Saturday, March 30, 2019

Guest Post by C. Hope Clark, award-winning author of two mystery series


Freelance Short Writing: a Path to Book Sales


Everyone reads short pieces, whether on their phone, online, or in picking up a magazine from the grocery store. Our free time comes in snatches these days, so we tend to prefer our reading material shorter.

As a matter of fact, the attention span of readers is decreasing. Nicholas Carr argued in his Pulitzer-Prize nominated book The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains, that technology has altered how we read. Readers have lost the ability to deep read, where the reader is absorbed, taking it in without distractions.

Therefore, the writer. . . any writer. . . ought to capitalize on this trend to put their name, brand, and titles before those readers by writing short pieces. It’s called freelancing.

As editor of FundsforWriters, I’ve preached that every writer, all kinds, should freelance as part of their effort to be seen and read. To only write books, and hope that readers find your book, is a frustrating endeavor resulting in few sales. What sells books is commercials, or rather, short introductions to the fact you write books or wrote a particular book. Blurbs, advertisements, blog mentions, online word-of-mouth, interviews. . . and articles.

To say you wrote a book means nothing unless you are famous. 
To say you have a book for sale means little unless you pander to the cheap side of the market. But to entice serious readers means you introduce them to your writing ability. If you cannot get your book in their hands easily, then do so via the avenues of freelance feature writing.

Freelancing used to be restricted to magazines
Today, you have the options of newsletters, blogs, podcasts, social media, and weekly newspapers, both online and paper, with all of them connected with links. And magazines aren’t just national glossies. Frankly, you gain more traction with regional and local publications. What does it matter if your piece is read by 5,000 people locally or nationally?

With today’s reading habits, readers choose short reading first, saving longer reading for more specific times, days, or even weekends or vacations. Yet, throughout the week, they are inhaling short piece after short piece. So how can you, a book author, snag a piece of the shorter action to help sell your books?
Prove how savvy you write by pitching pieces to these publications. 

Connect the piece somehow to what you’ve published.
Be slick and savvy about it, please. No infomercials. For instance, I write a mystery series set on Edisto Beach, having just released the fifth book, Dying on Edisto, in March 2019. In order to promote it, I have and will continue to write short pieces on:
· How setting can become a character.
· How to legally use real setting in fiction.
· How to use multiple POVs in serial fiction.
· Why Edisto Beach is the perfect vacation beach.
· How I manage writing full time.
· Wildlife on Edisto.
· How I was bribed into being a mystery writer. (I met my federal agent husband on a bribery investigation.)
· The best bookstore in South Carolina (the Edisto Bookstore, of course).
· Tax write-offs for a writer (to include my beach visits to Edisto).



Those are just general topics. This Spring, I’ll have a feature in Visiting Edisto Beach, Explore Edisto, and at least 40 blogs using these and many more ideas. How do you find these markets?

     Do an online search for publications, blogs, newsletters on the sorts of topics affiliated with the book or subjects you specialize in.
     Do an online search for the publications in your town, your region, then the state.
     Ask your social media connections if they are seeking blog posts, or know of others who are.
     Take note in restaurants and grocery stores for local periodicals.
     Take note of bookstores for broader geographically-reaching periodicals.
     Contact your college newspapers and magazines.
     Seek avenues in your employer’s newsletter, magazine, blog, or website.
     Connect with your peers for suggestions, or get them to recommend you to venues they know.


·         Go over the blogs and online magazines you read, whether or not they are affiliated with your topics. You can write about anything.

If you can write for pay anywhere, do it. Challenge yourself to cover a topic they like or need, and if it cannot connect directly to your book, then just include the book’s release or availability in the byline. Make this byline part of your contract if you agree to write that piece for compensation. Just include it if you are writing for free.

The question may arise: Why write about nothing to do with my book (or other writing)?
Answer: Because more people will read your byline in that publication in one weekend than will find and read your book in a year. And if that byline mentions your book or other brand, then you’ve not only been paid for writing, not only avoided paying for an advertisement, but you’ve also proven to someone how beautiful or intelligently you write, hopefully intriguing them to read more than this one story.

