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Note from the Editor

Welcome to the first installment of the Book Publicity by Marlan Newsletter! I began representing indie authors four years ago when my longtime friend, Luke Benoit, published a book that I thought was terrific (All Storms Pass: The Anti-Meditations). I ran a book review and an author interview in my blogs, and the rest...as they say...is history. Since then, it's been a thrilling--and educational!--ride as I hone my publicity and marketing skills, while assisting indie authors (self-published and small press) with their book launch campaigns, book reviews, press releases, press kits, speaker engagements and of course, book signing bookings. My services sometimes include editing (copy editing, as well as full-on revision suggestions and rewrite/ghostwrite).

Every client experience has been a teaching episode. It is not enough to throw your book up on Amazon and hope for the best. And each PR effort requires diligence as well as knowledge on the part of all who are promoting a book.

Why am I smiling? I'm on vacation!

I'm an "Artisanal Publicist"--each book campaign requires a carefully crafted one-sheet, "elevator pitch," and consideration of the target market, as well as knowing how to attract media hosts and reporters. Books are as different as snowflakes.

This month, I find I have a short list of Writer-Author-Publisher items that might interest you. So here we go!

PS - I will consider articles you submit for this newsletter. So please feel free to submit your pearls of hard-won wisdom via the Contact Form on this newsletter! Thank you! 

Upcoming Stuff

Seattle Publisher, Gemelli Press, will be releasing and re-releasing these spicy guidebooks to Italy, just in time for your next Italian Romp (or your next fantasy about it):

In Etna's Shadow

Salento by 5

Pit Stops, Pitfalls and Olive Pits

Coins in the Fountain 

The Essential Etna Wine Guide

I worked with Gemelli and its sister, Green Darner Press, last year on several of their exciting books, and cannot wait to get started on helping spread the word on these new offerings. (I also did the final edit on Pit Stops, Pitfalls and Olive Pits, a lovely you-are-there guidebook with charming anecdotes along the way.)

Hot Tips and Contests
For great tips in PR, Writing and Beyond, I highly recommend veteran author/publicist Carolyn Howard-Johnson's jam-packed Sharing With Writers Newsletter. She also maintains a generous and informative website, where she frequently publishes my book reviews (she welcomes your submissions too), and most recently a note of praise I wrote her re her Artists First podcast interview:

 http://sharingwithwriters.blogspot.com/

This very savvy publicist is the author of the bestselling How to Do It Frugally series, which serve as encyclopedias for self-published authors.

Free Book Review Sites
I write book reviews for The Midwest Book Review, but the MBR editors are fine with me publishing those reviews elsewhere first; so while I wait for MBR to Green Light them, I send them off to Carolyn Howard-Johnson's The New Book Review site, in addition to publishing them on my blogs: L.A. Now & Then and Roadmap Girl's Book Buzz. 

As you authors and publishers already know, there's no such thing as too much PR exposure!

Why would one publicist support another publicist? Good question! I'll write about that in my next newsletter!

Congratulations!
Very happy for U.K. mystery author Celia Conrad (Alicia Allen Investigates Trilogy) whose novel, Wilful Murder has just been selected as BOTM (Book of the Month) by the Goodreads Legal Anything group.

Conrad is an attorney-turned-author with a powerful imagination that spins her legal experiences and love of Classical Literature into mystery gold.

And P.S. to anyone in the Los Angeles/Pasadena area: Sisters in Crime is a wonderful group for mystery writers and readers. They meet once a month at the South Pasadena Public Library (and are international, as well). The meetings are open to anyone and free (membership is worthwhile if you care to join for a small fee), and feature speakers who give talks on all aspects of writing, publishing and mystery/suspense genre writing. 

Authors: Do Not Discount the Power of "The Lovely Little Note"

Years ago, I took a "Making a Literary Life" workshop from the prolific California author, Carolyn See. She was testing material for her upcoming book of the same title. One point she makes that has always stuck with me is "You should write one Charming Note to someone you admire (who is a celebrity or highly visible in the profession you aspire to). None of the recipients has ever responded with, "Oh this sounds like what Carolyn See advises!"--until now.

A few days ago, another author I greatly admire, Carolyn Howard-Johnson, was interviewed on a radio podcast, and I wrote to let her know how much I enjoyed it. To my surprise, she not only asked my permission to post it on social media, but she posted it on her Carolyn Howard-Johnson's Sharing with Writers Newsletter blog with this prologue::

One Lovely Thank You Note a Day: This is What Carolyn See May Have Meant

In one of her books on writing, Carolyn See advises authors to write one lovely thank you note a day, the emphasis on "lovely." Lots of authors are good at writing thank you notes, especially since e-mail has made it so easy. But "lovely?"  We are all pressed for time.

