An Invitation from the Famous Judith Briles

I am excited about presenting at this writers conference and--of course--had to let you know about it! I'd love to see my SharingwithWriters subscribers and visitors there. If you come, please be sure to introduce yourselves. I just reconnected with a wonderful attendee I met back in 2008 at the Erma Bombeck conference for humor writers. It's this kind of thing that keeps me happy!

Announcement in Author U

Come to the Extravaganza - Special rate for LI members Judith Briles Author & Publishing Expert, The Book Shepherd, Corporate Blogger, Founder of Author U group on LinkedIn, Keynote Speaker AuthorU has its annual 3-day author and publishing conference next month, September 15-17. A special discount code has been created for all members of local groups 1. There is breaking news about the 2016 AuthorU Extravaganza I want to share … and we want you to immediately act on—time is running out. Book Marketing Expert John Kremer is doing the Deep Dive workshop just for you on Thursday—imagine, two hours with a man who has mentored authors in selling MILLIONS of books! 2. AuthorU has created a killer pricing deal that you should not miss for you because you are one of my followers for my posts and blogs. First, the AuthorU Extravaganza: 1. The theme this year is Daring Greatly. We ’ve assembled the “best of the best” to take you and your book to soaring heights of publishing and marketing success. There are 25 exceptional experts and presenters ready to share a “no-holds-back” information and advice including Carolyn Howard-Johnson with tons of frugal tips for you. 2. Book Marketing Expert John Kremer will be doing a very, very special Deep Dive Dinner Workshop on Thursday, September 15th. John’s classic, 1001 Ways to Market Your Book is launching with an all new edition and updated. If you want insider book marketing tips, you can’t afford to miss this remarkable session. Be the first to get the new book at the Extravaganza. John has shown authors how to dare greatly for years; he has mentored authors who have sold over a billion books and is founder of the Billion Book Initiative to help the next generation of book authors sell another billion books. Are you ready to Dare Greatly and be part of this next generation? 3. All sessions are General Sessions on Friday and Saturday, all —you don’t have to worry about “choices” … you hear it ALL. 4. Ask the Experts and Pick Their Brains. You have questions—all our speakers are Experts. One thing many wanted was more time to mix with the speakers. Ask the Experts (our speakers) takes place during lunch when you will have at least one speaker/expert at your table PLUS you can book individual time throughout Friday and Saturday. Ask the Experts and Pick Their Brains are open to all attendees and includes lunch. 5. Evening Reception. On Friday after Rounds with the Pros before our gourmet dinner (and we do mean gourmet), Ingram Spark is hosting a reception for attendees and speakers. Building community is important to authors—your growing network is invaluable to your success. This is open to all attendees. 6. Call the hotel and reserve your room at a special reduced rate. Right now, rates are posted online through the “hotel discount” sites at $184. You get $119 PLUS free parking, which saves an additional $13 per day. There is a free shuttle if you are flying into Denver International Airport (DIA). Call the Renaissance Denver Stapleton Hotel at 303-399-7500 and ask for the AuthorU rate. Second, the Killer Pricing deal for Colorado authors and writers: I’ve been given a special coupon code that will SAVE $270 off of the three-day Extravaganza registration. This is HUGE! BUT … you must act NOW. This is good until September 1. Click on the link below to take you to Registration page: (for members and nonmembers—click on the nonmember rate if link is broken) http://www.secureinfossl.com/carts/shopping_cart/oneClickProductBuy/6f382b315cd5927caf706e4e15ea8d68/0 You will note it has $545 for full registration (Thursday Deep Dive through Saturday afternoon) … we will add in the Eagle or Eaglet Thursday Day sessions, another $75 value). Complete it and click Next Step. Then, enter AUSP2016 code … You will be charged $350, a terrific rate, just for YOU! You save $270. If you want to really make a mark in publishing and be successful, come to the Extravaganza! Respond Now View

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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 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 .

So How DO You Get Your Book on Amazon When Your Publisher Forgets?

