A Cappela Newsletter for Writers               October 2002

Your monthly newsletter from Patrika, your Author’s Advocate™

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                                                                                                               Patrika

DON’T MAIL THAT MANUSCRIPT

without a professional review from A Cappela

Before you mail out that manuscript or query, make sure it’s as polished and professional as possible. Send your work to A Cappela Publishing and get the specific tailored advice you need to get an extra edge on the competition — and make all your manuscripts more marketable.

After a thorough evaluation of your submission, one of our published, professional staff writers will give you detailed feedback and recommendations. You’ll learn what is and isn’t working in your writing, and how to fix it.

Your Critique includes:

*Genre-specific Advice: Whether your writing is a novel or a nonfiction book, an article or short story, a query letter or book proposal, you can be sure that your work will be evaluated by a pro who has personal experience with the same kind of writing.

*Grammar and Style Suggestions: Your personal reviewer will evaluate your writing to point out common grammatical, structural and stylistic mistakes — mistakes that can mean the difference between a rejection and a sale.

*Market Recommendations: If your manuscript is marketable as is, or with slight revision, you’ll get recommendations for marketing your work — including how to identify the publishers which buy your kind of writing.

For complete information, including submission guidelines and rates, visit

http://www.acappela.com/critiques.htm

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Forward this issue to your writer friends NOW and tell them to subscribe. Forward the ENTIRE issue, not bits and pieces of it. This issue has been sent out to 480 writers. Won't you help this ezine grow? Tell your friends to subscribe at http://www.acappela.com

PAT’S PICKS:

Pick Us! Writer's Digest is looking for the Web's hottest, most useful writing sites, to be featured in its May 2003 issue -- and we want to be there! Will you take a moment to nominate us? E-mail wd-tools@fwpubs.com with "101 Web Site" in the subject line. Give our URL (www.acappela.com) and tell why we deserves to be chosen. Deadline is Dec. 1,2002.

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~Book Collaborator: We seek a 50-50 collaborator (no upfront fee) for a book based on acclaimed documentary, "The Holland Avenue Boys: A Success Story." See Web sites: http://hometown.aol.com/hfis646942/HAB.html; www.a1documentaries.com. E-mail resume to hfis646942@aol.com (no attachments please)

~Nonfiction The Revwriter Resource Monthly electronic newsletter offering devotionals and articles for group discussion to the busy congregational leader. Each issue focuses on a specific ministry theme and includes resources for parish ministry. E-publication date is the first of each month. Writers retain rights to their articles and grant The Revwriter Resource first electronic rights. Newsletters will be archived for a period of one year at http://www.revwriter.com then they will be removed from the Web site. I ask that writers not submit their material elsewhere during their publication month. No simultaneous submissions or reprints. Query Susan M. Lang at editor@revwriter.com with ideas for articles and issue themes. Tell me about your experience in church leadership in your query letter. All writers must demonstrate their firsthand knowledge of the realities of parish ministry. Needed: Articles focusing on the topics and issues directly related to congregational ministry. Writers must demonstrate a knowledge of the practice and the realities of parish ministry. Articles may be based on direct experience or must be thoroughly researched. Deadline: Five weeks prior to the anticipated publication date. The editor reserves the right to edit materials submitted. Some Upcoming Themes: +Stewardship +Spiritual Empowerment +Team Building +Motivating Volunteers +Your Congregation and the Law +Mental Health Issues in the Congregation +Clergy Self-care +Nurturing Your Lay Leaders +Inclusively in the Congregation Article format is: +Discussion of theme topic: 500-800 words +Questions or exercises for group use: approx. 250 words +A list of resources to compliment the article should be included. The list may include print and cyber sources such as e-newsletters and Web sites. This will be listed under the Ministry Resources Section of the newsletter. Submission format: Save as a text file and cut and paste the article in the body of an e-mail and send to editor@revwriter.com Payment: $20 upon publication. Questions? E-mail the editor, Sue Lang at editor@revwriter.com To subscribe: subscribe@revwriter.com or visit http://www.revwriter.com/congregational/resource.html First issue will be November 2002.

***** ~Poetry/Fiction/Nonfiction Crab Orchard Review seeking submissions for Spring/Summer 2003 issue focusing on writing inspired or informed by the experiences, observations and/or cultural possibilities of the following topic: "Taste the World - Writers on Food." We hope writers will explore in their work the variety of influences food has upon family and cultural life, sensory and sensual experiences in memory and imagination -- the individual's definitions of need, desire, flavor, excess, waste, hunger and gluttony. We are open to work that covers any of the multitudes of ways that our world and ourselves are shaped by what we have to eat, what we don't, what we crave and what we dread. All submissions should be original, unpublished poetry, fiction or literary nonfiction in English or unpublished translations in English (we do run bilingual, facing-page translations whenever possible). Please query before submitting any interview. For guidelines, check our Web site at http://www.siu.edu/~crborchd/guid2.html. Mail submissions to: CRAB ORCHARD REVIEW, Food issue, Southern Illinois University-Carbondale, Department of English, Carbondale, IL 62901-4503 The deadline for this issue is October 31, 2002. We will be reading submissions during the summer and hope to complete the editorial work on the issue by mid-December. Writers whose work is selected will receive $15 (US) per page ($50 minimum for poetry; $100 minimum for prose), two copies of the issue and a year's subscription. Please include self-addressed stamped envelope for manuscript return. *****

