MWSA Conference & Awards Banquet

• MWSA Conference and Awards Banquet will be held at the Westin Imagine Orlando in Orlando FL -- October 9-11th, 2009. Basic information is in the July Newsletter posted at http://www.militarywriters.com/.
  
  New programs this year:
• Conference will be broadcast live through streaming video on the website -- by Videographer Paul Sninchak.
• Opening Mixer
• Open Mic Emceed by Mike Mullins
• Bob Calvert's Hope For Heroes Radio Show
• Winners will be interviewed on Video by Bob Calvert
• Precious "Medals" Reception
• Screening of Chris Martini's Movie in the works TROOPER
• Volunteer & Reviewers Invitational Breakfast
• Saturday morning Opener -- Jeff Edwards
• People's Choice Award Event hosted by Dwight Jon Zimmerman
• Radio Show by Dale Throneberry of Veterans Radio Network
• People's Choice Finalist Performances
• Workshops
• People's Choice Award Voting
• MWSA Awards Banquet and Ceremony
• Screening of PERFECT VALOR -- Richard Lowry
• Sunday Morning Opener
• Dwight Jon Zimmerman Talk about his experiences converting his book to documentary for Military Channel
• State of the Organization -- Joyce Faulkner, President
• MWSA Bucks Auction
• Closer

Resources for Military Writers from John Kremer

All writers should be aware of John Kremer's Book Marketing Tip of the Week but this particular entry may be his most pertinent of the year for military writers.

Marine Corps stores~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I met the book buyer for the Marine Corps retail stores while riding the bus to the LA convention center during BookExpo America. They look for books that would interest Marine Corps personnel and their families.

U.S. Marine Corps Exchange, Karen Macdonald, Buyer, Personal and Family Readiness Division, USMC Building, 3044 Catlin Avenue, Quantico, VA 22135-5099; 703-784-3646; Fax: 703-784-5354.
Email: karen.macdonald@usmc.mccs.org.
Web: http://www.usmc-mccs.org.

Subscribe to John's letter at http://www.bookmarket.com . Please also consider Sharing with Writers, a newsletter assoiciated with Authors' Coalition. It is also full of tips on promotion, editing and the craft of writing. Send an e-mail with SUBSCRIBE in the subject line to hojonews@aol.com.
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Submitted by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, award-winning author of the HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers, www.howtodoitfrugally.com.

Promotion Op Plus Military-Themed Books for Your Perusal

Authors' Coalition offers their members a slide show each year in association with Red Engine Press which features many military titles and military authors. Many MWSA authors are featured on this Authors' Coalition slide show and those of you aren't in it can see some of the things AC is doing and possibly still want to post the slide show on your blogs, website, social networking sites, etc.

You will also find some valuable writing-oriented books featured on it.

This particular Authors' Coalition benefit works very best for those who speak or teach and can, therefore, run this slide show on a computer or project it on a screen at those events. It is cross-promotional meaning that when everyone on it is posting to their websites and taking it on their book signings with them, everyone benefits!

Joyce will be showing it at the huge Branson Veterans' Week in November and on her speaking engagements. I will be positing it on the Authors' Coalition site site, my www.howtodoitfrugally.com site and on several of my blogs including the www.authorscoalition.blogspot.com site and my military site, www.warpeacetolerance.blogspot.com.

So see below for the details of this program. Here is the slide show with Joyce Faulkner's explanation of how to use it.
Best,
Carolyn Howard-Johnson
www.howtodoitfrugally.com



Hi everyone,

At long last, here's the 2008 Authors' Coalition Slideshow. Your book or books appear in this slideshow if you are either a sponsor, a catalog participant, or simply a slideshow participant.

The goal of this slideshow is to give the participants as much exposure as possible. To that end, feel free to share it with your audiences, post it to your websites,blogs, My Space, Facebook, etc -- heck, give it away to friends if you want. The more that we use the slideshow, the more exposure everyone gets. As Carolyn says, cross promotion is extremely powerful and allows us to reach audiences that we might not touch otherwise. Understand that this is just one promotion in an arsenal and that it takes time to get name recognition. However, it IS a good tool and one of many ways to get your message out and your book known.


INSTRUCTIONS:

I'm including the slideshow here in a variety of ways --

• I've provided the code for 5 different sizes so that you can embed it on your websites or blogs, My Space, FaceBook, etc. (They are posted below my signature on this email) Your webmaster will know how to add it to your site. If you don't know how to do it, you can contact me and I'll walk you through the process.

• If you want to have it run on a blogger type blog (your url will have the word "blogspot.com" in it)...you will sign into your blog and go to the Layout tab. Choose Page Elements, Add a page element, Slideshow. Under Title, type in "Authors' Coalition Slideshow 2008". For Source, select "Picasa Web Albums". For Option, choose "Album." For Username, type in JoyceKFaulkner@gmail.com. For album, choose AC2008SS. Then Save and when you publish your blog, the slideshow will appear and play automatically. (NOTE: This is a pretty small version, so I don't recommend this one.)

• You can also go to Blogger and add a new post...and paste this code in the posting box. To get it, e-mail me at katieseyes@aol.com. Please put SLIDESHOW REQUEST in the subject line.

• If you just want to view the slides in a Picasa Album, you can see it at this link: http://picasaweb.google.com/JoyceKFaulkner. At that address, you can invite folks to come see the slideshow if you want to send to your mailing list.

• If you would like to download the PowerPoint Slideshow, you can go to http://www.redenginepress.com/AC2008.ppsx and save it to your hard drive. From there, you can burn to a cd that will play automatically.

• If you'd like to receive the slideshow on a cd so that you can show it at your events, you can either send me a check or I'll invoice you via Paypal for $4.50. (For those of you who have already ordered it, we'll be burning cds tomorrow and it'll be off to you on Thursday.)

Just a note, the Powerpoint slideshow is set to run slowly and has elaborate transitions. Each slide is set to show for 15 seconds. The show will loop continuously...so once you set it up, it'll go until you stop it. It will not have these fancy transitions in the website versions.

Carolyn will post the new slideshow to the main Authors' Coalition page. I'll be posting it to my websites as well...which includes the Red Engine Press site. Next week (if the moon is right LOL) I'll post a version of it to YouTube.com.

Joyce Faulkner
Director, Authors' Coalition

Book Fair Blues? Twelve Tips for MWSA Writers (and Others!) To Make Booths Better

By Carolyn Howard-Johnson



The spring season for book promotion will soon be upon us.

Don't rent a booth at a book fair.

Don't host an event.

Don't do anything! Not without assuring its success with a savvy marketing campaign. Here's how:

1. Join with other authors to cross-promote.

2. Send out invitations to readers and to the media.

3. Produce a catalog or brochure to give to the press in attendance and attendees. Try to give your gift more substance than a mere flier. It will beless likely to get tossed.

4. Tie sales to a charity relevant to writing or literacy.

5. Schedule book signing times even though you will be manning the booth for the full day. It adds credibility to your appearance.

6. Use signs, lighting and other effective display techniques.

7. Give a gift to those who purchase your book. Go to http://redenginepress.com for a journal that can be used to increase your profits as an add-on sale or as a gift-with-purchase.

8. Offer snacks to those who drop by.

9. Take photos for use in post-publicity.

10. Design a media blitz including queries, releases, and personal phone calls.

11. Schedule a special offering or entertainment in your booth. For example, at the 2008 LA Times/UCLA Festival of Books Rey Ybarra will produce introductory mini videos for authors at a special price. You could also offer a
children's story hour or a poetry or a performance. (If you would like more information on Rey's video service, e-mail me at HoJoNews@aol.com; put REY YBARRA in the subject line.)Learn more about a professional service at www.BestSellingAuthorTV.blogspot.com. Watch the videos there that he has done for me and other authors.

12. If you can afford to do it, give out totes or bags with your bookcover, logo,
and website printed on them. Toss in your bookmarks or business/postcards.

And, of course, get a copy of THE FRUGAL BOOK PROMOTER: HOW TO DO WHAT YOUR PUBLISHER WON'T for practical suggestions for hundreds of other ways to brand yourself and promote your book. Look up book fair related words in the index including "book fairs," "book signings," "book expos," but don't neglect related subjects like "media releases," "building a contact list," and more.

To help you prepare, follow the planning of a couple of Authors' Coalition's book fair booths—both successes and disappointments—at my book fair-focused blog, http://www.authorscoalition.blogspot.com . Learn more about book fairs and other promotion on the resource page at http://www.carolynhowardjohnson.redenginepress.com/book_fairs,_tradshows.htm .

Sign up for my newsletter, "Sharing with Writers" to learn more about book fairs and about every other subject that has to do with publishing. Simply send me an e-mail at HoJoNews@aol.com. Put SUBSCRIBE in the subject window. Or go to www.authorscoalitionandredenginepress.com.

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson's first novel, This Is the Place, won eight awards. Her second book, Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered, creative nonfiction, won three. An instructor for UCLA Extension's world-renown Writers' Program, her book The Frugal Book Promoter: How to Do What Your Publisher Won't is recommended reading for her classes, was named USA Book News' "Best Professional Book 2004," and was given the Irwin Award. Her second book in the How To Do It Frugally series is The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success is also a USA Book News award-winner as well as the winner of the Reader View's Literary Award in the publishing category. Her chapbook of poetry Tracings, was named to the Compulsive Reader's Ten Best Reads list and was given the Military Writers' Society of America's Silver Award of Excellence. She is the recipient of both the California Legislature's Woman of the Year in Arts and Entertainment Award and American Business Women's Association's Woman of the Year award., Her community's Character and Ethics Committee honored her for promoting tolerance with her writing. She was also named to Pasadena Weekly's list of 14 "San Gabriel Valley women who make life happen." She is a popular speaker and actor. Her website is www.howtodoitfrugally.com.