Newsletter June 2006 Newsletter: PALM SPRINGS WRITERS GUILD Newsletter serving writers of the Coachella Valley June 2006 End of the term social Gavel turnover to new Guild Executives - and we adjourn for the summer. ***** *PALM SPRINGS CHAMBER OF COMMERCE* We, of the Palm Springs Writers Guild are now all members of the Palm Springs Chamber of Commerce. The following letter is to Guild members. Dear Members of the Palm Springs Writers Guild: Since 1938, we have played an important role in the history of the Coachella Valley and the success of our local economy. The Palm Springs Chamber of Commerce is one of the most cohesive business organizations in the Coachella Valley. Our Board of Directors, Staff and many volunteers are distinguished leaders dedicated to the success of our members and our community. Members of the Palm Springs Chamber enjoy the connection with more than 1000 business and community leaders who share their commitment to success. The investment made by our members allows us to carry out our Programs of Work in four critical areas: 1) Create a Strong Local Economy; 2) Support the Community; 3) Provide Networking Opportunities and Business Referrals; 4) Represent the Interests of Business with Government The Palm Springs Chamber holds 12 mixers, eight Breakfast Forums and four luncheons annually, which draw over 2,000 attendees. These events offer our members the opportunity to network with other business and community leaders. Our annual business expo and consumer showcase provides networking opportunities with 140+ vendors and approximately 1,2000 attendees. The Chamber office receives up to 150 phone calls and walk-ins everyday asking for information about Palm Springs businesses. A members only visitors guide is provided in addition to individual referrals. Brochures and business cards are on display in the chamber lobby. The chamber Website provides direct links to members at no cost. With more than 86,000 hits monthly, this is a tremendous source of prospects for our members. The annual business resource guide provides member listings by category and in alphabetical order. The chamber distributes more than 25 relocation packets monthly, which includes the member directory. The Palm Springs Chamber of Commerce reviews issues of local, regional and state interest to determine the affect on business. The Chamber Board or Executive Committee may take a position on measures that could have an effect on the business climate. The Chamber enjoys a strategic alliance with the Palm Springs Economic Development Corporation, the Hospitality and Hotel Association, MainStreet, Palm Springs Bureau of Tourism and the City's General Plan Committee. In addition, a designated representative from the Palm Springs City Council attends board meetings and Breakfast Forums to provide updates on City Hall. Sincerely, Bert Kronmiller Director of Communications, Palm Springs Chamber of Commerce IN THIS ISSUE PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE 2 SPEAKER REVIEW 3 LETTERS 4 BOOK REVIEW 5 BOOK FEST EPILOGUE 6 MEETING TIME: Sunday: June 4th, 2006 2:00 to 4:00 pm Palm Desert Library 73300 Fred Waring Dr. Palm Desert, CA No meetings scheduled during summer months. NEXT MEETING: October 1st. 2:00 pm at the Palm Desert Library PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE Bill Clark Welcome to the new PSWG Executives who will take office at the next meeting. They will have our continuing support with the PSWG concept: communications and education. The Guild's new Executives include: • Dawn Spitz - President • Bruce Singer - Executive Vice President • Mary Olson - Vice President, Membership • Phyllis Costello - Vice President, Programs • Judy Joyce - Secretary, Corresponding • Vicki Mills, Secretary, Recording • Mel Harter - Treasurer • Carol Mann - Member At Large • Bari Maddock - Member At Large • Arlene Howard - Historian (not an official office) • Gordon Gumpertz - Critique Groups (not an official office) A big thank you to all Guild members who have made this past year my highlight year. ... Now I move on to personal writing projects with tools of experience I didn't have a year ago. Each day has been a learning day. Each member has shared and each member has gained something. It is what the Guild is all about. What critique groups are all about. ... And what life is all about. Mavis and I are looking forward to a summer of serious writing for me, and watercolor painting for her, in the High Sierra. A happy and productive summer wish goes out to all Guild members. Regards, Bill Clark Have a wonderful summer See you in October All PSWG members are eligible to participate in PS Chamber activities. SPEAKER REVIEW by Carol Mann - for Joanne Hardy, Penny Sansevieri, CEO of Author Marketing Experts, Inc., gave a power packed presentation to the Guild on Sunday, May 7, 2006. The Community Room of the Palm Desert Library had few empty seats and a very attentive audience. Ms. Sansevieri's message stressed that writers must be educated about today's publishing and marketing business. Only then can they realize the promotion opportunities literally at their fingertips. An author can pursue traditional publishing or self-publishing. No matter which choice is made, the author still has to do marketing. In self-publishing, the author keeps more creative control. But the self-published book must look polished; it is the writer's resume. The competition is too fierce to place a book in the marketplace that is poorly edited and assembled. 500 new books a day hit the market, and it takes a potential reader just 3 seconds to judge the front and back cover. Before any marketing plan is implemented, the author must have a professional, available product. Authors need to know their audience, to whom they are marketing, and where they are. A reader profile is available; email penny@amarketingexpert.com A first place to target is an author's hometown or region or a book's setting – Ms. Sansevieri referred to one of her romance novels set in Connecticut. The campaign was launched there. The biggest focus in marketing a book is not to sell the book but to sell what the book can do for the reader. Non-fiction makes this point more readily than a work of fiction. For increased recognition and leverage, the author must work on building a platform. In other words, the author needs to have a marketing plan. Typically, authors pursue marketing for 90 days and then tire, or use the "spray and pay" method that doesn't work. An effective plan has 1 to 5 goals a day. New ideas and opportunities emerge along the way. Readers are found in more than just bookstores. A blended campaign covers many venues. An author can speak about the book at clubs, organizations, on local radio and TV. The Third Tier Media such as trade publications, ezines, or niche publications offer another opportunity. The author can do an article to show expertise or ask for a peer review. A good campaign for a book takes about a year to work into the mainstream. Internet promotion, another option, begins with a website. It's the road that leads to the author and the book. The most valuable space on the web page is top center. This is where the benefits of the book should be posted. The book cover should be top left, the next most valuable space. The reader needs a reason to click further into the site: a chapter from the book, a newsletter, a place to sign-up for something. DearReader.com posts book chapters. People will still buy the book. An author can find websites that have blogs – online journals, opinion pieces, a particular focus group – and pitch the book to them. Google has a ranking for every site. If it is less than a 4 or 5, disregard. Ideal is to find 20 to 100 strong sites. The posting is the author's platform; a place to keep readers informed and current. The author is urged to stay on the message. A blog, which may be syndicated, is a place to sell, and attract traditional media. Ms. Sansevieri began Virtual Author Tours, taking the author on tour on the internet. On a pie chart, internet marketing takes 70%. A Book Hook around a current event, movie, celebrity, calendar date, an area of expertise, etc., helps to reach the author's market. A press release to CNN, or a letter to a reporter or station offering the author as an expert, available anytime, are other choices. Lastly, Ms. Sansevieri offered this: find where the reader is going and follow them. AN END OF SESSION NOTE: I enjoyed serving the Guild this year. The good ideas, lively discussions, and effort of dedicated fellow Board members, always with the goal to make the Guild a better place for writers, have produced positive results. The work of the Committee Chairs and committee members - Membership, Publicity, WebPage, Hospitality, Scholarship, and Book Festival has been wonderful. To all members who supplied information and materials for the incorporation and tax exempt application, thank you. Bob Hurlbert, I appreciated your magic files and special meetings with me to shoulder through some exciting stuff. The application process is a lengthy procedure and will encounter some