Still, I have one reader who has sent me several that is an example of the kind of letter I think See would have approved of. Her name is Marlan Warren and she gave me permission to reprint her letter if I thought it would help other writers to do something similar--or at least to nudge them to write their letters. I mean, a note like this can make an author so happy! And the words from a smart publicist are an added bonus!

Dear Carolyn:

I really enjoyed your interview with Maxine Thompson on the Artist First RadioNetwork last night. I felt privileged to hear you and Maxine discuss literature, writers, writing, and your own great how-to knowledge (I’m a huge fan of your How to Do It Frugally series and now a fan of Maxine's show). You are two Old School pros who know better than anyone that being a great writer or editor means more than having been at the top of your class in English.

I especially liked your tip to "Promote the Promotion." This is what I try to explain to my PR/Marketing clients, but it is hard for them to grasp. Most think it's enough to post a "Hey! Buy my book!" on social media and leave it at that.

Client Reviews for Book Publicity by Marlan

Compliments are always welcome here! As Noel Coward once said:

"I can stand any criticism as long as it is unqualified praise."

I'm disappointed that Yelp will not allow people to see the 5-Star Reviews for Book Publicity by Marlan. If you'd like to read the testimonials my sweet clients have sent me, just visit We love Book Publicity by Marlan 

Thank you so much!

No blood, but plenty of sweat & tears: Author Jennifer K. Jordan's 14 Year Quest for "DADLY Wisdom"

Jennifer K. Jordan

Published in Broadway World Book News

Book Title: 
DADLY Wisdom: Untold Stories That Represent the True Faces of Fatherhood
Author: Jennifer Karin Jordan
Publisher: Motivational Press (March 10, 2016)
ISBN-10: 1628652691
Paperback: 232 pages
Genre: Family Relationships
Brand: Hogan Hilling's DADLY Series
Available at Amazon
Author Website: Jennifer Karin Jordan Website
Facebook: DADLY Wisdom Facebook Page 
Author Contact: 
(562) 208-4869 / jenniferkj@charter.net
Interviewer: Marlan Warren (323) 347-6762 / memoircity@gmail.com 

AUTHOR INTERVIEW:
Interview with Author Jennifer K. Jordan: “I wanted to give a snapshot of fathers’ wisdom from across the world.” 

What began as a simple tribute to honor the wisdom and love of her father became a life-altering journey for Jennifer K. Jordan, author of DADLY Wisdom. Recently Jordan sat down with journalist/blogger Marlan Warren to reveal her 14-year process to gather insights from fathers she believes (according to the book’s back cover) “represent humanity at its best.”

Q: Did any of the interviews surprise you?

A: All of the interviews did that. Every time I interviewed a father, I was so impressed and moved that I thought I could never meet another such fine human being. I was in awe of all the fathers and their love for their children, and their dedication to helping their families no matter what.

I was surprised when Cain Credicott spoke to me for two hours for his interview. He is extremely busy as the Editor-in-Chief of Paleo Magazine, so I didn’t think his interview would be so long.

When I listened to Bernard Sayone and Tomas Kovar talk about their experiences in the Holocaust, I was constantly amazed. I learned more about the Holocaust from interviewing them than I had in any school, book or film. Bernie and Tomas also inspired me because they now work to promote peace in the world instead of being victims of such a difficult past.

Interview with Judith Fein, Author of THE SPOON FROM MINKOWITZ: A Bittersweet Roots Journey to Ancestral Lands

How to crack the mystery of who we are, why we love, and where we came from can be the greatest mystery of all. Judith Fein embarks on a quest to call on ancestors and urges us to do the same..

Interview with Judith Fein, 

Author of  

The Spoon from Minkowitz: 

A Bittersweet Roots Journey to Ancestral Lands: 

            “Finding roots is the solution for a rootless life.”

 I heard the Eastern European ancestors of many people like me

 calling out. “Remember us. Don’t forget us. Our story needs

 to be heard. Write our story. Write your story."

—Judith Fein, The Spoon from Minkowitz

Title:      The Spoon from Minkowitz:  A Bittersweet Roots Journey to Ancestral Lands
Author: Judith Fein with Photographs by Paul Ross
ISBN: 978-0-9884019-3-8
Publisher: GlobalAdventure.us
Paperback             Pages: 256       Price:     $18.95
Discussion Guide Included
Pub. Date: Jan. 5, 2014 (Available in all e-book formats.)
Author Website

Note: This interview was written by Marlan Warren and originally published as a press release in 2014 in PR.com, and picked up by the BBC Record.

