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.

Your Story's Setting - It's More Than Just Scenery

 

Contributed by Karen Cioffi, Children's Writer

Setting informs the reader of the time and place of your story.

It can include the period, the physical location, the climate, and the social surroundings.

But it can do a lot more.

An example of this is the middle-grade book Walking Through Walls. It’s set in 16th-century China, and speech, descriptions of behaviors, clothes, trades, food, and more all add to the authenticity of the time period.

This allows the reader to get a feel for the environment the protagonist lives in and helps immerse the reader in the time period.

Your setting descriptions can be powerful.

1. It takes a village to raise a child.

Okay, that tip #1 heading is a stretch.

What that means is it takes all the senses when describing setting. Don’t limit it to just one.

It seems the most authors stick to the scenery—what can be seen. While this is an important sense, the reader will become more involved if there’s more to ‘feel.’

To make your setting come alive, your fictional landscape, use as many senses as you can. You should include smell, touch, sound, and even taste if the story allows.

In Walking Through Walls, the protagonist Wang is walking home:

Wang ambled back to the cottage. He noticed his favorite flower, the lemon lilies, in full bloom. They draped the landscape. Hmm, they smell so good.

While that passage doesn’t go into detail, it brings the smell of the lemon lilies into the reader’s mind, bringing another sense into the picture.

Here’s another scene from Walking Through Walls:

Tired and hungry, Wang trudged through fog thick as porridge.

This gives the reader a bit more insight into Wang’s journey. Again, while it’s not explained in detail, the fog might have felt damp on his skin. Maybe it left beads of water on him. The reader has something more to picture and imagine than just a fog.

The senses can also help to bring backstory into the story. Through taste, smell, and even texture, the character can remember people or times from their past, enlightening the reader about important elements of the character’s history.

2. Use your character’s emotions to describe settings.

If your character is in a good mood or reflective, he will sense the world around him much differently than if he’s in a bad mood or angry.

Going back to Wang and the lemon lilies, if he’s happy, he might bend down and pick up one of the flowers, bring it up to his face, and take in the sweet odor.

If Wang is angry, he might trample over the lemon lilies, grumbling under his breath.

How the character reacts to or describes his surroundings will add an element of emotion.

3. Treat your setting like part of your story.

Your setting can create a deeper experience for the reader. Using rich details will help the reader dive further into the story, feeling like she’s there.

It helps the reader understand what the character is feeling and what he’s facing.

Here’s a passage from Walking Through Walls:

Slowly, his gaze traveled up and up and up until he could see no further. The mountain loomed above him like a never-ending wall. Its thick, giant trees left little space between them for a trail.

This gives the reader a pretty good picture of what Wang was facing, bringing the reader into the story.

4. Add just enough setting description.

Okay, you’re a writer, and writing every little detail about a setting may come easy. You might want to capture it from multiple views or describe every color.

Well, if you add too many details that aren’t important to the story, the reader may get bored and skim over that section.

This may lead the reader to wonder what other sections she’ll have to skim over.

While you want to keep the setting descriptions within limits, the description or detail you include should do more than show where the characters are, if at all possible. Think emotional state, symbolizing, evoking a memory, etc.

Going back to Wang, looking up at the formidable mountain foreshadowed the difficult journey he had begun.

Like the rest of the story, the setting description should move the story forward.
 
The setting and its descriptions help create a connection between the reader, the character, and the story.

But…

If you’re writing a children’s picture book, you can ignore the above.

The illustrations in a picture book fill in all the setting descriptions. They show the emotions, surroundings, and characters… they show what the story text doesn’t say.

It’s a whole different writing experience.

This article was first published at:
https://karencioffiwritingforchildren.com/2021/07/25/how-to-make-your-storys-setting-come-alive/

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

 

 

 

Karen Cioffi is an award-winning children’s author, ghostwriter, rewriter, and coach with clients worldwide. If you need help with your children’s story, please visit Karen Cioffi Writing for Children.
 
Karen also offers HOW TO WRITE A CHILDREN’S FICTION BOOK.
A 250+ page book that will help you get started or finish your children's book.

And for those children’s authors who are self-publishing, you might check out WRITERS ON THE MOVE PRESS.
 

