Writers Tricks of the Trade VOLUME 7, ISSUE 3 | Page 22

W HY G ETTING G REAT R EVIEWS IS Y OUR J OB (C ONT ’ D )
a very green crop. Bloggers, you say? Well, that’s a resource pool you can
easily plumb yourself.
So, the marketing part of your book that includes finding the right reviewers
to read and comment on your book will—in most cases—be up to you and well
within your skill set after reading this book. And even when you have the luxury
of a marketing department behind you, those authors who know how to get re-
views on their own can keep a book alive for an infinite amount of time after
their publishers relegate their books to a backlist or their contract expires.
Note: If it is too late to apply this information to the process you use in
choosing a publisher, tactfully take hold and guide the publisher you have
through the review process. There are lots of ways to do that in this book. I love
Nike’s advice to “Just do it!” only I add “yourself” to the motto. Many publishers
are in your employ. You may be paying them for services. At the very least, when
your book sells, it makes money for the publisher. You don’t have to ask for
permission (though it never hurts to listen to their reasoning before you make a
decision).
C AROLYN H OWARD -J OHNSON 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 instruc-
tor for UCLA Extension’s world-renown Writers’ Program. The books in her
HowToDoItFrugally Series of books for writers have won multiple awards. That
series includes both the first and second editions of The Frugal Book Promoter
and The Frugal Editor won awards from USA Book News, Readers’ Views Literary
Award, the marketing award from Next Generation Indie Books and others in-
cluding the coveted Irwin award. Her next book in the HowToDoItFrugally series
for writers will be How to Get Great Book Reviews Frugally and Ethically.
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 Eth-
ics 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 eighty-nine countries and has
studied writing at Cambridge University in the United Kingdom; Herzen Universi-
ty in St. Petersburg, Russia; and Charles University, Prague. She admits to carry-
ing a pen and journal wherever she goes. www.howtodoitfrugally.com.
W RITERS ’ T RICKS OF THE T RADE
P AGE 15
S UMMER 2017