!

PS: You can also drop by Magdalena Ball's interview with Mark Coker who heads up Smashwords that is one of the sponsors of this promtoion at blogtalkradio and hear us talk about the implications and future of ebooks. He gives writers information they need to know!

PSS: If you prefer to have paperbacks for yourself or as gifts, click on the Amazon widgets in this post.


-----
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:

Roman Retreat, E-Books and, Yes, Promotion

Traveling makes my pen happy.

I’ll admit. I’m addicted to travel. My writing is addicted to travel. And I’m not even a travel writer. So, I don’t know why it’s taken me so long to do this (keep reading!). Sometimes we just need a little help from our friends.

That’s where Eve Caram comes in. She was my first teacher when I was refining my novel-writing craft back in about 2000. She rented a villa in Italy last year and had access to one in Rome when we started talking about how convenient and inspirational time in Italy would be for writers.

Then, once we had settled into the idea, I remembered that Jo Linsdell lives in Rome. I had worked with her on her free seminar day that focuses on book promotion. Excuse me if I say, we were an instant hit, The Three Writing Musketeers. Jo will be giving a couple seminars, too.

We are ready to go at this full steam. We are arranging for attendees to get hundreds of dollars in free e-books on writing. Dawn McDine's new self-help book for writers is one of them.

If you have one, we can use it as a way to talk about free as a marketing engine, about cross-promotion and to encourage attendees to recommend ones they like to their critique partners, online groups, and more. We're also accepting paperback but they'd have to be sent to Jo by ship well in advance and that can be costly. Reach me at HoJoNews@aol.com.

No, we won’t limit our offers to how-to books only. No matter what you offer, your job is to send fliers with a pitch on what it’s about and the link for free access. Contact me at hojonews@aol.com for information on where to send your fliers.

We are also planning to have a welcome dinner (no host) at the restaurant where Jo’s husband works--right in the heart of Rome. And we may have a table at the restaurant to display (and sell?) our books.

Keep in mind this is not a conference. It is a casual retreat. Very small. Full of love and inspiration. There are few if any requirements other than sharing with expenses and an interest in writing. And that sharing thing is a frugal way to go.

You should see the gorgeous town house we’ll be staying in! My gawd! A dream come true with a roof garden for getting together to talk writing and for some seminars. We’ll even be tailoring the seminars to the interests of those attending. Go to www.budurl.com/RomanRetreat to see pictures of "our place." We only have a couple more spots left so please hurry. We want you with us!

-----

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.

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

James Patterson and Chris Anderson Show Some Ways Bestsellers Are Made

Many aren't aware of this but one of the best things about technology--specifically the Net and the digital press--is that it can keep books from the shredding pile.

That's good for both readers and for authors.

Of course, even the Net and the ditital press can't keep a book alive and kicking unless someone is promoting it. promote it.

My novel This Is the Place is still selling. Usually it’s selling used for about $1.50 on Amazon’s New and Used feature but it can also still be found new on BN.com. New or used, what is important to me is that it’s still being read.

But there’s a couple of other models out there for utilizing older works. I’ve talked about using your blog to serialize an old novel or a novel that can’t seem to get published--maybe a first that is still lying fallow in the bowels of your computer. The idea, of course, is to introduce new readers to your work. Perhaps they will then buy your new novel or recommend your work to others.

That brings me to Chris Anderson. You’ve heard me talk about his Long Tail theory in my newsletter and on this blog. He has a new book out which I’ve also recommended for writers. It is FREE: The Future of a Radical Price. He expounds on a general concept I’ve been touting for a long time. That is: Giving things away free is one way to market and make a profit. I can’t remember who said it but someone did: “Google never met a loss leader it didn’t like.” And no one can argue that Google’s sales model is not successful.

What prodded me to talk about FREE again is a headline in the LA Times Calendar sections (Sat, Aug 8 p. D11): “Free titles top chart of Kindle bestsellers.” James Patterson’s latest bestseller isn’t new. It’s four years old. He says, I like the notion of introducing people to one book, while promoting the sales of another.” BTW, this man is a former principle of one of the nation’s largest advertising agencies.

By giving away The Angel Experiment on Kindle he hopes to gain new readers. And his promotion ploy is working! LA Times did an article on it, didn’t they? LOL. His publisher, Hachette, says, “It’s like priming the pump.” Another publisher notes they are especially interested in giving away books that are first of a series.

The trick here is not to overdo it. If you give away a full book as an e-book or as a serialized book on your blog, don’t repeat the process too soon or at all. That will be a hard temptation to resist--especially if the promotion works. Remember the department stores and their White Sales? Pretty soon people would wait until January to buy their linens and they would only buy their linens on sale.

The reason I do like this model, is that Patterson is offering a book that has mostly run its course. The only danger of doing this with a book that hasn’t been published is that you might not be putting your best work forward. If you should think about doing that ask yourself first: Does this book need editing or rewritten before putting it before the public? AND would this book work better for me published digitally or self published.

