Three Reasons Why Having Your Own Newsletter Is Important--and How to Use Others' Newsletters, Too

I don't think using others' newsletters and blogs a panacea for easy promoting. Newsletters and blogs that belong to other people are a great way of promoting but they do lack some of the benefits that you have if you run your own. That would be:

1.   The independence you have with your own.

2.   Using your own as mini a way to reward those who do something nice in terms of publicity for you. See the Thank You section in this newsletter as an example of this.

3.   Networking by offering guest features, guest posts, and other ways to link to people who—if they're savvy marketers—will reciprocate. If not today, then later.

4.   The ability to drive traffic to your Web site, online bookstore page, of anywhere your little heart desires.

Having a newsletter and blog of your own is a lovely way to share what you know. And having one doesn't discourage doing that in others' newsletters and blogs, anyway!

Here's an example of a tip I submitted to Penny Sansevieri's "A Marketing Expert" newsletter.

Reader Tip: Include Action Shots on Your Website

When you're updating your website as suggested by this Book Marketing Expert newsletter, be sure to include at least one action shot of you doing something. Many bloggers and online folks like plain old generic headshots but print media still need a whole lot more than someone holding his or her book or accepting an award. And TV producers need to see some possibilities for action in the still photos or videos you offer. Use my media room as a very basic example (http://howtodoitfrugally.com/media_room.htm) and Penny's as an example of what you're aiming for: http://www.amarketingexpert.com/media.html. And read more on why you need to relate to the media and how to do it in The Frugal Book Promoter at http://budurl.com/FrugalBkPromo.

Tip offered by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of how-to books for writers. http://www.howtodoitfrugally.com.

 

Here's an action shot like the one I suggested (see left). You just have to think of shot that is somehow associated with your book.

 

Having said that, any image is better than none at all. So a picture of you with your book at a book fair works, even though it may not qualify as a real action shot. Grab your book before the shutter snaps and take a picture anyway. But grab a fellow book fair participant to be in your shot with you because he or she may be willing to help you promote. Two marketers/publicists are better than one.

 

For more information on newsletters and blogging use the index of your Frugal Book Promoter (http://budurl.com/FrugalBkPromo) to find help, ideas, and tons more references.

Providing tips for others is a great way to extend your reach. But it's limited. You own blog and newsletter issn't. That's why I can include this additional tip in this blog post without considering word count (or just being a real pest to the newsletter editor!).  Here it is:

 

Re-use your action photo. Repetition is good for sales. That's why you have a book cover. I use this one in the image feature of my marketing books on my Amazon buy pages (see the images I posted on my Frugal Book Promoter buy page), on my Web site, and sometimes send it to feature editors after I've been interviewed. Especially if they don't mention sending a photographer to take a picture. It's part of our jobs to make it easy for editors to do their jobs easily and well.

 

If you'd like to be sure you see all my favorite marketing and writing tips subscribe to my SharingwithWriters newsletter at http://howtodoitfrugally.com. The subscribe button is in the right of almost every page. And you'll get a free little e-booklet on wordtrippers when you do it. And, yes. I encourage you to submit your own favorite tips to that newsletter and to include credit lines with links to your book's sales page.   

 

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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 .

To Gussy Up Your Newsletter-Or Not!

This is a reprint from a past SharingwithWriters newsletter. If you'd like to subscribe so you don't miss a single thing that might be healthy for your book, just send an e-mail to HoJoNews (at) AOL (dot) come with SUBSCRIBE in the subject line and I'll do it for you. (-:

Criticism Turned to Self Reflection: What Style for Newsletters?
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You may recall that I received a bit of, ahem, criticism that didn’t seem particularly constructive at the time, but it gave me something to mull over. The letter suggested I quit being so frugal and start using a service that prints newsletters all gussied up in color. Actually, I had considered that before, but times are changing and it had been awhile since I had visited the problem. At the time, I had read about a politician who published a flier and included the anecdote in The Frugal Book Promoter (www.budurl.com/FrugalBkPromo). It went like this:

"Newsletters needn’t be fancy. In his column for Time magazine, Joe Klein told of Bryan Lentz’s choice of a simple flier to promote his run for Congress. Lentz said his staff '. . . wanted something splashy.' His simpler choice cost less and, he says, 'They look real. People open them and read 'em like a newspaper.' Klein notes, 'It was true, people [nearby] were reading the Bryan Lentz news.'

