Read our Inspirational column each month on the Inspiration Feature of the Month page in Review Showcase. This column is by Deb Scott, author of Award winning: The Sky is Green and the Grass is Blue.
Inspirational Feature of the Month
Monday, May 31, 2010
Allbooks Review June 2010 Newsletter
Nominate us for a listing in Writer's Digest's 101 Best Sites
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name Allbooks Review and our URL www.allbookreviews.com
to: writersdig@fwpubs.com Subject "101 Sites".
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FEATURE
Here are five tips for using social media to build your opt-in list:
1. Join Targeted Groups and Post Effective Discussions. Within your social networks, choose the groups wisely in which you will participate, focusing on groups that are active and contain your target market. You should post discussions to demonstrate your professional expertise and drive people to your website, taking care to make your headlines short and interesting.
2. Make Sure your Website is "Opt-in" Friendly. Make sure your opt-in form is prominent throughout your website, with a message telling visitors that when they sign up for your list they will receive helpful information (as opposed to spam).
3. Invite Every One...But Don't Pester! Every time you get a friend request or a new follower, send a message introducing yourself and include an invitation (with the link to your site's opt-in form) to sign up for the helpful information you send to your list.
4. Be Direct...But Not Too Often. If you have a helpful and valuable incentive to offer, occasionally post updates inviting your friends and followers to go get it! Keep in mind you are treading a thin line with this type of post, so make sure they are infrequent and are mixed in with many posts that are completely non-promotional in nature. You don't want to be considered "that guy" who's just there to promote to people.
5. Be Consistent in Your Social Networking! The key to making points 1 - 4 above really work for you is - stay active in your networks and groups. If you are only an occasional visitor, you might as well "stay home." In order to reap the rewards of these strategies, post often and wisely, and pay attention to your group members.
Participation in social networks can be enjoyable and rewarding, so start posting and have fun!
Warm regards,
Marsha Friedman
CEO EMSI Public Relations
SUCCESS STORIES
We love to hear of your success stories, submit them to us at: allbookreviews@aol.com
Remember to post your book signing, guest speaker events on our Bookstore page. Simply send us an email with details of your events and we will be happy to post them. Just part of the Allbooks service to our authors.
The Sky is Green, the grass is Blue is a Finalist in the Motivational Category of the 2010 Next Generation Indie Book Awards! Deb
I wanted to share some great news with you: Conversations with Jerry and Other People I Thought Were Dead has been chosen as an IPPY finalist in the category of Death and Dying and will either be awarded the gold, silver or bronze medal. My husband and I will be traveling to NYC for the gala event and award ceremony. I am so very excited, especially since this is my first book! All the best, Irene
PublishingGuru: I am accepting queries for traditional publishing in all genres. todd.rutherford@yorkshirepublishing.com
Congratulations to all of our great authors on their success.
Allbooks Reviews INTERVIEW:
Allbooks Reviews INTERVIEW:(Please put your answers in black)
Please state your name and location.(city and State or Province, Country)
Deb Hosey White
Greensboro, North Carolina USA
Tell us the title and publisher of your book:
Pink Slips and Parting Gifts
iUniverse
1663 Liberty Drive, Bloomington, IN 47403
ISBN 9781440158049, $20.95, www.iuniverse.com
Tell us about yourself:
Thirty years of corporate life never really "cured" me of being an English major, a creative writer, and a poet. And while up to my eyeballs in 401(k) plan administration, ERISA, COBRA, and other stress-inducing arcanity, I never stopped collecting and writing stories. Anyone who has ever worked for a large organization knows that the best workplace stories end up in human resources. Now retired from corporate life, I'm free to share some of those stories--without naming names, of course!
When was the book released?
September 2009
Give us an overview of your book.
When is the first time a CEO dares to say out loud, “It’s time to sell the company”? Does he practice first in front of a mirror? Does he quietly float the idea to his most trusted colleague over dinner? Does he seek legal counsel? SEC guidance? Financial advice? If the CEO is gutsy enough, “selling the company” might quietly pass his lips for the first time during a clandestine meeting with a potential buyer in Las Vegas—setting the bait for a bid that will electrify the decision-makers back home.
