Writer-Artist Deborah Lyn Stanley Offers Unsolicited Review of The Frugal Editor

Today's post comes with special thanks for a surprise review from an associate at another blog, WritersontheMove.  As many of my subscribers and visitors know, I believe in thank yous and reviews as a way to pass it forward to the publishing industry and those important cogs--authors--that make it what it is.  Thus this review of my The Frugal Editor comes to you as a reminder.


Title: The Frugal Editor
Subtitle: Do-It-Yourself Editing Secrets for Authors:
From Your Query Letter to Final Manuscript to the Marketing of Your New Bestseller
Author: Carolyn Howard-Johnson
Series: The HowToDoItFrugally Series of books for writers
Edition: 2nd Edition
Publisher: HowToDoItFrugally Publishing
Cover: DeSimonDesign.com
Available: Paper and Ebook
ISBN: 9781505712117
Purchase on Amazon:

Reviewed by Deborah Lyn Stanley, originally for Amazon, Goodreads and her own websites

Today I am sharing my favorite self-editing book. Carolyn Howard-Johnson is a friend and co-contributor to Writer’s On The Move (WOTM).  She is a consistent source of encouragement for the writer’s journey!

Carolyn’s delivery style is down to earth, illuminating, and frugal in its time saving, headache preventing approach.

My favorite aspect of her book includes the basics required for an effective writer’s practice, and the seven thorough Appendices. Appendix One, “Editing At A Glance”, is followed by Recommended Reading and Resources, Generous Agents List, Sample Cover and Sample Query Letters, and Formatting for Kindle Made Easy.

The Goal of the book is to equip aspiring and accomplished authors with the best self-editing skills and tips for successful publishing.

I highly recommend this book. It’s refreshing, informative, and empowers our writers' journey.

Thank you Carolyn Howard-Johnson!

Carolyn Howard-Johnson has been promoting her own books and helping clients promote theirs for more than a decade. Her marketing plan for the second book in the HowToDoItFrugally Series of books for writers, The Frugal Editor, won the Next Generation Millennium Award for Marketing. The just-released third edition of The Frugal Book Promoter, published by Modern History Press, is New, Expanded, and Updated. Her poetry, fiction and nonfiction books have been honored by the likes of Writer’s Digest, USA Book News Award, the Irwin award, Dan Poynter’s Global Ebook Awards and more. Learn more about Carolyn and her books of fiction and poetry. Each of them helped her learn more about maximizing marketing efforts for different writers, different titles. Learn more at www.howtodoitfrugally.com

Links:

https://howtodoitfrugally.com/

http://www.writersonthemove.com/

MORE ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Deborah Lyn Stanley is a writer, artist, and contributor to Karen Cioffi Ventrice's WritersontheMove blog. Learn more about her writing at on her websites at  https://lynstanleyart.com,  My Writer’s Life: https://deborahlynwriter.com/, and The Caregiver’s Retreat: https://deborahlyncaregiver.com/. 

MORE ABOUT THE BLOGGER

 Carolyn Howard-Johnson is the author of 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 editions of The Frugal Book Promoter and The Frugal Editor. Her latest is in the series is How to Get Great Book Reviews Frugally and Ethically. 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. She 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. It 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. She also blogs at all things editing--grammar, formatting and more--at this spot, The Frugal, Smart,and Tuned-In Editor (http://TheFrugalEditor.blogspot.com). Her SharingwithWriters.blogspot.com blog focuses on the writing life and book marketing and promotion. It is a Writers' Digest 101 Best blogs pick.

Costa Rican Author Shares Tip on Editing Out Double Spaces with Word

This is a book review from my The Frugal Editor, but Helen Dunn Frame made her review into a tip she gleaned from the book--a tip I though visitors and subscribers to this blog might be able to use.

Title: The Frugal Editor, 2^nd Edition
Author: Carolyn Howard-Johnson
Author’s Web site: http://HowToDoItFrugally.com
Awards: USA Book News, Reader Views, Irwin Award
ISBN: 9781505712117
Available as an e-book or paper, http://bit.ly/FrugalEditor

Reviewed by Helen Dunn Frame

Senior citizens may find it difficult to change a life-long habit, specifically typing two spaces after the end of the sentence. Now it’s possible to keep an old habit and let Word “correct” it for you. Author Carolyn Howard-Johnson, in The Frugal Editor that contains a wealth of information for writers editing their own work, explains how to use “Replace” to fix this element in a document.

