VOLUME 24, ISSUE 34 | AUGUST 16, 2024 |
The Simple
Sentence Many writers don't slow down to appreciate the simple sentence, They are too busy writing a story, with its beginning, middle, and ending. Or they are too busy writing to have something to publish. Even your best writers can fall into that trap when they are obligated to contracts. But writing boils down to the simple sentence. Many writers don't want to slow down that much. Not such that they have to analyze a lone sentence for its pleasure and its craft. In other words, the sentence works well and reads beautifully and does its job remarkably. The sentence also is comprised of certain words and certain grammatical techniques to make it solid. We're not talking purple prose. That is when a writer tries too hard to sound important. Their elaborate word combinations turn overbearing, cumbersome, or just plain fake. No, we're talking a good sentence well constructed and well interpreted. If you are interested in improving your work in both these realms, considering reading How to Write a Sentence by Stanley Fish. And I suggest the hardback, because this one you'll want to keep. |
IMPOSTER SYNDROME IS REAL
And every writer has it at some point in their career, and many carry it with them to the end. We are doing what we
love, creating stories, and the fact that others want to read them is almost unfathomable sometimes. Then when an author meets another published author, one cannot help but compare and see what they are doing versus what we are doing. We feel like a lesser citizen sometimes. We may even get embarrassed. I met an author recently at a signing. I happened to be at the locale for another reason and saw
him. I bought one of his books, because I believe in supporting authors. He recognized my name and got embarrassed and literally said, "You don't want to read one of my books." My heart just went out to him. I told him that putting himself out there was admirable. You write your stories the best you can and go for the gusto. Because he continued to feel less than adequate, I took some time and gave
him some advice on signings, on publishing, and so on. He seemed happier after the visit. I hope so. But if I were in his shoes, and a NYT Bestselling author happened to come by, I might get tongue-tied as well. I might look at my sales in the thousands and then compare myself to their sales in the hundreds of thousands. Why is it we seem to measure ourselves so much. Too much, in my opinion. We
ought to be proud we are who we are, but that's so difficult to do. Sometimes we feel like this can't be real when someone pays for our words. Imposter syndrome creeps up on us when we least expect it. But if you love writing, love publishing, and plan to continue doing so regardless of the obstacles, then own it. When someone congratulates you, take it. When someone thanks you for having written a
good story, accept it. When an author who has been around the world more times than you steps up to shake your hand and buy your book, thank them. Leave off the excuses. Just own who you are and what you do. I know some good mediocre writers doing well because they own their hard work and sweat and keep moving forward. .
-September 29, 2024 - Newberry Opera House - "Artists 5" - 2PM (tickets required - music, art, wine, and sample plates to match the readings of three authors, to include C. Hope Clark) -October 5-12, 2024 - Edisto Bookstore, exact dates in that week TBD -October 28, 2024 - St. Andrews Church Women's Club, 6952 St. Andrews Road
Columbia, South Carolina 29212 - 2PM
(tentative) -October 29-30, 2024 - South Carolina Library Association's Annual Conference, Columbia Convention Center, 1101 Lincoln St, Columbia, SC 29201 - TBD -November 12, 2024 - Bennettsville, SC book club - time and place TBD -November 23, 2024 - Irmo Chapin Holiday Market, Chapin, SC - 8AM - 2PM -May 17, 2025 - Pelion Library Book Club, 206 Pine St, Pelion, SC, Saturday, 1-2PM
Email: hope@chopeclark.com to schedule events, online or otherwise.
"Success seems to be connected with action. Successful people keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don't quit."
—Conrad Hilton
<<If you have a success story you believe was prompted by FundsforWriters, please share with us! Send to hope@chopeclark.com >>
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How Google Scores Authors’ Content
By Alex J. Coyne Google crawls, scores, and then ranks all online content. Search results are based on these rankings. Writers can have an advantage by understanding how Google scores their online writing. Here’s how search engines
read. What Google Scores Google uses more than 200 ranking factors to score online content for searchability. Readability and keywords, domains and backlinks, originality, and the amount of passive (versus active) voice counts. Lower-scoring sites are downranked, while higher ones go up. A 2024 Google
searching algorithm change meant that many websites, including Great Bridge Links, had to alter content to keep scoring high. According to Google Blog, the update meant “45% less low-quality, unoriginal content in search results.” Unfortunately, the update is also harsh on legitimate content and media houses. New York Magazine lost 32% of its traffic. A BBC piece says, “the internet
will never be the same.” Write with search engines in mind. AI Content Google doesn’t like artificial intelligence content. Simply, don’t use it. However, human writing can still be wrongfully identified as AI if not unique enough to sound original.
Score your finished drafts against a free AI checker like Quillbot or Scribbr and you’ll guarantee a higher content ranking. Original writing avoids cliche, and prefers complex, nested sentences above too simple ones. Google your headlines, making sure they’re truly unique. Keyword Usage Keywords are what
people type in to find results. Choose a minimum of three (but maximum of five) short-tail and long-tail keywords for every post or article that you write. Use them but don’t overuse them. Google scores keyword usage in the first paragraph, but also how fluid its use is throughout. It knows (and penalizes) when you’ve overused a keyword, called “keyword stuffing,” for promotional clout. Check Google Trends for keyword ideas, or check what was hot before. During 2022, celebrities Adam Levine and Mary J. Blige ranked at the top alongside gas prices and election data. Writers can also search for keywords and they popularity. Backlinks and Internal Links, Oh My! Google gives a higher score for including reputable links, and a lower
score for “bad reputation” websites or links. Academic, news, organizational, or authoritative links are always good. Google wants to see these! Include at least two of them linked to a sensical place. They’re called backlinks. Imagine things an encyclopedia would call “Further Reading,” and you have a clear idea of what good backlinks are. Internal links are ones linking back to your own website, domain, or post. Never use more than two, but feel free to use at least one. Anti Plagiarism Plagiarism is bad and could get your website blacklisted. Complete originality is about statistics. Thousands of articles might use the
phrase “the black cat” although each article is still original when statistically measured. That’s okay. Use Google Search, Copyscape, and Duplichecker, to check yourself. Plagiarism checkers “score” articles against existing internet and library content, telling you which percentage (and sentence fragments) could be accidental duplicates. Passive or Active Voice Passive voice is awkward, forced, and something your teachers taught you not to use, and Google hates it. Rewrite content with good active voice scores, and you have the advantage. Grammarly’s passive voice checker and Pro Writing Aid can help. Word processors like MS Word also include a readability and voice
checker. Transition Words Google and some readability helper tools like Yoast score transition words, too. Transition words connect sentences and counter-arguments, meaning less likely to be AI. Examples are: like, however, but, although, on the other hand. Search engines look for main keywords, but also scan for
these transition words, so include them. Words like “however” and “likewise” count in your favour, according to Yoast. Google is more than “just” a search engine. Modern search engines push for better, human writing, and being aware can raise the rankings of your writing naturally. Your chances of having an article published become much greater. About the Author:
Alex J. Coyne is a journalist, author, and proofreader. He has written for a variety of publications and websites, with a radar calibrated for gothic, gonzo, and the weird. Sometimes he co-writes with others.
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SEARCHLIGHT AWARDS BEST NOVEL OPENING FOR CHILDREN OR YOUNG ADULTS.
https://www.searchlightawards.co.uk/
£16 ENTRY FEE. Deadline September 1, 2024.
An international competition. Submit the first 1,200 words of a longer novel for middle-grade or young adult readers and a short pitch that tells us what the book is about. You don’t need to have finished writing your manuscript to enter. This year the competition is for unagented and unpublished writers only. First prize is your entry included in our Pitch Book of winning stories and Winners’ Gallery, plus £1000 and a one-to-one call with our agent judge. Second prize is your entry
included in our Pitch Book of winning stories and Winners’ Gallery, plus an editorial review of 5000 words of your manuscript and a one-hour on-line meeting with celebrated author and creative writing tutor Steve Voake. Word limit: 1,200 words, not including the title. Pitch: maximum 175 words. SEARCHLIGHT AWARDS BEST CHILDREN'S PICTURE BOOK TEXT
https://www.searchlightawards.co.uk/competitions/best-childrens-picture-book-text-2024/
£12 ENTRY FEE. Deadline September 1, 2024. First prize is your entry included in our Pitch Book of winning stories and Winners’ Gallery, plus £500 and a one-to-one call with our agent judge. Second prize is your
entry included in our Pitch Book of winning stories and Winners’ Gallery, plus a detailed editorial review of your manuscript by expert picture book editor Natascha Biebow of Blue Elephant Storyshaping. Your text and illustration notes together should be no more than 1000 words. Pitch: maximum 125 words. TOES IN THE SAND ROMANCE STORY CONTEST
https://www.lastchapterpress.com/contests-for-2023
NO ENTRY FEE. Deadline September 15, 2024. Top Steamy Romance Story and Top Sweet Romance Story will win publication by Last Chapter Press in the summer of 2025 in paperback, eBook, and audio formats; $300 Prize (Awarded via PayPal); a $300 gift certificate to Successful Writer Marketplace to use
for book or business coaching, an advertising package, graphics, or whatever your heart desires and your authorship needs. Up to five other authors will win publication by Last Chapter Press in summer of 2025 in paperback, eBook, and audio formats, and a collection of Last Chapter Press merch to show off to your friends and family.
Accepting a 25,000-50,000-word romance. Preferably a travel, seaside or beach romance but if a story is amazing, that's
as important! V.S. PRITCHETT SHORT STORY PRIZE
https://rsliterature.org/join-in/awards-and-prizes/v-s-pritchett-prize-eligibility-and-guidelines/
£8 ENTRY FEE.
Deadline September 13, 2024. Offers 50 free entries to low-income writers based in the UK. The author of the winning entry will be awarded a prize of £1,000 and have their story published in Prospect magazine online and in the RSL. Entrants must be resident in the UK, Republic of Ireland or Commonwealth. Stories must be between 2,000 and 4,000 words. BLACK FOX LITERARY MAGAZINE
CONTEST
https://blackfoxlitmag.com/contests/
$12 ENTRY FEE. Deadline August 31, 2024. The theme for this round is “Portraits of Failure.” Please submit your strongest fiction, nonfiction, or poetry, and we will choose one winner that interprets the theme best. The prize is $300 and print publication in the
Winter 2025 issue. All submissions are considered for publication in the Winter 2025 issue. Submissions should be no more than 5,000 words. For poetry, send up to three poems in the same document. For flash fiction, send up to two stories in the same document. CRAFT DIALOGUE CONTEST
https://www.craftliterary.com/craft-dialogue-challenge-2024/
$10 ENTRY FEE. Deadline August 25, 2024. For this challenge, we’re asking writers to recreate the serendipity of an overheard conversation. The only catch—we want to read only the dialogue: no tags, no stage directions, no added context whatsoever. We'll consider scenes and
excerpts, from 50 to 250 words, composed entirely of lines of dialogue. Don't worry about presenting a full story or narrative arc. We're interested in what dialogue can do here, in how it can reveal a relationship or even illuminate what's not said. Remember, think subtext, not context. For this opportunity, submit your choice of fiction or creative nonfiction. One $500 winner. GRANTS / FELLOWSHIP / CROWDFUNDING CULTURAL CENTER OF NEW YORK MILLS ARTS RESIDENCY
https://www.kulcher.org/programs/artist-retreat/
Deadline October 1, 2024 for January - June, 2025. The Arts
Residency at the Cultural Center of New York Mills, Minnesota provides uninterrupted time for creative development and exploration, plus a unique taste of life in rural Minnesota. Artists from all disciplines (written, performance, audio, and visual) will be considered. Residencies are awarded based on artistic merit and commitment to the arts. We provide stays of two to six weeks for one artist at a time in a one-bedroom house with access to studio space. There is no charge for residencies;
each artist provides her or his own transportation and board. READINGS AND WORKSHOPS GRANTS - NEW YORK STATE
https://www.pw.org/content/readings_workshops_grants
Deadline September 30, 2024. The
Readings & Workshops program pays fees to writers who participate in public readings or teach creative writing workshops in diverse community settings throughout New York State. We offer three grant types to help meet the needs of a variety of presenters: The Mini-Grant for individual readings ($150 to $450 per session) and/or workshops ($200 to $300 per session); The Readings Series Grant for writers participating in a reading series (up to $1,500 per series); The Festival Grant for writers
participating in readings and/or creative writing workshops that are part of a literary festival (up to $1,500 per festival). Any organization, group, or series—nonprofit status not required—can apply to pay a writer participating in a literary reading or teaching a creative writing workshop. Grants go directly to the writer as payment for their participation. THE WORKING CLASS WRITERS
GRANT
https://speculativeliterature.org/grants-3/the-slf-working-class-grant/
Deadline September 30, 2024. Awarded annually to speculative fiction writers who are working class, blue-collar, financially disadvantaged, or homeless, who have been historically underrepresented
in speculative fiction due to financial barriers which make it hard to access the writing world. This grant, as with all SLF grants, is intended to help writers working with speculative literature. Grants are $1,000.
H&E NATURIST
https://www.henaturist.net/contribute/
H&E Naturist magazine has an established editorial team and a series of regular contributors, but is always seeking fresh and
invigorating naturist and naked-themed material for the only commercially distributed monthly naturist magazine in the world. Payment is in GBP sterling by bank transfer unless otherwise agreed. Expect 10-20 cents/word range. (After converted from sterling.) TYPE INVESTIGATIONS
https://www.typeinvestigations.org/about/how-to-pitch/
We cover the most urgent stories within a wide range of topic areas, including racial and economic justice, climate and environmental health, and civil and human rights. Our work is focused on systems, policies, and powerful entities, and we are committed to elevating stories from the communities most affected by wrongdoing. Written features generally run between 3,000 and
5,000 words — though we do publish articles that are shorter and longer. Typical budgets range from $3,000 to $6,000 (including travel and other reporting expenses, as well as the reporting fee) and are based on the submission of a detailed reporting plan. We pay a portion of the fee upfront. HEY ALMA
https://www.heyalma.com/how-to-write-for-alma/
Hey Alma topics include pop culture, news, politics, feminism, identity, rituals, dating, and holidays — all through a Jewish lens. Seeks pieces between 700-1100 words. Expect ten cents/word and up. ECONOMIC HARDSHIP REPORTING
PROJECT
https://economichardship.org/submission-guidelines/
EHRP is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that produces compelling journalism on economic inequality in America. We give grants to independent journalists reporting on issues related to poverty, economic class, workers’ rights, and income disparity
in the U.S., and co-publish their work in partnership with major media outlets. Many of our contributors are journalists struggling to financially sustain themselves in the increasingly low-paying media industry. We commission news stories, narrative features, investigative reports, documentaries, nonfiction comics, illustrated works, photo essays, podcasts and radio features about economic inequality in the United States. News stories, $800–1,500. Narrative features, $1–1.25/word, capped at
$2,500. Personal essays or op-eds, $750–1,500, depending on your experience and the amount of reporting involved. First-time contributors to EHRP typically receive $750. Investigative reports, $1–1.25/word, capped at $2,500. Because of the size of documentaries, we tend to only partially fund them on a small scale, typically supporting short documentaries up to $5,000. ORION'S BELT
https://www.orions-belt.net/submissions
Deadline September 1, 2024. Stories should be submitted to orionsbelt.submissions@gmail.com. All stories must be under 1200 words (not including the title and byline). All stories must contain significant speculative elements. They pay a flat 8 cents USD ($.08) per
word.
