December 04, 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, 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_DEC_No1Week_2007.doc

In the spirit of the advice I give in the Frugal Editor, that is to use an extra pair of eyes whenever possible, this newsletter is voluntarily copyedited by Authors' Coalition member, Mindy Phillips Lawrence ~ mplcreative1@aol.com
www.freewebs.com/mplcreative
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Note from Carolyn:

Dear Subscribers and Authors' Coalition Members:

It isn't too late for you to gift a friend or yourself with the gift of reading or better writing. If you send me a check by Dec. 7th for any one (or more) of my books, I'll send them, postage free, and sign them to whomever you'd like.

It isn't too late for me to show my appreciation for your support. I'll also send you (or the friend you're gifting) my new Amazon Short, The Great First Impression Book Proposal: Everything You Need To Know To Sell Your Book in 20 Minutes or Less, or a handout I used for my class on promotion at UCLA. (You'll need to let me know which you prefer - - both will come by e - mail so give me that info, too.) I'll also cover the tax and send the book(s) postage paid.

Here are your choices:

The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success $18.95

The Frugal Book Promoter: How to Do What Your Publisher Won't $17.95

This Is the Place, a novel that will help you better understand the place that Mitt Romney calls Zion $19.95.

Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered $19.95 True stories, poetically told.

Tracings, a chapbook of poetry, awarded for excellence by the Military Writers Society of America. $12.00

Send the check to
Carolyn Howard - Johnson, US Post Office Box 1101, La Canada, CA., 91012 - 1101

Happy, happy writing and promoting and, yes, EDITING, too.

Carolyn Howard - Johnson
Websites: http://carolynhoward - Johnson.com (literary)
http://HowToDoItFrugally.com (all things about writing)
Authors' Coalition: http://www.AuthorsCoalitionandRedEnginepress.com
For the Frugal Editor, Amazon - direct: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0978515870/
Blogs: http://AuthorsCoalition.blogspot.com, a blog focused on book fairs
http://www.SharingwithWriters.blogspot.com, a blog on all things publishing
http://www.TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog focused on YOUR reviews
http://www.TheFrugalEditor.blogspot.com, a blog focused on editing, formatting and craft

PS: The Amazon Short will come directly from Amazon, and you'll need to download it, so watch for it in your e - mail box.

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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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Letters to the Editor

Hi Carolyn,
You just saved me HOURS with the tip on how to replace double spaces with single spaces.[See last week's newsletter or go to www.thefrugaleditor.blogspot.com] THANK YOU!!!
Meg Rottman, author of Shoe Time, published Arbor House, 1985, and The Exchange, a novel about exchange students facing the conflicts of war and coming of age in 1970 Germany.
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TIP: Sharing with Writers subscriber, May Lattanzio sends this link for resources.
http://book - publicity.blogspot.com/.There is a charge for the services they offer but they are small. You may want to check out the Resources for Writers page on my website, www.howtodoitfrugally.com before you pay for a list. Mine are all f r ^ ^.
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Tip: There is a well - received computer program out there for only $99.99 (maybe less if you know how to navigate the Web for a better price) that will let you dictate your next novel and even edit it, all by speaking. For some writers this could be a miracle in the making. It is Dragon's Naturally Speaking. Try it at www.nuance.com/talk .
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Tip: Poet and actor Beth Brusio suggest poets subscribe to American Poetry Review, http://www.aprweb.org/issues/current/. It is only 14.99. a year and, in addition to poems, it includes resources for submission.
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Sharing Newsletters

Tidbit on Postage from the Midwest Review

I love Jim Cox's newsletter. He's the guru behind the Midwest Review; it is a generous effort he makes to help authors. In this month's edition he talked about fun, personalized postage stamps that one can order to help promote one's books. The stamps may not have been intended for that, but they sure enough can be used for that.

It seems that the holidays are an especially good time to utilize this service though it is probably too late to do it for this season. In fact, think of the opportunity for anyone with a Christmas title, a cover that somehow broadcasts Christmas cheer (Kristin Johnson, your Christmas Cookie book would be ideal, wouldn't it?). But Mothers Day is coming, too. There are Valentines to be sent in February. Spring is coming, the season of love and pastels.

I haven't tried the postage stamps, though I've mentioned them in this newsletter before. I do keep thinking about it. The cost puts me off a bit. Instead I have uses return labels from Vista Print (see elsewhere in this newsletter for a link to them) featuring, yes, my return address, but also my book covers and my website address.

Here's what Jim says:
Click here www.sharingwithwriters.blogspot.com for the resources and tax ideas Jim shared this month. You'll also find a link to subscribe to his newsletter.

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New members will help Authors' Coalition serve all its members better! Ask your writing friends to join at http://www.authorscoalitionandredenginepress.com/. Paid members get a favorite review posted, consideration for an interview or review in Yarnspinners and Wordweavers, ditto for The Fiction Flyer and Betty Dobson's Inkspotter. Membership is reasonable, too.
Tell friends to visit our blog. There they'll learn how to spark generally insipid book fairs by using value - added promotions. www.authorscoalition.blogpsot.com.
http://authorscoalitionandredenginepress.com
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More Blogging

Many of you know that in my writing I explore War. Peace. Tolerance. And their relationships. And that my grandson left yesterday for his second stint in Iraq. That compelled me to start a new blog. It is www.warpeacetolerance.blogspot.com. The first entry is up. Please go by to see what you can do to help our soldiers. I will continue to post new facts and figures in the "Overheard..." column at the bottom of the page as well as blog entries from those of you have written military - oriented books, etc. I would love it if you could find a way to work this link into your website.
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Tip: Here's a literary journal for you to explore. It may work for literary works - - including poems - - you have been saving. Now, tell me again. What are you saving them for?
http://www.wildviolet.net/submissions.html

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I just added my fifth blog to blogspot.com. Yes, I love it. This one is called War, Peace, Tolerance and Our Soldiers and it is where I get to nag and rag to try to make things better for them and maybe for the world. I'd love to have you leave a comment for its inaugural. www.warpeacetolerance.blogspot.com
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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 Allyn Evans for asking me to weigh in on an Amazon question she received from a writer and for publishing it, Q & A fashion (you all know how I love those!) at http://www.talkingallthingswrite.blogspot.com/ Allyn is author of Grab the Queen Power, and one of the Audio Divas who co - produced informational CDs for authors published by Double Dragon. See info on the audios elsewhere in this newsletter.
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To Susan Stephenson, Muse Marquee columnist, for listing How To Do It Frugally as one of Six Sensational Sites for Writers. Go to http://themusemarquee.tripod.com/id185.html

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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 at less per year than most sites charge for a single month (see the advertising tab at the top of the page). Authors' Coalition www.authorscoalitionandredenginepress.com is also accepting ads.
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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 try to add new articles to it each week. If you don't see what you need for your blog, or newsletter, just ask. HoJoNews@aol.com.
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Author Successes

(If you read about others' successes you'll not only be inspired, you'll glean resources for future successes of your own. You are invited to send me news about your successes. Please use "AUTHOR SUCCESSES" as a subject lines.)

Kory Wells was one of my escorts at the recent Southern Festival of Books in Nashville. Like many of us, she enjoys writing both poetry and prose, but she also writes software code. Ladies Home Journal has lauded her writing that "resonates" in the anthology She’s Such a Geek: Women Write About Science, Technology and Other Nerdy Stuff. But her most recent publication is not one bit nerdy: read her evocative short - short story "Swing" on Pindeldyboz at http://www.pindeldyboz.com/kwswing.htm.

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Fun and F r * *: If you purchased The Frugal Book 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 The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success that is now available on Amazon. The excerpt includes some of the sidebars from the book that may help you with some tricky grammar. As a thank you, of course. HoJoNews@aol.com. .
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Serial Feature

On Green Responsibility

In the next few issues Diane Tinney will share ways that you might green up your office.

Replace all equipment without energy star sleep mode.
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Offered by Diane Tinney, president and publisher, Keene Publishing, Home of Moo Press Children's Books
www.KeeneBooks.com
Illuminating lives, one book at a time.

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Don't suffer with book proposals. You can be a pro with and investment of only 20 minutes and 49 cents with my Great First Impression Book Proposal Short.
http://www.amazon.com/Great - First - Impression - Book - Proposal/dp/B000YG6O5U
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Tip: From Editor Janet Elaine Smith: "There is a terrific book that is available on Amazon, The PC is not a Typewriter. It deals with all the things that have changed like one space at the end of a sentence instead of two. It is written by a gal named Robin Williams (definitely not the actor). I highly recommend it for anybody who learned to type on a typewriter and still has trouble figuring out how things have changed.

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A general marketing rule is that a product must be seen seven times before it is purchased. That is just as true for books (because they are products, like it or not!). Let people see that book cover image! To do that, you are invited to advertise as a site sponsor at www.howtodoitfrugally.com for only $25 to $30 a year. Yep, the frugal way! Click on the Advertising tab at the top of the page or contact me personally at HoJoNews@aol.com.
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Tip: Poetry Resources
Lois Jones, a new poetry critique friend of mine, suggests a forum for critique. It is www.wildpoetryforum.com. She gives these guidelines for using it:
"Creative Visualization is for light to medium feedback
Biofeedback is for Heavy Crit
Sublux is for a poem that is very rough draft and is also frequented by new poets." Lois is also an independent publisher. Her website is www.wordwalkerpress.com.

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Available: Audios from Audio Divas on many aspects of building a writing career are published by Double Dragon Press. Here is the page where you'll find the full list (http://www.double - dragon - ebooks.com/eAuthor.php?Name=Carolyn%20Howard - Johnson ) including one on "Do It Yourself Indexing." The first audio, "Promoting Easy and Cheap!" is a
F R ^ ^ sample you can download. Each comes with a resource guide. Here is an example of a guide for the audio - lesson Your Divas did on "Contests": http://www.derondouglas.com/audiosample/AwardResourceGuideContests.pdf
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Tip: Headshot/photo resources for you here. They're all LA professionals who work with actors. Consider having this done when you come to LA for your book signing in Authors' Coalition's LA Times/UCLA Festival of Books booth. The time you spend here becomes a business expense.
Jessica Pettyjohn, www.headshots101.com, 818 237 3044
Michelle Ingkvet, www.miphotostudio.com, 310 2134 7553
Deb Vancelette Photography, www.photographychick.com, 310 418 0933
Low - Cost AuthorShots, http://flickr.com/photos/ucarr (Uriah did my yellow - blouse photos.)

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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.
You know you want it on your website! Be sure to link it to the AC site, too!
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In the News

So, OK. Google's news isn't always about authors. This week they're making news because they plan to help end the world's reliance on coal as an energy source. Still, some news has ramifications that aren't at first evident. To save energy they might encourage people (like authors!) to store their personal files (your books and promo material?) on Google machines rather than your personal machine.

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Authors' Coalition: No Hum - Drum Book Fair Promotion Allowed is a blog where you can watch how Authors' Coalition members make book fairs successful with cross - promotion, value - added promotions and a good assessment process. Find it at www.authorscoalition.blogspot.com. It's time to sign up for 2008's LA Times/UCLA Book Fair.
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Help: I am looking for anti - bias sites as well as sites that promote peace to link to on the tolerance page of my website. If any of you have any favorites, please send me the URLs. E - mail me at HoJoNews@aol.com.

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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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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.)

Short Story Resources:

The Short Story Website (UK) - http://www.theshortstory.org.uk/introduction.html

List of Short Story Publishers - http://www.topicsites.com/publishers/short - story.htm

Short Story E - zines - http://www.maryzwolf.com/epub3.html - - - - -
Find Elizabeth at http://www.authorsden.com/elucastaylor or her new blog at http://www.elucas - taylor.blogspot.com/ or at MySpace http://www.myspace.com/elucastaylor
where you will find a writers' community.

