Reviewed and adapted from an article for Karen Cioffi’s #WritersontheMove with #FrugalBookPromoterTips by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, multi award-winning novelist, poet, and authorof the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally Series of books for writers
This large paperback/hardcover/e-book was independently published to achieve several goals of the UPPAA Writers Group in the far North of Michigan. I will be recommending it to my book marketing clients and thought I’d could call it a how-to on self-publishing as part of a book marketing campaign rather than a review regardless of how the author has chosen to publish the book he/she/they are publishing for use on my blog.
Participants on this blog might recall I started this “New” approach to a review blog because as a journalist there is an ethical element involved. Because I (and much of the academic and media worlds closely connected with the publishing industry) eschews reviewing because by its very nature suggests that it’s very nearly impossible for a paid-for review (or one that is too closely related to the author or book bringing reviewed) to be “honest and fair.” In fact, it’s one of the reasons that Amazon rejects reviews that appear to be written by reviewers who fit in either category. It’s their policy to provide only “honest and fair” reviews on their site.
But please don't go away. It’s a review, too! And I’ll use bullets so you can see how to use this US Reader as a model for a rarely used approach to marketing campaigns. I’ll also tell you how to get a freebie so you can give yourself a break from chasing the brightest media stars with few results. And this independently published journal is literary so you’ll find darn good reading here which is likely to introduce you to part of our good old USA you know little or nothing about.
UP Reader is named after a writer’s organization called UPPAA (Upper Peninsula Publishers and Authors Association) in upper Michigan that happens to be a substantial literary journal like the ones that so many authors submit their work to, often with few if any results. The issue I have is a concept that’s designed to:
1. celebrate the 10th Anniversary of the sponsoring writers’ group; in this case it’s it’s the 10th anniversary of this literary journal.
2. bring “Upper Michigan Literature to the World” with a “special edition honoring the Spirit of Mackinac Island.”
3. to expose more than seventy of their writers’ works and the work they do to educate writers to an audience beyond Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.
An anthology, UP READERS is published by Modern History Press. It takes only a first glance at the cover to see how to put this idea to work for your personal needs or for a literary/writing centered group you belong to.
Here are some of what this anniversary project achieves, but you might think of others. Each of their ten issues is different:
~It features the top 3 winning submissions to UPPAA’s Dandelion Short Story Contest that recognizes young writers from Upper Michigan area of the United States in grades 6 to 8 (Junior division) and 9 to 12 (Senior division).
~Royalties from the UP Reader supports UPPAA’s operating costs, and educational efforts like the UP Notable Books Club and Young Writers Storytelling Workshop that aim to showcase northern Michigan life from the Keweenaw to the Soo and from Menominee to Ironwood, but it could be adapted to support your career efforts no matter what they might be or where they exist.
~Though it offers works and the voices of authors of this far-flung area, it is also mindful of the broad tastes for readers by publishing genres from speculative to historic fiction and poetry to nonfiction, thus making it great reading for naturally curious readers everywhere.
~Interested reviewers are invited to spread the word about this anthology and the sponsoring group with its inclusive platform and open membership requirements. To receive a free paperback ARC of this newest edition contact Victor Volkman president@uppaa.org. If you haven’t time for a review, Victor also says, “…I would be happy to send a freebie of the e-book version of UP Reader Volume 1" to serve anyone anywhere!”
§ Learn more about UPPAA and membership www.UPPAA.org. And experience a zoom keynote I did for this generous group on YouTube on great ways to avoid Imposter Syndrome and other debilitating fears that plague writers like fear of marketing.(I first learned of Imposter Syndrome in Psychology Today when I was preparing that presentation sharing ways writers can avoid that debilitating condition as well as writers’ block and just plain moments of depression familiar to many who work with only a computer as a companion.) It’s one of those slick trade magazines with targeted distribution we authors love to query with our ideas for free ink mentioned in this article above!)
I also plan to use it as on my list of Top Ten Hidden Gems, magazines that are more accessible than the more competitive supermedia publications that we authors are familiar with. If we never pitch our books for reviews or feature stories about ourselves as an author or some other related topic to more accessible publications, we might never get the recognition we need to succeed in our pursuits of those brighter stars and, sadly, never experience the opportunities they all offer in the meantime. When we build our lists with readers and media in new regions (and among new demographics), we expand on the possibilities for own work. Sometimes we need to reread our own books in search for possible topics that would appeal to new audiences. Here are some to consider including some free copies that might already get delivered to your USPS PO box just because you do business with the business that uses magazines to promote their own businesses!
§ Westways is distributed free only to AAA members. It lands in the mailboxes of over five million readers, far exceeding some of the more avidly pursued journals and trade magazines authors tend to query for reviews, feature stories, and even to publish their own book- or author-related articles.
§ Sierra Club and a variety of other charities distribute beautifully designed publications you will be proud to appear in.
§ AARP (American Association of Retired Persons) sends genuinely helpful periodicals to their members in huge quantities and yes, many are made of real paper, exude bragging rights, and provide moments that inspire. You could be one of their stars.
§ The periodicals that come to us from our alma maters work the same way. (And yearbooks across the nation cater to avid local readers; you might be impressed—and surprised!—with the literature assigned to their senior-year English classes!)
§ Don’t forget to offer your talents to the free newspapers (known as throwaways!) you find stacked in racks in front of bookstores, drugstores, and our favorite restaurants.
§ The organizations that you have touched as a writer probably have online newsletters, often chock full of writing tips and writing news and might be open to featuring you and your suitable idea for a regular column or occasional article.
§ Generally we writers are curious travelers and our experiences can often relate in some way to our last book…or our next.
§ Don’t neglect possible Opinion pieces (my Los Angeles Times calls them “Voices") on the Op-Ed page. These pieces always include a byline and usually a credit line with the title of you book linked to your website. They usually pay for exclusive content.
MORE ABOUT TODAY’S #TheNewBookReview Blogger
Carolyn Howard-Johnson is a multi award-winning author of fiction and poetry but is best known for her how-to-books for writers. Find all of that series in one place on Amazon, but it’s her poetry that addresses the ills of cultures across the world. Imperfect Echoes is her Writers’ Digest honored book. Self-published in the tradition of poets since the advent of the Gutenberg press, it defies #bookbigoty as well other biases we are experiencing after a period—decades—of progress on that front. Find a laudatory review by Jim Cox, editor-in-chief of The Midwest Book Review, and its Amazon buy page at https://tinyurl.com/ImperfectEchoes.