"That’s the way it can be for your newsletter, too. I once asked my readers about my plain-text Sharing with Writers e-newsletters and they voted overwhelmingly for keeping them long and simple rather than short, colorful, and in HTML."

But when I receive this not-so-kind suggestion that I was being cheap, I thought I should look again in case I should also reconsider my frugal advice to you, my readers. I mean, theoretically I am not saving much by publishing my newsletter the plain old generic way because AuthorsDen charges for the higher level of their service that includes newsletter distribution. So I could disregard the frugal aspect of my choice—something I will never give up completely because I hate, hate, hate seeing authors spend more on promoting their books than they need to with so many free ways to do it out there—and change to something like ConstantContact if I wished. It’s never too early (or too late) to change one’s mind.

At first, I thought I’d poll members, but I did that before and most of you said to leave things the way they are with a plain text in their e-mail and a link to a pdf file for those who prefer something a little snazzier. Then I started looking at the newsletters I get in my e-mail box, my favorites. One that comes from Penny Sansevieri is long and anything but fancy, but full of all kinds of good pointers I can use every week. Another of my faves is from the legendary Dan Poynter who basically sends a link to his pdf file. It's also long and includes a lot of free benefits for his readers like a review service. Another is from Joan Stewart (The Publicity Hound) who now uses HTML and it looks gorgeous but I liked it better before when I didn’t have to click on so many links to get at the good meat and potatoes she always has in her letter.

That’s when I decided I wouldn’t change. You are stuck with plain old vanilla pudding SharingwithWriters. Well, not really stuck. If I get a rash of people who complain about this decision, I may reconsider again. So do let me know!

I believe that newsletters are still one of the most viable ways to connect with writers. And I believe that two features make them or break them. One is content. The other is to offer ways for readers to contribute in some way. This one does both. And if you don’t know what those ways are, you need to go back and read this letter from top to bottom and start using those features as a prompt to help get the word out there about your book.

But just in case you have decided to use a gorgeous format for your newsletter, here are some services you might explore, especially since many of these services are also spam reducers.

1. Find vendors to consider at www.espcoalition.org/members.php
2. Swiftpage.com
3. GetResponse.com
4. MyEmma.com
5. MailChimp.com
6. ConstantContact.com

Most price according the size of the list you have. Many offer free trials, but I would imagine you’d be loathe to change once you’ve gone to the trouble of setting up with one. Some have limits on the number of e-mails you can send in any month—a distinct disadvantage, I’d say, especially if your subscriber list grows beyond your wildest dreams. Some charge based on the number of e-mails sent daily—like $14.95 if you send no more than 250 which would, I think, discourage you from trying to grow your list.

Some good reasons to go with pretty:

• You letters look good—maybe even great.
• We know that images sell. You can include them in a pdf file but not in a plain text newsletter.
• These services may force you to keep your letters short (which may be bad for content, but good for style and your busy schedule)
• These services give you statistics like who pens your e-mail and who clicks on the links you provide.

Some big drawbacks of these services:

• If you already have a newsletter of considerable size, many services require your subscribers to re-opt in.
• They won’t let you provide the personal service of subscribing for people if they have given you permission. I consider that a service and wouldn't want to give it up!
• They also often won’t send to generic addresses like the ones that begin with info or editor. I’d hate to lose a single one of you—on the outside chance that you might benefit even if you only open one letter a year!

If you decide to stay old fashioned with me, watch next week for a list of things you shouldn’t do or say if you don’t want your newsletter to get caught in spam folders and other techy devices. If you decide to go with an HTML service, I’ll help you keep your letter free of spam assassins that may make your newsletter show up DOA (dead on arrival).
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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 . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use the little Green widget to let them know about this blog:

On the Value of Newsletter and A Plea to Foodies and Chefs

I am including this excerpt from my Sharing with Writers newsletter to prove to you that, contrary to what you may be hearing on the Web, newsletters are not dead. They afford a more intimate kind of connection with your reader than about any other online promotion, and because readers are aware of the work you put into them and how those efforts help them with their own careers (or reading pleasure!), they are very open  to help you out when the need arises.  It is a good idea for all newsletters to start with a Letter from the Editor. The voice should reflect the voice of your book, if possible. Here is one from a recent SharingwithWriters letter (which you can subscribe to--and get a freebie--at www.howtodoitfruglly.com).