She outlines the directions under a “Sidebar” in the book, one of many tips crammed in it. I found it on page 34 of 123 pages in my PDF copy under the heading Let Your Replace Function Spot the Dots.

Be sure to “Select All” to highlight the entire document. Just remember to put the cursor on the “Find what” and “Replace with” bars, to the far left as possible. Press the space bar twice in “Find what” and once in “Replace with.” They will look blank but when you click on “Replace All,” the poltergeist will correct the spaces. A box appears to confirm the app has worked.

The Frugal Editor has helped me before with useful information.

MORE ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Helen Dunn Frame is the author of
Retiring in Costa Rica or Doctors, Dogs and Pura Vida (Second Edition); Greek Ghosts; Wetumpka Widow, Murder for Wealth; Secrets Behind the Big Pencil, Inspired by an Actual Scandal.
Website: http://bit.ly/1KxXt7T  Facebook: http://on.fb.me/1COtMJn 

Author's Page:http://www.amazon.com/Helen-Dunn-Frame/e/B0054LDOBW
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/grandi1369/  

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/helen-dunn-frame

MORE ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Carolyn Howard-Johnson brings her experience as a publicist, journalist, marketer, and retailer to the advice she gives in her HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers and the many classes she taught for nearly a decade as instructor for UCLA Extension’s world-renown Writers’ Program. All her books for writers are multi award winners including both the first and second editions of The Frugal Book Promoter and her multi award-winning The Frugal Editor won awards from USA Book News, Readers’ Views Literary Award, the marketing award from Next Generation Indie Books and others including the coveted Irwin award. Her next book in the HowToDoItFrugally series for writers will be How To Get Great Book Reviews Frugally and Ethically.

Howard-Johnson is the recipient of the California Legislature’s Woman of the Year in Arts and Entertainment Award, and her community’s Character and Ethics award for her work promoting tolerance with her writing. She was also named to Pasadena Weekly’s list of “Fourteen San Gabriel Valley women who make life happen” and was given her community’s Diamond Award for Achievement in the Arts. 

                 

The author loves to travel. She has visited eighty-nine countries and has studied writing at Cambridge University in the United Kingdom; Herzen University in St. Petersburg, Russia; and Charles University, Prague. She admits to carrying a pen and journal wherever she goes. 

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 Carolyn Howard-Johnson edits, consults, and speaks on issues of writing and publishing. Find her at http://howtodoitfrugally.com. Find the second edition of her multi award-winning The Frugal Editor: Do-it-yourself editing secrets for authors: From your query letter to final manuscript to the marketing of your bestseller. (HowToDoItFrugally Series of Books for Writers). Learn more about her other authors' aids at www.howtodoitfrugally.com/writers_books.htm , where writers find lists and other helps including , Great Little Last-Minute Editing Tips on the Resources for Writers page. She blogs on all things publishing (not just editing!) at her SharingingwithWriters blog. She tweets writers' resources at www.twitter.com/frugalbookpromo . Please tweet this post to your followers. We all need a little help with editing. (-:

A New Preferred Term Leads to a Fave Topic, Saving Money

Unless you either write books of your own, are in business for yourself, or are just involved in marketing and advertising in some way, you probably won't need to know about this new marketing term. Still, those interested in editing are generally curious (and exacting!) folk,  so I thought I'd share my story with you. Besides . . .the story involves some good, hard advice about paying good, hard money for things you can get free on your own and will probably be more effective if you do! Here it is:

Today you get a hard reminder prompted by a new term being bandied about.

In The Frugal Book Promoter I talk about advertorials in conjunction with a section warning writers—but especially new writers—to use publicity (meaning free) in their marketing rather than advertising (which always means paid-for!). The section includes a little back-door method for getting to know the same newspaper and magazine folks who can say yay or nay to your marketing efforts as an alternative for cold calls or for giving up when you discover you've missed a submission deadline. 

