Archive for the ‘Writing’ Category

This landed in my mailbox today, so I thought I’d share….

Greetings,

As an author who has used the Amazon’s Digital Text Platform, we want to let you know about an exciting opportunity for authors at Amazon. Amazon.com and Penguin Group (USA) announced the third annual Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award (ABNA), an international competition seeking fresh new writing voices. One of the great new aspects of the contest is that self-published novels are now eligible to be submitted. There will also be two categories this year, Young Adult Fiction, and General Fiction. One Grand Prize winner from each category will receive a full publishing contract with Penguin including a $15,000 advance. Contest details are listed below, and further information and official rules can be found at www.amazon.com/abna. To get tips on how to enter or sign up, visit www.createspace.com/abna

What is the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award?

The Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award is an opportunity for emerging fiction writers to join a community of authors on Amazon.com, showcase their work, and compete for a chance to get published. Sponsored in partnership with Penguin Group (USA) and CreateSpace, the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award first launched in October 2007 and received more than 5,000 initial entries. In the inaugural contest, Amazon customers voted and named Bill Loehfelm the winner with his novel, Fresh Kills. Several of the other Top 10 finalists also received publishing deals with Penguin.

The 2009 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award started out even bigger than the first contest, with over 6,500 authors signing up. After narrowing the field, the top 500 excerpts were available to Amazon customer to read and review while Publishers Weekly reviewed the full manuscripts. From that information, Penguin selected 100 semifinalists that which were then reviewed by a group of Penguin editors who the three finalists. Excerpts from Ian Gibson (Stuff of Legends), James King (Bill Warrington’s Last Chance), and Brandi-Lynn Ryder (In Malice, Quite Close) were voted on by Amazon customers, and in a ceremony in New York, James King was announced as the 2009 winner.

What are the grand prizes?

The grand prize winner in each category will receive a full publishing contract with Penguin to market and distribute the Grand Prize winner’s winning manuscript as a published book, including promotion for the published book on Amazon.com and a $15,000 advance.

How do interested authors enter?

The Submission period is now open, and will stay open until February 7th, 2010 at 11:59 p.m. (U.S. Eastern Standard Time), or when the first 5,000 entries have been received in each category, whichever is earlier. There is no entry fee.

If you’re looking for a small diversion this holiday season, why not try writing a “Post Card Story”?

A post card story is a  dramatic, short story in only 250 words.

If you’re a Canadian landed immigrant or citizen, you might even win $500 for your efforts.

The Writers’  Union of Canada is holding a Post Card Story Contest with a February 14 deadline. Winner will be announced May 1.

Check out the Writers’ Union website for more details on how to submit your entry.

No matter how skeptical or unsupportive of your writing “hobby” your friends and family have been, it seems that they all expect you to provide them with a complementary copy, cheerfully signed no less, when you finally succeed in getting it published.

While you’re probably feeling magnanimous shortly after seeing your words in print, whether it is for the first time or the twenty-first, I would suggest that there are probably better ways to use whatever number of complementary copies of your book you’ve received from the publisher than to give them to friends who aren’t even likely to read it.

How do you decide who should get a free signed copy and who should be refused? Let’s start with the obvious.

Your parents get the first signed copy. Not only do you owe them for your very existence, most parents will be so proud of you they’ll bring out your book for every visitor who arrives at the door. Note: this might not apply if you write hard-core erotica.

Next, give a signed copy to any of your friends or family members who have been consistent cheerleaders, helpers or evangelists. Every writer needs friends like these, so be very nice to them.

But what about friends who snicker about your writing, and make not-so-funny jabs about getting a real job? Those who told you that you’ll never succeed and urged you to give up and be realistic?

It might feel good to give them a copy, proving them wrong, but you know, deep down, that not only do they not deserve a copy, they’ll probably never read it, and if they do skim it, it will be to find mistakes, or something to pick on.

No, don’t give them a free copy. If they ask for a copy, take them to a bookstore, tell them if they buy a copy you’ll sign it for them. If they’re broke and you’re feeling flush with cash, offer to buy the book for them.

Nothing will get the point across to them that your work has value as quickly as seeing actual money exchange hands for the product of your labor.

Your books are merchandise. There is no more reason for you to give away copies to anyone who asks than for the grocer to give free vegetables to all his friends.

As for the fee copies you’ve got left, use them to promote yourself. Give them to local media, send them to potential influencers on the Web that your publisher might not know about, give some copies to your local libraries.

Wendy Woudstra is a frequent contributor to http://publishingcentral.com, where you can find thousands of book publishing links and articles, including many ways to use those complementary copies of your books.

Want to publish this article on your own blog or in your ezine, check it out at EzineArticles.com: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Wendy_Woudstra

Nope, it’s not a joke. It’s a quote I found from Red Smith who was one of America’s most widely read sports columnists. He was also famous for his quip about writing, “All you do is sit down at a typewriter and open a vein.”

[T]he crafts of writing and carpentry are deceptively simple. The carpenter has to begin with a plan; the writer must begin with a thought. There must be at least the germ of an idea. Before the first board is nailed to the second board, or the first word connected to the second word, there has to be some clear notion of where we expect to be when we have finished nailing or writing.

In this month’s Publishing Executive, Samir “Mr. Magazine” Husni offers his take on the “print is dead” predictions of doom that are spreading throughout the magazine industry.

Husni doesn’t blame the Internet, or TV, or lack of literacy for the state the magazine publishing industry finds itself in, but rather the business model.

In America, we followed a system that depended on circulation revenues until World War II. After we won that war, we gained a sense of entitlement. We became the world’s leaders, and our industries exploded and were looking for outlets to promote their products. A new publishing model was created. Advertisers picked up the bill for the magazine, and readers-turned-into-numbers paid very little for the content (not even the price of its printing).

According to Husni, publishers need to go back to a business model that relies primarily on circulation revenues in order to survive, and points to Consumer Reports, Highlights for Children, and Cook’s Illustrated as magazines without advertising that survive and thrive with circulation numbers over 1 million.

Will readers have to learn to pay more for their content. Yeah. Most likely.

But magazines still offer a huge benefit to advertisers. Maybe not the massive general interest magazines, but the independent magazine publishers who are giving voice to their passions and connect with their readers will still be able to draw the advertisers they need.

As long as people stop yelling about print being dead.

A final nugget of wisdom from Mr. Magazine:

So when you hear that we live in interesting times, be aware that although we may not know what the future may hold, we should take solace that we are not the first generation—nor the last—to live in interesting times. It is not the times that matter; it is what you do with that time.