SPONSOR OF THE WEEK

Editor’s THOUGHTS

CONFERENCE ORGANIZERS

I am the first person to tip my hat to the crazy, dedicated, devoted souls who prepare writing conferences. I just read another email from someone I know via FundsforWriters who is broadcasting a small conference in his home state, and it makes me just shake my head. Why? Because the work is intense to do one well, and from my experience, these people love writing so damn much they want to give back, and this is how they do it. I know it's not my cup of tea, but these people, well . . . they love what they do.

Who are these people?

Some are involved in the huge conferences drawing a thousand people, and then there are those smaller events with 100-400 people. Unfortunately, the latter don't have the financial and broad-based sponsor advantage. They fight to line up the hotel, speakers, meals, snacks, handouts, advertising, and yes, sponsors to bring together writers eager to become better writers. They maintains smiles while coping with cancellations, higher-than-expected bills, and demanding speakers. They address the occasional irritating attendee and the fussy sponsor. They run off copies for speakers five minutes before a class, and they run down podiums missing from a classroom. They fight sound systems and fetch coffee. These people are givers of the highest order.

But in the case of the larger conferences, the same sort of fanatics get involved in sections, categories, or divisions, often volunteering. Are they gluttons for punishment, or what? They take marching orders and do much of what the above conference organizers do, only with even less thanks because they are so hidden in the background behind the glamor of bigger-named sponsors and writers. And they keep a smile on their faces to make whatever assignment they have a success. I know several of these wonderful souls.

Everyone needs to attend some sort of conference, and I strongly suggest an annual appearance to one of these affairs. Why? Because you need to rub elbows with strangers, learn from the more successful writers, give new writers an atta-boy, dare take chances with agents and contests, become more knowledgeable, and acquire a little more confidence than you had before. You'll be nervous and excited all in one, intimidated and eager as well. But in all your whirlwind of emotions, take the time to ferret out the people who make the conference come together . . . and shake their hand. 

Give conference organizers your gratitude. They are one of the many trying to help you become a better writer. And sometimes even a thank-you note afterwards would be grand.


 

WE HAVE 2 NEWSLETTERS - THE FREEBIE and THE PAID SUBSCRIPTION . . . 

Remember that FundsforWriters, this newsletter, is free. Send it to whomever you like and share it liberally. But if you are serious about writing income resources, and your time is limited, consider subscribing to TOTAL FundsforWriters. It comes out biweekly, with 70 contests, markets, grants, retreats, publishers, freelance gigs, magazines and more, It's huge, but it saves you a lot of time searching. It's $18.75 for a year, or 26 issues. To subscribe, simply go towww.paypal.me/chopeclark/18.75 . It will be sent to the email you used unless you specify otherwise.

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Upcoming Book Signings and Classes! (All times in Eastern.)    Apr 26 - Darlington Library, SC - Successful Editing - 6:30 PM   Apr 28 - Anderson County Library, SC - Successful Editing - 6:30 PM   May 2 - St. Stephen's Library, SC - Habits of Successful Writer - 5 PM   May 3 - Daniel Island Library, SC - Plotting - 5:00 PM   May 4 - Timberlake Book Club, Chapin, SC - 1:00 PM   May 5 - McCormick County Library, SC - Getting Published - 6:30 PM   May 9  - Goose Creek Library - Characters - 5:30 PM   May 10 - Hanahan Library - Editing - 6:30 PM   May 12 - Calhoun County Library, SC - Getting Published - 6:30 PM   May 16 - Moncks Corner LIbrary, SC - Publishing/Marketing - 6:00 PM   May 17 - Sangaree Library, SC - 5:30 PM   May 24 - Darlington Library, SC - Getting Published - 6:30 PM   May 26 - Anderson County Library, SC - Getting Published - 6:30 PM   Jun 7 - McCaskill Book Club - St Andrews Ctr, Cola, SC - 9:30 AM   Jun 11 - Hartsville Book Fair, Darlington, SC   Jun 23-25 - Midwest Writers Center Conference - Davenport, IA   Aug 1 - Batesburg Library Mystery Club, Batesburg/Leesville, SC -6PM   Aug 18-21 -Killer Nashville Conference, Franklin, TN   Sept 18 - Columbia County Library, Evans, GA - 2:30 PM   Sept 25 - Columbia County Library, Evans, GA - 2:30 PM   Oct 2 - Columbia County Library, Evans, GA - 2:30 PM   Oct 9 - Columbia County Library, Evans, GA - 2:30 PM