     Judith Fein is a travel journalist’s travel journalist. Like a latter-day Marco Polo, she has globe-trotted without maps or preconceived notions from Mog Mog to Vanuatu. By her own account, she has swum with Beluga whales, consulted with a Zulu sangoma in South Africa, and eaten porcupine in Vietnam (“not with relish”). In 2011, when Fein and her photojournalist husband Paul Ross visited Tunisia during the Arab Spring, the French-speaking American Fein found herself on the radio, speaking to Tunisians about Democracy. Her popular travel memoir Life Is a Trip: The Transformative Magic of Travel conveys her need to find out where people of different cultures come from and what makes them act, think, and behave the way they do. After decades of travel, there was one frontier that still eluded the “I-live-to-leave” Fein: the mystery of her own ancestral roots.

     Fein’s book, The Spoon from Minkowitz: A Bittersweet Roots Journey to Ancestral Lands, takes us on the trip she finally made in 2012 to the shtetl her Jewish grandmother left behind in an obscure Russian (now Ukrainian) village.

     The Spoon from Minkowitz has garnered stellar reviews. Catharine Hamm, travel editor of the Los Angeles Times, found The Spoon from Minkowitz “as tense as a thriller and as tender as a love story.” Zelda Shluker, editor of Hadassah Magazine, noted the book is “unlike any other back-to-roots book…driven by the author's almost mystical quest to recover the past…Her curiosity, openness and passion take us along on a journey that turns out to be ours as well.”

     We had the opportunity to catch Judith Fein for a moment when she was not in perpetual motion to talk about the deeper meanings of genealogy as explored in this book:

For those who have not yet read your book, what is “the spoon from Minkowitz”?

My grandmother was from a village called Minkowitz in what was then Russia. That fact plus five others were all she would ever tell me about where she was from and why she left; she didn’t want to talk about the past. My mother told me virtually nothing.

When I met my husband Paul, we were immediately attracted. But here’s the kicker: when I asked Paul's parents about their ancestral roots, it turned out his father’s family came from…Minkowitz

Okay. So the “spoon.” When Paul told his parents we were getting married, his father offered us the only thing left from his parents’ shtetl of Minkowitz: a soup spoon they brought with them to America. I treasured that spoon because it made our ancient, ancestral connection so real and concrete. We made a place of honor for it under the chupa  (Jewish wedding canopy) on a satin pillow.

You followed your intuition and things miraculously started happening—as you did in Life Is a Trip. Would you call your process “right brain”?

I explored the context my ancestors, and the ancestors of so many others, came from by just showing up and going from town to town looking and learning.

Perhaps it is “right brain.” I prefer to call it “following the arrows.” It’s about keeping eyes and ears open, and following wherever the arrows point, even if you don't know where they are leading or what you will find there. If you trust you will end up in the right place, you will somehow get there. 

This book is like a Jewish Roots, the Alex Haley book that traces his African American family history. And in some ways, it’s like Safran Foer’s Everything Is Illuminated. How would you pitch The Spoon from Minkowitz to a Hollywood producer?

Hmmm.. I’d say it’s a female Everything Is Illuminated meets Life Is a Trip.

Yelp Review: Kari Hock, Green Darner Press / Gemelli Press

I have been like the shoemaker going without her proverbial shoes when it comes to keeping current with my own PR! In fact, I just found this wonderful review from Kari Hock, Managing Editor of the Seattle-based Green Darner Press and Italy's Gemelli Press.

Thank you so much, Kari! Here's her Yelp review (which Yelp did not "recommend" - along with denying me permission to claim my business):

As a managing editor of a small independent book publishing company, having Marlan on board has been an essential part of the process. She is so knowledgeable and an expert at what she does. She is a joy to work with.--Kari Hock, Green Darner Press/Gemelli Press

9/29/15

"Like finding an agate among river rocks": Italian American Immigrant Memoir WRESTLING WITH THE DEVIL beats the competition.

Title: Wrestling with the Devil
Authors: Antonio Russo and Tonya Russo Hamilton
Publisher: Gemelli Press
Date of Pub.: April 15, 2012
Genre: Memoir / Italian American / Italian Immigrant
ISBN 978-0982-102398 (Hard Cover)
ASIN: B008EWZ0TW (Kindle)

I had an outlet for my demons.
--Antonio Russo

Be not fooled by the staring young boy on the cover or the word "wrestling" in the title of Wrestling with the Devil (A Story of Sacrifice, Survival and Triumph from the Hills of Naples to the Hall of Fame) by Antonio Russo as told to his daughter, Tonya Russo Hamilton. This is a memoir with something for everyone, Italian Wrestler or not.

