Letting Taylor Swift’s Genius Guide Holiday Choices

  

                                                                                  Vintage Vroman’s Bookstore Chirstmas Stars (Pasadena, CA.)

A Book-ish Nudge for Making Books Work for Christmas

                 

Letting Taylor Swift’s Genius Guide Holiday Choices

By Carolyn Howard-Johnson, multi-award-winning writer of fiction, poetry, 
and the HowToDoItFrugally Series of books for writers

          I used to think Taylor Swift’s “Last year I gave you my heart” the most unlikely Christmas song of all time. Kind of a downer, you know?  I changed my mind when I started noticing how she markets, her interest in doing good, her focus, her assertiveness. And she sure had a knack for turning a less-than-upbeat situation into song.

So as Christmas approached, I started thinking about those marketing chops of hers, how I could take her advice even though I am way past the fawning fan stage of life. She didn’t give up on romance; instead she would find a new love who would understand the true spirit of giving and was figuring out how to make it work even better. So, lucky you! I’ve reduced it in number, mostly related to some holiday publishing I’ve done in the past—complete Taylor-inspired improvements 

OLD HOLIDAY IDEAS WITH NEW TWISTS

Magdalena Ball, CompulsiveWriter.com founder and editor and I—reached across hemispheres to write our own little book called a chapbook to use instead of costly holiday greeting cards but it can be adapted to work for any business or profession. For authors it will be applying a part of their own working lives to their own holiday marketing/public relations campaign. It’s called…

Publishing a book and, yes it can be used by anyone who wants to try it.  Magadalena and I used Amazon’s KDP (Kindle Digital Platform) feature to publish a book. What an idea! The “author” of this book can make a small project of it, let it grow, or plan a large one and run with it.  Start collecting photos, poems, old adages that apply to your theme—your own special holiday,  friendships, businesses, whatever. Assemble them into a Word file—one for every person on your list or a more general one. Depending on the size they can turn out to be everything from a booklet to an inexpensive coffee-table type book.  C’mon. You have nearly a year to add to your first draft and it’s all free except for the copies you end up ordering for your own needs and they are wholesale. You only need about twenty-five pages to meet Amazon’s minimum page count. Here are some time-saving and value-added ideas:

 

~To make some more personal, I sign, date, and maybe add a little Santa sketch I can draw in five seconds flat.
~To suggest a handmade quality, you can add a permanent book mark made of grosgrain ribbon or velvet ribbon.
~ As an Amazon prime member I occasionally  let Amazon sent e-books to people I thought of last minute using their gift-message feature. It was nearly instantaneous and it saved shipping costs. 
~Books could be used as charity gifts using personalization…or not. Titles, themes, and dedications can be changed for special editions. Inexpensive Avery-type bookplates could be enclosed or three-dimensional stickers could be ordered for special needs. Books in quantity enough for residents of local senior centers. Consider getting permission to including a sugar free holiday cookie.
~Thanks to Taylor, I promise not to forget a special thank you to whoever tosses the daily news onto my front porch this year, maybe put a bow on it made with the plastic bags they deliver our news in each day as a little joke.

Booklets like these can be used for a variety of non-seasonal promotions. I have a motto: No real, live person should ever leave one of my classes, seminars, book signings, or writers’ conference presentations without a “keeper” in their hands or pressed into their notebooks.

 

PS: Let’s all plan to give 20% more books as gifts this year. If lots and lots of authors did this, it might mean fewer layoffs than originally planned for publishing and their related industries like libraries.

PPS: “Christmas in July” is not just a retailing gimmick. It  is the time to pitch holiday stories and promotions for your business, your book, or your profession to magazines and other print media. I know because I worked for Good Housekeeping magazine after starting a writing career at a daily newspaper and had a hard time adjusting my internal clock to such a lengthy deadline. Think both pre- and post-holiday needs. Think worldwide. Think national. Think local. As ideas come to you, add alerts to your calendar. Don’t be chintzy with the details. Busy minds get forgetful. If you’re great at public relations, you’ll also send one of those self-made books we talked about to the editors who accepted and wrote your feature story idea after its publish date as a thank you. 

 MORE ABOUT WRITERS ON THE MOVE BLOG’S CONTRIBUTOR

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 the first edition of The Frugal Book Promoter, now in its third edition. Her The Frugal Editor, also in its third edition, 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.

