April 2007
Sharing with Writers
A newsletter that is also a community. Share your ideas. Learn from theirs!
From the Desks of
Carolyn Howard-Johnson and Authors' Coalition Friends
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"Sharing with Writers" is the official newsletter of Authors' Coalition,

http://authorscoalitionandredenginepress.com

an organization of writers who help writers.

To read this letter in plain vanilla text, just scroll down. To read this newsletter with a bit more pizzazz (not much, though!) at Authors Den go to:

http://www.AuthorsDen.com/adstorage/1713/Sharingwithwriters_April_No3Week2007.doc

The LA fair is one of the nation's biggest and most prestigious with more than 130,000 visitors and the power of the LA Times behind it.

Please come. Your fellow subscribers and Authors' Coalition members will be at booth #610 near the food aisle. Available opportunities for the CD, video/slideshow, and catalogue are closed but will open again on May 1 for the Hollywood Book Fair.
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Note from Carolyn:

My fellow AC Members and SWW Subscribers:

Wahhhhh! I've never taught a spring quarter course at UCLA before. I'd been told that classes tended to be smaller in spring and never believed it. I never believed in Spring Fever, either.

Now, I'm a believer. Tomorrow (Saturday April 14), I'm teaching a class that shows how to building a platform before your book is published and how to use that platform as the basis for your book's campaign. Administration has put me in a beautiful theater-like room in the Public Policy Building and I have only 12 students! Spring fever has indeed become a reality or I'm going to have to start reeducating authors to the idea that their very writing careers right down to the acceptance of their manuscript can depend on their ability to brand and promote themselves.

I know I'm preaching to the choir here. Those of you who subscribe to this letter are already on the right track. My concern is, of course, for my class but really for the larger community. If you know an author who is slacking a tad (or a lot) on the things you know he or she should be doing to make his or her writing soar, please! This newsletter is waiting for them (free)! The Frugal Book Promoter is waiting for them (about $11 on Amazon). The Frugal Editor is coming (and yes, good editing is part of your branding). If he or she lives in Southern California and can make last minute plans for a class, mine is waiting for them! (Really! Only $98. ) And there are dozens of books that I list on my Amazon Listmanias that will help them (no, I'm not proprietary! I think my book is best because it's so practical but any one of the others will be good, too!) Send them to http://www.amazon.com/gp/richpub/listmania/byauthor/A3JH18T58CY65P/ref=cm_pdp_lm_seeAll/002-3692730-7456014. There they can pick up lists of books that might help them (there are a few you may want to read there, too!) by choosing the lists with the Frugal cover showing.

So, you can see, it's not that my class is going to be small that bothers me. We will have a ball learning, lunching at LuValle Commons, picking up a UCLA souvenir at the bookstore. People will even be able to see how they begin setting up for the LA Times/UCLA Festival of Books weeks beforehand! It's the authors' careers I'm worried about. I don't get paid a stitch more for 100 than for 12. (-:

Oh, anyone who might want to show up, we'll be accepting students at the door and particulars on the class are below in this newsletter under "Carolyn's Appearances."

Happy writing and promoting,

Carolyn Howard-Johnson
HoJoNews@aol.com
Websites: http://carolynhoward-johnson.com and www.HowToDoItFrugally.com
http://authorscoalitionandredenginepess.com Blogs: A blog focused on book fairs at
http://redenginepress.com/chjohnson and another blog that is about writing and reading at www.sharingwithwriters.blogspot.com.

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Subscribers who have websites or newsletters of their own may be interested in the Free Articles 4 Readers and Writers on my site, www.howtodoitfrugally.com. I add new articles to it each week. If you don't see what you need, just ask. HoJoNews@aol.com.
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Letter-to-the-Editor

Carolyn,

It’s always a thrill for me to come home and read these e-mails (newsletters). When I start getting really tired from the day, like now, it just pumps me up! . . .
By the way, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

My birthday is this month too!