Don’t Depend 100% on Your Publisher

By Terry Whalin (@terrywhalin)

In 2007, America’s Publicist Rick Frishman invited me to participate on the faculty of MegaBook Marketing University in Los Angeles, California. At that time, I was running a small literary agency and representing authors in Scottsdale, Arizona. Mark Victor Hansen, co-author of Chicken Soup for the Soul was leading this event. Besides meeting with authors who pitched their books, I attended every single session of the event and took notes. Throughout these sessions, I learned that traditional publishers are skilled at making beautiful books with well-designed covers and interiors. Book publishers also know how to get the books inside the bookstore and available to the public.

My first book, a children’s picture book for David C. Cook, was published in 1992. Since then I had written over 50 books with traditional publishers, received a couple of six-figure advances yet most of my books had negative royalty statements. A little known but important publishing fact is ninety percent of nonfiction books never earn back their advance. All my books are nonfiction. 

While I loved writing books, I did very little promotion for my work. I had a small website (www.terrywhalin.com) but I had not blogged and had no social media presence or email list or consistent and on-going connections to my readers. I believed because I was working with traditional publishers, receiving an advance against my royalties (sometimes thousands of dollars) that my books were going to be selling. I had fallen for the myth that my publisher was going to promote and sell my book. 

During MegaBook Marketing University, I learned a key truth about publishing: publishers know how to make beautiful books and get them into bookstores, yet these actions are only one part of the process. The other key element (mostly up to the author) is actually selling the book to the consumer. Attending MegaBook Marketing University transformed my life. I could no longer assume the responsibility for selling my books would be in the hands of the publisher (or someone else besides me). I made a decision to change and take action.

Every writer needs to be able to tell stories and create an excellent book manuscript. The writing is a foundational skill for every writer. If you don’t have this writing skill, a developmental editor, ghostwriter, co-author or any other person in this role can help you create an engaging book. But marketing and selling yoiur book requires a different set of skills. . The good news is: every writer can learn to market their book. 

Writers are looking for a simple formula to sell books. If such a formula existed, then publishers would use this method and every book would make a lot of money. In fact, some unexpected books are hits while some well-written books do not get purchased. One of the keys to selling books is building relationships. John Kremer, the author of 1001 Ways to Market Your Book says marketing is about building relationships with your readers. 

Consider your reader or target audience. How much detail do you know about them? Where do they live? Where do they shop? What other books do they read? Are they active in book clubs? What are their needs and how can you write material that will meet those needs? Can you answer these and other audience questions?

One of the most effective tools for every book author is to create their own email list. As an author, you control your email list including what you say and how often you use the list. While not everyone looks at Facebook or a website or Twitter, most people open and read their email. If you email too frequently, they might not open your email or they might unsubscribe. When an author has an email list and uses it properly, it is the best way for them to reach their readers. If you are a brand-new author, how to you start a list and use it effectively?

As an author, you take control of what you can for your book. You cannot depend on your publisher to sell your book. You have the greatest passion for your book, so you need to show that passion and create an email list and different ways to connect with your readers.  

Tweetable: 

This prolific author and editor was lulled into depending 100% on his publisher to sell books. He learned this publishing myth the hard way. Get the details here. (ClickToTweet)

W. Terry Whalin, a writer and acquisitions editor lives in California. A former magazine editor and former literary agent, Terry is an acquisitions editor at Morgan James Publishing. He has written more than 60 nonfiction books including Jumpstart Your Publishing Dreams and Billy Graham. Get Terry’s recent book, 10 Publishing Myths for only $10, free shipping and bonuses worth over $200. To help writers catch the attention of editors and agents, Terry wrote his bestselling Book Proposals That $ell, 21 Secrets To Speed Your Success. Check out his free Ebook, Platform Building Ideas for Every Author. His website is located at: www.terrywhalin.com. Connect with Terry on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

Include Diversity in Your Characters

Using Your Author Platform for Change
Contributed by Margot Conor

Authors have a powerful platform to challenge established role models and inequities in society through their writing. By using their platform to provoke thought, inspire change, and amplify marginalized voices, authors can contribute to a more equitable and inclusive literary landscape. Here are several ways they can do so:

1.    Representation and Diversity: By representing a diverse range of characters in their writing. By portraying characters from marginalized communities in prominent and empowered roles, authors can challenge stereotypes and promote inclusivity.

2.    Subverting Tropes: By subverting traditional tropes and expectations in their writing. For example, they can create complex and multidimensional characters who defy gender norms, challenge societal expectations, and break free from stereotypes.

3.    Exploring Power Dynamics: Challenge inequities by exploring power dynamics and privilege in their writing. Through nuanced portrayals of characters from different backgrounds and social classes, authors can highlight the ways in which systemic inequalities shape individual experiences and opportunities.

