Unfortunately, we authors all look as if we just feel off the tail end of a donkey cart. Once an American merchant in Acapulco told me I had "creampuff" written on my forehead so, obviously -- though I've been around the publishing track a few times --I can be as gullible as you, the reader who believes a review, or that new author who is offered what they most want but for a price. Those few treks around the track put me in a position to warn you and I'm not feeling like mincing words.
Because I'm so ticked off, I'm going to leave out the name of an offending bookstore because I don’t much are for slash and burn tactics. I suspect their heart is in what they are doing. Still, when I see an ethical lapse--intentional or not--no more creampuff. Here comes Napoleon.
At first I was pleased that there was going to be a new bookstore out there that welcomed all authors. You know, someone who judges a book by its contents, not its cover or the press it's printed on. The concept was so novel it got a write up in the LA Times even though the bookstore is in New York.
The story noted that this bookstore even had a patio at the back where they would welcome new self- and subsidy-published authors. OK. In New York that patio is going to be used (comfortably) possibly 30 days out of the year but that's another story.
I'm going to be in New York for Book Expo America so I asked Star Publishing's marketer extraordinaire to set something up for me. You may know Janet Elaine Smith, the author of Promo Paks. She places books in bookstores and arranges for events for Star authors who pay an additional fee for the service. So, this new bookstore was a new opportunity, right? This is what she found out:
This bookstore is sooooo author-friendly they are perfectly happy to charge authors $300 to put their books on their shelves. I guess you could call it turnkey money (or a bribe). Then the author supplies the books and the bookstore takes approximately the same percent to sell them as most bookstores do. And then those authors who have obligingly forked over their money will be considered for an event, but--of course--not at BEA time because this bookstore has so many takers ("takers" can be read as "a sucker is born every minute") that their spots are used up for the entire time the tradeshow is in town. Oh, so when would they offer their hard-working, hard-paying client-authors a spot? Perhaps in August when a half-block walk requires flat shoes and no-shrink cotton garments to acoomodate the . . . .ummm, moisture?
Another bookstore in the LA area wants a mere $25 to join the ranks of their authors who they then allow to sign books on the sidewalk in front of their store and take a table at some communicty book fairs. Yep. Lucky to sell, two books but at least there will be an evening breeze in this part of the country. (Yes, I know my prejudices are showing.)
This tendency to stalk the innocent is everywhere. In the old days, radio stations sold ads. With the proceeds from those ads they paid their hosts and some of their guests. So, Okay, If they didn't always pay their guests. At least they didn't charge them to appear. It was sort of a trade. Author comes to provide newsworthy and smart content for free and they get exposure in return. That was not such a bad trade. That kind of trade still being made. But there are those who also charge the host rather than pay him or her. Then the host charges the guest (that's you, dear writer!) And then you get to promote the show for them as well. If an author wants to do this under these circumstances (either become a or appear as a guest) it's their own decision, but they should at least know there are other, more journalistically acceptable and... ahem, cheaper ways for it to be done.
In the old days (back in the days when journalism was journalism) critics reviewed books and were honest about what they thought because they got paid by the journal they were reviewing for. Oh, yeah, they also got a free book. Now reviewers are expected to review with no pay and authors try to get them to take an electronic copy to save money. I understand, but, hey! Reviewers are writers, too. Everyone needs a paycheck of some kind!
Then along comes reviewers who decide they're tired of writing free and start offering to review books as if it's a service. That even includes the venerable review journal, Kirkus. So the poor author--probably a newbie -- gets taken again. He pays a reviewer to give him a review he hopes (but isn't promised) will be favorable. Everyone loses here. The reviewer has no credibility (even if he gives a bad review). The journal comes off looking like a panderer. The reader loses because she doesn't know who to believe. And the author has paid for something with no value at all for all of the above reasons.
And then there are the agents with no Rolodex. They have begun to swarm around unsuspecting authors. They'll represent your book though they have no contacts in the publishing industry. They'll represent your book if you pay them up front. They'll represent your book if you'll let them (or someone who gives them a kickback) edit it and that person is likely to be no more than a typo hunter. Whew!
Is everybody out there -- readers, writers, and publishers -- just bloody tired of all this?(Apologies to you Brits. We Americans think bloody sounds jolly angry but no more!)
I'm damn tired of this and won't take it anymore. No!! I won't pay you to stock my books or be my agent (unless you follow the age-old 15% of sales rule) or will--well . . . .you get the idea. Or, at least I hope you do.
