Carolyn Howard-Johnson - Frugal Book Promoter

Carolyn Howard-Johnson is a multi award-winning novelist and poet. She is also the author of the award-winning series of books for writers, How to do it Frugally. Carolyn has been an instructor for nearly a decade at the renowned UCLA Extension Writers’ Program. She is visiting Writers in Business to announce her newest release, the second edition of the Frugal Book Promoter.

Welcome Carolyn! Congratulations on your new book! Please tell us about it.

The new edition of The Frugal Book Promoter is bigger (nearly twice as big!) and updated. This edition even has its own subtitle to reflect the broader audience it appeals to. It is - “Ta Da! How to get nearly free publicity on your own or by partnering with your publisher.” But it still has all the award-winning qualities of the first edition, maybe even more! This book is the self-promoter’s bible.

I’ve learned a lot from reading your books! You share great ideas that are affordable and easy to put into action. Could you share one tip with my readers?

Sure, the Internet is traditionally a place where freebies abound. To assure traffic to your site, give something away. E-books are a good way to start because they cater to our need for instant gratification (and information!).

I understand you have received some influential endorsements for this book.

Yes, Dan Poynter, author of The Self-Publishing Manual said “The most expensive parts of book promotion are the mistakes. This book will save you time and money.”

It has been honored by USA Book News and Los Angeles Book Festival.

Tony Eldridge, author and blogger at Marketing Tips for Authors also endorsed my book. He wrote “I love this book...it is the answer to an author's prayer. Most authors are shocked and unprepared for the marketing that goes into having a successful book. Carolyn creates a resource that you'll go to again and again for advice and instructions on promoting. Seldom do I see a resource packed with as much practical information as I see in The Frugal Book Promoter II."

This praise is well deserved. You have authored several books on effective, frugal promotion and I understand you also offer a newsletter for writers.

My newsletter, Sharing With Writers Sharing With Writers, is published semi-monthly and offers useful tips for writers including the craft of writing, marketing, promotion, editing and social networking. It’s a place where writers can come to learn and share what they know.

You can sign up for the newsletter by sending an email to HoJoNews@aol.com. Learn more about the Frugal Book Promoter and Carolyn’s other outstanding books by visiting her online at How to do it Frugally.com.

Revised - Frugal Book Promoter: Carolyn Howard-Johnson

Carolyn Howard-Johnson has just released the revised, second edition of her award winning book, The Frugal Book Promoter.
Carolyn joins us today to tell us more about this updated title.

Your first edition of The Frugal Book Promoter changed the way authors view their role in marketing their titles. What can we expect in this revised edition?

The content has been expanded to include simple ways to promote books using newer technology--always considering promotion and marketing techniques that are easy on the pocketbook and frugal of time. It also includes a multitude of ways for authors and publishers to promote the so-called hard-to-promote genres.

You'll also learn to write media releases, query letters and a knock 'em dead media kit--all tools that help an author find a publisher and sell their book once it's in print.

Specific updates include:

~ The basics that make you into an on-your-own publicist or a great partner

~ Chapters on what I call the "game changers"

~ Information on using online bookstores to your benefit

~ Making your blog actually work for you

Wow... this sounds amazing! You mentioned offering suggestions on how to work with technology. Can you share some of that information?

Sure, this new edition covers how to use the e-book format to promote sales, provides information on how to use Google Alerts to their full advantage and how to put together Power Point presentations. All very timely promotional tips.

I understand you have received rave reviews for this new edition including one from self-publishing guru Dan Poynter.

Yes, here are a few.

"If you're going to read only one book to get other people to read your book, it should be this one."
~ Tim Bete, director Dayton University's Erma Bombeck Writers' Workshop

" Unlike other books and articles on the subject, this one is detailed--and it's chock full of ideas that even seasoned book promoters will not have tried."
~ Dallas Hodder Franklin, editor of SellWritingOnline.com

"Howard-Johnson has the comforting tone of a mentor and writes with the precision of a surgeon."
~ Francine Silverman, author and editor of Book Promotion Newsletter

"The most expensive parts of book promotion are the mistakes. This book will save you time and money."
~ Dan Poynter, author of The Self-Pubishing Manual

Carolyn, thank you for joining us today to share your exciting news! How can we order a copy of the revised book?

You can order it online through my web site Frugal Book Promoter and through Amazon.com.

You can also visit Carolyn online at HowtodoitFrugally.com. She also offers a newsletter and blog filled with useful information.