One of the terms I tell you about in that section is “advertorial” which means a paid-for ad that looks like free editorial copy and is often more effective. To put in the grossest terms, it’s more effective because it fools many readers into believing that it’s editorial copy or vetted news or feature material chosen strictly on the basis of its newsworthiness or general appeal.

Now we have a new term for the same thing—possibly designed to disguise an advertorial with ritzier words. It is certainly less likely to be deciphered by the general reader. It is…drumroll… “native advertising.” According to David Lazarus, columnist for the LA Times, Lord & Taylor is facing a deceptive-trade charge from the Federal Trade Commission because they used this ploy—a huge embarrassment for a clothing company of L&T's stature.

You’ll see this tactic used—whether they call it advertorial or native advertising—in special advertising sections produced by newspapers and similar kinds of features in magazines—and sometimes they can be valuable reading like the sections Time magazine often runs. These advertorials are paid for by large corporations or countries, usually companies or countries that want to improve their image among Americans or the business community. 

However, even useful advertorials can only be interpreted well by the reader if it is very clear that they are paid-for. Like anything we read, we should know the source and that’s one reason that the Web is so iffy. By the way, this Lord & Taylor snafu was “native advertising” on the Web, which is notorious for disseminating misinformation (a PC term for “lies.”)

It’s important for authors to know about this. They need to know what to avoid in their marketing (and how to use whatever they choose ethically). Maybe even more important, they need to be able to discern the propaganda aimed at naïve authors by scammy businesses—both big businesses and individuals—trying to entice them into paying for marketing programs that are either useless or can be gotten free.

As it happens, this topic has been on my mind because I am working on a chapter for the next book in my award-winning HowToDoItFrugally Series of books for writers. Getting Great Book Reviews Frugally and Ethically will be published late this summer. Believe me, there are a lot of “Please-pay-me” schemes revolving around every aspect of publishing but the review scams are at the top of my hate list. Authors desperate to get the reviews they’ve always dreamed of having are perfect targets, especially first-time authors. So, yeah. I’m on my soapbox again! (-:

As far as editors go, now you get to choose. Do you want to use "advertorial," "native advertising," or plain old "advertising."  Generally speaking I'd opt for the latter. "Advertorial" may sound like a foreign language no matter what language your audience speaks. "Native advertising" is a euphemism (and therefore misleading). We might as well call what it is--marketing that you pay for as opposed to marketing you don-t known as "publicity." 

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 Carolyn Howard-Johnson edits, consults, and speaks on issues of writing and publishing. Find her at http://howtodoitfrugally.com. Find the second edition of her multi award-winning The Frugal Editor: Do-it-yourself editing secrets for authors: From your query letter to final manuscript to the marketing of your bestseller. (HowToDoItFrugally Series of Books for Writers). Learn more about her other authors' aids at www.howtodoitfrugally.com/writers_books.htm , where writers find lists and other helps including , Great Little Last-Minute Editing Tips on the Resources for Writers page. She blogs on all things publishing (not just editing!) at her SharingingwithWriters blog. She tweets writers' resources at www.twitter.com/frugalbookpromo . Please tweet this post to your followers. We all need a little help with editing. (-:

New Year's Help and Gift for Supporters

This little excerpt is from the second edition of The Frugal Editor now available as an e-book on Kindle. If you already have the paperback book or the old e-book version, let me know and I’ll send you an e-copy when in return for a little review (but only if you love it) on Amazon, B&N, or your blog or newsletter. It's a lovely way to begin the New Year by networking and passing it forward.  Here’s the tip:

"In On Writing Stephen King tells us that a dialogue tag can dictate the use of punctuation in the dialogue itself. For instance, if the tag uses a form of the word ask, avoid using a question mark at the end of what the character said (that part within the quotation marks.) That makes sense. We’re trying to avoid being redundant. Here are examples of ways to avoid question mark redundancy:  

·        Example: He asked, “How old are you.” (Note the period after the question.)

·       Example: He said, “How old are you?” (Note the tag uses the word said, not asked.)

·     Example:    “How old are you?” (No tags at all.)

