Use Independently Published Media to Promote Your Writing Career!

 

 

 

 

The Incredible Power of “Hidden Gems”

 

Ode to Small Magazines and Author-Published Promotions

and
A Free Model to Use for Your Own Independently Publishing
Marketing Purtsch

 

By Carolyn Howard-Johnson, multi award-winning novelist, poet, and author

of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally Series of books for writers

 

Many of my readers have heard me talk about saving marketing time and budget dollars by using marketing campaigns aimed at related media to build networking opportunities and to query for reviews among a battery of other exposure opportunities that will nudge our book sales in other (preferred!) ways than saying “Buy my book.”

 

You even might have heard me tout “the free advertising/promotion opportunitities  made of real paper and get delivered directly to our mailboxes” as a good place for new writers on a strict budget to start that kind of campaign. You know, the kind of promotional material we have produced ourselves. The kind we can put in the hands of our readers free at our events and trade shows. 

 

Well, one such publishing effort with a twist just landed in my e-mail box in a media release. I finagled a free print copy to review so I could determine if it qualified for my top ten recommendations for a frugal but truly professional promotion. It gave me a few more ideas for using our own publishing skills to increase our exposure for whatever niche of the publishing industry our book, writing career, or even small business occupies including those of publishers, editors, writers of fiction or nonfiction in any genre, and even as projects for writers and other professional groups.

 

Don’t you dare go away. I’ll use bullets so you can see how you can use it as a model for your own project and tell you how to get a freebie so you can give yourself a break from chasing the brightest media stars that give you few results, anyway. And this one is literary so you’ll find darn good reading here which is likely to introduce you to part of our good old USA you know little or nothing about. 

 

UP Reader is named after a writer’s organization called UPPAA (Upper Peninsula Publishers and Authors Association) in upper Michigan that happens to be a substantial literary journal like the ones so many authors submit their work to, often with few if any results. The issue I have is a concept that’s designed to: 

 

1. celebrate the 10^th Anniversary of the sponsoring writers’ group; in this case it’s the 10^th anniversary of the journal.

2. bring “Upper Michigan Literature to the World” with a “special edition honoring the Spirit of Mackinac Island.”

3.to expose more than seventy of their writers’ works to a wider audience including the extraordinary contributor/members. 

 

An anthology, UP READERS is published by Modern History Press and available as a paperback, hardcover, e-book, and audiobook. It takes only a first glance at the cover to see how to put this idea to work for your personal needs or for a literary/writing centered group you belong to.

 

Here are some of what this project achieves, but you might think of others. Each of their ten issued is different:

~It features the top 3 winning submissions to UPPAA’s Dandelion Short Story Contest that recognizes young writers from Upper Michigan area of the United States in grades 6 to 8 (Junior division) and 9 to 12 (Senior division).

~Royalties from the UP Reader supports UPPAA’s operating costs, and educational efforts like the UP Notable Books Club and Young Writers Storytelling Workshop that aim to showcase northern Michigan life from the Keweenaw to the Soo and from Menominee to Ironwood, but it could be adapted to support your career efforts no matter what they might be.

~Though it offers works and the voices of authors of this far-flung area, it is also mindful of the broad tastes for readers from speculative to historic fiction and poetry to nonfiction, thus making it great reading for naturally curious readers everywhere.

~It uses backmatter effectively including a “history” of the nine previous editions/issues of the Readers’ covers using glorious CineYooper Color. (What will you name you’re the color you use for the cover—inside, out, or both? 

~All ten can be ordered at upreader.org/comprehensive-index.

~Interested Reviewers are invited to spread the word about this anthology and the sponsoring group with its inclusive platform and open membership requirements. To receive a free paperback ARC of this newest edition contact Victor Volkman president@uppaa.org. If you haven’t time for a review, Victor also says, “…I would be happy to send a freebie of the e-book version of UP Reader Volume 1" to serve anyone anywhere!” 