15 Commandments for Getting FREE Publicity by Carolyn Howard-Johnson

A huge retailer once said that advertising works, we just don't know how, why, or where it works best. What we do know is that advertising's less mysterious cousin, publicity, works even better. It is the more reliable relative because it is judged on its merit alone and carries the cachet of an editor's approval. It also is surrounded by the ever-magic word free. The two are easily identified as kin.

15 Commandments for Getting FREE Publicity (An excerpt from The Frugal Book Promoter) By Carolyn Howard-Johnson

1. Educate yourself: Study other press releases. Read a book like Publicity Advice & How-To Handbook, by UCLA Marketing Instructor, Rolf Gompertz, a SPAN member. Order it by calling 818-980-3576. Join publicity oriented e-groups.

2. Read, read, read: Your newspaper. Your e-zines. Even your junk mail, a wonderful newsletter put out by the Small Publishers of North America (www.spannet.org) and one called The Publicity Hound (www.publicityhound.com.) My daughter found a flier from the local library in the Sunday paper stuffed between grocery coupons. It mentioned a display done by a local merchant in the library window. My second book, HARKENING: A COLLECTION OF STORIES REMEMBERED, became a super model in their lobby and I became a seminar speaker for their author series. Rubbish (and that includes SPAM) can be the goose that laid the golden egg.

3. Keep an open mind for promotion ideas: Look at the different themes in your book. There are angles there you can exploit when you're talking to editors. My first book, THIS IS THE PLACE is sort of romantic (a romance website will like it) but it is also set in Salt Lake City, the site where the winter games were played in 2002 and, though that's a reach, I found sports desks and feature editors open to it as Olympics© fervor grew and even as it waned because they were desperate for material as the zeal for the games wound down.

4. Cull contacts: Develop your Rolodex by adding quality recipients from media directories. The website www.gebbieinc.com has an All-in-One Directory that gives links to others such as Editor, Publisher Year Book, and Burrell's. Some partial directories on the web are free and so are your yellow pages. Ask for help from your librarian - a good research librarian is like a shark; she'll keep biting until she's got exactly what she wants.

5. Etiquette counts: Send thank-you notes to contacts after they've featured you or your book. This happens so rarely they are sure to be impressed and to pay attention to the next idea you have, even if it's just a listing in a calendar for your next book signing.

6. Partner with your publicist and publisher: Ask for help from their promotion department even if it's just for a sample press release.

7. Publicize who you are, what you do: Reviews aren't the only way to go. E-books are big news right now. Katy Walls, author of The Last Step, coordinated an anthology of recipes from authors who mention food in their books (yes, some of my family's ancient recipes from polygamist times are in it). It is a free e-book, a promotional CD, and great fodder for the local newspapers. You can download it at http://authorscoalitionandredenginepress.com (click on the Free E-books tab). Use it as a cookbook and as a sample for your own e-book promotion.

Think of angles for human interest stories, not only about your book but about you as its author. Are you very young? Is writing a book a new endeavor for you? Several editors have liked the idea that I wrote my first book at an age when most are thinking of retiring, that I think of myself as an example of the fact that it is never too late to follow a dream.

8. Develop new activities to publicize: Don't do just book signings. Use your imagination for a spectacular launch. Get charities involved. Think in terms of ways to help your community.

9. Send professional photos with your release: Request guidelines from your target media. Local editors won't mind if you send homey Kodak moment--properly labeled--along with your release. Some will use it; it may pique the interest of others and they'll send out their own photographers. It's best, however, to send only professional photos to the big guys.

10. Frequency is important: The editor who ignores your first release may pay more attention to your second or twenty-fifth. She will come to view you as a source and call you when she needs to quote an expert. This can work for novels as well as nonfiction. I received a nice referral in my local newspaper because I am now an expert on prejudice, even though my book is a novel and not a how-to or self-help piece.

11. Follow Up: Shel Horowitz, author of Marketing Without Megabucks (www.frugalfun.com), reports that follow-up calls boost the chances of a press release being published. Voice contact builds relationships better than any other means of communication.

12. Keep clippings: Professional publicists like Debra Gold of Gold & Company do this for their clients; you do it so you'll know what's working and what isn't.

13. Evaluate: One year after your first release, add up the column inches. Measure the number of inches any paper gave you free including headlines and pictures. If the piece is three columns wide and each column of your story is six inches long, that is 18 column inches. How much does that newspaper charge per inch for their ads? Multiply the column inches by that rate to know what the piece is worth in advertising dollars. Now add 20% for the additional trust the reader puts in editorial material.