~Fiction HandHeldCrime (http://www.handheldcrime.com), a publisher delivering short mystery fiction and articles to handheld computer users through AvantGo or by e-mail, is now a paying market thanks to voluntary reader subscriptions and a bit of advertising and Amazon.com revenue. We are still far from the financial big time--$15/story -- but we're very happy to have met our first financial goal. Authors who published with us before we became a paying market have received first priority for paid publication, because it seems only fair, but we are considering works by all authors and encourage others to submit to us. Authors may opt to receive payment electronically via PayPal (our preference) or by check. You keep the copyright on your work; we get first world electronic rights, including archiving on our site, and the right to use your name and story title in publicity; you keep all other rights. Formats we use include but are not limited to pdb, HTML and pdf. Given our limitations, we can only accept the absolute best of what we see. Do your best to put your work in this category before you submit it. We do not have a maximum word count, though you should be aware that we might need to serialize very long stories; our minimum word count is 1,200 words. Given the limitations of many handhelds, the simpler the story is, physically, the better off we are (i.e. no graphics or anything funky like that). To be accessible to as many devices as possible, we do not use italic or bold typefaces. If you have words italicized for emphasis, we'll probably put them in all caps. If you have a publication name in italics, we'll probably wind up either putting it in regular (Roman) typeface or in quotes. We very occasionally accept serialized novels for publication, but the majority of what we publish is short fiction. Also, please note that we are no longer accepting reprints or submissions for joint publication. Victoria Esposito-Shea (victoria@handheldcrime.com), Content Editor, HandHeldCrime http://www.handheldcrime.com

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Black Warrior Review http://www.sa.ua.edu/osm/bwr/ Contact: Editor, Ander Monson (art, essays, reviews) Fiction Editor, Tommy Zurhellen Poetry Editor, Don lliland, Black Warrior Review P.O. Box 862936, Tuscaloosa, AL 35486-0027 (no e-mail submissions) Needs: contemporary fiction, poetry, reviews, essays, interviews. Literary magazine published by the University of Alabama. Features established and emerging authors. Pays: Up to $150 for stories, $75 for poems

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CONTESTS

NOTE: Writers interested in entering literary contests should check out the Literary Contest Caution (http://windpub.org/literary.scams/index.htm), a site that lists poetry and creative writing contests known to rip-off writers

Deadline October 15, 2002 ~2003 International Screenplay Competition. More than $10,000 in prizes including a trip to the "2003 Selling to Hollywood International Screenwriters Conference." For more information, including guidelines and entry form: www.writersdigest.com/contests/internat_screenplay.asp

~Deadline October 18, 2002

Second Annual Paul B. Duquette Memorial Short Science Fiction Contest. Original short (max 10,000 words) science fiction stories that demonstrate the best of the human spirit. Stories may be science fiction, fantasy or urban fantasy.$250-50 prizes, plus publication in the 2002 CrossTIME Anthology. Each entrant will receive one copy of the resulting Anthology. For contest rules, send a #10 SASE to: Crossquarter Publishing Group, P.O. Box 8756, Santa Fe, NM 87504-8756 or visit http://crossquarter.com/Contests/contestlist.html

~Deadline: November 1,2002

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WRITING Q&A If you have questions about general writing issues, send your questions to acappub@aol.com with "Ask Pat" in the subject line. The questions with the greatest general interest will be answered here.

Q: I’ve heard there are other places to sell my book than through bookstores. What are they?

A: There are a lot of special markets out there. Associations, foundations, clubs, groups and other organizations may be able to use your books as premiums, incentives or as gifts -- even for fund-raising items where they sell books to raise money for some cause, event or project. They may also use your book as a reward for joining the group or renewing one’s membership. Many associations have bookstores for their members and your titles should certainly be included.

Find them on the web. Become familiar with the group’s objectives. Do they have fund-raising events for which your book might be particularly well suited? Contact the appropriate person and volunteer to speak at their seminars and events. If the association has a newsletter, offer to write an article for it. Aim to become the industry expert on their topic. They may publish your article in exchange for a mention in their newsletter or in their regular correspondence to members. Go to their section on upcoming events and look for future trade shows. Barter an article for free admission or ask to speak there.

Another venue is specialty shops. Many will want a 40%, 50% or more discount, but they usually buy outright, and there are no returns. In specialty shops, it is very important to establish, cultivate and maintain as close a personal relationship as possible with the management. It is important that they like you and your book so they will promote it at every opportunity. Selling them the first time often requires a personal visit to prove the sales potential of the book. When making a direct mail promotion to these firms, remember their peak selling seasons and required lead time.

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WORDPLAY

Each year the Washington Post's Style Invitational asks readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting or changing one letter and supply a new definition. Here are the more of the 2001 winners: Giraffiti: Vandalism spray-painted very, very high. Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it. Inoculatte: To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.

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QUOTE OF THE MONTH

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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

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