Freewrite: Marian Calabro's Writing Newsletter

April lived up to T. S. Eliot's description as "the cruelest month." In the course of a few days I suffered two deep losses. My Norwegian Forest cat Dulcie, whom a friend called "my twin soul," was diagnosed with a rare, fast-onset disease on a Wednesday morning and passed away in my arms on Friday night. She was only two years old, a mysterious and enchanting beauty until the end. A few days later I was among the legions of people mourning the unexpected passing of Pete Fornatale, a New York disk jockey. To call Pete a DJ doesn't begin to describe his influence; he was like a cultural brother to so many of us fans.

Both put me in touch with my much younger self, and both have given me much to write about. I often joked that Dulcie was like the doll I played with as a little girl, because I loved to brush her long hair every day. And I first met Pete when I was a 12-year-old Beatles and S&G fan and he was a 20-year-old student DJ on Fordham radio. My best friend Annie Bagdon and I sent him letters in envelopes we fashioned from op-art ads (remember Peter Max?), and he encouraged our creativity by calling us "two of the hippest young ladies in the metropolitan area." After stints at all the radio stations that really mattered in New York -- the long-gone, still-lamented WNEW-FM and others -- Pete came full circle to WFUV, where I listened to him every Saturday. Happily, his protégé Don McGee is carrying on the "Mixed Bag" tradition.

The month ended with an upbeat event, I'm glad to say, when I led a workshop at the Jefferson Township Public Library. Big thanks to librarian Diane Hess for inviting me back. (Photo right, with Diane in the coral sweater; a total of 12 writers took part, and I loved writing with you all.) Diane leads a free Wordsmiths group at the library once a month on Saturday mornings-do take part if you're in that part of Morris County.

Happy Rest-of-Spring,

Marian

Exercise

Write about a newborn.

Baby

Upcoming Workshops: Mine and Others

Creative Writing: First Draft Fever, Fall 2012

I'm delighted to return to Adult School of Montclair (NJ) this fall with my basic workshop. Dates will be October 1 through November 5 (five Monday nights). Registration usually begins around Labor Day. This workshop uses the Amherst writers method, described here:

http://www.mariancalabro.com/writing-workshops.php

uPublishU at BookExpoAmerica, June 3-7

If you're motivated to find an agent, self-publish, or otherwise go deeper into the ever-changing business of books, the conference to attend is BookExpoAmerica, June 4-7, at the Javits Center in NYC. Of particular interest is the concurrent session running from 9 to 5 on Sunday, June 3: "At the All-New uPublishU at BEA (formerly known as DIY Authors Conference & Marketplace), aspiring writers and authors will learn from industry experts tips and tactics and all about the tools and technology to help them self-publish a print book or an ebook." Price is $99 before May 21; $150 after May 21. Fee includes a boxed lunch during the conference and a 1-day pass to BEA on Thursday, June 7.

Register online at http://www.bookexpoamerica.com/ (click on Concurrent Events on the home page) or sign up on-site starting at 8 a.m. the day of the event.

Hunter College Writers' Conference and Intensives, June 6-9

A practical conference with some big names, held on the East Side of Manhattan. Cost ranges from $190 to $595, depending on when you sign up and which sessions you want. Registration:

ceweb.hunter.cuny.edu/cers/cers.aspx; select Browse Courses Summer 2012 and search under The Writing Center, or phone 212-772-4292.

Interview: Laurie Lewis on Nonfiction Self-Publishing

Laurie Lewis has been a successful freelance medical writer and editor for more than 25 years. She is the author of What to Charge: Pricing Strategies for Freelancers and Consultants and Freelance Fee Setting: Quick Guide for When a Client Demands a Price NOW. I've known Laurie and respected her work for years; we met as fellow members of the Editorial Freelancers Association when she was its co-executive. (EFA is the first organization I recommend to writers who are looking for editorial services.) Laurie lives in New York City and is not the bluegrass musician with the same name.

What are your books about?

