MastersinEnglish.org Looking for Sites for Voracious Readers

Sometimes what works out for me can help you, too. In fact, that is the premise behind my Frugal Book Promoter, a book that comes entirely from tried-and-true experiences.  So here's a recent one that might be right for you:

MastersinEnglish.org wrote to tell me that my The New Book Review was selected for inclusion on their list of 100 Essential Sites for Voracious Readers. Find it at http://mastersinenglish.org/voracious-readers/#revs  They even singled out a review of a reference for emigrants and international students they thought especially good for their audience:  The review, by Donna McDine, can be found here: http://thenewbookreview.blogspot.com/2013/02/donna-m-mcdine-reviews-new-helpful-book.html

MastersinEnglish caters to English majors, or those who are considering taking their education in English literature and composition a step further, and we're putting this list together as a resource for them to find great reading material in addition to learning more about literature in general. We feel your site might make a great addition to the list.

Elizabeth Kelly says, "We're still looking for more sites to consider for inclusion, so if you know of a site you'd like to nominate, please email me at
Elizabeth@mastersinenglish.org

So there you are! Do you have a site or a blog that would fit with their mission?

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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:

Antoine Wilson and I Love Scribbling in Books

I always suggest that people mark up their books. I suggest it in The Frugal Book Promoter (http://budurl.com/FrugalBkPromo). I even market with a photo of the first edition of The Frugal Book Promoter that publisher Nancy Cleary sent me. The book is bristling with Post-It notes and fat with turned-down pages. And pictures speak a thousand words. (Too bad my blog is one the blink and only accepts photos when it's in the mood.)

 

When you make notes in the margins, your book becomes a much better resource than when you turn corners down. But either approach is better than a pristine copy stuck away on a bookshelf somewhere.

 

 I once fully annotated to a paperback biography of Michelangelo when when I was staying in Florence for an extended period of time. I just wrote anything that popped into my head including that I had just walked down the street where M's museum marked his birthplace.

I eventually gave that book to my grandson who was big on literature! I think it was a much nicer gift than something new.

 

 Usually teachers discourage marking books because it seems destructive. I think it's just the opposite. It makes a book your own. My new year's resolution is to mark up more of my books and it turns out that Antoine Wilson, author of Panorama City, plans on doing the same thing in 2013. He says, "For years I've been folding down page corners as a means of noting remarkable passages, but when I go back to these, they're baffling." He resolves to do more scribbling in books, too!

 

And how do I know this? I read it in the LA Times.  It's not too late to make a resolution of your own, is it?  At least not too late for something this simple! 

 

 

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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 . 

What Praise for the iPad Means for Authors

Reviews for iPAD Used As a Reader Is Positive! What Does That Mean for You?

Reviews for the iPad--like the one on the front page of the LA Times Calendar section this week--universally praise, laud, and acclaim the iPad as a reader. Most have a few good things to say about Kindle, too. But, generally, reviewers seem to love, love, love! iPad and seem willing to forego the features on Kindle they deem better for the color, book-like feel and design of the Pad.

What does that mean for us writers? Well, in addition to my raving on and on that a smart author in any genre should get their books available as e-books as soon as possible, getting your book available on iPAD will get you in on the ground floor of a new, VERY popular toy. You can use Smashwords.com or iFOGOvillage.ning.com to do that.

Should YOU buy one. There is a big, big difference between the cost of these tech toys. Given a choice, well--you know how frugal I am. When it comes to making my books availalbe on one or the other, well, it isn't a choice! As good marketers, we authors want to make our books available whatever ways people want to buy them!


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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:

The "Tell-A-Friend" Link on Amazon is Fun for Readers, Great for Writers

Philip F. Harris, author of Jesus Taught It, Too, sent me a message about his book. Actually he sent it to all of his Amazon list, the list that Amazon calls "Amazon Friends." I'd never used it so I had to go see how it works. Phil says, "Sometimes the easy things are overlooked!"

It occurred to me that this is an Amazon feature that everyone should be using. Here's how. Booklovers keep reading. There's something here for both authors and readers. Even authors who read!

Go to any book's Amazon page. (Authors will probably want to start with the page for their own books! If you need a sample of one of mine, click here. Look on the right side; the 8th box down has a link that says, "Tell a Friend." When you click on that, there is a drop-down menu where you can choose specific friends you added at one time or another or you can choose to send to all of your Amazon friends.

This, of course, works better if you have been collecting Amazon friends all along, but it's worth a whirl to let just a favorite reading friend know about a single book. Authors can put the word out about their own books but also about the books of their author friends. It's Zen. Don't do it often, of course, but every once in awhile give yourself or a fellow author a treat by putting out the word.

For instance, I could send a notice to my Amazon Friends about Lisa See's new book, Peony In Love. Her book has nothing to do with me and I don't know her personally, but I do strongly recommend it. So, shouldn't I help out an author I love and in doing so, give a gift of sorts to my Amazon friends.

In the meantime, an author might want to start building that "Amazon Friends" list so that when his or her book is released, it will be ready to go. Readers can forward the cause of reading the same way. Phil and I both recommend it.
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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. www.howtodoitfrugally.com.