The winning blog is an interactive blog where writers of every ilk send questions to Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success. She answers in her imitable, colloquial and sometimes irreverent style and when she can't, she finds an expert who can.

This is the second award Howard-Johnson has received for her blogs this year. Brian A. Klems, online managing editor at Writer's Digest, named her Sharing with Writers (www.sharingwithwriters.blogspot.com) to his magazine's 101 Best Websites in 2008 only last month. Klems notes that the blog is full of "cheap ways to promote your book" but also mentions her Sharing with Writers newsletter as a source for writers. See the June, 2008, Issue of Writer's Digest magazine, p. 54.

Howard-Johnson is the author of a novel, book of creative nonfiction and poetry, all award-winners. Her fiction, nonfiction and poems have appeared in national magazines, anthologies and review journals. She was named Woman of the Year in Arts and Entertainment by the 43^rd and 44^th Districts of the California Legislature. She speaks on Utah's culture, tolerance and subjects relating to writing and publishing and has appeared on TV and hundreds of radio stations nationwide. She is also is an instructor for UCLA Extension’s Writers’ Program. Her book The Frugal Book Promoter: How to Do What Your Publisher Won't was named USA Book News' Best Professional Book and earned the Book Publicists of Southern California's Irwin award and The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success winner of USA Book News Award, Reader Views Literary Award and her marketing campaign for the book took New Generation Indie Award for Marketing.

Cincinnati: Brian A. Klems, online managing editor at Writer's Digest, named award-winning author Carolyn Howard-Johnson's blog, Sharing with Writers (www.sharingwithwriters.blogspot.com) to his magazine's 101 Best Websites in 2008.

Klems cites that the blog is full of "cheap ways to promote your book" but also mentions her Sharing with Writers newsletter as a source for writers. See the June, 2008, Issue, p. 54.

(Photos, book cover art and a full media kit are available electronically or by post upon request.)

~~~

Rey Ybarra, CEO of Best Selling Author Television, has named author and founder of Authors' Coalition Carolyn Howard-Johnson cohost of his new on location series to debut this summer at Borders Books in Century City, CA.

The program will feature many of today’s best selling authors and will be broadcast live online on Stickam. In addition to the live Internet broadcast, the program will be available on demand on the Best Selling Author Television.com vlog site (http://www.veoh.com/channels/BSATV ).

In addition, the program will be available on many of the social video sites including Veoh, Myspace, Youtube, Google and the Facebook social media sites.

Ybarra, formerly a well-known Los Angeles radio host says, “I am excited about the program and the association with Borders and with Howard-Johnson. I'm also excited about our programs featuring famous athletes, business/entrepreneurial experts and entertainers.” Ybarra is a master interviewer who has hosted and produced over 1400 interviews plus 350 full length radio.

Howard-Johnson speaks at writers conferences across the nation and is a UCLA Extension Writers' Program instructor. She is the founder of Authors' Coalition (www.authorscoalitionandredenginepress.com) and author of the multi-award winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers (www.howtodoitfrugally), as well as of fiction and poetry.

For more information about the show, the line up and dates and times of filming, contact Ybarra at 818-464-3726 or e-mail him at RYbarra106@aol.com.

Media Release

For Immediate Release

June 1, 2008

Contact: Patrika Vaugh

E-Mail: acappub@aol.com

Author and Publisher Team to Offer Free Teleseminar on Bringing A Writers' Dream to Life

Author advocate Carolyn Howard-Johnson and publisher Patrika Vaughn are teaming up to present a free teleseminar to writers who want to tell their own stories, as memoir or as fiction. Thus it is for genealogists, journalists and story tellers everywhere.

The teleseminar titled "How To Write Your Life Story" will be moderated by award-winning speaker and author, Allyn Evans who is also the author of Grab the Queen Power: Live Your Best Life, based on her own experiences.

Howard-Johnson will share her experience of turning her family's genealogy and stories in her award-winning novel This Is the Place and using the leftover stories from that effort in a book of creative nonfiction short stories, Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered. Her experiences will inform those inclined to publish their stories but who need more information about how that might come to be. She even used family memories in her chapbook of poetry, Tracings. All three books are multiple award-winners. She is also working on a memoir, Here's How I Don't Cook.

Vaughn, author of How to Write Your Own Life Story or Your Family's Saga, will talk about how to turn this material into a book, covering:

1) why you should write it

2) how to go about it (even if you've never before written anything but emails)

3) how to make it interesting to others

Writers are invited to listen and come prepared with their questions at noon on July 12th EST . Call 1-218-936-7999. When prompted use this access code: 390175. If asked participants may need this pin number: 2823.