Mergers and acquisitions are messy business and they change the lives of everyday people. Pink Slips and Parting Gifts is the fictional account of the sale of a U.S. development company, revealing absurd events mixed with employee anguish as another corporation changes hands and disappears from the big board on Wall Street.
By the time Easton Company CEO Jeffrey Elkins entices a major competitor to buy his Fortune 500 Company, the corporate jet is waiting and his parachute is platinum. In 14 weeks the deal of a lifetime transforms a handful of quirky executives into undeserving multi-millionaires, propels a workforce into unemployment and dispatches unsuspecting retirees into poverty. In the background, security guards dance naked in mall fountains, the corporate jet is sold on eBay, and a CEO utters his final words before relinquishing his title: Make sure the employees get their pumpkin pies.
The memorable cast of corporate characters includes a germophobic CEO, a marketing VP turned Elvis impersonator, the Sundance Kid of Everyman Compensation, and a purchasing director nicknamed the eBay Wizard.
What inspired you to write this book?
I spent more than 30 years in corporate America as a manager and a consultant. During that period I collected hundreds of stories about companies and the people who work for them.I also experienced firsthand the merger that inspired Pink Slips and Parting Gifts.As a corporate human resources director I was required to help "turn out the lights" at my company as it was sold to a competitor.I dealt with retirees whose health insurance and pensions were ripped from their aging hands; with long-term employees whose jobs were abruptly eliminated; and with a community that lost it's premier hometown corporate citizen.
Reading the news coverage of that merger and many others, I was struck with the realization that the stories being covered were heavily weighted to the top of the corporate heap—the CEOs, big stockholders,and top-level management who benefited most from the merger-mania. I wanted to get behind the headlines and tell the realities of those stories—the incredible perks, corporate jets, and multi-million dollar goodbye packages—but I also wanted to tell the stories of the maintenance workers, secretaries, and others whose lives were upturned by the merger.
How is your book different from other books in this genre?
Pink Slips and Parting Gifts is business fiction. That's not a genre that fits neatly onto library shelves or bookseller databases. But fiction set in the workplace is still a strong sub-category of modern literature. As such, Pink Slips and Parting Gifts shares a lineage with Up in the Air, The Bonfire of the Vanities, and The Devil Wears Prada. What is unique about Pink Slips and Parting Gifts is that it tells the story of a corporate merger not just from the perspective of the news-makers—the CEOs, board members, and power brokers—but from the mailroom clerks, secretaries, retirees, mid-level managers and even the homeless man living on the company's loading dock.
Also, Pink Slips and Parting Gifts employs flash fiction storytelling -- a unique format for a novel. Each chapter tells its own small story within the context of the larger novel. Many of the chapters could stand alone as stories within a story. The best example is the embedded "Tales of the Sofa." Many readers have commented on their enjoyment of the "sofa story" within Pink Slips.
Where can people buy your book?
The book is available online from:
• Amazon.com
• BarnesandNoble.com
• iUniverse.com
• Amazon.ca
• Booksamillion.com
• Amazon.co.uk
• Waterstones
Are you working on another book? If so when do you expect it to be published?
Yes.I am in the initial stages of a new workplace novel—publication date unknown.Also working on a screenplay for Pink Slips and Parting Gifts, and a poetry collection.
If you self published, what advice can you give to fellow writers?
The publishing industry has been in a state of upheaval in recent years and self-publishing is a reality for many writers. In this reality, the author must take on tasks traditionally performed by professional agents, editors, copy-proofers, designers, and publicists. Print-on-demand publishers offer a Chinese menu of add-on (read that "extra cost") services, but the quality of those services may vary greatly. I experienced issues throughout the process–from layout and production concerns, to accounting issues, to unprofessional publicity services.
I would advise writers to first attempt to find a professional agent and/or publisher. If that is not possible–and the odds are stacked against new writers–then enter the self publishing world with eye wide open:
• Solicit a team of literate readers who will critique your manuscript (I used volunteers from a literary book group).
• Find a capable person to assist with editing, proofreading, and other production-related tasks.
• Budget more time than you think might be necessary to the critiquing, editing, proofing, and production process.
• Explore third-party publicity services rather than add-on services offered by the publisher. Be prepared to do much of the promotional process yourself.
• Submit your finished book for review by services such as AllBooks Review.
