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The award-winning author of Grassroots Marketing for Authors and Publishers and Principled Profit: Marketing That Puts People First, Shel Horowitz is finishing his eighth book, Guerrilla Marketing Goes Green (co-authored with Jay Conrad Levinson). As a copywriter/marketing and publishing consultant, Shel helps authors, publishers, and entrepreneurs with marketing plans, book jackets, website copy, press releases, etc. He also turns unpublished writers into published authors, step by step.

Shel's been featured in many major media, including repeat appearances in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Entrepreneur, and elsewhere. An expert on affordable, ethical, and effective marketing, he's been using social media marketing all the way back to 1995, and since 1996, it has brought in the majority of his income. Shel speaks frequently on social media, book publishing, frugal ad ethical marketing, and business success through ethics and Green principles. He's the founder of the international Business Ethics Pledge.

Thank you Shel for answering a few questions for us!  To start, please tell us about the latest project you've worked on.

Guerrilla Marketing Goes Green: Winning Strategies to Improve Your Profits and Your Planet will be published next year by Wiley. This is an amplification and expansion of the ideas I discuss in my award-winning sixth book, Principled Profit: Marketing That Puts People First.

Have you received any awards for your work?

Principled Profit won an Apex Award as the best book in the PR/marketing industry. It's also been resold to two foreign publishers (Jaico in India and Panorama in Mexico) and endorsed by 80 entrepreneurs and marketers.

Grassroots Marketing: Getting Noticed in a Noisy World was a Finalist for Foreword Magazine Book of the Year. Grassroots Marketing for Authors and Publishers was a Finalist in the National Indie Excellence Book Awards, sponsored by PubInsider.com/USABookNews.com, and a Cool Book of the Day at Dan Janal's Cool Book of the Day site. I've also won various awards as a copywriter, blogger, and website owner.

Do you also do speaking engagements, or seminars?

Most definitely! I speak on business ethics and sustainability/eco-awareness as success drivers, frugal marketing, and book publishing/marketing.

How has your education, profession or background helped you in your writing career? Or conversely, how has you writing success helped you in your  profession?

As a graduate of Antioch College, which thrusts every student out in the "real world" for three-month internships in strange cities, I learned to think quickly, locate the resources I need in a new community, make friends easily, and process a lot of diverse information in some sort of logical way. Also at Antioch, I got hands-on training as a journalist. I published 200 or 300 articles in the school paper while I was there, plus gained experience as a stringer (correspondent) for a mainstream regional newspaper and as reporter/editor/production assistant for an underground community paper in Atlanta. And it was at Antioch that I started doing publicity for community groups I was involved in, which led directly to the marketing consulting I still do.

What kind of other works (books, articles, poems etc.) have you had published?

Over a thousand articles, and going way back, a handful of poems. I actually met my wife (novelist D. Dina Friedman) at an open poetry event in Greenwich Village, where we were both reading.

Is there any aspect to your profession that gets you in touch with your readers directly?

Speaking, blogging, and social media.

What will your next project be?

Oh, I've got a whole file drawer full of research for future books. It will be something that I hope will have significant impact on the world.

Who inspires you on a personal or business level?

The ability of every person to make a real difference in the world (even one that changes governments) - especially when banding together with others.

What type of work is the most rewarding or satisfying for you?

I'm blessed to enjoy most of the things I do. I get tremendous satisfaction out of turning unpublished writers into published authors...but also from writing a really good one-shot press release or book cover.

What can you recommend for writers who are just getting started and are trying to make a name for themselves?

Find a way to get clips. If you have to set up a blog in order to get published, do so. If you want to do commercial writing, find a nonprofit client you can volunteer with. Not only will you have something you can point to when you solicit for paying clients/articles/fiction, you'll also become a better writer.

How did you get started as a writer?

My first publications were news and opinion pieces as the "token progressive" in a right-wing underground newspaper published at my high school. Also a letter in the New York Times at age 15, and it took me 20 years to get another one in (not for lack of trying). When they called to confirm it, they asked my mom if she was my wife (the letter didn't state my age).

Which is your favorite book/work published? Is there a favorite?

Principled Profit: Marketing That Puts People First can really change the world. I really want to get the remaining copies in people's hands, as it can change the whole way many people think about business.

What does a typical work day look like for you?

Short bursts at the computer, 20-90 minutes at a time. A walk in the woods with my wife (usually) and our husky/shepherd "personal trainer" (always). Too many trips to the refrigerator. Some reading every day.

Have you ever had a mentor, or someone who sparked your passion for writing?

I had two really phenomenal English teachers at Bronx HS of Science in the early 1970s: Mr. Traister and Mrs. Ehrlich. But I was already an avid reader, because books were my dearest friends growing up. I've had many mentors for copywriting and marketing, as I'm a lifelong student of the masters.

Who is your favorite writer/author?

Just one? Ha ha ha! Here's the very incomplete list of favorite books on my Facebook profile:

Harry Potter, The Color Purple, The Golden Compass, Hug Your Customers, Love Is the Killer App, Sell Yourself Without Selling Your Soul, Revolutionary Nonviolence, Co-opetition, The Company We Keep, Values-Driven Business, Waiting for Your Cat to Bark?, The Success Principles, The Power of Nice, Small Is Beautiful, Principled Profit, The Great Formula, Influencer, Javatrecker, The Publishing Game, Cash Copy, Anastasia Krupnick, A Wrinkle in Time, Escaping Into the Night, Playing Dad's Song (the last two both written by my wife, D. Dina Friedman)

Finally, a most important question: what was the last song you sang out loud when you were by yourself?  :)

"Alu Breder" (All Brothers), a bouncy old Klezmer song that gets me dancing.

Thank you Shel! We wish you great success with your new book Guerrilla Marketing Goes Green!