Janet :-) Goliger
CLASS Publications
P.O. Box 56022
Sherman Oaks, CA 91413-1022
Phone/Fax: 818-990-9909
http://www.classpublications.com/
janet@classpublications.com
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Feature

Promotion: Do What Feels Good

By Kevin Gerald Kilpatrick

On Friday, March 30, 2007, I visited La Paloma School in Fallbrook, CA. I had arranged an author talk with the school librarian, Beverly Sherman (the initial contact with Ms. Sherman came about after I left a voice mail message and sent a postcard to the school).

After previously visiting the school and checking the multi-purpose room, I arrived on the 30th with my laptop, projector, and speakers in tow. I had 30 minutes to set up before three sixth grade classes entered the room.

I love Powerpoint, and I create phenomenal presentations. When the students entered, I had a huge image of my book cover on the screen. This was accompanied by some new age meditation music, which set the mood perfectly. The kids came in, sat down, and I passed out postcards to every one of them. The librarian introduced me, and being the ham that I am, I took over from there.

I had them eating out my hand in thirty seconds. I asked them a few questions before showing them a presentation about the fantasy adventure series I've created. After that I took questions, and there were quite a few. When I finished and thanked them for letting me visit their school, the students crowded around me, asking me to sign their postcards. They reached out, trying to touch me; I felt like the Dalai Lama after returning to Tibet. It was a heady experience, and it couldn't have gone any better.

The librarian bought three books. Two of the groups are reading my story in their classrooms. They put a poster of the book cover up on the wall.

I work my tail off promoting my book and its sequels. Most of the time it's mundane. Sometimes it's painful. On March 30, 2007, I was a hero to a hundred sixth graders.
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Kevin Gerard Kilpatrick
The Crossworlds Series
http://www.conorandthecrossworlds.com/

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If you enjoy "Sharing with Writers" please nominate it for Writer's Digest's 101 Best Newsletters for Writers. We aren't big, we aren't old. So it would take a huge outpouring from subscribers to make a dent. Send an e-mail to writersdig@fwpubs.com with subject line, "101 Best Newsletters for Authors" and let them know what this newsletter does for you!
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Thank Yous

(There are leads here, just as you'll find in all the most innocent-looking areas of this newsletter. You never know when you'll find a name or a site that will help you network or write better!)

To Janet Elaine Smith marketing director of Star Publish (and writing star in her own right!) and editor of Star's newsletter, Star Publish News. She included the information on promoting on Amazon that I plogged on Amazon about her. If you'd like to see it, go to: http://starpublishnews.tripod.com/. Be sure to click on the Industry News link at the top of the page. You can also find my other blog/plogs on my AmazonConnect ™ page at http://www.amazon.com/gp/pdp/profile/A3JH18T58CY65P/002-3692730-7456014/ And, in the future, if you'd like to receive that plog regularly, there is a place to sign up for it on that same Amazon page.
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To Sassy Brit for including the media release for the poetry seminar and reading I'm doing at the Glendale library on April 21 at http://tjbook-list.blogspot.com/2007/04/497-poetry-dont-let-it-molder-in-drawer.html
You can join her group and she'll do the best she can for you, too! BTW, I'm introducing two new poetry voices, young Armenian women, Sona Ovasapyan and Christina Alexanians.
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To Lea Schizas, Mother Hen to many and mentor to writers. See what she is doing to help writers at no cost with her Muse Online Writers Conference(see below under Carolyn's Appearances) and visit her to see her many other enterprises that may be of benefit to you at: http://leaschizaseditor.tripod.com/
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To Marilyn Meredith, seasoned crime author (http://fictionforyou.com/), is giving away my Frugal Book Promoter as a door prize at the Public Safety Writers Conference in Las Vegas. She's on a promotion panel and has Frugal listed on her handouts. Check out her blog at
http://marilynmeredith.blogspot.com/

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No part of this newsletter is paid advertising. If you would like to advertise to subscribers, display ads are available at www.howtodoitfrugally.com (see the advertising tab at the top of the page) or at www.authorscoalitionandredenginepress.com.
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News:

Kurt Vonnegut, after 84 years and 25 years of literary fame, is no longer with us. The LA Times says his famous Slaughterhouse Five is a book he "tried but failed to write for 25 years." Persistence, my fellow authors. Persistence. Kurt himself said, " . . . .when a society is in great danger, [writers are] likely to sound the alarms . . . . "I continue to think that artists -- all artists -- should be treasured as alarm systems."

