New Inspiration for Bloggers

A little story about chapbooks

 

New Inspiration for Bloggers

 

By Carolyn Howard-Johnson, multi award-winning author of
The Frugal Book Promoter

                                                        From Amazon’s New Buy Page for Series Only

Many of us who use blogs to promote think of them as diaries best kept cloistered under lock and key, as a path to writing a book one entry (chapter) at a time as Lisa Cron suggested in her book Wired for Story, or as something too new or techy to be bothered with. Some authors might spurn them because they are used so frequently for marketing which they would prefer to avoid altogether and others might still feel queasy when they succumb to marketing for the good of their book. I am going to tell you how to rethink blogs, re-invent them with something ancient and outdated, and generally make you love them.

 

When I was an instructor for UCLA’s renowned Writers’ Program the storyteller in me made me tell my students about chapbooks before I told them about the far-reaching value of blogs. I combined the tech and romance in my story. I knew my students—being writers—would respond to a good story, too. It’s the story of chapbooks and their creators, the peddlers, the people called “chapmen:”

 

“Once upon Elizabethan Times—some time after the advent of the Gutenberg Press when common folk were just learning to read—roving peddlers wandered from village to village selling a variety of needs to the populace and they were called chapmen. It came to pass—as it always does in old tales—that one enterprising (and creative) chapman began to give away small promotional booklets showcasing his products to those who came by his cart. His booklets were so effective he began including a poem he had written in them. Or a story. Or his drawings. Those booklets soon became treasured literary and artistic works from the poems inside to their hand-stitched spines and handmade covers. Soon his customers began talking about their chapman, perhaps seeing him differently than before.

 

“I suspect that occasionally our chapman offered an extra booklet to give to a friend. Our chapman was for his audience a welcome diversion in the villager’s lives as well as a more affluent chapman than most, so the books he gave away—unbeknownst to him—inspired other itinerants to emulate him and all the British Isles was calling these artistic sales tools “chapbooks.”

 

That’s why, dear authors, we use the word “chapbook” for small books of poetry today. But we can also use them—as he did—as a kind of viral marketing scheme, one that encourages interaction between the poet or storyteller and customer.

 

They can be artistic with handmade endpapers and silken bookmarks or simple booklets barely large enough to meet Amazon’s requirements for publication. They can be reasonably priced or cost lots of money and time. I plan to use one when the next book in my HowToDoItFrugally Series of books for writers is released in the new year. It will be the frugal kind (of course!) from Amazon’s KDP!

 

Chapbooks can be sold at online bookstores or given away for their promotion value at book signings and presentations. I might include tips from the new book, a special offer to those who buy extras as gifts, and even poems or story excerpts for the books I have planned for the whole of 2025.

 

It seems writing finds a way to adapt to new technologies so why not re-adapt chapbooks to your needs. Without realizing it, the world of technology brought us a newbie chapbook with blogs. The basic concept is the same, but they let us reach farther and do it faster than the chapman could. So the question is, what will you use? Blog? Chapbook? Or both?

 

MORE ABOUT TODAY’S CONTRIBUTOR

 

Carolyn Howard-Johnson is a novelist, poet, and the author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers (http://www.howtodoitfrugally.com). The flagship book in that series is now available in its 3^rd Edition from Modern History Press. Her #thefrugalbookpromotertips feature Amazon’s new buy pages dedicated to book series at no extra cost. If you write a series, find hers as an example at https://amazon.com/dp/B0BTXQL27T. She also has a series of poetry chapbooks cowritten with Magdalena Ball at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CFKMM9FN.

Carolyn also blogs writers’ resources at Writer’s Digest 101 Best Websites pick www.sharingwithwriters.blogspot.com and her www.sharingwithwriters.blogspot.com is a NO #bookbigotry site that aims to extend the exposure for reviews no matter the publish date or the press it is printed on. Find submission guidelines at https://tinyurl.com/SubmitReviewTNBR and other free opportunities by clicking on the round silver icons in the right column.

Most Serious Mistake Authors Make for the Success of Their Books

Preplanning for Jump Starting Your Book with Reviews

 

One of the first badges made for the Third Edition 

of Carolyn’s flagship book in the HowToDoItFrugally Series of 

books for writers. See the whole series at 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BTXQL27T. 