§  Learn more about UPPAA and membership www.UPPAA.org. And experience a zoom keynote I did for this generous group on YouTube on great ways to avoid Imposter Syndrome and other debilitating fears like fear of marketing. (I first learned of Imposter Syndrome in Psychology Today when I was preparing a keynote sharing ways writers can avoid that condition as well as writers’ block and just plain moments of depression familiar to many who work with only a computer as a companion.) It’s one of those slick trade magazines with targeted distribution we authors love to query with our ideas for free ink mentioned in this article above!)

 

You will be adding UPR to my list "Top Ten Hidden Gems,” periodicals and others that are more accessible than the more competitive supermedia. If we never pitch our books for reviews or feature stories about ourselves as an author or some other related topic to more accessible publications, we might never get the recognition we need to succeed in our pursuits of those brighter stars and, sadly, never experience the opportunities they offer in the meantime. When we build our lists with readers and media in new regions (and among new demographics), we expand on the possibilities for own work. Sometimes we need to reread our own books in search for possible new audiences. Here are some already on my list to consider when the free copies get delivered to your USPS PO box just because you do business with them:

§  Westways, distributed free only to AAA members, lands in the mailboxes of over five million readers, far exceeding some of the more avidly pursued journals and trade magazines.

§  Sierra Club and a variety of other charities distribute beautifully designed publications you will be proud to appear in.

§  AARP (American Association of Retired Persons) sends genuinely helpful periodicals to their members in huge quantities and yes, many are made of real paper, exude bragging rights, and provide moments that inspire. You could be one of their stars.

§  The periodicals that come to us from our alma maters work the same way. (And yearbooks across the nation cater to avid local readers; you might be impressed—and surprised!—with the literature assigned to their senior-year English classes!)

§  Don’t forget to offer your talents to the free newspapers (known as throwaways!) you find stacked in racks in front of bookstores, drugstores, and our favorite restaurants.

§  The organizations that you have touched as a writer probably have online newsletters, often chock full of writing tips and writing news and might be open to featuring you and your suitable idea for a regular column or occasional article.

§  Generally we writers are curious travelers and our experiences can often relate in some way to our last book…or our next.

§  Don’t neglect possible Opinion pieces (my Los Angeles Times calls them “Voices) on the Op-Ed page. These pieces always include a byline and usually a credit line with the title of your book linked to your website.

 

MORE ABOUT TODAY’S “WritersontheMove” CONTRIBUTOR

 

 

Carolyn Howard-Johnson is a multi award-winning author of fiction and poetry but is best known for her how-to-books for writers. Find all of that series in one place on Amazon, but it’s her poetry that addresses the ills of cultures across the world. Imperfect Echoes is her Writers’ Digest honored book, self-published in the tradition of poets since the advent of the Gutenberg press, it defies #bookbigoty as well other biases we are experiencing after a period—decades—of progress on that front. Find a laudatory review by Jim Cox, editor-in-chief of The Midwest Book Review, and its Amazon buy page at  https://tinyurl.com/ImperfectEchoes.

The Story Behind My “The more you. Know…” Motto

Making Publishing Decisions the Frugal Way

By Carolyn Howard-Johnson, novelist, poet, and
author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally Series of books for writers

 

The internet spreads a cruel notion among new authors. They are led to believe the well-respected publisher they are “sure” to acquire employs a magical entity who will apply literary voodoo to their manuscript and come up with the perfect book they dream of. The truth is authors might achieve that dream better by publishing their book themselves like Faulkner or Hemingway did or hire someone (or many someones) to achieve that goal. To carry that idea a little further, they might have to do much of what they think they’ll avoid with traditional publishers anyway. The stories we hear about the does, don’ts, and what ifs are often fairy tales borrowed from the centuries before this new millennium.

A more practical way to make publishing choices is to make a list weighing the suitability of the title of your WIP (Word in Progress), the author’s preferences, personality, and pocketbook and then break each of those categories into as many as an author can determine are applicable to their project. The graph you build will not make the decision for you—the idea that it’s always your choice is usually a bit of a fairytale, too. But it will give you a more realistic expectation for your WIP as well gaps in learning you still need to do. That process is never ending. 

