First Call for Hoffer Awards

Accessible contests are great for building your platform and your confidence. Here is one of my favorites. And, yes, I've entered. Notice that "frugal" entrance fee:

Deadline, January 21, 2013
Small presses, academic presses, micro presses, self-publishers invited.

There is a $2,000 grand prize and low entrance fee.

New or old, judges will consider your book. Each year, independent publishers release extraordinary books to little or no recognition. The Eric Hoffer Book Award recognizes excellence in publishing. A SINGLE REGISTRATION gives you SIX WAYS TO WIN (See below). See submission guidelines below or check their listing in Writer’s Market or visit www.HofferAward.com.

AWARDS/BENEFITS:
* $2,000 GRAND PRIZE (the Eric Hoffer Award for Books)
* Winner of the Montaigne Medal for most thought-provoking books
* Winner of the da Vinci Eye for best covers
* Winner of the First Horizon Award for debut authors
* Winner and First Runner-Up awarded for every category
* Honorable Mentions for every category
* Individual Awards for Micro, Small, and Academic Presses, as well as Self-Published Books
* Coverage in The US Review of Books (www.theUSreview.com) and on www.HofferAward.com
* Gold Seal Certificates
* Worldwide Exposure

CATEGORIES: Art, Poetry, General Fiction, Commercial Fiction, Children, Young Adult, Culture, Memoir, Business, Reference, Home, Health, Self-Help/Spiritual, Legacy Fiction, Legacy Nonfiction, E-book Fiction, and E-book Nonfiction.

In this tough economic time, your book is always a great value, and the Eric Hoffer Book Award is the most economical way to achieve publicity and recognition. Read previous contest coverage in the US Review of Books (www.theUSReview.com ) and view past winners and press releases at www.HofferAward.com .

By the way, one of my short stories was honored in the last contest round and appears in Best New Writing of 2013. See below for a peek.
    

Best New Writing 2013

My short story “Love Story” is included in 2013's Best New Writing published by Hopewell Publications. Best New Writing 2013 (Hopewell Publications, ISBN 9781933435435, trade paper, 172 pgs) An annual anthology of new fiction and creative nonfiction from writers around the world, including the winners of the Eric Hoffer Award for prose. Edited by best-selling and award-winning authors and editors, the pages of BNW feature stories. This volume includes works from Bint Arab, Carolyn Burns Bass, James Lloyd Davis, Josepha Gutelius, Carolyn Howard-Johnson, Laura T. Jensen, Chris Laing, Nina Leo, Leo Madigan, B.F. McCune, Jacob Peppers, Emily Reardon, Janet H. Swinney, and L.M. Thompson.

   

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and how to books for writers including the award-winning second ediction of, The Frugal Book Promoter: How to get nearly free publicity on your own or by partnering with your publisher; The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success; and Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers . The Great First Impression Book Proposal is her newest booklet for writers. She has three FRUGAL books for retailers including A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques. Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use the little Green widget to let them know about this blog:

Shouting Out Great (Frugal!) Writers Conference News

& July 20-22, The Greater Los Angeles Writers Conference will be at the Los Angeles Valley Campus. I’ll be speaking Saturday, the 21^st at 12:30 pm. on Building a Platform and on Sunday the 22^nd at 10 am on How to Develop a Relationship with a Bookseller. The same day at 3:15 we’ll talk about how It’s Never Too Early or Too Late to Promote Your Book.

The conference includes other speakers and panelists like Morgan St. James, Robin Quinn, and Dan Poynter. http://www.wcwriters.com/faculty/ There will also be an exciting screenplay track. Find the entire schedule here:

Friday: http://www.wcwriters.com/glawc/schedule-fri.html
Saturday: http://www.wcwriters.com/glawc/schedule-sat.html
Sunday: http://www.wcwriters.com/glawc/schedule-sun.html

And this conference is only $79 for one day and $199 for all three. Frugal as are most things I recommend to you. Compare to some other conferences that run as nigh as $625.!

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and how to books for writers including the award-winning second ediction of, The Frugal Book Promoter: How to get nearly free publicity on your own or by partnering with your publisher; The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success; and Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers . The Great First Impression Book Proposal is her newest booklet for writers. She has three FRUGAL books for retailers including A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques. Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use the little Green widget to let them know about this blog:

On Dragonflies, Generosity, and Marketing

I received this e-mail from a friend of mine and it reminded me how important the concept of generosity is to building a platform or marketing a book--or anything else for that matter. May Lattanzio is a photographer and she has always been giving. She provided Magdalena Ball and me with photographs for one of the first poetry chapbooks we collaborated on, She Wore Emerald Then. So when I received this, it  brought back memories. It also suggested to me that it is time to reiterate how important giving away some of our work can be.  Here is her story:

In March of 2008 I took a picture of a cold dragonfly in my hand. She was a slender baskettail. Beautiful wing markings. I love taking photos of them and of course, butterflies. Always a challenge. You can't just tell them to "Stand still!"

I'm on a list of southern odonata lovers and I asked for identification of the fly. Giff Beaton is a naturalist, an airline pilot, takes people on WINGS birding tours, and writer of field guides was "envious" because he'd never seen one.
Dennis Paulson from Slater Museum of Natural History, University of Puget Sound, Tacoma, said they are difficult to find and he might want to put my photograph in his newest field guide. The one he had was posed (chilled, photographed, and released). This one was just cold, hanging outside on the siding near the back door. Actually, I thought a spider had gotten to it. I took her picture and put her in the morning sun to warm up.

I got another email asking for the photo. I sent him four different ones.

Then he asked me to let him use one and to give my approval and after I said "yes,"  I forgot about it.

Today I got a package. It's this HUMUNGOUS, 538 page field guide, "Dragonflies and Damselflies of the East" (eastern US and Canada) by Dennis, a complimentary copy. I had forgotten the earlier incident! The book is so lovely,  I hated to crack the cover! But there my dragonfly is, page 389, clinging to my finger, unposed.

Anyway, that's my little surprise. I will treasure this. I didn't know he'd finished it or if he really did use my photo.

And people wonder why I'm out there in the heat, in muck or in fields, on the water and always with a camera? You just NEVER know what you can find.

May Lattanzio
May is a freelance writer, poet and photographer. She is the author of   Waltz on the Wild Side: An Animal Lover's Journal and Sam, The Grouchy as Usual Bear: A Tale of Love, Loss, and Magic. She contributed to  Least Loved Beasts of the Really Wild West: A Tribute and is an Amazon Shorts author. She also contributed photographs for She Wore Emerald Then (www.budurl.com/motherchapbook ) by Magdalena Ball and Carolyn Howard-Johnson.  Learn more about her at http://jpgmag.com/people/maziel
http://redbubble.com/people/MayLattanzio

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and how to books for writers including the award-winning second edition of, The Frugal Book Promoter: How to get nearly free publicity on your own or by partnering with your publisher; The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success; and Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers . The Great First Impression Book Proposal is her newest booklet for writers. She has three FRUGAL books for retailers including A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques. Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use the little Green widget to let them know about this blog: