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?
Saturday, February 17, 2007
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.
Thursday, January 11, 2007
Yep! Even Library Stupidity Working Against Readers and Writers
(Reprinted from Sharing with Writers, an e-newsletter edited by Carolyn Howard-Johnson)
After my last rant on publishers running amuck I find this information on how libraries might be hurting readers and writers alike!
Time reports that the director of the library system in Fairfax County, VA., is presiding over the destruction of books including classics like For Whom the Bell Tolls and To Kill a Mockingbird. Time magazine (January 15, 2007) reports that they will destroy any book not checked in the last two years.
The director is quoted as saying "We're being very ruthless. A book is not forever."
I beg to differ. Putting aside exigencies like mold and fire, a book is forever. The piece in my last newsletter about the palimpsest from which our scientists are struggling to retrieve the remains of some of Archimedes's work puts the lie to that remark about as well as anything.
But more than that, what has happened to our idea of libraries? Aren't they repositories of a culture. A place where people can go to find To Kill a Mockingbird when the spirit moves them or when someone (Praise be!) chooses to talk to our young people again about tolerance. Or when . . . .well, you get the idea.
What about the concept of free press and free speech? What about the idea that ideas of all kinds should be available to our populace not just the popular ones. Who gets to judge what is popular anyway. We measure that with the number of times a book has been checked our or its political slant? I don't think we can trust that popular necessarily equates with quality or needed.
I'm really, really ticked off at this one. Of course all libraries can't keep every book that ever decked its stacks. Economics are a consideration. But I believe that we hire good librarians (and good directors) to make decent choices for the good of the community and it seems to me that this particular director got it wrong somewhere along the way.
I also believe that we get the kind of government (and libraries) we deserve. It looks as if we are all doomed.
Best,
Carolyn Howard-Johnson
HoJoNews@aol.com
http://carolynhoward-johnson.com
http://authorscoalitionandredenginepess.com and a blog focused on book fairs at
http://redenginepress.com/chjohnson and another blog that is just about writing and reading at www.sharingwithwriters.blogspot.com.
After my last rant on publishers running amuck I find this information on how libraries might be hurting readers and writers alike!
Time reports that the director of the library system in Fairfax County, VA., is presiding over the destruction of books including classics like For Whom the Bell Tolls and To Kill a Mockingbird. Time magazine (January 15, 2007) reports that they will destroy any book not checked in the last two years.
The director is quoted as saying "We're being very ruthless. A book is not forever."
I beg to differ. Putting aside exigencies like mold and fire, a book is forever. The piece in my last newsletter about the palimpsest from which our scientists are struggling to retrieve the remains of some of Archimedes's work puts the lie to that remark about as well as anything.
But more than that, what has happened to our idea of libraries? Aren't they repositories of a culture. A place where people can go to find To Kill a Mockingbird when the spirit moves them or when someone (Praise be!) chooses to talk to our young people again about tolerance. Or when . . . .well, you get the idea.
What about the concept of free press and free speech? What about the idea that ideas of all kinds should be available to our populace not just the popular ones. Who gets to judge what is popular anyway. We measure that with the number of times a book has been checked our or its political slant? I don't think we can trust that popular necessarily equates with quality or needed.
I'm really, really ticked off at this one. Of course all libraries can't keep every book that ever decked its stacks. Economics are a consideration. But I believe that we hire good librarians (and good directors) to make decent choices for the good of the community and it seems to me that this particular director got it wrong somewhere along the way.
I also believe that we get the kind of government (and libraries) we deserve. It looks as if we are all doomed.
Best,
Carolyn Howard-Johnson
HoJoNews@aol.com
http://carolynhoward-johnson.com
http://authorscoalitionandredenginepess.com and a blog focused on book fairs at
http://redenginepress.com/chjohnson and another blog that is just about writing and reading at www.sharingwithwriters.blogspot.com.
Saturday, January 06, 2007
Publishing Stupidity Running Amuck
Big publishers are discovering that fun promotion works. I cite two recent experiences that prove it. My friend, June Casagrande, pitched having bumper stickers that say Grammar Snobs Are Great Big Meanies made to her publisher (Penguin), and guess what! They did it.