Sometimes I include questions and letters I get in the Letters-to-the-Editor feature of my #SharingwithWriters newsletter so that all my subscribers can benefit from others. Sometimes--when the question comes from an author who wants me to link their question to their book or online bookstore page, I do that. Sometimes--like this one--they're anonymous.

QUESTION

Carolyn:

"How do I get the book posted on Amazon.com? My other books just magically appeared there."

ANSWER: 

I get this question in one form another from my newsletter subscribers, my clients, and my blog visitors but almost never from those who have (and read!) my The Frugal Book Promoter. That's because I believe in the power of Amazon so thoroughly that I included an entire section of the magical things that Amazon.com does for books and authors. Still, I don't mind answering the question many times:

Dear Rebecca:

One of the beauties of having a publisher is that one doesn't have to worry about this--publishers, including subsidy publishers--do this for you--or should do this for you!

 However, I happen to know the secret. I learned it by joining e-groups and talking to fellow authors.  It is my belief that the more any author knows about publishing, the better off she is--the better partner she makes for her editor, publisher, or going it on her own (sort of the best partner you can be for yourself). 

Also know that when your book starts selling well on Amazon, other online bookstores begin to pick it up without you doing a thing.

But right now, in this minute, you can get help by going to the AuthorConnect (along with some other names like AuthorCentral) program on Amazon and/or the Advantage program and use the contact links to get help directly from Amazon. When you Google “Amazon” you get a list of links that take you to specific places. One of the above is sure to be right for your particular needs.

At one point the first edition of The Frugal Book Promoter was on Harvard University's online bookstore! Yep, just like magic. But there is a whole list of things you can do to help get that kind of exposure on Amazon and I share those secrets in second edition of The Frugal Book Promoter (http://bit.ly/FrugalBookPromo) and share the new things they do (like Kindle's new pre-sale program) on this blog and in my newsletter as they are introduced. 

And here's the best thing: Those resources are all free for starving (or frugal!) authors.

Best,

Carolyn Howard-Johnson
Multi award-winning novelist, poet, and author's advocate.
http://howtodoitfrugally.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 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 .

Second Edition Blues? Here's an Amazon Tip

This is one of my favorite tips from my SharingwithWriters newsletter that always features tips; a subscription also includes an annual AllTips edition. You may subscribe and get a freebie book on wordtrippers at http://howtodoitfrugally.com.

 

If you have a book now in its second edition (or later) and haven’t been able to get Amazon to remove the first edition from its site to assure that your readers get the updated book, Amazon now offers a widget that directs readers to the buy page for the first edition. You can see how they did this for my Frugal Book Promoter at http://www.amazon.com/The-Frugal-Book-Promoter-Publisher/dp/193299310X/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1371782561&sr=8-2&keywords=the+frugal+book+promoter . You access help through your AuthorConnect (also called AuthorCentral) page, https://authorcentral.amazon.com/gp/landing?ie=UTF8&*Version*=1&*entries*=0 . By the way, the new edition of The Frugal Book Promoter is at http://budurl.com/FrugalBkPromo.

 

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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 .

Book Promotion: A Book for Writers with "Enduring Value"

The Frugal Book Promoter, second edition
Carolyn Howard-Johnson
HowToDoItFrugally Publishing
Author's Web site: www.carolynhoward-johnson.com
ISBN: 9781463743291,

$17.95

Available: Paperback on Amazon

Kindle on Amazon

 

Reviewed by Jim Cox, Editor of The Midwest Book Review
Originally for the Midwest Book Review and newsletter

Carolyn Howard-Johnson draws upon her many years of experience and expertise as a professional book publicist and marketing specialist to author "The Frugal Book Promoter". The 416-page compendium of commentary, advice, tips, tricks and 'real world' techniques on how to authors can obtain nearly free publicity on your own or by partnering with their publishers will prove to be an invaluable, practical, profitable, and thoroughly 'user friendly' instructional reference.

 

 It should be noted that the Midwest Book Review is cited four times. Of special note in this newly expanded and completely updated second edition are the sample letters query letters, media releases, blog entries, trade show invitations, phone pitch scripts, email auto-signatures, and tip sheets.

