Santa Barbara Book Festival
Saturday, September 23, 2000
SPAWN will again participate in this exciting book and author festival in beautiful Santa Barbara. Last year, even though we weren’t able to give you a lot of advance notice, we had over 20 books of ours on display and many members who volunteered to help out in the booth. So that we can accommodate everyone and have some breathing room, we are reserving more booths and that means we will be charging a little more this year.
The Book & Author Festival will be held on Saturday, September 23 at the De la Guerra Plaza in Downtown Santa Barbara. The event, sponsored by the Santa Barbara News-Press is a benefit for the Computers for Families Project and promises to be a fun-filled family day with readings, entertainment and more.
SPAWN will have at least two 8x10-foot canopied booths (and three, if we can get them) with an 8-foot skirted table, ID sign and two chairs in each booth. We may bring additional chairs. To take part, send $25 for the first book and $15 each for any additional titles. The deadline for reservations and receipt of your check is September 15. We must receive a copy of your book by September 20. We suggest you tape ordering information inside the book. If you wish to provide flyers, they must not be larger than your book. If space becomes tight, they will be placed under your book or bookstand. Books cannot be returned unless you affix the correct postage to a self-addressed package.
We will not be able to make sales for you, but you may bring a dozen of each title into the booth 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 no one will have to be on duty for long periods of time.
Again, this great opportunity to display, promote, and sell your book(s) is for SPAWN members only.
Make your reservations early. You can use the printable application form.
Happy 4th of July!
Field Trip: Bertelsmann Printing
Thursday, July 13
Remember when you were in school and you found out you were going to go on a field trip and you realized that you wouldn’t have to do any schoolwork that day? Wasn’t that great? It didn’t even matter where you were going. It could be to pig farm for all you cared.
Well, here’s your chance to relive that enjoyable childhood experience because we’ve scheduled a field trip for SPAWN members. No, not to a pig farm but to a book manufacturing facility.
Dan Poynter suggested we take a tour of the Bertelsmann Print Facility in Valencia to see how books are made. I thought it was a great idea so I called Bertelsmann and spoke to Marv Walsh of Inside Sales. He said he would be delighted to show us their operation.
The date we’ve chosen is Thursday, July 13, from 10 a.m. to noon. So here’s your opportunity to unchain yourself from your computer, get together with other members, and learn something valuable at the same time.
We will be taken on a special guided tour through their “120,000-square-foot facility housing state-of-the-art, completely integrated pre-press, printing and bindery facility.” We’ll see their electronic prep, plate room, press room where the printing is actually done, and the bindery.
After our tour, we will have lunch together at a local restaurant before we return home (or to work or school).
The deadline for letting me know is July 7. I have to tell Marv how many will be coming and we need to arrange carpools. Call me at 805/643-6279 or e-mail me at Embreelitservice@aol.com.
~M.E.
Member News
Movie Option
Jim Lane’s novel, Duty, published in September 1999 by Bridge Works, has been optioned as a TV movie by Lions Gate Television, Inc.
The story is of an officer ordered to discharge a navyman unjustly accused of homosexuality. Torn between duty and conscience the cannot save the sailor without destroying his own career.
Writing Event
Several authors featured in Chicken Soup for the Writer’s Soul will be in Santa Barbara at Borders Books on Wednesday, July 19 at 7:30 p.m. to autograph their stories. Among the authors are SPAWN members Frances Halpern and Dan Poynter.
This is one of those rare events where you can get a bestselling book signed by several of the authors and end up with a real collector’s item.
Borders Books is at 900 State Street. For more information, contact Nancy Johnson at 805/899-4928, or e-mail: njohnson@bordersstores.com.
“Pet Talk”
The host of the radio show “Pet Talk” is our own J.B. Stuart, one of the winners in our poetry contest and a new member of SPAWN. The show airs every Sunday at noon on Station KEYT in Santa Barbara.
He would be interested in having a guest for discussion on stories and/or poetry dealing with animals, dogs, cats, birds, etc. If you have any of that particular expertise, he’d like to talk to you. You may call him at 805/965-7074 or e-mail him at docky1@gte.net.
News Bites
SPAN
College & Trade Show
SPAN (Small Publishers Association of North America) presents "BookPublish 2000: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" in Los Angeles on October 20-22.
They will have 26 independent publishing and writing experts with strategies to help you make more money with your books. In 13 separate sessions, they offer tactics for guerilla book selling and profitable publishing. There will be over 30 Trade Show exhibitors, yummy lunches, a fabulous reception, a complimentary SPAN briefcase, exceptional money-making ideas from your peers, and 3 days of networking in a luxurious setting! For information and a free brochure, go to www.SPANnet.org or call 719/395-4790.
Free Writing Class
Michael Levin, eleven-time author, is presenting a free weekly writing class every Monday night from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. at Borders Books & Music, 1360 Westwood Boulevard in West Los Angeles. The class covers issues common to writers of fiction, nonfiction, and screenplays.
For further information, call 800/637-6856. If you wish to have your work discussed in class, visit Writer2Author.com.
Message to Writers
The following is another of those messages we get over the Internet from someone we know nothing about but thought we’d pass along in case you are interested. If you decide to contact them, please let us know what happens.
“To New Writers: Writers with a manuscript for publication. Applebookshop is now publishing modern works of various genres by living authors, for royalties. Submission guidelines may be found on our Web site http://www.applebookshop.co.uk.
[from] Sue Taylor,
Writer’s Admin Support,
AppleBookShop.”
Contests & Awards
International Prizes in Fiction, Playwriting and Poetry
The North Carolina Writers’ Network announces the following three prizes.
Thomas Wolfe Fiction Prize: Entry fee $7; award $1,000. Manuscript not to exceed 12 double-spaced pages. Submissions may include novel excerpts or stories. Postmark deadline August 31, 2000. (Do not put your name on this or the following entries.)
Paul Green Playwrights Prize: Entry fee $12; award $500. Any theme; no musicals. Deadline September 30, 2000.
Randall Jazzell Poetry Prize: Entry fee: $7; award $1,000 and publication in Parnassus: Poetry in Review. Ten pages or less. Deadline November 1, 2000.
Submit two copies of each entry, a cover sheet with name, address, phone numbers and ms. or poem title to N.C. Writers’ Network, 3501 Hwy. 54 West, Studio C, Chapel Hill, NC 27516. FYI, P.O. Box 954, Carrboro, NC 27510; 919/967-9540.
Writer’s Digest National Self-Published Book Awards
With more than $6,000 in prizes, this is the contest to enter if you are a self-publisher. It is open to all authors who have paid the full cost of publication. You must send a printed and bound book which has been published or revised and reprinted in 1998, 1999, or 2000. Postmark deadline is December 15, 2000. The award for the grand-prize winner is $1,500, promotion in Publishers Weekly and Writer’s Digest and marketing advice from Dan Poynter. The 9 first-place winners receive $500 and promotion in Writer’s Digest. Honorable mentions get $50 worth of Writer’s Digest Books. You may use the above photocopied entry form or get one from an issue of the magazine.
SPAWN is a nonprofit corporation. Donations are tax deductible.
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@spawn.org
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
Vice President
e-mail: PLFry@aol.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
Patricia Fry
Vice President
Virginia Lawrence, PhD
Writer, Editor, Webmaster
Secretary of SPAWN
Ruth Hibbard
Treasurer
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. |