 

Too Late for This Christmas? Tip for Writers: Amazon offers a new service absolutely free. In addition to an author’s regular buy page, it is a special page that lists all e-books in a series. Don’t think of it as a page for a genre fiction series only.  The publisher of my HowToDoItFugally Series did this one for my series of books for writers at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BTXQL27T, but it’s available for indie authors, too. Either way, the service is absolutely free! Amazon also produces the triptych images for these pages free. For Most Everyone on Your Christmas List: How about a last-minute book of Christmas poetry from Magdalena Ball’s and my holiday entry in their Celebration Series of chapbooks, paper or e-book. Find it at https://bit.ly/BloomingRed or see the whole series here. The series also includes chapbooks for Women’s Day, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, and, yep...Christmas.

Now"s the Time to Get Started on Your Christmas Book for 2023

 

On Christmas Songs, Books, and Marketing

Riddle: So Why Is Taylor Swift a Terrific Marketer? 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

By Carolyn  Howard-Johnson

 

It’s holiday time. Even if we don’t think much about Taylor Swift the rest of the year, between now and January 1^st you’re likely to hear her singing “Last year I gave you my heart,” in my opinion one of the most unlikely Christmas songs of all time. It’s a good lesson in love, but also a reminder of the example she has set for creative types since she started flaunting her knack for marketing.

 

QUESTION: So what makes Taylor Swift a terrific marketer?

ANSWER: Because she knows that this one song reaches across generations as well as the months and years to include all she does, including “showing” us the the real meaning of the word “assertive.”

 

I fear the word “assertive” has gotten a bad rap in the last couple decades.

People often associate it with being brash or downright overbearing, but it’s a skill we all need in business (in our case the world of publishing) when we must negotiate a contact or make ourselves heard in the din of a hundreds of thousands of books being published each year. 

 

But Taylor got that right, too. She thinks creative people should get paid for their work. She stood up for that idea. She wasn’t afraid to use her financial clout to do it. And—here’s the biggie. She doesn’t hesitate to use her skill against the big guys.

 

A few years ago, Taylor pitted her case against Apple—financially the world’s most influential company—who planned to launch a free promotion for their new music streaming business, Apple Music. She did it with an open letter on her blog (ahh, the power of the written word and the power of blogging!) and a tweet or two. And she did it without mussing her hair or raising her voice or resorting to a lewd gesture. She assured Apple that she loved them, threw in a few more compliments like “I say this with love, reverence, and admiration for everything else Apple does.” It was polite, but she still socked it to them. In something like sixteen hours they were smart enough to buckle. Swift and all the other musicians feature on Apple's rollout got paid.

 

And now we can all add the word “assertive” to the lexicon of skills we need to survive, to influence. She used a gentle voice that convinced others that her protest was not about making more money for herself but a matter of principle and passion. Now the rest of us can be assertive and know that can mean engaging and focused as well as strident.

 

And while we’re at it, let’s think about what we creatives can learn from that Christmas song. We creatives have a little time to think about the holidays both creatively and in ways that help whoever out there likes what we do. For writers, I’m thinking “last minute” gifts by touting e-book gifts that are inexpensive and arrive very nearly instantly. For readers I’m thinking books that are classics from books of poetry to Dickens.

 

I’m thinking donations to your local library and a special thank you to whoever tosses the daily news onto your front porch. The list can get really long.

 

But mostly I want to remind you to start thinking about a writing a book with a Christmas theme—maybe an anthology. Think of this as a writers’ prompt to try a genre you never tried before. But mostly think about it as a career builder. Don’t wait until it is too late once again. Now is the time to do your NaNo thing in January. But give it a Christmas theme then make it your Christmas classic. It will be the thing that makes your audience think about your other books when ’23, ’24, and 3035 roll around. The basics will just wait patiently for you to practice your marketing skills starting every year sometime around Thanksgiving forever after.

 

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 the first edition of The Frugal Book Promoter published in 2003. Her The Frugal Editor, soon to be released in its 3^rdedition, 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. And, yes. How about a last-minute book of Christmas poetry from Carolyn and Magdalena Ball’s holiday entry in their Celebration Series of chapbooks, paper or e-book. Find it at bit.ly/BloomingRed.

Self-Promoters Take a Page from Taylor Swift's Book

Riddle: So Why Is Taylor Swift a Terrific Marketer?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

ANSWER: Because she knows the real meaning of the word “assertive.”

I fear the word “assertive” has gotten a bad rap in the last couple decades.

People often associate it with being brash or downright overbearing, but it’s a skill we all need in business (in our case the world of publishing) when we must negotiate a contact or make ourselves heard in the din of a hundreds of thousands of books being published each year.

But Taylor got it right. She thinks creative people should get paid for their work. She stood up for that idea. She wasn’t afraid to use her financial clout to do it. And—here’s the biggie. She doesn’t hesitate to do it!