----
Carolyn Howard-Johnson comes from the old schools of journalism and public relations. She studies both subjects (University of Utah, University of Southern California) in the days when ethics courses were required. In this case, being hoplessly old-fashioned made her into THE FRUGAL BOOK PROMOTER. She teaches courses in editing and marketing for UCLA Extension Writers' Program.
Saturday, March 17, 2007
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
Reading is like Four O'Clocks...
Let's talk reading and writing. Boring, right? .
Well, maybe. But there's a story in it, an anecdote if you will.
Have you ever planted those easy-to-grow flowers called Four-O'Clocks? You only need one seed because each little peppercorn-seed is so hardy it will grow for sure. It will grow like a weed--or a good read! The next year that one plant will produce enough seeds to populate an entire garden. The seeds look a little like black hand-grenades, ready to explode. And they do, but in pretty yellow-flowered plants. This story about writing and reading is a lot like Four O'Clocks.
I learned a lot by reading from Francine Silverman's book promotion newsletter early on in my own pursuit of promotion ideas for my novel, This Is the Place. By networking with my fellow subscribers, I made friends with several people, not least of whom is Christine Hohlbaum who contributed a copy of her successful query to National Public Radio for the appendixes in The Frugal Book Promoter.
Later Francine Silverman and I promoted our two separate books on marketing as pretty darn good desk companions. By this time Francine had become a career partner for me.
So, that seems more like a recommendation for active promoting than reading or writing, right? Wrong. Without reading -- reading everything - -I wouldn't have found her. My writing (that is the putting together of The Frugal Book Promoter) wouldn't have been as complete without both Francine and Christine.
And now Francine has new book out. It's Talk Radio for Authors – Getting Interviews Across the U.S. and Canada. Because she is now also a host of her own radio program, "Book Marketing with Fran" at http://www.achieveradio.com/, she is absolutely the one to write this book.
It is, as would be expected, a great resource. She includes 40 categories of radio shows. Each listing contains the show’s theme, guest criteria, e-mail address and website, along with host and guest bios. This book is designed to simplify the process of matching the guest with the show’s specialties, but those bios give anyone about to query a host the information needed to make the query personal. That's an important guideline in the promotion/query process.
Oh! Fran also called on many of her fellow hosts to tell what makes the best and worst guests. Now that's the kind of information anyone who uses radio to further their careers can put to good use!
In The Frugal Book Promoter: How to Do What Your Publisher Won't, I advocate not only getting interviews on radio but also supporting radio by calling in. I even know of people who were invited to host realtime radio shows based on their contributions to others' shows. That, of course, is the secret -- to call in with ideas that contribute to the show or ideas that will help others. An author mentions one's book or expertise because it relates to the information she is sharing; her call shouldn't be only an advertisement.
Francine was a newspaper reporter for many years but her writing/marketing career really began in 2003 when she was author of two local guidebooks, Catskills Alive (1st and 2nd editions, 2000 and 2003) and Long Island Alive (2003), both published by Hunter Publishing. She, like the rest of us, had trouble marketing them and because she was hungry for ideas, she decided to start an e-zine for authors of all genres, the very one that first introduced me to her.
Book Promotion Newsletter was born in March 2003. She compiled a questionnaire with all her burning questions. She still does that when someone subscribes. That's how her book, Book Marketing from A-Z came about. She had so many marketing strategies from subscribers that she was ready to pass 325 of the best tactics along. I highly recommend it for beginning marketers.
Fran was spending so much time on the computer that she decided to start an on-line publicity service and began offering a membership service to her subscribers in which she sends out Expert Sheets with their bios to radio hosts and columnists. At present, Fran has 75 clients and continues to find them radio and newspaper spots.
Then she began that radio show on Achieve Radio, http://www.achieveradio.com/. If you're an author, you could be a guest on her show. If you're a reader, you could learn about new books there but you'd probably also pick up information on how to market whatever business you're in!
And that, of course brings us to her new effort, Talk Radio for Authors - Getting Interviews across the U.S. and Canada. This is one that is niche-marketed to author/readers only. (Yes, we authors are readers, too!) Find it at http://www.buybooksontheweb.com/search.asp?cat=Business%20%26%20Economics/Marketing&action=browse or call the publisher, Infinity Publishing at 1-877-BUY-BOOK.
