Volume 9, Issue 20
May 17, 2009

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FUNDS FOR WRITERS

Writer's Digest's 101 Best Websites for Writers
2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009

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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.

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PAID SPONSOR OF THE WEEK
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AWARD WINNING NOVELIST, STORY WRITER WILL EDIT YOUR WORK

Winner of the Excellence in Teaching Award from UNC Chapel Hill,
Richard Krawiec has published novels, story collections, plays,
poetry, feature articles, and Young Adult biographies. He's won
NEA and NC Arts Council grants, been nominated for the
National Book Award, and Pushcart Prize.

It's hard to publish these days. 

Let Mr. Krawiec help you prepare your work for publication.
http://home.mindspring.com/~rkwriter/id2.htm

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EDITOR'S PIECE OF MIND
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Read newsletter online at: http://www.fundsforwriters.com/FFW.htm
Read past issues at: http://www.aweber.com/z/article/?fundsforwriters

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FEEDBACK FROM LAST WEEK'S EDITORIAL

Last week, I ranted just a tad about writing through the
down times, because that's when you realize if you possess
the gut need to write. I received this feedback that touched
my heart, and I knew you would appreciate it, too. It gives
you a different perspective on editors, writing, the business
and the emotional attachment we have to putting good words on
paper. You never know who you touch in this career who is
unhappy or struggling to be happier. Keep that in mind when
dealing with editors, publishers, assistants, agents and other
writers.

<< Hope,

I just recently found and subscribed to your newsletter. Your
most recent note about writing no matter what made me break
down and cry. Perhaps my drive is not strong enough because I
have a lot of excuses despite a background in writing.

Somehow ten years ago I went from being a writer to a full-
time editor, and I am miserable. I have a great job, benefits
to die for, but I am bored and frustrated.

I'm so tired of reading and correcting copy by the end of
day that I have little energy left to write. I'm tired of
authors who don't even notice how much rewriting I do and
then take credit for some brilliant prose. Precious few even
notice the improvements, and some think they did it! I have
slashed my way through dense and sloppy books written by
people with enough letters after their names to make alphabet
soup. They may know their topics, but they can't write.

Despite my credentials in journalism and my background in
publishing, a couple of writing and publishing awards, and
enough clips to start a landfill, my boss, who fancies
himself a writer and publisher, routinely overlooks my
writing skills. (Funny, I end up rewriting stuff for him
and others in the office, but never get credit for it.)

I do, however, also work with authors who are grateful and
cooperative, and are pleased to have an editor working on
their behalf to create works that communicate well to the
audience. But this does not stop me from longing for the
limelight as well as the writing time of my own.

I'm afraid to quit because of the income and benefits and
exactly what you are writing about--the slow economic times.
But you've given me a spark of "hope"!

Thanks,
E. K. Sommer>>

I'll never look at editors, assistant editors or their staff
the same again.

    Hope

FEROCIOUS!

With summer just over the top of the trees, you probably
know of ten or more events in nearby communities---arts
festivals, weener dog races, farmers markets, county fairs,
horse shows, summer camp expos, home shows, outdoor drama---
where you could effectively promote your book at low cost
and high impact. For more details, and lots more ideas on
how to ferociously promote your feisty little title, you'll
want a copy of Funds For Writers' new e-book.

Ferocious Promotion for Timid Authors - $7.95
www.fundsforwriters.com/ferocious.htm

=====

http://www.hopeclark.blogspot.com

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WORDS OF SUCCESS
 
 "Creativity can solve almost any problem. The creative act,
the defeat of habit by originality, overcomes everything."

-- George Lois

 
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SUCCESS OF THE WEEK
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Dear Hope -

I've never written in to tell you what successes I've had,
due to reading contests in your newsletter, until now!

Last year, I made it to the Short List for the very prestigious
"Best Canadian Poem" in DESCANT literary magazine, for my
wistful love poem, "Change In The Weather."

This year, I won 4th prize in the Cecelia Lamont Memorial
Literary Contest, for my poem, "Sky Trip" - an erotic love
poem, or romantic sex poem (depending on your perspective)
which coined the (new) word lushward, for that "place of
descent, just under a lover's waistband."

