The A Cappela Newsletter for Writers
March/April 2001
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: Tighten your writing and win contests
*News You Can Use: Writing scholarships; royalty payments; B&N e-books;
*Markets: Mysteries; Erotica; Christmas; humor; true stories; communities; kids
*Trivia: What playwrights earn; "sleep tight"; quick brown fox
*Contests (Lots of them this month)
*Book gossip; Freelancers beware; film rights; Michael Creighton's lizard; new Rowling books
*Writing Q&A: Question of the month: "Should I write about a subject that tends to go out of print?"
Websites of Interest: mythology; currency converter, research, libraries
*Wordplay: Flabbergasted.lymph, negligent
*Quote of the Month: Mark Twain says....
************************************************************************
PAT'S PICKS
Lots of freelance markets and contests in this issue. Make sure your writing is
up to snuff!
Classes: It's Spring...time to get in shape, clean house and clean up your writing.
One of the most common reasons for manuscript rejection is too much flab. Learn to
tighten, trim and build your writing in the online class Body Build Your Story.
www.acappela.com/classes.htm
*****
NEWS YOU CAN USE:
~The National Writers Union (http://www.nwu.org) and Contentville have joined forces to
design a Web-based licensing system to help compensate writers for their work. The
Publications Rights Clearinghouse lets writers register the copyright of their work and
receive royalty payments for any work that is sold on the Contentville site
(http://www.contentville.com).
~Judson Jerome Poetry Scholarship (May 1 deadline)
The Antioch Writers' Workshop and Writer's Digest are pleased to announce the 10th
annual Judson Jerome scholarship to the Antioch Writers' Workshop (July 7-14) in Yellow
Springs, Ohio. The scholarship covers tuition, room and board. Information: Antioch
Writers' Workshop, Box 494, Yellow Springs, OH 45387 or
http://www.antiochwritersworkshop.com
~Barnes & Noble.com has announced the creation of Barnes & Noble Digital, an electronic publishing imprint. An aggressive entry into epublishing for the online retailer the imprint
offers authors exposure on the bn.com website as well as Barnes & Noble.com's
affiliate network of over 400,000 members. The website for the imprint and an Author FAQ
can be found at: http://ebooks.barnesandnoble.com/bn_digital/.
~ New Scholarships for Black Writers
Beginning in 2001, One World/Ballantine Books will sponsor annual scholarships totaling
$5,000 in each of the next three years to support writers of African descent. The
scholarship will be awarded to financially needy writers attending Hurston/Wright Writer's
Week, a multi-genre summer workshop offered by the Hurston/Wright Foundation. The
scholarships are to be named the One World Scholarships. More information: email
information@hurston-wright.org.
*****
Trivia
The rewards for a successful screenplay in Britain are around £25,000. In the United
States established writers can command fees of $50,000 per $1 million production budget.
Things you may not know :
1. In Shakespeare's time, mattresses were secured on bed frames by ropes. When you
pulled on the ropes the mattress tightened, making the bed firmer to sleep on. That's
where the phrase, "goodnight, sleep tight" came from.
2. The sentence, "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" uses every
letter in the alphabet. It was developed by Western Union to test telex/twx communications
terminals.
*****
CONTESTS
Inscriptions Romantic Myth Contest (4/20 deadline)
You know what happens when mortals fall in love with mythological gods, right? Nothing but trouble. Your job is to write an epic love poem (less than 100 lines), telling the tale of what happens when someone falls in love with a god. Poems may be in any format or style, but they must be titled. (http://www.inscriptionsmagazine.com/Myth.html). Send to
Contest@inscriptionsmagazine.com with the subject heading "Romantic Myth
Contest." At end of your e-mail, include your real name, pen name (if applicable),
mailing address and e-mail address. Paste your entry directly into the body of an e-mail.
1st place -- $50 gift certificate from Amazon.Com (or cash equivalent),publication in
Inscriptions and a copy of Neil Gaiman's upcoming book, "American Gods."
The SLO NightWriters 2001 Limerick Contest -- Standard
five-line, humorous limerick; one or two stanzas. If two, they must be on one theme. At
least one animal must be mentioned as a part of the verse. Prizes: $30, $20, $10. One
limerick to a page with name, address and phone number of author on each. Entry fee:
$3/limerick. For rules, send an SASE to Dirk Woestenburg, Limerick Contest, 2702 Koa Ave.,
Morro Bay, Calif. 93442-1712, or mail poems/check payable to SLO NightWriters to same
address.