Laurie Lewis I have two books, both about pricing for freelancers. My main book is What to Charge: PricingStrategies for Freelancers and Consultants. I use the tag line "Everything you need to know about freelance fees."

I still believe that What to Charge covers everything a freelancer should know about pricing. Yet I wrote another book, more a booklet really, after self-publishing the second edition. That's because panicked freelancers often contacted me when a client needed a price ASAP. They didn't know how to begin to figure it out. They didn't have time to read an entire book. So I put together a sort of checklist to help them, Freelance Fee Setting: Quick Guide for When a Client Demands a Price NOW.

Did you pursue mainstream publishing?

I had an agent for the first edition of What to Charge. He was unable to convince a mainstream publisher to take the book. They all said the same thing: too narrow a topic. I ended up going with a small publisher, who happened to be someone I knew. I could have gone with her company from the get-go, but I was reluctant because I knew they didn't do much marketing.

What to Charge initially was published in 2000. Five years later the publishing company folded, and I bought the remaining inventory of my books to sell on my own. At that point, my agent again tried to get a mainstream publisher to pick it up, but without success.

Ten years after the first edition came out, I revised What to Charge. By then the publishing world had changed, and self-publishing was no longer a bad word. This time around, I never considered a mainstream publisher.

Which publishers or publishing method did you end up with, and why?

Before I began the revision, I checked the websites and contacted about half a dozen self-publishing outfits. I chose Outskirts Press because it seemed the most professional. Some of the other companies hounded me incessantly with sales calls, offering sign-up incentives like $50 off or 40 extra copies. By contrast, Outskirts sent monthly emails with writing tips. Not until I signed on with Outskirts did I encounter the same salesmen's approach as all the other firms.

I took a different route for Freelance Fee Setting: Quick Guide for When a Client Demands a Price NOW. Purchasers need that book immediately; they can't wait for print-on-demand publication. I therefore self-published the quick guide as an e-book. In fact, I often refer to it as "the little e-book." That sounds silly when I wave a copy around. I printed up a few hundred copies to take to conferences where I sell books.

Yes, I saw that you sold both versions at the recent American Society of Journalists and Authors Conference. As I looked at them from across a crowded exhibit hall, they came across as "the book" and "the booklet." Both are on Kindle, too, right?

I put Freelance Fee Setting on Kindle myself. For broader distribution, I chose BookBaby to get it to all the other e-book retailers. I assume it's selling with them because it's selling on Kindle. But almost three months after BookBaby received the file, I have yet to see any record of sales. BookBaby has to wait for the vendors, like Nook or Apple, to report sales, and that can take months. I knew this when I decided to do the e-book, which is why I put it on Kindle myself. I was used to tracking Kindle sales of What to Charge in real time, and I didn't want to lose that capability. It's especially important when doing a marketing campaign, to see immediately if a particular approach is working.

How do you market your books?

I'm fortunate that my market, freelancers, is easy to identify. My main marketing approach has been through websites, blogs, social media outlets, and organizations for freelancers. I have offered review copies, done guest blogs and posts that mention the books, done interviews and podcasts, and spoken at meetings of freelancers. I've exhibited at a few conferences, although that is a costly proposition. I took out a few inexpensive ads. I also entered contests, and I can now call What to Charge a multiple award winner. Announcement of contest results is free publicity, often to an audience I wouldn't reach on my own.

The second edition of What to Charge: Pricing Strategies for Freelancers and Consultants came out in February 2011. I decided that my major client that year would have an odd name: Marketing the Book. I did my ordinary freelance work about half the year and marketed the book the other six months. By the end of the year, I had contacted more than 100 websites and organizations. Most responded and carried something about my book. Yet sales were modest.

When the little e-book quick guide came out earlier this year, I sent an email announcement and offered a review copy to about 20 of my new contacts who were strong supporters of What to Charge. Several of them immediately mentioned it on their blogs, websites, or social media lists. During a 5-day run, I watched Kindle sales of the new book go from 0 to 55. Then they slowed down. Marketing has to be continuous.