Most recently, I've won 4th place in the New Millennium
Writings first Barack Obama Literary Contest for my essay,
"Hybrid In A Box" - about being of mixed-race (a hybrid) but
choosing to call oneself (as in Obama's case) "Black" and
issues around this topic...(!!) It may be printed in the
Summer edition.

Along the way, I've received some very encouraging
comments from the fabulous glossy British arts magazine,
"Aesthetica" and the "FreeFall: Canada's most exquisite
writing" - again, these were contests I entered after
seeing them listed by you!

And you may print that!!

Luv Ya!
SheLa E. Nefertiti Morrison,
Gabriola Island, B.C. Canada

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ARTICLE
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Increase Your Income By Writing Close to Home

By Patricia L. Fry

Are you so busy searching for great stories in exotic places
that you haven't noticed what's going on right under your nose?
You may be surprised at the number of good article and book
ideas to be discovered in your own hometown. All you need is a
keen eye and an inquisitive mind.

Here are some tips for using your friendly neighborhood
resources and experts to produce articles and books you can
sell internationally.

1:  View your business community with a journalistic eye. 
Notice what's going on around you, attend events and grand
openings, visit new businesses and shop locally. Tour
historic places. Join a local group for a nature hike next
Sunday. The article ideas should abound.

At a recent Chamber Mixer, I met a woman who had just
developed her own line of skin care products for cancer
patients. Of course, I set an appointment for an interview
with her.

A few weeks ago, I delivered a supply of my local history
books to a quilt shop in town. Before leaving, I looked
around the store and found a most unique item for sale there.
I interviewed the shop owner, took photos of the products,
wrote a query letter and landed an assignment with The
Quilter Magazine within a few days.

2:  Become a tourist in your hometown. A visit to a local
raptor rehabilitation center a few years ago culminated in
an article for ASPCA Animal Watch. I met a local artist
downtown once who made batik dolls. I sold a story about
her to a craft magazine. I produced a piece for the same
magazine featuring how to dry flowers in silica sand, per
a local florist.

3:  Find experts in your town. Whether I'm writing for a
local publication or a national magazine, I often solicit
the help of local experts. Sometimes this leads to a full-
blown article, like the one I did for Silicon2.0 featuring
the founder of the highly successful business, Lynda.com.
A friend of mine was the regional chapter leader for a
stepfamily organization. Of course, she was an expert for
my piece on getting along in a stepfamily. I also interviewed
a few local couples who run businesses together for a piece
for Business Start-Ups Magazine.

4:  Read the newspaper. A couple of years ago, I read
about two boys who had just written a book about living
with child onset diabetes. I've sold their story to Becoming
Family and Hope Magazines.         

5:  Get involved. Join in and reap big writing benefits. My
involvement with the Ojai Valley Youth Foundation has
resulted in two published books and numerous articles on
youth mentoring and journal-keeping. I taught an 8-week
writing workshop for a group of homeschooled children a few
years ago. The publicity for that effort resulted in two new
clients.

6:  Network with your ears wide open. Always be on the
lookout for potential stories. Maybe you've heard about a
couple in your neighborhood who grow herbs for local gourmet
restaurants. Do you know someone who has recipes for cactus
apples or who races pigeons? These interesting stories could
earn you a publishing credit and a paycheck.

7:  Look for stories locally with national appeal. We have a
center here for search and rescue dogs. These dogs participated
in the aftermath of the Oklahoma bombing and at the World Trade
Center tragedy. There are several stories tied to this
organization and these remarkable dogs.

What goes on in your community that is of national interest?
Is there a highly successful drug rehab center in your area?
Do you have the winningest peewee soccer team in the state?
The next time you can't come up with anything to write about,
think locally. The story possibilities in your own community
are endless.

BIO
Patricia Fry is the president of SPAWN (Small Publishers,
Artists and Writers Network) www.spawn.org. She is also a
fulltime freelance writer and the author of 29 books
including the "The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your
Book."

www.matilijapress.com/rightway.html
www.matilijapress.com/publishingblog

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COMPETITIONS
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MEMPHIS MAGAZINE FICTION CONTEST
http://www.memphismagazine.com/gyrobase/Magazine/Page?oid=21607
---
$10 ENTRY FEE
The winning story will earn a $1,000 grand prize and will be
published in a future issue of Memphis. Two honorable mention
awards of $500 each will be given if the quality of entries
warrants. Contest cosponsors are Burke's Book Store, and
Davis-Kidd Booksellers. Authors must live within 150 miles of
Memphis. Entries must be postmarked by August 1, 2009. Stories
should be between 3,000 and 4,500 words. Stories are NOT
required to have a Memphis or Southern theme.

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TAMARACK AWARD
http://www.minnesotamonthly.com/media/Minnesota-Monthly/Join-In/Tamarack-Award-Submissions/
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NO ENTRY FEE
Deadline July 1, 2009. The competition is open to residents
of Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, Wisconsin,
and Michigan. Maximum length: 4,000 words. Must be an original,
unpublished work of short fiction. The author of the winning
manuscript will, upon signing Minnesota Monthly's standard
publication contract, be published in the November 2008 issue.
Minnesota Public Radio will reserve the right to broadcast a
reading of the winning story.

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ESR ESSAY CONTEST
http://esr.earlham.edu/events/50years/essay.html
---
NO ENTRY FEE
Contest winners will be invited to attend ESR's 50th
Anniversary kick-off event on Saturday, September 26, 2009
and read their entries. Their essays will also be printed
in a commemorative booklet, and excerpts may be printed in
Quaker publications. Essays will be read and judged by a
three-person panel. One essay will be chosen and given a
cash prize in each of the following categories:

Under age 19 - $300 cash prize
Age 19 and over - $700 cash prize

Essays must directly answer the question, What message or
gifts do Quakers offer today in answer to the world's
greatest needs?

Essays for the under age 19 category cannot exceed 2,500
words, and essays for the age 19 and over category must
be a minimum of 5,000 words and not exceed 7,500 words.
Deadline May 31, 2009.
 

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GRANTS
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HODSON-BROWN FELLOWSHIP
http://starrcenter.washcoll.edu
---
The Hodson-Brown fellowship supports work by academics,
independent scholars and writers working on significant
projects relating to the literature, history, culture, or
art of the Americas before 1830. It is also open to filmmakers,
novelists, creative and performing artists, and others working
on projects that draw on this period of history. The
fellowship award supports two months of research (in
Providence, R.I.) and two months of writing (at Washington
College in Chestertown, Md). Housing and university
privileges will be provided. The fellowship includes a
stipend of $5,000 per month for a total of $20,000.
Deadline for applications for the 2010 fellowship year is
July 15, 2009.

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CANADIAN CREATIVE WRITING GRANTS
http://www.canadacouncil.ca/grants/writing/ri127227329682968750.htm
---
The Grants for Professional Writers program covers subsistence,
project and travel expenses. The Creative Writing Grants
component gives Canadian authors (emerging, mid-career and
established) time to write new literary works, including novels,
short stories, poetry, children's literature, graphic novels
and literary non-fiction. Deadline October 1, 2009.

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OLVAR FELLOWSHIP AWARD
http://www.olvarwood.com.au/Olvar/FellowshipAward.html
---
$10 APPLICATION FEE
The Olvar Wood Fellowship Award is a chance for you to gain
recognition for the quality of your writing, and support in
getting it to the next stage. Submissions of up to 50,000
words are invited, in any genre (including non-fiction).
Your entry should not be currently under contract with a
publisher or agent, nor should it have been previously
self- or partner- published. The award is open to authors
of any age, or publishing history. Four manuscripts will
be selected for the fellowship. Each of the winning entrants
will receive a full manuscript appraisal, including guidance
on how to further develop their work for publication; a week-
long intensive retreat at Olvar Wood Writers Retreat (24-31
July); three monthly feedback sessions after the retreat to
support them in rewriting/editing their manuscript;
membership of Friends of Olvar. Deadline May 29, 2009.
Location Queensland, Australia.
 

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FREELANCE MARKETS
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VIETNAM MAGAZINE
http://www.historynet.com/magazines/vietnam
http://www.historynet.com/contact-historynet-and-weider-history-group
---
Presenting the full & true stories from America's most
controversial & divisive war. Vietnam is the only magazine
exclusively devoted to telling the full story behind
America's most controversial war, with gripping firsthand
accounts and carefully researched articles by veterans of
the conflict and top military historians.

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BANGOR METRO
http://www.bangormetro.com/media/Bangor-Metro/Submissions/
---
Submit your arts and entertainment event of regional interest
to Bangor Metro's What's Happening section. Submit major news
from your company or organization to Biz Buzz. Announce news
of new hires, promotions or retirement of company principals,
senior executives and board members in On the Move, plus news
of major personnel awards and business relocations. Inquiries
from proven pros about contributing to Bangor Metro go to
queries@bangormetro.com

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INTELLIGENT ENTERPRISE
http://www.intelligententerprise.com/wguide.jhtml
---
Thank you for your interest in writing for Intelligent
Enterprise, the first and only information resource for IT
and business leaders focusing on business-critical solutions
that make organizations smarter, faster and more profitable.
Our readers are educated, technically astute, and experienced;
they use their knowledge to guide them through a dynamic
industry. They're exploring the powers and pitfalls of
technology platforms. IntelligentEnterprise.com sometimes
offers payment for the acquisition of publication rights;
authors typically receive $500 per article.

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JOBS
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SPORTS EDITOR
Location Sandusky, OH
http://www.journalismjobs.com/Job_Listing.cfm?Media=Newspapers/Wires&JobID=1040834
---
Midwestern resort town newspaper seeks extraordinary sports
editor who is ready for the challenge of maintaining the
excellent local sports coverage our veteran sports editors
have maintained and expand it to meet the challenges of the
new digital media era.

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STAFF WRITER
Location Phoenix, AZ
http://www.journalismjobs.com/Job_Listing.cfm?Media=Newspapers/Wires&JobID=1052002
---
Village Voice Media, the nation's largest publisher of
alternative newsweeklies, has an immediate opening for a
full-time staff writer in Phoenix. We're looking for a
journalist who understands the difference between magazine-
style reporting and the hurried fact-finding of daily papers.
Spanish fluency is required.

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EDITOR-REPORTER
Location Elko, NV
http://www.journalismjobs.com/Job_Listing.cfm?Media=Newspapers/Wires&JobID=1052042
---
The Elko Daily Free Press seeks an experienced editor or
reporter with copy editing and pagination skills to cover
general news in our remote but dynamic corner of northern
Nevada. Our high desert landscape is surrounded by public
land, a big attraction for outdoor recreation, and Elko is
home of the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering.

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PUBLISHERS/AGENTS
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ECW PRESS
http://www.ecwpress.com/ecw/submissions
---
We receive close to 1,500 submissions per year and publish
50-60 titles a year (only 4-8 are poetry or fiction). For
non-fiction, we accept proposals from anywhere, but for
poetry and fiction, we publish Canadian authors. Interested
in business, sports, mysteries, true crime, biography, pop
culture, general fiction, creative nonfiction, literary
fiction, sci-fi/fantasy, graphic novels, history and
corporate books.

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FRONT STREET
http://www.frontstreetbooks.com/
---
High quality fiction for children and young adults and
sophisticated picture books from here and abroad. Front
Street's young adult fiction often deals with children in
crisis or children at risk, offering hope and succor, however
difficult the subject. Our picture books emphasize art and
design. We strive to expose young readers to the best
literature available in other countries, cultures, and
languages.

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HOST PUBLICATIONS
http://www.hostpublications.com/
---
Founded in 1987 in Austin, Texas HOST Publications is a press
dedicated to bringing readers the best in international
literature and the most exciting writing from the United
States. Since its inception, HOST has published works from
countries as diverse as Brazil, Chile, Poland, Belgium,
Turkey and the United States.

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SPONSORS
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WORLDWIDE FREELANCE MARKETS - Serving the freelance writing
community for 10 years. Come and try our searchable database of
writing markets from North America, Europe and around the world. 

http://www.worldwidefreelance.com

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http://www.fundsforwriters.com/adrates.htm 

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BUSINESS STUFF
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C. Hope Clark
E-mail: hope@fundsforwriters.com

140-A Amicks Ferry Road #4
Chapin, SC 29036

http://www.fundsforwriters.com

Copyright 2000-2009, C. Hope Clark
ISSN: 1533-1326

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