Wrestling with the Devil takes us along the simple-but-not-easy path that Russo took to Honor and the fulfillment of his Destiny. If filmmaker Martin Scorcese had not made a film about a raging bull of a boxer who cannot love, and made this story instead, it would have given American audiences a rare "insider" view of one determined man's journey from Italian boyhood to an Italian "American Graffiti-meets-Rebel Without a Cause" immigrant adolescence in Portland, Oregon to a miraculous college wrestling scholarship and finally, to a successful coaching career and induction into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame.

We are treated to a slice-of-Italian-American-Life in the 50s and 60s with all the warmth and family confusion, goodwill, great food and "immigrant drive for success" that such a cultural experience often entails.

What adds to this memoir's tenderness and heart is the equally touching fact that although it is told in the First Person, it is actually written by Russo's daughter, Tonya Russo Hamilton, who has spun a compelling, seamless narrative in her father's voice from what must have been hours and hours of taped anecdotes.

MIDWEST BOOK REVIEW: "ARRGH!" 5 NOT-EASY LESSONS ON THE HIGH SEAS

Title: Arrgh!

Author: Stacey R. Campbell

Illustrator: M.S. Corley

Publisher: Green Darner Press

Date of Release: Nov. 1, 2014)

Genre: Middle Grade / Adventure

Publisher: Green Darner Press (November 1, 2014)

ISBN-13: 978-0988478442

Hard Cover and Paperback (282 pages)

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Arrgh-Stacey-R-Campbell/dp/0988478447

Kindle (284 pages)

ASIN: B00MX7ATRM

http://www.amazon.com/ARRGH-Stacey-R-Campbell-ebook/dp/B00MX7ATRM

Author Website: http://www.staceyrcampbell.com

Arrgh! is a true treasure: Five not-easy lessons on the high seas. Stacey R. Campbell's Kidnapped-by-Pirates tale is greater than the sum of its title.

This Coming of Age Voyage takes off like a cannon blast when a runaway orphan finds himself forced onto a cargo ship by pirates posing as merchant seamen, and gathers momentum with inventive action until its gratifying conclusion.

Thirteen-year-old Christopher has escaped from an orphanage to search for family members. Ironically, he is nabbed off the street by two pirate thugs who pass him off to the ship's captain as a relative. Threatened with death if he does not pretend to be mute, Christopher enters a world of repressed silence—broken only during moments when he can communicate with Leo the Attack-for-Hire Mouse who comes to his assistance as a kind of life coach. The trained and certified Leo sets about teaching the timid youth Five Life Lessons.

L.A. TIMES BOOK FESTIVAL KIDS STRIKE LITERARY POSES FOR KELLI & KELLY BOOKS FOR KIDS

I AM NOT SELLING MY TOOTH! graced the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books yesterday. Fest Kid Juliet struck some cute poses with this Kelli and Kelly book and bookmark designed by Kelly Hawkins. She also accepted the gifts with her terrific grin. (All photos by Marlan Warren, copyright protected.)

We found children's book author Scott Farrar catching his breath with his family in the afternoon shade, and they happily accepted I AM NOT SELLING MY TOOTH! and agreed to display it for us. 

#losangelestimesfestivalofbooks #toothfairy #kelliandkellybooksforkids #babyteethbooks

#latimesbooks

Books worth reading and authors worth knowing: Published 2013-2015

Kelli & Kelly Books for Kids were terrific on Seattle's "New Day" TV Talk Show

Kelli Nielsen and Kelly Hawkins of Kelli and Kelly Books for Kids absolutely ROCKED Seattle's New Day TV Talk Show today! Congrats, Super Mother Publishers! Here's the link for the awesome segment (Best Line: "Okay, which one of you is Kelly?"):

http://kng5.tv/1GJLoZJ

Mom Entrepreneur Publishers Launch New Kids Book on Radio 2/9 7:30AM

For immediate release:

Kelli and Kelly Books for Kids launch: I Am Not Selling My Tooth! with Mike in the Morning

Summary: Mom Entrepreneurs Kelli Nielsen (Author) and Kelly Hawkins (Illustrator) of Kelli and Kelly Books for Kids will appear Mon., Feb. 9 at 7:30 a.m. on Mike Yeoman’s “Mike in the Morning” show (KAPS 102.1 FM / 660 AM) to talk about their newest book, “I Am Not Selling My Tooth!” and discuss their passion for children and books.

“Why can’t I just be small Austin and have small clothes, small teeth and live with my mom and dad forever?”—“I Am Not Selling My Tooth!”