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Please pass this letter on to others. Unlike many others, I do not mind if you use only portions of it as long as you credit the writers and include this subscribe information. "To subscribe to 'Sharing with Writers' send an e-mail to HoJoNews@aol.com with 'subscribe' in the subject line."
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Publishing Facts:

The History Channel aired a piece on the monster machines of our time last night. Featured was the Indianapolis Star's new printing plant. Seeing this monster convinced me that publishing (journalism in particular) may not be in as much danger as we hear. This press rumbles along as 25,000 miles per hour (I think I heard that right!), prints 300,000 newspapers per hour, uses 200,000 gallons of ink a year, and cost 72 million. A dying industry doesn't need that kind of output. Oh, it is also fully computerized and operates with little buttons like the ones on the copy machine down at Mailboxes Etc. (-:

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We have room because of a cancellation for one more one-hour signing segment at the LA Fair. CD and Catalog opportunities are closed but will be available again for the North Hollywood Book Fair in September.
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Editing Tip:
Direct from The Frugal Editor which will soon be available on Amazon. Remove the little end-spaces that you probably automatically type in at the end of your paragraphs. Your formatter is not going to like them.

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New members will help Authors' Coalition serve all its members better! Ask your writing friends to join at http://authorscoalitionandredenginepress.com. Paid members get a favorite review posted, consideration for an interview or review in Yarnspinners and Wordweavers. Membership is reasonable, too. We're even planning a speakers' bureau.

Tell friends to visit our blog. There they'll learn how to spark generally insipid book fairs by using value-added promotions: http://redenginepress.com/chjohnson .

http://authorscoalitionandredenginepress.com
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Author Successes

(You are invited to send me news about your successes. New books, awards and more. If you read about others' successes you'll not only be inspired, you'll glean resources for future successes of your own. Please get in the habit of using subject lines, though, that will not be interpreted as spam.)

Cynthia Brian was featured on ABC in San Francisco area. See what she is doing to help literacy in a clip from the program at http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=abc7_salutes&id=5189819.
Learn more about her at www.cynthiabrian.com

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Fun and F r * *: If you purchased Promoter in the past, I'd love for you to review it on Amazon or BN.com. Make it simple; just tell what part of it you found most valuable. If you do, send me the review link (URL) and I will send you an excerpt from my soon-to-be-released The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success that includes some sidebars from the book that will help you with some tricky grammar. As a thank you, of course. HoJoNews@aol.com, the Frugal Book
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Opportunities

Subscriber Offers Promotion/Publishing Savvy Fellow Authors Supplemental Income

West Coast Reps Wanted!
Exclusive state territories are available for reps with a complete home office and unlimited telephone calling system. You will be sending our media releases and e-books to directors of libraries and independent bookstores. You will make follow-up calls. No selling required! The publisher supplies a report page to track all sales. Reps work on commission earning $0.50 for each book ordered. Reps must submit weekly contact reports to our home office by e-mail. Commissions are paid quarterly. Please send your cover letter and résumé to: jerrypinault@hotmail.com or you may visit http://www.poemsonlifeandlove.com/. Begin working no later than May 1, 2007.

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Carolyn's next one-day seminar on building a promotion campaign for your book is April 14 at UCLA's Public Policy building, 9:30 am. Registrations are available at the door.
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Feature

Member Shares "Frugal" Printing Idea for Coming Fair Season

One of our LA Times Festival of Books participants shares her printing experience with you. Her contact information is below if you have any questions.

Janet Goliger says,
"...I’m definitely doing it frugally!

