I'm glad that Amazon is delivering promptly, especially when some of you were inconvenienced by Frugal's not being available at your local Barnes and Nobel!

Allyn, the promotion is a learning curve. I promise it gets easier. But it always takes lots of time and the more successful you get the more time it takes.

BTW, FRUGAL was just named a Reviewer's Choice Masterpiece by reviewer Lori Soard at http://wordmuseum.com/wmreviews.htm. It seems promotion works that way. When things start going right, they build on one another.

I'll check in with all tomorrow.

Congratulations on the award Carolyn. I'm finding the book very helpful already even though I don't have a book done yet. There are a lot of things to consider about promoting even before you write a book. I'm thinking about getting myself a website now. The branding issue has me thinking also. Thank you for a wonderfully informative and helpful book!
Robin

Carolyn, Thank for your continued encouragement and great answers.

Cograts on your award too!

Where do you get the energy?

My head is swimming while reading your book. I'm almost finished, but it will take me forever to follow through with all the suggestions.

I'm curious to know if it would benefit you to have your book published again through a big publishing house. It's such an excellent resource for writers. Does this ever happen? Would it be worth your while?

Carolyn Howard-Johnson is among my best subscribers at Book Promotion Newsletter, www.bookpromotionnewsletter.com. She is supportive and friendly, as well as being a terrific promoter. She claims to have learned a lot from the newsletter, but I have also learned much about promoting from her.

I haven't yet read her book but I'm sure it's very worthwhile. Anything she does is wonderful.

Thanks, Franny, for the words of confidence. By the way, all of you are promoting or are about to, Fran's newsletter on promotion is well worth her small $5. fee--not only because one learns so much from it and because she and her subscribers share valuable resources but also because she supports her subscribers in turn. You've got her ear on the forum. Go for it!

Dotsie, your comment on trying for a big publisher is one that most self and subsidy published authors ponder if their books are successful. There are a couple of drawbacks. The author would probably make less money in royalties by going to a traditional-mainstream publisher. Another is the loss of control. The advantage would be that it would find some new avenues of distribution and for authors whose first goal is to BE READ, that is definitely a consideration. There is another advantage and that is an author could learn much from a major publisher IF she were assigned one of their BEST editors; on the other hand, if she weren't she could end up feeling frustrated being advised by someone with fewer editing skills than she has (I've seen this happen with a couple of my writing friends who have taken great pains to hone their craft--MFAs and the like.) It is a dilemma.
Oh, the biggest drawback. They own your book and if they decide to take it out of print, out it goes and the author is back where she started wishing she had kept control of her own book, her own cover, her own promotion....you get the idea. LOL. The only reason my first two literary works are still in print is that I continue to promote them and they still sell. Though certainly not as well as they did at first!

And Robin, yes, I wrote the first section of FRUGAL for writers who haven't pubished yet, or even signed a contract. Everyone will find the ideas in that section useful, but there is a whole lot that can--and should be done--while you are writing your first book. I'm really glad I "got to you" early. You will go into the experience prepared!

Everyone, I am teaching at UCLA this weekend so I may not get back to the forum until Monday. In the meantime, have a wonderful weekend!

Best,

Franny, welcome! It's great to see you here.


Ladies, you need to run right over to Fran's site and sign up for her newsletter. Carolyn is right. For $5.00... it's a steal.

Carolyn, thanks for the explanation. There are so many variables in the publishing industry. We need to choose the right path for ourselves and our books and have faith that we made the right choice.

From what I've read, relationships are so important. Just like any other part of our lives... the better the relationsip with our agents, publishers, editors, publicists, etc., the better our chances are of being successful. Don't you think?

Jawjaw, You asked about book signings in another topic. I know you have Carolyn's book. Have you gotten to the section on book signings yet? She tells you everything you need to do before and during the signings. Make sure you read it soon.

I just started it today. I'm on Chapter 3 and already I've gone back and marked up some things. Good Lord...what a book! Better yet, what a Writer's Bible...

Carolyn Howard-Johnson...da Queen here is doing some bowing and scarping...you da bomb.

By the way, do you own any motels? okay, okay...couldn't resist. (teehee..)

JJ

Well, it certainly is good to come back and find so many great "reviews" of FRUGAL on this forum. Seriously, it makes me feel very good that FRUGAL is doing lots of good. I fell into so many publicity potholes with my first book that I'm hoping this book will help other authors avoid them--or better still, fill them up and pave them over!!!

I had a wonderful weekend. I taught a class at UCLA--Savvy Marketing for New Authors. I had the greates group of 18 students you could ask for. It is really fun teaching adults who WANT to learn.

Jawjaw (I know your real name but am not sure if you want it disseminated publicly! Ha!), now you've read the book signing chapter, do you have any questions. As you can see, like anything else, they are not a one size fits all kind of thing as many authors think they are!

I imagine this week will be slow with Boomers bringing families together for Thanksgiving. I'll keep checking back, though! I just love all those cute little faces!

Carolyn, I'm so impressed by your energy. I have a few questions for you:

How long did it take you to write your book?

How many hours do you spend writing, promoting, and networking a week?

I know you must be working on something now. Mind telling us?

Are you happy with the financial rewards? Hope you don't mind me asking? It's something writers don't talk about too much, but I thought I'd ask.

Also, Louisa started another topic in this forum. You might want to see that too. She's asked you a question too. Thank you.