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The A Cappela Newsletter for Writers April 2000

NEWS & VIEWS YOU CAN USE

Your monthly newsletter from Patrika, your Author's Advocate

Visit her, send an email, at www.acappela.com

IN THIS ISSUE:

Pat's Picks: For Mom; markets; getting published

News You Can Use: Hitler banned; Harry Potter sued; free stuff

Trivia: Currency converter

Book gossip: Policeman/author censured; B&N scolds publishers; King goes electronic

Contests: PEN/amazon; Heartbreak contest

Writing Q&A: When is it time to call a book doctor?

Wordplay: Words for the 21^st Century office

You can do it! Quotes from those who've done it

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PAT'S PICKS

Wondering what to give Mom for Mother's Day? How about something she can use to create a family legacy? The audiobook How to Write Your Own Life Story will show her how to turn her life story and the family saga into an unforgettable book. At your favorite bookstore or order online: http://www.acappela.com.

Classes: Featured this month: Stalking the Markets. Puzzled about where to submit your stuff? Wondering what tone to take in your query letters or book proposals? Avoid rejections and learn to target the best markets for everything you write.(Begins the first Friday of next month)

See classes

Get Published:

You've got to research the markets if you expect to get published. To find out how to go about that, read Write Publish & Market Your Book. Once you know what to search for, look for publishers' guidelines.. Several websites and e-zines are dedicated to providing guideline directories on the Internet. Good choices to surf are:

Inkspot

Writers Guidelines Guide

Writer's Digest

DarkEcho

Inscriptions

Ralan Conley's Spec. Fiction Markets

*****

Markets

(I'm just passing on the information. I haven't checked out these markets and they don't come with my endorsement)

~Nonfiction

CosmoGIRL! For 12 to 17-year-old girls. Has the voice of a cool older sister. Conversational, funny, down-to-earth and honest;never patronizing or parental.

Buys feature articles, department articles and short pieces. $1/word. Query: Autumn Madrano, CosmoGIRL!, 1790 Broadway,20th floor, New York, N.Y. 10019.nclude SASE

~Speculative Fiction

ETERNITY, THE ONLINE JOURNAL OF THE SPECULATIVE IMAGINATION  Edge fiction that stretches genre boundaries, tackles controversial issuesand breaks new ground. Accepting submissions for online version of Pulp Eternity, debuting in 2001. Pays $.05/word for First Electronic Rights (12 month electronic exclusivity) and the non-exclusive audio rights on publication. (pulpeternity@hotmail.com). Hard copy submissions: Pulp Eternity Online, P.O. Box 930068, Norcross, Ga. 30003.

E-Markets:

CONTENT EXCHANGEDigital marketplace for online content creators and publishers,debuts its new online classified ads. Freelancers looking for paying markets can also set up the system to deliver ads in e-mail.

DIGITAL CATAPULT (http://www.showpage.org/DigitalCatapult), an e-zine for fantasy and science fiction, is now a paying market.

Advertise your books free. List information about your ebook or print books for sale. Go to http://classifieds.yahoo.com and click on submit free classified ads on the left-hand side.

*****

NEWS YOU CAN USE:

~Hitler Banned

Amazon.com (http://www.amazon.com) has decided to stop selling Adolf Hitler's book, "Mein Kampf," in Germany after being pressured by the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles. The book was among Amazon's most popular titles in Germany. It had earned a 3.5 out of 5 star review from customers, who describe the book as a "historical document," and "a look into the hateful mind of the century's most evil figure."

~Legal News

Author Nancy Stouffer has filed suit against J.K. Rowling and her publisher, Scholastic Inc. Stouffer says the Harry Potter books are based on her own 1984 book, "The Legend of Rah and Muggles," which includes a character named Larry Potter.

Book Giveaways can be found at:

And free encyclopedias abound:

1) Compton's Interactive 2000 Edition Encyclopedia. More than 40,000 articles, brilliant multimedia, an atlas, a thesaurus, a dictionary, and more. The CD is FREE when you pay the shipping.

2) The Microsoft Encarta World English Dictionary will premiere on April 17. Access is free.

The Gila Queen's Guide to Markets has a new URL:

*****

Trivia

If you're a travel writer or write fiction set in other countries, you'll love This Universal Currency Converter will convert currency into 90 other types.