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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 any of my books - - the HowToDoItFrugally Series to my chapbook of poetry - - for a place on my Resources for Writers or Resources for Readers pages on www.HowToDoItFrugally.com.
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In the News

Amazon is making news again. This time with Kindle. It's more like reading an actual book because of its size for one thing. It will hold your books (up to 200 of them). It will be $399. You can buy a book anywhere you can get a cell phone signal. And the screen doesn't fade in light. The best thing - - for me at least - - is that notes can be put in the margins! But the Kindle books are also cheap. It's a boon for travelers but also for those who want to curl up with an afghan around their legs to read. Yes, I'll be making The Frugal Editor a Kindle book. How could I not? You'll need direct reports from me, won't you?

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I use Vista Print for lots of my promotional materials. Be aware that shipping prices may fluctuate depending on the deal of the moment. Please use this link:
http://www.vistaprint.com/frf?frf=815651421184
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Web Advice from WebforAuthors.com Expert Marshall Turner

Selling Through Your Website 4
Hosted Shopping Cart
In the previous newsletter, I discussed the expense and trouble of having your own shopping cart. An alternative is to use a hosted
cart. Hosted means it’s someone else’s shopping cart and you only pay a small monthly fee (and perhaps a transaction fee).
Don’t overlook providing information on ordering the old fashion way - - by phone or by mail. Some buyers are still not comfortable with placing orders online.
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Learn more about WebforAuthors.com at http://www.webforauthors.com/ or contact Marshall at mturner@webforauthors.com.


======================================================= The New Book Review is a service of this newsletter and Authors' Coalition. It allows authors to get more exposure from their favorite review and reviewers a chance to have more readers see their reviews - - with links, of course. Please check the guidelines on the blog site at www.TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com. ========================================================

E - Tips for E - Promotion

Use Amazon's widgets on your website and in your blog to encourage people to buy your books. When your visitors use them to click through to Amazon, you get paid. A small amount but it can add up. Go to Amazon Associates link to learn how to do it. Check out my new blog, www.thefrugaleditor.blogspot.com and others to see how I've used them.
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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 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.)

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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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Opportunities:

A Journal I Published in may be right for you. Go to Life in the USA magazine, http://www.lifeintheusa.com/magazine . Editor Elliot Essman instituted a new section for stories to accommodate my "A Not - So - Stupid - Crook Story." His magazine appeals to the political types, to emigrants, tourists and others who want to know more about life in the USA. All articles are publicized to several thousand services on the web through an RSS feed.
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Call for Submissions

For Adams Media's new Hero series, we seek fifty 850 - 1200 word true
stories on hero - moms no later than December 15, 2007. We pay $100 per story (one per volume), plus a copy of the book, and we will also award three prizes $100, $75, and $50 for the top three stories—and a free copy of the published book. Please click on www.literarycottage.com and review "Hero Series Guidelines" where sample stories are available. Stories must be true and uplifting.
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Apollos Lyre has a Junior Muses page. This feature offers young people a chance to show off their work and be encouraged by others. You'll see how it works at http://www.apollos - lyre.com/apollosjuniormuses/id28.html . So, do you know any young writer?
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Promotion Idea Contest

Submitted by Kathe Gogolewski, author and editor of Fiction Flyer
No entry fee and modest cash prizes
From TRI STUDIO LLC, www.tri - studio.com
Deadline, Jan. 31, 2008

As published writers and authors, we all know what's expected of us: Write, write, write and then promote, promote, promote. All of us are inclined toward the former, but many of us struggle with the latter.

Perhaps it doesn't have to be that way. Maybe we can enjoy even this. That's what we're hoping to achieve with the Out - of - the - Box Promo Contest: We want to discover fun and interesting ways to promote our work and not compromise certain values, such as achieving fame and
riches without advertising. Yeah, right.

Seriously, we are looking for different and creative promotional ideas for writers, not yet tested or tried. New technology might be employed in this promotional idea; networking with other authors may be part of the plan. Perhaps it's a funny idea, like writing interviews between the author and a main character in his or her book (Sorry! That's been done!) Strange ideas are okay, too. Maybe a group of authors singing in one of their own complaint choirs in a city square will work (no kidding – it's a new phenom!) Check out this
site: http://www.complaintschoir.org/

Perhaps you have an idea for a collective effort for a YouTube project. Maybe a podcast project…whatever it is, if it's ethical and possible, we want to hear about it.