Oh, wow! Look at the Facebook fan page my poetry partner Magdalena Ball did for our poetry and dessert recipe book combination. It’s being shopped by our great agent Terrie Wolf! Hope you'll drop by and LIKE and maybe tweet or recommend it to your FB friends. We need your participation to make the page go public! You probably know that one needs 50 likes in order to do that! (-:

And we need participating chefs! You know. To help with the recipes for the book. The recipes will illustrate some of our foody poems. Or maybe vice versa. Maybe we’ll get poetic about their signature dessert dish!

At this point we’re just looking for interest from some but I should think it would be great marketing for a restaurateur or a chef to have a gift book available near their checkout stand or in their gift shop that features their recipes (and their famous selves!). We’ll promote it and them like crazy. Do you know any? (-:

Here’s the link: https://www.facebook.com/PersephonesJuicyJewels. And it would be really neat if you’d also write a little comment. Include the link to your book when you do it. That way we all benefit! (-:

Carolyn,

Your Sharing with Writers editor

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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:

Newsletters: The New/Old Way to Market Books

The new year is almost upon us and I gleaned this editorial from one of my old SharingwithWriters newsletters. Because I believe old-fashioned newsletters delivered by e-mail are second only to social networking (and that includes blogs) for the marketing of a book. And because I believe in recycling the writing we do. Ahem! (-:  And because this is the time of the year to promise yourself you'll start a newsletter!

How many e-mail newsletters do you subscribe to? Do you put one out yourself? I think they’re very important! I recommended having one in the first edition of The Frugal Book Promoter and I continue to do so in the 2^nd edition (www.budurl.com/FrugalBkPromo)  (with new ideas for making them successful, of course!). And I’m not the only one who thinks newsletters are a good idea.

Noelle Skodzinski, editorial director of Book Business magazine thinks so, too. But she touts them for publishers. She says the best example of a good publisher newsletter is HarperCollins’ Author Tracker. You may want to subscribe to see what they’re doing that you can adapt to your letter and find new, great reading while you’re there.

Harper’s letter lets readers track their favorite authors. It lets them know when the author will be doing an event in their area. When their next book is being released. When it is being made into a film. But, hey! We authors can do that for ourselves!

She also suggests cross promoting other books with similarities. Themes. Genres. Historical periods. The list could be endless. So, I’m thinking why couldn’t authors do the same thing? They could partner with other authors to announce one another’s books. And if those authors write in the same genre so much the better. They aren’t competitors. They’re comrades. A reader who reads horror, as an example, probably reads more than one horror book a year. So why not promote your book and one written by a horror-writing friend?

By the way, I also think authors should read more than one book on marketing. Each book we read offers new inspiration, new ideas, new approaches or techniques for old ideas.

Noelle says that to convince yourself that this is effective, “Think of Amazon’s ‘others who ordered [this book] also ordered [this other book]’” feature.

She also suggests embedding video in the e-mail. That gives readers a personal connection to the author!

She suggests some of the same things I do in the second edition of The Frugal Book Promoter. How can you get subscribers to your letter to sign up for something? What can you give them free? What about a quote of the day or week? How about using QR (quick response) codes I’ve been talking about for the last few issues of this newsletter? Look on the back of the new Frugal Book Promoter to see one, or check the index for one I used inside the book.

Noelle reminds us, “Books have power. Authors have power. That power can be used to benefit the reader—who craves more content that will impact their lives…”

Oh, while we’re at it. You have in your power to share newsletters with valuable information with others. Your newsletter readers have the power to do the same. Have you asked them to share? I’m asking now. Send the link for this newsletter with a personal recommendation and invitation to subscribe. http://www.AuthorsDen.com/adstorage/1713/SharingwithWriters_Nov5_2011.pdf

All they need do is send me an e-mail with SUBSCRIBE in the subject line and I’ll do it for them!

See how easy that is? See how important a newsletter can be?

 (And, in this case, how important a blog can be?)