Poetry & Fiction ResourcesForWriters.com launches new 2001 poetry and short fiction writing contests. Read all the details and see the guidelines at the website. Prizes of 50/25/15% of the entry fees collected to top three entries.
The Peregrine Prize (fiction), "Peregrine," the Literary Journal of Amherst Writers & Artists, P.O. Box 1076, Amherst MA 01004-1076. Phone/fax: (413) 253-7764. E-mail: awapress@javanet.com. Website: http://www.amherstwriters.com/PerePriz.html Contact: Nancy Rose. Offered annually for unpublishedfiction. Deadline: April 1. Guidelines for SASE.
Charges $10 fee. Prize: $500 plus publication in "Peregrine." Open to any
writer. * Entrants who reside in Western Massachusetts are also eligible for The Peregrine
Prize: "Best of the Nest" Prize.
70th Annual Writer's Digest Writing Competition (May 15 deadline)
More than $25,000 in prizes and 1,001 winners in all. For a complete list of prizes, an
entry form and the rules, send an e-mail with "Guidelines" in the subject line
to writing-competition@fwpubs.com
Writers at Work Fellowship Competition
Writers at Work, P.O. Box 540370, North Salt Lake City UT 84054-0370.(801) 292-9285. E-mail: w-at-w@hotmail.com. Website: http://www.writersatwork.org/fellowship.html
Contact: Maureen Clark. Offered annually for unpublished short stories, novel excerpts
and poetry. Guidelines for SASE. $15 fee.. Prize: $1,500, publication and partial
conference tuition; $500, partial conference tuition.
Anhinga Prize For Poetry (May 1 deadline)
The Anhinga Prize for Poetry has been offered annually since 1983 for a manuscript of
original poetry in English. Winner will receive $2,000 and the winning manuscript will be
published by Anhinga Press. $20 reading fee. Guidelines:
http://www.anhinga.org/contest.html
4th Annual Young Writer's Contest Do you have a young aspiring
author in the family? Check out the sponsored by Hewlett Packard.Good for grades K-6
http://www.hpstudentcenter.com/contest/
The Santa Fe Writer's Project ( July 15 deadline)
Cash awards and the opportunity to have your work reviewed by established agents. 2001
Program judge is author Jayne Anne Phillips. Cash awards total $5,000.
http://www.sfwritersproject.com/ for details, plus tips and resources for writers.
AZ Literary Contest & Awards ( July 1 deadline)
Unpublished & published works. Unpublished 1st prize novel wins
publication by 1stbooks.com. All winners interviewed on Book Crazy Radio KCTK. Critiques
available. AZ Authors Assn., Literary Contest Coordinator, P.O. Box 87857, Phoenix, AZ
85080-7857
*****
BOOK GOSSIP
~Canadian Authors Speak up For Teen
A group of Canadian authors are voicing support for a teenager who has been
incarcerated for 34 days after writing a fictional story about being bullied that ended
with a character bombing his school. According to the BBC, Margaret Atwood, Michael
Ondaatje and 13 other writers drummed up support for the 16-year-old at the Ottawa
International Writers Festival. Writers told hundreds of fair attendees that the boy's
arrest brought up freedom of speech questions. However, some people from the teen's town
say the charges are based on threats made after the story was handed in for grading.
~Presidential Memoirs
Former New Yorker writer and Clinton assistant Sydney Blumenthal will receive $650,000 from publishing house Farrar, Straus & Giroux for the rights to his upcoming memoir about the Clinton White House.
Author Kitty Kelly, the author of racy and often controversial, unauthorized
biographies, is receiving a seven-figure advance from Doubleday to write about our new
president and his family. The book is scheduled for release in 2004. While some claim
Kelly's works have gone over the top, Doubleday President Stephen Rubin is confident
Kelley will find an interesting and rich story.
~ Stephen King is returning to the Web to provide more online content, this time
offering three free 3,000 word excerpts from his upcoming novel Dreamcatcher. The
three installments can be found at: http://www.time.com/time/dreamcatcher
~The Walt Disney Company has agreed to pay $350 million for use of the characters in
the Winnie-the-Pooh books until the copyright expires in 2026. The principal beneficiaries
will be the Royal Literary Fund, the Garrick Club, Westminster school, and A.A. Milne's
disabled granddaughter. The widow of Christopher Robin Milne (son of A.A. Milne) will
receive nothing, having sold his quarter-share in royalties to the Literary fund before
his death. "Christopher was very anti-Disney," Lesley Milne, the widow, told The
London Sunday Times. "He hated what they had done with the books and the
characters."