HERA
https://www.herabooks.com/submissions/
Looking for crime and thriller, romance, saga and general fiction of at least 80,000 words. Please note we are not publishing non fiction, young
adult or children’s fiction, poetry, science fiction and fantasy or short stories. Please send a one-page synopsis, the whole manuscript as a Word document and contact details to submissions@herabooks.com TORREY HOUSE PRESS
https://www.torreyhouse.org/submissions
Torrey House Press publishes 8-12 books per year. We are currently accepting submissions for fiction, including literary fiction, YA, and genre (mystery; thriller/horror; sci-fi/cli-fi; Indigenous futurism; afrofuturism; magical realism; fantasy; historical; romance; and/or nontraditional western, e.g. contemporary, urban, queer, etc.); full-length short story collections; creative
nonfiction and narrative nonfiction including literary journalism; a graphic novel about the cutthroat trout; investigative nonfiction about the evils of cattle on public lands and/or how the unsustainable levels water used for alfalfa farming is probably damning us all; essay collections; and the occasional anthology, memoir, poetry collection, or full-length graphic novel. IMMEDIUM
https://www.immedium.com/contactus/submissions.html
Currently Immedium is focused on publishing in the following book categories:
Children's Picture Books: The general format is 32-pages with color illustrations for ages 4-8 or 6-10.
Asian-America: Contemporary viewpoints on our evolving national identity and changes that have universal resonance.
Arts and Culture: Cutting-edge commentary on the intersection of popular culture, social trends, and our modern lifestyle.
We seek writers, illustrators, and artists who have provocative tales to tell and the talent to convey them.
CREATIVE TEXTS
https://creativetexts.com/contact/
Most of our publishing agreements are entered into by invitation only, however, we are open to reviewing unsolicited manuscripts for both fiction and non-fiction works in the Action and Adventure, Science Fiction,
Post-Apocalyptic Fiction, Biography, Western, History, and Historical Fiction genres. MANGO
https://mangopublishinggroup.com/changing-publishing/
Mango Publishing™is an independent book publisher on a mission to
democratize and modernize the book publishing industry. The publisher is data-driven, reader-led, highly international, and very engaged in social justice and environmental causes. Mango publishes high-quality nonfiction books from fresh and distinct voices that spark new ideas with readers around the world.
Please forward the newsletter in its entirety. To reprint any editorials, contact hope@fundsforwriters.com for permission. Do not assume that acknowledgements listed in your publication is considered a valid right to publish out of ours.
C. Hope Clark
E-mail: hope@fundsforwriters.com
140-A Amicks Ferry Road #4
Chapin, SC 29036
http://www.fundsforwriters.com Copyright 2000-2024, C. Hope Clark
ISSN: 1533-1326 Our subscriber list is NOT made available to others. Use information listed at your own risk. FundsforWriters gives no warranty to completeness, accuracy, or fitness of the markets, contests, and grants although research is done to the best of our ability. FundsforWriters finds open submission calls, contests, and markets from a wide variety of sources, including Erika Dreifus' Practicing Writer newsletter, Erica Verrillo's blog, Authors Publish, Poets & Writers, Duotrope,
Winning Writers, Write Jobs Plus, LinkedIn Jobs, Emily Stoddard, and other newsletters and online sites. Many announcements are submitted directly to FundsforWriters. All must be paying opportunities. Contests must pay a minimum of $200 first place. Submit potential listings to hope@chopeclark.com **Note that FundsforWriters.com places paid advertising in this newsletter. ALL ads are related to writers and the business of writing, screened by FundsforWriters to make sure the information is suitable for writers and their endeavors to improve their careers. While the mailing list is not sold to third parties, other parties do advertise in the newsletter, to include
the occasional solo ad. You will not receive this newsletter without your permission. It's physically impossible since recipients must opt-in, giving us permission to send the newsletter. If at any time you no longer wish to receive the newsletter, click the UNSUBSCRIBE link at the bottom of each newsletter. We want you to enjoy this newsletter at your pleasure, not be forced to read anything you do not wish to receive. Direct any complaints, suggestions, and accolades to Hope Clark at hope@fundsforwriters.com. We are an anti-spam site. | |
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