The Frugal Book Promotor: New Edition of Multi Award-Winning Book Released

Thousands Expected to Dig for Nuggets

More than a dozen authors, mentors, and nationally known book marketers will offer thousand in bonus gifts focused on the needs of authors when novelist, poet, and book marketer Carolyn Howard-Johnson releases the second edition of the first book in her HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers, The Frugal Book Promoter.

Among those supporting Howard-Johnson’s book are self publishing gurus Dan Poynter and Shelley Hitz, book marketers Dana Lynn Smith, Patricia Fry, D’vorah Lansky, and Aggie Villaneuva and even some fun stuff like a full book of poetry from Magdalena Ball and advice on feng shui from Anna Maria Prezio, Ph.D. Leading the charge is Amazon and book launch expert Denise Cassino.

Collectively, they offer an inestimable value in career boosting bonus gifts to anyone who pays a mere $9.95 for The Frugal Book Promoter in its Kindle iteration (www.budurl.com/FrugalBkProKindle) or $12.82 (discounted from $17.95) for the paperback on Amazon (www.budurl.com/FrugalBkPromo).

The project will reach a crescendo on Wednesday, October 8, when an unprecedented number of people will visit Howard-Johnson’s launch page and launch her valuable to number one on Amazon.com, a great way to help make this book visible to even more authors who need it. Check out her site on October 8 at http://frugalbookpromoter.homestead.com/index.html

Howard-Johnson, an instructor for nearly a decade at UCLA Extension’s Writers’ Program, chose to have the new edition published in both e-book format and paperback in order to give her struggling students and clients affordable and convenient choices. Whichever format a reader chooses, The Frugal Book Promoter assures an author’s book the best possible start in life. Full of nitty-gritty how-tos for getting nearly free publicity, the author shares her professional experience as well as practical tips gleaned from the successes of her own book campaigns. A former journalist and publicist (she wrote media releases for fashion designers like Christian Dior), she tells authors how to do what their publishers can’t or won’t and why authors can often do their own promotion better than a PR professional.

Howard-Johnson even assigned a new subtitle to this edition of her book to reflect its appeal to a broader array of authors. It is now The Frugal Book Promoter: How to get nearly free publicity on your own or partnering with your publisher. She says, "With the advances in Internet marketing and the role social media plays in communicating, it was high time even writers who had the first edition had access to my frugal (frugal of both time and money!) ideas for new networking opportunities." The big, fat book (416 pages) also has money-saving ads in the back and an amazing new cover—the epitome of “frugalness”—by Chaz DeSimone, www.chazdesimone.com.

Howard-Johnson is the recipient of the California Legislature’s Woman of the Year in Arts and Entertainment Award, her community’s Character and Ethics award for her work promoting tolerance with her writing. She was also named to Pasadena Weekly’s list of 14 women of “San Gabriel Valley women who make life happen.” She has worked for Good Housekeeping Magazine and as a journalist for several newspapers and has been a popular presenter at writers’ conferences nationwide like the one at San Diego State University and the Sinclair Lewis Writers’ Conference. She is also a novelist and poet, which informs the advice she gives to authors of those genres.

Learn more about Howard-Johnson at http://www.howtodoitfrugally.com and http://carolynhoward-johnson.com.

Carolyn Howard-Johnson

Instructor for the renowned UCLA Extension Writers' Program

Author of the multi award-winning series of HowToDoItFrugally books:

The Frugal Book Promoter

The Frugal Editor

The Great First Impression Book Proposal

Great Little Last-Minute Edits

E-mail: HoJoNews@aol.com
Web site:http://www.howtodoitfrugally.com

Moving Through all Seven Days link:http://www.lulu.com/content/e-book/moving-through-all-seven-days/7386965# http://www.helium.com/users/406242.html http://www.associatedcontent.com/user/237923/Kathy_stemke_dancekam.html
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HAPPY BIRTHDAY DR. SEUSS VIDEO!

