The New Book Review

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Showing posts with label media kits. Show all posts
Showing posts with label media kits. Show all posts

Friday, January 31, 2020

Compulsive Reader Managing Editor Reviews The Frugal Book Promoter

Title: 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 Magdalena Ball, originally for CompulsiveReader.com






I first read, and reviewed Carolyn Howard-Johnson’s The Frugal Book Promoter in 2011, when the second edition came out. Since then it has been my go-to for ideas on ways to promote my books cheaply – which is, of course, what every author needs these days. It’s a noisy world, and no matter how well-written, or what kind of publisher support you may have, if you don’t promote well, it’s unlikely that your books will attract notice. Few of us have big budgets for promotion, and most of us have a budget close to zero. Creative and effective ideas for book promotion are more than just nice-to-haves, they’re critical, and Howard-Johnson is about as knowledgeable as it gets on the subject. Of course books like this go out of date quickly, so the re-releases are also vital, as they allow for technological and cultural change. 

The 3rd edition came out recently and is right up-to-the-minute, exploring new ways of branding, developing a platform, and getting your work out into the world. Howard-Johnson’s prose remains utterly clear, accessible, and warm–like having a very helpful, clued-up conversation with your best friend–and the book is as inspirational as it is practical.

The latest version of the book contains nearly 300 pages (quite a lot more than the first edition!) of high quality information on every thing from how to promote your work ethically, public relations, creating media releases and a media kit, querying for reviews (and believe me, this is a much needed skill!), making use of radio and other media, using the internet and social media (and how not to use it), including ensuring that you use online bookstores correctly, making the most of reading groups, revitalizing old titles, recycling your work, and so much more. As with the original version, the book comes with a number of handy template, scripts, codes and examples, but these have been updated so that they continue to remain relevant to a modern author. The book is beautifully structured and well indexed, so you can find what you need when you need it fast. Howard-Johnson has created a number of mnemonics to help simplify the overall promotion process:

“The Six-P maxim is the one that makes me a nag. The more organized you are, the more you know early on, the earlier you start to practice promotion and publicity magic, the more good it will do for your book. The more you learn the easier it is. And that leads me to the three most important Ps for marketing books. Platform, Publicity, Public Relations.”


“Good PR, of course, is carefully targeted. But mostly PR is connecting with people in a way that makes them feel cared for, and those connections are made—with love and expertise—over and over again. Those are the essentials and they work. Done this way, great publicity becomes great public relations and vice versa.”

I won’t give away too many of Howard-Johnson’s marvelous tips here, but suffice to say that the book is full of them—many of them inventive, and all of them focusing on credibility and multi-tasking – getting impact for your effort. As the title suggests, most of the ideas here are either inexpensive or free, though not without effort. There are a few chapters which are worth the whole cost of the book. These include, to my mind, chapters on querying and pitching–something I repeatedly see done badly—and the chapter on creating a media kit. I have not seen either of these topics covered in such detail, or with such clarity.  Even seasoned self-promoters will learn new things from these chapters. The reviews section too, is particularly thorough, with plenty of current links and samples. There are also lots of tips about what doesn’t work and where to save your money, your time, your sanity, and how to best manage your all-important networks–for the long run. Put simply, The Frugal Book Promoter is one of the best all-purpose books for developing a promotional plan for your work that won’t break the bank or destroy your relationships. This is a book keeps on providing practical, easy to apply ideas to get your work noticed, and to create a viable, sustainable, ethical platform that will continue to create valuable promotion for authors of all genres.  It’s one of those guides that should be on every author’s bookshelf.


ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Magdalena Ball is an award-winning novelist, poet, reviewer and interviewer, and is Managing Editor of Compulsive Reader, one of the internet’s most respected and long-running review sites.  She is the author of several novels and poetry books, the most recent of which, High Wire Step, was published in 2018 by Flying Island Books. Find out more about Magdalena at http://www.magdalenaball.com

Compulsive Reader Managing Editor Reviews The Frugal Book Promoter


MORE ABOUT THIS 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. 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 and love. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page and in a tab at the top of this blog's home page. Reviews and essays are indexed by genre, reviewer names, and review sites so it may be used a resource for most anyone in the publishing industry. 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. #TheFrugalbookPromoter, #CarolynHowardJohnson, #TheNewBookReview, #TheFrugalEditor, #SharingwithWriters, #reading #BookReviews #GreatBkReviews #BookMarketing

Saturday, May 5, 2018

Frugal Book Promoter Makes Marketing "Easier than Envisioned!"