4.    Addressing Social Issues: Challenging established role models by addressing social issues such as racism, sexism, homophobia, and economic inequality in their writing. By shining a light on these issues and examining their impact on characters and communities, authors can provoke thought and inspire change.

5.    Empowering Marginalized Voices: Authors can challenge inequities by amplifying the voices of marginalized communities in their writing. By centering stories around characters from underrepresented backgrounds and giving them agency and autonomy, authors can empower readers to see the world from different perspectives and challenge their own biases.

6.    Promoting Empathy and Understanding: Authors can promote sympathy and understanding in their writing by portraying characters with empathy and compassion, authors can encourage readers to see the humanity in others and recognize the ways in which their own actions and attitudes contribute to inequality.

7.    Offering Alternatives: Authors can offer alternative visions of society and culture in their writing. By imagining worlds where traditional hierarchies are dismantled, and individuals are free to be their authentic selves, authors can inspire readers to envision a more equitable and inclusive future.

Avoiding Cultural Appropriation

Navigating the line between ethnically inclusive writing and cultural appropriation can be complex, especially for authors who are white. However, there are several ways they can strive to be inclusive without appropriating cultures:

1.    Research and Sensitivity Reading: Authors should conduct thorough research into the cultures they wish to represent in their writing. This includes reading books written by authors from those cultures, consulting cultural experts, and seeking feedback from sensitivity readers who can provide insights and ensure accurate representation.

2.    Avoid Stereotypes and Misrepresentations: Authors should be mindful of avoiding stereotypes and misrepresentations when depicting characters and cultures. Instead, they should strive to create nuanced and multidimensional characters who reflect the diversity and complexity of real people.

3.    Show Respect and Humility: Authors should approach the task of writing about cultures outside their own with respect, humility, and a willingness to listen and learn. They should be open to feedback and willing to make changes to their writing based on the insights of cultural experts and sensitivity readers.

4.    Focus on Universal Themes: While it's important to acknowledge and celebrate cultural differences, authors should also focus on universal themes and experiences that resonate with readers from all backgrounds. By highlighting the common humanity that binds us all, authors can create stories that are inclusive and accessible to a wide audience.

5.    Collaborate with Diverse Voices: Authors can collaborate with authors and creators from diverse backgrounds to ensure authentic representation and avoid cultural appropriation. This can include co-writing projects, consulting with cultural advisors, and seeking input from members of the communities being represented.

6.    Acknowledge Privilege and Power Dynamics: Authors who are white should be mindful of their privilege and the power dynamics at play when writing about cultures outside their own. They should approach the task with humility and a willingness to interrogate their own biases and assumptions.

7.    Promote Own Voices Literature: Authors can support and promote literature written by authors from the cultures they wish to represent. By amplifying diverse voices and ensuring that marginalized authors have opportunities to tell their own stories, authors can contribute to a more inclusive literary landscape.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Margot Conor has been writing for as long as she can remember, but it wasn't until the COVID lock-down that she had enough time to dedicate to the craft and bring something to completion. Having finished her first novel, she went through the grueling two-year process of editing. Now she has jumped into the author's world with both feet. She's preparing to debut her first novel, which means learning how to promote it. The last year has been spent attending many writing retreats, seminars, and writers' events. She also listened to presentations specifically on the topic of publishing and book marketing. She will be sharing what she learns with the reader.
Learn more about Margot at https://margotconor.com/

 

 

Boosting Book Sales for Specialty Books

CATALOGS ARE RARELY USED FOR BOOK JUGGERNAUTS

By Carolyn Howard-Johnson

   Yes, it is time to plan for holiday season book sales. 

 Here is a road-less-traveled to consider for specialty books.

It’s June and holiday gift catalogs from fine stores and not-so-fine are planning and designing theirs right now--both the kind that land in you snail mail and the ones that come to your e-mail box. Authors who put their marketing hats on and think out-of-the-box for places to expose their books to a new audience will find all kinds of benefits they never encountered selling books “the usual way.”  (See below for a few of  idea of how to make them work for you.) 

Commercial catalogs (now often called gift guides)—benefit from the great blurbs you have excerpted from your reviews. In fact, you are more likely to get a contract for your book to be featured in a commercial gift guides if you have excerpted a stunning blurb from a review. The catalog’s designers use them to prompt their readers to buy your book. And, wow! Are these catalogs a way to pick up musty book sales!

