The Following Review Was Contributed by: S.V.SWAMY

PUTTING IT ON PAPER - THE GROUND RULES FOR CREATING PROMOTIONAL PIECES THAT SELL BOOKS by DAWN JOSEPHSON is clear in its target group - authors who need to promote their books and who lack the resources to engage capable people like Dawn to do the job.

The need to promote the book is of course very well known and accepted. Once the need is accepted, the choices are clear: either engage a competent Author Services Outfit or do it yourself. When the author tries to do it, he/she soon finds that writing the book was far easier than writing suitable promotional literature about the book.

Dawn does an excellent job of explaining the various promotional tools, starting from the cover letter to the press/media kit to bookmarks, postcards etc. Her style is easy and interesting. She gives good examples of each tool.

I was especially interested to learn that the author has to prepare a ready-to-use review too, to help out the harried editor of the publication where the review is expected to be published. As an independent reviewer, I always read the book before trying to write a review. So this was a new angle indeed. It may be an acceptable practice in some cases, but I personally feel that an independent reviewer is to be preferred. And there are many nowadays willing to review books of upcoming authors too, like myself!

The author may consider bringing out a companion workbook with more examples of actual real life promotional tools and especially the transformation of each from a 'Not OK' to an 'OK' state. With a few exceptions, all the examples given in the book are finished pieces.

The present book will certainly help new authors and even experienced authors refine their approach to creating powerful promotional materials. Compared to the amount of information given, the price appears to be quite reasonable. A good buy.