Did you know that February is Children’s Dental Health Month? Kelli Nielsen and Kelly Hawkins do! These dynamic “Mom Entrepreneurs” of Washington State who sold over 1000 copies of their first children’s book, “You Will Always Be My Son” will launch their new book, “I Am Not Selling My Tooth!” just in time for two children’s museums to host the book’s launch during events that will focus on kids’ dental hygiene. Helping them get the word out is Mike Yeoman who will feature Kelli and Kelly Books for Kids on his “Mike in the Morning” show on KAPS (102.1 FM / 660 AM) on Mon., Feb. 9 at 7:30 a.m.

Kelli and Kelly will read and sign “I Am Not Selling My Tooth!” Fri., Feb. 20 at the Children’s Museum of Skagit County in Burlington, Wash. (1-3pm) and Imagine Children’s Museum in Everett, Wash. (6-8pm).

Cate Anderson, Executive Director of the Children's Museum of Skagit County (CMSC), said the museum is "excited" to host Kelli and Kelly because "not only does the book tie in perfectly with the theme in our museum, it really speaks to how many children feel about letting go of their teeth...and their childhood."

Author Kelli Nielsen and Illustrator Kelly Hawkins have been long-time supporters of the CMSC. They were brought up in Skagit County and raised their children there. Nielsen dedicates her new book to her “wonderful” son Austin: “Thank you for giving me the words.”

Hawkins credits her two daughters with giving her “inspiration every day.” Nielsen said, “We are two moms whose inspiring dream is to bring quality children's books to market.”

Title: I Am Not Selling My Tooth!

Author: Kelli Nielsen

Illustrator: Kelly Hawkins

Publisher: Kelli and Kelly Books for Kids

Pub. Date: 11/23/14                             

Genre: Children’s Picture Book (Ages 2-8)

ISBN: 978-1503366077

Website: http://www.kelliandkellybooks.com

Available at Amazon in Paperback (40 pgs) and Kindle:

http://www.amazon.com/NOT-selling-tooth-Kelli-Nielsen/dp/1503366073

Author Contact | kelliandkellybooksforkids@gmail.com

Facebook | Kelli and Kelly Books for Kids

Facebook | I Am Not Selling My Tooth

MIDWEST BOOK REVIEW: "I Am NOT Selling My Tooth!"

Title:                           I Am NOT Selling My Tooth!

Author:                      Kelli Nielsen            Illustrator:   Kelly Hawkins

Pub. Date:                 11/23/14

Genre:                         Picture Book (Ages 6-8)

ISBN:                           978-1503366077

Paperback                 Pages: 40             List Price:     $9.97 

Publisher:                  Kelli and Kelly Books for Kids

Website:                      http://www.kelliandkellybooks.com

Order at:                                 http://www.amazon.com/NOT-selling-tooth-Kelli-Nielsen/dp/1503366073

SUMMARY:  I Am NOT Selling My Tooth! honors children's need to be autonomous when coping with the life and body changes that come with growing older. A fun, useful book for parents, small children and anyone who needs to adjust to change.

“The kids in my class are losing their teeth. Yuck!”

                                  —I Am NOT Selling My Tooth!

What is there to say about children’s “baby teeth” that has not already been said? On the face of it, the traditional equation is simple: 1 lost baby tooth = $ from a Tooth Fairy. Kelli Nielsen’s I Am NOT Selling My Tooth puts a charming spin on this scenario with heartfelt warmth and humor by taking the position that children are capable of making their own decisions about how to respond to the body changes that are part of growing older. It is a gentle examination of a rite of passage that adults, as well as children, can relate to and appreciate.

The story takes off when the rebellious Alec declares, “I’m keeping my teeth small just like me.” He doesn’t see why his teeth just can’t grow bigger as he grows bigger. The fact that Alec shares the same name as the author’s son, whom she thanks in the book’s Dedication along with her other son Austin, grounds the story in reality and gives it a very personal tone.

Enhanced by Kelly Hawkin’s fun illustrations that evoke a child’s abstract perception of space, color and line, “I Am NOT Selling My Tooth” never talks down to children, but is right there with the child’s need to have some autonomy in life choices, no matter how “small” they are. It takes readers on a tour of the tooth-loss phenomenon that includes sharks, baseball injuries and even an octopus that receives something other than money for its lost tooth.

I would recommend this book for any parent with a child about to lose a tooth or who has lost a tooth, and as an excellent educational aid for dentists. It might even be helpful for therapists and life coaches who wish to discuss life changes and the various options available for responding and adjusting to them—no matter how old we are.