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Saturday, October 23, 2010

Review: Think Chirstmas Stocking Stuffers; Think Your Own Writing Career

The Great First Impression Book Proposal

Subtitle: Everything You Need to Know to Impress a Publisher in Twenty Minutes or Less
By Carolyn Howard-Johnson
ISBN 9781453690956
$6.95

First reviewed for Amazon by Robert Medak
Four of five stars

The Great First Impression Book Proposal is a book that all authors need to get past the gate keepers as Carolyn refers to them in her books. This book is by no means a step-by-step plan, but it does give you the basics for publishing your book.
The publishing industry has changed. In today’s environment, more is placed on the author to make a good impression on agents, editors, and publishers if they want to get their manuscript published.

The first impression is all you have to get the attention of those that hold the publishing purse strings. If you do not create something of value for their time and effort in your first impression your chances of becoming a published diminish greatly.

Carolyn’s The Great First Impression Book Proposal while not guaranteeing publishing does offer things that will aid you in the possibility of becoming published.

The Great First Impression Book Proposal is another in a series of little $6.95  pamphlets about various aspects of writing, editing, and publishing including Great Little Last-Minute Editing Tips for Writers.


This is a book that anyone considering writing for publication should read. In fact, they should read all of Carolyn’s pamphlets about writing. Some may feel that they know the information in Carolyn’s pamphlets; even prose will find they are still a good source of information and review of what authors need to know about getting past the gatekeepers.
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The reviewer is an editor and reviewer.

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Thursday, October 14, 2010

On Wordiness

I thought MWSA members might want to follow the regular feature on wordiness on my Frugal, Smart, and Tuned-In Editor blog. There is a new one today at http://www.thefrugaleditor.blogspot.com/.  . Maybe even subscribe so you don't miss a single tip for avoiding wordiness.

My Wordiness posts are done like alerts. I use this format: When you see these words then you might consider eliminating some of them with an edit like this.

The blog also includes a search engine so you can easily find all the posts on wordiness. AND, I am open to your suggestions--credited, of course!
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Posted by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, one of your official MWSA bloggers. http://www.howtodoitfrugally.com/
http://www.sharingwithwriters.blogspot.com/

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Tuesday, October 12, 2010

MWSA Authors helping each other and sharing stories

Hello MWSAers!

Since I'm so far behind on getting the MWSA website updated, I thought I'd get even further behind and spruce things up a bit here on our MWSA blog.

For two conferences in a row, I've noticed that there's a pretty strong need for an online meeting place for MWSA authors to share "war stories" about their authoring, editing and marketing efforts. Even those of us with years of experience and thousands of books published (not me) can learn from other MWSA members.

During our most recent get-together in Pittsburgh, for example, a small group of us had a very interesting session about marketing in general, and Amazon.com marketing specifically. At that small meeting, we promised to try and maintain the enthusiasm and initiative by using our MWSA blog to keep in touch and to share our experiences in our efforts to get the word out about our books.

With that in mind, I'm trying to facilitate MWSA members' use of this blog.

We'd love to hear from you!!!

If you'd like to participate, you can do so by responding (making comments) to existing blog entries. Or, if you'd like to get more involved, please send me your email address and we'll add you to our "approved author list." This will allow you to start your own blog comments.

Please let me know if you have any suggestions/comments/lessons learned... anything!

Let's hear from you and keep up the level of enthusiasm we all experienced up in Pittsburgh!

Thanks,
John Cathcart
MWSA Webmaster

PS. Speaking of marketing on Amazon.com, a while back I began writing a series of articles on “tricks” you can use on Amazon.com’s website. It’s a work in progress, but I think we could all share our experiences, learn together, and improve our knowledge of online marketing. The articles can be found here: http://militarywriters.com/Amazon_tricks.html. You can also find it by hovering your mouse over “Resources” (on our main menu) then “For Writers” then clicking on “Amazon.com tricks.”

Please make any suggestions/additions/comments to those articles and share your own experiences on this blog!

MRS. LIEUTENANT: A SHARON GOLD NOVEL

Richard Lowry's Blog