Catalogs are show business. They spotlight a product for the purpose of selling merchandise, but they also create a buzz, project an image, tell a story, leave an impression. They create celebrity for themselves and for each of their products.

Brick-and-mortar stores and online retailers of every kind—from department stores to gadget stores to catalogs for seniors to museums and charities—still send catalogs by USPS and big online retail outlets send individual suggestions for products their algorithms tell them you’ll like. Millions of them.

Before authors or publishers pitch a book to one of these entities, they must find a catalog-match for the genre, theme, or topic of their book. Here are a few examples of how books can add a new dimension to catalogs: 

§  Your nonfiction book on the life of Picasso or your historical fiction account of his life are prospected for exhibition catalogs produced by art galleries like Smithsonian or the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art. Some still have honest-to-goodness brick and mortar stores where some books make great point-of-purchase items.

§  Your how-to travel book or travel-oriented memoir will fit on the pages of Travelsmith or Magellan’s.

§  Your book on the history of porcelain or bone china could be featured in Geary’s online gift guide.  Geary’s is an ultra-fine gift store located on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, so a fiction book set in that area or about a Beverly Hills lifestyle might give their catalog a dimension they haven’t tried before.

Once you find a match, pitch your idea with the query-letter basics described in my How to Get Great Book Reviews Frugally and Ethically now being edited for its second edition from Modern History Press. This query, however, must emphasize why this book is a fit for the catalog buyer’s publication and how the designer might best showcase it. Because catalogs need great visuals, include an image (not as an attachment) of your knockout cover.

Here’s how to find catalogs that might be interested in your book:

• Search online for “retail catalogs.” About 31,000 lists will appear. See if the search brings up online or real paper catalogs that might be a fit for your book. Don’t judge too narrowly. If you have an idea for them, they might have leeway enough to make room for it.
• Go to a bookstore or library and ask to see their Catalog of Catalogs. Find one with a recent update or copyright date. Tada! You’ve found another way to see your book cover and your blurbs in print and realize sales at the same time.
• Become familiar with the catalogs that come to your home. Sign up for gift guides that might offer possibilities. Ask your friends to share their used catalogs with you. When you find an appropriate one for your book, go for it! Contact information is usually on the inside of the front cover or on the back cover. 

The benefits of these kinds of retails sales far exceed those of selling retail through bookstores: 

§  The primary reason for your book to appear on the pages of a retail catalog is sales, but that exposure is also extraordinarily good publicity.

§  Though commercial catalog exposure looks like advertising, it has more benefits than most ads. Here’s the best part: It is not usually exposure you pay for. The catalog administrators buy books from you and do all of the production and distribution work. Your only job is to sell them on the idea of your book, provide them with ideas for copy including one of your book’s rave reviews, and send them a great image of your book, perhaps a 3-D image, which you can get from author Gene Cartwright if you don’t know how to do it on your own.

§  Catalog buyers reorder just before their stock is depleted, usually with no prompting from you or your publisher.

§  Unlike most bookstores or other retail outlets, print catalog companies expect to pay the freight for their book shipments.

§  Unlike most bookstores, catalog producers do not return what they cannot sell. They probably won’t ask for returns unless you suggest it, and why would you do that? This is their usual way of doing business. When in Rome, do as the Romans do.

Hint: These no-return sales terms should be included on order forms, invoices, and the sales contract.

§  Catalog buyers must be sure they have stock to cover their sales, so their orders will be substantial enough to make both you and your publisher smile.

§  If catalog sales are successful, administrators may ask for a contract for their next catalog. The beauty here is that you can help make sales soar by promoting the catalog on Twitter, your newsletter, and many of your other marketing efforts. Use the motto “As seen in Smithsonian’s Holiday Catalog!” everywhere.

§  Commercial catalogs expect you to set minimum quantities of what you sell them. That means you can tell them—as an example—that their minimum first order must be forty-eight books and orders thereafter must be in lots of at least six or twelve. I’m sure you can see the benefits of this policy, not least of which is that they will be less likely to run out of stock. You’ll save on accounting time, too.

§  If, after the catalog has expired, you can coax the administrators of these catalogs to share their graphics with you, you can repurpose them for your website and about any other place great graphics will help your marketing. They probably won’t charge you if you make it clear that you intend to keep using their catalog in your marketing. Depending on how the segment is designed, it might become a logo, a banner for your social networks, and on and on.

§  Catalogs usually don’t care if the copyright date on your book is current; they are more interested in a title that fits their product mix, has a history of great sales, and has appealing cover art. 

