AUGUST 2011
AUGUST 2011
Spokane Authors and Self-Publishers (SASP) began in 1998 when Chuck O’Conner, Elmer Freeman, Joe Meiners,
and Dan Vollmer, Spokane area authors
formed a club in order to share their knowledge and experience with those
interested in writing and alternative ways of publishing. Today, SASP is a large non-profit
organization dedicated to anyone with interests in any aspect of writing and
art. Members now include aspiring (and
successful) authors, poets, journalists, illustrators, editors, publishers,
printers, writing instructors, and many others.
Monthly luncheon meetings provide inspiration and education by way of
knowledgeable and entertaining guest speakers, and the cheerful camaraderie of
people sharing common interests and goals.
Membership is open to all who love writing, art, and interesting people.
Spokane
Authors and Self-Publishers meets
the first Thursday of each month, September through May, in the banquet (back)
room of the Old Country Buffet
(509) 484-5026
Speakers’
presentations begin at NOON. The room opens at 11:00 AM to allow members and guests to dine, converse, join, pay
dues, browse, and perhaps buy other member’s books that are on display. Generally a short business meeting is held,
either before or after the formal presentation.
New members and guests are introduced, members relate their
accomplishments, and various door prizes are awarded.
All
members and guests are requested to buy lunch upon entering the establishment,
and to leave an appropriate tip for the waiter/waitress.
Members
need to be present to win door prizes.
Current
membership benefits include a
listing on the SASP website, www.spokaneauthors.org. Many
members provide short biographies and links to external personal websites,
creating more marketing exposure.
Current members may list and describe their published works on the SASP
website and offer their work for sale at meetings.
Guest speakers at our monthly meetings
inform, inspire, and entertain members and guests with a variety of topics, all
designed to provide knowledge pertinent to writing and publishing.
SASP
members are encouraged to purchase or trade completed works of and with fellow
members. They are also encouraged to
donate examples of their work for use as door prizes. Those who win other members’ works are
expected to provide a review of that work.
Dues for SASP
membership are $15.00 per calendar year.
Dues may be paid directly to
our Treasurer at our monthly meetings.
Alternatively, you may remit your dues to:
2011 Officers
President:
Dave McChesney (509) 325-2072
Vice-President:
Bob Weldin (509) 327-2897
Secretary:
Robert Pillsbury (509) 842-6803
rvpsasp07@comcast.net
Treasurer:
Bonnie Stichart (509) 684-0424
Public-Relations:
Russ
Davis (509) 768-6206
Newsletter Editor:
Jim
Parry 509)
325-9922
Web Master:
Dave
McChesney (509) 325-2072
Advisory Board:
Jolene Feher (509) 489-0544
fehersong@yahoo.com
Gail Mangano (509) 535-1434
mamamia3224@comcast.net
Bob Manion (509) 448-2901
gunnerbob@comcast.net
OUR
NEXT MEETING!
REMEMBER: NO
AUGUST MEETING. Please join
us on Thursday, Sept 1 at 12
noon. We’ll be at our usual location, Old
Country Buffet,
The
President’s Page
June 2011
At
our July 7th meeting, Ruth McHaney Danner offered us some
interesting and practical advice about self-editing our work. Besides learning a skill valuable to any
writer, we met two new members: Carol
Senske writes poetry, and Terry Hughes has just had his novel, Burning Paradise, released by Gray Dog
Press. One guest attended as well. Unfortunately, rather hectic note-taking
resulted in not having a readable name, and, thus, it cannot be included here.
Chuck
Lehman mentioned that his books are selling worldwide, including several in
Diana
Wickes won a free meal from Old Country Buffet, and Carolyn Sue Williams had
the winning ticket for a free meal, courtesy of SASP. Having previously won and read a copy of
Chuck Lehman’s Asher, James Vasquez
returned it to the door prize pool. Bill
Tracy’s ticket matched the one drawn, and he now possesses a copy of that book.
Please
remember that we will not be meeting in August. Our next meeting will be on Thursday,
September 1st, 2011. We currently
do not have a program lined up for that day, so if you have an idea, please
contact one of SASP’s officers and let them know.
