A Cappela Newsletter for Writers          June/July 2003

NEWS & VIEWS YOU CAN USE

Your monthly newsletter from Patrika, your Author=s AdvocateJ

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

Recipient of the
Certificate of Merit
Writer=s Digest
2001 Zine Publishing Competition

*Pat=s Picks

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Got a writing question?

E-mail your questions to our Q&A and read your answers in this newsletter. Send to:

acappub@aol.com, Subject: Q&A. I=m looking forward to hearing from you!

FIND YOURSELF! Here=s a little self-quiz to help you figure out just where you are, and to point you toward where you want to go. The links following each question will lead you to some answers. For more information, email me: acappub@aol.com

Where are you?

1) have an idea but haven=t written anything (link to WP&M, Consult; Writing Coaching)

2) got started, but bogged down (link to Classes, Writing Coaching, WP&M)

3) have first draft, but don=t know if it=s any good (link to Critique)

Where do you want to go?

1) improve my writing skills (WP&M, audiobooks, Classes)

2) edit what I=ve got into something publishable (Editing, Book Doctoring)

3) have a great piece of writing, and need to get it published (link to Stalking the Markets; Book Promotion; Self-Pub; Selling to Ims; eLitAgent)

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 C 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 C 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 C 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

*****

Writers! Protect your original work and important documents in minutes! Instantly establish the date and time-of-creation of all your files, including screenplays, proposals, Web pages, treatments, inventions, lyrics and ideas. Register and protect your original work online at ProtectRite.com. ($18.95 (US dollars) for 10-year registration)Go to: http://www.protectrite.com/default.asp?SessID=318256989&AffID=9jlw0RTAF8

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 #1 This month=s Pick is for all those aspiring writers who aren=t yet published.

Did you know that many famous authors, including Mark Twain and John Grisham, launched their writing careers by self-publishing? Today, that=s a better choice than ever. It=s no long a Avanity@ thing to do, because publishing houses often snap up a successfully self-published book for a second printing. It seems they don=t like to take a chance on an unproven book.

To launch yourself as a successfully published author, see www.acappela.com/AH.htm

Pick #2 No matter how brilliant your writing, it won=t get read unless it gets published. Find out how to get your works in print.

For books -- whether you=re self-publishing or going through a publishing house -- there are things you need to do to market your book. Check out the following courses to find out what you need to know and do:

Book Promotion Time Table

For articles and short stories, see Stalking the Markets

How to Become an EXPERT in Your Field

Write a book! Here=s why:

* Authoring a book will help you gain instant credibility and differentiates you from your competition.

* People will listen to you and respect you because a book proclaims you as an expert.

* Your book will introduce you to new, more affluent clients.

* It will open the door for interviews on radio, TV and in newspapers, and a book review gives you FREE advertising.

Need help writing your book? See http:www.acappela.com/AH.htm

*****

~3rd bed New nonpaying market, 3rd bed is a journal publishing innovative work by known, unknown, and forgotten writers--writers with voices that expand beyond the front lawn of domestic realism. http://www.writerswrite.net/pubdisp.cfm?market=316785639

~Valley Scene Magazine looking for original, interesting cover stories for family entertainment magazine. Great opportunity to publish your ideas and receive major market exposure. For more information contact Derek Margolis, Associate Editor, Valley Scene Magazine, at (818) 366-2313.

~ Humor Writer Looking for a humor writer to contribute articles to monthly medical newspaper for gastroenterologists. Make the doctors laugh! Send humor pieces up to 1,000 words showing a strong understanding of the medical profession. Pieces should focus on the physician experience, not the patient. Articles can range from a particular case to the physician's practice or hospital or experiences with drug reps. Or send humorous tales about the doctor's life at home, on vacation, during medical school, planning retirement or managing their money. Gastro-enterology-specific pieces will get first look, though please refrain from overt "butt" humor. Printed articles pay $.60/word. Opportunity is freelance only, though can lead to a monthly column. Medical background a plus, but not required. E-mail all submissions to Russ Colchamiro (rcolchamiro@mcmahonmed.com), Managing Editor or write to Gastroenterology & Endoscopy News, 545 W. 45 St., 8th floor, New York, N.Y. 10036. No phone calls, please.

Nonfiction

~Down The Cereal Aisle, a cookbook of food-related anecdotes, recipes and poetry for bereaved parents and siblings, seeks favorite recipes and remembrances. Send in the body of an email to Daniel's House Publications at wisler@mindspring.com. More information and guidelines: http://www.geocities.com/griefhope/index.html

~GROUP Magazine Needs articles on successful youth ministry strategies; how-to articles on personal spiritual growth, time management, issues vital to working with young people, leadership skills. Pays: $150 (500-700 words); $175 (800-1,100 words); $200 (1,200-1,700 words); $250-$350 (2,000 words and up) Pays on acceptance, buys all rights. Response time: 8-10 weeks. Submit by post or e-mail. Guidelines: http://urlshortcut.com/r.php?id=424