Dear Subscribers and Visitors:

I still working madly on the second edition of my How to Get Great Book Reviews Frugally and Ethically with Modern History Press. It was time for a new one because getting reviews is so important and because there is so much new in the Wonderful World Wide Web surrounding the publishing industry (yep, four w’s!) to deal with these days. I hoped to have better news for the introduction of its release with this more important aspect of releasing a book that most authors miss out on.  Thus, think of it as a sneak preview with more on this topic to come!  

That book is still needed because using query letters and ARCs before a book’s release is still a mystery to so many. And, of course, reviews are still one of our very most useful (and successful) marketing devices. So please keep it mind! 

So this will be short. It’s something for you to copy-and-paste or bookmark somewhere it won’t get lost. You might also install a likely date on your calendar—at least four months before the expected release date or the book you are working on right now. I know. Appalling. But that’s a conservative estimate of the time your pre-release review campaign needs to  be ready to go before you type in those last three oglethorpes. No, I am not kidding. Here is a little excerpt from that new edition to get you fired up: 

 

My clients and readers hear me talk about preplanning often because human beings so often play the waiting game. It’s no different in the world of getting reviews. Preplanning for your first review-getting campaign is no small thing. It is essential to getting reviews into what I call the supermedia—that’s the media that other media and publishing industry gatekeepers rely on to give them the publishing world’s current news. That’s where you book needs to have a klieg light shining on it get the kind of exposure when and where it is most needed to assure your dream of selling lots of copies, of becoming a bestseller. That early review-getting campaign should include the news of your book’s release along with beautifully written and ethical reviews of your book. 

 

If there was ever harmful information being bandied about in the publishing world, this is it: “To promote your book, especially to get reviews, you should have a book available online or in print for reviewers to actually read,. You needn’t wait to have proof copies or ARCs (advance reader—or reviewer—copies) before you can ask for reviews. Authors who believe these rumors spread by web grapevines will miss their only opportunity to pitch a review to big review journals and to get the most exciting blurbs possible for the backs of their books.

 

The kind of query and ARC you are expected to provide to a reviewer depends on the kind of reviews you are trying to get, of course, but even the most sought-after review journals may accept manuscripts, galleys, or other means as review copies—all covered in detail in my How to Get Great Book Reviews book. It isn’t easy but the exposure you’ll get just as your book is released is well worth pursuing, When I was working as an assistant editor at Hearst’s famous Good Housekeeping Magazine, we started our decision-making for our holiday issue six months in advance and our stories weren’t always current news. That was necessary production time. Our stories that involved authors often had nothing to do with the release of their most current book. We authors need to know this kind of thing to work on our patience-and preplanning quotient!

 

Caution: In this world of ever-growing AI (artificial intelligence), I frequently mention the important decision authors and publishers must make according to their tolerance for risk in any given situation. A real paper copy is considered more plagiarism- and AI-resistant than e-books and that is true for ARCs, too.

 

I hope we’ll talk more about increasing your chances of getting expert reviews and some others (I call them “forever reviews. This is just your heads up that it is almost never too early, but it can be too late —to start working on the review process for your book. The publishing industry isn’t trying to keep it a secret from authors and publishers. It’s just that the system has been around a long time, there is so much new to know, there is so much misinformation out there, and, frankly, (Breathe!)  there are so many newbies just waiting to be taken advantage of.

 

So, next when you get that alert message from your calendar, let’s talk. If the starving authors among you can’t afford to buy my book, let me know by sending an e-mail to me at HoJoNews   @.   AOL    dot.   com with “Carolyn’s #AuthorsHelpingAuthors Project.” 

 

Disclaimer: This isn’t an exact excerpt from the How to Get Great Book Reviews Frugally and Ethically. It has been liberally tweaked so authors and publishers can get information they need to save good books from never getting the great start needed to propel their success and to help build long writing careers.

 

MORE ABOUT CAROLYN

The Image Amazon Makes for Authors with Series--Free!

 

Once a month Carolyn Howard-Johnson shares something writer-related she hopes might save some author from embarrassment (or make the task of writing more fun or creative) here on Karen Cioffi’s #WritersontheMove blog. This is an extra promotion that Karen graciously offered me after the release of the second edition of my How to Get Great Book Reviews Frugally and Ethically.It is part of her multi award-winning #HowToDoItFrugally Series of books for writers from Modern History Press including the third edition of The Frugal Editor . Find them all on Amazon’s new buy-page for series where the e-book versions are all offered with a single click. (The availability—free—of that new page for book series is another of her #FrugalBookPromoterTips she shares regularly on the social network X at www.twitter.com/frugalbookpromo.)

 

Carolyn finds time to blog all things publishing at her SharingwithWriters blog between serving her clients and writing new books.

