Sharing a Christmas Poem with a Tidbit for Promoting Poetry

To celebrate the season, I thought I’d share with you one of my short poems from the chapbook Blooming Red coauthored with Magdalena Ball called “Arizona’s Christmas Card.” You’ll see the title of the chapbook came from a line in the poem.

Abdomen and thorax green
bubbles or two emerald cabochons,
his legs like rose bush twigs,
grey, beige, thorned. A green lynx
spider rappels between spikes
of Cholla blooming red.

                                                Carolyn Howard-Johnson ©

PS: Please note that one of the ways to promote poetry is to give away one that somehow fits with the theme of a blog or other media. Be sure to include contact information and a buy link for the book or blogsite where it was published! If  you would like one of my seasonal poem to bring a little holiday sensibility to your efforts, just send me an e-mail at hojonews@aol.com. You can also use this one with a credit for Magadalena's and my Christmas chapbook from our Celebration Series. Learn more about other chapbooks in the series at http://howtodoitfrugally.com/poetry_books.htm
.  
And have a wonderful holiday season. 
With thanks for your loyalty to this SharingwithWriters blog.

Carolyn

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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 .

NOW Is the Time to Plan Holiday Book Sales

So many authors I work with don't realize that great holiday marketing doesn't start in December or November, though some things can certainly be done then. I was pleased to see that Terry Doherty planned a webinar and workshop to help you jumpstart your campaign. Just in time! She says:

 

So have you thought about YOUR sales campaigns for the season? Waiting until October or November isn’t an option. Designing and implementing a successful strategy takes planning. The Mom's Choice Awards (MCA) Academy has launched a new class on Social Media Marketing that is open to all  small businesses, independent creators, and entrepreneurs. There are just a few class opportunities left this month: a webinar on September 18, and 2-part workshops on September 9 & 11 or September 19 & 23.

All students will receive a Social Media Action Plan. This is a set of three spreadsheets that are pre-loaded with so much detail you can get your marketing campaign planned and executed within a day.   Here's what the Social Media Action Plan includes ...

• Objective Planner – A customizable worksheet that allows you to match your marketing goal with the social media platform that best facilitates its success. It works well for individuals or teams, ensuring that everyone stays on message and on task.
• Calendar Planner – Where the Objective Planner is focused on the “big picture,” the Calendar Planner is designed for laying out your marketing message. You can see how much your posting – and what you’re saying – for every platform you use.
• Metrics & Measurement – Running the campaign isn’t enough. You want need to know how effective your work was and whether or not something needs to be tweaked the next time around. This worksheet helps you through the data collection and analysis process.

Learn more and get registration information at http://honoreeblog.momschoiceawards.com/#sthash.NHcNkTA6.dpuf

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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 .

Free Christmas Promotion Idea for About Anything Christmasy!

If you have a Christmas product (book), story, poem, cookbook, or artwork, you're going to love ChristmasDaddy.com. This tip will go in the December 18 issue of my SharingwithWriters newsletter, but I didn't want to make my blog subscribers and visitors wait.  What a way to drive traffic to your Web site.

PS: You just knew I couldn't send out a newsletter without a marketing tip in it, right? This is an example of how you can use a free service from ChristmasDaddy.com: http://www.christmasdaddy.com/christmas-news/north-pole-press/Poetry_for_Christmas.shtml. It's an example of how my poetry partner Magdalena Ball and I used it to promote our Christmas chapbook Blooming Red (http://amzn.to/BloomingRedKind ).

 

Christmas Daddy says: "Advertise for FREE! Submit an article for either Christmas Stories, Christmas Recipes, Christmas Decorating, or Christmas Event Ideas and we will place your article with links back to your site or charity site you designate. You can even submit a banner ad to be placed with your article. Click here to get the details. http://www.christmasdaddy.com/christmas-article-submission.html ."

BTW, if you'd like to subscribe to my free SharingwithWriters newsletter, put SUBSCRIBE in the subject line of an e-mail and send it to HoJoNews (at) AOL (dot) com.  I'll subscribe for you.


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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 .