Oh, one other consideration. If you’re going to do it, maybe now is the time. If this catches on, a free book may have as much competition at zero dollars as a pay-for book at the going rate for books. The idea will eventually lose its new value, too. It would be fun to have your hometown newspaper cover your freebie offer, wouldn't it?

-Technorati Tags:
james patterson, chris anderson, long tail, marketing with free, book marketing, book promotion, e-books, ebooks, carolyn howard-johnson, sharing with writers, business of writing, this is the place, amazon, kindle
Add to: | Technorati | Digg | del.icio.us | Yahoo | BlinkList | Spurl | reddit | Furl |
----
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.

Think Valentine's Day a Bit Early

My frequent poetry coauthor and I are thinking about not neglecting our Valentines this year. And we don't want you to neglect yours. Either your love or your associates or your customers.

Editor of CompulsiveReader.com Magdalena Ball is my poetry partner and, this Valentine’s, my poetry love. She set up the poetry chapbook we collaborated on last year at Valentine’s so it could be a free gift to Sharing with Writers subscribers (both the newsletter and this blog). Cherished Pulse is a beautiful e-chapbook, in no small part because of the artwork by Vicki Thomas and Maggie’s formatting skills. You could print it out on fine linen paper, staple it together, add a beautiful violet bookmark ribbon and have a very inexpensive valentine for someone on your list.

Or, you could just send the people you love the link and so they could enjoy it online. The link for the .pdf file is http://www.compulsivereader.com/html/images/Cherished Pulse.pdf. (Note: it is only available at no cost until February 18.)

You could add the link to your blog or your newsletters as a gift from you to your subscribers and readers, too. We won’t mind. For we hope that people like our poetry enough to then--perhaps!--buy the new chapbook we collaborated on for one of the mothers on your list for Mother’s Day. Illustrated with May Lattanzio’s beautiful photographs, it is She Wore Emerald Then: Reflections on Motherhood now available on Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/She-Wore-Emerald-Then-Reflections/dp/1438263791/ .

Originally Maggie and I collaborated because we recognized that often Hallmark cards don’t quite say what we would have them say. A little too rhymey and too syrupy. Poetry (as opposed to verse), can be read by someone with a little more detachment yet still feel the love.

We hope you will take advantage of our free offer for Valentine’s and, if you think Maggie’s science-inspired or my nostalgic poetry will be appreciated by your audience or by someone on your personal Mother’s day list, you’ll support that chapbook, too.

Happy Writing, Promoting and Editing, too!
Carolyn Howard-Johnson

PS: If you want to sweeten your poetry gift up, you could include a virtual bon-bon or the real thing--perhaps Lady Godiva.

PSS: My chapbook Tracings (Finishing Line Press) is also still available on Amazon and comes with the satin bookmark ribbon so you can have it shipped directly as a gift and have something that feels--well...artsy--arrive in someone's mailbox. http://www.amazon.com/Tracings-Carolyn-Howard-Johnson/dp/1599240173/

Technorati Tags:
free valentine's gift, free promotional gift, free poetry chapbook, magdalena ball, carolyn howard-johnson, cherished pulse, she wore emerald then, tracings, finishing line press,
Add to: | Technorati | Digg | del.icio.us | Yahoo | BlinkList | Spurl | reddit | Furl |


-----
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.

Out of the Box Contest E-Book Available for Authors' Benefit

TRI Studio LLC www.tri-studio.com, in cooperation with Authors’ Coalition www.authorscoalitionandredenginepress.com, announced the winners of The 2008 Out of the Box Promotion Contestfor Writers . Kathe Gogolewski, editor of www.Tri-Studio.com published the winning ideas in an e-book available free for authors.

The top winners include promotional experts Janet Elaine Smith, Allyn Evans, Phil Harris and Billie Williams. Ideas range from a Book-of-the-Week Club that partners the publisher and author with an internet radio program, to an Amazon Tour Group, a Video Tour Group, and an idea that allows readers to watch the progress as an author writes a book. The e-book is available from TRI Studio and Authors’ Coalition as a free download. It is also available for free distribution for interested parties to post on their websites.

Winners of the Honorable Mention awards are presented in random order and include authors Mindy P. Lawrence, Dorothea Buckingham, Nikki Leigh, Margot Finke, Karina Fabian and Jessica Kennedy. The contest was sponsored and created by TRI Studio LLC, producer of The Fiction Flyer, a free e-zine for writers of fiction.

I judged the contest on:1) the originality of the idea, 2) The breadth of applicability, and 3) the ease of use. There were some very interesting ideas which made judging extremely difficult.

According to Kathe Gogolewski, author and President of TRI Studio LLC, the contest was created as a way to showcase new and interesting promotion ideas by authors and for authors. “We wanted to create a tool to help writers in their craft,” she adds.

The e-book, The Winners of The 2008 Out of the Box Promotions Contest for Writers is available for download and distribution here: www.tri-studio.com/outofthebox.html Interested parties may contact Kathe Gogolewski at kgogolewski@sbcglobal.net or Carolyn Howard-Johnson at hojonews@aol.com.


-----
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.