 

 

 

Your Best Edit is Your Manual Edit: Do It Feeling Virtuous

                     Your Best Manual Edit: Feel Virtuous. Save a Tree!

Cover Photography by Anne Howell

By Carolyn Howard-Johnson

 

This article is excerpted from the winningest book in my HowToDoItFrugally Series of Books for Writers, #TheFrugalEditor, now in its third edition.  It’s from one of my daring departures, a little one-page essay on editing or…mmm…maybe a diatribe on one of my pet projects as it relates to editing—in this case the environment.. My publisher and I came up with the rather sedate title of “The Frugal Editor’s Extra" for all twenty of them numbered sequentially. (This one is number two.) They get placed sporadically at the end of selected chapters. Come have some editing fun with me. 

 

The Frugal Editor’s Extra #2:
Your Best Manual Edit. Feel Virtuous. Save a Tree!

 

I know some of us cheat on our manual edits by using a computer or we didn’t realize how superior a manual edit is to one done on  a screens. But really, a manual edit  can’t be fudged. You may resort to the keyboard because you are working at saving the planet. So feel virtuous. And thrifty. So, do it by printing your manuscript on your own recycled paper and feel just as righteous—and almost as thrifty.

We’re not talking about the reams you buy labeled with the recycled logo, though I’m glad you do. We’re talking paper printed on only one side that comes across your desk or out of your computer’s printer. I finally trained my husband to save his once-used paper for me to recycle, too. Our paper gets one more (great!) life before it becomes fodder for our city’s recycle bin.

To do this, salvage paper as it’s produced in your office and rescue the good stuff from your junk mail. Arrange the new ream of leftovers you are accumulating so the printed sides are all facing the same way and tamp them a bit so the edges line up to prevent your printer from rejecting them. When in manual editing mode, carefully put these salvaged reams into your printer tray with the clean sides facing up or down, depending on your printer’s preferences.

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

 

Carolyn Howard-Johnson is the author of the HowToDoItFrugally Series of books for writers and also coauthored a book honoring the Earth by reaching across hemispheres to work with Aussie Magdalena Ball. It is Sublime Planet, featured in the Earth Day Issue of The Pasadena Weekly and recipient of Dr. Bob Rich’s Life Award (Literature for the Environment). “Endangered Species,” a poem in it, was the recipient of  the Franklin Christoph prize and the book was honored by USA Book News. All proceeds go the World Wildlife Fund. It is part of Carolyn’s and Magdalena’s  Celebration Series, each a gift of poetry suitable for different holidays.

“Every day is #Earth Day.”  

“…no dictator can monopolize the sun. No autocrat can control the wind.”

~ Greenpeace

[and neither should they be used to threaten the planet with annihilation!” 

~ Carolyn 🌞]

 

“…beautifully written and poignantly sad, as the reader considers 
harsh climate issues happening now.”
~ Carolyn Wilhelm for Midwest Book Review

On Grabbing Great Blurbs and Editing Them

The Best Marketers of All

 

       On Grabbing Up Great Blurbs and Editing Them          

By Carolyn Howard-Johnson

I am in the throes of editing the second edition of my popular and very complete How To Get Great Book Reviews Frugally and Ethically and couldn’t help excerpting some of this for WritersontheMove visitors to have now before they start their holiday marketing campaigns. That book will be released late fall by Modern History Press.

 

     The process for excerpting isn’t something most of us were taught in school. It seems such a nonissue that many have no idea how to do it and don’t realize they need to figure it out. Without a few guidelines, it can go miserably astray. Some won’t try excerpting at all because they are unsure of themselves. I’m not sure which is worse for the success of an author’s book.

Blurbs may be so neglected and misunderstood because there is confusion about what they are. I have heard them called endorsements, testimonials, praise, quotes, blurbs, and sometimes bullets because they are frequently printed on the back cover of books set off by little BB-sized dots and most of us relate them to reviews because that is where we authors usually find them.

When my husband solicited blurbs from VIPs in the Asian community for his first book What Foreigners Need to Know about America from A to Z, he was going to skip the process. He had me to…mmm, nag him. He ended up with endorsements from the ambassador to China from the United States and his counterpart, the ambassador from China to the U.S. This, by the way, illustrates why authors (anyone?) shouldn’t listen to naysayers who think approaching influencers with requests for blurbs is futile. I just happen to think excerpting them from reviews and capturing them from fan mail is easier. Just know you can do it and you can do it effectively.