As
always, we are looking for things to post on the SASP web-site. Amongst those items are members’ biographies,
reviews of members’ books, and information about your book so it can be
included. Also welcome are ideas and
suggestions for speakers and other
program ideas. In addition, we are
hoping for volunteers, nominations or suggestions for SASP officers in 2012.
On a
somewhat more personal note, I will hopefully be joining the ranks of
self-published authors this fall. Since
our last meeting I’ve contacted a self-publishing services company and am in
the process of publishing Beyond the
Ocean’s Edge. I’ve posted a little
about it on my live journal page (http://vespican.livejournal.com/)
and hope to do so quite frequently, as I progress towards being a published
author. Feel free to drop by the page
now and then to see how it goes. (I
can’t guarantee that every post will be on that subject, but I believe a great
many of them will be.) I may also end up
doing a guest post or two for Anne Mini on her Author! Author! Blog at www.annemini.com Below are some thoughts about self-publishing
that may be of value.
Dave’s Decision to Self-Publish
When
I finished my initial draft and realized that I might have something others
would like to read, I knew nothing about getting published. Boxing up the manuscript, sending it to a
publisher, and saying, “here’s my book, print it and send me the money!” didn’t
seem to be the way to go about it.
Serious about getting my work on the market, I bought one of those Idiot’s Guides to… or …for Dummies that are so popular. I learned about literary agents, acquisition
editors, query letters, pitches, and the basic route to being published in the
normal way.
Dangerously
armed with a little knowledge, I set out to become a published author, only to
discover the trail is longer, steeper, and more crooked than it seems. Writers groups, either informal gatherings or
large regional organizations, smoothed many of the bumps. Online advice columns straightened the curves
as I came to better understand the publishing industry. My query letters improved and I saw positive
results as I sent more out. Increasingly
those queries resulted in a request for pages or occasionally the entire
manuscript. I attended conferences,
soaked up inspiration from guest speakers, and pitched my book to attending
agents.
Looking
back, could I have been more diligent in my querying? There is always that unanswered question of
the next query being the one that would have landed me an agent. Still, I sent out a mass of query letters
over the years, even while narrowing my search parameters for agents who would
possibly be interested. Of those agents
who represented work most like mine, many were no longer taking on new writers. While I didn’t send as many queries or pitch
as often as some, I sent enough to realize that traditional publication may not
be meant for me.
I
looked at independent presses, having heard that many leaned more towards the
writing itself instead of the work’s money making potential. Yet a great many of them seemed to focus on
writers from a certain geographic area or in specific genres. I did find a few that might be a fit for my
work, and a couple even expressed a return interest. As luck would have it, nothing
came about as a result of those submissions either.
I’ve
been a member of Spokane Authors and Self-Publishers since first setting out on
the road to publication. Primarily I
joined to associate with other writers and had no thought of self-publishing. Bad things about self-publishing still
emanated from many in the traditional industry.
Writers opted to self-publish because their work was not good enough to
be published in the regular way.
Self-publishers refused to learn and work within the industry. Having read several self-published books, I
strongly assert the first assumption is wrong.
Dealing with the industry for several years to no avail, I believe the
second idea is not factual either.
Still, self-publishing has drawbacks, including the writer paying to be
published. Being (among other things) of
Scottish ancestry, I am stereotypically cheap.
I’d much rather see a big publisher pay to have my book printed and
distributed than have the funds come out of my pocket. I did not warm to boxes of books cluttering
up my basement and carting cartons around in my car trying to sell them at
flea-markets and swap meets. But the
face of self-publishing is changing with time.
Recently, several firms have come into being which remove many of the
traditional roadblocks associated with self-publishing.
In
every unpublished writer’s life a time comes when having one’s book out there, on the market, is more
important than how it got there. As 2011
began, I had a couple of independent presses and an agent looking at my
work. In the closest thing to a New
Year’s Resolution I’ve ever done, I said that come the Fourth of July, if I did
not have a valid offer of representation or any express interest in publishing
my book, I would do it myself. Thus, a week
after Independence Day, I signed up with a self–publishing services company.
Write
on,
For What It’s Worth
Just
finished watching a baseball game in which my twelve-year-old grandson
participated. So my column today contains many clichéd sports
metaphors/similes. As a matter of fact,
I liken my entire writing regimen to that of a game of baseball.
