Celebrating Newsletters as Resources, Perseverance, and Great Networking

Dawn Colclasure and Carolyn Celebrate Three Years of SPARREW

with the newsletter’s  Gift Sample Collection.

Celebrating Four Years of Tricky Edits

 

Celebrating Newsletters as Resources for Indie-Minded Authors

By Carolyn Howard-Johnson

If you’re reading this because you subscribed after following my “Tricky Edits” column in Dawn Colclasure’s SPARREW Newsletter, you might find it familiar. Well, here’s the thing. Birthday celebrations are forever. You might have last read about this helpful book in 2025 when Dawn and I celebrated our third year together. Here is that story: 

 When Dawn and I realized she had been doing her SPARREW newsletter for three years and I had been writing a column for it from the get-go, we decided to celebrate. The “we” part disappeared in the difficulties presented by Los Angeles’ fires and the mandatory evacuation from my husband’s and my home. That required tearing apart my office to get all essentials into our trunk to get them out of danger. As it happens, our home survived with a little wind damage, but my office is still suffering a bit. 

 Dawn proceeded to work on our plans using past columns for her newsletter and one of my booklets now published in its second edition by Modern History Press to glean our material most needed by authors.  By the time the smoke cleared, she had The SPARREW Newsletter Gift Sample Collection up and ready for you to benefit from the best-of-the-best from those years in 2025. Help us celebrate. Gift it to a fellow author. Find it on Amazon. 

So, it’s birthday time again. And here is a little something I promised in SPARREW’s April newsletter as part of a short list of important edits to consider in final edits, the ones that too many authors don’t know about or bother with.  We’re concentrating on only the last suggestion--number eight on the 2025 list that promises a list of  "What you might be missing if you don’t read Appendices in books that have them:"

Read appendices--mostly found in nonfiction books but not always. And when you read them, don’t skim. Think about the details, the ones you can begin to apply for the needs of your own books.  

1. Sometimes you’ll find near-equivalents to appendices in other genres masquerading under other names, glossaries for instance. It’s a mistake not to take that observation as a lesson. You might use this same approach to helping your reader. 

2. Don’t just read for information. Watch the way segments are worded and the layout for the sections. Is there anything there that can be used to help your readers for your next book? 

2. Does recommended reading offer something that will help you delve deeper into topics you now realize you know too little about? 

3. Watch for examples or samples--sometimes set out visually--that will support what you learned in the book you just read, some that you can use as templates.

4. You might find a summary or organizational chart of the book you just read that will make you think twice about what you just read.

5. A list of experts the author interviewed or were otherwise instrumental for quotes or information--even beyond acknowledgements which will probably be used elsewhere.  My The Frugal Editor includes a list of agents who offered their query letter pet peeves and permission to print them. 

6. Sometimes you’ll find a whole new how-to section written by the author or some other expert for something the author knows you’ll need but doesn’t quite fit in the book.  

7. You might find resources other than recommended readers (like those agents mentioned above!) 

 

MORE ABOUT CAROLYN

Once a month Carolyn Howard-Johnson shares something writer-related she hopes might save some author from embarrassment (or make the task of writing more fun or creative.) The third edition of The Frugal Editor from Modern History Press includes a chapter on some of the words most misused by the very people whose business it is to know them. It is the second multi award-winning book in her multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally Series of books for writers. The Frugal Editor has been fully updated including a chapter on how backmatter can be extended to help readers and nudge book sales.

 Carolyn blogs sporadically on editing here at http://www.thefrugaleditor.blogspot.com and at her SharingwithWriters blog on other aspects of the publishing world and welcomes guest posts with ample author credit lines and links. She also tweets writers' resources and tips at www.twitter.com/frugalbookpromo using the #FrugalBookPromoterTips hashtag.

MORE ABOUT THIS BLOG and Carolyn Howard-Johnson edits literary fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry. She is also a marketing consultant, editor, and author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally Series of books for writers including the award-winning second edition of "The Frugal Book Promoter" and "The Frugal Editor." Her "How to Get Great Book Reviews Frugally and Ethically" will soon be published by Modern History Press in its second edition. Learn more on her Amazon profile page, http://bit.ly/CarolynsAmznProfile. "Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers" is one of her booklets--perfect for inexpensive gift giving--and "The Great First Impression Book Proposal, another booklet, helps writers who want to be traditionally published.” 

 Carolyn has three FRUGAL books for retailers including one she encourages authors to read because it will help them convince retailers to host their workshops, presentations, and signings. The first in that series is "A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques.” 

She helps writers extend the exposure of their favorite reviews at TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com absolutely free along with her associate Lois W. Stern. She also blogs at all things editing--grammar, formatting and more--at right here "The Frugal, Smart, and Tuned-In Editor" (http://TheFrugalEditor.blogspot.com) and plans to work on it harder in 2025.  

Her SharingwithWriters.blogspot.com blog focuses on the writing life and book marketing and promotion. It is a Writers' Digest 101 Best blogs pick.