~ Hope Magazine Needs true, compelling and evocative stories and essays that astonish, inspire and challenge preconceptions and assumptions. Payment: $0.50/word. Query via e-mail only Guidelines: http://urlshortcut.com/r.php?id=425 ~Working Class Women Anthology Without a Net, an anthology of writing by females & transpeople who grew up poor or working-class. First-person narratives that read like short stories .Any subject large or small that works as a starting point to tell a part of your story. Pieces are not required to be about childhood, regardless of your current financial status. Contributors must have grown up financially disadvantaged, regardless of how much or little cash you have as an adult. Stories should be 1,500-4,000 words in length and submitted via email as a Word attachment. (If this is not possible, other arrangements can be made.) Send subs to Michelle Tea at mailto:Sfsunday@aol.com. Payment: Fee and two books upon publication.

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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 June 20^th - Donard Publishing Short Story Competition

Submit a story by the closing date. The story is then published to our site, on its own page. Visitors to our site will then have the opportunity to read your work and, if they like it they can vote for it. The story that receives the most votes by the end of the voting period (1st July, 2003 - 31st July, 2003) is the winner. Further information, including prizes, can be found at: http://www.donardpublishing.com/story03.html. (Donard is currently running a similar competition which is proving very popular. You can view the stories from the current competition by visiting: http://www.donardpublishing.com/storylist1.html)

Deadline June 30th - Red Hen Short Fiction Award Prize: $1,000. Entry fee: $15 http://www.redhen.org.

Deadline June 30^th - ChattanoogaCWG=s First Annual Writers= Contest.

A magazine of the winning entries will be published and each winner in each category will be given the opportunity to read at a special award ceremony. Some winning entries will also be featured in Mountain Life magazine. Adult DivisionCEntry fees: Poetry: $5 per poem (50 lines max.), $3 per poem for CWG members. Fiction: $12 per story (3250 words max.), $8 for CWG members. Creative Non-Fiction: $12 per piece (3250 words max.), $8 for CWG members. Student Division, Grades 6-12CEntry fees: Poetry: $3 per poem. Fiction: $8 per story. All entries must be word processed (or typed) in 12 pt. Times New Roman font. Include a cover sheet with author=s name, address, phone number, and email address. The author=s name must not appear on any other page of the entry except on the cover sheet. Send cash, a money order or check (made payable to the CWG) to: Rebecca Cook, 202 South Germantown Road, Chattanooga, TN 37411

Deadline: July 1st - Barbara Mandigo Kelly Peace Poetry Awards. Prizes: $1,000 (Adult); $200 (13-18 y/o); $200 (12 & under) Entry fee: $12 up to 3 poems; no entry fee for youth entries. http://www.wagingpeace.org Deadline: July 1^st - First Series Award for Creative Nonfiction. Prizes: $1,000 (novel, short fiction, creative nonfiction); $500 (poetry) http://www.midlist.org/firstseriesguidelines.cfm

Deadline July 15^th - Pearl Poetry Prize.

$1,000 for a full-length book of original poetry plus 25 author copies and a forward by the judge. $20 entry fee. Details: www.perlmag.com

Deadline July 30^th - The Dorothy Daniels Annual Honorary Writing Award

The National League of American Pen Women sponsors this one. $100 First Prize in each category: Poetry, Fiction, Nonfiction. $5 entry fee per fiction or nonfiction entry and $5 per poem. Write for guidelines: NLAPW-SVB Entries, PO Box 1485, Simi Valley, CA 93062.

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A: A query (or query letter) is a one-page proposal offering to write a specific article. This is the basic sales tool of a freelance writer and can also be used by an author when submitting a book proposal to a publisher.

Start your query with a lead paragraph that tells what your article is about. Follow with a description of the focus or angle of the article and sources you will use; information about yourself and why you are the person to write this article; and finally, anything else that the editor needs to know about the timing of the article, photos, and so on. Make sure to include your contact details.

More and more publishers will accept queries by email now, which speeds up the process.

Facts about books and publishing

Author J.K. Rowling is worth 280 million pounds ($445.5 million), according to Britain=s Sunday Times newspaper. Rowling, who wrote her first Potter novel while a single mother living on a state benefit of $111 a week, was ranked as Britain's 122nd richest person. Of her fortune, $239 million came from her books and the rest from film rights and Harry Potter merchandise. Queen Elizabeth, worth $398 million, ranked 133rd on the list of her wealthy subjects.

Wordplay

APLOMB: assuredness, cool, poise, sang-froid, self-possession -- great coolness and composure under strain, as in "keep your cool"

ATry as I may, I cannot maintain aplomb when my writings are criticized.@

*****

QUOTE OF THE MONTH

"Sometimes if there's a book you really want to read, you have to write it yourself."

-- Ann Patchett

Don=t forget to send in your suggestions, feedback and your writing questions. And check out the writing resources page at http://www.acappela.com

Patrika

TELL A FRIEND - Any writing friends who would be interested in this newsletter? Send them this link with your suggestion to sign up: http://www.acappela.com