OCTOBER 2010
OCTOBER 2010
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:
2010 Officers
President:
Dave McChesney (509) 325-2072
Vice-President:
Bob Weldin (509) 327-2897
Secretary:
Robert Pillsbury (509) 842-6803
rvpsasp07@comcast.net
Treasurer:
TBA
Public-Relations:
Russ
Davis (509) 768-6206
Newsletter Editor:
Jim
Parry 509)
325-9922
Web Master:
TBA
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!
Please join us on Thursday
Oct. 7 at 12 noon. We’ll be at our
usual location, Old Country Buffet,
This
month’s guest speaker will be C.K. Crigger.
She will present a mini-workshop, titled What’s Needed in Your Query? Excitement! The presentation is aimed at helping you with
tag lines, creation of the all-important paragraph hook, and writing a killer
query letter.
Ms. Crigger writes of free-spirited people who break from
their standard roles. In her books,
whether westerns, mysteries, or fantasy, the locales are real places. All of her books are set in the Inland
Northwest, the westerns with historical backgrounds. Her short story, Aldy Neal’s Ghost, was a 2007 Spur finalist. Her western novel, Black Crossing, won the 2008 Eppie.
Letter of the Law was a 2009
Spur finalist in the audio category.
The
President’s Page
September
2010
OUR LAST MEETING
At
the September meeting of Spokane Authors and Self-Publishers, Shirley
Penna-Oakes talked about “stories, true or false, and the importance they play
in family histories.” She entitled her
presentation, “Is that Really True?” Shirley used examples from her family’s
history to point out that much of what we are told about our ancestors may not
be the unvarnished truth. In writing
family histories, it is important to separate the facts from the fiction.
This
meeting marked the return to our traditional meeting schedule and many folks we
had not seen in some time were once again with us. Welcome back!
Welcome as well our guests, Mr. Prince, Stan Parks, George and Ann
Washington, Ron Grose, Mary Jane Sullivan, and Ruth Tomlinson. Stan joined later in the day, and we also met
Susan Moyer who had joined a month or so earlier.
Several
members had accomplishments and events to tell us about. Barbara Hollace has a piece that is in
finalist consideration for Bernie Siegel’s newest book. She will also be speaking at the Idaho
Writers League Conference in
SASP
members were generous once again and we had three door prizes to give
away. Packets of homemade greeting cards
by Lee Moore were won by Barbara Cagle and Doug Huigen. B. J. Campbell donated a copy of Close Calls: the True Tales of Cougar Bob,
which was won by Joan Kopczynski.
I’ve
been suggesting that many members need to provide
a short biography for the SASP web-site.
We also need members to write and provide
reviews of other members’ books. To
date, one bio and one review have been received. Thank you, and let’s keep them coming! However, I was told at the last meeting that
some folks are having trouble linking to or opening the bios and reviews as I
have posted them. Please let me know if
you cannot get to anything on the site.
I’ll see if I can’t find a different format for posting pages to the web.
Since
our meeting I’ve learned that Gray Dog Press has put SpokeWrite on hiatus. They are no longer accepting submissions for
it, and are allowing those who had submitted prior to this decision to withdraw
them if desired. My suggestion is to
keep writing and build up a stockpile of submissions for when the journal is
revived. Once SpokeWrite returns, make
sure and tell family, friends and neighbors about it, and get folks to go buy
copies.
Our
friends in the North Idaho Writers League have started a blog at http://writingnorthidaho.blogspot.com It looks like a great way to share
information amongst the region’s writers and writing groups. It will also be included on our web-site’s links page.
Next
month, on October 7th, local author C. K. Crigger will speak about
“the Hook” in writing fiction. I hope
that all of you will be able to join us for what should be an informative
presentation.
A call for
guest bloggers:
Recently
I posted my thoughts on self-publishing.
If any of you would like to present your ideas on the process, send them
along and I’ll post them. Perhaps a
little insight as to why you decided to self-publish might be enlightening as
well. I’ll also include any as a part of
subsequent President’s Pages on our
web-site. I’d suggest no more than
250 – 300 words, about a page in standard format. You can send your thoughts on the matter to daveeva@comcast.net
Currently,
my take on the matter, as well as Michael Marsden’s, are on the website. You may also see them at www.spokaneauthors.org
, http://vespican.livejournal.com/48200.html
, or http://vespican.livejournal.com/48899.html
.
Thoughts on
Self-Publishing
It
is often thought that self-published work isn’t good enough for a traditional
publisher to consider. Likewise, it is a
common belief that self-published authors haven’t learned the ways of the
publishing industry or haven’t bothered to work with the business. These assumptions may be true in some cases,
but in many others they are not.
Publishing
professionals tend to look for work that fits into specific categories or
genres. They need to know how to market
a work before taking it on. Thus, a work
that cannot be easily classified, no matter how brilliant, may not be given
much consideration for publication.
After all, publishing is a business, meant to make money for those
engaging in it. If people in the
industry cannot figure out how to market a product, why would they consider
marketing (publishing) it?
Many
writers finish their work with the dream of being published by the big time
traditional industry. They diligently
set about learning the ropes and follow the established procedures. They submit query letters. They go to writers conferences and pitch
their work to agents and editors. More
than likely they are asked to send partial or even complete manuscript
submissions. Often the agents praise the
quality of the writing, but find the work unmarketable, and do not offer
representation. While these writers
understand that gaining literary representation can take some time and result in
many rejections, there comes a time when they realize that their work isn’t
what traditional publishing is looking for.