 

Simply stated, The Frugal Book Promoter is the single most valuable addition any aspiring author or novice small press publishers can add to their personal and professional book marketing reference shelves -- and has a great deal of enduring value for even the more experienced publisher marketing directors and publicists.

 

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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:

FREE Amazon Secrets in Return for a Favor

Authors love to hate Amazon.com. Trouble is, we can't thrive without it. Sadly most authors and even publishers don't know how to effectively use the features Amazon offers -- especially the trick to achieving bestselling ratings.
Luckily, Aggie Villaneuva learned that stuff the hard way -- and she achieved two category bestsellers in 2010, each book in three separate categories! She freely shares that knowledge with us in her TWO white paper reports in ONE, "How Choosing Kindle Categories Wisely Got me Two Best Sellers This Year." Plus "How to Gain Bestseller Status in Amazon’s Print Bookstore Too."
Miraculously, (because Aggie is a peach!)  I'm offering it at no charge to authors willing to help other authors learn even more about the writing and publishing world by subscribing to my Sharing with Writers newsletter. One report for the author who recommends my newsletter. Another for the author who signs up. It doesn't get any better than that!

To qualify for this double gift, put SUBSCRIBE-FREE "AMAZON Secrets" REPORT in the subject line of an e-mail and send it to HoJoNews@aol.com. In the window of the e-mail, list the e-mail address of the recommending author and the new subscriber. Both authors will get an e-copy of Aggie's report back in their e-mail boxes. Easy as that!

PS: You'll also find the section on using Amazon in my The Frugal Book Promoter useful. Amazon isn't perfect but they are trying to be author friendly. And, I have to say, they've never been late with a royalty payment. Authors can't always say that about their publishers, can they? (-:











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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:

10 Marketing Myths That Can Kill Your Book and Career (And Their Remedies!)

Here are excuses many authors use not to promote, killers all. Each includes advice that will help a writer salvage his book and career from wrong thinking.

 "My book is doing well enough. My career is on an upturn. I can easily take a year off from promoting to write." Advice: Cut back if you must but slot in some time to keep the efforts you've already made at least at a simmer.

 "I hear everyone is cutting back on promotion so why shouldn't I?" Advice: Didn't your mother ever ask you, "If Johnny jumped off a cliff, would you do it, too?" Look at those authors. If they're selling lots of books, it's because somebody (their publisher, bookstores, their publicists) is promoting them. I'll bet, though, that most of the authors saying this aren't selling very many. Look at your situation. If you don't do it, who will do it for you?

 "I like Carolyn's Frugal Book Promoter idea so I'm going to only do things that cost no money at all." Advice: Hey! Frugal is one thing. Cheap is another. Some of the best things you can do cost some money. An example is American Booksellers Association Advance Access program. Find it at www.bookweb.org. Careful though. Always weigh the "rightness" of any program for your particular book.

 "I'm gong to examine everything I'm doing and only continue what I can prove is working." Advice: You may not be able to prove much, if anything. That's not the way marketing works. Judge how well your entire campaign is going only after you have given it plenty of time to work. If one thing is working well, maybe it is because your title or name is being seen elsewhere. Balance your campaign, yes. Try new things, yes. Cut back on a few only if you must. Keep in mind that book sales are not necessarily the most valid way to evaluate your promotion.

 "Nothing I've tried works. I'm giving up." Advice. You may be on the brink. Or maybe you've been giving up on each aspect of your campaign too early. Any marketing plan must be many-pronged, frequent and long-term.

 "If I cut back on promotion and find my sales slipping, I can always gear up again." Advice: Yikes! Good publicity and promotion build. It's like skipping rocks on a pond. With each stone, ripples wave out, out, out. Eventually, after you've skipped lots and lots of stones, the results start coming back to you in waves. If you stop whipping those stones into the water, the results dissipate. It will take a long time to get enough stones dancing across the water again to match what you've done and, once you lose momentum, you may never get it back.