 

The new edition of The Frugal Editor is expanded and the resources are updated. Further, the e-book was first published in the early days of Kindle. This new format is much easier to read. And I do want my former readers to benefit from it. We're on the honor system. You have the first edition in paperback or digital form, you tell me. I'll send you the new one--no questions asked. 

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson edits, consults. and speaks on issues of publishing. Find her The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success (How To Do It Frugally series of book for writers). Learn more about her other authors' aids at www.howtodoitfrugally.com/writers_books.htm , where writers will find lists and other helps including Great Little Last-Minute Editing Tips on the Resources for Writers page. She blogs on all things publishing (not just editing!) at her Sharing with Writers blog. She tweets writers' resources at www.twitter.com/frugalbookpromo . Please tweet this post to your followers. We all need a little help with editing. (-:

Book Review of Book for the Wiriters/Editors on Your List

 

The holidays are upon us and I thought I'd share a new review for my little engine that could, The Frugal Editor : Do-it-yourself editing secrets for authors: From your query letter to final manuscript to the marketing of your new bestseller, because it isn't too late to order it sent from Amazon to your favorite editor.  And it's a gift that will keep on giving.

 

 

By Helen Dunn Frame

 

When Carolyn Howard-Johnson offered me the opportunity to own The Frugal Editor, I was deep into resurrecting an incomplete mystery manuscript that definitely would require editing. Having begun my writing and editing career in what some would characterize as “the old days,” I am always open to reading articles or books that might inform me about the latest trends or refresh my stuffed memory regarding grammar and punctuation.

Carolyn Howard-Johnson deserves commendation for taking the time to explain much about the editing process, especially in this self-publishing era. Her goal is to help authors to obtain a finished product worthy of Simon and Schuster. The book guides readers through the changes evolving in the English language that has no governing academy regulating it.

When I learned to touch typing, for example, our teachers emphasized putting two spaces between sentences. Computers have changed the rule to one space. This habit is ingrained so deeply that now I have to make a conscious effort to strike the space bar only once or to use the wonders of Word to correct those that Gremlins (or Poltergeists) sneak into the piece.

If you are just beginning to create articles, stories, or books, you will find The Frugal Editor a great tool. As a veteran to the craft, you may stir up a memory of something you had stored in the file cabinet of your mind. If somehow the book fails to benefit you, pass it on to that budding writer who will be ever grateful. I, for one, am delighted to have it in my e-book library. For more books and poetry check out The Frugal Book Promoter: http://budurl.com/FrugalBkPromo and the website: http://www.HowToDoItFrugally.com

 ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Helen Dunn Frame
Retiring in Costa Rica or Doctors, Dogs and Pura Vida (Second Edition); Greek Ghosts Website: www.helendunnframe.com

 

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson edits, consults. and speaks on issues of publishing. Find her The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success (How To Do It Frugally series of book for writers). Learn more about her other authors' aids at www.howtodoitfrugally.com/writers_books.htm , where writers will find lists and other helps including Great Little Last-Minute Editing Tips on the Resources for Writers page. She blogs on all things publishing (not just editing!) at her Sharing with Writers blog. She tweets writers' resources at www.twitter.com/frugalbookpromo . Please tweet this post to your followers. We all need a little help with editing. (-:

Great Editing and Writing IS Great Marketing

I very occasionally run reviews for books I think will help writers on The Frugal, Smart, and Tuned-In Editor.. Hope you'll consider this one. I figure that informed writers are great writers and great writing is one of the best forms of great editing.

Euphemania

Subtitle: Our love affair with euphemisms
By Ralph Keyes
Little Brown and Co.
ISBN: 9780316056564
Nonfiction/ (Writing/Language)
Contact Reviewer: hojoreviews@aol.com

Reviewed by Carolyn Howard-Johnson originally for MyShelf.com

.

If you don’t love language, it’s a good bet you aren’t a writer. But if you’re a writer, reading more about language (linguistics (?)) may not be high on your list of priorities. It’s so integral to the way you think, you believe you don’t need it.

I believe that Euphemania by Ralph Keyes will change your mind. Written with humor (because euphemisms are just naturally funny?) this book will certainly entertain. If you’ve ever wondered about the intricacies of our euphemisms—the origins as an example—this is the book for you. But who would have guessed that it also might be the perfect book to hone the skills of writers of dialogue and humor?

