Excerpt
from
Carolyn's Favorite Audio
on
Winning Contests, Avoiding Scams
And Using Your Wins to Best Advantage

To better use contests to gain exposure and expand your credentials:

• Set a goal based on the kind of writing you do and the size of your pocketbook. No-fee contests work well until you refine your contest IQ.   Pick contests that impose fees at least as carefully as you might select a tomato from the produce department at your market.
• Consider less popular contests as well as those that carry names like Hemingway and Faulkner. On a slow day, editors won't care how big the name and on any given day, most reporters who are generally journalists not novelists after all,  won't know the difference between a small contest and a blockbuster.
• Choose contests that match your needs. Short story contests for someone with a published book of short stories, for an example, may be more accessible than a contest that judges complete books.
• Pay attention to the contest’s guidelines. Don’t enter a competition that seeks experimental fiction if your book is a mystery. It wastes your time and theirs even if no fee is involved.
• Ask your publisher to enter your book in contests that require a publisher, rather than the author, to nominate a book. Many publishers won't do this without a nudge.
• To increase your chances and to keep you from worrying about each entry, submit work to several contests at a time.
• Don't neglect community contests and awards for individuals rather than books. I've found one given by members of the California State Legislature for woman of the Year in Arts and Entertainment one of the most valuable awards for promotion. There is a relationship between arts and entertainment, of course,  but the award isn't specifically for one of my books. Another award given for literary activism by the Pasadena Weekly, an alternative newspaper in Pasadena, offered me many promotional opportunities that awards on my writing alone could have offered because it was community-centered and that's a broader demographic than readers alone.

All the audios the Divas produce are packed with practical information you can't afford not to know.  Why struggle on your own when you can know what the Divas took years to learn! Order yours now at Tri-Studio . 

Here's a podcast (clip) from (including a bit on understanding some of the limitations of dialogue!) from the audio on Dialogue.

Here's a podcast from Getting Reviews and Advance Praise for your book! 

      To see reviews of audios and more, click here.

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Important Resources

Buy Links for Carolyn's Books

Great Fiction
Purchase
THIS IS THE PLACE
HARKENING

Great Poetry
Purchase TRACINGS (Finishing Line Press) at Amazon.

Give the gift of poetry with a chapbook from Magdalena Ball's and
My Celebration Series
CHERISHED PULSE: Unconventional Love Poetry
IMAGINING THE FUTURE: Ruminations on Fathers and Other Masculine Apparitions
SHE WORE EMERALD THEN: Reflections on Motherhood
BLOOMING RED: Christmas Poetry for the Rational
DEEPER INTO THE POND: Celebration of Femininity

HowToDoItFrugally Series for Writers
Purchase
THE FRUGAL BOOK PROMOTER, Second Edition
THE FRUGAL EDITOR
GREAT LITTLE LAST MINUTE EDITING TIPS FOR WRITERS
THE GREAT FIRST IMPRESSION BOOK PROPOSAL 

Survive and Thrive Series of HowToDoItFrugally Books for Retailers
A RETAILER'S GUIDE TO FRUGAL IN-STORE PROMOTION
FRUGAL AND FOCUSED TWEETING FOR RETAILERS
YOUR BLOG, YOUR BUSINESS

Purchase audios for writers at Tri-Studio.

Most of Carolyn's books are also available for the Kindle reader.

 "Careers that are not fed die as
readily as any living organism given no sustenance." 
~ Carolyn Howard-Johnson

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Logo by Lloyd King

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Find Carolyn on the Web

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Carolyn's Awards

The New Book Review
Named to
Online Universities'
101 Book Blogs
You Need to Read

Writer's Digest 101 Best Websites
for Sharing with Writers blog.

Best Book Award for The Frugal Book Promoter (2004) and The Frugal Editor (2008) and the Second Edition of The Frugal Book Promoter (2011).

Reader Views Literary Award for The Frugal Editor

New Generation Award for Marketing and Finalist for The Frugal Editor

Book Publicists of Southern California's Irwin Award

Military Writers Award of Excellence for
Tracings, A Chapbook of Poetry.

A Retailer's Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotion wins author Military Writers Society of America's Author of the Month award for March, 2010

Gold Medal Award from Military Writers Society of America, 2010. MWSA also gave a nod to She Wore Emerald Then, a chapbook of poetry honoring mothers.

The Frugal Editor Named #! on Top Ten Editing Books list.

The Oxford Award recognizes the alumna who exemplifies the Delta Gamma precept of service to her community and who, through the years, devotes her talents to improve the quality of life around her.

And more than a dozen other awards for Carolyn's novel, short story collection and poetry. See the awards page on this site.

Published Works Almanac