 There are modest cash prizes for winners. All the best ideas will be published for all of us to consider. Perhaps we can even organize a project together, hm? Maybe this promo stuff isn't so bad after all…

Here's the guidelines:
1. Create an idea in 400 words or less. Remember, we're looking for
untried creative and original promotional ideas. Provide specifics. Suggest a link to technology, if it's used. Links to help illustrate any idea are welcome, but remember, your idea has to be original, so the link can provide the tool for your idea or some facet of it, but not the entire idea.
2. Submit ideas in the body of the email. Graphic attachments (drawings) explaining your idea are okay, too.
3. Make Kathe happy and use Arial 10 point font.
4. Submit to kgogolewski@sbcglobal.net with "Out of the Box" written in the subject heading. Also, entrants must subscribe to the free e - zine for writers, The Fiction Flyer. Send an email to me (same addy) with E - ZINE written in the subject heading. Archived issues are here if you want to see what they're all about: www.tri - studio.com/ezine.html.

 5. If two ideas are identical, the one that reached us first will win.

Prizes:
First place idea gets $10; second and third receive $5 each. We'll publish up to three honorable mentions. Have fun with this!

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Carolyn's Appearances and Teaching:

Carolyn Howard - Johnson will be Valerie Connelly's guest on her webinar Dec. 5th, 2007. The two will talk book promotion ad infinitum. There will be a printable agenda and follow - along materials prior to the event as well as a downloadable PDF of the Web screen shots and an MP3 recording of the webinar available to registered attendees. There is a charge. Space is limited. Please register before Dec. 4. For more information or to register, contact Valerie at info@callingallauthors.org.
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Carolyn Howard - Johnson talks to Valerie Connelly's radio audience on "Editing as Branding: Spelling success from queries to your book's manuscript." Circle your calendar on Wednesday December 12th at 8PM Eastern, 7PM Central, 5PM Pacific time. A downloadable MP3 recording of the webinar will be available to registered attendees after the event. Sign up by Dec. 11th. Space is limited. Contact Valerie at info@callingallauthors.org or Nightengale Press, publisher@nightengalepress.biz
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Listen to Phil Harris interview Carolyn Howard - Johnson and Nikki Leigh live on his radio show on Monday, Dec. 17 at 5 pm. Or download the program. Both ways of listening are at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/pharris .
We'll be taking questions so call in on the toll free line - - 718 - 508 - 9893. Phil says we'll have the "hottest tips on book promotion and what authors really should do to start the New Year off with a bang!"

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Sign up to receive a copy of my Sharing with Writers blog in your e - mail box. It is a focused blog on all things related to writing and publishing. Go to www.sharingwithwriters.blogspot.com. Sign up in the left hand column. Find related resources by scrolling to the bottom of the blog.
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Feature

The New Media Darling – Podcasting

By Mindy Phillips Lawrence


Radio’s new incarnation—the podcast—has become a great way for authors to promote their work. Wikipedia defines a podcast as “a digital media file, or a related collection of such files, which is distributed over the Internet using syndication feeds for playback on portable media players and personal computers.” It can mean either the content or the method of syndication (podcasting). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podcasting .

How is it helpful for writers? Here’s an example. One of my clients, Dr. Dan Skelton, is a multi - published author, poet, play director and actor. On Sunday, December 23, 2007, he will be the guest on Bev Walton - Porter’s Elemental Musings Podcast from 9pm until 10pm Mountain Time (10pm - 11pm Central) at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/scribequill . The neat thing is people can call (646) 595 - 4704 while he is on the air and ask him questions about writing and about his work.

Any writer can use podcasting as a means of promotion. Go to either podcast.net or podcast.com and look for available podcasts. You can also go to www.howtodoitfrugally.com and see what Carolyn Howard - Johnson has to say about promoting your work. There’s lots of information there.