"I checked all over the internet and locally only to find that running even 100 copies of my color flyer on plain white paper would cost $60 - $80 minimum, plus tax or shipping. Well I gave this a little more thought and I came up with this little idea. I picked up a box of heavy weight Kodak Matte Paper (double sided) at Costco for only $15 then purchased a photo print cartridge on Ebay for $10.15 ($14 including the shipping fee). I am printing as we speak and I am so impressed with the quality, and that I can print about 200 copies easily if I need to, maybe more. Total cost = $29! And it’s not even time consuming! I just press the button and walk back in to find them all printed beautifully on nice card stock.
Just thought I would share this with you and anyone else who might be interested. Please share with others if you like.
Janet :-) "
Don’t forget to get your copy of Janet’s new book,
“I need to be SAFE: I’m worth it!”
A unique book for children and parents
with safety and survival techniques that WORK!
http://www.classpublications.com/

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Carolyn's Appearances and Teaching:

& Carolyn Howard-Johnson's new course at UCLA is Creating a Promotion Package for Your Fiction or Nonfiction Book (Engl. 735.1, Reg. #S9465). It is scheduled for April 14, 2007, one day only. On the UCLA campus, Public Policy Building, Room 1278, 9:30 am to 4:30 pm. By advance registration or registration 1/2 hour before class.
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& Coming Saturday April 21, 2007 at 10 am. Led by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, Poetry! Don't Let It Molder in a Drawer, Publish It! A seminar and poetry reading at the Glendale City Central Library (California) in the auditorium featuring Sona Ovasapyan and Christine Alexanians.
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& Mark April 28th and 29, 2007, for the LA Times/UCLA Festival of Books. Go to www.redenginepress.com/chjonson for the fair-focused blog with details on how even out-of-towners can participate.
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& Carolyn will sit on a publishing/writing career panel for UCLA's Career Program. April 10, at the Career center, corner Strathmore and Westwood (near the campus) in Westwood, CA . 5 pm to 7 pm.
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& Carolyn will be speaking to PEN USA's Emerging Voices fellows in May at Antioch University. This is a closed event but you can learn more about the program for yourself or to help other talented writers by going to www.penusa.com.
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&Free Frugal Editor for Publishing Professionals a BEA! Carolyn will be at the Biblio Booth at Javits Center in New York City at 1 pm Friday, June 1, signing her new The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success.
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& Carolyn will train American Business Women of America's (ABWA) newsletter editors publish prize-winning, professional periodicals June 9th at their regional convention in Downey, CA.
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& Romance Writers Everywhere! Come to the meeting I'll be speaking at on Saturday, June 16th, in San Diego to meet me and the National President of Romance Writers of America (Jill Limber) who will speak on writing a great synopsis--something most of us aren't that adept at (for lack of practice if nothing else). I'll speak at 10 am, she'll speak after lunch. Lunch and meetings at the Mission Valley Handley Hotel is $25 for members, $30. for nonmembers.
For reservations contact hospitality chairwoman Mary Galusha at: marydave66@yahoo.com . Please copy Linda Sundstrom, lsundstrom@ucsd.edu if you want to arrange seating at my table. The group's website is www.rwasd.com.
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& Carolyn will be interviewed by popular author and marketer Janet Elaine Smith hosts an online radio program, "Marketing for Fun and Profit," every Monday evening at July 9 p.m. ET on http://internetvoicesradio.com/ .
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& Carolyn will speak on Your Media Release: You Write So You Can Do It! September 8, 2007 at the Valley Cities Jewish
Community Center in Sherman Oaks, CA www.CalWritersSFV.com
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& Carolyn will moderate a panel on publishing at the West Hollywood Book Fair on September 30. Circle your calendars. It's f r ^ ^ Even those who are old hands at publishing will learn something new, I promise!
West Hollywood Park
647 N San Vicente Blvd.
West Hollywood, CA 90069
Learn more at http://www.westhollywoodbookfair.org/Mambo/
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& Carolyn will speak at the fourth Annual Pen to Paper Literary Symposium October 6, 2007, Dayton Marriott, 1414 S. Patterson Blvd Dayton, Ohio, 45409. The conference will include tracks for music and screenwriting, in addition to writing and publishing books. Start planning now to attend this elite event and take advantage of the early bird special (www.penofthewriter.com/pentopaper).
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& The f r ^ ^ Muse Online Writers' Conference, sponsored by Lea Schizas and Carolyn Howard-Johnson, is accepting early registration. More than 1,000 attended last year and openings are limited. Learn more about this year's conference, October 8 to 14, and how you can assure your spot 2007. We will present an all-new program soon. Go to:
http://www.freewebs.com/themuseonlinewritersconference/presentersregistration.htm
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For 2008! & As you can see 2008 is already beginning to fill. I will be sharing with the nation's humor writers again in the spring of 2008 at Dayton University's Erma Bombeck Writers' Workshop. I'll speak twice at the Kennedy Union on campus.