The teleconference will be available as a podcast afterward at :

Authors' Coalition, www.authorscoalitionandredenginepress/podcasts_&_radio.htm
The ACapella Publishing site, www.acapella.com/
Allyn Evans' site, www.allynevans.com
On Allyn's Queen Power site, www.queeenpower.com .
And on Carolyn's Resources for Writers page at www.howtodoitfrugally.com

Those with questions may contact Patrika at .acappub@aol.com

The seminar is offered as a service to the writing community through the auspices of Authors' Coalition (www.authorscoalitionandredenginepress.com) and Vaughn's publishing firm, A Cappela Publishing (www.acapella.com).

Media material available on request.

###

Support materials available on request.

M E D I A R E L E A S E

For Immediate Release

Contact: Carolyn Howard-Johnson

E-mail: HoJoNews@aol.com

The Once-A-Year News Event

When Polygamy Rises to Headline Status Radio Hosts

Producers and Feature Editors Call on Carolyn

"Carolyn Howard-Johnson is the one author and speaker who has seen Utah's culture from both the Nonmormon side of the fence and the Mormon. She has no ax to grind, only the ability to tell it like it is." ~Erika Lamoureaux, MA, Ph.D. Candidate, Sociologist

The multi award-winning novel This Is the Place keeps Carolyn Howard-Johnson on the speaking circuit and featured in the press long after the book was published.

That's because the fictionalized account of her life doesn't take to task the culture she was raised in nor does it disparage. It is a story of five generations of Utah women who married into Mormonism. Based on the author's own genealogy and experiences living in a divided home and society, readers get a clear idea of what present day Mormonism is like and how it is influenced by its polygamist heritage. It dispels present day myths about both the religion and culture while satisfying a reader's interest in a unique American culture.

The author says, "Much has been written about the distinctive mores of our American South, a little about our Quakers and Amish but very, very little about Utah and Mormonism, especially the mainstream religion and especially by someone who has a clear perception of how it is both similar and different from other areas in the US."

The Mormon religion based in Utah now has more than six million members and is quite separate from the polygamist groups that keep cropping up in the news. Still there are similarities because polygamy, after all, is a root that runs deep. Howard-Johnson is the person to clarify in these days of Warren Jeffs, Elizabeth Smart and Texas's YFZ group. Her opinions on them may amaze audiences but they will never bore them.

Howard-Johnson's literary work, including her novel, a book of creative nonfiction called Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered and her chapbook of poetry, Tracings, have all been informed by her dual heritage growing up in Utah and her life outside that community since then.

She will be signing her how-to books on writing at Book Expo America Friday, Booths 835 and 837 at 11 am but is available for appointments in person the entire weekend and by phone thereafter. Reach her at HoJoNews@aol.com or 818-790-0502.

# # # #

Support materials available on request.

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Awards administrator for Indie Book Awards C. Goulet announced that the marketing campaign waged for The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success won their Best Marketing Award.

In addition The Frugal Editor was a finalist in the how-to category of that same contest's Next Generation Indie Book Awards.

As a winner The Frugal Editor will be listed in the contest catalog which will be distributed at Book Expo America in Los Angeles later this month and will be featured on the Independent Book Publishing Professionals Group website. The contest is designed to honor exemplary books and marketing efforts of small and independent publishers.

Actually good things do come in threes and even fours. The Frugal Editor also won first-place acclaim from USA Book News and Reader Views.

(Photos, book cover art and a full media kit are available electronically or by post upon request.)

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Author Jozette Aaron, editor and publisher of DeSilva’s News, an international newsletter for writers has added Carolyn Howard-Johnson to her roster of columnists.

Subscribers to DeSilva's come from eight countries around the globe. It is a tool writers rely on to meet their creative needs. All subscribers receive f r e e promotion as well as information on honing their skill through columns written by other authors, links to available resources, writer’s courses and more.

Howard-Johnson is the multi-award-winning author of the HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers, "The Great First Impression Book Proposal: Everything You Need To Know To Sell Your Book in 20 Minutes or Less," an Amazon Short, and award-winning books of fiction and poetry.

Aaron has published short stories in anthologies as well as online. She has a novel in progress and reviews books and for the Women’s Independent Press in Champagne, Illinois.

Aaron says "I created DeSilva’s News to help other writers, especially the novice writer." She offers promotion to her subscribers to boost the confidence of those harboring doubt in their ability to produce publishable prose. It includes links for f r e e online courses, and, of course, the talents of several well-published writers like Howard-Johnson.

