***************************************************************** W R I T I N G W O R L D A World of Writing Information - For Writers Around the World http://www.writing-world.comIssue 6:03 16,000 subscribers March 2, 2006*****************************************************************SPECIAL NOTICE: Please DO NOT REPLY to this e-mail; any messagessent to the listbox address are deleted. See the bottom of thisnewsletter for information on how to subscribe, unsubscribe, orcontact the editors.***************************************************************** CONTENTS================================================================= From the Editor's Desk NEWS from the World of Writing THE INQUIRING WRITER: Research by Dawn Copeman FEATURE: Seek and Ye Shall Find by Moira Allen The Write Sites -- Online Resources for Writers WRITING DESK: What Is an Assignment and How Do I Get One? by Moira Allen FEATURE: The Beginner's Guide To... Show don't tell by Dawn Copeman WHAT'S NEW at Writing World WRITING CONTESTS with no entry fees The Author's Bookshelf*****************************************************************EARN AN MFA IN WRITING through the brief-residency program atSpalding University in Louisville, KY. Call (800) 896-8941x2423or email mfa"at"spalding.edu and request brochure FA90. For moreinfo: http://www.spalding.edu/mfa*****************************************************************WRITERSCOLLEGE.COM has 57 online courses. Prices are low.If you can reach our web site, you can take our courses.http://www.WritersCollege.com*****************************************************************DISCOUNTED SOFTWARE FOR WRITERS -- PowerWriter, DramaticaPro,StoryCraft, WritePro, MovieMagic, StyleWriter, plus many more.HUGE SAVINGS! GREAT SELECTION! Save online at:http://www.MasterFreelancer.com*****************************************************************THE WELL-FED WRITER by Peter Bowerman - Learn how you can make$50-100 an hour as a freelance writer and easily earn $1000 aweek or more working 2-3 good days. Details:http://www.writingcareer.com/pb001.shtml*****************************************************************LIVE THE CHARMED LIFE OF A PUBLISHED AUTHOR! Work at home,collect advances, royalty checks, sign a six-figure contract.Even if you've never written a word in your life!http://www.theromancewriterslife.com/ltc/wworlda6/***************************************************************** FROM THE EDITOR'S DESK=================================================================Milestones and Achievements---------------------------We have two achievements to crow over this month: We've finallyreached 16,000 subscribers -- and we made it into the Writers'Digest "Top 101 Websites for Writers" for 2005! The last time wemade the list was 2001. I'd be cheering even harder, if itweren't for the rather odd listing that we received: Accordingto WD, "This site makes it easy to take writing classes with its nomeeting/no schedule approach." The same listing ran in 2001, andmade just about as much sense then. So I'll make up my own blurb:Writing-World.com is THE place for writers to start their searchfor information on just about any aspect of the writing andpublishing business, with more than 600 free articles online,nearly 1000 links to other writing-related sites and resources, adatabase of writing contests, and a free monthly newsletter.(Sorry, no writing classes!)For information on the rest of WD's top 101 picks, visithttp://www.writersdigest.com/101sites/2005_index.aspLooking for E-books?--------------------We've just revamped our "electronic bookstore" and added a newe-book: "The Freelancer's Guide to Finding Writing Markets," byGary McLaren, editor of Worldwide Freelance Writer. This isn'tjust a list of writing markets; it's a guide to how to locatemarkets, and includes:* 60 Online Market Databases and Directories* 30 Writers' Newsletters With Regular Market Listings* 60 Publication Directories, some listing over 100,000 publications!* 24 Books (e.g. Writer's Market)* 13 eBooks* Plus magazines, columns, freelance marketplaces, sites with freelance writing job postings and more!We're also listing, of course, my own new e-book, "How to Writefor Magazines." This book is a complete "writing course in abottle," so to speak -- nine full-length lectures that aredesigned to walk you through every step in the process of gettingthat first magazine article published. Don't know what to writeabout? The chapter on finding and developing ideas will solvethat problem. Don't know where to find the right market? Thisbook shows you how to evaluate a market and how to determinewhich of several seemingly similar publications may be the"right" one for you. Read an excerpt on how to conduct onlineresearch below!The "bookstore" also offers my "Writer's Guide to Queries,Pitches and Proposals," and the first edition of "Writing.com:Creative Internet Strategies to Advance Your Writing Career." Wehave officially discontinued the Writing-World.com market guidesand "2000 Online Resources for Writers," though both of theseresources are provided free with "How to Write for Magazines."Stop by the bookstore athttp://www.writing-world.com/bookstore/index.shtml -- Moira Allen, Editor*****************************************************************LOOKING FOR A MENTOR? Explore your possibilities. Discover yourauthentic voice. Set and achieve your personal goals. Beginningor experienced poets and/or writers welcome. Work privately witha widely published poet and writer, poetry editor, college writinginstructor, life coach, and licensed clinical social workerthrough telephone