----- 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:

Publicist Partnering: Shooting Your Book to Stardom--Frugally

If your name isn't King or Grisham or Roberts you've probably already figured out that you need to do a lot of publicity on your own because your publisher hasn't assigned a budget ample enough to shoot your book to stardom.

 That publicist can be you or someone else, but somebody's got to do it if you want your book to sell.

 I have a publicist friend who is also an author. Rolf Gompertz, 20 year veteran of NBC marketing,  rightfully claims that he could never find a PR person who would do the same kind of job he does, including the time he spends on his own PR work. How could anyone argue with that? We all are our own best publicists, even if we hire someone else.

But what if we don't have the time or expertise?

We can learn to do it ourselves. After all, we are writers. We should be able to grasp the knack of how to write a release.

But the best way to do it is to learn a lot about the marketing of books and then partner with expert publicists or people who can help you with specific projects like online book tours. And partnering with them in a way that won’t eat up your advance or cost you more than you’re likely to make on your book. Here are some suggestions for preparing yourself to be the best publicity partner around.

1.     Join organizations like SPAN (Small Publishers of North America) (www.spannnet.org) where you’ll learn to understand the world of publishing from every angle—your, that of your publicist and that of your publisher.

2.     Subscribe to newsletters sent out my experts in the field of publishing. Dan Poynter, John Kremer, Penny C. Sansevieri, and one of my favorite publicity gurus Joan Stewart are all online resources for getting online information that isn’t rooted in myth and gossip. You’ll learn tons from my Sharing with Writers newsletter, too. Subscribe by sending a SUBSCRIBE message to HoJoNews@aol.com.

3.     Take a class in public relations. The only way I know how to avoid drastic mistakes in choosing a class is to patronize your local college or attend writers’ conferences sponsored by universities.

4.     One of the most frugal ways to learn a new skillset is to read. Most of those who publish free newsletters like the ones I mentioned above, also have books that will get you off on the right foot. Find my Frugal Book Promoter at www.budurl.com/FrugalBkPromo

The next question is how do you find the best help with publicity possible.

1.     Consider what you need and how much time you can put into it. Your budget may not accommodate a full-service publicist. You may not have the time to fully participate with all of the services she offers at once, anyway.

2.     If that’s the case, consider people who will work with you piecemeal like BookinSync. You may need an online book tour. It shouldn’t be too expensive to get help with that and when you do, many of the contacts you get from your service will become contacts for the life of your writing career. Or you may need help writing your first release so you can do it yourself. That kind of help is available, too.

3.     Before you hire anyone consider their Rolodex. I'm talking about is a Rolodex of personal, working relationships with editors, radio hosts, etc. What kind of publicity have they gotten for their other clients? AND those relationships must be—to a great extent—contacts who might have an interest in a project like yours. A book publicist who has had mostly experience with mystery writers, deals mostly with books stores that dedicate themselves to stories about crime, and has a huge file of names of reviewers interested in psycho/thrillers probably won't be able to do you much good if yours is a literary novel.

4.     As you have already guessed, you want someone who has clients similar to you. Check that out, but also check with the clients. Were they satisfied? If not, why not. Their expectations may have been different than yours. Further, if there were some gaps that you consider important, you may be able to negotiate with your newfound partner to include those services in the publicity package you are contracting for.

Am I speaking from experience? You betcha. And lukewarm results were not the fault of my publicist. She did a great job with what she had. She just didn't have what I needed! If you do your homework, you’ll be happier with your publicity campaign and your publicist will be able to help you reach your goals more quickly…and they’ll be happier with you.

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson, is the author of so-called hard-to-promote genres (www.howtodoitfrugally.com/carolynhoward-johnson.com) and of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers, www.howtodoitfrugally.com.

----- 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 Newsletter, Free E-Bribe (-:

Dear Subscribers:

I know I recently ran a newsletter promotion, but I just met a talented, smart, and giving woman on Twitter who has a Web site with lots of good stuff for writers on it (Isn’t networking wonderful?).

Shelley Hitz has a neat (short!) e-white paper called

“Get Published With No Upfront Costs!
7 Things Publishing Companies Don’t Want You to Know About Self Publishing.”

