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Editor’s THOUGHTS

Read newsletter online at: http://www.fundsforwriters.com/fundsforwriters
Read past issues at: http://www.aweber.com/z/article/?fundsforwriters

===

IT'S EASIER FOR YOU

Just heard again today from a struggling author that my route was easier for me than for him because I had an agent and I had a traditional publisher who took care of most of the marketing.

Honey . . . those are fightin' words.

When you see an author more successful than you are at this moment, please stop and take a second. Realize that at some point in the past, that author was in your shoes. That author may have had it WORSE than you do now. He may have taken ten years to do what it's taken you only two.

Sure, he has an agent. Or he has a publishing contract. He may have worked two years to land the agent and five to land a contract. He may have never obtained a contract on his original book, and had to write another one to earn the interest of a publisher. Imagine that . . . an entire book sitting on a shelf.

He started off as nobody. He loved to write and he wanted to publish, but nobody knew who the heck he was. So he blogged, or worked Twitter, or became creative on Facebook. He might've been a wizard on Pinterest or enjoyed public speaking. He could've been belly-hurting humorous or had a charismatic gift in developing a great street team of supporters.

Trust me . . . he fought to earn his place.

And he continues to fight the good fight. When his book comes out this month, be assured that he's responsible for having the next manuscript already written. Maybe two. He's responsible for seeing that the book becomes noticed. He's urgently seeking promotional venues, whether in person, in blogs, on radio, or in person. He writes first, markets second, and plays last.

He's been doing this with serious intent to be successful. He never waited to see what might happen. He made it happen, and chose not to settle for less. Whether he self-published or traditionally published, there was little to no luck involved. He was hell-bent on becoming a writer, an author, and he spent hours each day defining the benchmarks that would take him there.

So. Next time you want to make excuses about why you haven't achieved the success you want, look in the mirror, not at the guy who's selling books.

--

NOTE: A forceful message, but I wanted to put a fire in your belly, not just in your holiday fireplace. Merry Christmas everyone!

~HOPE

WEBSITE - http://www.chopeclark.com
BLOG - http://www.chopeclark.com/blog
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ABOUT.ME - http://about.me/hopeclark
GOODREADS - http://www.goodreads.com/hopeclark
PINTEREST - http://www.pinterest.com/chopeclark

THANKS FROM HOPE - in case you missed her message and tokens of appreciation Thanksgiving week: http://chopeclark.com/thanks-from-hope/

WORDS OF SUCCESS

There must be certain pilings driven so deeply into my soul that in times of crisis they will serve as immovable, unquestionable anchors in my life.

~ Wayne Cordeiro

THE SHY WRITER

Introversion may seem like a major obstacle to building a successful writing career, but this wonderful “covers-all-the-bases” book handily debunks the notion. ~Peter Bowerman, Author “The Well-Fed Writer” series

Hope has solutions in The Shy Writer Reborn that let you make the most of who you are instead of asking you to change your personality. ~Linda Formichelli, The Renegade Writer

	The Carolina Slade Mystery Series http://www.chopeclark.com/ On Tidewater Murder: Terrific. Smart, knowing, clever…and completely original. A taut, high-tension page-turned—in a unique and fascinating setting. An absolute winner! ~Hank Phillippi Ryan, Agatha, Anthony and Macavity winning author On Lowcountry Bribe: With a story that moves so fast you are sure to get a case of literary whiplash, LOWCOUNTRY BRIBE is almost impossible to put down. Written with grace and ferocity, I for one can hardly wait for a second helping of this unpredictably un-pretentious and hard-scrabble down-home gal. ~Rachel Gladstone, Dish Magazine Purchase any of Hope's books and receive a one-year subscription to TOTAL FFW free. Send receipt to hope@fundsforwriters.com

Success Story

NOTE: This is not only a note of success, but of advice that spins off last week's editorial. Merry Christmas!

Hello Hope – Great editorial today! Hits home for me, I work with a very competitive technical writing topic these days and make every effort to earn the trust of the clients I want to work with. I’ve tried something new this December, instead of sending out a “cold” proposal when requested, I place a call and have a conversation with my prospective client. Rare these days that anyone actually talks on the phone. It’s been my busiest December ever!

Another area where your topic rings true is too many choices does breed inaction. When I am writing documents, I find those employers who offer lots of choices for their employees end up having less participation in those choices. Sad since they are only trying to do the right thing and it ends up having the reverse effect.

I also wanted to thank you for your support with your responses to my e-mails this year.

My best wishes to you and your family for a safe and happy holiday season.

Beverly Kossum, CEBS, PFP Write Business Solutions 844 Larimer Avenue Wilkins Township, PA 15145 - phone 412-559-3758

featured article

THE PLAY'S THE THING

By Steven M. Cross

In Hamlet, there is the line that goes something like "The play's the thing wherein we can catch the conscience of the king." If you "play" your cards right, playwriting can be the thing that earns you some extra money as a freelancer. There is a huge demand for appropriate plays for the middle school and high school markets.

The reason is simple. A lot of people have found themselves in a position like I did several years ago when I was directing plays. I just couldn't find something suitable for the resources I had, so I wrote my own. Later, I queried a publisher on the off chance that it might accept freelance submissions. The one I queried did. Brooklyn Publishers accepted one of my plays and asked for more.

Since that first play, I have published seven plays with this company. The one thing about playwriting is that if you establish a reputation as a writer who can deliver what schools need, you can ride that formula to playwriting success. What I wanted was simple enough: easy comedies, simple sets, and flexible casts leaning heavily to more female parts. Now, twice a year I get royalty checks.

If you would like to tap into this market, I would make three suggestions:

First, look at publisher websites. Brooklyn Publishers is www.brookpub.com. Check out what they publish; read the descriptions and order a couple of plays to read. Do a search for paying magazines that pay for plays. I know of at least two that accept submissions: Dramatics and Plays.

Second, go to performances. I'm talking high school and college drama performances. Better yet, get involved in community drama.

Third, learn some of the ins and outs of playwriting. There are at least two free online playwriting courses you can check on. MIT has an open course ware playwriting course and playwright Johnathan Dorf has on online course called Playwriting 101. You can google these and go right to them.

http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/music-and-theater-arts/21m-604-playwriting-1-spring-2005/index.htm http://www.playwriting101.com

What are you waiting for? Curtains Up! Let's play.

BIO Steven M. Cross is a freelance writer and educator who lives with his wife and daughter in Arcadia, MO. Cross teaches high school English and college composition and public speaking. Cross has written and published several plays, which are performed by schools everywhere. One of his biggest aspirations is to option screenplays. He earned his Bachelors and Masters degrees at Southeast Missouri State University, a beautiful Mississippi River town located in Cape Girardeau, MO.

Twitter: @stevecrosswords.

Blog: http://stevecrosswords.blogspot.com

Book: http://www.buckscountypublishing.com/portal/BookStore/LancelotandtheTidesofTime.aspx http://www.amazon.com/Lancelot-Tides-Time-ebook/dp/B005IDNASS

competitions

2014 MEMPHIS MAGAZINE FICTION CONTEST http://www.memphismagazine.com/Fiction-Contest-Rules/ --- ENTRY FEE $10. Authors must live within 150 miles of Memphis. Stories should be between 3,000 and 4,500 words long. First prize $1,000. Second prize $500. Third prize $500. Deadline February 1, 2014.

TELEGRAPH TRAVEL "JUST BACK" http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/4207858/Telegraph-Travel-Just-Back-competition-terms-and-conditions.html --- NO ENTRY FEE. The “Just Back” weekly competitions are open to residents of the UK, Channel Islands Isle of Man and Republic of Ireland aged 18 years or over. The weekly winning entry will be published on www.telegraph.co.uk/travel on the Friday following the closing date of that competition. The "Just Back" article of the year will be published in December 2013. The winning entrant of each weekly competition will receive £200 in the foreign currency of his or her choice. Prizes must be claimed within 60 days of the winner being notified. The writer of the "Just Back" article of the year will receive £1,000 in the foreign currency of his or her choice.

PHOEBE JOURNAL CREATIVE NONFICTION PRIZE http://www.phoebejournal.com/2014-winter-writing-contests/ --- ENTRY FEE $17. Submit up to 5,000 words. $750 and publication. Deadline: February 1, 2014.

2014 BRISTOL SHORT STORY PRIZE http://www.bristolprize.co.uk/rules.html --- ENTRY FEE £8. Open to all published and unpublished writers, UK and non-UK based, over 16 years of age. Stories can be on any theme or subject and entry can be made online via the website or by post. Maximum length of 4,000 words. Deadline April 30th 2014. First prize £1000 (about $1,600 USD) plus £150 Waterstone’s gift card. Second £700 (about $1,100 USD) plus £100 Waterstone’s gift card. Third £400 (about $640 USD) plus £100 Waterstone’s gift card. Seventeen further prizes of £100 (about $160 USD) will be presented to the writers whose stories appear on the shortlist. All 20 shortlisted writers will have their stories published in the Bristol Short Story Prize Anthology Volume 7. The 20 shortlisted writers will be invited to an awards ceremony in Bristol in October 2014.

GERTRUDE STEIN AWARD IN FICTION http://thedoctortjeckleburgreview.com --- ENTRY FEE $10. The Doctor T.J. Eckleburg Review is accepting submissions for our Gertrude Stein Award in Fiction. Eckleburg is a print and online literary and arts journal housed in Johns Hopkins University, M.A. in Writing Program. Our aesthetic is eclectic — anything from literary mainstream to experimental. We’re in love with fusion forms such as magical realist, surrealist, meta-realist, and anything with an offbeat spin! Submit 8,000 words or less. Stories must be submitted online and in manuscript form. Multimedia submissions (visual that includes text) are welcome. No film or audio. Award-winning manuscripts will receive $1,000 and publication in The Doctor T. J. Eckleburg Review. Deadline for submissions is New Year’s Eve 2013, midnight.

GRANTS

HAMBIDGE CREATIVE RESIDENCY PROGRAM http://www.hambidge.org/application.html --- Apply from December 1 through January 15 for the May through August residency period. Apply from March 1 through April 15 for the September through December residency period. Apply from August 1 through September 15 for the mid-February through April residency period. Hambidge is closed from mid-December to mid-February. All new applicants will automatically be considered for the NEA Fellowship which provides a $700 stipend and waives the $400 residency fee for two week residencies. This is offered to the nine top scoring candidates. $30 application fee. Location Rabun Gap, GA.

NATIVE ARTIST FELLOWSHIPS http://sarweb.org/?artists --- The Indian Arts Research Center (IARC) at the School for Advanced Research (SAR) offers three artist-in-residence fellowships annually to advance the work of mature and emerging Native artists. Each fellowship includes a monthly stipend, housing, studio space, a supplies allowance, and travel reimbursement to and from SAR. These fellowships provide time for artists to explore new avenues of creativity, grapple with new ideas to further advance their work, and strengthen existing talents. The fellowships support diverse creative disciplines and can include sculpture, performance, basketry, painting, printmaking, digital art, mixed media, photography, pottery, writing, and film and video. Deadline January 15, 2014.

AL SMITH INDIVIDUAL ARTIST FELLOWSHIP http://artscouncil.ky.gov/Grants/ASF.htm --- The Al Smith Individual Artist Fellowships are $7,500 unrestricted awards given to Kentucky artists who have achieved a high level of excellence and creativity in their work. Deadline February 15, 2014.

TURKEY LAND COVE FOUNDATION http://turkeylandcovefoundation.com/ --- A working retreat for motivated women. The deadline for our fall session 2014 (September 15 through February 1, 2015) is June 1, 2014. The successful applicant will be a motivated woman with clear, definable goals to pursue artistic, professional, or educational advancement and a plan to implement those goals. We are looking for women with the following characteristics: leadership qualities, goal-directed, ambitious, motivated, determined. She will be judged on the quality of her idea and the professionalism of her plan. We are currently limiting grants to women who are residents of New England or New York State.

PLAYA RESIDENCIES www.playasummerlake.org --- Playa (Summer Lake, OR) is now accepting applications for Spring 2014 Fellowship Residencies, running from April 21-June 13, 2014. Artists, writers, natural scientists, naturalists, and others engaged in creative or interdisciplinary work are encouraged to apply. Fellowship Residencies include housing, work or studio space, and one group dinner a week at no cost. Deadline December 30, 2013.

FREELANCE MARKETS

MIDLIFE COLLAGE http://midlifecollage.com/submissions/ --- Submissions must be your own true, nonfiction short story occurring during your 40's – 60's. Suggested length of submission is 250 to 800 words. Prizes: $50. Deadline: Weekly.

ONE TEEN STORY http://www.oneteenstory.com/index.php?page=submit --- Unsolicited submissions are accepted from February 1 to April 30, 2013. One Teen Story accepts submissions from writers of all ages. Most of the stories we publish are by adult authors writing for a young-adult audience. While teen writers are welcome to submit during our regular submission period, we encourage them to submit instead to our teen contest, which opens on May 1. One Teen Story is looking for great short stories written for the young adult audience ages 14 and up. We’re open to all genres of literary fiction between 2,000 and 4,500 words. Because of our format, we can only accept stories that are strong enough to stand alone. One Teen Story is offering $500 and 25 contributor copies for first North American serial rights. All rights will revert to the author upon publication.

DRUM! http://www.drummagazine.com/about/post/drum-writers-guide/ --- The best source of drumming news and info on this planet and others as they become populated. We are a special-interest publication. Literally 99 percent of our readers are drummers and percussionists. They read the magazine chiefly because they want to learn to play better, they want to learn about the techniques and equipment of artists they admire, and they want to learn more about the instruments themselves. Please note how often the word “learn” crops up here. Pays up to $300. Short pieces in DRUM! Magazine may run between 300 and 1,000 words in length; a cover story may be as long as 4,000 words.

NUTS AND VOLTS http://www.nutsvolts.com/writers-guidelines --- Nuts & Volts is the leading magazine for those seriously interested in electronics. Nuts & Volts is written for the hands-on hobbyist, design engineer, technician, and experimenter. The diversity of subjects appeals to all levels of experience and spans such topics as amateur robotics, circuit design, lasers, computer control, home automation, data acquisition, new technology, DIY projects, electronic theory, analog, and myriad microcontrollers. Pays up to $450.

JOBS

NONE THIS WEEK

PUBLISHERS

ANGRY ROBOT PUBLISHING http://angryrobotbooks.com/opendoor --- Angry Robot is now open to submissions until the end of the year, even if you have no agent. We’re looking for science fiction, fantasy and fantasy of all flavours for an adult readership. No YA, no middle-grade.

PRONGHORN PRESS http://pronghornpress.org/ --- Pronghorn is a small press that prides itself on publishing outstanding quality works in a variety of genres and in multiple formats including hard and soft covers as well as digital and audio versions of some of our titles. We are proud to offer books including Poetry in our Women & Words series, the West, Biography, story collections and anthologies, Gardening and Cooking, Memoir and several Fiction titles. Under our Higher Shelf imprint we have Personal Exploration titles as well as Political Commentary. We also have a Science Fiction/Fantasy imprint, Antelios, and a children’s books imprint called Prairie Winkle.

CORVISIERO LITERARY AGENCY http://www.corvisieroagency.com/ --- We offer international agenting services to fiction and non-fiction authors in a wide spectrum of genres. Please see our agents' profiles to determine which agent is the best fit your needs. Accepts a wide variety of material and genres.

DONALD MAASS LITERARY AGENCY http://www.maassagency.com/ --- Agents Donald Maass, Jennifer Jackson, Cameron McClure, Stacia Decker, Katie Shea and Amy Boggs together represent more than 150 novelists and sell more than 100 novels every year to leading publishers in the U.S. and overseas. We are fiction specialists. All genres are welcome. We handle many authors of science fiction, fantasy, mystery, suspense, horror, romance, historical, literary and mainstream novels.

IRENE GOODMAN AGENCY http://www.irenegoodman.com/ --- Represents the best in commercial fiction, literary fiction, and non-fiction. Our authors have hundreds of appearances on the New York Times, USA Today, Publishers Weekly, Walden, and Bookscan bestseller lists.

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Call for Entries: Poets & Writers!

Dream Quest One Poetry & Writing Contest.

Write a poem, 30 lines or fewer on any subject and/or write a short story, 5 pages maximum length on any theme, single or double-line spacing, neatly hand printed or legibly typed.

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Fine print

Please forward the newsletter in its entirety. To reprint any editorials, contact hope@fundsforwriters.com for permission. Please do not assume that acknowledgements listed in your publication is considered a valid right to publish.

C. Hope Clark
E-mail: hope@fundsforwriters.com
140-A Amicks Ferry Road #4
Chapin, SC 29036
http://www.fundsforwriters.com

Copyright 2000-2013, C. Hope Clark
ISSN: 1533-1326

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