Links to Others:
Author's Assistant
Blog Book Tours
Ebenezer Scribe
Exile on Ninth St.
Diane Fanning
Graveyard Shift
Guide to Literary Agents
Lifescapes
Lila Guzman
Martha Miller
Mark Mitchell
Joe O'Connell
Plotters & Manipulators
Poisoned Pen Letters
Exton Quinn
Redneck Crime
Rick Riordan
Rose Fox Reads
Sylvia Dickey Smith
Spookycyn
Women in Crime Ink
Writer Unboxed
A Writer's Word
Writing Thoughts
Writing the Westward Sagas
Awards for Helen's Website or Blog:
Copyright: 1997-2008
DOING IT WRITE!
A FREE newsletter providing information on all aspects of writing, from beginning to advanced. DOING IT WRITE! has subscribers throughout the United States and around the globe.
DOING IT WRITE!, a weekly e-zine, features a regular Hot Topic column on some aspect of writing or an interview with an author, updates on contests and conferences, news about the publishing world, and links to websites for authors.
All this -- FREE -- delivered right to your email box every week. All you have to do to join friends and other writers from around the world is: SIGN UP.
Informative, free, and easy to subscribe -- what more could you ask for?
Sample Issue of Doing It Write!
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Welcome to DOING IT WRITE!
A FREE newsletter providing information on all aspects of
writing, from beginning to advanced.
Doing It Write!, now in its eighth year of publication,
has subscribers throughout the United States and around the
world.
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HOT TOPIC:
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Pre-Published or Unpublished?
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About a week ago, I joined an online discussion group for
mystery writers. So far, I've just been reading the comments
and haven't "spoken" up.
The entire week has been taken up with discussion of the
term "prepublished." You've probably heard the term; I have.
Prepublished is basically an euphemism for "unpublished."
Writers who use the term aren't pretending to be something
other than unpublished, but prepublished has a softer ring
to it, a hint of their surety that they'll be published in
the future.
Some writers prefer the term. Some writers do not.
The consensus online is that even if you use it to describe
yourself, you should be careful where and around whom you
use it. A lot of agents, apparently, hate the term. To them,
it screams amateur. It also conflicts with what an agent
would view as an author who is prepublished. To them, a
prepublished author would be one who has sold their book,
but it's not out in print yet.
Not to say you don't want to ever use the term, but you
might want to be careful around agents.
It is a term that a lot of authors and writers use, though.
I did a google search on the phrase "pre-published author."
Got back results for 42,300 hits.
If you haven't been published yet, which term do you use:
prepublished or unpublished? If you'd like to comment, you
can do so at my blog, Straight from Hel:
http://straightfromhel.blogspot.com/
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*---------------The Email Bag is Open--------------*
Send in your questions, ideas, and comments.
*--------------- helen@helenginger.com --------------*
*-------http://straightfromhel.blogspot.com/------*
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<< Moreen Littrell has joined with Kaili Canfield to form
the Arthouse Talent & Literary agency in Portland, OR,
representing actors, writers, directors and producers. Both
were at Murphy Talent Group. Littrell has worked at William
Morris, ICM, Rob Schneider's production company, and Oxygen. >>
Taken from Publishers Lunch November 29, 2007
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UPCOMING CONTEST/OPPORTUNITY:
(To view other contests and opportunities, visit:
http://helenginger.com/contests.htm)
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THE HUGO AWARDS
Nomination Period: January - March, 2008
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WSFS (World Science Fiction Society) is an unincorporated
society which sponsors the annual World Science Fiction
Convention (Worldcon) and the Hugo Awards.
The Hugo Awards, given annually since 1955, are science
fiction’s most prestigious award. The Hugos are voted on by
the thousands of members of the current Worldcon which is
also responsible for administering them.
The Hugo process is as follows:
1. During January-March each year members of the Worldcon
are each allowed to nominate up to five people or works
from the previous year in fifteen categories. Typically 500+
people nominate.
2. In early April a shortlist is announced of five finalists
in each category. The ballot is mailed to all members of the
Worldcon that year.
3. Typically around a thousand members cast their final
ballot, with balloting ending around sometime in July (it
depends on exactly when Worldcon is that year.) The ballot
is a preferential ballot which allows the voters to rank all
nominees.
