Important News: SPAWN Gets New Name, Offers New Opps

To My visitors and subscribers: SPAWN has long been a favorite resource of mine, one I love to support. And now it will be even better!  Here are the details you need to get the most of it in its new designer duds, a media release that does what media releases are supposed to do: Media Release from Kathleen Kaiser, President:  Approaching our 25th year as a national literary nonprofit, the Small Publishers, Artists & Writers Network is changing our name to the Writers and Publishers Network. The change reflects the direction the organization has taken over the last few years of focusing on the needs of writers and small publishers in the digital age of publishing. We still support artists, but our primary members as of now are indie authors, freelance writers, and small publishers, along with book marketers and those offering publishing services such as cover design, interior layout, and more. The original intent of the organization was to be an online group. But twenty-five years ago, that goal wasn’t easy to accomplish. With new online services and educational programs, we hope to expand even more over the next two years. Technology had to catch up with our ideas. The new programs include a series of webinars by top publishing professionals launching in May. Titled WPN Publishing Webinars, topics will cover a wide range of topics on the business of writing, the book marketing element for either indie authors or small publishers. Many genre-specific organizations handle the basics of writing. WPN has transformed into being more about the business of writing. Our focus in the future will be business though we are investigating a series of master classes for the craft of writing. The May issue of SPAWNews introduces the new name and new title for the monthly newsletter, WPNews. The monthly members’ exclusive newsletter – SPAWN Market Update – will feature the new logo and name in May. Writers & Publishers Network’s new website will be live by June 1 at WritersAndPublishersNetwork.com. We will send out an eblast announcing the new site. We planned our introduction to be at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books this month. With the festival rescheduled to October, we will have a significant presence at the show, and all of our graphic materials will be ready. Already we have eighteen authors who will be in the booth over the weekend, most for one full day or both. Other projects launching soon: · Online writing critique groups · Weekly podcasts · Authors Helping Authors – a new program for everyone to join in the promotion of their books and those of other members. Until everyone is familiar with the new name and domain, SPAWN.org will forward visitors to the new website. We hope everyone will take advantage of all the new benefits of membership (discounts on all services, webinars, and events) that more than save the price of membership. If you have any ideas for more things we can offer, please contact me. I'd love to hear your ideas. Kathleen Kaiser President Kathleen@WritersAndPublishersNetwork.com

MORE ABOUT THE BLOGGER

Howard-Johnson is the multi award-wining author of fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry. She is also a marketing consultant, editor, and author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally Series of books for writers including the multi award-winning The Frugal Book Promoter (http://bit.ly/FrugalBookPromoIII), now offered by Modern History Press in its third edition.

Carolyn's latest is in the #HowToDoItFrugally Series of books for writers is How to Get Great Book Reviews Frugally and Ethically. Learn more on her Amazon profile page (http://bit.ly/CarolynsAmznProfile). Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers (http://bit.ly/Last-MinuteEditing) is one of her booklets--perfect for inexpensive gift giving--and, another booklet, The Great First Impression Book Proposal (http://bit.ly/BookProposalsII) helps writers who want to be traditionally published.

The Frugal Editor (http://bit.ly/FrugalEditor), now in its second edition, is the winningest book in the series. Carolyn also has three frugal books for retailers including one she encourages authors to read because it will help them convince retailers to host their workshops, presentations, and signings. It 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 (http://bit.ly/RetailersGuide). In addition to this blog, Carolyn helps writers extend the exposure of their favorite reviews at TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com. She also blogs at all things editing--grammar, formatting and more--at The Frugal, Smart, and Tuned-In Editor (http://TheFrugalEditor.blogspot.com)

#TheFrugalBookPromoter #TheFrugalEditor #BookProposals #BookMarketing #BookPromotion #SharingwithWriters

How To Be Sure Your Tradeshow or Book Fair Appearance is Not a Disappointment

I often encourage my clients to reach a bit farther than one expects from a new author--regardless of their expertise or experience. For one thing, the services available to authors (like spots at in book fair booths) are often bare-bones. The alternative may be to do-it-yourself and even make a profit which can then be used to boost the author's marketing budget for the future. 

I once sponsored book fair booths at the LA TimesFestival of Books with Joyce Faulkner after we started a writers' group called Authors' Coalition.  Slowly and at considerable cost—one year at a time—I learned what works for book fairs, tradeshows, and other public events and what doesn’t. My booth partners and I used tons of value-added promotions including:

• We shared printing and postage costs of catalogs we produced ourselves that featured booth participants’ books and an invitation to the fair. With permission, we used the fair logo to give the catalog credibility. We sent our catalog to book buyers, media, and influentials like movie producers (because that fair is in the middle of Hollywood land). 
• We produced a video/trailer featuring booth participants at an additional charge. The charge made it more likely that our video stars would use it for their blogs, websites, and other promotion both before and after the fair and we ran it on a large screen in our booth.

Note:Because CDs can be produced inexpensively in large quantities, we recycled much of the content we developed for these videos and trailers onto CDs to be given away. A participating author offered our freebies to visitors saying, “A CD for your PC?” Fairgoers rarely declined our offer.

• Books (often overruns or slightly damaged) donated by other authors became gifts-with-purchase of other books from our booth.
• A drawing for a gift basket was successful because it garnered the contact information of many readers. We shared that information with all booth participants, too.
• We produced totes and bags featuring our bookcover images and our booth number. We gave them to folks to carry the books they had purchased from us. These bags then became advertisements for our booth as our customers carried them around the grounds. 
• Some of our booth participants wore T-shirts emblazoned with images of their bookcovers, their website addresses, and our booth number.
• Each participant produced posters that we used to decorate the booth.
• We had mini training sessions for our booth participants in which we urged them to talk up one another’s books, guided them through promotion possibilities and display techniques, and gave them resources for promotion materials.

Authors' Coalition eventually demanded too much of our time, but what we learned promotion possibilities has been useful ever since. We sometimes volunteer one or more of the above promotions in trade for an organization's booth fee. We sometimes consult with organizations who plan booths for their members. And, occasionally, we get permission from booth planners to let us piggyback our for-profit services on their booth plans with a percentage of the sales going back to the originating organization. That's a win-win for everyone. 

MORE ABOUT THE BLOGGER

Carolyn Howard-Johnson brings her experience as a publicist, journalist, marketer, and retailer to the advice she gives in her HowToDoItFrugally Series of books for writers and the many classes 

she taught for nearly a decade as instructor for UCLA Extension’s world-renown Writers’ Program. The books in her HowToDoItFrugally Series of books for writers have won multiple awards. That series includes both the first and second editions ofThe Frugal Book Promoterand The Frugal Editorwhich won awards from USA Book News, Readers’ Views Literary Award, the marketing award from Next Generation Indie Books and others including the coveted Irwin award. How to Get Great Book Reviews Frugally and Ethicallylaunched to rave reviews from Jim Cox, Editor-in-Chief of Midwest Book Reviews and others: 

“How to Get Great Book Reviews Frugally and Ethically[and other books in the series] could well serve as a textbook for a college Writing/Publishing curriculum.”

Howard-Johnson is the recipient of the California Legislature’s Woman of the Year in Arts and Entertainment Award, and her community’s Character and Ethics award for her work promoting tolerance with her writing. She was also named to Pasadena Weekly’s list of “Fourteen San Gabriel Valley women who make life happen” and was given her community’s Diamond Award for Achievement in the Arts. 

                  

The author loves to travel. She has visited eighty-nine countries and has studied writing at Cambridge University in the United Kingdom; Herzen University in St. Petersburg, Russia; and Charles University, Prague. She admits to carrying a pen and journal wherever she goes. Her website iswww.howtodoitfrugally.com

Hot Off Publishers Weekly Presses! LA Times Concedes Indie Store Battle

I rarely post something on my blog before I run it in my SharingwithWriters newsletter but this news is important--something that will give indie authors insight in the battles being fought and won and maybe some ammunition to use when approaching an indie bookstore for a signing or other event (preferably something more than just a signing!)

IN THE NEWS:  Publishers Weekly made a big deal in an article where they touted a “win” for independent booksellers who wrangled a concession from the LA Times Festival of Books to include a buy button supporting local sales of books instead of exclusively linking to Amazon. Of course the LA Times preferred an Amazon button! They are probably part of Amazon's affiliate program and would reap a small percentage of every book sold that way! (Just as we authors can!). Still the indie stores deserve to be treated well considering their support of book fairs in LA and nationally. I just hope they turn that karma around and treat their indie authors well, too—because most chains certainly aren’t doing that. . .  yet!

Here’s the full link to the PW article. Here’s a link in case the embedded one above doesn’t work for you—this news is that important!
 http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/trade-shows-events/article/61376-l-a-times-adds-indiebound-buy-button-for-festival-of-books.html?utm_source=Publishers+Weekly&utm_campaign=c6847f01ca-UA-15906914-1&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_0bb2959cbb-c6847f01ca-304612053


Those of you who would like to subscribe to my newsletter before the next issue comes out may do so at http://howtodoitfrugally.com. The subscription form in in the upper right corner of almost every page of the site and you will received an e-copy of my much-loved Great LIttle Last-Minute Editing Tips for Writers full of wordtrippers and style-choice wisdom.

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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 .

A Bit of a Shock in Book Fair News

Today the LA Times reported that the famous UCLA/LA Times Festival of Book will now be held on the campus of UCLA’s crosstown rival, the University of Southern California. I was associated with that fair several years running and must say that it’s a surprise and that I’m conflicted. I teach at UCLA. My daughter is studying there. My son and I both were graduated from USC. I love both campuses. So, I’m not taking sides.

Still this is a shock. Apparently with budget cuts UCLA couldn’t afford to uphold their portion of the expenses for the fair. An LA Times spokesperson says, “The Times has shared a long, successful history with UCLA and we intend to continue to collaborate with them on other events and projects far into the future.” Spokespersons also tout the advantages of the USC campus including better access from LA’s mass transit systems, in particular their new rail system, and a more central LA location.

For your information this fair attracted 140,000 visitors in 2010.

This notice comes from the regular "In the News" feature in my Sharing with Writers newsletter. Those who would like to subscribe for publishing-related news, tips on writing and promotion and really practical how-to articles may send an e-mail to HoJoNews@aol.com with SUBSCRIBE in the subject line.  



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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:

Best Selling Author TV To Be at LA Times Festival of Books

Big Video News!

Rey Ybarra, the interviewer for the video many of you have seen and commented on is fantastic. So is his cameraman, Randy Detroit, and so is the equipment they use! And so is their knowledge about getting that video out to places that most authors know little about.

They will be filming at the Authors' Coalition booth at the LA Times Fair April 26 and 27th with a special introductory price for videos. I'm hoping lots of authors drop by to see what this team can do for them besides film a really nice video. Learn more at www.bestsellingauthortv.blogspot.com .

Explore the videos they have done there. Check out Rey's amazing past in radio and TV.

There will be more on this opportunity in my newsltter later. You can subscribe by sending me an e-mail at hojonews@aol.com. Use the same e-mail address to make advance appointments or ontact me with questions.
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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.