Authors who misuse or underuse excerpts from their reviews are at a disadvantage. Not only are blurbs or one of the best tools in your marketing kit, but review excerpts are often your only chance to use the credibility of a prestigious review journal as part of your panoply of credit boosters.

The excerpting process is easy and a lot of fun once you know how to do it. Let’s say you have a review that includes some praise or even a word that made you happy or you could use to illustrate point you’d like to have your audience know about your book Perhaps (yikes!) it doesn’t include your name or title! Or maybe it just plain makes memorable reading. Perhaps the rest of it wasn’t all you’d like it to be. Here’s how to proceed: 

§ Put on your marketing bonnet and reread your review thinking “soundbites” as you read. Or select the phrases that remind you of the praise you see on movie posters or ads. Many of them are excerpts or clips from advance reviews of that film.

§ Choose gems that make you glad you wrote the book. Some will be short. Even one word. Shorties are used as blurbs for everything from restaurants to sports cars because they emphasize the raves that are…mmmm, over the top when publishers and authors use them about their own work. These no-nos are usually strong adjectives like awesome and first-rate. But you can use them as blurbs because someone else thought so!

§ Don’t neglect some of the praise that points out the benefits readers get when they read your book.

§ When you must leave something out of the sentence you choose to keep short or because it is inappropriate, let ellipses (three little dots…) take the place of those missing words.

§ Sometimes you need to substitute for purposes of clarity or brevity. If the blurb says, “If there is any justice in the world, this book is destined to be a classic,” delete the words  this book and replace them with the name of the book: Put the squarish brackets around the part you insert yourself so it reads “…if there is any justice in the world, [Jendi’s poetry book Two Natures] is destined to be a classic.”

§ Use them liberally. Use them everywhere. Put them between quotation marks. Indent them if you wish. Always credit them to the reviewer or publication where they were originally used.

Note: You want to avoid sacrificing the original intent of the excerpt you choose while using minor and approved editing techniques to meet your purposes.

§ So you have the reprint rights or a review journal like Midwest Book Review notifies you when your review has been posted that you have permission to reuse it—a very nice service that benefits both Midwest and you. Don’t lose it. Put it in a special file and stow it in a folder dedicated to your book’s title. To avoid confusion later and make using any one of them a quick copy-and-paste process, include the accreditation at the end of each blurb you extract.

§ It is handy to know that copyright law allows us to quote without permission for certain purposes and in certain amounts if you write commentary, satire, criticism, academic material, or news reports. The number of words you can use without permission depends upon the size of the copyrighted work as a whole. Guidelines differ from genre to genre. Find specific guidelines at the Library of Congress’ website or let a research librarian help you. For novels and full books of nonfiction, Amazon uses twenty-five words as a guideline for novels, and I trust they have great copyright attorneys advising them.

Note: Those who want to learn more about copyright law as it applies to authors will find help in Literary Law Guide for Authors: Copyrights, Trademarks and Contracts in Plain Language by Tonya Marie Evans and Susan Borden Evans with a foreword by my deceased friend and book marketing guru Dan Poynter.

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Carolyn Howard-Johnson is the author of the multi award-winning series of HowToDoItFrugally books for writers including USA Book News’ winner for The Frugal Book Promoter. An instructor for UCLA Extension's renowned Writers Program for nearly a decade, she believes in entering (and winning!) contests and anthologies as an excellent way to separate our writing from the hundreds of thousands of books that get published each year. Two of her favorite awards are Woman of the Year in Arts and Entertainment given by members of the California Legislature and “Women Who Make Life Happen,” given by the Pasadena Weekly newspaper. She is also an award-winning poet and novelist and she loves passing along the tricks of the trade she learned from marketing those so-called hard-to-promote genres. Learn more on her website at https://HowToDoItFrugally.com. Let Amazon notify you when she publishes new books (or new editions!) by following her Amazon profile page: https://bit.ly/CarolynsAmznProfile. Her The Frugal Editor is now in its third edition from Modern History Press. Let it help you edit your work-in-process.

Considering Both the Downsides and Upsides of Writing Reviews

Dear Writers on the Move Readers,

 

I am busily rewriting my How to Get Great Book Reviews Frugally and Ethically for a second edition from Modern History Press and ran across this short section I thought Karen Cijoffi’s subscribers and visitors should see before its release—especially since I benefitted in so many ways with the new addition to that book. It’s the part about using the reviewing portion of my marketing to access tradeshows and expos. At any rate, here is that excerpt. It is by no means the complete section on this topic; you get an advance peek. But if you follow me on Amazon’s Profile Page (they also call it an “Author Page”), you’ll be notified when it is released. 