• Do not expect bookstores to stock your self-published book, but be aware of the multitude of online book selling services that predominate today's market.
If published traditionally, tell us how you benefited:
Can you share one of your marketing successes with us?
Because my book is topical/newsworthy, I was able to arrange an interview from a regional newspaper in a city that has been affected by corporate mergers similar to the story in Pink Slips and Parting Gifts.
How did you find Allbooks Reviews and what are you hoping for in your relationship with us?
Allbooks Reviews was included on a list of reputable reviewers on the Midwest Book Review website. My hope is that the insightful Allbooks review of Pink Slips and Parting Gifts will receive broad international circulation and that it will be quoted and noted in numerous sources.
Was the low cost a surprise? What other things would you like Allbooks Reviews to offer writers?
Allbooks Reviews offers timely and personal service to their authors--something not to be undervalued in the 21st century literary marketplace!
Thank you for this interview and best of luck with your book.
Monday, May 3, 2010
Allbooks Review May 2010 Newsletter
Nominate us for a listing in Writer's Digest's 101 Best Sites
of The Year. Please send your nomination, along with our web
name Allbooks Review and our URL www.allbookreviews.com
to: writersdig@fwpubs.com Subject "101 Sites".
Thank you for all of your support.
*****************************************************************************
ALLBOOKS REVIEW IS NOW ON iFOGO. Be sure and join the Albooks Review Author’s Group where we can share our success and our mistakes. Also join iFogo and get www.booksonfilm.com. Great promo for a great price, post audio, book trailers, contact with agents and producers and much more. Be sure and let them know Allbooks Review sent you and join our group.
http://ifogo.com/buy/order_abr.html USE THIS LINK TO JOIN TODAY
FEATURE
Podcasting Your Way to Success
By Sigrid MacDonald
About two years ago, one of my science-fiction clients started a podcast series. Every week he would put a new chapter of his book on audio, and upload it to iTunes and MySpace. He had a tremendous following and I really admired his form of promotion, but I thought it would be too difficult and expensive for me. Wrong! Podcasting is simple and affordable. And it can be an effective way to get the word out about your book because you are offering free content, which people love.
How do you make a podcast? Download free software from Audacity.com or splurge for the user-friendly package by RecordForAll. I went with the latter because it has an easy navigational system, and only costs $39.99. After listening to the tutorial, I was ready to record. I had long pauses in my sentences, but the software gave me the ability to edit. After recording, I took out the blank spaces, and the few times I coughed, or said, "Um" or "Ah." The end result was a polished product.
What can you talk about? Anything related to your book. My new book is called Be Your Own Editor. It's a crash course in grammar basics that deals with the most common errors people make when they're writing, as well as editing issues related to creative writing. So, I made ten different podcasts and broke them down as follows:
1. How to Avoid Writing Run-On Sentences
2. How to Use Apostrophes Properly
3. How to Establish Realistic Dialogue
I made each podcast brief since people have short attention spans online. If you have a nonfiction topic, podcasting is a breeze. Identify key points in your book and abbreviate them. This is a great teaser; it introduces people to you and draws them to your material. You won't be giving your whole book away - just pieces of it to whet a prospective reader's appetite.
Fiction is a little more complicated but you could read your book chapter by chapter on audio. If you choose this method, stop after two or three chapters. That way the reader is left hanging and needs to know the end of the story. Second, you could read excerpts from your book, and talk about yourself and what motivated you to write it. I hosted my podcasts on MySpace and searched the site using the terms writers, poets, editors, etc. Your search words would relate to your book.
You can also load your podcasts on iTunes. This requires software that has a feed such as FeedForAll and a website that will give you more space for hosting like Mevio, which is free.
We've come a long way, baby, since I started writing in my teens. Now that we have blogs, websites, video, web cams and podcasts, why not take advantage of them?
---------------------------------------------------
Sigrid Macdonald is the author of three books, including Be Your Own Editor. Visit her at http://sigridmacdonald.blogspot.com or http://beyourowneditor.blogspot.com.
SUCCESS STORIES
We love to hear of your success stories, submit them to us at: allbookreviews@aol.com
Remember to post your book signing, guest speaker events on our Bookstore page. Simply send us an email with details of your events and we will be happy to post them. Just part of the Allbooks service to our authors.
