DISQUS

Carolyn Howard-Johnson (@FrugalBookPromo on Twitter) is a prolific writer. Besides numerous blogs, she is the author of:

Novel --This Is the Place
Short story collection -- Harkening
Poetry collections -- She Wore Emerald Then, Tracings

Carolyn and I also wrote a chapter on blogging to help fiction writers -- the chapter is available for free at http://www.FictionMarketing.com

This is an especially valuable list because of the addition of whether the link is follow or no follow for sharing page rank. Thanks so much!

<abbr>Phyllis Zimbler Miller’s last blog post..TV Show Grey's Anatomy Deals with PTSD</abbr>

Nancy --

This is such important advice. We've all heard stories about authors such as J.K. Rowling who were rejected by so many publishing houses. The same is true for other successful people -- we see their success, but we have no idea how many years it took them to get to that success. The point is that they didn't quit.

Phyllis

Chris --
The internet offers almost endless possibilities for online book promotion. One of my personal favorites (from my ongoing promo campaign for my novel MRS. LIEUTENANT) is a virtual book tour, which I've written about in articles on the web.

I also believe you should give away the first couple of chapters so that people can fall in love with your information and writing style. (I give away the first four chapters of my novel at www.mrslieutenant.com.)

At the price at which books sell (and the amount of free info on the internet), it's important to "convince" people that your book is worth the price of admission.

Nancy --
Thanks for giving me the opportunity to have a guest post on your blog. As always, I wish you the very best in all your endeavors.
Phyllis

With your incredibly generous offer to match all donations up to $5,000, I hope lots of people are motivated to donate on this last day of the project to help our deployed troops.

Without commenting on the book (which I obviously haven't read), I'd like to say that I believe honesty is the best policy. This is especially true in the days of the internet when anything can come back to bite you on the tush. If you don't disclose the basis of your "positive word of mouth," and then someone decides that you've been dishonest, that person can post this opinion across the internet and your reputation can be in deep shit within seconds.

Whenever I coach high school students about college applications, I tell them they must ALWAYS tell the truth. There are ways to cast negative experiences in a better light, but these can never be lied about.

It's very helpful to switch from focusing on yourself to focusing on the other person. Instead of wanting to get in information about yourself, I think it's better to establish rapport by getting the other person to talk about himself/herself. This happens by asking an appropriate (not rude) open-ended question that can't be answered by a simple yes or no. If you get the other person talking about himself/herself, eventually you will be able to talk about yourself. And if you get interrupted before that time, you can always send a follow-up email saying how much you enjoyed speaking with the person -- and then slip in something appropriate about yourself.

I learned about you from Erica O'Grady's teleseminar yesterday sponsored by blogcatalog.com on ustream.tv -- and I'm glad I did. This is great advice -- and I will probably use the idea (with full credit to you) as a starting point for a post on my blog for advice for teens and young people -- www.flippingburgersandbeyond.blogspot.com