That Book Inside You? Yes You Can Write it and Publish It. Learn How Free!

I want to remind you that publisher Patrika Vaughn, talented Toastmaster award-winner Allyn Evans and I are teaming up to present a free teleseminar to writers who want to tell their own stories, as memoir or as fiction. Thus it is for genealogists, journalers and story tellers everywhere. It is titled "How To Write Your LIfe Story."

I'll share my experience turning my family's genealogy and stories into my award-winning novel This Is the Place and how I used the leftover stories from that effort in a book of creative nonfiction short stories, Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered. I hope my experiences will inform those inclined to publish their stories but who need more information about how that might come to be. I even used family memories in my chapbook of poetry, Tracings.

Patrika is author of How to Write Your Own Life Story or Your Family's Saga available as a CD set. She will talk about how to turn this material into a book, covering:

1) why you should write it

2) how to go about it (even if you've never before written anything but emails)

3) how to make it interesting to others


The teleseminar will be moderated by Alyn who is also the author of Grab the Queen Power: Live Your Best Life, based on her own experiences.


Writers are invited to listen and come prepared with their questions at noon on July 12th EST . Call 1-218-936-7999. When prompted use this access code: 390175. If asked participants may need this pin number: 2823.

The teleconference will be available as a podcast afterward at :

Authors' Coalition, www.authorscoalitionandredenginepress/podcasts_&_radio.htm
The ACapella Publishing site, www.acapella.com/
Allyn Evans' site, www.allynevans.com
On Allyn's Queen Power site, www.queeenpower.com .
And on Carolyn's Resources for Writers page at www.howtodoitfrugally.com

Those with questions may contact Patrika at acappub@aol.com

The seminar is offered as a service to the writing community through the auspices of Authors' Coalition (www.authorscoalitionandredenginepress.com) and Vaughn's publishing firm, A Cappela Publishing (www.acapella.com).

We three would love it if you could (or would!) pass this information to your fellow writers. How about your fellow critiquers and writing club members? (-:
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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.

Ask Amy Expounds on Family Histories

Only the other day, Amy Dickinson, nationally distributed columnist, was asked why it "so hard to get my parents to write down their stories before it is too late."

Amy, whose column appears in the LA Times's Calendar section, suggests that the child (at whatever age) get involved. She suggests "interviewing them and taping the sessions." She says, "Start by asking them to tell stories you've heard many times before." Then move on to asking about how they met, and other open-ended questions about their earlier lives. She suggests the National Story Corps Project's website www.storycorps.net.

Now, I'm going to tell you something she was telling you indirectly. Stop whining. Get in there and do what it is you want your parents to do. Write down vignettes you were told by your parents, your grandparents, and the ones you tell your kids. Then go one step farther and write down what you didn't tell your kids. Do some genealogy work with your relatives. Once you're doing something yourself, you'll find it easier to enlist them in your project. You'll be inspired. So will they.

My book This Is the Place, would never have been published if I'd waited around for someone else to tell me their stories. I simply used the ones I had been told and wove them with my own. To make a novel of it, I had to embroider a bit and that was lots of fun. You'll never be done once you've started but I promise you will have something to leave generations to come. If I can do it you can do it! This one went on to win several awards.

Ahh, the power of storytelling! You might end up with a book to publish.

If you you want to do that, my other books, the Frugal Editor and the Frugal Book Promoter will help you with that. If you don't, just type them up and stow them with your other valuables. Make a copy for your safe deposit box.

Or go to www.creativememories.com or e-mail Debra Synott (Debra4CM@sbcglobal.net), and she'll get you started on publishing individual books with your stories, books that can even be illustrated with your pictures. You can give them to your parents for Christmas. They'll tell you how you got it all wrong. And then they'll be inspired to do books of their own. Writing is like that.

Maybe later, you'll move on and make a novel out of it. (-: If you don't believe me, ask Amy (askamy@tribune.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.

Q&A: Hate Amazon But Don't Mind Learning to Get Along?

This question came from one of my favorite online egroups, Word_Mage (word_mage-subscribe@yahoogroups.com) listmomed by Billie Williams. One is from a writer who says she loves Amazon and that if she weren't a tree-hugger she'd carve that into the trunk of a big oak. And, of course, she suggests the chapter in the Frugal Book Promoter that talks about the perks Amazon offers.

Then another member was she was really ticked with them because the reviews of her book had gone missing, had even sent them a blistering note. She said she was "as mad a wet hen." So she was glad to see another point of view.

Then another told her to cool it, that sometimes Amazon is just working on stuff and that, like ghosts or fog, they disappear only to reappear in a couple of days. And I commented said that is true. You know how these e-group threads go. (-:

Of course, I still had to chime in with more, a la Ann Landers. So here it is:

Carolyn's Advice:

In the Frugal Book Promoter , I start the chapter with something like "Authors love to hate Amazon and, sometimes, I hate to love them."

The fact is undeniable, though: Amazon can do wonders for writers and that without them -- especially those of us who publish with POD technology (on occasion or exclusively), we are pretty much lost if we intend to do much volume book selling. Collectively, the booksellers certainly aren't going to do it for us.

Therefore we are duty-bound (for the good of our books) to learn Amazon's perks and how to use them effectively. As an example, I am about to take pictures of some of the farm antiques I have from the polygamist grandfather's farm and post them to the This Is the Place page in the photos feature. (This Is the Place is about five generations of hardy Utah women who all married into the Mormon religion and found the hardships inherent in that situation hard to overcome.) It's based on my own genealogy.

So, be mad as a wet kitten, if you want. But keep learning to work within Amazon's system. Let them know where problems exist. Here's how:

 Wait a couple days to see if the problem resolves itself, especially if it involves disappearing features.
 Use their feedback feature to communicate. Do it politely.
 Be persistent if they don't respond.
 When they do they will give you a URL to respond if your question was resolved and another if it wasn't. Use whichever suits the occasion. Know that the one that clues someone (someone apparently higher up on the Amazon totem) that the problem wasn't resolved, gets action quickly but don't use it without good reason.
 Send a thank you.

You want to stay on Amazon's good side. After all, they're just working people like you and me. Approach it that way and you win (and, yes, so do they!)

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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.