How do you distribute?

Ingram distributes What to Charge, which means that bookstores and other retail outlets could carry it. However, most are reluctant to handle self-published books. What to Charge: Pricing Strategies for Freelancers and Consultants is usually purchased online from Outskirts Press or Amazon. It is available in print and digital formats.

Freelance Fee Setting: Quick Guide for When a Client Demands a Price NOW is distributed by all e-book retailers. The background color is yellow for Kindle and blue for all other e-readers, but the contents are the same.

Note from Marian: I recommend these books to any Freewrite readers who are also freelancers. Read more about them at the Outskirts Press site or on Amazon, where Laurie's link is:

http://www.amazon.com/Laurie-Lewis/e/B001JS12J0

Send Out Your Work

Poetry: Blast Furnace is an online magazine looking for "refined poetry by 'poets of place,' with themes deeply rooted in place. We value refined poetry that is architecturally functional and distinctive on the page. We value poetry that is stripped-burnt down-to its purest state, in both form and context." Offer three poems max, and none that have been previously published. http://blastfurnacepress.com

Fee to offer work: None. Payment: None. Deadline: Open

Poetry and Short Prose: The Barefoot Review publishes "original written work by people who have or have had physical difficulties in their lives, from cancer to seizures, Alzheimer's to Lupus. It is also a place for caretakers, families, significant others and friends to write about their experiences and relationships to the person." Offer up to 5 poems and prose pieces of up to 1,000 words.

http://barefootreview.org

Fee to offer work: None. Payment: None. Deadline: Open (publishes twice yearly online)

Short stories, essays, poems: Some people disparage Writer's Digest. I'm not one of them; the magazine has useful information. WD's Annual Writing Competition offers a prize of $3,000 and an all-expenses-paid trip to New York City to meet with editors and agents. Prizes of $1,000 each are also given for a work in each genre. Send a poem of up to 32 lines, a story of up to 4,000 words, or an essay of up to 2,000 words. www.writersdigest.com/competitions

Fees: $20 per entry for poetry, $30 for prose (guidelines spell out fees for each additional entry)

Deadline: May 15, 2012

Be sure to go online for the required entry form and complete guidelines.

Wisdom from Pat Schneider

This is a combination story, exercise, and appreciation.

After the recent workshop at the Jefferson Township library, Diane Hess told me she uses these two passages from Pat's book Wake Up Laughing: A Spiritual Autobiography as a prompt.

When I was thirteen years old, a knock came on my door. My door would open, if I opened it, onto a dark hallway in a tenement house in St. Louis. Behind me would be two small rooms.

The year was 1947; I had been told never, never to open the door when Mama was not at home. But the vice calling to me outside the door was familiar. As if a bolt of lightning had struck my heart, I recognized the voice: my school teacher, Miss Dunn, whom I adored.

It was unthinkable that a seventh grade teacher would visit one of her students. It was unbearable that Miss Dunn had come up the dirty stairs, that she had climbed three flights, that she might see the clutter, the dirt, the shame in the rooms behind me.

The school year was over. It was summer, hot and sticky in that Mississippi river-bottom air. I opened the door just the tiniest crack, with the chain lock still in place. Yes. It was true. Miss Dunn stood in the dim light of the hallway, and she was smiling at me.

I unlocked the chain, opened the door a fraction more, tried to hide the room behind me with my body. She held out a book. Gray, with blue letters. I felt faint. "Here," she said. "This is my book. I want you to have it."

I took the book, but could not speak. Her book. She was giving me her book. She had told me once, when I handed in a report, "You can be a writer." ....

When I was in my thirties, and had a libretto performed by Phyllis Bryn Julson, Robert Shaw, and the Atlanta Symphony in Carnegie Hall, I wrote to the St. Louis Board of Education and asked for the address of Dorothy Dunn. They said she died within five years of the day she had knocked on my apartment door.

The prompt: What do you think happened to the narrator between age 13 and her thirties?

Thank you, Pat and Diane.