Holiday Events, Retailers, and Your Book

 

I’m trying to get my Christmas shopping done. I’m even getting boxes ready to ship to people who live out of town (or in LA, across town!). That may sound nutty, but it’s a longstanding habit and one that came in very handy when I was in retailing and found November and December exhausting months. This holiday season is so important to retailers. Did you know that many retailers don’t break even for the year until about December 4^th. Thus their year’s entire profit must be made in less than 30 days?  That means the holidays are a great time for book sales...and for approaching a retailer with a profit-making event idea.

This same early-bird habit has worked for me as a writer too. Anyone with published books is, in fact, a retailer. Not exclusively, but they are whenever they’re selling books at seminars they’re speaking at, when they’re selling books from their own Web site, and when they’re promoting (retailers—even online retailers—must promote!). 

It goes to reason that the more we understand retailing, the better retailers we’ll be. But it’s even more important that this knowledge can be used to partner with retailers like bookstores and alternative retail situations where your book can be sold. Stand in a retailer’s shoes, and you’ll better understand how to let him or her know how you and your book can make a difference for them. May I suggest some of my own retail books (http://howtodoitfrugally.com/retailers_books.htm)?

I especially recommend the one for retailers on planning in-store events. Authors and books are mentioned in it as a way to up a retailer's profits. (-:. But if you substitute "author" for "retailer" here you'll be able to apply much to your own event marketing and you'll certainly benefit when you pitch an event to retailer. You'll be able to talk their language (language like "p-r-o-f-i-t-s").

 Find it here: http://budurl.com/RetailersGuide. You could even quote me in your pitch!

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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 ediction of, The Frugal Book Promoter: How to get nearly free publicity on your own or by partnering with your publisher; The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success; and Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers . The Great First Impression Book Proposal is her newest booklet for writers. She has three FRUGAL books for retailers including A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques. Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use the little Green widget to let them know about this blog:

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:

A Holiday Video Resource for Writers

This is like an early holiday gift for you authors who subscribe or follow this blog. As you know, I try to give you resources, especially frugal ones! (-: So here is a service offered by Aggie Villaneuva at Promotion a la Carte.  

The little video she just made for a group of her clients is at the top of this blog. Fun, huh?  She also everything she does like crazy. On her Web site and on her social networks.

If you would like to help spread the word to your author friends, you can pick up the html code at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDZYjFErRlU


Whether you choose a promotion like this for the holiday season or some other, I hope you will  promote!

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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.

A Gift for You and Example of a Holiday Promotion. . .

. . . all rolled into one. So, here is a gift for everone, but for writers it's two gifts because it's also an idea for your holiday promoiton.

I am participating in Recipes and Writing 2008 compiled by Gregory A. Kompes (www.kompes.com) for Fabulist Flash Publishing. It includes recipes, stories, essays and poems and TaDa!! recipes from authors.

Yes, it's a gift from Writerpreneur Gregory and those of us who contributed, but it is also an example of a wonderful cross promotion that you might try. Those of you who have known me for a long time will remember Cooking by the Book. Find it at http://www.authorscoalitionandredenginepress.com/free_ebooks.htm along with other free e-books. This is a concept much like Cooking by the Book, and that one has served some of my promotional needs for years now. This one will, too!

You'll find it Recipes and Writing 2008 here, http://www.kompes.com/RecipesandWriting2008.pdf, but you can also just e-mail me (HoJoNews@aol.com) and I'll send you the pdf, especially if you'd like to use it for your own holiday greeting.

We authors will send this book--or one we've produced ourselves-- to friends, family and colleagues and it's better, by far, than a simple card because of recipes like Ben Malisow's Bachelor Steak—Reduce Mess and Impress, Leslie E. Hoffman's Mom's Sweet Potato Pudding and a tribute to my mom, Birdie's Chocolate Cherry Nut Cake with 7 minute "Icing."

Participants will also put it into our newsletters. We'll offer the gift on our blogs (you blog readers are valued colleagues, after all!), or it might be offered as a gift when people buy a book or as an incentive for them to sign up for your newsletter. This year you may use this one, next year you may decide to do something of your own.

PS: You'll find more information on using e-books to promote and the story of how Cooking by the Book came about in something like 2001 in The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't along with lots of ways to use books like this and tips for using them.

CHJ
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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. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at www.TheFrugalEditor.blogspot.com.