The Frugal Book Promoter by Carolyn Howard Johnson became a must-have book for authors at its 2004 debut as a text for her UCLA Extension Writer’s Program class in book marketing. Modern History Press recently published the third edition sporting a new cover, a bibliography, a reference, and complete update.
In its past iterations, The Frugal Book Promoter: How to get nearly free publicity on your own or partnering with your publisher won an Irwin award, was USA Book News’s pick for Best Professional Book, and received a Global Ebook Award. It broke all records when authors downloaded it more than 30,000 times and Bookbaby.com dubbed it “a classic.” It is the flagship book in what has become her HowToDoItFrugally Series of Writers for writers. Carolyn said, “Frugal has been a labor of love, a way to share what four decades of loving publicity, writing, and publishing fiction, nonfiction, and poetry has taught me.”
Like the old editions, the new edition of The Frugal Book Promoter assures an author’s book the best possible start in life. It’s full of nitty-gritty how-tos for getting nearly free publicity. The author shares her professional experience in journalism, PR, and retailing as well as the practical tips she gleaned from her own book campaigns. She tells authors how to do what their publishers can’t or won’t do, why authors can often do their own promotion better than a PR professional, and shows them how they can partner with their publisher’s publicist or the one they hire on their own.
Howard-Johnson has been a publicist writing media releases for the likes of Christian Dior for the Eleanor Lambert Agency in New York, which created the first “10 Best-Dressed List”; she’s been an instructor for UCLA’s world-renowned Writers’ Program for nearly a decade; she’s been a columnist and staff writer for the Salt Lake Tribune and the Pasadena Star News; and she wrote copy for Good Housekeeping magazine, Hearst Corporation. She was awarded the California Legislature’s Woman of the Year in Arts and Entertainment, and received her community’s Character and Ethics award for work promoting tolerance with her writing.” She presents at writers’ conferences nationwide.