Veteran Educator Carolyn Wilhelm Reviews Third Edition of The Frugal Editor

Title: The Frugal Editor

Edition: 3rd edition

Publisher: Modern History Press

ISBN: 9781615996001

Available on Amazon

Pages 279 including Index

Awards: Reader Views, USA Book News, Irwin Award, and more

Reviewed by Carolyn Wilhelm originally for Amazon

Technology changes and changes - a reliable book to keep up with the times. Like the addition of the chapter on making back-matter work harder for authors. Yes, please.

Why is it so difficult to find mistakes in our own writing? Why is editing so difficult? Why do writers need editors - many in fact. It is because writers and authors know what they mean to say. Our brains fill in the missing words and fix errors as we try to edit our own work. It is really difficult to notice our own mistakes. Having taught first grade, I see how children learn to read and write - with plenty of errors. And teachers could not understand children’s writing without filling in mistakes and making sense of it.

Carolyn Howard-Johnson understands the great difficulty of perfect final drafts, and even books published professionally. Using tools like Word in specific ways (but never relying only on Word) she helps writers and editors by giving strategies to catch gremlins and typos. Even library books might have 5% of errors.

I was in a writing group where members would divide and conquer by separating editing tasks. One person reads for understanding, one for punctuation, one for consistency, and so on. But there are tools and tricks to weed out problems before paying professional editors. Carolyn Howard-Johnson knows them all!

Avoid publishing scams, hire help after most of the editing is done, and adapt the included sample query letters to your own style.

Great book to keep on your writing desk ad use as a reference during your writerly life.

More About the Reviewer

Carolyn Wilhelm is a veteran educator with a pile of academic letters behind her name as well as a frequent reviewer for Midwest Book Review, Amazon.com, and others. Find her teaching aids on Pinterest at WiseOwlFactory, many of them free.

More About #TheNewBookReview Blog 

 The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. Authors, readers, publishers, and reviewers may republish their favorite reviews of books they want to share with others on her The New Book Review blog. Find guidelines for submitting to that blog and other free services in the tabs at the top of the home page of this blog or go to https://bit.ly/ThePlacetoRecycleBookReviews. It is open at no charge to authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've read and love.

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 Reviews, interviews, and articles on this blog are indexed by genre, reviewers' names, and review sites so #TheNewBookReview may be used as a resource for most anyone in the publishing industry. As an example, writers will find this blog's search engine handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor. #TheFrugalbookPromoter, #CarolynHowardJohnson, #TheNewBookReview, #TheFrugalEditor, #SharingwithWriters, #reading #BookReviews #GreatBkReviews #BookMarketing

Carole Mertz Reviews Jack Grapes Prize-Winning Book of Poetry

Title: Dancing in Santa Fe and Other Poems

Author: by Beate Sigriddaughter 

http://writinginawomansvoice.blogspot.com/

Genre: Poetry Chapbook

Publisher: Cervena Barva Press

ISBN 9781950063239 

2019, 24 pg., Paperback, $8.00

Book is available at Amazon.com 

Review by Carole Mertz (carolemertz@cox.net originallyfor The Compulsive Reader 

In Dancing in Santa Fe, Beate Sigriddaughter delivers a fine collection of fourteen poems, all written in free verse. An American poet of German heritage, she has won multiple poetry prizes, including the Cultural Weekly—Jack Grapes Prize in 2014, and multiple nominations for the Pushcart Prize. Her gracious promotion of women’s poetry (at her blog Writing in a Woman’s Voice) is also commendable.

Richness of character and content run throughout the collection. The author presents a wealth of resources and displays her thoughtfulness resulting from inner reflection, along with her skill in defining external scenes surrounding her. Sigriddaughter describes a bus ride, for example, in which a rider is exulting over the sunrise, but fellow-travellers give the rider a look of contempt. “What have you done with my exuberance and with my tenderness?” she asks within the poem. “Was it of any use to you to take it like that?” (From “Silence,” p. 19.)