14. Set goals: You now have a total of what your year's efforts have reaped. New publicist-authors should set a goal to increase that amount by 100% in the next year. If you already have a track record, aim for 20%.

15: Observe progress: Publicity is like planting bulbs. It proliferates even when you aren't trying very hard. By watching for unintended results, you learn how to make them happen in the future.

Carolyn Howard-Johnson is the author of THE FRUGAL BOOK PROMOTER: HOW TO DO WHAT YOUR PUBLISHER WON'T. For a little over 2 cents a day THE FRUGAL BOOK PROMOTER assures your book the best possible start in life. Full of nitty gritty how-tos for getting nearly free publicity, Carolyn Howard-Johnson shares her professional experience as well as practical tips gleaned from the successes of her own book campaigns. She is a former publicist for a New York PR firm and a marketing instructor for UCLA's Writers' Program. Learn more about the author at CarolynHoward-Johnson.com or HowToDoItFrugally.com.

Frugal Marketing Guru Carolyn-Howard Johnson

Award winning writer and frugal marketing expert, Carolyn Howard-Johnson joins us today at Writers in Business.

Carolyn is a prolific writer of fiction and non-fiction books and a marketing guru referred to in writer’s networks as the Queen of Frugal Book Promotion. Her new series of 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 have both won USA Book News’ awards and are certain to become frequently read favorites in the writing world. She is also an instructor at UCLA Extension's world renown Writers' Program and a popular speaker.

In order to prepare for this interview, I spent many hours over several days learning about Carolyn and the work she is doing to help writers and editors discover affordable marketing. I’m amazed at what she has accomplished and all the information she has to share. Today I’d like to focus on Carolyn’s book, The Frugal Book Promoter.

~As a former publicist and current author, you have spent a lot of time honing your marketing skills. What are some important concepts writers should utilize when promoting a book?

Ha! Well, I did write a whole book about this--just because I wanted to share that information. I think the most important concept is "branding." Branding is at the root of all marketing. Too many writers publicize their book. Most writers will not be one-title wonders. Think about who you are and brand your name--or your pen name. The other most important concept is that it is never too early to start. If an author gets this message a year or two before her work is published--well, that is not too early to start.

~ There are hundreds of low cost promotional ideas listed in your book. Can you share three of these ideas with us and why they work well?

My favorite ways to promote, in order of importance are:

1. Speaking. That can be reading at book signings (not just book signings) or speaking on themes related to your book at conferences, tradeshows or anywhere else. If speaking scares you, take a class now. At a minimum you'll need to know how to talk to people from book fair booths at bookstore events.

2. Teaching. Not only is it enormously satisfying, it gives you credibility as an expert. Even novelists need credibility. Yep, even poets.

3. Online promotions. Because they're very, very frugal. Of course, that is a broad category. If I have to narrow it down, I choose blogging--and then promoting the blog. If you'd like to know more about how to go about that, go to FictionMarketing.com and download a chapter for a future book I'm writing with partner Phyllis Zimbler Miller.

~ What key components should writers include in their media kit?

The list is very long. Kits should include whatever an editor or agent (or whoever else you're sending your kit to) needs to do their job quickly and easily. Then once all the elements are prepared, the author should prune what won't help a particular recipient from their kit.

Picture this: It's deadline. A harried editor is looking for a story. She comes across a query you sent her two weeks ago. It includes a complete kit. In it is a first person essay with permission to print it. On her desk she also has a famous person's pitch but there is almost nothing there for her to work with. Guess who will get their story printed? If you guessed the famous person, you're wrong. She's on deadline. She has to be ready when the presses roll.

~ There are travel costs and other fees associated with attending a writers conference or book fair. In terms of promotion, do you feel these events are cost effective?

I adore conferences because they can make such a difference in a writer's career. Networking. Finding agents. Learning more about our craft. Giving us a needed break from our computers. Having said that, they are expensive. So, Lea Schizas and I sponsor an online conference. I'd like to see writers go to real hands-on conferences but when they can't, this one can work well, too. You'll find it at:
TheMuseOnlineWritersConference.com.

You'll also find a list of writers' conferences, book fairs and even some tradeshows on my Web site in the Resources for Writers section:

Book Fairs & Trade Shows

Carolyn, thank you for the very informative interview. Your insight and experience with book promotion are valuable resources that we can all benefit from. The Frugal Book Promoter is a must-have book for every author! Please visit Carolyn’s web site at CarolynHoward-Johnson.com or HowToDoItFrugally.com.

Coming Soon! Carolyn will share her "15 Commandments for Getting FREE Publicity" with us at Writers In Business.