 

You’ll love my list of what I call the “supermedia” for writers in that book, too.  (That the part of the media  that so many industry gatekeepers rely on for up-to-date publishing news.) No matter how we authors decide to use reviews, we all need lots of them—preferably the ones published in the most credible journals—as our books are released and beyond.

Very Best,

Carolyn

The first edition of How To Get Great Book Reviews Frugally and Ethically; 

thanks to reader Joy V. Smith for her Post-it Note image.

 

Consider Both the Downsides and Upsides of Writing Reviews

By Carolyn Howard-Johnson

Adapted from the coming second edition 

How To Get Great Book Reviews Frugally and Ethically

 

Before you decide to use reviews as an integral part of your book’s marketing campaign or making them an income stream for your writing career, take a exactly two minute to read this little post. Mary Gannon, deputy editor of Poets & Writers Magazine, says reviewers take “a lot of heat…for some free books, a few bucks, and a byline.” However, it’s usually only the most famous reviewers who are disparaged for their criticism and usually only the radical or caustic ones at that.

 

Many authors worry about lawsuits. They also worry about tax collectors since the books that reviewers get free must be claimed as taxable income. (Check with your tax accountant.) Neither threat is going to disappear, but you can help protect yourself from both by using a disclaimer in your review. The disclaimer might be official sounding or more casual. Something like this:

 

“Just so you know, I received a book (or e-book) in exchange for an unbiased and fair review. No fee was charged the author or the publisher.”

 

Reviewing others’ books does make a nice income stream for you because you’re probably already doing a lot of reading, anyway. With a little research you can pitch the marketing departments of publishers to review new releases you’d probably read anyway. (If you do, don’t be afraid to tactfully ask for paper ARCs if that’s your preference.) 

 

You can also ask publishers or online review sites you frequently review for frequently to write a recommendation for you represent them at expos and tradeshows you’d like to attend. That can save you the cost of an entrance fee and get you access to their media (press) rooms. Having a representative at these expos benefits them, too. You can hand out their  business cards (and yours!) to people you meet who might be interested in their review site and your badge will let you place a supply of their media kits to be distributed in those media rooms. (Do a search on “tradeshows” to read the parts in this book (the soon to be published How to Get Great Book Reviews Frugally and Ethically) where I discuss some of my experiences with this benefit.)

 

Here’s the nicest thing about making a review-writing decision: You don’t have to make a choice. You can have it all. You can write for pay sometimes as a legitimate freelancer for the media. You can write reviews to boost your brand sometimes. You can write a review as a gift for  authors you know or for authors whose work inspires you. Call the latter the golden-rule choice. The do-unto-others choice. The Karma choice.

 

Notice I did not suggest you start a business that sells reviews directly to publishers and authors. I cover that elsewhere in this book, but if you aren’t already aware of it—reviews paid for by anyone associated with the book are considered unethical for both the payer and the payee. It’s about credibility. It’s about keeping reviews believable. To put it more bluntly, it’s about avoiding anything that smacks of bribery or payola. 

 

MORE ABOUT THE #WritersontheMove GUEST BLOGGER

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 third editions of both The Frugal Book Promoter and her winningest book, The Frugal Editor. They have won awards from USA Book News, Readers’ Views Literary Award, Dan Poynter’s Global Ebook Award, the marketing award from Next Generation Indie Books and others including the coveted Irwin award. How To Get Great Book Reviews Frugally and Ethically is still in its first edition but is being updated to include important information on artificial intelligence considerations.

 

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. 

                  

The author loves to travel. She has visited ninety-one countries and has studied writing at Cambridge University in the United Kingdom; Herzen University in St. Petersburg, Russia; and Charles University, Prague. She admits to carrying a pen and journal wherever she goes. Her website is www.howtodoitfrugally.com

Early Lessons in the Yoga of Writing

 

Effort and Surrender and Writing

 

A personal yoga lesson, writing lesson, and review
by Carolyn Howard-Johnson

 

 

Yoga simply is. Like life. Like love. Like Writing. When we do it we may also connect. Eric Dinyer’s ethereal photographs in his Effort and Surrender published by Andrews McMeel, are aged like a Sienna landscape. They could easily be the route a beginner or a yoga sage might take to the next step. Or a writer takes to get creative juices started or to keep the I’m Not Good Enough Syndrome at bay. 

