Writing and Publishing News

Are you interested in attending writers’ conferences and entering writing contests? Do you sometimes miss deadlines because you didn’t know about the event or activity in time? Here’s a tip that might help. Don’t just lament the fact that you missed the opportunity. Make note of the conferences and contests you discover in your favorite newsletters and forums for future reference.

In other words, you might read about a conference being held near you—one that you didn’t know anything about. But it is occurring next month and you can’t make it on such short notice. Print out the announcement or jot down the contact information and file it in your “Pending Conferences” file for possible attendance next year. If you read about a contest that interests you, but the deadline is too close for you to manage, copy the story or ad and file it away so that you are prepared to enter the contest next year.

Note the deadline and write it on your next year’s calendar so that you won’t miss the opportunity again.

I speak at writers’ conferences throughout the US. A couple of times during the year, I will search the various online conference directories for opportunities, note the submission period on my calendar and file the coordinating information to access when it is appropriate. But all conferences are not listed in these directories, so I keep an eye on the events sections in the newsletters and magazines I receive. And I note those conferences I’d like to attend.

Online conference directories:
http://www.allconferences.com
http://www.bvents.com

Have you visited my new website, yet? I’m getting excellent feedback from it: http://www.patriciafry.com

There’s quite a bit of free stuff for authors online—free webinars, teleseminars and podcasts. There are free reports, free introductory classes, free ebooks, free consultations and free editorial estimates. We offer a free book of your choice (among 10 books and ebooks) when you join or renew your membership with SPAWN (Small Publishers, Artists and Writers Network). http://www.spawn.org

Are you taking advantage of those freebies that could benefit your writing career or project? Or do you reject free offers because you don’t think anything that’s free has value? Some people get their entire publishing education free or at a discount through newsletters, library books, free presentations at writers group meetings, free ebooks and reports, discounted courses and so forth.

It’s sort of like using coupons at the grocery store. But it can take some time and research to locate those opportunities that could benefit you and your project most.

Let me offer some suggestions:

• Sign up for the FREE SPAWN enewsletter AND get a FREE ebooklet—“Promote Yourself: 25 Ways to Support Your Work Whether You’re an Artist, Author or Small Publishers” at http://www.spawn.org

• Ask for my FREE ebook, The Successful Author’s Handbook. This is available only to my blog followers who contact me here: PLFry620@yahoo.com and who will provide feedback for the book once they read it. Many of you have my print or ebook, The Successful Writer’s Handbook. The Successful Author’s Handbook is brand new and specific to authors. Read the book description here: http://www.matilijapress.com/successful_author_handbook.html

• Join SPAWN and get a free book or ebook of your choice (among 10 books). Included are Mark Levine’s The Fine Print of Self-Publishing, Susan Daffron’s Publishize, How to Quickly and Affordably Self-Publish a Book That Promotes Your Expertise and several of Patricia Fry’s books, including How to Write a Successful Book Proposal. http://www.spawn.org Membership in SPAWN is $65/year.

• Most professionals offer free reports and ebooks. Some offer free manuscript evaluations. Many provide free enewsletters. Visit the websites of your favorite publishing/editorial professional and see what they’re giving away.

• I’m offering a 20% discount on all 6 of my online courses. Learn more about this in my May 24, 2010 blog post.

• I give free manuscript evaluations. PLFry620@yahoo.com.

• Both SPAWN and Matilija Press ( http://www.matilijapress.com) have large selections of resources and informative articles free to site visitors.

Do you want to promote your freebies in my next post? If you’re offering something to authors or freelance writers for free, send a description of the item and the link to me at PLFry620@yahoo.com or leave a comment here.