In “Lines for a Princess” (p. 21), the persona is at once a sheltered flower, a mountain juniper, a “seed that never quite took,” and a poet who “wants sequins and justice both.” I like the depth of this persona’s character and appreciate the clarity with which the narration is rendered. In it Sigriddaughter writes, “Days whisper by. You have to / listen carefully to hear them.” The poem is one among others in the collection that draws on fairytale themes

A longer poem, “Dancing in Santa Fe” (pgs. 4-7), renders alternating verse backdrops of such weighted matters as concentration camps and the horrors of war, contrasted with New Mexico’s beautiful mountain scenes. “…to feel for sins I haven’t committed?” she writes, as autobiography. “…is an unspeakable filter / on this gorgeous world.” 

The poems, “Samsara” and “Nirvana” draw on Buddhist religious terms to deliver their messages. As wanderer, in “Samsara” (pgs. 8-9), the poet writes:

 

Even on the mountain, surrounded

by excellence, the trouble

of the city clamors in my heart…

 

In “Nirvana’ (p. 10), Sigriddaughter issues a plea:

 

I love you world. Send more angels.

Help me fight the dull and dangerous

deceptions.

 

Here she admits her distrust of “nirvana,” a striving after bliss and the absence of suffering or desire. (Isn’t self-effacing consent like suicide? she asks.) 

“The River” (p.11) brings to the reader another level of reflection; the river acknowledges being bound to desires. Accepting this, it wants to carve passageways through mountains of unnecessary evil. I enjoy the beauty of this metaphor and how it allows the river to speak Sigriddaughter’s own spiritual desires. 

In addition to her narrative skills, the poet’s mature voice also lends beauty to her verses. We trust her voice all the more, because it doesn’t conceal the imperfections of the world. “I have heard,” she says in Scheherazade (p.16), “how not forgiving is like drinking poison.” And with further insight, “You cannot be my hero any more…I cannot imagine the cost / of making nice with the entitled predator / like that.” A subsequent line strikes an even stronger point. 

Though several poems lead us to reflect on beauty and dark matters, such as war and unforgiveness, the Sigriddaughter chooses to close the chapbook with a humorous poem. In “The Dragon’s Tale” (p.23), the princess is hidden away from “benevolent contempt.” We content ourselves with this comedy when the dragon asks, “You thought I was going to eat her?” 

I delight in Dancing in Santa Fe. Its content seems to “fill the narrow margins of reality with beauty.” (15) Beate Sigriddaughter’s poems balance darkness with a joyful light.

ABOUT THE POET

Beate Sigriddaughter, author of hundreds of poems, is winner of the 2014 Jack Grapes Prize and a multiple Pushcart Prize nominee. She has promoted women’s writing at her blog Writing in a Woman’s Voice for many years, an activity which grew out of her earlier Glass Woman Prize. Siggriddaughter is the author of Emily and Dancing in Santa Fe and other poems. 

Her forthcoming Dona Nobis Pacem will be issued December, 2021 by Unsolicited Press. Learn more at: https://sigriddaughter.net/, http://writinginawomansvoice.blogspot.com/, and https://www.facebook.com/beate.sigriddaughter.

 

ABOUT THE REVIEWER 

Carole Mertz is the author of Toward a Peeping Sunrise (Prolific Press) and of the forthcoming Color and Line (with Kelsay Books, November, 2020). She reviews frequently at Mom Egg Review, Eclectica, South85 Journal, and Dreamers Creative Writing. Her reviews are also at Into the Void, Main Street Rag, World Literature Today, and League of Canadian Poets. Carole is judge (in the formal poetry division) of the 2020 Poets and Patrons of Illinois International Poetry Contest. Carole resides with her husband in Parma, Ohio. Reach her at carolemertz@cox.net and tweet with her @Carolemertz1

 

 MORE ABOUT BLOGGER AND WAYS TO GET THE MOST FROM THIS BLOG

 The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. Of particular interest to readers of this blog is her most recent How to Get Great Book Reviews Frugally and Ethically (http://bit.ly/GreatBkReviews ) that covers 325 jam-packed pages covering everithing from Amazon vine to writing reviews for profit and promotion. Reviewers will have a special interest in the chapter on how to make reviewing pay, either as way to market their own books or as a career path--ethically!

