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It is my pleasure to announce the winner of Carolyn Howard-Johnson's ebook, The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success!

And the winner is.... MAUREEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thank you all for all your comments!

Maureen, the moderator of VBT will get in touch with you soon to send you your prize.

Today I have a wonderful guest post from author and freelance editor Carolyn Howard-Johnson! Leave a comment for a chance to win an ebook copy of The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success!

GUEST POST:

Every once in a while I like to remind writers about how much information can be had by subscribing to blog. Free information. Most have a place to subscribe so you automatically get a copy of the blog in your e-mail box. But more than that, most blogs are set up so that you can comment or ask questions.

Some, like my The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor. even prefer a question and answer format. I came up with the idea of doing a blog a la Ann Landers when I started getting so many letters from readers with grammar and formatting and editing questions.

I am often thought of as The Frugal Book Promoter because that is the name of the first book in my HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. But I consider editing the single most important aspect of promotion. After all, a well-edited query letter is the first thing most agents, editors, publishers and producers ever see from an editor.

Though there are times when an author absolutely must edit her own work, only a foolish writer trusts the editing of her book entirely to a publisher. So knowing how to edit is important. And that means a whole lot more than being good at grammar.

I get letters from people on the subject of editing, especially arguments about why they don't need to hire one. Here are my answers to a few of them:

I don't need to worry about an editor. My book will be traditionally published.

• You can't rely on the editor provided by your publisher—any publisher. I've seen even the biggest publisher let boo-boos in books slip through. And many small publishers hire inexperienced typo hunters, not real editors.

I'm hiring an experience editor. I'm letting her do the work. That's what I'm paying her for.

• You can't rely on even the best editor you hire. You need to be a partner with your editor. If you know little or nothing about the process, how can you know what to accept or what to reject? You need to know when you're sure you want to break a rule. You need to know when you want to consider what the agent is telling you, even if it goes against your pattern or makes you uncomfortable. "Partner" is the key word here. You want to be able to do that even if you're publishing with Harper's and your editor turns out to be a channeled Jacqueline Kennedy.

I'm just publishing POD for my family.

• No matter how you publish, you need an editor before you go to press. Regardless of how you are publishing or what you call the process. (By the way, many terms used for publishing these days have become almost unintelligible because so many are using them incorrectly. That adds confusion to an already confusing process! I guess that could be considered an editing problem of sorts.)

I know I should have an editor but I keep procrastinating...

The Frugal Editor gives you guidelines for the way to find a good editor. Those guidelines are there for people who have the best intentions and just don't get around

We're back with Carolyn Howard-Johnson and today we’ll go over some of Carolyn’s books, but first I’d like to tell you about the two I recently read.

The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success is a must have book for all writers. It is jammed pack with information, tips, and advice to guide and help you with the writing process. From how you punctuate your titles to query letters, it’s covered. What I especially like about this book is its detail. Carolyn gives step-by-step instructions for things such as using Word’s Track and Find functions. It even mentions the word snuck. This may not sound important, but I very recently wrote a story for children and used the word snuck in it. I will be changing that word to sneaked thanks to Carolyn’s tip. What are the chances? The book also includes other great resources for making your writing the best it can be. The Frugal Editor will stay by my computer so it will be readily available every time I sit to write.

Next up is The Frugal Book Promoter: How to Do What Your Publisher Won’t. This book is such a great resource for promoting yourself and your books. For lack of better words, I have to repeat myself: it is jammed packed with great information, tips and advice - I mean that literally. The Frugal Book Promoter explains what PR is, including branding, your tagline, and your pitch. It explains how to build your Media Kit as well as how to build your credentials to include in your kit. The Frugal Book Promoter has 38 chapters and each one is filled with practical and detailed information. If you want to get your book reviewed, appear on television, take part in a book fair, know what to do before and after you sign that contract, or want to utilize Amazon’s features, this book has it all. And, as with The Frugal Editor, Carolyn included a number of other great resources to help with your promotion efforts. If you have a book you want to promote, or just as important, if you are writing a book, The Frugal Book Promoter will be an essential tool in your promotional journey.

Now, here’s more about these two books and other books Carolyn has written:

The Frugal Book Promoter: How to Do What Your Publisher Won’t
ISBN: 193299310X
Publisher: Star Publish
Awards: Winner USA Book News, Irwin Award
Price: $17.95 but discounted at:: http://www.amazon.com/Frugal-Book-Promoter-What-Publisher/dp/193299310X/

For only a few cents a day The Frugal Book Promoter assures your book the best possible start in life. Full of nitty - gritty how - tos for getting nearly-free publicity, Carolyn Howard-Johnson, an instructor for UCLA’s Writers’ Program, shares her professional experience as well as practical tips gleaned from the successes of her own book campaigns. She tells authors how to do what their publishers can’t or won’t and why authors can often do their own promotion better than a PR professional.

A recommendation from BarnesandNobel.com: Feather Schwartz Foster, an author, September 9, 2004,

Packed With Wonderful Information! For anyone who has written a book of any kind - this is a must-have, and must-keep guide! Every chapter is filled with insights and how-tos and a whole bunch of where to finds!
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The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success
ISBN: 9780978515874
Publisher: Red Engine Press
Awards: Winner USA Book News, Reader Views Literary Award, New Generation Marketing Award
Price: $18.95
To Order: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0978515870/

There are gremlins out there determined to keep your work from being published, your book from being promoted. They -- resolved to embarrass you before the gatekeepers who can turn the key of success for you -- lurk in your subconscious and the depths of your computer programs. Whether you are a new or experienced author, The Frugal Editor will help you present whistle-clean copy (whether it's a one-page cover letter or your entire manuscript) to those who have the power to say "Yea" or "Nay."
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The Great First Impression Book Proposal: Everything You Need To Know To Sell Your Book in 20 Minutes or Less
ISBN: B000YG6O5U
Publisher: Amazon
Price: $0.49 (or 49c!)
To Order: www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000YG6O5U/ref=cm_arms_pdp_dp

The perfect learning experience for those who want to learn to wow an editor in no time flat and only 49 cents out-of-pocket!