conferences and E-mail. Contact Linda LeedySchneider at 616-942-7179 or Loschneide"at"aol.com*****************************************************************NEWS FROM THE WORLD OF WRITING=================================================================New Trademark Bill has implications for writers-----------------------------------------------A new bill, currently being considered by Congress, will preventyour character from drinking Coke, Xeroxing documents or eatingHershey bars. According to the Author's Guild, this bill, knownas H.R. 683, would drop express protection for "noncommercialuse" of a trademark and would weaken the protections for thosewho use trademarks in news commentary. Until now, writers andjournalists have had the ability to write about trademarkedproducts without incurring liability -- i.e., your charactercould drink a Coke while revving his Harley with his Nikes,without you, the author, risking being sued by any of the holdersof the trademarks for those products. Should such protections beremoved, you'll have to imagine your character sipping a"carbonated beverage" while revving his unidentified "hog" withhis "athletic shoes." The bill has already passed the House andhas now passed on to the Senate Judiciary Committee. For moreinformation:http://www.authorsguild.org/news/threatens_free_expresion.htmInitiative to help reluctant readers------------------------------------Today, March 2, is World Book Day in Britain and as well ashanding out the usual £1-off vouchers to schoolchildren, thisyear the Brits are using the event to improve adult literacy.Today sees the launch of Quick Reads - a series of twelve fictionand nonfiction books, specially written or amended by theirauthors, that are aimed at reluctant and emerging readers. It isbeing billed as "one of the most exciting developments on theliterary scene for years." The authors who will be published inQuick Reads in March are: Ruth Rendell, Minette Walters, MaeveBinchy, Tom Holt, Joanna Trollope, John Bird, Richard Branson,Matthew Reilly, Conn Iggulden, Rowan Coleman, Patrick Augustus,and Mick Dennis and the Football Premier League. A further twelveQuick Reads titles will be published in May and the authorsinvolved include Andy McNab, Val McDermid and Hunter Davies,among others. Quick Reads will be supported with a massivemarketing campaign and five million £1-off discount vouchers arebeing handed out to encourage reluctant readers to buy one ofthe books. For more information visit:http://www.worldbookday.com/about/about_quickreads.aspNovelist Idol launched by the Arts Council of England-----------------------------------------------------If you want to win a publishing contract, what do you do? Writeyour standard three chapters and a synopsis, send it out toagents and wait, or take part in YouWriteOn? Many buddingnovelists are now doing the latter. They simply join the freesite, upload their chapters and wait for reviews. Each chapter issent randomly to another member to review and rate and the twobest rated works each month become 'bestsellers', which are thensent to literary professionals to be critiqued. The highestrated book of the year will be published by YouWriteOn, which issponsored by the Arts Council of England, but all noveliststaking part can self-publish through the site. If you want tojoin in the 'fun', visit http://www.youwriteon.com/Canadian Books in Print Ceases Publication------------------------------------------At the end of January 2006, Canadian Books in Print ceasedpublication with its 2006 edition. In future, R.R. Bowker,which produces the American edition of Books in Print, willincluding information on Canadian publishers. To have yourpublishing information included, contact Tricia McCraney,Bowker's Canadian contact person, at (416) 996-0672 orpatricia.mccraney"at"bowker.com.E-Textbooks Slow to Catch On----------------------------According to a recent CNN article, college students aren'tembracing e-textbooks at the rate that many publishers expected.Among the drawbacks: students can't highlight important points,make marginal notes, or sell back the books at the end of theterm. Many e-texts are even encrypted to prevent sharing; thosefrom Thomson Corp., for example, expire in one year and prohibitthe printing of more than 100 pages a week. The high cost ofe-textbooks is also a disincentive for students. "A lot ofpeople's perceptions is that e-books... can't cost publishersanything," says Ginny Moffat of McGraw-Hill. "Most of thepublisher's cost is not in paper, printing and binding. Most ofit is in editorial, reviewing content, making sure it'saccurate." [Editor's note: This must come as a bit of a shock toauthors, who have always been told by publishers that the reasonfor their puny royalties is the high cost of paper, printing,binding and so forth...] Still, publishers hope that e-textbookswill eventually catch on, as they offer a number of potentialfeatures that can't be found in print books, such as the abilityto be quickly updated with new information, or the ability toinclude built-in electronic tools such as calculators,spreadsheets, or even videos. "Students are going to have to seemore value in e-textbooks before they take off," said Larry Carr,director of bookstores and services for Brown University. Formore information, see http://tinyurl.com/aym6o****************************************************************THE WRITE STUFF CONFERENCE in Allentown, PA, April 7-8, 2006.Keynote: Award-winning investigative journalist Stephen Fried. 17sessions: fiction, business writing, journalism, childrens. Meetagents, editors, authors. http://www.glvwg.org/conference.