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson is the author of 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 an Amazon Short, "The Great First Impression Book Proposal: Everything You Need To Know To Sell Your Book in 20 Minutes or Less." Learn more at www.howtodoitfrugally.com.

Harlequin Author June Shaw Dishes on Keeping Her Book Alive

June Shaw is an advertiser on my website, www.howtodoitfrugally.com (see the home page and others). Because she is traditionally published, her book is no longer available on its publisher's website so we got into a conversation about keeping a book alive even with certain rights restrictions. She shares with you here:



Keeping Your Book Alive
by June Shaw

Some publishers put an author’s book out for one or two months and then that’s it. The story you’ve created and worked on for possibly years could be gone. I’ve been fortunate enough to have my debut book in print, Relative Danger, stay alive and keep doing well.

Five Star bought my humorous mystery and published it in hardcover in December, 2006. After Relative Danger was out and receiving great reviews, I offered it to Harlequin Worldwide. They bought reprint direct-to-consumer rights; thus they reprinted my book in paperback in December 2007 and sold it to their mystery book club members and on their website. I checked into large-print, especially since Relative Danger features a spunky young grandma with attitude and her hunky sometimes-ex lover. A few months later Wheeler put out a large-print edition, which kept it alive even longer.

While enjoying the fruits of all of these printings and various looks to my book, I sold Five Star the second book in the series. Killer Cousins. It will be out in January. Along the way I also checked into audio rights. Books in Motion recently sent me a contract to make Relative Danger an audio book within the next few months.

Even with all of the various rights I’ve sold to Relative Danger, I still own mass market rights. I do not have an agent. By studying The Frugal Book Promoter soon after I made the first sale, I discovered that a book doesn’t have to die soon after a publisher puts it out. I created my baby. I am in charge of nurturing it to make certain it thrives. (Of course readers who love it help, too: ))
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The author of this article is June Shaw, www.juneshaw.com. She is the author of Relative Danger. Metsy Hingle says it is "all-heart, humor and suspense.” Shaw's second in the series, Killer Cousins, is coming in January.

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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 and AuthorsCoalition.blogspot.com, a blog that helps writers and publishers turn a ho-hum book fair booth into a sizzler.

Seven Easy Ways to Keep Dialogue Sharp

This blog post is a bit of a celebration. Apparently this month Sharing with Writers blog was named to Writers Digest 101 Best Resources or something similar. I am being vague because I haven't seen; I've only heard about it from friends who are happy to pass on good news. So, I got to thinking that people might want to know something of the kind of fare they will find on my other blog, The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor at www.thefrugaleditor.blogspot.com. You'll find articles there, questions and answers and lots of discussions on the differences between rules and style choices.

Seven Easy Ways to Keep Dialogue Sharp

By Carolyn Howard-Johnson
Author of The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success

1. Keep it simple. "He said" and "She said" will usually do. Your reader is trained to accept this repetition.

2. Forget you ever heard of strong verbs. Skip the "He yelped" and the "She sighed." They slow your dialogue down. If you feel need them, look at the words—the actual dialogue— your character used when he was yelping. Maybe it doesn't reflect the way someone would sound if he yelped. Maybe if you strengthen the dialogue, you can ditch the overblown tag.

3. When you can, reveal who is saying something by the voice or tone of the dialogue. That way you may be able to skip tags occasionally, especially when you have only two people speaking to one another. Your dialogue will ring truer, too.

4. Avoid having characters use other characters' names. In real life, we don't use people's names in our speech much. We tend to reserve using names for when we're angry or disapproving or we just met in a room full of people and we're practicing out social skills. Having a character direct her speech to one character or another by using her name is a lazy writer's way of directing dialogue and it will annoy the reader. When a reader is annoyed, she will not be immersed in the story you are trying to tell.

5. Avoid putting internal dialogue in italics. Trust your reader. She will know who is thinking the words from the point of view of the narrative.

6. Be cautious about using dialogue to tell something that should be shown. It doesn't help much to transfer telling from the narrator to the dialogue. It just makes the character who is speaking sound long winded. Putting quotation marks around exposition won't draw the reader into the scene or involve him more than if you'd left it part of the narrative.