M E D I A R E L E A S E

Contacts:
Anne Louise Reinhard
annelouise@annelouise.net
writer's website: http://annelouise.net

For immediate release, April 30, 2008

Award-winning author and authors' advocate Carolyn Howard-Johnson and former Glendale News-Press columnist Anne Louise Reinhard live just 10 minutes from each other here in in the great Los Angeles area, but didn't meet until they each traveled 2,200 miles to Dayton University's Erma Bombeck Writing Conference in Dayton, Ohio. To further the coincidence, Howard-Johnson is a sporadic movie reviewer for the News-Press.

Anne Louise attended an editing workshop conducted by Howard-Johnson, author of The Frugal Editor, and as she listened to the author's references to her hometown, realized that Howard-Johnson was talking about their hometown. So after the session, Anne Louise introduced herself, and handed the author her card. Good thing she did, because it turns out that Howard-Johnson forgot to collect her newsletter sign-up sheet from the session, and would have been unable to contact the attendees if it weren't for the business cards she had collected. So she sent an-e-mail to everyone whose card she had, offering the newsletter to them.

The response was huge, and Anne Louise was among those who asked for an e-handout. Howard-Johnson says, "I'm a great recycler. Think of the paper we saved!" . The two writers started e-mailing, and now Howard-Johnson's "Sharing with Writers" newsletter has a creative new columnist, one Anne Louise Reinhard, to fill a previously empty niche -- humor writing. Howard-Johnson says, "Even my subscribers who aren't humorists can learn something from Anne Louise's 'Humor Hints.' Even a serious book proposal can benefit from a touch of humor."

Award-winning author Carolyn Howard-Johnson will be a featured author at the USA Book News booth (#835 to #837) at the nation's premier book event, Book Expo America, on Friday, May 29.

This year the famous tradeshow will be at the Los Angeles Convention Center from Friday, the 29th, through Sunday. Publishing professionals can make their BEA reservations and get information about the event here: http://www.bookexpoamerica.com

Howard-Johnson will be signing her new Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success. It won USA Book News' top award in the publishing category and well as Reader Views Literary Award in that category.

The Frugal Editor is the second in the author's HowToDoItFrugally series after The Frugal Book Promoter: How to Do What Your Publisher Won't. Howard-Johnson has a new blog where authors can find help with editing—anything from grammar to formatting. Anyone may submit questions or just read up on past blog entries. The address is www.TheFrugalEditor.blogspot.com.

The Frugal Editor was written, Howard-Johnson says, because "there are gremlins out there determined to keep authors' work from being published, our books from being promoted. They resolve to embarrass us before gatekeepers who can turn the key of success for us. They lurk in out subconscious and the depths of our computer programs." The Frugal Editor will help writers of every ilk present whistle-clean copy (whether it's a one-page cover letter or an entire manuscript) to those who have the power to say "Yea" or "Nay."

Howard-Johnson was named Woman of the Year in Arts and Entertainment by the 43^rd and 44^th District of the California Legislature. Her first novel, This is the Place, and her book of creative nonfiction, Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered, are both multiple award winners. She speaks frequently at writers' conferences, is an instructor for UCLA Extension Writers' Program and has appeared on TV and hundreds of radio stations nationwide, as both a commercial actor and as a talk show guest.

The author's first book in the HowToDoItFrugally series was named USA Book News' Best Professional Book and given the Book Publicists of Southern California's Irwin Award.

At the famous Book Expo America where the publishing industry convenes at different cities throughout the nation in different years, nationally known authors will sign and give copies of their new releases to publishing professionals. Among those signing or speaking, visitors will find Michael Moore, Jon Krakauer and Judy Blume.

Frugal Editor Wins Best Publishing Book in Reader Views 2007 Annual Literary Awards

Austin, Texas -- The second book in the HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers, The Frugal Editor, was selected as the best publishing book of 2007 by Reader Views Annual Literary Awards.

Reader Views Managing Editor Irene Watson says, “Reader Views reviews more than 2,000 books per year from budding authors who have worked hard to achieve their dream of being published."

The Reader Views Annual Literary Awards are granted in 20 fiction and 30 nonfiction categories, as well as 15 specialized, sponsored categories. The entries are judged by Reader Views reviewers, all avid readers with a wide range of experiences, considered experts in their respective fields.