Recently, Taylor pitted her case against Apple--financially the world’s most influential company—who planned to launch a free promotion for their new music streaming business, Apple Music. She did it with an open letter on her blog (ahh, the power of the written word!) and a tweet or two. And she did it without mussing her hair or raising her voice or resorting to a lewd gesture. 

She assured Apple that she loved them, threw in a few more compliments like “I say this with love, reverence, and admiration for everything else Apple does,”  but she still socked it to them. In something like sixteen hours they were smart enough to buckle--which, by the way, can also be a smart marketing and/or public relations move. Swift and all their other musicians will get paid.

And now we can all add the word “assertive” to the lexicon of skills we need to survive, to influence. She used a gentle voice that convinced others that her protest was not about making more money for herself but a matter of principle and passion. Now the rest of us can be assertive and know that can mean engaging and focused as well as strident.

------

Nonfiction Bio

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 the first edition of The Frugal Book Promoter published in 2003. Her The Frugal Editor, now in its second edition, 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.

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. Her Web site is www.howtodoitfrugally.com. 

Taylor Swift and Authors Are Retailers, Too!

Authors Are Retailers Too!

On Taylor Swift, Perfume, and Your Book

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

By Carolyn Howard-Johnson

I can’t tell you how often I’ve thanked my lucky stars for my retail experience now I’m an author. My husband used to say (Ahem!) “Retail is 90% attention to detail!” If he’s right—and he always is—then the other 10% is marketing.

To reinterpret this, you need a great product—that’s the attention to detail part—whether that’s the store itself or the merchandise you sell. They’re both your “products.” (For authors the product is our book or books.)

But all the detail, product, merchandise or anything else—all that other stuff we’ve poured our little detail-oriented hearts into—goes for naught if we don’t do the marketing.

So how does Taylor Swift fit into this? Well, the LA Times reports on her products (the way she is branding herself which is part of marketing). She has a signature fragrance, a poster by Peter Max (That’s Peter-the-Greatest-Artist-Marketer-Of-All-Time-After-Warhol!), a back to school package, a limited edition combo of a CD single and a souvenir T-shirt, headbands, a songbook, a tin box of guitar picks, boxed greeting cards, a keychain, and a journal. Yes, I’m out of breath!

So, we can learn a lot from her about branding, a big part of marketing. Each of these products fits with her image. But we can also learn that we just need to do it.

Your book proposal, as an example, might include a list of products (other than your book) that could be spun off from your book. Taylor’s journal idea is a good one for memoirists. T-shirts work for just about everyone. But each author’s list of possibilities will be different, just as the list would differ for different businesses on Main Street USA.

One of our stores was in Palm Springs and we had adorable little souvenir pin boxes made with “Carlan’s, Palm Springs” and palm trees hand painted on them. They worked because they were more personal and specific than the usual souvenir with only “Palm Springs” machine stamped on them.

My poetry partner Magdalena Ball and I might someday have art posters of the covers of our poetry chapbook series featuring our collaborating artists Jacquie Schmall, Vicki Thomas, and May Lattanzio. Framed, of course! Learn more about how we promote that series (including a special holiday card offer for the Christmas chapbook) at www.howtodoitfrugally.com/poetry_books.htm.

So, what do you do with your product idea? Well, the obvious first choice would be to get a manufacturer with a HUGE customer base to make your product; they, in turn, get their sales representatives to sell them to retailers who then sell them to the general public.

But what if you're eager to get started now? Try these ideas.

• Use your products as thank you gifts.
• Use your products as souvenirs or parts of promotions like gift baskets or contests.
• Use your products as walking, talking advertisements. As an example, every time someone compliments you on your rose-scented cologne, that's an opportunity to mention your romance novel and maybe give them a bookmark. Your T-shirts are walking billboards. So are your totes.
• Use your products as part of the media kits you leave in the press rooms at tradeshows.
• Use your products as an integral part of parties and events you plan, like a store opening or a book launch.
• Offer your products to charities for their drawings or other fundraisers.

So, put your thinking cap on. What kind of a “Seller” can you be? What fits with your product, your store, your title—whatever that is?

----

Carolyn Howard-Johnson is the author of the multi award-winning The Frugal Book Promoter (now in an updated and expanded second edition!), www.budurl.com/FrugalBkPromo. Also part of the HowToDoItFrugally series is the booklet The Great First Impression Book Proposal booklet, www.budurl.com/BookProposals, that helps authors convince agents or publishers of their understanding of spin-offs, retailing, and marketing in general. She also is the author of a series of books for retailers including A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Events (www.budurl.com/RetailersGuide).