SPAWN POETRY CONTEST
Don’t forget to enter your poems in SPAWN’s Poetry Contest II. The deadline is December 31.
Win cash prizes! There are two categories: rhyming and non-rhyming poetry. First place prize in each category is $100; 2nd place $50 and 3rd place $25.
Get published! All winners will be published. And even non-winning poems will be considered for our book of poetry to be published in mid-2000 by Archer Books.
Here are the rules:
- The poem shall be the original work of the entrant and publishable in the SPAWN newsletter and in a book of poetry. Any subject suitable for a general audience is acceptable.
- Poem shall be on 8-1/2” x 11” paper, computer generated in a 12-point font or typed. (No handwritten entries)
- Poem shall be no more than 36 lines long. Only one poem per page.
- Place the title of the poem at the top of the page.
- Place the letter R for rhyming or N for non-rhyming in the upper right corner of the page.
- Do not put your name on the same page as your poem.
- Enclose a separate sheet of paper with your name, address, telephone number and title of poem(s) on it.
- More than one submission may be made but an entry fee must be paid for each one.
- Enclose a check for $5 for SPAWN members or $10 for nonmembers, payable to SPAWN for each poem submitted. Please do not send cash.
- Deadline: entries must be postmarked by December 31, 1999.
- Send to SPAWN Poetry Contest II, P.O. Box 2653, Ventura, CA 93002.
Winners will be notified by phone or mail and their checks will be sent by March 1, 2000. Judges’ decisions are final. Submission guidelines will be strictly enforced. No phone calls, please.
SPAWN Member Benefits
Every now and then we like to remind our members of the benefits of SPAWN membership and encourage them to take advantage of them. Here they are:
· Monthly networking meetings provide the opportunity to hear talks on subjects of interest to you and to network with other writers, artists and publishers.
· Seminars and workshops on various subjects are presented free of charge or for a small fee.
· A monthly newsletter with news you can use in your work. It includes a regular column on computers and the Internet by our Webmaster, news of contests you can enter, articles on writing and editing, member news, and many other subjects pertinent to what you are doing.
· A directory of members where you can make yourself known and find out about other members.
· A website with publishing information, a searchable member database, and networking opportunities.
· Your own webpage on our Internet site, SPAWN.org.
· Book Fairs where you may participate in SPAWN’s booth for a small fee, to display, promote and sell your books.
· A Catalog of Books written and/or published by participating members.
· Affiliations with writers groups and publishers’ trade associations including the following:
· Publishers Marketing Association (PMA) offers marketing and direct mail programs. Their $80 membership is only $54 to SPAWN members. Phone: 310/372-2732; fax: 310/374-3342; E-mail PMAOnline@aol.com.
· Small Publishers Association of North America (SPAN) offers discounts on shipping and access to Visa and MasterCard merchant status. Their membership fee of $90 is only $60 for SPAWN members. E-mail SPANnet.org.
Now, aren’t you glad you joined?
MEMBER NEWS
Shara Rendell-Smock’s (Space Coast, FL) book, Getting Hooked: Fiction’s Opening Lines 1950s to 1990s has been accepted into the high school and community college English curricula of major Florida counties (Brevard and Dade) for the 1999/2000 school year!
What hooks the reader? Getting Hooked presents opening lines that sell—more than 600 of novels' first sentences, categorized by decade and genre—mystery, science fiction, romance, western, and mainstream.
Jean C. Wade, new president of the Santa Barbara County Chapter of SPAWN, will have her first published book signing for her new book, How Sweet It Is...Without the Sugar.
The event will take place at Barnes & Noble Booksellers, 829 State Street, Paseo Nuevo Plaza, Santa Barbara, on Sunday, November 7 at 2:00 p.m.
She will give a short presentation about her specialty cookbook which contains a myriad of dessert recipes for the diabetic, hypoglycemic, dieter, and anyone who wants to “kick the sugar habit.”
Robert R. Sands, Ph.D. has just released his book GutCheck! An Anthropologist’s Wild Ride into the Heart of College Football, published by Rincon Hill Books.
GutCheck! is the true story of Sands’ experience playing football at the age of 37 for the Santa Barbara City College football team. It is an inside view of the men/boys behind the masks and helmets living out the “ultimate American male rite of passage” many will cherish for a lifetime.
Other recent books by Sands are Instant Acceleration: Living in the Fast Lane, University Press of America; Sport and Culture: At Play in the Fields of Anthropology, Simon and Schuster; and Anthropology, Sport and Culture (Bergin and Garvey).
The first 3,000 words of Robin Westmiller’s new novel, The Postman’s Secret Passion, won the Amazing Authors Showcase’s October contest and is now on their website.
The novel was just purchased by book-on-disk.com and should be available by the end of the year.
More News of Interest
UBC’s Creative Writing Residency Prize in Stageplay
The Department of Theatre, Film and Creative Writing at the University of British Columbia is proud to announce the establishment of this prize worth $25,000. This is Canada’s largest and newest literary prize. For more information visit their website at www.arts.ubc.ca/crwr/resprize.
Opportunity for Book Reviews
SPAN informs us that a monthly newsletter, The Bibliophile, seeks small press titles for review. Editor and publisher Gina Evans also has a spot on the local CBS affiliate morning show each Friday and plans weekly book reviews for an entertainment newspaper, so your title will have multiple opportunities for exposure.
You may contact her at 4124 Indigo Place, Florence, SC 29501; e-mail gleeagle@aol.com.
Another Book on Marketing
SPAWNews has received a news release on The Complete Guide to Book Marketing by David Cole, Allworth Press, paperback, 288 pages, $19.95.
As we did not receive a copy of the book, it has not been reviewed. Author David Cole says, “Having spent my career working with small- and medium-sized publishers for whom every dollar counts, I am acutely sensitive to the need for appropriate-scale marketing efforts.”
The book, aimed at both authors and publishers, is a guide to all aspects of book marketing and includes a timeline, a checklist, and sample news releases.
Free Internet Access
by Virginia Lawrence, Ph.D.
Tired of paying monthly Internet access fees? Ready to cut expenses?
Well, there are advantages and disadvantages to using the new free Internet access services. I have just tested out NetZero on a PC, and I can testify that it works. The open question is whether you are ready to pay the non-monetary price of the free service.
The software is reasonably easy to set up. Here's the way it works...
- Go to http://www.netzero.com.
- To read the information, click on Enter Main Site and select Join NetZero.
- To download the software and join, click on the DOWNLOAD CLICK HERE button.
- On the Join NetZero page, click on the Full Download link in The ZeroPort section.
- Read the terms and click on the Accept button.
- To start the download, click on the FTP NetZero button.
- When you see the File Download box, choose Save this Program to Disk and select a directory for the file.
- After downloading the 4.59 megabyte file completely, double-click on the file to set up the software.
- When prompted, give your choice for your own Member ID.
- Give your choice for your own password.
- Specify a question that you can always answer in case you forget your password.
- Specify whether you will use this account for business or pleasure.
- State whether you are under or over age 18.
- Specify your area code and choose one of the dialup numbers that come up for your area.
- Wait while the software dials NetZero from your computer and confirms your ID and password. After confirmation, the software sets up your NetZero account.
- After setting up your account, the software logs off and dials up again to confirm that the setup is working correctly.
- You see the congratulations screen and you receive your new e-mail address.
Now to use the NetZero Internet access...
- Double-click on the NetZero icon on your desktop.
- Type in your Member ID and Password.
- If you have not yet filled out your profile, you must fill it out before using NetZero.
- Each screen displays one question, and most of the questions concern your demographic data.
- After you finish filling out the Member Profile, you are finished, and you can access the Internet for free.
Of course, your screen will always display an advertising bar containing ads customized for your demographic. That ad bar remains on screen as long as you are connected to the Internet with NetZero.
NetZero does not work with Eudora Pro for sending and receiving e-mail, but NetZero does work with the free version, Eudora Lite. If you aren't wedded to using Eudora Pro, you can use the e-mail software included with NetZero.
There you have it —free Internet access is really here. If seeing an ad bar every time you log on seems a fair trade for free access, and you don't insist on using Eudora Pro, NetZero may be for you.
~ Virginia Lawrence, Ph.D., SPAWN's Webmaster, is an Information Architect who publishes both in print and online.
What’s New: “My Life”
You no longer have an excuse not to write your memoirs because now there is a computer program that make the process easy, or at least easier.
The first product of a new company called Life.com, it is intended to “release the book locked up inside everyone.”
According to Life.com’s chief executive Kent Ertugrul, it will have special appeal to older people, who represent the fastest growing sector of the personal computer market.
The memoirists’ memory will be jogged and their creativity inspired by the program’s 50,000 questions. Their responses can be typed into a “life map.” Still pictures, video and audio recordings can be added. The recollections of others can be e-mailed and embedded into the memoir.
The autobiography can then be printed or even posted on the Web in an automatically created free Website.
Ertugrul believes that “My Life” will have wide appeal. He says his innovative product “connects with people of all ages at an emotional level that really puts them in touch with who they are... harnesses the power of technology to help people take stock of their lives. “My Life” is available at retail outlets for $69 each.
—M.E.
Small Publishers, Artists & Writers Network
P.O. Box 2653
Ventura, CA 93002
Website: http://www.spawn.org
Telephone & Fax: 805-646-3045
Mary Embree
Senior Editor
e-mail: embreelitservice@aol.com
Hal Ranzenhofer
Managing Editor
Telephone: 805/984-3216
e-mail: halrider@aol.com
Virginia Lawrence
SPAWN Webmaster
e-mail: virginia@cognitext.com
Jean Wade
President, Santa Barbara County Chapter. e-mail: withoutsugar@hotmail.com
Carol Doering
President, Ventura County Chapter. e-mail: rdoering@msn.com
Patricia Fry
President, West Ventura County Chapter
e-mail: PLFry@aol.com
Email: dallas@silcom.com
Ruth Hibbard
Treasurer and Membership Chair
e-mail: ruthhi@west.net
Advisory Council
Patricia Fry
Author, Publisher
Rosalie Heacock
Literary Agent
Andora Hodgin
Writer, Editor, Publicist
Irwin Zucker
Book Publicist
Jim Lane
Author
Marcia Grad-Powers
Publisher
Melvin Powers
Publisher
Dan Poynter
Author, Publisher
Mary Embree
Author, Publishing Consultant
Board of Directors
Mary Embree
Author, Editor, Literary Consultant
Founder and President of SPAWN
Virginia Lawrence, PhD
Writer, Editor, Webmaster
Secretary of SPAWN
Frances Halpern
Author, Columnist, Talk-show Host
Marsha Karpeles
Executive Director, Manuscript Libraries
Richard F.X. O'Connor
Author, Publisher, Editor, Consultant
MISSION STATEMENT To provide education, information, resources and a supportive networking environment for artists, writers, and other creative people interested in the publishing process. |