Title: The Frugal Book Promoter
Subtitles: Nitty-Gritty How-tos for Getting Nearly Free Publicity and How to get nearly free publicity
 on you own or by partnering with our publisher
Second Edition
By Carolyn Howard-Johnson
Published by HowToDoItFrugally Publishing
Series: HowToDoItFrugally Series of books for writers
Multi Award-Winning including USA Book News Gold
Available on Amazon as paper or e-book
ISBN: 9781463743291

Reviewed by Lois W. Stern originally for Amazon
FIVE STARS

Carolyn Howard-Johnson does it again, with another super book in her 'How to Do It Frugally' series. When
 she plunges into publicity basics, she really plunges, giving her readers invaluable who, what, when, where 
detailed directions. What would you pay a consultant for all this advice? I wager a lot more than the price 
of this book. And that’s before I got to the pages with step-by-step instructions on building a media kit. 

Sure, I had read about the importance of media kits for eons, knew that was something I should tackle,
 but it seemed like such as daunting task that I managed to put it off for years. Then along came 
The Frugal Book Promoter, and with its step-by-step guidance, I shouted EUREKA, I can do this! 
Not only does Howard-Johnson provide her recommended 
outline for its development, but gives us specifics 
as margin and font sizes, page headings, types of content
to include with each page and other important
 features one might otherwise overlook.

To my delight, I realized I had already written most of these 

recommended bits and pieces, saved and scattered
 in different folders, so it was far easier than I envisioned. 
Once I searched them out on my computer,
 refined and updated them a bit, my media kit was almost 
complete. It never would have occurred to me to 
include a first person essay, or even that such a piece 
belonged in a media kit. What a clever idea! 
I had such fun writing mine, and it certainly adds flavor, 
giving the author a chance to provide the media with a
 peak into your personality.

Now I can’t wait to read her Section II: "Do-It-Yourself and Partner Publicity". I have learned that when I read 
a Frugal series book, I have my Post-Its handy so I can tab the pages with details I don't want to overlook.

Lois W. Stern
Author, Creator of Tales2Inspire


MORE ABOUT THE REVIEWER
Lois W. Stern is a passionate teacher and that passion carries over to her Tales2Inspire contests and anthology series. Learn more about her on Twitter @tales2inspire2.



Wednesday, October 25, 2017

Contest That Could Help Authors Get an Agent

There aren't too many contests that can help you get a publisher or agent by including the honor they may bestow on your book in your query letter (and media kit!) Here is one I entered and won a couple of years ago that is giving my agent a little extra ammunition for by second novel, This Land Divided.  Here is a little more about it from the sponsor, B. Lynn Goodwin, Managing Editor of http://www.writeradvice.com


Curious about how your opening might sound to an agent or editor? Enter Writer Advice’s SCINTILLATING STARTS Contest for fiction, memoir, and creative nonfiction. Grab and hold us with your opening paragraphs. Send us up to 1000 words of your first chapter by 12/01/17. 
We are known for our feedback, as you can see in the tan box at www.writeradvice.com, and would love to tell you what's working and what an agent might say. 
Guest judges will be last year’s winners.If your work is shared on Writer Advice, you’ll be able to tell prospective agents, publishers, and book buyers that you were one of the winners of Writer Advice’s Scintillating Starts Contest. 

A cash award of $300 will be split among those whose work is shared. The submission fee is $16.50.  This contest is open to anyone who has not signed a contract for the book submitted. 

Questions? Post them here or e-mail me at 
Lgood67334@comcast.net. We hope to hear from you soon. 

Thanks, 

Lynn

MORE ABOUT B. LYNN GOODWIN

Lynn is Managing Editor of www.writeradvice.com and an author in her own right including
Talent and You Want Me to Do WHAT? Journaling for Caregivers. Her newest book, a memoir, is Never Too Late: From Wannabe to Wife at 62, will be released in December of 2017.  Learn more about her and her writing at blynngoodwin.com.  




MORE ABOUT 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 ). 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.