Title: The Frugal Book Promoter
Author: Carolyn Howard-Johnson
Publisher: HowToDoItFrugally Publishing
ISBN-13: 978-146374329
USA Book News Best Book and Irwin Award
Reviewed by Conny Crisalli originally for BookPleasures.com
“Knowing the rules of promotion is like
knowing the rules for writing. When you have mastered them, you have the
confidence to break them when you need to,” Carolyn Howard-Johnson states in
the introduction to her book, The Frugal Book Promoter – How to get nearly
free publicity on your own or by partnering with your publisher.
This four hundred and sixteen page
paperback book is authored by an award-winning writer of fiction and
nonfiction, former publicist and marketing instructor whose valuable years of experience
and in-depth knowledge saves the new author time and money when promoting and
publicizing his or her work. In addition to free or inexpensive ways to
stimulate awareness and support of a book, she gives details of websites, email
addresses and contacts related to marketing and promotion along with a
twenty-seven page appendix of samples and a fourteen page comprehensive index
to aid and assist in the process.
Howard-Johnson walks one through the
complicated, sometimes confusing and daunting environment of publicity and
promotion by first subduing the fears and fine lines of plagiarism, lawsuits
and self-doubt writers feel. She concentrates on three “Ps” of marketing:
platform, publicity and public relations, correlating them to a train with platform
chugging along as the caboose. She provides eighteen helpful publicity
commandments and explains the value of branding and pitching.
There are step-by step instructions how to
put together a successful media kit, down to what font and point to use and proper
formatting it on a page. The meat of the book is its many resources to
publicize printed materials that include standard channels such as speaking
engagements, contests, conferences, trade shows/booths, book signings,
radio/television, websites, blogging and social networking along with the more
unused avenues of reading groups, catalogs and corporate sales.
The author tries to touch each facet of not
only publicizing but gives details assembling folders for the media kit, how to
use an ARC (advance reading copy) advantageously, what to take to a trade show
and warns of some of the pitfalls of online promotion. With the plentiful
references of emails and websites for further study, this book contains a
multitude of useful information for the first time writer as well as the
seasoned one who wants to expand their public presence further.
With no promotion stone unturned, this is a
must-have book for the shelf of any writer, experienced or not. Like the author
states, once you know the rules to promotion real well, you can break a few
while climbing the marketing ladder even further.
~Conny Crisalli loves to read and review the
books she reads. Find her reviews on her blog http://connywithay.wordpress.com,
BookPleasures.com, and Amazon.com.
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