Lauren Smith: What is your book about?

This is the Place

Lauren Smith: Why did you write this book? 

Carolyn Howard-Johnson: I thought about this book as a young journalist in the early sixties. It didn't get written until four decades later when I got cancer and realized that, if not now, possibly never.

Lauren Smith: Why do you think authors need this book? 

Carolyn Howard-Johnson: Many authors write about their own lives in their first book. With varying degrees of success. This is one that succeeded; it received eight awards including one from my publisher for sales in the year before the Salt Lake Winter Olympics when interest in Utah was high.

Lauren Smith: What are the top three mistakes authors make?

Carolyn Howard-Johnson: Many of us move, as I did from a career in some other kind of writing (journalism, copywriting, freelance writing) and so assume that we have all the skill we need to write books. At least that's what I did. Wrong. Even with a degree in English Literature, training and experience as a journalist--both for a daily newspaper (The Salt Lake Tribune) and a magazine (Good Housekeeping Magazine in New York), I needed a whole lot more to write a novel. Writing good dialogue alone requires a learning curve.  An author must write well to have a saleable product. The next is that many authors still assume that their publishers will promote for them. I fell into so many promotion potholes the part of me that was once a publicist was severely bruised.  That's the reason that I wrote my first nonfiction book, THE FRUGAL BOOK PROMOTER: HOW TO DO WHAT YOUR PUBLISHER WON'T.  It's won two awards. And, yes, that editing thing you mentioned to me. We should all know how to edit for that makes us better writers. We need an editor, though, because our own material is too familiar to us. Having said that, it is also best not to fully trust an editor assigned to us by a publisher. As authors we need to know enough about the process to know when the editor is wrong and when she isn't doing a very good job!

Lauren Smith: I always hear people say: Never self edit - do you agree with this statement?

Carolyn Howard-Johnson: Hey, my book that will be released Oct. 1 is THE FRUGAL EDITOR: PUT YOUR BEST BOOK FORWARD TO AVOID HUMILIATION AND ENSURE SUCCESS.  The saying that only a fool edits his or her own material is right on. Having said that, we know that many will do it anyway. We also know that the more an author knows about editing, the better partner she will make for her publisher and her editor. And we all send out dozens of documents every day (including query letters!) that we may need to self-edit because of time constraints (or financial ones). So, the answer is yes--and no!  

Lauren Smith: You've self-published your books and your first one did extremely well. What advice can you give other authors looking to take this route?

Carolyn Howard-Johnson: Actually my novel, book of short stories and chapbook of poetry were traditionally published, if by traditionally one means that the author gets an advance and does not pay for any of the publishing process herself. The FRUGAL BOOK PROMOTER is self-published though and has done well. I believe there is no one right way to publish. The right way depends on the title, the personality of the author and many other considerations. In fact, I teach a course at UCLA Writers' Program on the subject.

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