7. And magic number seven is, don't break up dialogue sequences with long or overly frequent blocks of narrative. One of dialogue's greatest advantages is that it moves a story along. If a writer inserts too much stage direction, it will lose the forward motion and any tension it is building.

For more on writing dialogue check out Tom Chiarella's Writing Dialogue (Writers' Digest) and for more on editing in general—from editing query letters to turning unattractive adverbs into metaphoric gold—find The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success (Red Engine Press) on Amazon.
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Carolyn Howard-Johnson is an instructor for the UCLA Extension Writer's Program. The first book in her HowToDoItFrugally Series of books, The Frugal Book Promoter, won USA Book News' Best Professional Book Award and Book Publicists of Southern California's Irwin Award. The second, The Frugal Editor, is also a USA Book News winner as well as a Reader Views Litary Award winner and the campaign for that book was named Best Marketing by the New Generation Indie Awards committee. It includes many editing tips on dialogue, the use of quotation marks and more. Learn more at www.howtodoitfrugally.com . This article is available for republishing on the Articles4Writers,Editors page.

So What's With All the Online Marketing Talk?

Learning from the Big Boys and Girls and Vice Versa

In my AllMarketing edition of Sharing with Writers* you saw lots of talk about e-books and online marketing. I hope you aren't still giving e-books the squint-eye. I'm pretty sure I've convinced you that online marketing is as important, if not more important (because of its reach and because of its no-cost or low cost)) and if I haven't, all this news from the likes of Borders, HarperCollins,in that issue should have convinced you. These big guys (gals?) should have been the leaders. Instead books like The Frugal Book Promoter (first published in 2004) have been. That's OK. At least we're all getting onto the same page!

So, even if you're not convinced yet that you should publish your book as an e-book if for no other reason than that some people WANT to buy it that way and that one person who passes your book because it's not available on Sony Reader or Kindle or just as a plain old .pdf on your publisher's website, might be a director or producer who would have read your book on a plane, fallen in love with it and decided to offer you a contract. If that doesn't sound good to you, far be it from me to try to convince you -- even those of you who write literary novels or short stories.

Still, here are some other e-adventures you could take with your book.

1 Publish it as a .pdf to be given as a small add-on purchase with that bouquet of roses florists' (or some other commercial) sites at Mothers Day or Valentines. That's what Magdalena Ball and I did with Cherished Pulse, our book of unsyrupy love poetry. Find it now free at www.authorscoalitionandredenginepress.com/free_ebooks.htm.

2. Use a small e-book as a promotion device. Soon to come is my The Ultimate Frugal (FREE) Booklet on Editing: Get Zero-Tolerance Editors to Look at Your Manuscript, a list of common and errors easily overlooked during the editing process. It's sort of an addendum to The Frugal Editor: Put YOur Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success. I haven't decided how to get this booklet to you. Free with purchase? An under $5. retail? A gift-with-purchase using a code when people buy my books at fairs and speaking venues? All of the above? Stephen King tried it a couple of years ago and gave up. He was to far ahead of the curve, I guess.

3. E-publish your book chapter-by-chapter on your site or as a blog. No ch ^ rge or a small charge. To build loyalty and interest in your other books. This is especially a good idea if you have an early novel that hasn't been published and needs some sprucing up.

4. E-publish excerpts from your book on your blog or on your website -- free. One chapter at a time. When you try this idea (I've not tested it), remove the former chapter when you put up the next. I think this might work especially well for a book that has been out there awhile and is losing steam. Or as prepublicity for a book that won't be out for some time. Those who come in late will buy your book to get the early chapters. Those who come in late will visit your site every single time a new chapter is posted and become loyal fans. You know they will!

Read Kathe Goglewski's free e-book that will soon be released at www.tri-studio.com. It's full of Out of the Box promotion deas including some e-ideas. All the ideas in it were winners of her first annual Out of the Box promotion ideas contest.

*Subscribe with the automatic signup window in the left column of this blog or send me an e-mail at HoJoNews@aol.com with "SUBSCRIBE" in the subject line.

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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.

A Little Nudge on Branding for the Recession

It seems the term "branding" is moving from marketing jargon into the nation's general vocabulary. An article in Time (April 14th issue, 2008) looks at the Pope's "long fascination with America and how it is shaping his vision for the world." It refers to "the democratic, pluralistic values that constitute (on our good days) the American brand."

An article on Pope Benedict seems a rather odd place to be seeing this marketing term, don't you think? The thing is, minds everywhere are turning to branding as we move into recession (whether it is an actual economic guru-sanctioned recession or one that many of us are feeling in the gut and pocketbook is really immaterial).

Speaking of branding and recessions, I might mention that in bad times it is often a product's or business's successful branding that helps carry them across the dangerous economic times to even greater loyalty when better days return. YOU, the author, are what you brand. Your book is only a sub-brand for you may write many books in many different genres -- if not now, then eventually. So, now is not the time to let down your branding efforts. Luckily, we have the Internet now so we can continue to brand ourselves very inexpensively.

This is your nudge to go for it! Don't just read The Frugal Book Promoter. Read lots of book. Add John Kremer's 1001 Ways to Market Your Book to your library. Add one of Peter Bowerman's Well-Fed Writer books to your purchase. The Frugal Editor is also about marketing for editing -- especially the editing of your query letter, is an author's first marketing offense, their introduction to gatekeepers who can make or break their writing careers. and when you're buying these books, do it frugally. Buy second hand or group your purchases on Amazon to avoid shipping costs and taxes. (-:
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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.

Sound Authors Let's Authors Sound Off

The release below is from a radio show I will be appearing on Friday. Followers of this blog will want to know about it to query for spots of their own but also because they frequently feature authors with ideas and information about the publishing industry and that fits in with my mantra, we need to learn everything we can about the business we're in! (-: I'll be appearing this Friday.


OPENPRESS) March 19, 2008 -- Each Friday at 1PM Eastern Standard Time, Sound Authors radio show features live interviews and readings from all varieties of authors, known and not-yet-known; all soon-to-be bestselling authors from all walks of life, from Hollywood actors to marathoners, to PhD therapists or life coaches. On this talk radio show, it is the story that counts. Authors sound off on every possible topic, from cuisine to culture, and from nature to nurture.

The show also podcasts each interview separately, and all archived podcasts can be searched from the Sound Authors website at www.soundauthors.com.

The first author guest this week will be writer Saul Silas Fathi, author of Full Circle: Escape from Baghdad and the Return. The book chronicles a prominent Iraqi Jewish family's escape from persecution through the journey of one family member: A 10-years old boy who witnesses public hangings and the 1941 Krystalnacht (Farhood) in Baghdad.

The second guest featured on the show will be author and video producer Jessica Kizorek, she has written a timely book that simplifies the process of producing and distributing video on the Internet titled Show Me: Marketing with Video on the Internet. It explores the nature of the online video channel, and guides readers through practical avenues of utilizing a medium that has become a driving force in the marketing world.

The musical guest for the show this week will be legendary jazz vocalist Jimmy Scott. His career has spanned nearly sixty years, and in that time he has performed with such artists as Charlie Parker, Ray Charles, as well as a host of musicians from other genres of music, such as David Byrne, Lou Reed and Michael Stipe.

Tune in next week, March 28th, to the live show or podcast to hear Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of The Frugal Book Promoter. She will share her professional experience as well as practical tips from the successes of her own book campaigns. She is an award-winning author of both fiction and nonfiction and former publicist for a New York PR firm and a marketing instructor for UCLA's Writers' Program.

Sound Authors radio show each week is replete with authors from around the country and around the world, each telling their tales, from self-help to fiction, children’s books to thrillers, how-to books to corporate guidebooks. Original music is also featured, along with up-and-coming bands and singer-songwriters. Listen for musician interviews and fresh music each week! No need to run out to your nearest bookstore to find the next great book or CD. Tune in to Sound Authors every Friday at 1PM EST on World Talk Radio. Or check out any of the interviews on the web – they are all podcasted within a day or two of the interview. Sound Authors - where authors sound off.

Sound Authors Host Dr. Kent Gustavson’s background is in music, but his career has been in publishing. He is the owner of an independent book publisher, and a publishing consultant around the world. His many CDs and his book are available from his website online, or through the Sound Authors website.

Sound Authors
World Talk Radio Network
Voice America Network
Modavox

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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.

Q&A a la Ann Landers: Book Trailers ™, Videos and Your Book

Question: Do you think videos, movies and the like actually help book sales? Or generated more interest in your books?

Answer: I'm repeating my old refrain here, I know. But videos, like any other kind of promotion, will only work as hard as you work it. A few stragglers will find a video if you post it and that's not necessarily a bad thing but a few stragglers are not enough to warrant the effort and the expense (I'm the FRUGAL book promoter, remember?). But if you let people know about your trailer or video in the thousands of ways one might do that, it can certainly help you with exposure and that's part of your branding and branding--if not sooner then later--eventually leads to sales.(-:

Even if you promote your trailer or video, it must still be a part of a frequent and long term campaign. You might want to see the one that was just done for me by Rey Ybarra on the home page of www.howtodoitfrugally.

One of my online pals Nikki Leigh, listmom to WelcometoReadersStation@yahoogroups.com, noted that it seems a bit redundant to have to promote what you produced to promote. It does, doesn't it! But here are ways to utilize your videos or moving collages or whatever without spending a lot of time doing it. Let's call them passive promotions of your video:

1. Post them in places that your readers will visit anyway:
 Your website
 Your blogs
 Your social networks (like Shelfari and Facebook)

2. Give them to people who promote for you:
 Your publisher(s)
 The editors of websites that interview you or use your articles

3. The obvious place that most people are using for their videos, YouTube will get more visits if you:
 Include the URL for it in your e-mail autosignature
 Include the URL for it everywhere you do anything, all the places listed above, maybe even the taglines in the freelance articles to write and more.

4. Use them on computer and TV screens when you speak, sign books or do other events.

Do you have any other ideas our readers could use to passively promote videos? Let's hear about them in the comments below.
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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.

Amazon Connects You and Me

One of my most recent AmazonConnects ™ (or plog or blog) is about generations and genealogy and writing. I am as hesitant to tell you for sure that AmazonConnect works to sell books as I am most kinds of promotion. The fact is there is always way too little proof of results. One thing I do know! Taken all together, promotion works. And what better way to promote than by writing? And what better way to promote than to target people who read and particularly the people who read your kind of books.

This plog starts:

"Fascination with generations is like tulips. It flares up periodically, dies back and flourishes again. Whether or not generations is a topic of current interest with us, our ancestry is always with us -- with some of us more than others, it is true . . . .."

You can finish the article at http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1588513521/ref=cm_arms_pdp_dp/002-3692730-7456014 and you can sign up to receive all my plogs by clicking on the little oval button on the left side of the page. It says, "Add to Your Plog." Heck, you can always delete it when I give you a recipe for my polygamist great grandmother's mustard pickles, but I bet you'll be glad you've got it when I give you tips on promotion (scroll down the AuthorConnect section page for a review of those!)

And what about your plog? Know that the longer you wait to start one, the sorrier you'll be. Amazon's plog is a way to reach people who want to know about you.
 This is a way to try stuff out to see if it works.
 This is a way to fill out your book's page on Amazon. You know, make you look like an active writer.
 This is a way to build loyalty.
 This is a way to recycle other articles you've written.
 This is a way to help out fellow authors (authors who plog together, promote together--or something like that!).
 It may even be a way to sell books!
And it doesn't cost a cent. A very FRUGAL way to go.

And here's another magic quality of AmazonConnect. You can glean the RSS feeds from them and place them on your website, as an example. I've pasted some of mine in this very blog. Just scroll to the bottom of the blog to see how it works and no, I haven't figured out how to rid them of the html code introducing each one. A little at a time, here, OK?