Academic writers? Use it as a quick-study on how to write a book that will sell to a wide market. The secret? Voice. Humor. Colloquialisms. Yep, and euphemisms. A book does not have to have the lack of moisture content (dry!) of a text book to be a textbook. I know about academic expectations. My daughter is a Ph.D. candidate. She explains it to me all the time. Having said that, if you’d like to actually sell something rather than giving everything away to unappreciative academic journals, try rewriting your brilliant theory for the general public!

Anthropologists and linguists will love this book, too. But mostly, it’s just fun learning why we use asterisks for words like sh*t and the euphemisms like the f-word. It’s also tons of fun to identify phrases we’ve stopped thinking of as euphemisms (love handles, anyone?), just because they are so part of our everyday language.

If I were rating this book for an Amazon review, it would give it a true (not a fake) five-star rating. For usefulness. For fun. For the love of language. 

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson edits, consults. and speaks on issues of publishing. Find her The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success (How To Do It Frugally series of book for writers). Learn more about her other authors' aids at www.howtodoitfrugally.com/writers_books.htm , where writers will find lists and other helps including Great Little Last-Minute Editing Tips on the Resources for Writers page. She blogs on all things publishing (not just editing!) at her Sharing with Writers blog. She tweets writers' resources at www.twitter.com/frugalbookpromo . Please tweet this post to your followers. We all need a little help with editing. (-:

Mini Tip on Euphemisms and Editing

Here's an editing tip from the next edition of my Sharing with Writers newsletter. Anyone who would like to subscribe need only send me an e-mail with SUBSCRIBE in the subject line and I'll do it for you. HoJoNews@aol.com

Editing Tip: Euphemisms can be deadly for writing. They evade rather than communicate. They can also desensitize us to concepts we may be better off recognizing full force. On the other hand, they can lighten language, push it out of the humdrum into something more humorous, more colloquial. The trick is to be aware of when you’re using them and how. Love handles, anyone?

I recommend a new book out from Little Brown. Euphemania is by Ralph Keyes.

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson edits, consults. and speaks on issues of publishing. Find her The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success (How To Do It Frugally series of book for writers). Learn more about her other authors' aids at www.howtodoitfrugally.com/writers_books.htm , where writers will find lists and other helps including Great Little Last-Minute Editing Tips on the Resources for Writers page. She blogs on all things publishing (not just editing!) at her Sharing with Writers blog. She tweets writers' resources at www.twitter.com/frugalbookpromo . Please tweet this post to your followers. We all need a little help with editing. (-:

From James A. Cox's The Writing / Publishing Shelf

Great Little Last-Minute Editing Tips For Writers
By Carolyn Howard-Johnson
How To Do it Frugally Publishing
HoJoNews@aol.com
www.HowToDoItFrugally.com
9781450507653, $6.95, www.amazon.com

Reviewed for Library Bookwatch, May 1010 by James A. Cox, Editor-in-Chief Midwest Book Review


A successful author, editor, writing and publishing consultant, Carolyn Howard-Johnson draws upon her many years of experience and expertise to compile a 56-page compendium of 'user friendly' and immanently practical advice that will enable writers to avoid commonly encountered errors of spelling and thereby making their work, be it a blog, a letter, or the next Great American Novel, to be all that it should. From adapting/adopting to wreak/reek, "Great Little Last-Minute Editing Tips For Writers" is highly recommended reading for anyone preparing to write pretty much anything -- and a fascinating read in its own right for those who appreciate word-play and the occasionally encountered dilemmas of the English language!

This review is archived on our Midwest Book Review Web site for the next five years at http://www.midwestbookreview.com

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson edits, consults and speaks on issues of publishing. Find her The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success at http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0978515870. Learn more about her other authors' aids at www.howtodoitfrugally.com, where writers will find lists and other helps on the Resources for Writers page. She blogs on all things publishing (not just editing!) at her Sharing with Writers blog. Find me tweeting writers' resources at www.twitter.com/frugalbookpromo. And please tweet this post to your followers. We all need a little help with editing. (-: