Since writers don’t often get overpaid for their labor, most of us have to develop frugal shopping skills to survive. Did you ever think you might morph these talents into a regular gig with your local newspaper? I didn’t – until persistence combined with luck to provide me with this little weekly bonus.
This Week:
We joined the local homeschooling 4H club last week and were pleasantly surprised to learn that not everybody in 4H is required to grow and auction off livestock! All humor aside, 4H is a great group and we made lots of new friends. The children loved it and can’t wait to get started on some projects to enter in the state fair this summer.
Beware of Companies that Guarantee to Get Your Book on Bookstore Shelves
by Angela Hoy
We’ve seen lots of marketing ploys and blatant sp*m from so-called PR and book marketing firms that say they guarantee to get your book on bookstore shelves. Authors should be very, very wary of these claims. In most cases, the author will pay much more to the “PR” or “marketing” firm than they’ll ever get back in book sales. And, they just might end up with a pile of returns from the bookstores…
This Week:
I am a former full-time journalist born and raised in Canada who went the freelance route a few years ago. That’s one of the reasons I signed up to receive the very worthwhile (no apple-polishing intended) WritersWeekly. I read it faithfully every week and thus, when I first read about Booklocker.com’s offer to digitally print my book at a reasonable price, including formatting, cover and help with distribution, I collected together a bunch of short stories I had written over the years (two of which had been published in Canada’s largest daily newspaper, The Toronto Star and one that had received an honorable mention in the Writer’s Digest Short Story contest).
This Week:
Richard’s grandmother has returned to Texas after staying with us for a month. We were very sad to see her go. She loved visiting…but she’s in her 80’s and “always cold” and wasn’t too keen about our temps dipping below zero on most nights. On the two occasions when we did take her out in the snow (once out to lunch and to get her hair done and once to greet troops who were passing through the Bangor airport), she was terrified she’d slip on the ice and she shivered during the entire trip. But, she really wanted her hair done (you know how we women are!) and, being a WWII veteran herself, she was very excited about greeting troops who were returning from the Middle East.
Does an editor or publisher owe you money? Are they giving you numerous excuses and even claiming to have already mailed the check? Here’s what you should do…
This Week:
