This booklet is the result of award-winning author Carolyn Howard-Johnson's extensive work with clients who hate writing book proposals but hate learning how to write them even more. She found herself coaching them through the process rather than doing it for them, for who could possibly recreate the passion an author feels for his or her own book better than the author? In doing so, she found she had written a booklet--not a tome-- on how to write a proposal that is most likely to elicit the enthusiasm required for an agent or publisher to shepherd the author's idea from a dream to a real book--paper, sweet-smelling ink and all. And the best part? It took her clients only about twenty minutes to absorb the essentials. Voila! The Great First Impression Book Proposal was born.
Hi.
I am best known as The Frugal Book Promoter, but I want to be known as a literary writer, poet, and all round smart and giving marketer. You can see I have a problem with branding, not because I don't know how to brand but because my career is so diverse. Ha!
As a college freshman, I was the youngest person ever hired as a staff writer for the Salt Lake Tribune--"A Great Pulitzer Prize Winning Newspaper"--where I wrote features for the society page and a column under the name Debra Paige.
Later, in New York, I was an editorial assistant at Good Housekeeping Magazine. I also handled accounts for famous fashion publicist Eleanor Lambert. She was the one who developed the first "10 Best Dressed List," and it was my fun job to write releases for celebrity designers of the time including Pauline Trigere, Rudy Gernreich, and Christian Dior.
I have also been a consultant for the Oak Park Press in the Chicago area.
In my many former lives I have also written columns and reviews for The Pasadena Star News, Home Decor Buyer, and the Glendale News-Press. I write a "Back to Literature" column for www.Myshelf.com where I also give an annual Noble (Not Nobel!) Prize.
I studied at the University of Utah, graduated from USC (University of Southern California) and have done postgraduate work in writing at UCLA. I loved the UCLA and San Diego State Writers' Conferences I attended and I'm now an instructor for UCLA Extension Writers' Program. You can find all their classes at www.UCLAExtension.edu.
I adored studying writing at Cambridge University in the United Kingdom; Herzen University in St. Petersburg, Russia; and Charles University in Prague.
My first novel, "This Is The Place," and my book of creative nonfiction, "Harkening," are both multi award-winners. A chapbook of my poetry, published by Finishing Line Press was named a Ten Best Reads by the Compulsive Reader (www.compulsivereader.com) and the Military Writers Society of America honored it with a silver medal for excellence. I have also partnered with Magdalena Ball for the Celebration Series of poetry chapbooks including "She Wore Emerald Then," "Cherished Pulse," "Imagining the Future" "Blooming Red," and "Deeper Into the Pond," a chapbook with a feminist theme. I also wrote a screenplay, "The Killing Ground."
My stories and poems have appeared in anthologies like: "Pass/Fail," edited by Rose A. O. Kleidon, PhD; and in journals like Pear Noir, Front Range, The Pedestal Magazine and many more. One of my poems won first place in the Franklin Christoph prize, 2010.
I was given the Woman of the Year in Arts and Entertainment Award by California Legislature members, Carol Liu, Dario Frommer, and Jack Scott. I can't help but be proud of that.
In it's first edition, "The Frugal Book Promoter" became an instant best seller as an e-book on ebookad and the paperback opened to rave reviews here on Amazon. It it now in its second edition, expanded and updated. It became the first in a the How To Do It Frugally series. "The Frugal Editor: Put YOur Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success" is the next. I published a couple booklets to go with it. One on word trippers and other gremlins lying in wait to trip you up. It is "Great Little Last-Minute Editing Tips." The other is "The Great First Impression Book Proposal."
The Book Publicists of Southern California honored me with their Irwin Award and the "Pasadena Weekly" for literary activism. My hometown's Character and Ethics Committee honored me for my work promoting tolerance with my writing.
Yes, I am having fun yet!
Find me at:
Sharing with Writers and Readers blog (A Writer's Digest 101 Best Websites pick!), www.sharingwithwriters.blogspot.com
www.HowToDoItFrugally.com
www.CarolynHoward-Johnson.com
My newsletter by sending an e-mail with "subscribe" in the subject line to HoJoNews@aol.com.
First person essay: http://www.howtodoitfrugally.com/published_works_almanac.htm
