Leslie Poston's Blog
Posted by Leslie Poston
It has been an exciting few weeks for the American fiction industry. Not all of the excitement has made headlines, however. Take, for example, the recent decision of the AP News Wire to stop their book review feature. This doesn't sound like a major decision at first glance, but the AP News Wire is picked up by news agencies all over the world. This means that authors of all levels will lose a valuable form of international marketing in a time more sales are already in a decline.
This development will probably not affect writers that are already established such as Stephen King, Nora Roberts and other New York Times heavy hitters. For an aspiring writer, however; this could have a great deal of impact on initial book runs and sales. How can a new writer combat this? By self-promoting on the internet, using the press release system, creating book promotional videos on YouTube, blogging and other free or low cost marketing methods commonly used by internet marketers. You can read the announcement from the AP News Wire here.
In legal news, author Clive Cussler is suing over the movie production of his book Sahara. He claims that multiple changes to the plot and the script made the movie unwatchable and nearly ruined his franchise based around the character Dirk Pitt.
Prolific novelist Sidney Sheldon died in January 2007.
Gather, an Internet-based social article writing and networking site, is looking to be the "American Idol" of the publishing industry. They have introduced a new contest, First Chapters, in which in new authors can win a publishing contract by using their site to publish the first three chapters of their book. You can read more about the contest in this article or visit their web site here. The winner will be published by an imprint of Simon and Schuster, Inc.
Read an LA Times Op-Ed piece on the demise of the independent bookstore here.
Posted by Leslie Poston
NICKELODEON WRITING FELLOWSHIP
http://www.nickwriting.com/
For consideration in the '07 - '08 fellowship, materials must be
submitted together between January 2, 2007 and February 28, 2007.
Must be 18 or older. Open to US residents only. Appropriate spec
scripts must be comedic, live action or animation, based on a
half-hour television series currently on air. The Nickelodeon
Writing Fellowship is designed to attract, develop and staff -
new and experienced, culturally and ethnically diverse writing
talent on Nickelodeon Network productions.
Posted by Leslie Poston
Read All Of the Great Books and Some New Books Online Here:
These sites are bringing literature to the masses, one scroll bar and click at a time.
Posted by Leslie Poston
"Oklahoma Writer's Federation Inc. is a non-profit organization for
writers, from beginners to professional authors. We have several
affiliate groups and over 700 members nationwide. We also have
members in Norway and South Africa, and invite all writers to join.
Every May (May 4-5, 2007) OWFI conducts an exciting, entertaining,
and educational 2 day writer's conference in Oklahoma City.
We also sponsor a writing contest with 33 categories.
The contest entry deadline is Feb. 1, 2007.
Writers must be members of OWFI to enter the contest but not to
attend the conference.
For complete information see our web-site www.owfi.org"
-- From OWFI
Posted by Leslie Poston
Suite101 has introduced a new look for the site, what do you think? Never fear, your favorite features are still here, just scroll down further to see the current Poll, discussions, and older articles and blogs.