Theodore Seuss Geisel, more commonly known as Dr. Seuss, was born on March 2, 1904.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DR. SEUSS!!!



SOME OF MY FAVORITES!


I Can Read with My Eyes Shut!

“The more that you read,

the more things you will know.

The more that you learn,

the more places you’ll go.”


How the Grinch Stole Christmas

”Maybe Christmas,’ he thought, ‘doesn’t come from a store.

‘Maybe Christmas…perhaps…means a little bit more!’”


The Cat in the Hat

“Should we tell her about it?

Now, what should we do?

Well…What would you do

If your mother asked you?”


Green Eggs and Ham

“I do not eat green eggs and ham.

I do not like them, Sam-I-am.”

WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE?


Kathy Stemke's websites:
Moving Through all Seven Days link:http://www.lulu.com/content/e-book/moving-through-all-seven-days/7386965#http://www.helium.com/users/406242.html
http://www.associatedcontent.com/user/237923/Kathy_stemke_dancekam.html
http://kathystemke.weebly.com

Ten Ways to Sell Books On Amazon By Carolyn Howard-Johnson

Award-winning author of the HowToDoItFrugally Series of books says,
"You can use Amazon to improve your ratings and your ratings don’t get better until you sell books."

So, telling you how to get better ratings on Amazon is tantamount to telling you how to sell books. Many of you know that I rarely talk sales when I can talk more important things like cross promotion and branding. You may know that I believe if you network well, you won’t have to sell anything, ever. Not in the traditional sense. That is my disclaimer. I’m going to tell you how to let Amazon help you sell more books anyway!

A promotional drop in the bucket can move Amazon ratings drastically! Especially if you keep dripping promotion into the pail. Use the perks that Amazon provides for you (see the list below), and you’ll find your book selling. Especially if you don’t give up. Just keep dribbling little bits of information into these Amazon tools. It’s about frequency and longevity. Here they are. Pick one(or more) and keep at it:

1. Use Listmanias on Amazon and, along with your own book, sprinkle in the titles of your authorfriends. Let these authors know you did it. That’s a way to make a new promotion friend. There is a chapter in The Frugal Book Promoter: How to Do What Your Publisher Won't that tells you how to use this free promotional perk along with a lot of other free tools on Amazon.

2. When you read a book by an author you know (or even one you don’t) do yourself and them a favor by adding a review to Amazon. It takes but a minute and YOU and your book get exposed too, if you use a promotion-savvy signature. Simply type in a couple of dashes and then add "Reviewed by xxxxx and your book title." You can even make your title a link to the sales page of your book on Amazon.

3. Tell other people about what you’re doing, how your book relates to current events and more by posting on your Amazon plog. Another name for it is AuthorConnect ™, and it’s really a blog provided by Amazon. You do have one don’t you? Spread the word about your fellow authors’ books, too, and then ask them to pass on the word about your plog, complete with URL. This is known as viral marketing and it works.

4.. Check out my co-produced audio classes including the free one: A Do-It-Yourself Guide To Promoting Easy And Cheap! by Carolyn Howard-Johnson which includes other Amazon tips. They are at http://www.double-dragon-ebooks.com/search.asp.

5. Flesh out your book’s page on Amazon. Use the Wiki (or Amapedia) to add information on your awards or other publishing you’ve done.

6. Ask your friends and professional associates to review your book on Amazon. See that word "ask?" They will be happy to do it. They just need a nudge!

7. If you have a book suited to it, you can add pictures to your book’s page. Check out my "Promote or Perish" picture on The Frugal Book Promoter page. Here’s the URL:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/193299310X/.

8. Don’t get caught up in the idea of trying to sell your book yourself to increase your profits per book. If you do, you’ll find your overall promotion suffers. Read that word "promotion" as "readership." Read it as "exposure." Read it as "credibility." You and your book need to be seen more than you need a couple of extra dollars profit on any given book. Yes, you may make less per Amazon-sold book, but the Amazon publicity is invaluable.