Perhaps, then, it is time for that writer to look at alternative ways of
being published. While they might
explore the possibilities of working with independent or university presses, it
is also quite logical that writers in this situation might consider publishing
the work themselves. While some may
argue that one more query, one more pitch, one more submission may be all that
it takes to secure representation and an eventual publishing contract, the
particular writer may decide that it is more important to be published, rather than how
he/she is published.
Maybe
a writer knows from the very start that his/her work is not destined for a
large market. If the work is only interesting
to a small segment of the population the traditional industry is not going to
consider it. If the market for the book
isn’t large enough, there isn’t any profit in publishing it, so why bother? An author of a work meant for a small group
of people is probably considering self-publication right from the start. He/she has done the homework, understands the
book marketing business and has no illusions about big time publishers taking
on his/her work.
Self-publishing
offers some advantages. It allows the
writer/publisher to have much more control over the finished product. Of course, this can be a detriment as
well. One of the knocks against
self-published work is the quality of the product, both in regards to the
packaging and the writing itself. Those
seeking traditional publication read, reread, edit, and revise as they seek
representation and eventually a publishing contract. Their first readers, agents, and editors work
with them to make the work the best it can be, and to clean up and eliminate
all grammatical and typographical errors.
Self-published authors are not forced to go through this gauntlet of
revision and correction, and often send out to the world work that isn’t quite
ready.
Therefore,
the responsibility of producing a high-quality work lies squarely on the
shoulders of the self-publishing author.
He/she must take the time to ensure the work is of the best quality
possible, even if it means spending a little money to have a professional go
over it in detail. It also means taking
the time to allow trusted friends and colleagues to review, critique, and edit
the work. A determined self-published
author should be capable of producing a work indistinguishable from one of a
traditional publisher.
D. Andrew McChesney
http://vespican.livejournal.com/
I
have too much to say about self-publishing and traditional publishing. At my last count my thoughts amounted to
10,841 words. Why, that is enough for a
short book. Yes-sir-ee, I could
self-publish it.
Today, self-publishing is an
industry in itself. There are some great
books out there that are self-published; just check the table at the next SASP
meeting. Don’t apologize for taking the self-publishing route. I have three novels that I have
self-published. All three were edited by
a professional editor. That cost money and as a result my profit margin is very
small. But in each case I had something
to say and I did find some readers so I feel great about that. There are several dimensions to the measure of success of a
book. First on my list is “Did it say
what I wanted to say?” My books did, but
each also said more than I started out to say.
Second on my list is “Did it look like the book I would be proud to
claim as mine?” I designed the cover for
each of the three and, although I am a novice artist, I was stretching my
ability. Third is “Is the book easy to
read?” This third dimension includes
type size, page size, and also language style.
I write novels, and I
believe a good novel should entertain, inform and inspire. If it does not entertain no one will know if
it informs. If it does not inform it
cannot inspire. Now we all care about how many copies the
books sells. Sales are one criterion for
the success of a book, but it is not the only measure. I set an expected number
of copies of a book that I want to sell before it goes to print. Sometimes I exceed that number; other times I
am still trying to achieve it. The best
way to achieve higher sales is to write a better book. I am working on that.
MichaelAndrewMarsden
website-www.michaelmarsden.com
email - keeperbear@roadrunner.com
Write
on,
For What
It’s Worth
A guest at the September meeting, who appeared to be in his 70’s, said he thought he was too old to begin a writing career, but our SASP group knew better and shouted him down - for it is the perfect time to start (or continue). We seasoned citizens have gained much experience and wisdom over the years – experience and wisdom that far surpasses that of a punk 40-year-old. So write, write, write.
There is
not much space left in this particular issue for my musings. Plus, I’ve had little time to think or write
lately, having spent the first half of Sept. on a sentimental journey back to
my roots in southern
Keep on keepin’ on.
Jim
News
Listed below are acknowledgments of our member's
accomplishments, book signing dates, locations, and other items of note:
A New “How to” Book
THE WRITER’S PORTABLE
A Guide to Art, Craft, and the Writing
Life
By Priscilla
Long
ISBN: 978-0-9842421-0-8, $17.95,
www.priscillalong.com
Web-site Improvements
Those web
pages that had been saved in mht format have been converted to htm. This should make it easier for all to link to
and open up these pages.
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 the format is changed somewhat.
Publishing Accomplishments
Jim Parry’s
book, Book All the Teachers, is now available
on most major bookstore web-sites.
(Amazon, Barnes & Noble,
New “LINKS”
We’ve recently added several “general interest” links on the
web-site page of the same name. (It
seems that we are adding new links every month!)
Price Reduction
SASP Member
and former President Barbara Cagle has announced that the price of her book 16
x MOM: A MASTERY OF MOTHERHOOD is now $17.95
A Local Publisher
Ditto’s Print
and
SASP 201O Speaking
Schedule
(as of September 21)
Oct. 7 ---C.K. Crigger---(guest), presenting a
mini-workshop. She will guide us in
writing the perfect query letter and in writing the hook in fiction. (booked)
Nov. 4---Jess Walter---(guest), may be available to speak on
his latest book. Says he will speak if we can work out a time, but his
publicist is running him ragged promoting his new book. (not booked yet)
Dec. 2---How about a Christmas Party where we honor our members
who have published a book or completed a manuscript during 2010? They
might each read a short excerpt. Also,
we need to elect officers for 2011.