~Harry Potter Tops List of Banned Books
J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series tops the list of most challenged books of 2000, as
tracked by the American Library Association's Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF). The
Potter books were first challenged in 1999, quickly rising to the top spot on the list
that year. For a complete list of the 100 most frequently challenged books from 1990
through 1999, visit:http://www.writersdigest.com/information.asp?227_Banned
~Tough Lesson For Freelancers
Freelance writer Stacey Chase is suing "People" magazine. In question is a
story she proposed and reported was printed in the November 27 issue without her byline
and without the $1200 payment she says is due her. Cotts describes "People's"
modus operandi as a "rigid caste system," where "reporters do the grunt
work, assembling interview notes and clips into files that get passed on to the writers,
who whip the story into deathless prose." It's also reported that freelancers like
Chase who come up with the story and do the research are given minimal compensation, while
the editors take over and develop the story as they see fit, sometimes giving it to
writers who then get all the credit.Other writers attest to "People's"
questionable treatment of freelancers, including David Wallis, CEO of Featurewell.com.
However, he notes that "Chase neglected the most important rule of freelancing, which
is to 'get it in writing.'" He adds, "Anyone who works on a story without a
contract is asking to be used."
~Columbia Pictures acquired the film rights to Todd McFarlane's comic book character,
Spawn (http://www.spawn.com), for an undisclosed amount.
~A species of an extinct plant-eating dinosaur has been named after novelist Michael
Crichton (http://www.crichton-official.com/index-gr.htm). The small, armored lizard is now
called "Crichton's ankylosaur."
~Rowling to Donate Royalties to Charity
J.K. Rowling announced Monday that she would publish two special books related to her famous "Harry Potter" series and will donate all her royalties to Comic Relief, a charity that benefits the
world's poorest children. Bloomsbury will print 2 million copies of "Fantastic
Beasts & Where to Find Them by Newt Scamander" and "Quiddich Through the
Ages by Kennilworthy Whisp," titles that appear in Rowling's wildly successful
series. The short books became available worldwide on March 12. Printers, distributors and
booksellers are waiving fees, profits and payments, London's Sunday Times said.
Hollywood News
~New Line Cinema has acquired the film rights to Chemical Pink, a novel by
Katie Arnoldi chronicling her experiences in the steroid-infested world of female
bodybuilding.
~Paramount Pictures has bought the screen rights to Gerald Petievich's novel, The
Sentinel, for Michael Douglas to produce and star. The story revolves around a Secret
Service agent who is having an affair with the First Lady. When another agent is murdered,
he becomes the prime suspect in an alleged plot to assassinate the President.
*****
MARKETS
Fiction
~Mystery Fiction Crime Spree will be a small press print anthology. We are looking for
stories between 1,500 and 5,000 words. Dark Mystery/CrimeNoir/Hard-boiled/Suspense/Thrillers. Psychological horror blends okay. We like lean, tight and gritty writing. No humor. No poetry. We're looking for detectives and sleuths with personality, criminals who are three-dimensional and who speak with realistic dialog. Settings should be in the U.S. No e-mail subs. No reprints. No multiple or simultaneous subs. Disposable copies preferred with SASE. Include a cover letter and previous publishing credits if any. deadline July 1,2001. Pays $.0025/word.
Sandra DeLuca (SandiDeLuca@aol.com), Editor P.O. Box 8214, Warwick, R.I. 02888
~Erotica Renowned erotica editor Cara Bruce is now accepting submissions for an exciting new anthology series from Cleis Press, "Best Bisexual Women's Erotica," to be published in Fall 2001.
"We want bold, original, inventive, erotic stories that describe the full range of bisexual women's erotic experiences and are written about bisexual women. Please refrain from using clichés about sexual pleasure and instead write creative, exciting stories which titillate while exploring bisexual
women's lives. Stories can be funny, sad, dark, wild -- use your imagination!
1,000-5,000 words. Previously published material OK, providing you have the rights or can
get the rights. Contributors will be paid and will receive two copies of the anthology.
Send full ms. Cara Bruce, PMB #121, 322 Cortland Ave., San Francisco,CA 94110. Or send in
the body ofan e-mail or as an RTF attachment (bestbiwomens@yahoo.com). Deadline is April
1, 2001.
~NON-FICTION
~Wee Ones E-magazine (http://www.weeonesmag.com) Focused on getting families together
by reading online, Wee Ones is an e-magazine. Stories, articles and poetry geared towards
children ages 3 to 8 not to exceed 500 words. Stories and articles for Big Ones
(coinciding section for parents) not to exceed 800 words. $.03/word and $5/poem under 150
words Please check out the site and get to know Wee Ones before submitting! Jennifer B.
