USA BOOK NEWS ANNOUNCES WINNERS AND FINALISTS OF THE USA “BEST BOOKS 2011” AWARDS

Simon & Schuster, St. Martin’s Press, Random House, Penguin, Harper Collins, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, McGraw-Hill, John Wiley & Sons and hundreds of Independent Houses contribute to this year’s Outstanding Competition!

LOS ANGELES – USABookNews.com, the premiere online magazine and review website for mainstream and independent publishing houses, announced two of Carolyn Howard-Johnson’s books were among those that placed in THE USA “BEST BOOKS 2011” AWARDS on November 1, 2011. Awards were presented for titles published in 2010 and 2011. Jeffrey Keen, President and CEO of USA Book News, said this year’s contest yielded an unprecedented number of entries.  Winners and finalists traversed the publishing landscape: Simon & Schuster, St. Martin’s Press, Random House, Penguin, Harper Collins, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, McGraw-Hill, John Wiley & Sons and hundreds of independent houses contributed to this year’s outstanding competition. Keen adds, “Our success begins with the enthusiastic participation of authors and publishers and continues with our distinguished panel of industry judges who bring to the table their extensive editorial, PR, marketing, and design expertise.” Award highlights include the following: (Full results listing available on USABooknews.com) The Frugal Book Promoter: How to get nearly free publicity on your own or partnering with your publisher (Second Edition) by Carolyn Howard-Johnson won best business book in the writing category. Blooming Red: Christmas Poetry for the Rational by Carolyn Howard-Johnson and Magdalena Ball was a finalist in the poetry category. Prodigal Father Pagan Son: Growing Up Inside the Dangerous World of the Pagans Motorcycle Club by Anthony Menginie and Kerrie Droban (St. Martin's Press) was honored in the “Autobiography/Memoirs” category Oprah: A Biography by Kitty Kelley (Crown Books/Random House) was awarded “Best Biography" Perfect One-Dish Dinners: All You Need for Easy Get-Togethers by Pam Anderson (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) placed number one in “Cookbooks” The Daughter's Walk by Jane Kirkpatrick (Water Brook/Random House) took home the “Best General Fiction” prize One reviewer said reading Howard-Johnson’s books is like picking the brains of a master marketer. It received plaudits from industry shakers like Marilyn Ross, founder of Small Publishers or North America and Tim Bete, director of Dayton University’s Erma Bombeck Writers’ Conference. The new one carries endorsements from the likes of Dan Poynter and Tony Eldridge. Howard-Johnson, an instructor for nearly a decade at UCLA Extension’s Writers’ Program, chose to have the new edition published in both e-book format and paperback in order to give her struggling students and clients affordable and convenient choices. Whichever format a reader chooses, The Frugal Book Promoter assures an author’s book the best possible start in life. Full of nitty-gritty how-tos for getting nearly free publicity, the author shares her professional experience as well as practical tips gleaned from the successes of her own book campaigns. A former journalist and publicist (she wrote media releases for fashion designers like Christian Dior), she tells authors how to do what their publishers can’t or won’t and why authors can often do their own promotion better than a PR professional. Her poetry is published in dozens of literary and review journals worldwide. USABookNews.com is an online publication providing coverage for books from mainstream and independent publishers to the world online community. JPX Media Group, in Los Angeles, California, is the parent company of USABookNews.com. A complete list of the winners and finalists of The USA “Best Books 2011” Awards are available online at http://www.USABookNews.com. Learn more about Howard-Johnson at http://www.howtodoitfrugally.com and http://carolynhoward-johnson.com..