You are seeking respect as a writer, first and foremost, regardless of what you write. And if someone likes your short piece, they just might consider your book. And it cost you not a thing to make the effort.
Just like I wrote this piece.


 C. Hope Clark’s latest release is Dying on Edisto, Book 5 of the Edisto Island Mysteries. She has also authored one other award-winning mystery series and is working on another. She founded FundsforWriters.com, selected by Writer’s Digest for its 101 Best Websites for Writers for 18 years. Her newsletter reaches 35,000 readers. www.fundsforwriters.com / www.chopeclark.com
Find Clark's books at the links below.





Friday, March 22, 2019

New Poet Laureate of Georgia, Chelsea Rathburn

Congratulations to Chelsea RathburnShe is a professor at Young Harris College, where she directs the creative writing program. She has just been named Poet Laureate of Georgia. 



Chelsea Rathburn, new Poet Laureate of Georgia

What an honor! She is following in the footsteps of Betty Sellers, the fabulous poet who was professor of English at YHC decades ago. She was also named Poet Laureate of Georgia. Sellers was author of numerous books of poetry and was best known for her poems about life in southern Appalachia. 

Chelsea Rathburn is the author of three full-length poetry collections, most recently Still Life with Mother and Knife, a New York Times “New & Noteworthy” book released by Louisiana State University Press in February 2019. Rathburn’s first full-length collection, The Shifting Line, won the 2005 Richard Wilbur Award, and her second collection, A Raft of Grief, was published by Autumn House Press in 2013.

Rathburn’s poems have appeared in the nation’s most esteemed journals, including Poetry, The Atlantic Monthly, the New Republic, The Southern Review, New England Review, and Ploughshares, among others.While she was born in Jacksonville and raised in Miami, Florida, Rathburn has deep roots in the state of Georgia, where her mother’s family has lived since the 1830s.

Rathburn moved to Decatur, Georgia in 2001 after completing graduate school at the University of Arkansas. Since 2013, she has lived in the North Georgia mountains with her husband, the poet James Davis May, and their daughter.


Chelsea Rathburn will be a featured guest at Writers Night Out in Blairsville, Georgia April 12, 2019. Karen Holmes is host and NCWN-West is sponsor of this event open to the public. For more info: kpaulholmes AT gmail DOT com


Free Biscuits from Biscuitville at NCWN Spring Conference

Charles really tempted me with this news. Free Biscuits? I would walk a mile for free biscuits, but, alas, I can't go to Spring Conference even for free biscuits. I would love to, but can't make the long trip anymore. 
I hope you can. Look at what is available for writers in Greensboro, NC on April 27!!

If you've already registered for Spring Conference, thank you! If not, please consider joining us for a full day of sessions and programs on the craft and business of writing.


The NCWN 2019 Spring Conference happens Saturday, April 27, on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

Pre-registration is open at www.ncwriters.org.

It's Friday night, you probably have things to do, so we'll just offer a quick rundown of why you should think about coming out to Spring Conference:

* Classes in fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and the basics of the book business
* The annual Slush Pile Live!
* A full exhibit hall offering access to publishers, literary groups, and more
* Open mics
* Faculty readings
* Lunch with an Author (only available to those who pre-register)
* Free biscuits from Biscuitville

Did we mention FREE BISCUITS FROM BISCUITVILLE?

I mean, we can't ask our attendees to handle all this excitement on an empty stomach....

Register at www.ncwriters.org.

Have a good weekend--see you April 27 in Greensboro!
Charles Fiore
Communications Director
North Carolina Writers' Network

Tuesday, March 19, 2019

The Literary Hour Readings, Wednesday, March 20, 2019, at The John C. Campbell Folk School, Brasstown, NC


On Wednesday, March 20, 2019, at 7:00 PM, the John C. Campbell Folk School and NC Writers' Network-West (NCWN-West) will sponsor The Literary Hour. At this event, NCWN-West members will read at the Keith House on the JCCFS campus, in Brasstown, NC. The Literary Hour is held on the third Thursday of the month unless otherwise indicated. This reading is free of charge and open to the public. This month's featured readers will be, poet and author Natalie Grant, poet Joan M. Howard, and poet Mary A. Ricketson.