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Authors' Coalition members! For credibility, use the AC logo on your promotional materials. Ask for it by sending an e-mail to HoJoNews@aol.com or download it with a click from the AC site http://authorscoalitionandredenginepress.com.
Be sure to link it to the AC site, too!
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Web Advice from WebforAuthors.com Expert

From Marshall Turner

Use your website address on everything!
By getting your domain name and then launching your website early, you will be able to include your website address on your book cover, in interviews, in your email signature and in your printed collateral. I’ve seen several authors who have a web presence (from reviews and other mentions on various websites) but since they did not have a website at the time, there is no link back to their website. A missed opportunity!

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Marshall's website is http://www.webforauthors.com/ or contact him for information on producing a site for you at mturner@webforauthors.com.

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TIP:
For a reprise of an old article I wrote for this newsletter go to my AmazonConnect ™ blog at http://www.amazon.com/gp/pdp/profile/A3JH18T58CY65P/002-3692730-7456014. While you're there, won't you take a minute to leave a comment, perhaps on a way you use Amazon or The Frugal Book Promoter to promote your book? Then be sure to include the title of your book and your URL. This is part of what this article tries to get you to do, to utilize the promotion freebies available to you all the time at Amazon and elsewhere!

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Endorsement:
"www.HowToDoItFrugally.com , by Carolyn Howard--Johnson [is] a top website for writers . . . I'd say my ROI is over 1,000%. The advice is particularly strong in addressing the new author where they are in learning the publishing/selling process. Very practical. The site is excellent." ~ Hill Kemp, author of Capitol Offense, http://www.capitoloffense.com/, and contributor to Secrets, Fact or Fiction? I, ISBN 0-9737282-5-6 and Secrets, Fact or Fiction? II, ISBN 1-59594-062-6, LOC 2006904627, http://www.secretsfactorfiction.com
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Resources
From Elizabeth Lucas-Taylor

(Elizabeth contributes at least one valuable paying resource per SWW issue--either a great place to sell material or find writing craft or promotional idea--and sometimes throws in a resource for you.)

THE RAVEN CHRONICLES - Seeks nonfiction, fiction, columns/departments, photos/artwork. Subjects: art., literature, food, culture. Pays on publication. Deadline (scroll down for print issues):
Guidelines: http://www.ravenchronicles.org/raven/rvsubm.html

CONNIE MARTINSON TALKS BOOKS - a syndicated TV interview show filmed in LA. Info: http://www.conniemartinson.com/CMTB/home.html. Prefers traditionally published books.
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Find Elizabeth at http://www.authorsden.com/elucastaylor or her new blog at http://www.elucas-taylor.blogspot.com/