bumps. The incoming Board will continue the process. To outgoing President Bill Clark, thank you for your creativity, energy, and commitment to the Guild, and for a newsletter that always kept us informed. To the incoming Board, many good wishes for a successful year. And to the members: your fellowship and support are always enjoyed and appreciated. Happy summer to all, Carol Mann BOOK REVIEW by Mary Barrer "For What He Could Become" James A. Misko has lived in Alaska for over two decades and his writing reflects the deep research he has done in capturing the spirit of our 49th State. Not since Robert Service and Jack London has an author expressed the realities of life in a land where many places have 24 hours of darkness and the Northern Lights crackle forming shapes of giant curtains illuminating the cold world as they fall across the sky in an unforgettable, dazzling light show. In his compelling novel, the hero, an Alaskan Indian from a remote village north of the Arctic Circle, is challenged as he struggles for survival and later must adjust to military life as an infantry soldier in World War II and the battle of the Bulge. Upon his return to Alaska he suffers many frustrations and set backs including the loss of the love of his life who marries his brother. His big moment comes when he is asked to drive a dog team in Alaska's famous Iditarod dog race despite his lack of training. We cheer our hero as he fights the Arctic below zero snow storms and darkness. He expresses terror traveling alone across the ice laden trails while trying to keep his concentrations focused and maintain the dogs and get the most out of them. This novel is a page turner that captivates and holds the reader's interest until the very last page. Most of all it acquaints the reader with how different life is in Alaska from the lower 48. Even if many readers will never experience travel to Alaska, they will remember this land where the mountains are nameless and the rivers all run God knows where. Get acquainted with Alaska. Live the adventure in this very exciting book. PSWG AWARDS A SCHOLARSHIP The Palm Springs Writers Guild has approved the awarding of its first scholarship to recipient, Kaylene Sutter, a graduating senior at West Shore high school in Salton City. Recommend of the award was made by Guild's Scholarships committee, Mary Barrer, Judy Fabris and Kathy Hueong. Kaylene will attend California State University, Dominguez Hills. Her goal is to become a writer. The $250 grant will be used in the University Bookstore. Kaylene and her sponsor, Sam Messler will be PSWG guests at the June 4th meeting and Ice Cream Social - Palm Desert Library. MY FRIENDS. I want to thank you for your help in making my term in office a truly wonderful experience. Everyone has been cooperative and positive. I want to say how much I really appreciate two individuals who in the eleventh hour in January jumped in and solved the big problems of directing 150 people from one location to another in a short period of 24 hours. Thank you Kurt and Cynthia. I look forward to supporting the Guild's new officers and Board. I will gladly continue writing the profiles and will volunteer to handle the Christmas party. I am very happy to see our increase in membership and the high profile image we now have in this community, thanks to our officers and board members. Keep waving our banner high. Mary Barrer EDITOR'S NOTE: Mary Barrer lived in Alaska for ten years and as a writer and editor traveled throughout the State to remote villages and outposts. She flew with the bush pilots - landed on glaciers and frozen rivers. As a side note of interest, Mary Barrer has been voted into the Palm Springs Air Museum Hall of Fame for her dedicatory service to the museum. Mary Barrer, the PSWG Vice-President, was recently also named to the national Executive Board of the National League of American Penwomen, as Chair of its National Scholarships Committee. She has served as Penwomen's branch president for the past four years and is also retiring as state president, an office she has held the past two years. EPILOGUE TO PALM SPRINGS BOOK FESTIVAL Judith Weigle The statistics are in: 14 partcipating authors, 8-10 new Guild members, and a panel discussion on marketing self-published books that drew about 30 attendees. It was a good day for the Writers Guild at the 2nd Annual Palm Springs Book Festival on April 22nd. These are particularly impressive numbers considering that the festival itself only drew about 1000 people. Peppertree Bookstore asked the Writers Guild to