OH, I downloaded this from Amazon. This ebook is another great resource and full of practical advice and guidance. And, for the price an absolute must have!
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Carolyn Howard-Johnson is also the award-winning author of:
This is the Place (a historical novel set in Utah in the 1950s)
Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered (these are creative nonfiction - told like stories but true nonetheless)
Tracings (a traditionally published chapbook of nostalgic poetry - Papeback only with satin ribbon bookmark)

Other books by Carolyn:
She Wore Emerald Then: Reflections on Motherhood (coauthored by Magdalena Ball and Carolyn Howard-Johnson - Available as paperback or e-book)
Cherished Pulse (an e-chapbook of Valentine poetry co-authored by Magdalena Ball and Carolyn Howard-Johnson

And, last, but certainly not least, Carolyn’s newest book:
A Retailer's Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How to Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrift Events and Sales Techniques.
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Finally, I wanted to mention Carolyn’s newsletter, Sharing With Writers. It’s a great source of news, tips, resources and articles. Go to [email protected] to subscribe.

Learn more about Carolyn at:
http://carolynhoward-johnson.com or
http://www.howtodoitfrugally.com

It's been fun and informative! Thank you Carolyn, for visiting with us this week.

Karen

It is such a pleasure to host Carolyn Howard-Johnson. What’s so interesting about belonging to a wonderful group of authors, such as VBT, is getting to work along side them. But, you only get to know them a little better when you actually host them. I found out quite a bit about Carolyn Howard Johnson while preparing this post. Carolyn has held many enviable positions, she is an entrepreneur, savvy business woman, and multiple award winning author. But, that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Carolyn always demonstrates generosity and kindness even with her hectic schedule. She stretches herself and is not afraid to venture to be all that she can be – that’s very impressive and a wonderful example for others.

Now, let’s learn a bit more about this talented, and experienced author and promoter:

As a college freshman, Carolyn Howard-Johnson was the youngest person ever hired as a staff writer for the Salt Lake Tribune--"A Great Pulitzer Prize Winning Newspaper"-- where she wrote features for the society page and a column under the name of Debra Paige.

Later, in New York, she was an editorial assistant at Good Housekeeping Magazine. She also handled accounts for fashion publicist Eleanor Lambert who instituted the first Ten Best Dressed List, where she wrote releases for celebrity designers of the time including Pauline Trigere, Rudy Gernreich and Christian Dior. She was also a consultant for the Oak Park Press in the Chicago area.

Her nonfiction and humor have been seen in national magazines and her fiction and poetry appear regularly in anthologies and review journals. She has been a columnist for The Pasadena Star News and is now a columnist for Home Décor Buyer, a trade magazine, and Myshelf.com and others. She writes movie and theatre reviews for The Glendale News-Press.

She studied at the University of Utah, graduated from USC and has done postgraduate work in writing at UCLA. She also studied writing at Cambridge University, United Kingdom; Herzen University in St. Petersburg, Russia; and Charles University in Prague.

The author’s first novel, This Is The Place, and her book of creative nonfiction are award-winners. She also wrote a screenplay, The Killing Ground. Her book The Frugal Book Promoter: How to Do What Your Publisher Won't was named USA Book News' Best Professional Book of 2004 and won Book Publicists of southern California's Irwin award.

The second book in the HowToDoItFrugally series is The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success which also won a USA Book News Best Book nod. It is also the winner of Reader Views Literary Award and a finalist in the New Generation Indie Best Book Awards. Her marketing campaign for that book took top honors for marketing.

Howard-Johnson’s stories have appeared in anthologies like: Pass/Fail, edited by Rose A. O. Kleidon, PhD; Calliope’s Mousepad in review journals like California State University at Stanislaus's Penumbra and the Mochila Review.

She was honored as Woman of the Year in Arts and Entertainment Award by California Legislature members, Carol Liu, Dario Frommer and Jack Scott. She is the recipient of her community's Character and Ethics award for her work promoting tolerance. She was honored by her city's Character and Ethics committee for promoting tolerance with her writing and was named to Pasadena Weekly's list of 14 women of "San Gabriel Valley women who make life happen"

Born and raised in Utah, Howard-Johnson raised her own family in sunny Southern California.

Wow! What a list of honors, awards and credentials...Carolyn is quite a woman!

To learn more about Carolyn visit:

http://carolynhoward-johnson.com or

http://www.howtodoitfrugally.com

You can also check out Carolyn's blogs that focus on writing and related topics:

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

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

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

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

And, this blog is just a little off the subject of writing, but deals with an important aspect of life:

www.warpeacetolerance.blogspot.com
My creative writing is mostly inspired by the need for tolerance--nay, acceptance--on this planet. It also includes resources so that people can--no matter what they think of our wars--support our troops.

Please be sure to come back on Wednesday, June 3rd, for more with Carolyn Howard-Johnson.

Oh, Boy! It's so exciting! I'm hosting the award winning author and marketing guru, Carolyn Howard-Johnson.

We'll talk about how Carolyn started out and worked to achieve a great level of success. On Wednesday, June 3rd, I'll discuss two of Carolyn's books: The Frugal Editor, and The Frugal Promoter. I've read both so I have the inside scoop.

Be sure to stop by tomorrow and Wednesday, June 3rd.

See you in blog world,
Karen