We haven't had a Featured Author in a while, but I'm excited to say that is about to change. In November, we'll have Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the HOW TO DO IT FRUGALLY series.

Carolyn will be answering all of your editing, promoting, branding, and marketing questions that writers everywhere struggle with daily.

While its very exciting to have Carolyn here as she guide us through the hazy world of promotions, that's not all. She's bearing gifts! I won't give away what they are, but I will tell you that there are three of them! One of the gifts/offers has TWO invaluable free gifts with the purchase of either of her HowToDoItFrugally.com Series of books for writers from Amazon, and the other gift is absolutely free, just for the asking.

I will tell you that I have her first book, The FRUGAL BOOK PROMOTER: How to Do What Your Publisher Won't, and I consider it to be my bible of all things promotion. I live by it. I tell Carolyn it is like the spaghetti sauce commerical, if you need to know something about promoting your book, "its in there."

I will not even hesitate buying the second one, THE FRUGAL EDITOR: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success. Carolyn does her homework so I don't have to. I love it!

So put on your thinking caps, line up those questions, and get ready to be blown away with the amount of knowledge coming your way beginning November 1. If you'd like to learn more about Carolyn and how to purchase either book, visit http://www.carolynhowardjohnson.redenginepress.com/

I'll vouch for Carolyn's abilities as well. I have her book THE FRUGAL BOOK PROMOTER and I used it to create my own marketing plan for my last book. I also used it to help develop an overall promotion strategy. I'll be sitting in the front row, come November.

Awww, Vicki, sweet of you to chime in. And I'll be looking forward to talking to you again.

Best,
Carolyn
www.howtodoitfrugally.com

Carolyn is an amazingly productive writer. It's great that you are featuring her.

Lynn

I'm excited to introduce Carolyn to you. She is the ultimate book promoter. And her take on editing is that it's part of your marketing package--an essential part of the package you present when you send out a cover or query letter, as an example. I've already learned many tid-bits. I can't wait to register for some of the newsletters she recommends, apply some of her tips to my editing processes. Here she is!

Carolyn, whenever you can, just jump right in, gal!

Wow! Tomorrow's the big day! OK, well, there are no date cops so if you want to start tonight, I won't waterboard you. Did I say that? (-:
Thank you for having me, Dots and Georgia. I know we're all really busy so, if you boomers don't have question on book promotion, editing, formatting, publishing or anyting else to do with the publishing world, I'll post an article or two to get things started.
Mmmmmm. Maybe that will keep you from asking questions. OK. I'll do it anyway. At some point. But let's do questions before.
BTW, it is GREAT to be back. I know many of you from when I was here before and my occasional posts between. I ran into some of you at conferences, etc. A really great group. I really am grateful to share with you and learn from you, too.
Best,
Carolyn
www.howtodoitfrugally.com
PS: When I chat, I don't edit. All the better for getting lots of posts in, don't you think? I won't expect great editing from you, either. So don't let that editing thing scare, you, OK?

Ooops. I forgot to tell you about the other things I thought about doing with you (besides the articles!) Here it is!

I am pleased that Dotsie and Georgia asked me to join all of you on this forum. I wanted to do something special for you and we decided that the writers among you might like one of the handouts I give for some of the classes at UCLA. All you need to do is e-mail me with "Boomer Forum--Freebie" in the subject line and I'll send one to you by attachment.

Here's another offer, too. When you purchase either of my HowToDoItFrugally.com Series of books for writers from Amazon I'll send you two different media kits to use as templates for your own campaign. One is for a book (or books) and the other is for the your speaking campaign. (You WILL be doing that won't you? It's the number one best way to make yourself known as an author.(-: ) So, all you do is send me a copy of the receipt Amazon sends you in an e-mail with "Media Kit Offer" in the subject line. And Voila! They're yours. (-:

As you can tell, one of my reasons for writing these HowToDoItFrugally books is to help authors avoid the potholes I stepped into when I started promoting my first novel.


I'm not going to tell you much more about me. You can snoof out more information on my website (www.howtodoitfrugally.com) of course, but this forum is about you, about ways I can make your writing life work better for you. So, let's start. (-:

My best to you all.
Carolyn

Hi Carolyn, Can you tell us what's the number one editing problem writers have and how we can avoid it?

Vicki, the number one problem we writers have is with something most of us don't consider as important as our manuscripts. It's our query letters. They're the first thing agents, contest judges, producers, editors, etc. see and they might not even get to your poem or manuscript or your idea for a TV series if your query is off.

The number one mistake it query letters. It's nothing to do with grammar (and lots of the things in The Frugal Editor don't have anything to do with grammar). It's telling agents that you always wanted to write. It's just a big yawn and you only have one page to entice them.

How do I know that? Agents told me. I interviewed hundreds and quoted twenty. (BTW, they're listed in the appendices).

What a great start that is Vicki! Thank you!

So, you can all now see that I even approach editing as a marketing device (sometimes!). LOL.

I am just so happy to be here. I'll check back tonight.

Best,
Carolyn

Lynn, thank you for the good words. Did you all know that Lynn has contests and publishes book reviews. Now THAT's good information to have. Lynn, if you haven't already, can you tell us how writers can benefit from your site and vice versa?
Best,
Carolyn