Vicki:
You said, " I'm not very good at writing them. They don't 'pop' enough nor do they express any excitement. Do you address press releases in your book? Do you suggest any other places to submit press releases other than prweb and netread?

Finally, all good promotion is going to cost money, even the most frugal of promotion. What types of promotion do you recommend for those of us who don't have lots of $ to spend? Should we purchase the postcards, business cards, and book marks? Should we create the flyers and brochures? Where would our money be best spent"

Vicki, I advise people to get the basics of press releases before they try to make them pop because that effort often makes them appear very unprofessional. It sounds as if you've done your research on the basics, though, and yes, I have some ideas in FRUGAL for how to make them do that. I also suggest you all subscribe to Joan Stewart's Publicity Hound newsletter. She talks about releases and approaching editors a lot. Also, remember! Media releases, not press releases.

Regarding few dollars--the whole book is about this but my favorite that reaches a targeted audience is the perks offered on Amazon. I also have utilized writing reviews to the advantage of my promotional campaigns. And, I'm not much on spending money of give-aways but there are times when it is effective--depending on the subject matter of each individual book. There's a whole section on that including links where you can go to BUY souvenir type promotional things and nicer ones, too.

Hope this helps!

Let's see, Smile wanted me to talk more about branding. Branding is different from "selling" books. Each author considers--more or less--what she wants to be remembered for and that will influence how she designs her promotion campaign. I can almost bet that, if given some though, the answer to that question will NOT be that you want to be remembered for one book. That is one step in your writing career. Consider Coke. They have lots of mottoes. The Real Thing. Coke is It! And even songs. But they all hang together and don't exclude any of their product lines. That's what you want to do. Thus your media kit can certainly help announce a specific book but it should also help editors and producers with stories and angles that will help promote you or the theme that is important to your work. If you think like this to begin with, you won't waste your time designing a site, a kit, etc. that won't meet your "needs" later.

That is sort of the short of it!! There's lots more.

Well, we've got Vicki started on a list. I sent her my titles. I'm open to doing a list of Boomer Women's Published Works, so if your book fits that specific theme, send them to me a **************** along with a little blurb I can use on the Listmania. Give me some time, though! You ladies on this forum are keeping me pretty busy. (-:

Louisa mentioned that she saw one of my poems on Long Story Short. Another was a poem of the month recently. So you see, I publish a lot "free" but get not only exposure in return but lots of contacts with great editors and publishers. Some day we will all be fine and known writers and someone may refer to us as the "Boomer School of Writing established in the early part of this millennium." Ha!

Bookmarks are one of the best ways to promote with "giveaways." Some people at conferences and fairs actually collect them. If you hand sign them at some events they become more collectible. A nice endorsement or "blurb" on them helps "sell" your book, too. You can ask fellow authors who are going to fairs to distribute book marks for you and you can do the same.

The question is: "Do you think it's harmful for a writer to go off in different directions with their writing? Is this what you meant by branding?"
Yes,s that is a consideration when you veer from one kind of writing but that doesn't mean you shouldn't do it. Steven King veered from horro to a lovely little literary book on writing itself. Just be prepared that when you take off in a different direction, your fans may not like it much (John Grisham had lots of unhappy fants when he moved from the courtroom to his childhood in Oklahoma!) But it was his name, his quality, that was branded, not courtrooms. He wouldn't have a site decorated with gavels and law books. This might illustrate what I mean. You want to brand the "whole" you. If you have a site with a theme of "Screams in the Night" and then move from there into pastoral poems, your will need another site or need to fragment the site you have.

Dotsie asked, "what did your book publisher do for you? I don't mean anything derogatory by this comment. I'm curious to know what one can expect from a publisher and I'm sure it depends on the publishing company."
And I laughingly reply, a lot more than my first publisher did. And tons more than my best two writing friends (one BIG publisher, one smaller literary one) did. And she didn't promise more than she could deliver. She does media releases for important stuff, like my new USA Book News "Best Books of 2004" award. She arranged for all distribution--and that's already been mentioned on this thread--like Baker and Taylor and Ingram. All online bookstores and the e-book site I'm using. Book cover. Editing (though I don't recommend anyone turn this over to their publisher with a great deal of trust!), the formatting and takes care fo the yukky little details. She is truly responsive and communicates well--indeed, FAR more than most people can say about their publishers!
But promote FOR me. Never. Besides, no one will do it as well as I do it for myself and the same goes for any author. After all, YOU know your book. YOU are invested in your own book. How can any publisher or publicist beat that???

Hi Carolyn! Belated welcome here as I haven't been in the Forum this past week due to working 80 hours... I write poetry and short essays. My work has been published in a few national anthologies and a bunch of local ones. The more "literary" journals do not print work like mine, so I don't even submit there. I have the text finished for a 70-80 -page book but want to do illustrations before I think about publication. I have 3 self-published chapbooks. Intro over!

Here's my question: how does one get ISBN numbers for self-published books?

cuse please for butting in, but she forgot to tell ya she's called, "The Divine Ms M."

Just wanted to clarify that.

JJ

Meredith said, "I write poetry and short essays. My work has been published in a few national anthologies and a bunch of local ones. The more "literary" journals do not print work like mine, so I don't even submit there"

Meredith, that is the only way to do it. It doesn't polish the image of an artist when they send work to a publisher that doesn't relate to the kinds of things they publish.

About ISBN's: I'm trying to find an actual adress for you.

Best,