Don’t forget I’m offering a 20 percent discount on all of my courses throughout the month of June, 2010—even the newest ones on self-editing and memoir-writing. Check out the May 24, 2010 blog for details. Sign up now. http://www.matilijapress.com/courses.htm

Have you ever taken an online course? What does it consist of? What is expected of you? How much do you actually get out of it? Here’s what I tell potential students:
Taking one of my online courses is as easy as emailing a friend, but much more rewarding and beneficial to your writing/publishing career. It’s like going to school in the comfort of your home. You will receive weekly lectures and assignments that you can work on at your convenience. Your instructor will respond to your questions and provide individual feedback. Plan to participate fully and you could complete a successful book proposal for submission by the end of the 6 or 8 week course, have an article ready to submit to an appropriate periodical, start selling more books or self-publish your book (of course, depending on which course you take). If you sign up for the new self-editing course, you should have a much cleaner manuscript to turn over to your editor by the end of the course—saving you tons of money. Check out the array of courses at
http://www.matilijapress.com/courses.htm

Have you noticed all of the new ways you can learn and tune-in to the information you desire? There’s the email course as described above where you can get quite a bit of personalized attention with regard to your publishing project. There’s the webinar, a web-based seminar where you can actually participate via audio hookup. The podcast is a one-way broadcast via the internet which you can download onto your ipod and other devices. It’s basically a digital audio or video file that is downloadable. A teleseminar is conducted through the phone lines—it’s a conference call and can involve hundreds of people at a time.

And then there is the one-way video webinar that some people are conducting at their websites. An expert in some field might record a video featuring him/herself presenting a brief lesson on flower arranging, grooming a cairn terrier, preparing a meal or writing a book proposal, for example.

What’s your pleasure when it comes to your education? I still prefer the conference environment—meeting my instructors/audience members face-to-face, sitting (or teaching) in a classroom or auditorium, breaking for lunch and networking with other like-minded people, etc. And I also enjoy the one-on-one feel you get from the email courses like I present.

Today, I will experience the convenience of a conference call in order to bring together the board of SPAWN (Small Publishers, Artists and Writers Network). Board members are scattered across the US in California, Texas, Idaho, Illinois and New Jersey. And the telephone has the capacity to bring us all together as if we are sitting in one room discussing SPAWN business.

Questions? Contact me: PLFry620@yahoo.com

Every once in a while I locate new resources that might or might not assist you in your quest for success as a writer or author. And I like to occasionally share them with my loyal blog-followers. These are not necessarily recommendations. While some of them are quite valid, important sites with beneficial information, this might not be true of them all. It is up to you to scrutinize the offerings and determine whether you can benefit by pursuing them.

I attempt to provide mostly sites that offer material and information for free. However, some of them do charge for services. It is your job to decide where to spend your money.

For example, you know that I produce and sell books for authors and I’ve developed online courses for authors and writers. You are aware that I charge for my services as an editor and publishing consultant. If you’ve been reading my blog for any length of time, you also know something about me, my level of knowledge and integrity. If you are interested in the offerings of a random Internet site, make sure you know who you’re dealing with and exactly what they have to offer before getting involved.

Magazine Directories
(Promote your nonfiction or fiction book through magazine articles and stories.)
http://www.writersmarket.com
http://www.woodenhorsepub.com

Newsletter Directories
(Get your book reviewed in appropriate newsletters.)
http://www.newsletteracess.com
http://www.ezinehub.com
http://www.ezlinelocater.com

Newspaper Directories
(Promote your book through newspapers nationwide.)
http://www.newspapers.com
http://www.onlinenewspapers.com
http://thepaperboy.com
http://www.50states.com/news

Conference Directories
(Promote your book by speaking and conducting workshops at conferences throughout the states.)
http://www.shawguides.com
http://www.allconferences.com
http://www.bvents.com

Catalog Directories
(Get your book listed for sale in catalogs)
http://www.oxbridge.com/NDCCluster/theNDC.asp
http://www.catalogs.com
http://www.catalogcentral.com

Library Directories
(Get your book into libraries.)
http://www.travelinlibrarian.info/libdir
http://www.publiclibraries.com
http://www.americanlibrarydirectory.com

Bookstore Directory
(Contact bookstores—in particular, specialty bookstores—and ask them to carry your book.)
http://www.book-stores-guide.com

Start Your Own Newsletter
(Use your own newsletter to promote your book and position yourself as an expert.)
http://www.thesitewizard.com/archive/newsletter.shtm
http://www.enewsletterpro.com
http://www.newsletterease.com

Be sure to visit my website and partake of my offerings for authors and freelance writers.
http://www.matilijapress.com

I would love to hear from those of you who found value in some of these links. PLFry620@yahoo.com.