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Reciprocal Links: Many subscribers are in a position to cross-promote. Let me know if you would like to trade some recommendation or promotion for a place on my Resources for Writers or Resources for Readers pages on www.HowToDoItFrugally.com.
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Tip: I just posted another .pdf file on my site's "Media Room" The page is designed to help editors and people looking for speakers but it can help anyone who wants samples of how media kits can be targeted to different needs. Feel free to download all three to use as guidelines for your own. Then compare to see how each targets a different audience. It's a valuable lesson in making your kits work the best for you. The URL for my media room is http://www.carolynhowardjohnson.redenginepress.com/media_room1.htm

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When was the last time you bought a book from an author you know? Tracings, my new chapbook of poetry is available for that honor at www.amazon.com/gp/product/1599240173/qid=1141623936/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/002-4692447-2218401?s=books&v=glance&n=283155
but any book mentioned in any one of your Sharing with Writers newsletters would be a nice gesture. If all of us directed more of our reading to newer authors who write in genres we love or genres we need to stretch into, we would do ourselves and the publishing industry a great favor.
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Wordstuff ™
Something to Make Writers Smile:

(Every year the Washington Post conducts a neologism contest. These are the winners, one at a time. You might have some favorite neologisms metaphors or similes that make you smile. If so, please contribute.)

"Testicle (n.), a humorous question on an exam."

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"AC is the current that powers your writing career." http://authorscoalitionandredenginepress.com
Carolyn Howard-Johnson, Authors' Coalition Founder
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E-Tips for E-Promotion:

Peter Bowerman reminds writers that posting the same free article on both an article disseminator's site and on their own site may work to the detriment of the author because Google disfavors this approach. Recycling is a good thing, but apparently not in this case.
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This is a regular Sharing with Writers feature by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of USA Book News' Best Professional Book THE FRUGAL BOOK PROMOTER: HOW TO DO WHAT YOUR PUBLISHER WON'T and the soon-to-be released THE FRUGAL EDITOR: PUT YOUR BEST BOOK FORWARD TO AVOID HUMILIATION AND ENSURE SUCCESS. (E-tips for E-promotion was originally a regular feature of SellWritingOnline.com.)

========================================================If you enjoy "Sharing with Writers" please nominate it for Writer's Digest's 101 Best Newsletters for Writers. We aren't big, we aren't old. So it would take a huge outpouring from subscribers to make a dent. Send an e-mail to writersdig@fwpubs.com with subject line, "101 Best Newsletters for Authors" and let them know what this newsletter does for you!
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Essential Book and Record Keeping:

This letter is an entity of Authors' Coalition http://authorscoalitionandredenginepress.com

Edited and distributed by Carolyn Howard-Johnson,

http://carolynhoward-johnson.com

author of This Is the Place, Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered, Tracings, and The Frugal Book Promoter: How to Do What Your Publisher Won't, this is a place to share with others and learn from others.

Though I do attempt to verify information used within this newsletter's pages, Sharing with Writers does not guarantee entities or information. Subscribers should research resources

To submit information articles, tips or other information e-mail Carolyn at HoJoNews@aol.com . Please put "Submission: Sharing with Writers" in the subject line.

If you do not care to receive this letter, unsubscribe at HoJoNews@aol.com

Include "Unsubscribe" in the subject line but please, please don't tell me you've given up writing or promoting!

To subscribe to Sharing with Writers send an e-mail with "Subscribe" in the subject line to: HoJoNews@aol.com

Please pass this newsletter on to friends or e-groups. It needn't be pasted in its complete form, but please credit this newsletter, Authors' Coalition and the individual contributors with anything you snip and paste.

Order the Frugal Book Promoter: How to Do What Your Publisher Won't
at stores like UCLA, Dayton University and San Diego State University's bookstores. Order it as an e-book at http://starpublish.com/carolyn_howard-johnson.htm

or paperback at Amazon where it is discounted:
www.amazon.com/gp/product/193299310X/qid=1149015406/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/002-4692447-2218401?s=books&v=glance&n=283155

Tracings, a chapbook of poetry, published by Finishing Line Press may be ordered at www.amazon.com/gp/product/1599240173/qid=1139084827/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/103-7824821-4156653?s=books&v=glance&n=283155