Attention Authors & Publishers
Santa Barbara
Book and Author Festival
SPAWN has reserved an exhibit booth for members’ books at the Book & Author Festival to be held on Saturday, September 18 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at De la Guerra Plaza in Downtown Santa Barbara. The event, benefitting the Computers for Families Project, promises to be a fun-filled family day with readings, entertainment and more.
SPAWN will have an 8x10-foot canopied booth (Booth #1) with an 8-foot skirted table, ID sign and two chairs. Here is a great opportunity to display and promote your book(s).
To take part, send $10 for the first book and $5 each for all additional titles. We’ll display your book if you get it to us by September 10 along with your check. We suggest you tape ordering information inside the book. Books can- not be returned unless you provide postage and self-addressed packaging. Only one copy of each title will be displayed. We will not be able to make sales for you, but you may bring a dozen of each title and sell them yourself for the same fee. (You may keep more in your trunk and replenish the supply.) We ask those who are selling to volunteer in the booth. We will set up a schedule so that there are no more than three people milling around in the booth at one time.
For only $5 more per title we will also list your book along with ordering information in a catalog to be handed out at the Festival. On Page 3 is info we will need for the catalog. Please e-mail or P.O. mail info no later than September 10 so that your book(s) can be included.
If you can’t meet that deadline, bring your book to the Festival and we will still display it. Please pay for display and catalog listing with one check.
CONTESTS/AWARDS
Writer’s Digest Announces 7th Annual Self-Published Book Awards
Authors, aspiring writers, and publishers grab your pens! Writer’s Digest has announced a “Call for Entries” for its 1999 Self-Published Book Awards.
One Grand Prize Winner will be awarded $1,000 cash and promotion in Publisher’s Weekly and Writer’s Digest. Ten copies of the Grand Prize-Winning Book will be submitted to major review houses such as The New York Times and The Washington Post. Seven First- Place winners will get $300 cash and promotion in Writer’s Digest. All winners will receive book-jacket seals promoting the award-winning status of their book, a copy of The Complete Guide to Self-Publishing, 3rd Edition and Jump Start Your Book Sales, and an Award Certificate.
Entries are $95 for the first entry ($45 each additional entry) and may be submitted into the following categories: Fiction, Nonfiction, Inspirational, Life Stories, Children’s and Young Adult Books, Reference Books, Poetry, and Cookbooks.
The competition closes December 15, 1999. For rules and entry form send SASE to: Writer’s Digest Self-Published Book Awards, 1507 Dana Avenue, Cincinnati, OH, 45207.
1999 National Publishers Freedom Awards
The American Self-Publisher Association with BooksAmerica.com announces the first Annual Publishers Freedom Awards competition recognizing excellence in publishing.
Open only to self-published authors with books published between January 1 and December 31, 1999, the entry deadline is January 5, 2000. The winners in each of 18 categories will receive a 10” jade glass engraved trophy, a $100 cash reward and other benefits.
There will also be $200 cash rewards for Best First Book Award and the Judges Award in which all submissions will automatically be entered.
To receive complete information and entry form, call (916) 422-8435 or e-mail ASPublish@aol.com.
PMA’s Benjamin Franklin Award Competition
This is for the most impressively marketed title for the Book of the Year for Excellence and Innovation in Marketing Award. Other awards recognize excellence in editorial and design.
There are two Calls for Entries. The first is for books published January 1 through June 30, 1999 and the deadline is August 31, 1999. The second is for July 1 through December 1999; deadline January 31, 2000. Winners will be announced in Chicago on June 1, 2000.
Entry fees are $50 per title, per category for PMA members. Nonmembers pay $110 for first title which includes membership in PMA. For more information and application, contact PMA at (310) 372-2732; http://www.pma-online.org; e-mail PMAonline@aol.com.
Author Search 2000
Independent Publisher magazine announces the creation of this new writing contest designed to find the best unpublished manuscripts in North America and help get them published.
The deadline for entries is December 15, 1999. Winners will be published in a special edition of IP and presented to top literary agents, including specialists in each category. Winners in each category also receive $250.
The entry fee of $60 for first entry and $45 for each additional entry includes professional evaluation of your manuscript and a one-year subscription to Independent Publisher magazine.
For entry forms and information, call 800/706-4636.
Soul-Making Literary Competition
The National League of American Pen Women presents this prize. The theme is personal writings that illumine the search for the sacred and the spirit and/or express one’s experience of soul-making in freshly creative and finely crafted works.
Cash prizes of $100 each are awarded for best poem, short story, and essay. There is also a youth prize category. Prepublished entries are okay. Deadline is September 30, 1999. For more information and rules, e-mail PenNobHill@aol.com.
Book Reviews
DUTY, a novel by Jim R. Lane, Bridge Works Publishing Co.
hardbound, 240 pages. $22.95
In Duty, the protagonist Mark Palmer who is the legal officer on the USS Modoc, is faced with prosecuting a man he is sure is innocent. He is torn between following orders and following his conscience. At the same time, the long-term relationship he has had with the woman he loves is falling apart. This is a gripping story of a sailor wrongfully accused of homosexual acts and a corrupt system that can destroy his career without any evidence of wrongdoing.
Duty explores the current attitude of the Navy toward homosexuality and paints a vivid picture of life in the military. It has been compared with The Caine Mutiny Court Martial and I can see why. I found it an exceedingly well-written and engrossing book.
Jim Lane is a charter member and advisor of SPAWN and former President of the Ventura County Writers Club.
Selling Scripts to Hollywood
by Katherine Atwell Herbert, Allworth Press, paperback, 176 pages. $12.95
If script writing is your burning ambition, this book could be for you. The author tells it like it is and gives a lot of helpful inside tips. The book doesn’t make it easy to break into the business, though, because it isn’t.
The author covers a wide range of subjects from turning a story idea into a full-length script to living, writing, and (hopefully) working in Hollywood.
The Screenwriter’s Legal Guide
by Stephen F. Breimer, Esq., Allworth Press, paperback, 320 pages. $19.95
Okay, so let’s say you are a competent writer, you followed the suggestions in Herbert’s book, you got lucky and have landed a deal in Hollywood. What now? This is where Breimer’s book comes in. This can be a wicked business and you’ve got to watch out for your assets. This book, written by a prominent entertainment lawyer, will show you how to negotiate the best deal and to recognize one when (and if) you see it.
The author covers the role of the Writers Guild and gives a sample option/purchase agreement.
Poetry Slam
If you missed SPAWN’s Poetry Slam in August, you missed a good time. Roni Tagliaferri did a great job of emceeing and Patty Fry pulled it all together and made it look effortless. Our thanks to the Book Mall for their facility and gift certificate donation.
Member News
Patty Fry has finished the revision of The Ojai Valley: An Illustrated History and is offering a pre-publication discount of 10% for autumn delivery. The first edition was a big success, selling to local agencies, schools and libraries, newcomers and visitors, and the many others who find Ojai fascinating. To order, send $17.95 plus tax and $3.50 shipping to Matilija Press, PMB 123, 323 E. Matilija St., #110, Ojai, CA 93023.
Phyllis Jean D. Green reports that the nonfiction book she wrote, Spinning Straw: the Jeff Apple Story, is “going great guns.” The book was featured at the 6th Annual Conference for Dual Diagnosis, attended by over 500 special education professionals from around the world. Phyllis is now editing a book of poems by Peter Tomassi of San Francisco. It is due out in December.
SPAWNews is published by
Small Publishers, Artists & Writers Network
P.O. Box 2653, Ventura, CA 93002
Website: http://www.spawn.org
Telephone & Fax: 805-646-3045
Mary Embree
Executive Director
e-mail: embreelitservice@aol.com
Hal Ranzenhofer
Editor, SPAWNews
Telephone: 805/984-3216
e-mail: halrider@aol.com
Virginia Lawrence
SPAWN Webmaster
e-mail: virginia@cognitext.com
Dallas Glenn
President, Santa Barbara County Chapter.
e-mail: dallas@silcom.com
Carol Doering
President, Ventura County Chapter.
e-mail: rdoering@msn.com
Advisory Council
Patricia Fry
Author, Publisher
Rosalie Heacock
Literary Agent
Andora Hodgin
Writer, Editor, Publicist
Irwin Zucker
Book Publicist
Board of Directors
Mary Embree
Author, Editor, Literary Consultant
Founder and President of SPAWN
Jim Lane
Writer, Publisher
Vice President of SPAWN
Virginia Lawrence, PhD
Writer, Editor, Webmaster
Secretary of SPAWN
John C. Woodward, Esq.
Attorney at Law
Treasurer of SPAWN
Frances Halpern
Author, Columnist, Talk-show Host
Marsha Karpeles
Executive Director, Manuscript Libraries
Richard F.X. O'Connor
Author, Publisher, Editor, Consultant
Marcia Grad-Powers
Author, Senior Editor, Publishing
Melvin Powers
Author, Publisher
MISSION STATEMENT To provide education, information, resources and a supportive networking environment for artists, writers, and other creative people interested in the publishing process. |
