Great Writers' Courses--Frugally

I have been intrigued by a new product advertised in magazines like National Geographic, Time, Archaeology and the like. It is a series of courses offered by http://TheGreatCourses.com. All are taught by accredited college or university instructors—mostly colleges we would be familiar with. Their ads always publish a complete list of the individual lecture titles and give the name of the professor. These programs remind me of the ones I took a long time ago; we called them home study courses and everything was done by mail. I can remember typing up my lessons on a typewriter, folding them, and stuffing them into an envelope, licking it, and licking the stamps. Yes! Licking! 

This month the ad featured a course called “Writing Creative Nonfiction.”  I haven’t bought it—yet. The CD course is $49.95 and the DVD is $69.95, so they’re frugal enough. Lots more frugal that most courses from accredited universities. The teacher for this one is a full professor from Colby College. And the name of one of the lectures: “Writing the Gutter—How to Not Tell a Story” caught my attention. I also thought the one called “How To Not Have People Hate You” might intrigue writers who worry—a lot—about that! Perhaps I would pick up some tips for the presentations I do for writers' conferences. 

So, what’s keeping me from ordering the course? So, what is holding me back? Time. I’m still in the final throes of writing the third full book in the HowToDoItFrugally Series. It is How To Get Great Book Reviews Frugally and Ethically: The ins and outs of using free reviews to build and sustain a writing career to be released this fall. I’m through the fun part and am struggling with the Index. So maybe I need a break? What do you think?

BTW, if you are interested in checking this course out, go to http://TheGreatCourses.com/5TME. There may be some other fantastic ones that would interest you. The range of topics that would interest creative people is huge. And, if you buy one, let me know what you think, will you? 

ABOUT YOUR SHARINGWITHWRITERS BLOGGER

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 .

Coke Cake, Marketing, Birthdays, and Your Book

Coca Cola sent me a birthday wish. It is well protected, meaning I can't copy it for you here. But it is a great recipe for a birthday cake that includes 1 Cup Coke.  You should know that this is special fun for me because my father was the manager of a Coke company in Utah and I am  a big Coke fan. But I'm also a fan because Coca Cola is practically the father of great marketing. I borrow their marketing ideas (ideas can't be copyrighted!) all the time. 

Anyway, now I’m thinking of adding a chapter to my memoir using this recipe. The memoir is now being shopped by agent Terrie Wolfe. It is called Here’s How I Don’t Cook. Seems a perfect inspiration, no?

I hope all subscribers and visitors to this blog use this birthday wish idea an example of a great marketing device. How could you use a similar idea by incorporating an ingredient used somewhere in your book as part of a recipe you send to friends and readers on their birthdays as a reminder of your book and as a way to stay connected to them. 

So help me celebrate. Have a piece of virtual Coke Cake and think again about your book promotion. If you do that, it willbe your special gift to me. You know how I love it when authors put on their promotion bonnets! (-: 

PS: If you want to see the recipe in all its glory, subscribe to my newsletter by sending an e-mail to me with SUBSCRIBE in the subject line. HoJoNews@aol.com.  I think the image/recipe is going to come throough in the pdf version of the next issue.


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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:

Guest Columnist Mindy Lawrence Talks About Writing about Loss

 By Mindy Phillips Lawrence


Last week I completed my second reading of Joan Didion’s heart-wrenching book, The Year of Magical Thinking. Didion was married to John Gregory Dunne from 1964 until he died in 2003. She turned away from him for a moment at dinner then turned back and he was gone. How could she write about this tragedy in her life and make it so real it hurt? I think the answer has something to do with her combination of introspection and great writing.

Melodrama is an exaggeration of plot, character and story designed to heighten emotions. In The Year of Magical Thinking, Didion did not heighten emotions. She tried to understand the reality of loss, break down the components and analyze them. In many ways, this analysis made the story even more tragic. It’s what we do when we try to understand the non-understandable. We try to apply reason to the unreasonable.


When you write about loss, think about the entire package that someone goes through when such an event occurs. Elizabeth Kübler-Ross model first introduced the stages of grief in her 1969 book, On Death and Dying. If you have a character facing loss, make sure to include these steps in his or her evolution. But do it creatively. Don’t go overboard or you will wind up with a melodrama instead of a sensitive, heartbreaking story.
Another good resource on writing about loss is a book by Zen Buddhist Joan Halifax called Being with Dying: Cultivating Compassion and Fearlessness in the Presence of Death. The author gathered information from over 40 years of working with the dying and wrote the book as part of her course on training those working in hospice.


Writing is also a method of healing when someone must deal with the loss of a loved one. By learning how writing can help in recovery, an author can also learn how to use this information to help a character deal with grief.


I hope you have no need to use writing as a cure. I do hope you use this information to make your stories more believable.




LINKS


Kubler-Ross Model – Five Stages of Grief

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C3%BCbler-Ross_model


Joan Halifax – Being with Dying

http://www.upaya.org/bwd/

The Healing Power of the Pen

http://www.oneyearofwritingandhealing.com/one_year_writing_and_heal/2006/11/grief_loss_reco.html

Ginny’s Fiction Writing Blog

http://fictionwriting.about.com/b/2009/11/16/writing-and-loss.htm


~ Mindy Phillips Lawrence, www.freewebs.com/mplcreative, is the author of the poetry collections One Blue Star and Above and Below. She is co-author of The Complete Writer and a publicist and literary agent. She is in the process of researching a novel titled Alone is Where We Begin. Blogging at: http://mplcreative.blogspot.com/ .

Her specialty is helping writers with their media releases. Reach her at mplcreative1@aol.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 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:

Journaling, Memoir, Fiction, History and Promotion for YOUR Book

Those of you who drop by regularly or subscribe to this blog know that one of the reasons I'm a shamesless promoter is that I know my resources can be your resources, too.

So, this blog is dedicated to Paul Bruno, The History Czar. He recently interviewed me for his show. We talked about my family history and how it inspired my multi award-winning novel, This Is the Place.

Listen to the interview at http://www.careerczar.com/mp3/career030510.mp3 .

And here's the benefit to you (other than the brilliant interview, of course!). Contact Paul if you can find a history slant in your own book! He's at PaulBruno@cs.com and he and his producer are tons of fun to work with. You'll see what I mean when you listen to the podcast. (-:
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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 .

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

Obama's Half Brother To "Self Publish"

A news story in the LA Times (Page A32, Thursday, Nov 5) caught my attention.

The reclusive half brother of President Obama has written a memoir. I hadn't read much about this man before and I was fascinated by his accomplishments, but the part of the story that caught my eye was this:

Mark Okoth Obama Ndesandjo published with Aventine Press in San Diego. The Times called it a "self-publishing press" but it is really a subsidy or partner press in the vein of iUniverse (most of these publishers offer a different set of services, different personalities, different prices).

What the Times didn't say is why he chose to publish that way and I was curious because it is obvious his book will sell well and could have made a lot of money for most any traditional publisher. In fact, it would sell well worldwide because Ndesandjo is known here, in China where he lives with his wife, in Africa and, by association with his brother's name, about everywhere else.

Here's the thing. I can't ask him. Or, at the very least, if I were able to it would probably take a long time to get the question to him and to get an answer back. Here's what I think he might have been thinking:

1. In the long run, he can make more money than he might have traditionally published. If this memoir takes off big, his profits per book will be huge compared to his royalties per book. This thinking, of course, will only pay off for him if the book sells like crazy but the possibility for this particular author is certainly out there. (By the way, 15% of his profits will be donated to a charity for children.)

2. He wanted full control over every aspect of the publishing and marketing process for his book.

3. He wanted to get the book out there fast.

4. And this is certainly a possibility, too. Memoirs are hard to sell via the traditional route. Unless you are a celebrity. Maybe the traditional presses were so shortsighted they didn't see him as celebrity material. If that's the case, I think they are wrong. Up to now he has been a quiet type. But the media possibilities are there. The article I read was a page headline, the full width (six columns) wide, filled the upper half of the page, and includes a three-column (colored!) photograph of the author.

The article didn't say whether Ndesandjo's book will be printed on digital press or offset. Aventine may offer both possibilities. I hope it's a large edition printed on an offset press becaue the profits will be greater for him that way and I know this book is going to sell big time so the risk of doing a full run (rather than a few here and there on demand) is not great.


PS: If you should know anyone who is uncertain about their publishing path, please let them know that I consult and can also coach them through the publishing process. I have published almost every possible way--from e-book to POD to traditional. And the word "publishing" is not just the printing process (a concept many publishers seem to be missing these days). True publishing includes marketing and that includes distribution, promotion, and publicity, too.


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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.

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? (-:
h
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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.