Way back in 2004 Eric asked me to write the foreword for this little treasure. 
An author-illustrator-photographer Dinyer has worked in the entertainment, music, and publishing industries with creative giants like Time-Warner Books, Columbia Records, Viking Penguin, St. Martin's Press, Doubleday, and Scholastic, as well as in publications such as Harper's, Newsweek, and the New York Times Book Review. He created cover images for Bruce Springsteen and Sting and illustrated The Breathing Field: Meditations on Yoga. And his request forced me to revisit my early experiences with yoga and I’m retelling a bit of it from the foreword for you so my writing fellows will understand why I think writers should give it a try, if they aren’t already in love with it..

I have been doing yoga since by brother directed me in a few poses.  I lay on a delicate patterned Oriental carpet before a fire in my mother’s home; he pointed my limbs in the proper directions.

            “Hatha Yoga” my brother said, “just poses…” He knew my atheistic tendencies.

            So, I did “poses only” until I saw light and knew.

            That was my only lesson.   

My yoga instructor did not believe that yoga should be uncomfortable or difficult but joyful. “Ignore those who say ‘No pain, no gain,’” he said.  “Stretch until it feels good.  Breathe until it feels better.”

Some poses came naturally. I have long muscles with little structure. Working them is like stretching warm Play-Doh. Dinyer’s photos of poses like The Plow are difficult for some but were easy for me. At 63 I was still doing that extension with variations, knees touching the floor above my head. Some poses like The Airplane he illustrates impart balance. My ability to do them improved as I practiced, mostly without my perceiving the changes because yoga benefits deliberately, leisurely.Some, like the Crane Posture require strength. I do not expect ever to achieve them.

Having said that, it does not matter to me. Yoga is not a contest with others nor with myself. I’m like that with writing, too. If practiced, it will progress. I eventually—perhaps after ten or twelve years—read (nay digested) Paramahansa Yogananda’s teachings but only when I was ready. His book materialized in the reading pile next to my bed. I still don’t know how that small volume came to be there.

I did not take expensive lessons, use special equipment, buy a Zen wardrobe or even set goals. All one needs for Yoga is willingness. I admit I ended up spending more money on things like writing classes, writers’ conferences, and reading, reading, reading on anything one needed for that like marketing. But I worked in breathing to increase the joy factor. I think it worked. I even wrote a poem about it:

 

Yoga is life.

                                    We see its splendor if we look

                                    Know its challenges when we choose to know

                                    Its comforts when we acknowledge them

                                    Recognize pain as a companion

                                    From whom we can learn or turn away

                                    It can quiet like the curve

                                    Of an egg in a bowl.

                                    It can be personal as a pulse

Or connect like a current.

                                    Life.  We select its ecstasies.

 

Such inspiration will surely move reader whether they choose Effort or Surrender or Writing—or all three. Yoga and writing is in the doing. Yoga and writing are very simply, life. 

MORE ABOUT THE #WRITERSONTHEMOVE CONTRIBUTOR

 Carolyn Howard-Johnson is the multi award-winning author of fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry. She is also a marketing consultant, editor, and author of the multi award-winning #HowToDoItFrugally Series (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BTXQL27T/ ) of books for writers including "The Frugal Book Promoter" (https://bit.ly/FrugalBookPromoIII), and "The Frugal Editor" both offered in their third editions by Modern History Press. Others in that series are "How to Get Great Book Reviews Frugally and Ethically," and two booklets, both in their second editions also from Modern History Press. The booklets, "Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers" (https://bit.ly/LastMinuteEditsII) and "Great First Impression Book Proposals" (https://bit.ly/BookProposalsII) are career boosters in mini doses and both make ideal thank you gifts for authors. The one on writing book proposals is also available as an Audio Book. "The Frugal Editor "(https://tinyurl.com/TheFrugalEditor), was recently released in its third edition. It is the winningest book in this series for writers.  

Carolyn also has three frugal books for retailers including one she encourages authors to read because it helps them understand what is needed to convince retailers to host their workshops, presentations, and signings. It is "A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques" (https://bit.ly/RetailersGuide). In addition to this blog, Carolyn helps writers extend the exposure of their favorite reviews at https://TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com. She also blogs all things editing--grammar, formatting and more--at "The Frugal, Smart, and Tuned-In Editor" (https://TheFrugalEditor.blogspot.com). Learn more and follow it to get news on her new releases directly from Amazon at https://bit.ly/CarolynsAmznProfile.