Once in
a great while, words/phrases/stories come so easily I feel as though I’ve hit a
home run. At other times I’ve stumbled
on my way to first base. Often I make it
past first but then get stuck on second or third, and can’t quite make it home
– due to either writer’s block or interruption of my computer time. Once in a blue moon I’ve taken a base on
balls, and twice I’ve been hit by a pitch.
There was this one time at baseball camp where a really bad umpire
called me out when I had actually beaten the throw.
And
there you have it, sports fans.
Jim
P.S. – Does anyone relate?
NEWS
Listed below are acknowledgments of
members’ accomplishments, book-signing
dates, locations, and other items of note:
SASP member Book Release
Anna Goodwin
Hurrah! JUSTICE
FORBIDDEN, my
psychological thriller, murder mystery is finally out.
You can get it on my website www.anaparkergoodwin.com
for 20% off regular price: $13.50.
10% of my profits will go to counseling
abused children. Or you can get it at Barnes and
Noble or Amazon. ISBN:
978-0-9845566-0-1
What is the story about? Of course it’s
all about what I know best.
I am a psychotherapist who had a private
practice for many years.
Although the plot is fictional, the
character of the client and
much of her past is based on true events.
What are the facts about memory? Are there
false memories?
Can memories be repressed and then
remembered years later?
This is one of the greatest controversies
still raging in psychology today.
Dr. Faythe Bradington, Clinical
Psychologist, is shocked to discover that
an ex-client is suing her for implanting
false memories of childhood abuse.
Faythe rushes to her office to read her
files, but when she arrives she
discovers a body in the waiting room. Now
terrified, she calls 911.
To make her situation worse, her insurance
company insists she settle out of court.
There will be no justice for her unless
she discovers what actually
happened to her ex-client 25 years ago.
Determined to clear her name and discover
the truth, she hires a private
investigator, who unknown to her, has
psychic powers that become
crucial in solving the case. As Faythe and
L.P. probe into her ex-client’s
haunted past, they discover dark secrets
so ominous that
just knowing them will set off unstoppable
deadly events.
Read the
book, leave a comment at my website, at Amazon and Barnes and Noble, and then
pass the book to someone else you know would enjoy it. If you want me to do the
same for your book send me an e-mail: jargoodwin@msn.com. We are very
fortunate to have a wonderful group. Let’s cooperate and help each other reach
our writing dreams.
Another
Contest
We will run four short story competitions
in 2011. The deadlines will be the end of February, May, August and November.
Our main writing competitions have an open theme with a 3,000 word limit. There
are three prizes to the top three winning writers of £100, £50 and £25. There
will also be the opportunity for the stories to be published on our website as
well as being recorded for broadcast on Brighton’s Coastway Hospital Radio,
which provides music and entertainment to a network of
The competition is just four pounds to
enter, via PayPal or cheque, and the competition is open to writers worldwide.
Stories can be submitted online along with payment or by post with a cheque. We
will notify all entrants of receipt of their story. Each entry will be judged
impartially and be read at least twice in full before judging decisions are
made.
We are planning some fun free to enter contests too. Our first
is a flash fiction- 250 word limit. Deadline 31st January 2011. Five
song titles are on the site as themes. Three ten pound prizes and publication
on site.
Thank you
Andrew Campbell-Kearsey info@brightoncow.co.uk
(The COW part stands for Community of Writers)
Recent Newsletters now on
Site
All issues of our recently revived SASP
Newsletter
are now posted and available on the
web-site.
Simply go to the Newsletter Tab on our
home page
and click on the month you are interested
in. All content
of the e-mailed or “snail-mailed” versions
is there,
although format is changed somewhat.
New “LINKS”
We’ve recently added several “general
interest” links
on the web-site page of the same name.
Many SASP members’ web-sites and blogs
are linked here as well.
A Most Generous Offer
Writer Kirt Hickman has generously
provided
SASP with several “how to” articles on
various
aspects of writing. We are reposting Kirt’s articles
on the WRITER’S
TOOLS page.
Each will remain for approximately one
month or until replaced by the next.
A New Publishing Company
Hello
My name is Bob Griffin. I have just
started
a small publishing company that will be
publishing fantasy, science fiction and
horror.
If anybody is interested in submitting
their works of fiction, please visit us at