9. Look into the So You’d Like Tos . . . on Amazon. They will allow you to rant or write essays to your hearts content and gather readers as you do it. They work similarly to Listmanias.

10. Make friends. When someone adds a review to your page, invite them to be an Amazon Friend. Include a thank you in the message. Nose around a bit. You’ll find all kinds of ways to let Amazon Friends know about your next book . . . and your next.

And keep in mind that The author is Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author THE FRUGAL BOOK PROMOTER: HOW TO DO WHAT YOUR PUBLISHER WON'T, winner of USA Book News' "Best Professional Book 2004", #1 Bestselling E-book at: http://starpublish.com/starbooks.htm and Book Publicists of Southern California’s Irwin Award winner. its sister book, THE FRUGAL EDITOR: PUT YOUR BEST BOOK FORWARD TO AVOID HUMILIATION AND ENSURE SUCCESS. when someone is your friend, your book or picture may show up on their profile page. Their friends buy books, too!
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Learn more at: http://www.howtodoitfrugally.com.

Her complimentary newsletter Sharing with Writers is always full of promotion tips, craft and publishing news. Send an e-mail with "subscribe" in the subject line to HoJoNews@aol.com.

Kathy Stemke websites:
Moving Through all Seven Days link:http://www.lulu.com/content/e-book/moving-through-all-seven-days/7386965#http://www.helium.com/users/406242.html
http://www.associatedcontent.com/user/237923/Kathy_stemke_dancekam.html
http://kathystemke.weebly.com

Carolyn Howard-Johnson's Teacher Activities for "Learning About Coots"

Use these wonderful activities with the short story, Learning About Coots, which was posted on July 1st. Teachers are invited to use excerpts if they include purchase information. Just contact the author for the proper accreditation. at HoJoNews@aol.com. The book is available new or used at http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1588513521/.

Comprehension questions:

"What is an adventure?" "Why do you think Sky took her little brother?" "Why do you think she went in search of the old coot even though she knew she shouldn't go on the other side of the creek?" "How do you think she felt when, a strange woman took her to a strange house?" "Is it a good idea to go with a stranger?" "Do you have a secret word with your parents? Don't tell us what it is." "Do you think Sky's mother will be angry? Why?" "did you like the story? Why?" "What was your favorite part?"

Stepping Stone Hop:

Create a winding river on the floor with masking tape. Make stepping stones out of construction paper and put either numbers (1-10, even numbers, odd numbers, count by 3's, 4's, 5's, 10's) or the letters of the alphabet on each one. Just like Sky and Bobby in the story have the children hop from rock to rock to get to the other side.

State Symbols, Flags, Flowers, Songs, Birds Activity:

Make referrence to the story when Sky was describing the police officer. "The sheriff was dressed all neat with a patch of the State of Utah with a beehive in the middle on his sleeve...." Tell the children that each state has its own flags and symbols. Use this opportunity to introduce your own state symbols. You can find coloring pages at www.kidzone.ws/geography/usa/.

Make a family tree:

Family Tree Kids is a site where you learn how to become a "family detective" and dig up clues about your ancestry. You can download a free family tree to use in the classroom. kids.familytreemagazine.com/kids/default.asp

For more information about this exciting author check out these following weebsites:
Award-winning author of the HowToDoItFrugally Series of Books for writers, including USA Book News' award winners
The Frugal Editor http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0978515870/
The Frugal Book Promoter http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/193299310X/
The Great First Impression Book Proposal http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000YG6O5U/

Blogs for Writers:
http://www.SharingWithWriters.blogspot.com
http://TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com
http://www.SizzlingBookFairBooths.blogspot.com
http://www.TheFrugalEditor.blogspot.com

Kathy Stemke's websites:
http://www.helium.com/users/406242.html
http://www.associatedcontent.com/user/237923/Kathy_stemke_dancekam.html
http://kathystemke.weebly.com