Then, Time magazine ran an article (October 16, 2006) on how St. Martin's has taken to (my words) doing something more than running ads in the New York Times! The inspiration? Their author K'wan who wrote hip hop or street-lit like Gangsta.
So, "instead of signings at Barnes & Noble, St. Martins' is planning giveaway and readings in barber shops and beauty salons" . . . .ads on urban radio and an official Hood Rat mix tape CD.
Sorry, but if big publishers had spent less time ignoring (or dissing) independent authors and small presses, they'd have gotten the idea long ago. Two years ago the Authors' Coalition published a CD for our booth at the LA Times Festival of Books and, I guess you could say we got it because we're promotion-smart, too. We plan to do it again, so there!
Last year at the same fair, Joyce Faulkner , author of The Complete Writer tested magnet signs for her rental SUV. We may offer those soon on the Authors' Coalition site even though results were hard to measure. We did get some action from the press as we were carrying our bookshelves and signs in from the loading dock. They knew they'd seen something a little unusual and possibly even smart. So the street-smart author Time cites, Rentless Aaron, wasn't the first to plaster his car with signs. Maybe something just got into the air and spread.
Time says, "In an industry the considers ales of 20,000 a success, gritty steet-lit authors are routinely doubling that number." Where St. Martin's may have it over some of us is their budget and perhaps the genre itself.
OK, but it still seems big publishers have been monumentally slow learners in the face of the example of entrepreneurial authors I've seen at work. So, does anyone expect anyone to give us any credit? I, for one, don't. Time certainly didn't.
They mentioned Amazon which quashed the need for brick, mortar and shelves.
And they mentioned Vickie Stringer who just got tired of being at the mercy of others and self-published. As if that is news! She also founded her own publishing company and her own literary agency. Way to go, Miss Independent but many authors I know have been doing that since I got into the publishing business about seven years ago.
So, am I suggesting there's only one way to do things? Nope. I'm just saying that if we all got busy learning from one another, supporting one another, we just might all do better, big publishers included.
CHJ
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.
Then, Time magazine ran an article (October 16, 2006) on how St. Martin's has taken to (my words) doing something more than running ads in the New York Times! The inspiration? Their author K'wan who wrote hip hop or street-lit like Gangsta.
So, "instead of signings at Barnes & Noble, St. Martins' is planning giveaway and readings in barber shops and beauty salons" . . . .ads on urban radio and an official Hood Rat mix tape CD.
Sorry, but if big publishers had spent less time ignoring (or dissing) independent authors and small presses, they'd have gotten the idea long ago. Two years ago the Authors' Coalition published a CD for our booth at the LA Times Festival of Books and, I guess you could say we got it because we're promotion-smart, too. We plan to do it again, so there!
Last year at the same fair, Joyce Faulkner , author of The Complete Writer tested magnet signs for her rental SUV. We may offer those soon on the Authors' Coalition site even though results were hard to measure. We did get some action from the press as we were carrying our bookshelves and signs in from the loading dock. They knew they'd seen something a little unusual and possibly even smart. So the street-smart author Time cites, Rentless Aaron, wasn't the first to plaster his car with signs. Maybe something just got into the air and spread.
Time says, "In an industry the considers ales of 20,000 a success, gritty steet-lit authors are routinely doubling that number." Where St. Martin's may have it over some of us is their budget and perhaps the genre itself.
OK, but it still seems big publishers have been monumentally slow learners in the face of the example of entrepreneurial authors I've seen at work. So, does anyone expect anyone to give us any credit? I, for one, don't. Time certainly didn't.
They mentioned Amazon which quashed the need for brick, mortar and shelves.
And they mentioned Vickie Stringer who just got tired of being at the mercy of others and self-published. As if that is news! She also founded her own publishing company and her own literary agency. Way to go, Miss Independent but many authors I know have been doing that since I got into the publishing business about seven years ago.
So, am I suggesting there's only one way to do things? Nope. I'm just saying that if we all got busy learning from one another, supporting one another, we just might all do better, big publishers included.
CHJ
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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)