This is the second award for The Frugal Editor, published by Red Engine Press. The first is USA Book News Best Writing/Publishing Book. Howard-Johnson says, "There are gremlins out there determined to keep your work from being published, your book from being promoted. They are resolved to embarrass you before the gatekeepers who can turn the key of success for you. The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success will help authors present whistle-clean copy (whether it's a one-page cover letter or their entire manuscript) to those who have the power to say "Yea" or "Nay." The book may be purchased at http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0978515870/

Howard-Johnson is a popular speaker and an instructor for UCLA Extension's renowned Writers' Program. She is also a writer of fiction and poetry. She is the recipient of the California Legislature's Woman of the Year in Arts and Entertainment Award, and her community's Character and Ethics Committee awarded her work promoting tolerance with her writing. She was also named to Pasadena Weekly's list of 14 "San Gabriel Valley women who make life happen."

Reader Views is an Austin, Texas, based company that publishes reviews and offers publicity services to authors. Now they are a one-stop center for budding authors. For more information, visit www.readerviews.com.

Reader Views is currently accepting submissions for the 2008 Literary Awards. Entry information, registration forms and further information can be found online at http://www.readerviews.com/Awards.html.

World Wide Web--Carolyn Howard-Johnson will host a workshop on editing at the first annual Catholic Writers’ Conference Online, Monday,.May 8 at 1 pm EST. She will co-present a seminar with Karina Fabian on book promotion that same day at 2 pm. The conference runs from May 2 to 9, 2008

The conference, sponsored by the Catholic Writers Guild and Canticle Magazine and conducted entirely through the Internet, is free of charge and open to writers of all levels. It will feature online seminars, chats, and forums throughout the week on a variety of topics covering writing both fiction and non-fiction, submitting manuscripts to publishers and marketing your books--and yourself. Over 20 workshops are scheduled with more still in the works, according to

coordinator Karina Fabian.

Howard-Johnson joins top names in the Catholic publishing industry and other skilled presenters, including: best-selling authors Donna-Marie O’Boyle and Tom Grace; editors Heidi Hess Saxton (Canticle), Vinita Hampton Wright (Loyola Press), Ami McConnell (Thomas Nelson); and agents like Terry Burns.

Carolyn Howard-Johnson's has appeared on more than 300 TV and radio shows. She is an instructor for UCLA Extension's renowned Writers' Program and award-winning author of fiction and poetry. She is also the author of the HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers including The Frugal Book Promoter: How to Do What Your Publisher Won't, USA Book News' "Best Professional Book 2004," and the winner of the coveted Irwin Award. The second in the series is The Frugal Editor, also a USA Book News winner. She is the recipient of the California Legislature's Woman of the Year in Arts and Entertainment Award, and her community's Character and Ethics Committee awarded her work promoting tolerance with her writing. She was also named to Pasadena Weekly's list of 14 "San Gabriel Valley women who make life happen." Her website is www.HowToDoItFrugally.com. She Squidoos at http://www.squidoo.com/HowToDoItFrugallyforAuthors and blogs at www.SharingwithWriters.blogspot.com.

Karina Fabian, president of Catholic Writers Guild and chair of the event, said the conference gives writers an unprecedented opportunity to learn and network. “Online Conferences are ideal for writers, and especially for those who are shy, have physical disabilities or are on a tight budget. We’re harnessing the power of the Internet to reach people worldwide to support each other in our writing and our faith.”

Early registration is recommended, as some courses will have limited openings that will be filled on a first-come, first serve basis. Donations are accepted; proceeds will go toward future conferences. To register or for more information, go to http://www.conference.catholicwritersguild.org.

Lea Schizas and Carolyn Howard-Johnson will be hosting their third annual Muse Online Writers Conference on October 13 – 19. The conference offers new and seasoned writers over 120 FREE workshops each year held over the course of one week.

Last year, there were close to 2000 writers who attended from all over the world: USA , Canada , Mexico , Africa , England , Italy , Greece , India , New Zealand , Turkey , Australia …to name a few.

World Wide Web--Writers, editors, agents, and other publishing professionals from around the world are gearing up for the first annual Catholic Writers’ Conference Online, which will be held May 2-9, 2008, and is sponsored by the Catholic Writer’s Guild and Canticle magazine. The online conference is free of charge and open to writers of all levels for those who register by April 25.

Author and editor Carolyn Howard-Johnson, who with conference chair Karina Fabian will be conducting seminars designed to help authors put their “Best Book Forward,” concurs. “It's never too early to learn more about what we love…. When we put ourselves out there, the universe seems to bring us exactly what we need. When we close down on opportunity for whatever reason, we miss getting what we should.”