Do you collect resources? When you read a book related to writing, publishing or your field of writing, do you always check for a resources page section? When you write a nonfiction book or article, do you typically include resources for your readers?

Resources are important for researchers. If you are writing a book, you give talks on a particular topic, you often write articles or you counsel others in your field, for example, you probably have numerous resources at your disposal. If not, you should.

Often, clients or customers will call or email me asking for information about finding an agent, a distributor or a library directory. One asked last week if I could recommend a good publishing or literary attorney. She said, “You don’t have this information in your book—The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book.”

Yes I do! It’s in the Resources section. I also give links to newspaper directories, online bookstores, merchant account services, “self-publishing” company database, information about shipping books, book reviewers, research sites, sites that give statistical information, writers conferences and more.

Here are a few resources that you might be able to use as you proceed through the process of writing, publishing and promoting your book:

Distributors
http://www.bookmarket.com/distributors.htm

Grammar
http://www.grammarnow.com

Literary or Publishing Attorneys
http://www.copylaw.com
http://ipo.com

Find a Printer
http://www.printaccess.com

Money for Writers
http://www.fundsforwriters.com

Statistical Information re Publishing
http://www.bisg.com
http://www.parapub.com/statistics

Resources, Books and Information Articles for Authors and Writers
http://www.matilijapress.com
http://www.spawn.org

Let me know if there are resources you need—maybe I can help. PLFry620@yahoo.com.

I wonder how many of you share your office with cats. Many of you know that I do. I have three cats—Max, the grumpy old man cat that we rescued from the woodpile in our backyard from his feral mom twelve years ago when he was a wee kitten. We have Sophie, a lovely tortie that was plucked from the dangerous streets when she was 10 weeks old. We took her in, in hopes of socializing her. She’s 5 and doing great. We adopted Lily this year. I think many of you have read Lily’s stories in my other blog (which I must say I do not keep as current as I do this one). http://www.matilijapress.com/catscapades.

Lily is 7 months old now and such a dear kitten. She is our social butterfly—she LOVES people, especially small children. What a refreshing change to the ever-shy feral cats we’ve rescued. We feel as though Lily is a rescue, too, as there were 15 kittens born to 3 mother cats at her place within a few days of each other in the spring. I could go on and on about Lily, but I won’t.

My topic today is keeping your office safe for (and from) your cats. Here are some things to think about:

1: Do not leave books or papers hanging over the edge of your desktop. A cat might step over onto the book or paper thinking it is a solid stepping place and end up crashing to the floor.

2: Do not leave rubber bands lying around. Kittens and some cats LOVE eating rubber. Likewise, cellophane and tape attract some cats and are not good for them to eat.

3: Do not leave hot (or cold) drinks unattended in your office—near important papers or the computer. (How many of us have learned this the hard way?) If you use a hotplate for your coffee mug, make sure it is turned off before leaving the room.

4: Watch those office chair wheels when there’s a kitten underfoot.

5: If you have a kitten that chews electrical cords, make sure that you use binders or some other system to keep cords out of the kitten’s reach.

6: Elevate your computer so that it is not right on the floor where cat fur collects. And clean the area around the computer often. Since a lot of cat hair is airborne, you may have to open up the computer and clean the cat hair out of it occasionally, as well.

7: If you have a cat that LOVES to steal paper, guard your fax machine and your important paperwork from this feline. Sophie used to wait patiently for incoming faxes, pick them up when they hit the ground, carry them off and shred them if I wasn’t looking. She has also been known to steal paper money and checks while I was making a deposit. She has also run off with sticky notes with important messages on them.

8: Guard your favorite pens. Max enjoys knocking my pens off of the desk directly into the waste basket. He has become an amazing shot.

9: Provide a cozy bed for the cats who visit your office to help keep them off of your desk and your lap when you are busy.