-----
Carolyn Howard-Johnson’s first novel, This Is the Place, won eight awards. Her second book, Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered, creative nonfiction, won three. An instructor for UCLA Extension’s world-renown Writers’ Program, her book The Frugal Book Promoter: How to Do What Your Publisher Won’t is recommended reading for her classes, was named USA Book News’ “Best Professional Book 2004," and was given the Irwin Award. Her second book in the How To Do It Frugally series is The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success. Her chapbook of poetry Tracings, was named to the Compulsive Reader's Ten Best Reads list and was given the Military Writers' Society of America's Silver Award of Excellence. She is the recipient of the California Legislature’s Woman of the Year in Arts and Entertainment Award, and her community's Character and Ethics Committee awarded her work promoting tolerance with her writing. She was also named to Pasadena Weekly's list of 14 "San Gabriel Valley women who make life happen." Her website is http://www.howtodoitfrugally.com/.
Well, maybe. But there's a story in it, an anecdote if you will.
Have you ever planted those easy-to-grow flowers called Four-O'Clocks? You only need one seed because each little peppercorn-seed is so hardy it will grow for sure. It will grow like a weed--or a good read! The next year that one plant will produce enough seeds to populate an entire garden. The seeds look a little like black hand-grenades, ready to explode. And they do, but in pretty yellow-flowered plants. This story about writing and reading is a lot like Four O'Clocks.
I learned a lot by reading from Francine Silverman's book promotion newsletter early on in my own pursuit of promotion ideas for my novel, This Is the Place. By networking with my fellow subscribers, I made friends with several people, not least of whom is Christine Hohlbaum who contributed a copy of her successful query to National Public Radio for the appendixes in The Frugal Book Promoter.
Later Francine Silverman and I promoted our two separate books on marketing as pretty darn good desk companions. By this time Francine had become a career partner for me.
So, that seems more like a recommendation for active promoting than reading or writing, right? Wrong. Without reading -- reading everything - -I wouldn't have found her. My writing (that is the putting together of The Frugal Book Promoter) wouldn't have been as complete without both Francine and Christine.
And now Francine has new book out. It's Talk Radio for Authors – Getting Interviews Across the U.S. and Canada. Because she is now also a host of her own radio program, "Book Marketing with Fran" at http://www.achieveradio.com/, she is absolutely the one to write this book.
It is, as would be expected, a great resource. She includes 40 categories of radio shows. Each listing contains the show’s theme, guest criteria, e-mail address and website, along with host and guest bios. This book is designed to simplify the process of matching the guest with the show’s specialties, but those bios give anyone about to query a host the information needed to make the query personal. That's an important guideline in the promotion/query process.
Oh! Fran also called on many of her fellow hosts to tell what makes the best and worst guests. Now that's the kind of information anyone who uses radio to further their careers can put to good use!
In The Frugal Book Promoter: How to Do What Your Publisher Won't, I advocate not only getting interviews on radio but also supporting radio by calling in. I even know of people who were invited to host realtime radio shows based on their contributions to others' shows. That, of course, is the secret -- to call in with ideas that contribute to the show or ideas that will help others. An author mentions one's book or expertise because it relates to the information she is sharing; her call shouldn't be only an advertisement.
Francine was a newspaper reporter for many years but her writing/marketing career really began in 2003 when she was author of two local guidebooks, Catskills Alive (1st and 2nd editions, 2000 and 2003) and Long Island Alive (2003), both published by Hunter Publishing. She, like the rest of us, had trouble marketing them and because she was hungry for ideas, she decided to start an e-zine for authors of all genres, the very one that first introduced me to her.
Book Promotion Newsletter was born in March 2003. She compiled a questionnaire with all her burning questions. She still does that when someone subscribes. That's how her book, Book Marketing from A-Z came about. She had so many marketing strategies from subscribers that she was ready to pass 325 of the best tactics along. I highly recommend it for beginning marketers.
Fran was spending so much time on the computer that she decided to start an on-line publicity service and began offering a membership service to her subscribers in which she sends out Expert Sheets with their bios to radio hosts and columnists. At present, Fran has 75 clients and continues to find them radio and newspaper spots.
Then she began that radio show on Achieve Radio, http://www.achieveradio.com/. If you're an author, you could be a guest on her show. If you're a reader, you could learn about new books there but you'd probably also pick up information on how to market whatever business you're in!