§  Most catalogs don’t require exclusivity for their products.

§  You might interest some online catalogs to buy rights to give your e-book to their customers as a value-added gift for a limited period of time. 

Note: Many small-to-medium size publishers have no experience with catalogs and, though it seems self-evident that increased sales benefit them as well as you, you may need to convince them of that fact and then coach them through the process.

Catalog disadvantages are:

§  Learning curve ahead! You’ll need to expertly pitch your book and negotiate sales to catalog buyers. That means you have to readjust your thinking and tailor your sales tools to their needs. As you can see from the bullets in the list above, catalogs do business differently from bookstores.

§  Because print catalogs buy products in quantity and in advance they demand a hefty discount. If you or your publisher cannot give fifty percent or more, there is no point in pursuing them. However, if you only break even on catalog sales, it may be worth the trouble for the publicity benefits. 

§  Some authors and publishers fail to print enough books to supply a catalog’s immediate needs. Authors and publishers who use print-on-demand technology have the advantage of fast turnaround time, something a partner- or self-published author may use as a sales point in his or her query letter.

§  Nonfiction books are generally more suitable for catalogs, but as with other marketing, anything that works for nonfiction may work for fiction, too. It may just take more research and planning to achieve success.

Hint: It’s hard to believe that some publishers don’t jump at the chance to work with their authors on catalog sales. If your publisher can’t be convinced of the profit possibilities in partnering with you on a project like this, handle the details of this sale yourself. Ask your publisher for a large-quantity price break to stock your own books or work with the press that prints your book so you can save postage and time by having catalog orders drop-shipped.

Authors can produce catalogs of their own. Self-published catalogs are generally sponsored or organized by authors with independent instincts who have the support of charitable and professional organizations including writers’ organizations. 

Tip: Don’t let that “self-published catalogs” scare you. Authors who are traditionally published can use this idea as effectively as those who have had experience publishing their own work. 

These independently-produced catalogs become cross-promotional efforts that increase exposure for holiday gift-giving. They are great promotional handouts at literary events. They are take-it-home marketing tools that continue to sell after attendees have returned home, and they can be targeted at any demographic. 

When Joyce Faulkner and I sponsored a booth for Authors’ Coalition at the LA Times Festival of Books we published a full-color catalog that featured all our booth participants. We handed them out at the fair, but we also mass-mailed them to influential creative people in the Southern California area including Hollywood movie moguls who often adapt novels for the screen. We didn’t forget to include regional bookstore buyers and event planners, and the fair logo gave it even more credibility. (Fair administrators encouraged fair participants to use the logo liberally.) The catalog included an invitation to come to the fair and visit our booth. And, yes—because blurbs are superior sales tools—a quote excerpted from reviews was featured prominently on each author’s page.

Cooperative catalogs benefit by linking to great reviews of each book. When this is part of the concept, those online entities (bloggers, journals, etc.) may be thankful enough for the additional traffic to help with the catalog’s digital marketing—things like social networking and blog posts.

Catalogs like these usually rely on each participating author to distribute it to their own contact lists to achieve mass readership. All benefit from each author’s list. Because postage can get expensive, it is best if the bulk of your catalogs get distributed by e-mail, but paper catalogs are keepers and can be distributed as giveaways or through the mail. You can use the images you produce for your catalog participants in slide shows or YouTube to encourage people to subscribe so they will receive your next catalog.

 When individuals or organizations spearhead catalogs like this, there is usually a fee to cover the time and expense of putting them together and for coordinating the dissemination. They can be used as fundraisers for charities or to help a small publisher increase their bottom line so they can take on more publishing clients the following year. 

Note: To make an idea like this work, it is best to have participants sign agreements that clearly delineate the marketing expectations of each participant and the duties to be performed by the organizing entity.

MORE AROUT TODAY’S GUEST BLOGGER

Carolyn Howard-Johnson was founder and operator of her own gift retail chain with five stores including the only gift specialty store at the Santa Anita Race Track at the foot of the beautiful San Gabriel Mountains in California. She is now author of two series on of how-to books, one for retailers and one for authors—both traditionally and self-published. Learn more about her at HowToDoItFrugally.com.

PS: The character I am with at a Miami Book Fair was the star of many gift guides and holiday catalogues that had nothing to do with children’s books because star-power followed him wherever he happened to go. Smart retailers! Smart publishers and authors cashed in on his...mmm--sex appeal.