Carolyn Howard-Johnson
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Carolyn Howard-Johnson's first novel, This is the Place, and Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered are both award-winners. Her fiction, nonfiction and poems have appeared in national magazines, anthologies and review journals. She speaks on culture, tolerance, writing and promotion and has appeared on TV and hundreds of radio stations nationwide. She is an instructor for UCLA Extension's Writers' Program and has shared her expertise at venues like San Diego State's world renowned Writers' Conference and Call to Arts! EXPO. She was recently awarded Woman of the Year in Arts and Entertainment by the California Legislature; her home town's Character and Ethics Commission honored her for her work on promoting tolerance and the Pasadena Weekly named her to their list of "San Gabriel Valley women who make life happen" for literary activism. Her nitty gritty how-to book, THE FRUGAL BOOK PROMOTER won USA Book News' Best Professional Book and the Book Publicists of Southern California's Irwin Award. Her chapbook of poetry, TRACINGS, was named to The Compulsive Readers Top 10 Best Reads for 2004 and was given the Military Writers Society of American Silver Award for Excellence.
Carolyn's newest book is The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success . Cheryl Wright of Writer2Writer.com says, "The Frugal Editor will become a well-used reference for writers around the world."
Howard-Johnson loves to travel and has studied writing at Cambridge University in the United Kingdom, UK: Herzen University in St. Petersburg, RU; and Charles University in Prague.
Carolyn appears on hundreds of TV and radio programs—both national and local—expos, book fairs, panels and more.
TV: “Coffee Break” WLTZ-NBC, interviewed by Kathy Anderson; Tape Available. “Gateways,” Glendale Cable, Interviewed by Ann Ransford, tape Available. Nationally syndicated “Connie Martinson Talks Books;” ”Edna Talks,” Local Cable. Interviewed by Peter Kulevich, CBS2 Nightly News, Palm Springs, CA. TV “Gateways,” Glendale Channel 15, ½ hour interview, 2004": National Armenian TV, poetry reading. Also a national TV Infomercial for Time-Life CDs.
Radio: “Joe Mazza Show” Syndicated 430 stations, 1 hour interview, return invitation to discuss my cookbook. “Jane Prince-Jones Show,” KFZO, Lubbock, TX and several return engagements. “The Don Russell Show,” WSTC/WNLK, Norwalk, CT. “Book Crazy,” KCTK960, Phoenix, AZ, Debbie Neckle Reviewer. KDSL Talk Radio, Salt Lake City, UT., Lyle Morris, interviewer, tapes Available. “Chuck Baker Show,” hottalk1460, Colorado Springs, CO. “The John Taylor and Jay Bailey Early Morning Show,” WORC1310, Worcester, MA. “The Nick D and Garry Lee Show”, WGN, Chicago, IL. “The Jim Robey Show,” WCBC, Cumberland, MD. “The Evie Ybarra Show,” KVTA Ventura, Ca. 3 appearances. “The Demitri Vassilaras Show,” WWVA, West VA. “Prime Time Drive,” hosted by Steve Bowers, News-Talk 101.5 FM, Jackson, TN. “Talk with John Quintaine,” WJCW 910AM, Jonesborough, TN. Lee Mirabal Show, WSRadio. “News/Talk” with Harrell Carter, WNWs 101.5 FM, Jackson, TN, and more. The Maxine Thompson Show, streamed on ArtistsFirst.com, VoiceofAmerica, archived at VoiceAmerica.com. "Lubbock in the AM," KFYO, multiple appearances, Business Dialogue, with Barry Allen, KFNX 1100; Beyond Words with Fran Halpern at NPR affiliated NPR affiliate, 88.3 in Ventura County & 102.3 in Santa Barbara County.
Speaking Engagements at Trade Shows and Expos: Featured Author, SPAN booth; Book Expo, Chicago; Featured Speaker, Great Salt Lake Book Fair; and San Bernardino Book Fair; LA Times/UCLA Book Festival; Panel Moderator at Call to Arts Expo, 2004, Pasadena Convention Center; Panelist at UCLA’s Fall Book Faire, California Gift Show, and LA Mart, several time from 1998 to present.
Small Publishers of North America College (SPAN), Atlanta, GA; Romance Writers of America, Orange County Chapter, 2001, San Diego Chapter, 2007; Authors and Arts Series, Glendale City Public Library; The Monrovia City Library Speaker Series, American Women in Business, and numerous book discussion groups. Retail Seminars, The California Gift Show, The LA Mart, California Marketing Center, Book Publicists of Southern California, American Board of Hypnotists Conference, Nevada's Writer's Conference, Dayton University's Erma Bombeck Writers' Conference, San Diego State University's Writers' Conference, West Hollywood Book Fair, 2005, 2007, Duarte Book Fair, Diamond Bar Book Fair, American Board of Hypnotists, Sinclair Lewis Writers' Conference, Vroman's Bookstore (Panel); Publishers and Writers of San Diego; and more.
Featured Readings: Autry Museum of Western Heritage, Griffith Park, LA; The Great Salt Lake Book Festival, SLC, UT; Vroman’s Bookstore, Pasadena, CA, Frugal Frigate, Redlands, CA, Penelope’s Book Café Gallery, LaCanada-Flintridge, CA, Inland Empire Bookfest, San Bernardino, CA. The Desert Woman Newspaper Annual Book Lovers Luncheon, Palm Desert and return visits, Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club Reading for Literacy Day, Palm Springs and Cathedral City, CA; “Three Faces of Tolerance” presented by The Glendale Coalition for Human Equality and The Friends of the Glendale Library;
Teaching: UCLA Extension's Writers’ Program Instructor; Awarded UCLA Extension's Instructor Development Program certificate March, 2005; founder/facilator of Glendale Library Critique Group. Workshops, Panels at bookstores like Vroman's in Pasadena; Audioclass Series for Double Dragon Press. Amazon to Your Advantage Audios for Authors' Coalition, Pen USA Fellows, Antioch University, two years.
Available Seminars/Workshops
Carolyn Howard-Johnson has nearly three decades experience planning and implementing trade show seminars. She has appeared on more than 300 radio and TV programs. She speaks on subjects aligned with This Is the Place, Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered, Tracings, The Frugal Book Promoter: How to Do What Your Publisher Won't and The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success.
Savvy Marketing for Authors: It’s Never Too Late—or Early—to Hone Your Promotion Skills Because they don't face the realities of today's publishing world well before their books are released, even authors with superbly written books and prestigious publishers may find themselves facing unpleasant marketing surprises. This seminar helps writers brand themselves rather than "sell books." Carolyn Howard-Johnson shares her experience as a former public relations professional and as the primary promoter of her own four books. You'll construct the marketing framework for your own book's success. This plan can help you land an agent and publisher and may be used later by you — the author — your publisher or the PR professional you hire. Even seasoned authors will learn practical approaches to book promotion they never knew existed.
Bring the Dead Back to Life Using Your Genealogy and New Publishing Technology Now you’ve done the research, what next? Carolyn gives 10 quick and easy ways that anyone can turn family history into bedtime reading for kids from 1 to 100.
Fighting Cultural Division with a Pen The most recent census made “cultural division” the newest buzzword. Carolyn talks about her life’s passion, fighting subtle prejudice before it explodes into news-making destruction.
Danger Ahead: Losing Women’s Rights in the New Millennium California voted to rescind their affirmative action statutes. US foreign aid was withdrawn from countries that offer family planning services to their under privileged. Recent studies show that the gap between salaries for men and women has improved little since the 50s. Carolyn reminisces about what it was like to nurture a career against political and cultural odds, and shares her concern that women under 30 may forget women’s history and let their new rights disintegrate.
What You Always Wanted to Ask about the Mormons But Were Afraid to Ask There is widespread misunderstanding about the Mormons and the state of Utah because people hesitate to ask. Carolyn lovingly shares questions she has been asked about her home state and takes questions from the audience.
Polishing A Novel Involves More than Removing the Blemishes Carolyn shares nifty little tricks of the trade for tweaking a novel that come from articles she has written like “How to Make Leaden Adverbs into Metaphorical Gold” for Span's national newsletter.
Use Your Writing Skills to get Free Publicity Carolyn was a publicist for Eleanor Lambert Agency in New York and did publicity for her own retail chain of stores. She is the author of THE FRUGAL BOOK PROMOTER: HOW TO DO WHAT YOUR PUBLISHER WON'T and has written articles on publicity for Home Décor Buyer and others. She’ll share secrets about how writers can use their own writing to garner publicity.
Toward Writing Poetry Editors Will Want to Publish: 10 Tips that Work Many writers are intrigued by poetry but never learn the secrets for making it work for them.
Jump-start Your Credibility: Publish a Book! Entrepreneurs and professionals are finding it harder to get the exposure they need to grow their businesses. Ta Da!! Enter the world of publishing. It is easier and more important than ever before to use the prestige that accompanies being an author as an entree to FREE print space and air time. Carolyn Howard-Johnson will convince you that you must publish, put you on the road to making intelligent choices for your book and help you assure its success and that of your practice/business with new approaches to FRUGAL promotion.
Put Your Best Book Forward: Editing to Impress the Gatekeepers of Your Success.
Carolyn is founder of Authors' Coalition ( http://authorscoalitionandredengine
press.com) and editor of the newsletter for that organization as well as a blog ( http://redenginepress.com/chjohnson) that helps authors turn a dull book fair booth into a sizzling success. Her website is: http://carolynhoward-johnson.com and http://HowToDoItFrugally.com .
Workshops and dramatic readings are also available.
"Yours was simply the most informative workshop I've ever been to. And your book is going to be, as Gordon Kirkland promised, tattered in short order."
--Jennifer Brown, attendee at Dayton University's Erma Bombeck Writers' Workshop