Pink Slips and Parting Gifts was awarded Editor's Choice from the iUniverse recognition program this week.
Deb Hosey White
Pink Slips and Parting Gifts
CONGRATULATIONS DEB !
Shirley A. Roe is collaborating with screenwriter, director Randall Rutledge to bring her book Dreams and Nightmares to the big screen. All of us at Allbooks Review congratulate Shirley on this accomplishment.
Allbooks Reviews INTERVIEW:
Please state your name and location. (city and State or Province, Country)
Jonathan Maxwell. Taylorsville, Georgia.
Tell us the title and publisher of your book:
Murderous Intellectuals: German Elites and the Nazi SS. American Book Publishing, which is based in Salt Lake City.
Tell us about yourself:
I’ve been a writer and editor for about four years now. I hold a BA in English from Berry College in Rome, Ga., along with a psychology minor. I also possess a Paralegal Certificate. Since the publication of my first book- Murderous Intellectuals- I have written two additional books. I have also penned op/ed pieces for various newspapers, have contributed critical reviews to literary journals, and have written chapters for history textbooks. As an editor, I have worked for the publishing giants Harcourt and Pearson.
When was the book released?
November 2009.
Give us an overview of your book.
My book examines why so many well-educated professionals- such as doctors, lawyers, professors, scientists, and engineers- willingly joined the Nazi SS, the notorious group that spearheaded the Holocaust.
What inspired you to write this book?
My interest in the Holocaust- the Nazi war against Jews, Slavs, Gypsies, and other “undesirables”- began in high school. I read many excellent books about the subject through the years, but, eventually, I noticed a dearth of information in at least one crucial area. Popular culture tends to depict the Nazis as being brutes, but many Nazis did not fit this stereotype. Many Nazis, in fact, were superbly educated, graduating from the best universities in Europe. At times, books would briefly examine this contradiction, but no author that I knew of wrote a book about this phenomenon and what motivated these “murderous intellectuals.” I read book after book, but none dealt satisfactorily with the subject. Eventually, I got frustrated and decided to write the book myself.
How is your book different from other books in this genre?
Many books have been penned about the Final Solution (the Nazi term for the Holocaust), but comparatively few histories have examined the motivations of Nazi elites from psychological, sociological, political, and historical perspectives.
Where can people buy your book?
People can purchase a copy at www.amazon.com, www.barnesandnoble.com, and www.pdbookstore.com.
Are you working on another book? If so when do you expect it to be published?
My second book, Piltdown Man and Other Hoaxes, will be released in late 2010. It’s a far cry from my first one. The book is a lighthearted, fun examination of scientific frauds through history, such as the Missing Link Hoax and the Minnesota Iceman Hoax.
If published traditionally, tell us how you benefited:
Working with traditional publishers helps to ensure that you get a quality product. My publisher, for example, requires your assigned editor to edit your manuscript four times. Then, your copy editor edits it once, and, finally, the proofreader edits it at least once. The editorial stage, then, transpires for at least a year. In addition, your book designer spends about six months creating a suitable cover, selecting fonts, choosing colors, and so on. It’s a slow, painstaking process, but in the end, you appreciate the results. Everything looks sensational.
Can you share one of your marketing successes with us?
Take a multi-tiered approach to marketing your work. Do signings at the book stores and libraries. Submit press releases to local and regional newspapers. Send out galleys to reputable reviewers. Perform lectures at schools, colleges, service organizations, and elsewhere. Get radio interviews. Don’t try starting at the national level. If you’re a new author just starting out, USA Today and Book TV are not going to give you publicity. Start out locally and work your way up.
How did you find Allbooks Reviews and what are you hoping for in your relationship with us?
I stumbled upon Allbooks Reviews while searching for book reviewers on the Internet. I was impressed by the website and I sent out an e-mail asking for more information. The information I received impressed me further, so I decided the use the company’s services.
Was the low cost a surprise? What other things would you like Allbooks Reviews to offer writers?
Publicists are a requirement in the publishing industry, and Allbooks Reviews provides the most services at the most economical rates. To Allbooks Reviews, all I can say is: Keep up the good work!
Thank you for this interview and best of luck with your book.
Thank you!
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