She’s letting me offer it to you if you recommend my Sharing with Writers newsletter to one of your fellow writers and they give you permission to subscribe them. You know the drill from last time:

1. Rave about Sharing with Writers newsletter to your friends.
2. If they bite, send their e-mail address to me at HoJoNews@aol.com. Put SUBSCRIBE:  FREE SEVEN THINGS WHITE PAPER in the subject line.
3. Paste their e-mail address in the body of the e-mail and send it to HoJoNews (at) AOL (dot) com.
4. I’ll subscribe them and send you both The Self-Publishing Coach’s white papers.

Alternately, you can have them subscribe to this blog and then let me know about it. Yeah, it's the honor system.

Then, if you’re at all interested in self publishing anything—from your next novel to a promotional e-book—you’ll go to Shelley's site and poke around a bit. Maybe sign up for her newsletter, too.

I hope this doesn’t seem too repetitious to you. It is a new opportunity, after all. It is the New Year and a great time to get enthusiastic. And, one must take advantage of these opportunites as they arise.

I hope to hear from 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 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:

Giving Thanks and Keeping It Simple

Today is Thanksgiving (in case you missed the CNN report this morning! Ha!) And I'm thankful. I'm thankful for a whole lot of little things in addition to the big list I keep. And I was reminded of one of them this morning.

Penny Sansivieri's newsletter came to me in my e-mail box. I take dozens of e-letters, but Penny's is one of my favorites for its practical advice on book promotion.  It is always long and packed with resources. I print it out to read when I'm waiting for auditions and doctors. In the past the letter had always come to me as plain text in my e-mail window. Recently, the format changed to full HTML. It was gorgeous but I didn't like it as well and couldn't really decide why. 

Maybe it's because I'm an old-fashioned type girl. I found the old version easier to read than the new, flashier iteration a la ConstantContact.com.  At least, plain text feels more personal or less commercial to me.

In the last election a Pennsylvania politician (can't remember his name but I would have if he'd been from California!) eschewed slick red, white, and blue brochures for homemadish-looking black on white ones and made it part of his branding. Not only did his back-to-essentials approach get mentioned in Time magazine, he won!

Today--Thanksgiving Day--Penny's letter came to me in its not-so-glorious old format. I love it. And I'm thankful. I wanted to use the occasion to remind folks that we don't have to make a big job out of every promotion we do. I believe in the keep-it-simple-stupid credo. I talk a lot about shortcuts and recycling in both my The Frugal Book Promoter and Your Blog, Your Business books.

Of course, I'll read Penny's letter no matter how she sends it to me. Content is still what's important and she's got it!  Oh, by the way. You can subscribe to her letter the easy way by sending an e-mail with SUBSCRIBE in the subject line to subscribe@amarketingexpert.com.  You can subscribe to my Sharing with Writers newsletter (which will come to you as plain text in your e-mail box, too!) the same way. Send your SUBSCRIBE message to  HoJoNews@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 . 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 Bookstore Guidelines for Loving a Newsletter

If you love newsletters like my Sharing with Writers letter and some of my favorites like Penny Sansevieri’s and Joan Stewart’s, this may be sad news for you: Newsletters are losing their popularity. I attribute that to these possibilities:

1. Blogging has supplanted newsletters in many ways.
2. People are sending out fancy HTML newsletters which smack of big business and no personal care and that’s turned people off to them in general.
3. People have less time, or think they do.
4. People are so S P @ M conscious, they are overlooking educational opportunities available on the Web.

You may agree or not. Or you may think of other reasons. If so, I’d like to hear what you think.

To get the conversation started, I want to do two things today. I wanted to let you know why newsletters are still important and what you can do as a reader to utilize them better; thus you’ll find an article later on in this newsletter.

But I also want to increase my newsletter subscription numbers and hope you’ll help with that. Sure you can help! You can send a copy of Sharing with Writers to one or more author friends you think would benefit from more information on the business of writing. This only works, though, if you suggest they subscribe and tell them how to do it. It goes like this: “Carolyn will make it easy on you. Send an e-mail with SUBSCRIBE in the subject line to HoJoNews @ AOL.com and she’ll do the work for you.”

Or, if you're not already a subscriber, you can subscribe yourself using the instructions above.

I’m even going to bribe you a bit. I have a .pdf file of the things that Barnes and Noble requires for your book to be listed on its computer. Only books on that list can be ordered by a store manager--or special ordered by a store manager. So, even if you are doing most of your promotion online, you’ll still want this info so you can be sure your book is available to those who still prefer to shop in bookstores.

Yes, I’m using the honor system. You tell me you recommended this newsletter. I’ll believe you. I’ll send you the .pdf file. (-:

I'm looking forward to hearing from 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 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.

Kathy Stemke's Newsletter Example Helps Writers Tailor Newsletters That Work

One of the questions I get asked most frequently is how a writer can use a newsletter to develop a loyal following of his or her readers.

I had the luck to run across Kathy Stemke's newsletter today. It is often said that children't fiction and other literature is one of the most difficult genres to promote so, by using Kathy's newsletter as an example, I believe many authors will find it easy to analyze their own talents, the needs of their book, and then apply those principles to a newsletter will work well for them.

Kathy is the author of three books, Moving Through All Seven Days, Trouble on Earth Day, and Sh, Sh, Sh, Will the Baby Sleep?, so she needed to craft a letter that would appeal to parents and educators, the group most likely to buy and recommend books for children. But she has many other talents besides and writing and wide interests. Too many of us forget that our past experiences can be woven into the kind of information we provide to our newsletter audience.

In Kathy's case, much of that expertise comes from the research she has done freelancing for magazines and organizations like The National Writing for Children's Center.

That expertise includes relationships, health and fitness, education, antiques, biographical personalities, literature, and biological sciences. She has been a dancer, choreographer, teacher, tutor, and antiques dealer. We are all cumulations of our lives and experience and often angles that will interest our newsletter readers can be found in everything we do or have done.

You can see from the above list that no one will get bored reading Kathy's letter, that many who don't fit neatly into her target audience will find it useful, too.

Kathy's "Movement and Rhythm" newsletter is full of the latest information, activities, and games for the home or the classroom. It includes topics like: "Why Use Movement to Teach?" "Musical Consonants in Action," and "Activities for Gross Motor Skills." Her readers are also updated on her book-related features like education tipster's upcoming events including her virtual book tour and her FREE teacher teleseminars.

Vivian Gilbert Zabel, the publisher of 4RV, author, and educator in her own right (
http://viviangilbertzabel.com/) says "Kathy Stemke's 'Movement and Rhythm' Newsletter is a must read for all parents and teachers of little ones. I remember having my children clean their rooms to music, as we sang little songs. Learning through movement and rhythm is a good means for teaching many things, as well as helping children learn to appreciate music. After all, many of us still sing the Alphabet Song to ourselves when we need to check the alphabet."

This kind of endorsement is proof that Kathy is accruing a targeted audience for her newsletter so that it will attract readers of her works and help those readers with their own needs.

To sign up for Kathy Stemke's newsletter go to her blog at http://educationtipster.blogspot.com.While you're there you may also want to subscribe to get notices of her new blog posts on a regular basis, too.

I thought a sample or two of the things Kathy includes in her newsletter might help, too:


"Why Use Movement to Teach?"

.....Recent studies link cognitive skills to motor skill development. Scientists now say that because a child’s earliest learning is based on motor development, so too is much of the knowledge that follows. They have found that the cerebellum, the part of the brain previously thought to control only motor activities, is a “virtual switchboard of cognitive activity.” Scientists have demonstrated a connection between the cerebellum and such cognitive functions as memory, spatial orientation, attention, language, and decision making......

"Musical Consonants in Action"

Here is an example of a little conconant song parents and teachers can pair with movement to teach young children:

If you’re happy and you know it, bounce around b b.
If you’re happy and you know it, bounce around b, b.
If your happy and you know it, then you’re face will surely show it.
If you’re happy and you know it, bounce around b, b.....

If your happy and you know it, creep along c, c...etc

I will provide readers with a review of Kathy's newest release next week at www.TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com. I hope you'll drop by on the 7th of June to see how she is helping children and all those who love them with her books as well as her newsletters.

You can also learn more about Kathy and what she does at:
http://www.helium.com/users/406242.html

http://www.associatedcontent.com/user/237923/Kathy_stemke_dancekam.html

http://kathystemke.weebly.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 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.