This blog is a free service offered to those who want to encourage the reading of books they love. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've read. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page. Reviews and essays are indexed by genre, reviewer names, and review sites. Writers will find the search engine handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor.

Note: Participating authors and their publishers may request the social sharing image by Carolyn Wilhelm at no charge.  Please contact the designer at:  cwilhelm (at) thewiseowlfactory (dot) com. Provide the name of the book being reviewed and--if an image or headshot of the author --isn't already part of the badge, include it as an attachment. Wilhelm will send you the badge to use in your own Internet marketing. Give Wilhelm the link to this post, too!

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Writers on the Move Guru Karen Cioffi Reviews Third Edition of The Frugal Book Promoter

The Frugal Book Promoter

Subtitle: How to get nearly free publicity on your own or by partnering with your publisher

Edition: Three

Awards for all editions: Winner USA Book News, coveted Irwin Award

Award, USA Book News winner, silver medal from Military Writers Society of America, honored by Global Ebook Awards

Publisher: Modern History Press

Publisher’s Website: www.modernhistorypress.com

ISBN: 9781615994687

ASIN: 978161594694

Available in hard cover, print and ebook onAmazon

Reviewed by Karen Cioffi-Ventrice originally for Amazon

Marketing and promotion are changing all the time, from the best ways to get visibility for you and your book to maintaining an effective search engine optimized website.

Continually striving to give her readers the most helpful book promotion tools possible, Carolyn Howard-Johnson has created The Frugal Book Promoter – 3rd Edition.

This third edition provides authors with the latest promotional information and resources. And, it's been reorganized for easier reading.

What's best about The Frugal Book Promoter – 3rd Edition - is that along with well researched tools and tips, it's filled with Carolyn's own marketing experiences. This includes booboos from her early marketing days when her Wiki page was taken down when she was booted off of Facebook.

As Carolyn is a well-known expert book promoter, these tips, insights, and warnings are invaluable.

This latest edition includes everything from writing a query letter to copyright information to using QR codes to backdoor methods for getting reviews. And' there's lots on "You and the Media."

Plus, there are lots and lots of samples, including sample query letters and even a sample blog entry. 

My favorite line in the book is in Chapter 10:

"You can’t count on your publisher. Publishers focus on their next big profit maker when sales of your book dwindles."

This says it all. 

If you're questioning the need to promote your book, even if you're traditionally published, the answer is, YES. It’s essential. And, I can't think of a better book to help you do this than Carolyn Howard-Johnson's The Frugal Book Promoter – 3rd Edition. 

More About the Reviewer

Karen Cioffi is a children’s ghostwriter and author/writer online platform instructor with WOW! Women on Writing. She is also the founder and editor of Writers on the Move.

Learn more about her ghostwriting services at https://karencioffiwritingforchildren.

For her online platform classes, visit:

http://www.articlewritingdoctor.com/content-marketing-tools/

MORE ABOUT THE BLOGGER, THIS BLOG, AND ITS BENEFITS FOR WRITERS

 The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. Of particular interest to readers of this blog is her most recent How to Get Great Book Reviews Frugally and Ethically (http://bit.ly/GreatBkReviews ) that covers 325 jam-packed pages covering everything from Amazon Vine to writing reviews for profit and promotion. Reviewers will have a special interest in the chapter on how to make reviewing pay, either as way to market their own books or as a career path--ethically!

This blog is a free service offered to those who want to encourage the reading of books they love. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've read. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page. Reviews and essays are indexed by genre, reviewer names, and review sites. Writers will find the search engine handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor.

Note: Participating authors and their publishers may request the social sharing image by Carolyn Wilhelm at no charge.  Please contact the designer at:  cwilhelm (at) thewiseowlfactory (dot) com. Provide the name of the book being reviewed and--if an image or headshot of the author --isn't already part of the badge, include it as an attachment. Wilhelm will send you the badge to use in your own Internet marketing. Give Wilhelm the link to this post, too.