10: Close your office door when you are doing your taxes and have receipts spread all over your desk, you’re organizing a book project or you’re conducting an interview by phone. The cats will forgive you…eventually.

I know there are many additional warnings we could add here. There are a variety of cats with a variety of personalities and habits. Some like to lick the face of photographs, some will climb curtains. We had a cat who chewed the cords off of miniblinds and another one who, if the blinds were not raised when she was ready to look out the window at the birds, would dive through the slats.

Those of us with beloved cats in the office would love to hear your office cat stories and your cautions and cures for those of us who can’t say “no” to our kitties who want to hang out with us while we work. Leave your comments here:

Resources for Authors
On a completely different note: We ignore a lot of things that come across our desks and through email. We quickly delete, delete, delete things that do not look familiar. And sometimes we miss out on something we should or want to see.

I love it when I open an unfamiliar email and am rewarded for my efforts. Take this morning, for example. I opened an email from someone I do not know. The subject line read, “Writing and Publishing News.” Well, since that’s the name of my blog, I thought I should open it and when I did, I discovered some valuable stuff. It was an email from Linda Smith, who writes a blog focusing on accredited online degrees. So what does that have to do with me, writing or publishing?

Today, her topic is “10 Places to Help You Find a Home for Your Writing.” Now that is something I’m interested in and I thought you might be, too. Here is the link:
http://accreditedonlinedegrees.org/10-places-to-help-find-a-home-for-your-writing

Do you participate in forums and discussion groups to learn more about writing and publishing? Or, perhaps you belong to online groups related to the theme of your book—gardening, New Age thought, motorcycles, bird watching, hiking or finances, for example.

Before I ask you what you’re getting out of it, let me ask what are you putting into it?

• Do you open and read messages from the group?
• Do you respond?
• Do you sometimes pose questions or provide information to the group?

Maybe you believe that such groups are a waste of time. Your time is too valuable to spend chit chatting with people you don’t know. And this could be. Some groups are not well-monitored and the messages are less than useful or informative. But most discussion groups and forums provide many benefits. If you’re paying attention, you might discover,

• Ideas for articles or a book.
• Experts or interesting people you can interview for articles, a book or your blog.
• Updated information or anecdotes you can use in your presentations.
• Resources you weren’t aware of.
• Solutions to a problem you or a client/customer is having.
• New friends/colleagues you’ll enjoy knowing.

If you shun the opportunity to join in with others in forums or discussion groups related to your interests, particularly if you have established a business around this interest, you may be missing the boat. This week, seek out such forums and discussion groups and spend a little time checking them out. Report back to this blog via the comments section and let us know what you gained.

In the meantime, if you are a freelance writer, author, hopeful author or if you enjoy cats or are fascinated by true metaphysical stories (of hypnosis, past-life regression, self-healing, etc.), check out my wide array of books for sale at http://www.matilijapress.com

Yes, I am the author of them all.

I came across some links you might find useful. You may be aware of some and others might be new. In fact, I may have shared some of these with you before. This makes a good case for spending time checking out my blog archives. There are interesting, useful, educational, entertaining tidbits in each and every one.

If you have trouble coming up with something to write about, check out these two sites. Not only will you find potential and timely topics to write articles about, these sites can help you to promote your books. How? Find out what holidays (some traditional, some bizarre) are coming up and use some of them in your book promotion. For example, if your book features teachers, you’ll want to promote it during National Educator’s week. Let’s say that your story focuses on a dog rescue facility, see if you can find holidays that relate to pets and use them to promote your book. Here are two links listing holidays in all categories:

http://www.holidayinsights.com
http://www.brownielocks.com

Send your press releases to newspapers on these major lists:

http://www.newspapers.com
http://www.newspaperlinks.com
http://www.thepaperboy.com

There are hundreds—maybe thousands—of newsletters out there. Here’s a couple of newsletter directories that might help in your promotional efforts:

http://www.newsletteraccess.com
http://www.ezinehub.com

Use these magazine databases (fee required) to locate appropriate publications for your articles whether you are a career freelancer or promoting a book.

http://www.writersmarket.com
http://www.woodenhorsepub.com

Send your book to libraries.

http://www.ala.org
http://www.librarydirectory.com
http://www.travelinlibrarian.info/libdir

Would love to hear how these resources helped you out this week.

And be sure to check out my website for tons of additional resources:
http://www.matilijapress.com

Join SPAWN for constant resources updates.
http://www.spawn.org

Blogs have become many things for many people. Some people want to share a message while some want to help and inform others. Still others just write to “see” themselves chatter—to be published! And there is one guy who was evidently devising a plan, through his blog, to murder people.

Wasn’t anyone reading this blog? If they were, why didn’t they speak up? Or did they think that his postings were all fiction?

Maybe there aren’t enough readers for every blog. Perhaps many of us are producing and sharing through our blogs for absolutely no reason—no one is paying attention. This is certainly the case with books today. There are more books than there are interested readers.

I sure know some voracious readers, though. Most of the retired people in my close and extended family can’t seem to get enough good fiction to read. The books they read get well-used because they are passed around to each other, to neighbors and beyond. It’s nice that these books are recycled, but disposable books would be a good bet for publishers and authors. Yes, that’s a solution—books that, as soon as you read a page, the ink disappears. Good for fiction authors and publishers—maybe not a nonfiction book that you want to use as a reference.

I apologize for being quiet these past few days. I’m enmeshed in the work involved with the new SPAWN—getting the domain transferred and other business details that always become more time-consuming than you think they will, moving files from the old site to the new, revamping the member list (a grueling 2-day experience), getting accustomed to working with the board, trying to set up a conference call that everyone can participate in and so forth. Boy is it a ton of work. But we’re all excited about the changes—we’re especially looking forward to launching the brand new site—hopefully, September 1, 2009.

In the meantime, I hope that your writing and publishing projects are going well this summer. If you are working on a manuscript, you need help doing the preliminary editing, you’re confused about finding and landing a publisher, you are stuck on your book proposal, you have a book to promote or you are new to publishing and would like to have a better understanding of the whole process, order my book NOW. The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book is the help you need in order to succeed in this industry. Order yours here:
http://www.matilijapress.com/rightway.html

Read it while the kids are taking swimming lessons, on the beach while relaxing in the sun, while traveling to your vacation destination or stay up an hour later each night to read and learn.

And thanks for following my blog. I hope that if I start writing about doing my publisher in, you will alert the authorities and save someone’s life. Remember, it takes a community to raise a child, to care for the elderly and to keep our citizens safe and productive.

Have you heard the buzz word, Affiliate Marketing, lately? Do you know what it is? Have you become involved? Or are you still standing on the outside, scratching your head, wondering what it is?

What is it? It’s actually something quite similar to the “pay-per-click” program. It’s just a bit more common, maybe more sophisticated and starting to spread like wildfire throughout the Internet.

It’s an Internet-based process through which businesses reward each other for attracting visitors or customers to their products. It’s revenue sharing between websites and advertisers. It’s a practice of receiving a commission or percentage for promoting or selling something from your website for someone else. You can have an affiliate button at your website where each click or each sale brings you some sort of profit and you can have your book, blog or website, for example, advertised at other websites where each click or sale results in a commission for that website owner.

What’s the point? More publicity for you and your books or services—a more extended advertising reach for your products. You may also sell more of your books and collect a commission on products that you sell for others.

Is it complicated to get involved? It sounds rather time-consuming and a bit complicated to me. One site promised that you could get involved by following 7 easy steps. SEVEN?

You can hire outside companies to take care of the details of your affiliate program. Commission Junction, for example, at: http://www.cj.com or Link Share at: http://www.linkshare.com

You might be interested in becoming more familiar with the process by reading Rosalind Gardner’s book, Super Affiliate Handbook. Learn more about this book at http://www.superaffiliatehandbook.com

Maybe networking is no longer enough in this fast-paced marketing climate. Maybe Affiliate Marketing is the answer to selling more books and collecting more revenue. Is this something you’re involved in? Are you on the cutting edge with your books or services? How’s it going for you? We’d like to know.