The event was attended by over 30 audience members. Borders was delighted with the Morning Muses program and has requested that we hold Readings more frequently.

The Morning Muses readers were (L-R):

Alice Mendelsohn
Joanne Flynn Black
Dr. Ann M. DeVenezia
Naomi Levine
Karen R. Elsman
Dana Punzo (not pictured)

Readers in the Open Mic portion were quite talented and added much to the program.

There were familial and familiar faces from Women Who Write. Some audience members were interested in joining our organization and the Morning Muses shared information and handed out membership flyers. Thank you to everyone who supported the Reading by attending and/or participating.

We look forward to our next Reading at Borders. We thank Vin Russo, Borders Manager, as well as their attentive staff for their invaluable assistance and being wonderful hosts.

Karen R. Elsman
Morning Muses
Reading Moderator

Morning Muses Reading
Saturday, May 8th, 2010
2:00 PM to 4:00 PM
Open Mic – Bring a poem or story
Borders Bookstore
357 Mt. Hope Avenue
Rockaway, NJ 07866

Morning Muses is also open to new members and meets in the Parsippany area on the 2nd and 4th Tuesday of every month. For more information please, contact Karen R. Elsman at kremickey (at) optonline (dot) net.

Writing for Children IV is headed by Kate Bartlett, and will meet every other Saturday, 9:30am, at the Westfield Memorial Library on Broad Street in Westfield, NJ.

If you are interested in joining, please contact Kate Bartlett at katieb430 [at] verizon [dot] net.

The author-panelists will field questions from the audience on various topics concerning the publishing industry, such as:

• Submitting a polished manuscript
• Finding an agent
• Finding an editor
• Working with a publisher
• Marketing and promotion

Our panelists include the following authors:

• Joanne Flynn Black, journalist
• Michelle Cameron, author of the historical novel The Fruit of Her Hands: The Story of Shira of Ashkenaz
  
• Elaine Denholz, award-winning O’Neill playwright and author of the non-fiction title Having it Both Ways
• Ann M. DeVenezia, poet & author of Riding my Tricycle and Grave Rubbings
• Marcia Ivans, poet & author of Over Easy
• Alice Mendelsohn, poet
• Corey Rosen-Schwartz, children’s picture book author of Hop! Plop! and forthcoming Three Ninja Pigs

If you’re a writer, or just interested in the art and business of writing, please join us!

Saturday, Feburary 27th, 2009
2 to 4PM
Morris County Public Library
First floor conference room

Free and Open to the Public

A New Year’s Gathering

Thursday, January 7, 2010

7-9 pm

at

Café Beethoven
262 Main Street
Chatham, NJ 07928

light hors d’oeuvres
champagne, wine, soft drinks
dessert, coffee, & tea

book table ~ please bring your published books and flyers for events

parking behind Café and on the street

$10. donation at door ~ rsvp by December 30th
Karen Haefelein ~ haeflienek@hotmail.com / 973-691-6359

check this site on the 7th for inclement weather posting

But what if you go the self-publishing route?

Then the opening statement applies to you with one change: replace “the bulk of” with “all.”

Self-publishers and vanity presses make greater profits by signing authors than selling books. Visiting any self-publisher’s home page will demonstrate this. One touts their “publishing guide,” not their published books. Another lists three publishing options with price tags in the hundreds. Why promote a $16 book when they can push a $599 package instead? If you release a self-published picture book, you must make your own sales.

Having worked a decade in marketing and press relations prior to beginning the children’s authorship journey, I’m particularly interested in how books are promoted. This article comes after months of witnessing basic promotional missteps with self-published picture books.

If you have a self-published title releasing soon, here’s a promotional do-and-don’t list:

Check the press release links. Press releases for self-published books link to the publisher’s home page—not an individual book—by default. Remember the self-publisher is more interested in finding more authors than selling individual books. Insist that the URL links directly to your title and that the page is working properly. If the publisher won’t link to your book’s page, then test their home page search. Can you find your book? If you can’t, a potential buyer certainly won’t. If you’ve created your own website (crucial), the release should include your URL and your site should be fully operational. One look at a blinking “coming soon” and a potential buyer won’t return. If the release mentions your book is sold via Amazon, make sure it’s there and available for immediate purchase. Delay the press release until all online ducks are in a row.

Offer direct contact. Insist the publisher put your email address on their website so potential buyers can contact you directly. I’ve sent messages to five authors as a potential buyer via the publisher’s “author contact” form. Weeks and months later, not a single author has replied. (This could mean the author has chosen not to respond, but it likely indicates the message wasn’t delivered.)

Price competitively. Ensure your book’s price is within the average picture book range (or less), approximately $16 for a 32-page hardcover title or $9 for a paperback. No parent is buying a $32.99 picture book. Even the most technically advanced pop-up books sell for less. But also understand that the price may be beyond your control, especially if you have submitted a lengthy picture book and have requested illustrative changes.

Provide excerpts. Offer a substantial excerpt of the book. This is where you have an advantage over traditional publishers, who are reluctant to post more than two or three pages online. Let a potential buyer who cannot read your full text in a bookstore or at the library make an informed decision with a lengthy online excerpt. A parent wants to know their child will enjoy repeated readings of a book. They don’t want to spend money on something they read once and then shelve permanently.

With a non-traditional book, don’t rely on traditional venues. Understand that a library or a bookstore is not likely to stock your title. Booksellers are having enough difficulty moving traditionally-published books in this economic climate. Your local library or school may accept a donated copy, or a local independent bookstore that you patronize may display your book.

Respect length of traditional process. Don’t brag about how quickly your book was written. How does fast translate into a sale? A traditional picture book takes an author months, sometimes even years, to perfect. Then once an editor acquires it, it requires more rounds of editing and refinement. Then during the illustrative process, more changes. Even after it’s published, the editing process may never stop, if there are multiple editions. Consider that a traditionally published book takes an average of three to four years from the time the author starts writing to appear in stores. This may be one of your reasons for choosing self-publishing, but question whether you should boast about a “two day” endeavor.

Study best-in-class self-published authors. Dar Hosta, a NJ-based author/illustrator, has a loyal following and is in high demand for school visits. Jane Kirkland’s Take a Walk nature book series ties into school curriculum and has won numerous awards. Steampotville author Steve Ouch used social media to market his self-published book and captured the attention of a literary agent. The agent recently sold Ouch’s title to Running Press for release in Spring 2010. Guitarist Eric Litwin’s Pete the Cat was sold with an audio CD of an original song and got picked up by HarperCollins. Bryan Chick’s The Secret Zoo is a self-published novel, not a picture book, but it’s worth mentioning because he hired an exceptional artist to illustrate the cover, creating a look that set his book apart.

What are these authors doing to promote their books? How can you learn from their success?

Tara Lazar is an aspiring children’s book author who blogs about kidlit at Writing for Kids (While Raising Them). She hosted PiBoIdMo (Picture Book Idea Month) in November 2009 as an alternative to NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) for picture book writers.

As a freelance writer, I send pitches of article ideas to editors every week.

But first I read through the magazine/newspaper/website to get a feel of their voice, research which areas accept stories from freelancers, and send a targeted pitch to the editor of that section.

Some weeks these range from Rolling Stone to salon.com to AARP Magazine.

Over the course of a two week period, I go through the “Six Stages of Waiting for an Editor.”

Stage 1 – Did the editor receive my pitch?
Stage 2 – Have they read it?
Stage 3 – Will they want me to write the article?
Stage 4 – Did it wind up in the slush pile?
Stage 5 – Are they just going to ignore me?
Stage 6 – Would they at least respond either way so I can send elsewhere?

After two weeks I send a follow-up email.

I change the tone slightly depending on how formal the magazine is, but it usually reads something like this:

Dear MaryAnn,

I’m checking in to see if you received my pitch on Dragon Boat Racing and if you had any interest in this article idea.

I know you are super busy but it would be great to know either way.

Thanks,
Joanne

Sometimes, I’ll get a response with “not at this time” or “not right for us” or “good luck placing it elsewhere.” Once in a while the editor writes back and assigns the story to me. But most go unanswered.

If I don’t hear back one week after the follow-up I revise the pitch and send elsewhere.

Would love to hear your comments on how you handle unanswered pitches.

Thanks!

Joanne Flynn Black left corporate America to take a backpacking trip ’round the world. Connecting with other cultures confirmed her desire to write about the way we live.

Goldfinch is the annual literary magazine of Women Who Write, and it showcases the amazing talents of our writers—both in poetry and prose.

The Goldfinch page on this site will explain far more about it, but in brief, starting on November 1st, 2009 through December 31st , 2009, we will be accepting your submissions. As always, we really look forward to seeing what our great creative minds will be sending to us to read.

Also, as we did in 2009, the Board of Directors of Women Who Write is proud to be offering two prizes. They are The Goldfinch Prize for Prose and The Goldfinch Prize for Poetry. The winner of each category will receive special recognition for excellence in writing in the 2010 edition of Goldfinch along with a lovely commemorative certificate—and the winners will also receive a cash award of $25 each.

One other thing: if you are interested in helping out (Oh please! Oh please!) with Goldfinch, as a reader of poetry or prose (we need three for each genre) or as a proofreader (we need three of them, too), please let us know. We’d be ever so happy to have you on board, and just so you know, it will not affect your eligibility to submit to Goldfinch.

Cheers and keep writing!

RJ Clarken
Editor, Goldfinch 2010

P.S. Please note that in order to submit to Goldfinch, you must be a member of Women Who Write.

On Saturday, October 17, 2009, The Morning Muses of Women Who Write, Inc. held an extremely well-attended reading at the Borders in Rockaway, NJ with over 30 people in the audience. Joanne Flynn Black, Karen R. Elsman, Naomi Levine, Alice Mendelsohn and Dr. Ann M. DeVenezia shared works of poetry and prose. (Photos, L to R: Elsman, Mendelsohn, DeVenezia.)

The topics included:

• Love through the years
• To submit or quit
• Fallen ashes
• Searching for George Clooney
• Definition of squatters

Readers in the Open Mic portion of the program shared intimate details in their writing.

The audience included writers from newspapers and also familiar faces from WWW. The support from everyone that gathered is greatly appreciated by the Morning Muses.

We look forward to our next event at Borders and hope to have yet another successful reading.

The Morning Muses thanks Borders for their invaluable assistance and being such wonderful hosts.

Karen R. Elsman
Morning Muses
Reading Moderator

Last week on Twitter, I came across this fantastic link: Slush Reading, Seuss Style by Jim Hines.

Brilliant, huh?

Not only did it make me laugh, but it got me thinking…

Every critique group seems to have at least one person in it who writes and writes and writes… but never submits. Someone who is talented, but never gets her work out.

So, this is dedicated to everyone who fits that category:

They read slush
Slush, they read
Sometimes they like the slush they read

They read their slush
They do indeed
So if you want
to succeed
Here’s advice that you must heed

You must submit–
that is the key
Submitting is the key, you see

If you don’t
send stories out
You won’t get pubbed
There is no doubt

Can not, will not take a chance?
You’ll never get that big advance

No three-book deals
Or royalties
No rave reviews
Or noisy SQUEES.

You must submit,
Submit you must
Or manuscripts
will gather dust.

So, if you want
to get that call
Submit to one
Submit to all.