*****

BOOK GOSSIP

~Policeman/author Censured

A California police officer has been suspended for writing a book about corruption and sexual abuse within his department. Naum L. Ware says his book, "The Rose Garden," is factual, and he has the background notes and memos to prove it. His chief says the book is full of hateful remarks that has caused many of his colleagues to seek counseling.

~Riggio to Publishers:Get With It!

Speaking 3/22 at the Association of American Publishers annual convention, Barnes & Noble chairman Len Riggio has told large publishers that they need to lower prices, eliminate returns and invest more in their businesses if the book publishing industry is going to prosper in the information age.

King goes Electronic

Stephen King has teamed up with Simon & Schuster to publish his newest work, Riding the

Bullet, a 16,000-word short story in ebook format only. Available in a variety of formats and readable only on screen. Download for $2.50, Read excerpt at SimonSays.com and

*****

CONTESTS

PEN/Amazon.com Short Story Award , a prize for first-time and unpublished writers. It's a chance for your fiction to see the light of day--and for you to win a $10,000 grant.

Heartbreak Contest Make us cry. Make us ache. Put on the blues and write about loss, pain and suffering. Write a short story about heartbreak, 1,000 words or less; any format. Stories MUST be titled; include word count .Paste stories directly into body of an e-mail; subject heading "Heartbreak Contest." Send to Contest@inscriptionsmagazine.com Include your real name, pen name (if applicable), mailing address and e-mail address at BOTTOM of each entry. Send each entry separately.. If you don't receive confirmation within 72 hours, please resend your entry. 1st place -- $50 gift certificate from Amazon.Com (or cash equivalent) and publication in Inscriptions. Deadline: 5 p.m. April 21, 2000.

*****

WEBSITES OF INTEREST

Recently launched:

3/00 Rising Writers (http://www.writingcorner.com/rising/main.htm), a website for aspiring young writers.

3/00 The Paranormal Romance Website  , a site for readers and writers of alternative romance fiction

3/00 Everyone's Got One  , a website dedicated to the expression and exchange of opinions, launched an e-zine featuring opinion pieces and reviews.

3/00 Borders.com  recently launched a section dedicated to electronic books. This section will highlight information on electronic publishing and offer e-books for sale.

*****

WRITER'S Q & A

Q. When is it time to call a book doctor?

A. Until about 20 years ago, if a publisher liked your manuscript (ms.) but felt it needed work, they'd suggest the changes required or would license the book and assign an editor to work with the author. Sometimes that work took a long time. Today, management is almost always unwilling to make that kind of investment in a book. As a result, an honorable new profession came into being: book doctoring. The doctors are mostly experienced editors or writers who evaluate mss., write critiques, and sometimes do detailed line editing.

If a writer establishes rapport with a book doctor, the relationship is close to that of writer and editor in the old days - a very tight bond that can last through many books. (Yes, even pros with several publishing successes under their belts use book doctors.) So when is it time to call a book doctor? Whenever it's time for some detached, objective input on your ms. -- when you find yourself so close to your ms. that you can no longer see the forest for the trees

(For specifics on book doctoring,

*****

WORDPLAY: New words for the office of the 21^st Century:

404: Someone who's clueless. "Don't bother asking him --he's 404." (From the WWW error message "404 Not Found," meaning the requested document couldn't be located.

Idea Hamsters: People who always seem to have their idea generators running.

Keyboard Plaque: The disgusting buildup of dirt and crud found on computer keyboards (from all those peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.)

*****

YOU CAN DO IT Notable quotes from those who've done it:

"Writing a book is an adventure. To begin with, it is a toy and an amusement. Then it becomes a mistress, then it becomes a master, then it becomes a tyrant. The last phase is that just as you are about to be reconciled to your servitude, you kill the monster and fling him about the public." -- Winston Churchill

"Some books are undeservedly forgotten; none are undeservedly remembered.-- W.H. Auden

*****

Don't forget to send in your suggestions, feedback, and your writing questions . And check our website (www.acappela.com) for website resources (we're always adding new ones).

Patrika

Subscribe to our free monthly newsletter for writers.
Send an email to acappub@aol.com with "Subscribe" as the subject.