Meet Author Carolyn Howard-Johnson

******************************************************************************************************************************
Carolyn Howard-Johnson’s first novel, This is the Place, has won eight awards. Her second book, Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered, is creative nonfiction; it has won three. Her fiction, nonfiction and poems have also won awards and appeared in national magazines, anthologies and review journals. She speaks on Utah’s culture, tolerance and other subjects and has appeared on TV and hundreds of radio stations nationwide, both as an actor in commercials. Teachers are invited to use excerpts if they include purchase information. Just contact the author for the proper accreditation. at HoJoNews@aol.com. The book is available new or used at http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1588513521/.

Here is one of her short stories that you can read and enjoy or read to your class as a listening comprehension activity. My July 3rd post will include some questions and activities you can use with this story.

Learning About Coots
1948-Holladay, Utah
By Carolyn Howard-Johnson

Lee, my older cousin used to taunt me. “Don’t go down in the hollow past the property line. There’s an old coot from the other side of the family who lives over there. If he catches you, he will drag you off.”

“Lee, one of these days I’m going,” I said, knowing I wouldn’t.

But one day I took my brother by his pudgy little hand, “Bobby, we’re going to find an old coot.” I had pictured an old geezer of rooster like dimensions, put together like a satyr, with cocks-comb hair and a nose like a beak. “I think a coot is related to us, a kind of Johnssen we’ve never seen before.”

We slid down the hollow to the creek on our bottoms, embedding clay into the weave of what covered our behinds. The proof of Bobby’s indiscretion brushed off of his Sunday trousers leaving a foxtail or two protruding from the seams. My panties were black and wet so I took them off and put them under a rock to retrieve on the way back. We found stones to step across the boiling creek and plopped an additional river rock where Bobby’s short legs needed an extra one.

The shadows of the trout beneath the water were slow and green. Perhaps wild things shouldn’t be disturbed. Perhaps it was the same with the old coot. But I had a need to do my cousin one better. Being twelve shouldn’t give him all the advantages. Bobby and I pulled ourselves up the other side of the hollow using roots and brush for leverage.

“I’m hungry. Maybe we could eat the trout for lunch.” Bobby’s voice sounded like the ice of high notes flowing through a sieve. We had walked a long way and it was getting hot. We sat down on some weeds that were still soft and green reminding me of my delicate condition of undress.

I felt helpless. “Bobby, if you need to tinkle you can. No one can see you and I won’t look.” I thought the diversion would be helpful for hunger pangs. We could now see houses but they were a long way off.

We scooted under barbed wire fences and over weathered stiles, picked our way around dried cow dung. The houses grew bigger because they were closer. An old truck came along the road and stopped in clouds of tawny dust. The driver stared at our Sunday clothes. “What on earth are you kids doin’ here? Where did you come from?”

The woman jumped out of the truck. She looked at the man behind the wheel. “Look at this dress. Expensive.” She picked the fabric of my skirt between her fingers. “And short. I’ve never seen these kids before.”

They put us in the back of the truck and drove into the next driveway, rutted like the road but narrower. Their house smelled like babies lived there, wet and sour. A linoleum mat lay askew on the floor in front of the sink, its corners curling.
“What’s your name, honey?” The voice was soft but there was a sound of perturbance about it that made me feel shy.

“I’m Bobby Johnssen and I’m hungry.”

The phone got a good working out. “These kids say they’re Johnssens but I’ve never seen ‘em at church. I don’t think they’re Johnssens.” Silence. Then she rang off and called someone else.

"Feed the kids, will you?” She sounded cross at the man, like she didn’t have too many words to use. He put two bowls of oatmeal, gray and lumpy, leftovers from the Fridge, on the table. He poured the top, creamy part of the milk from a pitcher onto it.