	THE EDISTO ISLAND MYSTERY SERIES http://www.chopeclark.com/ "A sparkling Edisto Island setting, a flawed heroine, a riveting mystery, and the hint of a paranormal twist makes EDISTO JINX the book for your beach bag. Author C. Hope Clark brings to life the uniqueness that is Edisto, peppering the island with endearing and strong-minded characters that linger in your mind long after the last page is turned." --Karen White, New York Times Bestselling Author, www.karen-white.com On MURDER ON EDISTO - “A taut, high-tension page-turner—in a unique and fascinating setting. An absolute winner!” –Hank Phillippi Ryan, Agatha, Anthony and Macavity winning author Purchase any of Hope's books and receive a one-year subscription to TOTAL FFW free. Send receipt to hope@fundsforwriters.com For an autographed version, click here.

Success Story

Hello Hope!

I wanted to say thank you for finding a good market to which I could submit my work! Back in January, I submitted my story called "10 Unicorns Around the World You Never Heard of" to Listverse.com,  and they accepted it! I got paid a hundred dollars!

Thanks so much!
Caroline Blaha-Black 
 

featured article

How to Get Reviews - Without Cheating!

By A.R. Wise

Writing a novel is hard work, but selling it can be even harder. A plethora of tremendous novels sit out there with meager sales and paltry reviews. Don't let yours get lost in the crowd. Follow these four tips to start garnering honest, real reviews that'll help your book stand out among the rest.

Before we get started, let's discuss (cheating) paying for reviews. Please don't do this. Not just because it's morally questionable, but also because you'll be wasting your money. Sites like Amazon rely on their review system, and they abhor fake reviews. You don't want to be associated with such practices. With that out of the way, let's talk about how to nail real reviews.

Step One: Ask For Them!

This one might seem obvious, but chances are you already missed the opportunity. Did you include a call to action in your book? Most authors don't, and it's a big mistake. Add an author's note to the end your book. In it, let the readers know how important reviews are, and that if they enjoyed your book, there's no better way to help out than to write a review. You'll be surprised how many reviews this garners.

Step Two: Engage Readers

Accept you must become an online social butterfly, whether you like it or not. Far too many writers ignore the art of social media, or they treat it as an advertising platform instead of an opportunity to communicate directly with their fans. No one wants to add a Twitter friend who incessantly plugs their own books. Don't be that type of author. Instead, learn to enjoy interacting with your fans via social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. Create these accounts, and add links to them in the author's note at the end of your novel. Readers are far more likely to post reviews of authors with whom they have direct contact.

Step Three: Advertise a Sale

This is where you'll need to take out your wallet and spend some cash. If you want get an impressive number of reviews, then you're going to need to advertise. Pick a few days in the near future when you'll put your book on sale, either for $0.99 or free, and then advertise the sale on some of the better ebook sites. Do not simply put your book on sale and sit back in the hopes that the world will take notice. Chances are, it won't. You need to light the fire by getting the word out.

Check out my article, Advertise Smarter (in next week's issue of FundsforWriters), for tips on which sites I use to get the most bang for my buck.

Step Four: Run a Contest

Once you start getting some followers on social media, reward the ones who take the time to help you out. Run a contest offering to send a free, signed copy of your book to one lucky winner (in my early days, before I started printing books, I would offer signed covers. I would print covers of my book, cut them out, and sign them. Readers loved them!) All your fans have to do is write a review, and then send you an email letting you know. Stretch the contest out over a month to allow readers the chance to finish the book, and you might be pleasantly surprised how many people do it. Just don't think the contest will run itself. Market it like you would your book or your appearances!

Follow these four steps and you'll be well on your way to amassing an impressive number of honest reviews from readers. Good luck, and keep writing!
 
BIO-
A.R. Wise is the author of several horror, mystery, and comedy novels, including 314, which has more than 1,000 reviews on Amazon. Several of his books, including 314, are available for free. If you enjoy his work, then do him a favor by writing a review.

www.arwisebooks.com
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competitions

THE BACKWATERS PRESS PRIZE
https://thebackwaterspress.submittable.com/submit
$25 ENTRY FEE.
Deadline May 31, 2016. Submit 60-85 pages of poetry. The prize is a $2,000 plus publication of the book in trade paperback, plus 30 copies of the book to the poet.  



LUMMOX PRESS POETRY PRIZE
http://www.lummoxpress.com/lc/the-2016-lummox-press-poetry-prize/
$15 ENTRY FEE.
Deadline May 31, 2016. The 2016 Lummox Press Poetry Prize will award publication of 40 copies of a chapbook of poetry (56 pages max), plus $200 to the winner, plus a mini-feature in LUMMOX 5 (L5); second and third place winners will also be published in the mini-feature in L5. All Contest entrants will receive a copy of the chapbook. Each poem will contain no more than 70 lines (including spaces between title, stanza/verses and title). The Winning poet will be asked to provide a manuscript of up to 56 pages.



PALOOKA PRESS PRIZE
https://palookamag.submittable.com/submit
$10 ENTRY FEE.
Please send your best fiction, poetry, nonfiction, graphic narrative, or hybrid. Manuscripts should be roughly 35-50 pages, but we're flexible with this in either direction. All pieces within entries are also considered for publication in the magazine. Deadline August 1, 2016. The Winner receives publication by Palooka Press, 20 free copies of the book, $200 honorarium, bio and photo featured on our website, and chapbook will be sent out for review and promotion.



ROYAL NONESUCH HUMOR WRITING CONTEST
https://twainhouse.submittable.com/submit
$13-$23 ENTRY FEE.
Submit 7,000 words (or fewer) of any original work of humor writing. Submissions are not required to be in the style of Mark Twain or about Mark Twain. We want to hear your voice. And we want you to make us laugh! Deadline July 10, 2016. Winners will retain ownership of their work. The Mark Twain House & Museum reserves the right to publish winning pieces in a public forum with credit to the author. PRIZES (winners in both categories):

1st Prize: $1,000 (Adult), $1,000 (Young Author)
2nd Prize: $500 (Adult), $500 (Young Author)
3rd Prize: $250 (Adult), $250 (Young Author)
Three Honorable Mention Prizes: $100 Gift Certificate for the Mark Twain Museum Store (Adult & Young Author). 
 

GRANTS

CHULITNA LODGE ARTIST IN RESIDENCE
http://chulitnalodge.com/artists
Chulitna Lodge Artist-In-Residence Program seeks to provide the time, space, clarity, and facilities for all forms of creative professionals to make and meditate. Full scholarships include Room & Board plus flight from anywhere in the continental U.S. and commuter flight from Anchorage to Port Alsworth and require a minimum of six weeks commitment between June 1 and Sept 30. Partial scholarships include Room & Board, but not transportation. Work study options are also available. All scholarship and work study artists are expected to participate in meal preparation, and clean up, and/or gardening.



SOUTHEASTERN MINNESOTA ARTS COUNCIL
http://semac.org/grant-categories.php
SEMAC will provide Individual Artist Grants to encourage the development of entirely original work by both Emerging Artists and Established Artists from the region.  Such works could include original literary or dramatic scripts, musical compositions, choreographies, visual arts creations, and interdisciplinary works. The original work must be earmarked for a public showcasing, via publication, performance, or exhibition, in conjunction with a non-profit arts organization. Individual Artist Grants of no less than $300 and no more than $2,500 will be considered for funding in the Emerging Artist category, and no more than $5,000 in the Established Artist category.



NATIONAL STORYTELLING BRIMSTONE AWARD
http://www.storynet.org/grants/brimstone.html
Grants of $5,000 will be awarded in support of model storytelling projects that are service-oriented, based in a community or organization, and replicable, to some extent, in other places and situations. Projects should have impact beyond their own communities, organizations, or clients; inspire excellence in applied storytelling work; and communicate to new audiences the humanitarian possibilities of storytelling. Deadline April 28, 2016.



ANTARACTIC ARTISTS AND WRITERS PROGRAM (NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION)
http://tinyurl.com/hum9o3k
Deadline June 1, 2016. Furnishes U.S. Antarctic Program operational support and round-trip economy air tickets between the United States and the Southern Hemisphere, to artists and writers whose work requires them to be in the Antarctic to complete their proposed project. The Program does not provide any funding to participants. The program does not support short-term projects that are essentially journalistic in nature. 
 

FREELANCE MARKETS

RANGE MAGAZINE
http://www.rangemagazine.com/guidelines/index.htm
RANGE magazine is an award-winning quarterly devoted to the issues that threaten the West, its people, lands, and wildlife. RANGE needs (1) stories about working family ranches successfully tending land and livestock, (2) solid profiles of working cowboys and sheepherders, and (3) interviews with government employees and environmentalists who have made a positive difference for people on the land. Regular features, tightly written, run 1,200-2,000 words; mini-features 600-1,200 words. Columns and "Confessions of Red Meat Survivors" (great nostalgia about people over 80) run 500-650 words. Payments are from $50 to $400 per article. RANGE buys First North American serial rights.



MOTORCYCLE MOJO
http://www.motorcyclemojo.com/editorial-guidelines/
We are proudly Canadian and  one of less than a handful of Canadian motorcycle magazines on the newsstands in a sea of American titles. We are a family-oriented motorcycle magazine that focuses on all types of road-going motorcycles, touring, history and destination articles. Destinations, meaning somewhere you can ride to for a weekend (or longer) and take in an event or a festival of some nature. A travel story may be a weekend trip just to ride the roads of a certain area, it could be a two-hour ride or a two-week ride, or longer. We are especially interested in travel within Canada or south of the border – some place Canadians can actually ride to. Small stories can be 600-800 words while travel features might run into 2,000 words.



McSWEENEY'S
http://www.mcsweeneys.net/tendency
We publish fiction and nonfiction. There are no rules. The best way to get a sense of what we’re interested in publishing is to read the Quarterly. Read articles online and note the quirky sense of humor required in the stories accepted. 



ASIMOV'S
http://www.asimovs.com/contact-us/writers-guidelines/
Asimov’s Science Fiction magazine is an established market for science fiction stories. Asimov’s pays 8-10 cents per word for short stories up to 7,500 words, and 8 cents for each word over 7,500. We seldom buy stories shorter than 1,000 words or longer than 20,000 words, and we don’t serialize novels. We pay $1 a line for poetry, which should not exceed 40 lines. We buy First English Language serial rights plus certain non-exclusive rights explained in our contract. We do not publish reprints, and we do not accept simultaneous submissions.
 

JOBS

publishers/agents

JOLLY FISH PRESS
http://www.jollyfishpress.com/about-us.html
We are Jolly Fish Press, a publishing house based in Provo, Utah, which publishes trade fiction and select non-fiction books in the national and international market. We excel in exceptional cover design, worldwide online and brick-and-mortar distribution, expansive publicity and marketing campaigns, subsidiary rights representation, and most of all, our drive and ability to find exceptional, yet undiscovered authors, jumpstarting their careers with maximum exposure, sales, mentoring, and higher than industry average royalty rates.



SEVENTH STREET BOOKS
http://www.seventhstreetbooks.com/submissions.html
Seventh Street Books publishes only mystery and thriller fiction. We are not currently looking for short story collections, anthologies, novellas, or nonfiction. 



CAROLYN JENKS
http://www.carolynjenksagency.com/
Carolyn Jenks brings a professional background in publishing, theatre and film to her work as an agent. She combines those disciplines and her love of literature with the art of agenting. The home office is in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where the agency continues to introduce new writers of all genres.



RIPPLE GROVE PRESS
http://www.ripplegrovepress.com/submissions/
We are looking for picture driven stories for children ages 2-6. Please do not send early readers, middle grade, or YA manuscripts. No religious or holiday themed stories. Please do not submit your story with page breaks or illustration notes. Do not submit a story with doodles or personal photographs. Do not send your idea for a story, send your story in manuscript form. We are not looking for: Lullaby stories or stories about how much I love you. Or my younger brother annoys me. Or there’s a new baby in the house. Or there’s a monster under my bed. Or I want to turn my sister into a monster. Or you’re the star in my heaven. We want something fresh and original.

 

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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 2000-2016, C. Hope Clark
ISSN: 1533-1326

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