Showing posts with label #SharingwithWriters. Show all posts
Showing posts with label #SharingwithWriters. Show all posts

Q&As and How To Take Control of Your Own Submissions


Upping Your Chances for Publication In MY Newsletter—and Most Everywhere Else!

I have been publishing SWW (SharingwithWriters) newsletter since 2003, and though it’s sporadic (it must take a back seat to the traveling I do!), it is long and full of tons of tips and resources. I also encourage subscriber participation through several of its features including one of my favorite formats, the Q&A.

When I was a young staff writer at The Salt Lake Tribuneback—well, way too long ago to mention—I was sometimes assigned the job of making Ann Landers ground-breaking self-help columns fit into the allotted editorial space once the advertising department had set up all the stuff a paper needs to survive—that would be stuff people and businesses pay a newspaper to publish. I became addicted both personally and as a nonfiction writer.

Q&As are easy ways for people to learn new information and to apply it to real lives, maybe even their own. Below is one of my favorites from my newsletter. Q&As a la Ann Landers solve a problem for me. They make it easier for me to handle submissions and allowing me to continue to offer my newsletter free—or to offer it at all!

QUESTION: Thank you for your offer to run an announcement of my newest “Author Success.” Please just extract what you need from the press release I attached.

ANSWER: I would love to run your success, Annie.  But here’s the thing. I don’t like to work this way.

I live in fear that I'll make a mistake or leave something out and it is very timing consuming to extract from a release when you can tell your own story much better and faster.

Dan Poynter used to always make the point of saying submissions to him should be ready for him to cut-and-paste.  His heart was always with us.  He wanted to help but could help more of his contributors if he could get them to make it easy on him! 

There is another aspect to my being so picky!  I don't know if you have a copy of my The Frugal Book Promoter, but because I wrote it to help authors get more free media exposure, I consider it my job to set an example for my authors and readers.  In this case--specifically—to encourage you to submit the way you 'd like to see your information in print while taking in consideration the editor's submission guidelines to the style of the journal etc.  Doing so gives you an edge for promotion because editors are busy. 

A story that is not as good may get the exposure while your media release or submission gets ignored or lost. Another may get preference over yours because the editor or other gatekeeper is so short on time.  The author who submits according to a gatekeeper’s guidelines benefits by having more control over what is said. The author has more control of the details selected for the story when he or she doesn’t expect the feature editor, newsletter editor, business editor, or other gatekeeper to do all the work.

So, here are my SWW guidelines:

1.     Send your information in the body of an e-mail. You’ll find all the reasons why this is important for almost all gatekeepers including the biggies like large media organizations and academic institutions in The Frugal Book Promoter!

2.     Put clear, concise information in the subject line: “Author Success [or tip or letter-to-the-editor] for Sharing with Writers.

3.     For Author Successes, give me one paragraph that includes author name, title, short pitch for the book, link, and an image of your book cover in jpeg.

4.     For other features like “Opportunities,” read a past issue or two and submit information similar to what you see there. You have probably seen literary review journals give you the same advice. There is no point in submitting poetry to them if they only publish short stories, or experimental fiction if they only publish another genre. Generally speaking, I try to make each story useful to my audience (as do most media folks!) and my audience is mostly writers like you.

5.     Be prepared. I will probably just copy and paste but may edit for style or space.

6.     In your media kit include a media release, a first-person essay, a related article, and an interview that includes a note that the author gives permission for it to be reprinted and that the author (or publicist) may be contacted for other articles, blog posts, essays, etc.

Carolyn Howard-Johnson brings her experience as a publicist, journalist, marketer, and retailer to the advice she gives in her HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers and the many classes she taught for nearly a decade as instructor for UCLA Extension’s world-renown Writers’ Program. The books in her HowToDoItFrugally Series of books for writers have won multiple awards. That series includes both the first and second editions of The Frugal Book Promoterand The Frugal Editorwon awards from USA Book News, Readers’ Views Literary Award, the marketing award from Next Generation Indie Books and others including the coveted Irwin award. How To Get Great Book Reviews Frugally and Ethicallyis the newest book in her HowToDoItFrugally Series of books for writers.

Howard-Johnson is the recipient of the California Legislature’s Woman of the Year in Arts and Entertainment Award, and 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 “Fourteen San Gabriel Valley women who make life happen” and was given her community’s Diamond Award for Achievement in the Arts.
                 
You can find all Howard-Johnson's books at: http://www.howtodoitfrugally.com/

MORE ON WRITING

Plot and Your Story - Four Formats

The Promodoro Technique for Getting Your Writing Done

Developing Dialogue

Is Your Book in Walmart?


I rarely include reprints from my newsletter on this blog, but one of my longtime SharingwithWriters newsletter subscribers, Valerie Allen, got such a kick out of this tip when she followed through (see below for the tip), I thought I'd share it with you. I'm also going to put her note to me--you know, to prove that she did, indeed, get a big charge out of the results of the discovery prompted by this suggestion.

HERE'S THE TIP:

Have you done a search on the Walmart site's bookstore for your book? Authors are telling me that their Createspace-printed books have been appearing there with no extra effort on their part. In the past—even before Createspace—I have found my books magically appearing in sites as varied as Harvard’s bookstore and Costco. If you find your book on one of these sites, check to see if the buy page needs any special attention from you—like the addition of reader reviews as suggested in Howto Get Great Book Reviews Frugally and Ethically.

HERE'S THE LETTERS-TO-THE-EDITOR NOTE

Carolyn,

Great info for authors in your January newsletter. Will feature your blog on my new Facebook group, Authors for Authors.

Please join us on FB.

I followed your suggestion and checked out my books at Walmart.com.

Yes! They have four of my books! I am thrilled. Who knew?.

Two of my novels "The Prodigal Son" and "Suffer the Little Children."

One of my kids books, "Bad Hair, Good Hat, New Friends."

One of my short story collections, "'Tis Herself: Short Story Collection Volume One" in large print.

P.S. Thanks for your great tips and ideas.

Valerie Allen, author and book fair director

~~~~~

Valerie's letter is coming out in the Letters-to-the-Editor feature my SharingwithWriters newsletter in February with her permission. We all need an upper now and then! Letters-to the editor is a great way for authors to get more exposure--in writing-oriented newsletters or magazines and newspapers with wide distribution.

Sharing with Writers since 2003: A newsletter that is also a community. Share your ideas. Learn from theirs!

Find back issues at howtodoitfrugally.com/newsletter_copies.html. There is a SharingwithWriters subscription window in the top right corner of almost every page.

MORE ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Howard-Johnson is the author of fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry. She is also a marketing consultant, editor, and author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally Series of books for writers including the award-winning second editions of The Frugal Book Promoter (where she talks more about choosing and the advantages of winning contests and how to use those honors) and The Frugal Editor. Her latest is in the series is How to Get Great Book Reviews Frugally and Ethically. Learn more on her Amazon profile page, http://bit.ly/CarolynsAmznProfile.

She also helps writers extend the exposure of their favorite reviews at TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com as well as more advice at The Frugal, Smart, and Tuned-In Editor (http://TheFrugalEditor.blogspot.com )

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