“We don’t have sugar,” the man said. The spoons were big ovals and didn’t match.
The lady was saying, “Why on earth would I call the sheriff? She put her finger in the cradle of the phone and turned to her husband. “Why would we want to call the sheriff?”

“Well, because they say they’re Johnssen kids but it’s obvious they aren’t. So how’re we going to figure out even who to call first. Maybe they are from the Johnssen family on the other side of the crick.”

“We are, we are!” Bobby squealed with his mouth full and milk coming out of the corners of his mouth. “We’re looking for the old coot!” A baby wailed from the other room and other voices shushed it.

The man took the phone, said two numbers into the spout at the front of it. “We’ve got two kids here who say they’re Johnssens, maybe from the…maybe from the other side of the fam…. You know. Wanna come get ‘em and see where they belong?” He listened a minute. “I’m not calling them m’self!” He turned to his wife. “They got a call four hours ago about these kids. If you could quit meddling we’d’ve had ‘em home a long time before.”

I finished the porridge, like Goldilocks. It was good to feel the heaviness in my stomach, warm, even though it hadn’t been when I ate it. I attempted to slide off the chair seat covered with slick, diamond patterned vinyl. My bottom stuck. The lady’s eyes widened. “Mel, this child hasn’t a stitch of underwear on under her clothes!”

My humiliation was complete. I wasn’t a Johnssen, from either side of the creek. I was exposed. “Can I, can I use your bathroom?”

“You most certainly can.” The lady hustled me down a dark hall.
I perched on the toilet, my spirit of adventure crushed, worried about what my mother would say about her daughter being out in public without her panties. The lady reached her hand inside the bathroom door. In it was a pair of big underpants, thin and gray and shabby in places like shredded twine drooping from an animated hook. Hanging from the pulled elastic waist was a safety pin, which came in handy.
“Thank you. And thank you for the mush.” At least maybe I could get a good report for manners if not for my attire.

The sheriff was dressed all neat with a patch of the State of Utah with a beehive in the middle on his sleeve and nice, ironed creases in his shirt. “So you two are my lost Johnssens, huh?” The sheriff grinned.
“Do you think Mom will be mad?”

“We only wanted to find the old coot,” Bobby said.

The sheriff shook his head. He got down on one knee. “When are you kids ever going to stop the bogey man stories about the other side of the family? Polygamy’s over, kids. One side of the creek’s no different from the other side. We’re all cousins--once, twice, three times removed maybe, but cousins. We’d all better be forgetting which is the first wife’s family, which are the basta...which are the other wife’s kids, you know?”

The sheriff looked up at the lady, who didn’t say anything about my underpants and the man who didn’t like it but fed us anyway. “Thanks Mr. and Mrs. Johnssen. I’ll see they get home.”

I followed the sheriff hitching my new, panties so they wouldn’t droop below my good dress. Bobby reached for the sheriff’s hand. “They didn’t look at all like Coots,” he said.

Author's blogs:
http://www.SharingWithWriters.blogspot.com
Sharing with Writers is a blog on all things publishing with an emphasis on book promotion. It was named to Writer's Digest 101 Best Website list.

http://TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com
The New Book Review is a great way for readers, authors, reviewers and publicists to get more mileage out of a great review. Guidelines for submitting (and recycling) good reviews are in the left column. Scroll down a bit. It's free.

http://www.SizzlingBookFairBooths.blogspot.com
This is a blog where participants in in my HowToDoItFrugally cooperative fair booths exchange ideas that make a ho-hum booth into a sizzling success. We keep it open so all authors can learn from our successes and mmmm...challenges.

http://www.TheFrugalEditor.blogspot.com
This is the Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor blog. It covers everything that has anything to do with editing from grammar to formatting. The question and answer format encourages you to get the answers you need.

Kathy Stemke's websites:
http://www.helium.com/users/406242.html
http://www.associatedcontent.com/user/237923/Kathy_stemke_dancekam.html
http://kathystemke.weebly.com