 

Your list would look something like this. 

1.The title. 
    a. Some genres—even some writing styles—are simply

more difficult to get into print; that range of difficulty can

vary with the different aspects of publishing process from

covers to formatting, to interior design, to developing 

index that librarians expect in nonfiction books.

b. Some titles depend on publication within a current

timeframe that cannot wait for the traditional search for an

agent or publisher. Once a contract with a publisher is

signed, it can easily take a year to get a book to library and

bookstore shelves.

2. The author’s personality. 

a. How honest can the author be about their own strengths 

and weaknesses.

b. How willing is an author to learn what it takes to partner

with publishers or those they must hire.
3. The author’s preferences.

a. How flexible can the author be when they meet unexpected exigencies.

b. Can the author welcome input/demands regarding their creative work, or—minimally—be willing to ask or negotiate with a publisher’s team or those they must hire.

c. Some authors go in search of an agent before they are aware that most take about 15% of the royalty a publisher allots to what they think will be the author’s “share.”

4. The author’s pocketbook.

a. In any publishing scenario, there will be unexpected expenses—sometimes insurmountable. The most disappointing is ending up with a publisher who isn’t a true publisher, that is, it doesn’t cover important needs like marketing or charges hefty fees for what the author could better do themselves.

5. Time Considerations. That would be for the tune the author needs to invest to learn more about the different aspects or the process they believe is right for their situation as well how quickly the book must be available to the public to accommodate current or coming news cycles.

a. This list is long on possibilities and includes most

everything from marketing and PR skills like speaking,

making videos, etc. to the basics of writing a successful

query letter.

b. Most experts strongly suggest that the book cover not be

one of those you hope to do yourself, even if the author is

an artist. Book covers require a graphic artist with

marketing knowledge, knowledge of printing in color and

the delicate mathematics needed to make the cover fit

many elements of a book from book dimension to weight

of the paper to width of the spine.

 

You can see that both the success and joy of your publishing journey will depend on what you know. I borrowed the phrase “The more you know…” from the hours of TV I spent watching MSNBC on a cruise when their own ad campaign took place of paid ads to meet cruise system parameters. It started to make more sense when I finally turned my computer on to tackle the self-editing project I had planned for sea days. I had already spent a few years trying to sift through rumors at expensive writer’s conferences and critique groups populated by others as new to the publishing industry as I was. I could feel the truth to that MSNBC adage through to my bones.

 

The two best ways for authors to learn is to eschew how-to books written for everyone. To learn what I needed to know to avoid the publishing potholes I had been falling in. I now tell my clients to take specific classes in writing and other aspects of publishing at accredited universities which is also expensive, but their instructors and information are usually carefully vetted. I also tell them to read books—even used paperbacks from Amazon—written by those same instructors or experts—people with lots of experience learning the stuff our traditional industry expects of us! Eventually I became one of those instructors myself (at UCLA) and started to write texts for my classes and for everyone else including the emerging do-it-yourselfers. You know, not for everybody but books precisely for the needs of publishing authors.

 

Here is a list of those books and there are more recommendations in the appendixes of each one: 

 

The Frugal Book Promoter, The Frugal Editor, The Great First-Impression Book Proposal, Great Little Last-Minute Editing Tips for Writers from Modern History Press as well as

How To Get Great Book Reviews Frugally and Ethically that was self-published and will soon be available in a second edition from Modern History Press. Hurry! Amazon was showing a 46% discount on the Book Proposal paperback! 

MORE ABOUT TODAY’S COLUMNIST

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 The Frugal Book Promoter and The Frugal Editor which won 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 Ethicallylaunched to rave reviews from Jim Cox, Editor-in-Chief of Midwest Book Reviews and others: 

 

“How to Get Great Book Reviews Frugally and Ethically [and other books in the series] could well serve as a textbook for a college Writing/Publishing curriculum.”

 

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 nearly 100 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. Learn more about her books for writers and her creative work in the media room on her website.