Reed (jreed@quixnet.net)
~Wanted: True stories of Christmas, 100-500 words in length. Positive, inspirational,
heartwarming and/or humorous in tone. We'd like to focus on the noncommercial aspects of
Christmas, although all will be considered. Pays $20 upon publication and byline. Buys all
rights. E-mail (REdwardsCreative@aol.com) submissions.
~Humor: Inscriptions weekly e-zine for professional writers needs short humor articles
(http://www.inscriptionsmagazine.com/Humor.html). Humor stories must focus on the writing
or publishing life. Submissions (under 1,000 words, please) should bring a smile to our
faces. We like 'em light, tight and fun. Paste article directly into the message area.
e-mail it to Jade Walker (Editor@inscriptionsmagazine.com). Subject: "Humor."
~Promise Press, an imprint of Barbour Publishing Inc., has issued a call for true short
stories. The stories will be published in the second volume of their new Christian inspirational book series, to be titled "God Allows U-Turns, More Stories of Hope and Healing." Both volumes will be marketed at the CBA show in July and will be available in bookstores internationally in time for Christmas 2001.Send your true stories to Allison Gappa Bottke via the
website at http://www.godallowsuturns.com Deadline April 15th. See the website for
details.
~"Mademoiselle" magazine is changing its focus. Previously, it had targeted
women ages 20-25, but now the focus will be on women in their upper 20s and early 30s. The
reason for the switch is poor sales. Gone are the "as told to" features and
chirpy attitude. Editor-in-chief Mandi Norwood says, "We want really great writers to
pitch us thoughtful ideas from their personal experience." The changes will start
with the May issue.
~Spectacle (semiannual journal of essays, articles, reportage and fiction) seeks submissions exploring non-traditional, experimental and intentional communities -- both contemporary and historic. Personal or scholarly essays concerned with innovative models that question the basic assumptions of the status quo and dare to radically re-invent the nature of community living. Our theme this issue: communities founded on shared spiritual, social, economic, ecological and/or artistic visions.2,000-5,000 words. $30 upon publication and two copies of the journal
Theme: Intentional Communities Issue: Spring 2001 (Vol. 4, No. 1) Deadline: April 16, 2001
Richard Aguilar, Editor, Spectacle, PMB 155, 101 Middlesex Turnpike, Suite 6
Burlington, Mass. 01803-4914 Or, e-mail (spectaclejournal@hotmail.com) your submission
as a Word or text attachment.
*****
WRITING Q&As
Q: Should I be worried, writing about a subject that has a tendency to go out
of print?
A: If books on dolphins are going out of print quickly, that means
they aren't selling well. Agents and publishers will be hesitant to take on such novels.
But if you are engaged by the project and truly want to pursue it, do more research before
abandoning it. The market is changing all the time. By the time you complete the first
novel of your series, things may look very different. And editors are always looking for
the fresh new idea. What you need to do is decide if you're engaged by the subject and
push forward with that. Trying to second-guess the marketplace is never a good way to
begin. Do some soul-searching, and find out if this is the right project for you. When you
finish a few chapters, decide again if this is the book for you. If you want to push
forward, you may want to research the marketplace, perhaps asking some agents and editors
who handle such stories if they're a tough sell.
*****
WEBSITES OF INTEREST
~Bartleby.com (http://www.bartleby.com) has expanded its reference library into
mythology and fable with Sir James George Frazer's The Golden Bough
(http://www.bartleby.com/196/) and Thomas Bulfinch's Mythology
http://www.bartleby.com/bulfinch).
~Travel Writers: <http://www.xe.net/ucc> This Universal Currency Converter will
convert currency into 90 other types.
~Directory of writers' resources on the Internet, including writing tips, reference and
style guides, self-publishing resources, and more.<http://PenLinks.com>
~yourDictionary.com , a research website <http://www.yourdictionary.com>
Source for libraries online <http://www.e-resourceguide.com/other/Libinfo.htm>
*****
WORDPLAY (FUN DEFINITIONS:)
Flabbergasted (adj.), appalled over how much weight you have gained.
Lymph (v.), to walk with a lisp.
Negligent (adj.), describes a condition in which you absentmindedly answer the door in your nightie.
*****
QUOTE OF THE MONTH
A classic: something that everybody wants to have read and nobody wants to read.
--Mark Twain
*****
Don't forget to send in your suggestions, feedback, and your writing questions and
check our website (www.acappela.com) for our page of website resources
Patrika