And that, of course brings us to her new effort, Talk Radio for Authors - Getting Interviews across the U.S. and Canada. This is one that is niche-marketed to author/readers only. (Yes, we authors are readers, too!) Find it at http://www.buybooksontheweb.com/search.asp?cat=Business%20%26%20Economics/Marketing&action=browse or call the publisher, Infinity Publishing at 1-877-BUY-BOOK.
-----
Carolyn Howard-Johnson’s first novel, This Is the Place, won eight awards. Her second book, Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered, creative nonfiction, won three. An instructor for UCLA Extension’s world-renown Writers’ Program, her book The Frugal Book Promoter: How to Do What Your Publisher Won’t is recommended reading for her classes, was named USA Book News’ “Best Professional Book 2004," and was given the Irwin Award. Her second book in the How To Do It Frugally series is The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success. Her chapbook of poetry Tracings, was named to the Compulsive Reader's Ten Best Reads list and was given the Military Writers' Society of America's Silver Award of Excellence. She is the recipient of the California Legislature’s Woman of the Year in Arts and Entertainment Award, and her community's Character and Ethics Committee awarded her work promoting tolerance with her writing. She was also named to Pasadena Weekly's list of 14 "San Gabriel Valley women who make life happen." Her website is http://www.howtodoitfrugally.com/.
Saturday, February 17, 2007
Amazon Connects You and Me
One of my most recent AmazonConnects ™ (or plog or blog) is about generations and genealogy and writing. I am as hesitant to tell you for sure that AmazonConnect works to sell books as I am most kinds of promotion. The fact is there is always way too little proof of results. One thing I do know! Taken all together, promotion works. And what better way to promote than by writing? And what better way to promote than to target people who read and particularly the people who read your kind of books.
This plog starts:
"Fascination with generations is like tulips. It flares up periodically, dies back and flourishes again. Whether or not generations is a topic of current interest with us, our ancestry is always with us -- with some of us more than others, it is true . . . .."
You can finish the article at http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1588513521/ref=cm_arms_pdp_dp/002-3692730-7456014 and you can sign up to receive all my plogs by clicking on the little oval button on the left side of the page. It says, "Add to Your Plog." Heck, you can always delete it when I give you a recipe for my polygamist great grandmother's mustard pickles, but I bet you'll be glad you've got it when I give you tips on promotion (scroll down the AuthorConnect section page for a review of those!)
And what about your plog? Know that the longer you wait to start one, the sorrier you'll be. Amazon's plog is a way to reach people who want to know about you.
This is a way to try stuff out to see if it works.
This is a way to fill out your book's page on Amazon. You know, make you look like an active writer.
This is a way to build loyalty.
This is a way to recycle other articles you've written.
This is a way to help out fellow authors (authors who plog together, promote together--or something like that!).
It may even be a way to sell books!
And it doesn't cost a cent. A very FRUGAL way to go.
And here's another magic quality of AmazonConnect. You can glean the RSS feeds from them and place them on your website, as an example. I've pasted some of mine in this very blog. Just scroll to the bottom of the blog to see how it works and no, I haven't figured out how to rid them of the html code introducing each one. A little at a time, here, OK?
This plog starts:
"Fascination with generations is like tulips. It flares up periodically, dies back and flourishes again. Whether or not generations is a topic of current interest with us, our ancestry is always with us -- with some of us more than others, it is true . . . .."
You can finish the article at http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1588513521/ref=cm_arms_pdp_dp/002-3692730-7456014 and you can sign up to receive all my plogs by clicking on the little oval button on the left side of the page. It says, "Add to Your Plog." Heck, you can always delete it when I give you a recipe for my polygamist great grandmother's mustard pickles, but I bet you'll be glad you've got it when I give you tips on promotion (scroll down the AuthorConnect section page for a review of those!)
And what about your plog? Know that the longer you wait to start one, the sorrier you'll be. Amazon's plog is a way to reach people who want to know about you.
This is a way to try stuff out to see if it works.
This is a way to fill out your book's page on Amazon. You know, make you look like an active writer.
This is a way to build loyalty.
This is a way to recycle other articles you've written.
This is a way to help out fellow authors (authors who plog together, promote together--or something like that!).
It may even be a way to sell books!
And it doesn't cost a cent. A very FRUGAL way to go.
And here's another magic quality of AmazonConnect. You can glean the RSS feeds from them and place them on your website, as an example. I've pasted some of mine in this very blog. Just scroll to the bottom of the blog to see how it works and no, I haven't figured out how to rid them of the html code introducing each one. A little at a time, here, OK?
Thursday, February 01, 2007
A Salute Is Good, A Letter May Be Better
The power of the word is an amazing thing.
I was reminded of that by Janet Elaine Smith's portrayal of a returning soldier and his family enjoying a meal at a Red Lobster in her hometown. Much can be done with a clause that comes before a comma. Or a blog like hers.
And so much needs to be done. I'm hoping I can encourage more people to do more than pass around patriotic photos of troops on the Web. Sure that makes us feel good but in little more time we can write letters to our congressman or woman or president. Many of the military issues we heard about in the past have not gone away.
Some of them are:
1. A huge number of soldiers still live beneath the poverty level of a citizen of the US.
2. Many, including a poet friend of mine, are not receiving the medical benefits they were promised and deserve.
3. I'm not sure about the flak jacket and armored vehicles snafu (my grandson who just returned from Iraq said he was issued his flaks) but last I heard there were some 10,000 faulty ones out of 30,000 that hadn't been recalled.
4. Benefits for our soldiers (general ones--not just health benefits) have been cut in the last few years, not increased.
What else can we as individual do? Well, donate to the USO. Or Fisher House (more about that in a minute). Send letters and care packages overseas. Make it something that the guys and gals need that so they won't have to spend their precious salaries on things that are cheaper here at Wal Mart. And, yes, send letters of thanks. And, when you see a soldier at your local Italian restaurant, don't just offer, buy the guy (or gal) a meal on the QT. Not out of charity. Out of thanks.
Back to Fisher House. Eric Dinyer calls himself a "Book Packager." He asked me to write the foreword of one of his packages called "Support Our Troops." It is a small (under $10) gift book published by the giant US publisher Andrews-McMeel. It's full of patriotic quotes, carries a Support Our Troops magnet on the cover AND the proceeds benefit Fisher House, a kind of Ronald McDonald Home charity that benefits the families of our wounded soldiers. It makes a nice little double gift for anyone related to a soldier overseas. In it, you'll find a short essay about the day I watched my grandson graduate from boot camp. Learn more about it at my website www.HowToDoItFrugally.com. For information on writers organizations, newsletters and other activists who can help you do something supportive, e-mail me at HoJoNews@aol.com or leave a message on this blog.
I was reminded of that by Janet Elaine Smith's portrayal of a returning soldier and his family enjoying a meal at a Red Lobster in her hometown. Much can be done with a clause that comes before a comma. Or a blog like hers.
And so much needs to be done. I'm hoping I can encourage more people to do more than pass around patriotic photos of troops on the Web. Sure that makes us feel good but in little more time we can write letters to our congressman or woman or president. Many of the military issues we heard about in the past have not gone away.
Some of them are:
1. A huge number of soldiers still live beneath the poverty level of a citizen of the US.
2. Many, including a poet friend of mine, are not receiving the medical benefits they were promised and deserve.
3. I'm not sure about the flak jacket and armored vehicles snafu (my grandson who just returned from Iraq said he was issued his flaks) but last I heard there were some 10,000 faulty ones out of 30,000 that hadn't been recalled.
4. Benefits for our soldiers (general ones--not just health benefits) have been cut in the last few years, not increased.
What else can we as individual do? Well, donate to the USO. Or Fisher House (more about that in a minute). Send letters and care packages overseas. Make it something that the guys and gals need that so they won't have to spend their precious salaries on things that are cheaper here at Wal Mart. And, yes, send letters of thanks. And, when you see a soldier at your local Italian restaurant, don't just offer, buy the guy (or gal) a meal on the QT. Not out of charity. Out of thanks.
Back to Fisher House. Eric Dinyer calls himself a "Book Packager." He asked me to write the foreword of one of his packages called "Support Our Troops." It is a small (under $10) gift book published by the giant US publisher Andrews-McMeel. It's full of patriotic quotes, carries a Support Our Troops magnet on the cover AND the proceeds benefit Fisher House, a kind of Ronald McDonald Home charity that benefits the families of our wounded soldiers. It makes a nice little double gift for anyone related to a soldier overseas. In it, you'll find a short essay about the day I watched my grandson graduate from boot camp. Learn more about it at my website www.HowToDoItFrugally.com. For information on writers organizations, newsletters and other activists who can help you do something supportive, e-mail me at HoJoNews@aol.com or leave a message on this blog.
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