Natalie Grant has spent much of her life in Western North Carolina and most of her career as the only high school language arts teacher at a rural k-12 school. She writes both fiction and poetry and is inspired by the landscape of her mountain home, its people, and the many storytellers in her family.
Currently, Grant is writing short stories and a volume of poetry entitled The Language of Bones. Her educational background includes an MFA in creative writing from the University of the South's School of Letters, an MA in English from Western Carolina University, and a BA in History and English from Berea College. Grant is also a Rep for NCWN-West. 


Joan M. Howard, whose poetry has been published in POEM, The Road Not Taken: The Journal of Formal Poetry, the Aurorean, Lucid Rhythms, Victorian Violet, the Wayfarer and other literary journals. She published the book Death and Empathy: My Sister Web, in 2017.  Her latest book is: Jack, Love and the Daily Grail, from Kelsay Publications.
Howard is a former teacher with an MA in German and English literature and is a member of the North Carolina Writers' Network.  She enjoys birding and kayaking on the beautiful waters of Lake Chatuge near Hiawassee,


Mary A. Ricketson, Murphy NC, inspired by nature and her work as a mental health counselor, has poetry published in Wild Goose Poetry Review, Future Cycle Press, Journal of Kentucky Studies, Lights in the Mountains, Echoes Across the Blue Ridge, Red Fox Run, It’s All Relative, Old Mountain Press, Whispers, and Voices. Her chapbook is, I Hear the River Call my Name, and she has two full length collections, Hanging Dog Creek, and Shade and Shelter.  Her new book, Mississippi: The Story of Luke and Marian, is forthcoming, 2019, from Kelsay Books.

Currently Mary is using her own poetry to present empowerment workshops, combining roles as writer and her helping role as a therapist. Ricketson’s poems and activities relate with nature, facilitate talk about a personal path, and focus on growth in ordinary and unusual times. She writes a monthly column, Women to Women, for The Cherokee Scout, is a Certified Clinical Mental Health Counselor, a Rep for NCWN-West, and an organic blueberry farmer.

For more information about this event, contact Mary Ricketson at: maryricketson311@hotmail.com.

Sunday, March 17, 2019

Swain County Rep's First Book Forthcoming in May

Swain County NCWN-West rep Benjamin Cutler's first book, The Geese Who Might Be Gods, is forthcoming from Main Street Rag Press in May!  It's now available for pre-order at a substantial discount at  
http://mainstreetragbookstore.com/product/the-geese-who-might-be-gods-benjamin-cutler/.

Ben Cutler’s first book of poems is rooted in a particular soil, or bone, of this world, the mountains and rivers of the southern Appalachians; but its branches and crowns stretch out to the hope of a post-apocalyptic tomato sandwich and back to Eden. Cutler’s imagination, like his vulture, is endlessly hungry, but it quivers, “lip-torn and breathless”, with empathy for and identification with everything it touches—bees, bats, children, god-geese whose necks write the letter S “for all their secrets.” These are quirky, accessible poems full of the music of common language.  The casual browser, in picking up this collection, need not fear being bullied or patronized—nothing too scary here, unless you count loneliness, death, the perils of love, or the end of the world.  But it is in their setting that the poet’s perilous love for the world finds its context and its meaning.  The Geese Who Might Be Gods will reward reading and re-reading with passage into a familiar world both rendered strange and seen anew, as if on “the first day’s morning—// when everything first opened / and reached for the new light.”

A Swain High English teacher as well as a poet, Ben Cutler has also been recently awarded 1st prize in TWO of the 2019 North Carolina Poetry Society Poetry Contests: The Carol Bessent Poetry of Love contest for his poem “Speak of Rivers” and the Poetry of Witness contest for his poem “The Church of Unmaking.” Everyone, please congratulate Ben!