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Carolyn's Appearances and Teaching for 2008:

Carolyn will speak on Jan 2, 2008, at Ridge Writers, the East Sierra Branch of the California Writers Club founded more than 100 years go by Jack London and friends in the Bay area. They provide f r ^ ^ programs for writers at High Desert Haven in Ridgecrest. Learn more at www.ridgenet.net/ ~curtdan/ridgewriters.
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Please join Carolyn Howard - Johnson for the f r ^ ^ January Wasabi Club meeting, a teleseminar the last Friday of every month at 1 pm ET/10 am PT where you can learn from the PR pros about how to conduct a savvy PR campaign. To join, please visit the 'Wasabi Club' page at www.wasabipublicity.com.
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Carolyn Howard - Johnson will be Valerie Connelly's guest on her Teleseminar March 19th, 2008 at 8PM Eastern, 7PM Central, and 5 PM Pacific Time. The subject is: "It's Your Call: Frugal Book Promotion with Carolyn Howard - Johnson." A downloadable MP3 recording of the Teleseminar is available to registered attendees after the event. Please sign up by March 18th. Space is limited. Let Valerie tell you more about it at info@callingallauthors.org.
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Carolyn Howard - Johnson will share with the nation's humor writers again in April 3 - 5 of 2008 at Dayton University's Erma Bombeck Writers' Workshop. She'll speak twice at the Kennedy Union on campus. http://www.humorwriters.org/ Registration opens Sept. 10, 2007. Find some of the nation's best speakers here: http://www.humorwriters.org/2008SpeakerBios.html. This conference sold out 77 hours after opening registration. It is not too early to be thinking about 2010.
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Carolyn will teach a new seminar on the UCLA campus on March 22, 2008, room 1323 Public Service Building. It's called The Business of Writing: Carve Your Career with Great Queries and Covers. Here's the class description: "You've written your story, your poem, your book. What now? You've tackled your craft like a professional but when it comes to introducing yourself to the decision makers—the marketing and editing part of your work—you may show a lack of expertise with seemingly innocuous departures from accepted procedures - - like using a cover letter when you need a query. In this one - day seminar, the students will use basics taught in the class to critique drafts of letters they have brought with them. In the process you'll get grammar, punctuation, and even computer editing tricks you may apply to your other writing as well as your queries. You'll receive a handout of the do’s and don'ts for approaching gatekeepers straight from the mouths of agents who contributed ideas on the subject for the instructor's book on editing and samples of letters that have produced results. Participants will not only walk away with two letters they can be proud to send out, but will also have a low - cost plan for using them effectively in a variety of ways." So, are you all planning to come to spend a weekend in the sunshine in LA and make it a business expense? ( - :

To enroll call Marcus Hennessey, 310 267 4888, or go to www.uclaextension.edu and enroll for 735.18, Registration # T6393.
Or go to www.uclaextension.edu. Because it is a one - day seminar, it is less than $100.
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Carolyn Howard - Johnson will appear on Write On Four Corners with host Connie Gotsch on KSJE FM Public Radio broadcast from San Juan College. Access the program at: www.ksje.com 10:30 am Wed. 2:30 pm Fri. Mountain Time. Click on the website to listen live in your appropriate time zone. Connie is the author of the mystery suspense novel Snap Me a Future as well as host of Roving with the Arts on KSJE and regular contributor to The Four Corners Free Press www.fourcornersfreepress.com
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Wordstuff ™

Something to Make Writers Smile

(Definitions in the next few newsletters are from http://www.butlerwebs.com/jokes/definitions.htm .You might have some favorite neologisms metaphors or similes that make you smile. If so, please contribute.)
"ABASH: A high school graduation party."

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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 How To Do It Frugally Series of books for writers,

www.howtodoitfrugally.com.

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/

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.

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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/

The second in the How To Do It Frugally series of books, The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success, is available at Amazon at
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0978515870/


The Great First Impression Book Proposal: Everything You Need To Know About Selling Your Book in 20 Minutes or Less, will soon be available on Amazon as a Short for 49 cents.