New seminar and chat topics are being added constantly, including seminars on character and dialogue development, virtual book tours, how to get grants and other money with your writing, trends in fiction, world building, and connecting with a secular audience. Presenters and chat hosts include Vinita Wright (Loyola Press), Maya Bohnhoff, Tim Powers, Mark Shea (Catholic Answers), Hope Clark (Funds for Writers), Sr. Madonna Radcliff (Pauline Books & Media), Bert Ghezzi (Word Among Us), and Brian Saint-Paul (Crisis/Inside Catholic).

“We’re very happy with the caliber of publishing professionals who have volunteered to participate in this first conference,” says event co-chair Heidi Hess Saxton, editor of Canticle magazine. “There is a nice mix of fiction and non-fiction as well as book and magazine publishing represented here. Something for everyone … and you can’t beat the price!” Although the conference is offered free of charge, donations are accepted; proceeds will go toward future conferences.

Hope Clark, author of “Funds for Writers” is also optimistic about the event’s success. “I see writers … unable to run from conference to conference, seated before a computer soaking up information, taking notes, excited about finding answers to questions they didn't even know they had. I see writers walking away from this conference excited again about being writers.”

Early registration is recommended, as some courses will have limited openings that will be filled on a first-come, first serve basis. To register or for more information, go to http://www.conference.catholicwritersguild.org.

Carolyn Howard-Johnson the author of two USA Book News' Best Professional Book awards and founder of Authors' Coalition will share her secrets for taking a book fair signing out of the realm of hum-drum to make it a sizzling success at the Thursday, Apri 17 meeting of Book Publicists of Southern California at the Sportsmen's Lodge in Studio City.

Irwin Zucker, founder of the organization, says, "Carolyn has done so many booths and signings, she's made an art of perfecting it using what she calls value-added promotions." BPSC is a resource for publicists, authors and others associated with the publishing industry. The organizations publishes a member directory and newsletter (www.bookpublicists.org/pages/newsletter.asp) ., sponsors events (www.bookpublicists.org/pages/events.asp) and gives out the IRWIN (www.bookpublicists.org/pages/irwin_award.asp) awards to help foster industry excellence. Howard-Johnson's The Frugal Book Promoter: How to Do What Your Publisher Won't is a past winner of the coveted award and and both that book and the second in her HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers, The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success are USA Book News Best Book award winners.

The event includes dinner. Sportsmen's Lodge is at 12825 Ventura Blvd., Studio City. A mixer at 5:30 is the epitome of promotion in action. Dinner at 6:30 is $35 and the program only is $10. Reservations may be made at irwinzuckerpr@aol.com.

The author's first novel, This is the Place, has won eight awards. Her book of creative nonfiction has won three. She is an extension division instructor for UCLA Extension's Writers’ Program and speaks at writers' conferences nationwide. Amazon recently published her how-to that shows how authors can learn to write great book proposals with 49 cents and 20 minutes of time. It is The Great First Impression Book Proposal: Everything You Need To Know To Sell Your Book in 20 Minutes or Less.

Howard-Johnson's first chapbook of poetry, Tracings, was honored by the Military Writers' Society of America and the Compulsive Read. It is available at http://finishinglinepress.com or Amazon.com

BEST SELLING AUTHOR ONLINE INTERNET TV SHOW TEAMS WITH POPULAR AUTHORS' ADVOCATE TO COHOST

Carolyn Howard-Johnson has signed with CEO Rey Ybarra to serve as cointerviewer on Best Selling Author Television. Ybarra, interviews authors for his online video programming and who has interviewed many well-known authors such as Tony Robbins, Dan Millman, John Gray and Joan Borysenko to name a few.

The program “Brings Local Authors to a National Audience” through the power and leverage of the Internet. The show can be seen anytime, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week by going to http://bestsellingauthortv.blogspot.com/. Find excellent write-ups, great photos and terrific interviews of each author. You can even leave comments on the Best Selling Author vlog.

Howard-Johnson is an instructor for UCLA Extension's Writers' Program and the award-winning author of literary fiction and poetry. She is also the author of USA Book News' Best Professional Book and Irwin Award winner, The Frugal Book Promoter: How to Do What Your Publisher Won't, and the soon-to-be-released The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success. She has appeared on hundreds of radio and TV stations nationwide.

If you are an author and want to find out more about participating on the program to promote your book, you may contact Rey Ybarra at 818-464-3726 or by email at Rybarra106@aol.com.

Author and Publisher Team to Offer Free Teleseminar on Bringing A Writers' Dream to Life

M E D I A R E L E A S E

M E D I A R E L E A S E

April 22, 2008

For Immediate Release

TRI Studio LLC Announces Winners of the

2008 Out of the Box Promotion Idea Contest for Writers

Judged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson