Chew Toys for Little Boys

Mason (age 9 months) has a particular fondness for soft plastic or rubber toys he can easily chew on. If he doesn’t have a toy to chew on, he’ll clamp down on your arm, your neck, or any soft flesh he can find (just ask Percy, the dog).

Readers Weigh In…

Last week, I ran the following in WritersWeekly Whispers and Warnings:
Creative TECHniques / creativetechniquesmag.com / All American Crafts Inc. / allamericancrafts.com – Writer alleges she’s owed $350; publisher got upset with writer and terminated the contract…after the articles were finished and submitted. What do you think? Does the publisher owe the writer the money? WritersWeekly would love your opinion on this one!
Quite a few of you wrote in with your opinions! Some of you agreed with my opinion while many of you didn’t.
The responses are great! Please read them here:
https://forums.writersweekly.com/viewtopic.php?t=7250

Don’t Bite The Hand That Feeds You: Ten Tips For Food Writers By Melissa Bradley Diskin

Don’t Bite The Hand That Feeds You: Ten Tips For Food Writers By Melissa Bradley Diskin

Food writing. The glamour! The posh eats! The twenty extra pounds! (Wait. Who said that?)
I write about restaurants and hotels, among other subjects. Yes, meeting chefs is fun. Yes, the food is (usually) great. What isn’t so hot? Eating alone at a really nice restaurant. Gaining weight. Telling my husband that he needs to feed, bathe and put the baby to sleep by himself after his own hard day at work. But whether you write for larger mags or smaller regionals, food writing can be made easier if you follow a few rules to ensure that you hook up with the right people and pay attention to details.

Unauthorized Reselling Of Articles

Hello, Angela.
I’ve been getting your Writers Weekly e-mails for quite a while, and think you do a terrific job.
I have a question I’m wondering if you could help me with, or if you know someone who may be able to help.
I am a freelance writer and I’ve been writing for a west suburban paper for nine years. Recently I noticed that my stories are popping up on Findarticles.com, www.questia.com, www.highbeam.com, goliath.ecnext.com, and maybe other sites, which charge a fee to read the complete stories.
Now, none of these sites have ever gotten permission from me to post these articles, and I do not make one cent off the articles I wrote which they are “selling.” Is what their doing legal? If not, what can I do?
Although my articles appear in that large newspaper, I still retain the rights to what I’ve written. Is that meaningless, in the Internet age? Can anyone take what I’ve written and use it, even sell it?
Sincerely,
R

Book Signings – Are They Worth The Time? By Diane Craver

I survived my first book signing on February 24th and it wasn’t at a bookstore. It was held at a union township civic center. I was asked to participate in an Author Day/Book Signing, which was sponsored by our library. Fifty people attended and many of them were at the workshop to learn about writing. All six authors spoke about the struggles and triumphs of writing, plus gave tips. I had pre-ordered thirty copies of my two recent releases, No Greater Loss and A Fiery Secret, and I sold ten books plus three copies of my book, The Christmas of 1957. Other authors and family told me that they thought I did great selling 13 books at my first signing.

Spring Flood!

After bragging last week about our temperatures getting up into the 50’s, we had a massive winter storm on Friday night. We only got about six inches of snow but then we were deluged with ice and then rain and flooding. On Saturday morning, we literally had a muddy river of cold water flowing down our street, complete with ice chunks.

How Some POD Publishers Milk Authors By Angela Hoy

I frequently receive emails from authors who have paid a company to publish their book, but who are later surprised by some of the terms of the contract they signed (that they usually didn’t read), and are also flustered by the myriad of add-on services offered by their POD publisher. Understandably, they can’t believe a company that they paid to publish their book has taken such liberties. There are some things you should never, ever agree to when paying another company to publish your book. And, there are optional extras that will cost you a small fortune, and will, in all likelihood, never be paid for with any resulting book sales. Here, I’m examining the contracts and add-on services offered by the most popular POD service companies – iUniverse, AuthorHouse, Xlibris, Lulu and BookLocker (the latter of which I own, by the way). All the information below assumes the book is a standard, black and white interior paperback with similar distribution (through Ingram).
You wouldn’t believe the ways some of these companies milk authors!

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