serve as the arm for local authors to be connected to the festival. The Guild was given a large, complimentary booth. The relationship cemented a productive bond between these two entities, and hopefully raised the level of respect for the Writers Guild in the Palm Springs literary community and with the bookstore, for obvious reasons of stocking our books. Author Steve Scott was the big winner in terms of number of books sold: 20. Cafe Respect is a murder mystery; Scott's second book. When asked why he thought his book sold well Scott responded, "I have a background in advertising, so it could be the way I communicate my message. I have a great looking poster, and an easily definable genre. Plus, I have an organized marketing approach." Possibly Steve would agree to conducting a program for the Writers Guild on marketing and advertising books? The panel "Inside Industry Tips to Market Your Book" consisted of our corporate sponsor for this event Carol Ash; Marketing Director for POD publisher iUniverse.com, Genene Miller Cote of Digital Pulp Publishing representing eBooks; Pen on Fire author, talk show host, and university professor Barbara DeMarco-Bartlett; Los Angeles media specialist Ken Wilson; and author/ghostwriter and corporate speaker Claudia Suzanne with her book This Business of Books. Author and marketing specialist Judith Weigle of My Office Is A 3-Ring Circus! Must I Take Orders From Clowns? organized and moderated the panel. One of the most important topics that was broached was quality control of the finished product by POD publishers. The question was directed to iUniverse specifically and Digital Pulp to ascertain why, in a democratically established publishing system, can't the publishers insist on quality before the book is released to the pubic. This is such an important aspect of sales and distribution that it could be an entire panel topic. No real conclusions were drawn, but the subject was at least tackled. Thank you to all the volunteers who participated in this successful endeavor: Judy Weigle, Gordon & Jenny Gumpertz, Mavis & Bill Clark, Bruce Singer, Dessa Reed, Judy Fabris, Toni Strassberg. MAVIS CLARK AND JENNY GUMPERTZ have a moment to relax between gusts that sent papers flying - oh yes, and the over-head canopy nearly lifted Bill Clark off the ground. On the positive side, the rocks collected not only served as anchors, but proved to be of interest in themselves. If those rocks could only speak of their very old history! DANIEL MCALLISTER, new Guild member, shares his father's book, The Tooth Fairy Legend with Senator Barbara Boxer. This is a wonderfully illustrated, (by Dan's brother, Stan,) children's book about the world-famous ToothFairy. It's just one of the many children's stories written by the late Dr. Mac and now being promoted by Marcella Roth, who is working on a movie deal. Watch for another Dr. Mac book, Snowflake, about a water drop's journey through the water-cycle. Marcella has a story of her own, as she spent many years in Sri Lanka and had returned to the States just prior to the giant wave of water that killed so many people. Her dear friends. BOOK SIGNING AT BORDERS Saturday, June 10 @ 2PM Secret of the Amazon Queen "I write dark adventure fiction -- a throwback to pulp adventure for adults who like genre entertainment not catering to 12-year-olds. Secret of the Amazon Queen is the first of five. Tropic Of Despair is due out later this year, and the third will follow soon," writes Walter Bosley (E.A. Guest) "As a resident of the area, I am always available for speaking with groups." HI FELLOW GUILD MEMBERS, I am a new member of the Palm Springs Writer's Group. You put me in touch with Ted Parnell and I am now a member of that group which I think is very good. However, most people leave in the summer months. I would love to form a group of those of us stuck in the summer heat, a group as small as three people, as large as eight to 10. Not everyone would have to come every time as they might go away for a week or so here and there. I would love to have them meet casually in my home in Rancho Mirage ( preferably on Tuesdays) after lunch for as long as they want to stay. They could come and go at their own conveniance. Or, if they prefer, they could come around eleven a.m and we could have sandwiches or salads and eat them here at my house. Anything that would be good for anyone who is interested. It does not have to be too structured as to time and day. Is there a way I could put this in the newsletter? Or, perhaps you know people of the same mind. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks, Judith Klausner ( new, happy member of the PSWG) judithklausner@msn.com or 328-1920 GHOST WRITER WANTED Hello, my name is Scott Silverman. I live in San Diego, and have a home in Palm Desert. I am in great need to meet A Ghost Writer. I have a book in me and need help getting it out. Can you help/guide/suggest my next steps - someone who might interview me initially to help get the thoughts on paper and guide me through the process. I have never done this before. Thanks in advance, Scott ssilver1@san.rr.com QUOTH THE EXPERTS: "WRITE SOME MORE" (With apologies to Mr. Poe) By Dodie Cross Do you find that you are dreaming, with your mind so busy scheming, When of course you should be gleaning, gleaning from your self-help books? Help lies waiting for the wordless, simply open your thesaurus, Packed with pages full of meaning that you simply can't ignore: Quoth the Experts: "Write some more." Are you blocked with eyes so bleary, shoulders taut and body weary, Not equipped to stop the daunting doubts that gallop through your mind? You must still the mindless chatter that drones on in negative manner, Lest you miss it when your writer's muse raps softly on your door: Quoth the Experts: "Write some more." Do you find that you are staring at the screen so often bearing Endless phrases going nowhere that should morph into a poem? Then you surely now must cling to - and so carefully adhere to All the rules that you have learned to- lean upon them as before: Quoth the Experts: "Write some more." Do you lie awake near midnight, with a pencil, pad and bedlight, Finding words that have more meaning, with a mind aroused and teeming? Then it's time to leave the confines of your bed and do a stair-climb To the window of your soul that can no longer be ignored: Quoth the Experts: "Write some more." Do you fear the end result of editors who want no part of All your energy and love of the creation that you wrought? Fear no longer, you are stronger as you write, submit, and ponder When the mailman might come knocking, knocking on your chamber door: Quoth the Experts: "Write some more." PALM SPRINGS WRITERS GUILD Meetings are open to all writers. The Guild aims to nurture and promote the craft of writing. We meet on the first Sunday of each month. For more information regarding The Palm Springs Writers Guild, please contact a Board Member - see back cover. BOARD MEETING Open to all members. Contact a Board Member for information, often the Board will meet informally at Borders Book Store. Please feel free to join us and our brainstorming sessions that bring forth ideas to improve our Palm Springs Writers Guild. We are able to meet informally only until our incorporation has been finalized. Member input is very important at this pre-incorporation time. CONTRIBUTING WRITERS WRITTEN CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE NEWSLETTER are welcomed, but subject to editing and possible delay in publication. Topics should be of interest to writers and content related to the Arts. Word count up to 600. Art and (or) photographs are accepted. •Bill Clark ----------------- President's Message •Mary Barrer ------------- Member Profiles •Joanne Hardy ----------- Speaker Review GUILD GRAM Edited and produced by Board and Committee Members Palm Springs Writers Guild Board THE SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA WRITERS' CONFERENCE - Palm Springs Sept. 29-Oct. 1, 2006 Featuring dozens of read & critique, Q&A and interactive troubleshooting workshops. Two specialty immersion tracks are also available this year. Novelist Drusilla Campbell's popular "Novel Cram" returns to empower writers with the tools and understanding to beat out an entire novel from scratch, and videogame writer Aaron Conners will conduct a Saturday-only immersion track devoted to writing interactive stories for the century's new cinema. With plenty of authors, agents and editors aboard, the third annual SCWC*PS will be held at the Hyatt Regency Suites, 285 N. Palm Canyon Drive. Discounted rates for full conference registration is available through July 1. Visit www.WritersConference.com or call (619) 233-4651 for full details. Officers - click here Newsletter by Board and Committee Members PUBLISH * READINGS * WRITING CRITIQUES * MEETINGS * NEWSLETTER * CONTESTS * SPECIAL ACTIVITIES Membership Renewal - click here Palm Springs Writers Guild P.O. Box 947, Rancho Mirage, CA 92270 WEBSITE - PalmSpringsWritersGuild.org ^ posted by Webmaster @ 5/23/2006 09:45:00 AM Pacific Time Powered by Blogger. |