4. At Worldcon the winners are announced at the Hugo
Ceremony and receive a special trophy.
http://www.thehugoawards.org/?page_id=2
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UPCOMING EVENT/OPPORTUNITY:
(To view other events and opportunities, visit:
http://helenginger.com/events.htm)
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ASJA WRITERS CONFERENCE
New York, NY
Public: April 12-13, 2008
Members: April 11-13, 2008
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The 2008 conference offers great seminars and individual
opportunities to work with editors, established writers,
and other experts to help you sharpen your writing,
marketing and technological skills.
Pitch Slams will clue you in on the way editors really,
truly feel about the e-mail queries you send. Assigning
editors from national magazines will listen to actual
pitches, then react on the spot!
Need a new agent? Wondering how to make the best choice for
your next book, your personality, your ideas? The Sunday
session "Make your next book a really big deal" is for you!
Writers send in the first few pages of a book proposal.
Notable New York agents look them over in advance, then
offer comments and advice during the session.
Story ideas and research contacts will be abundant at our
Idea Marketplace, the ASJA trade show for professional
writers. A nifty mix of associations, public relations
agencies, government groups and corporations will be there
to call attention to potential stories.
Check site for fees and registration.
http://www.asja.org/wc/2008/
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IN CASE YOU MISSED THIS:
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"Profile of the Bookmaker: Amanda Ross"
<< While writers write, agents schmooze and publicists puff,
the books that Britain actually reads are chosen in a dowdy
office in a converted south London polystyrene factory by a
44-year-old blonde from Essex who winces at the word
"literature". >>
<< Amanda Ross, sister-in-law of the chat-show host
Jonathan, is the power behind Richard and Judy's Book Club,
a spin-off of the popular daytime television programme that
now all but determines the shape of the nation's bestseller
lists. >>
<< The book was featured on Richard & Judy, where the
couple's studio guest, Bob Geldof hailed it as "a
masterpiece". By the next morning Amazon had been cleaned
out of copies, and in the week that followed Star of the
Sea soared from 337 in the UK bestseller chart to Number 1.
It has since sold more than a million copies in Britain
alone and made its author's fortune. >>
<< Working with a team of three assistants, [Ross] reads -
or at least samples - the hundreds of books that are
submitted each year. >>
<< So huge has the Richard and Judy effect become that it is
estimated to account, directly or indirectly, for a quarter
of all the books sold in Britain. >>
<< "My choices are largely instinctive. They come from
having produced entertainment shows for years, and knowing
that a good story is a good story, no matter if it's fiction
or nonfiction, or even what style it's told in." >>
<< "I just don't think most people want books to be
discussed in that sort of uptight fashion any more." >>
<< Her tastes rest solidly and reassuringly in the
mainstream of intelligent, modern, popular fiction .... >>
To read this December 30, 2007, article by William Langley
in the _Telegraph_, go to:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion
/2007/12/30/do3004.xml
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LINKS TO SITES OF INTEREST TO WRITERS:
** Moreen Littrell
http://www.publishersmarketplace.com/members/Moreen/
To find out more about Moreen Littrell and Arthouse Talent
and Literary, check out her listing on Publishers Marketplace.
** Beth Groundwater
http://www.bethgroundwater.com/Home.html
Colorado author Beth Groundwater writes mysteries. You can
find out about her at her website. She also has a nice Links
page.
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Feel free to share this newsletter with friends. But,
please, forward it in its entirety.
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To subscribe, visit my web site or send an email with
subscribe as the subject to:
helen@helenginger.com
Send questions, comments, or suggestions to
helen@helenginger.com
To visit Helen's blog, go to:
http://straightfromhel.blogspot.com/
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CONCERNING ADVERTISEMENTS, CONTESTS & EVENTS
Doing It Write! is a FREE ezine and does not take
advertisements. In order to keep expenses down, I use
Topica to distribute the newsletter. In return for doing
this at no charge, they sometimes tack on an advertisement
at the beginning and sometimes the end of an issue.
Please note that these ads are neither endorsed by me or
Doing It Write! nor are they even available for me to
screen ahead of time.
Please feel free to do as I do: Scroll right on past them
without even reading.
As for the contests and events mentioned each week: Although
I try to find contests, conferences, workshops, and other
events that are legit and beneficial to writers, I can't
guarantee anything. I always try to include as URL so you
can check them out and make your own decisions.
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Copyright 2008 Helen Ginger
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