*****************************************************************THE INQUIRING WRITER================================================================= by Dawn Copeman (DawnCopeman"at"Write-away.biz)Last month, as you may recall, we were asked by our inquiringwriter for tips on how to conduct research quickly. She wonderedif there were any "research tips, shortcuts or links that areespecially helpful to writers" as she seemed to be spending"hours" to come up with the information she needed.Not everyone was sympathetic towards this problem. Many of youwrote to say that the amount of time we have to devote toresearch now is nothing compared to how long it took before theInternet came to our aid.E. Masters, who writes assigned topics for a group that providesSATS, says that "The topics are often arcane and I have nobackground for writing them. Google saves the day!"Before Google, maybe even before the Internet, I took a half dayto drive to the library and pick out books, did some research atthe library on reference books that couldn't be taken home, thendrove home and read through the checked-out books. I typed outwhat I'd found and went to the corner copy shop to copy thepertinent pages for fact verification. Next day, I'd drive to thelibrary to return the books. So spending a few hours on theInternet doing the research pales by comparison."Many of you wrote in with tips on how to use the Internet moreeffectively, but Moira covers this in great detail in her articlebelow, so I won't repeat them here.An anonymous responder told me about a great research site whereyou can search several encyclopedias, newspapers and periodicals,and look for experts on your topic all at once. I've listed itin the Write Sites below.But all of you said that you actually enjoyed your research.Another respondent, who wishes to remain nameless, said:"Research is fundamental to writing, whether fiction ornonfiction. Personally, I love it, as whenever I'm researchingfor one article, I find I soon have ideas for a few more."Or as Masters puts it: "Just look at it as armchair travel. WhenI wrote my three historical fictions, I spent weeks in thelibrary reading the 'oral histories' (monographs) collected byvarious university students from those still alive from the erawhen my books take place (1896). Fascinating! It opened up awhole new world to me, which I put in my books."And it is Masters' books that lead us onto this month's question,which considers the writer/agent relationship. I know Peggy did aseries of columns on whether or not writers needed agents to selltheir work (see the newsletter archive athttp://www.writing-world.com/newsletter/2005/WW05-24.shtml). Butthese columns didn't address Masters' problem, which is thus:"I've had bad experiences with three different literary agents.Has anyone had a really good experience with an agent? Is theagent taking on new authors? What's the name?"There are three aspects to this request and I would be happy tohear from you on any of them. Firstly, does anyone have anypositive tales to tell with regards to dealings with agents?Secondly, what about the agents' side of the story; are there anyagents out there who would like to give tips to writers on how toget the most from their relationship with their agent? Thirdly,does anyone know of any agents who are actively seeking newauthors?Send your responses to DawnCopeman"at"Write-Away.biz, subject line'agents'. >>-----------------------------------------------------<>-----------------------------------------------------< >-----------------------------------------------------< >-----------------------------------------------------< >-----------------------------------------------------< >-----------------------------------------------------<>-----------------------------------------------------< >-----------------------------------------------------< >-----------------------------------------------------< >-----------------------------------------------------<< National Press Club (NPC) AwardsDEADLINE: April 1, 2006GENRE: JournalismOPEN TO: Professional journalistsLENGTH: No word length requirementsTHEME: For works published in the previous calendar year in11 award categoriesPRIZES: Awards range from $500-$2000ELECTRONIC ENTRY: NoADDRESS: General Manager's Office, National Press Club, NationalPress Building, Washington, DC 20045URL: http://npc.press.org/programs/npcawards.cfm >>-----------------------------------------------------<< Paterson Fiction PrizeDEADLINE: April 1, 2006GENRE: Fiction novel, or collectionOPEN TO: Fiction published in 2005LENGTH: No word length requirementsTHEME: For a novel or collection of short fiction which, in theopinion of the judges, is the strongest work of fiction publishedin 2005.PRIZE: $1000ELECTRONIC ENTRY: NoADDRESS: Maria Maziotti Gillan, Executive Director, PoetryCenter, Passaic County Community College, One College Boulevard,Paterson, NJ 07505-1179URL: http://www.pccc.cc.nj.us/poetry/Prize/index.html >>-----------------------------------------------------<< Wergle Flomp Poetry ContestDEADLINE: April 1, 2006GENRE: Humor poetryOPEN TO: AllLENGTH: No word limitTHEME: Find a vanity poetry contest, a contest whose main purposeis to appeal to poets' egos and get them to buy expensiveproducts like anthologies, chapbooks, CDs, plaques, and silverbowls.Make up a deliberately absurd, crazy, laugh-out-loudparody poem that pokes fun at vanity contests and what they do.Submit your parody poem to a vanity contest as a joke. Afteryou're done, submit your parody poem to us, and tell us whichvanity contest you sent it to as a joke.PRIZES: 1st Prize: $1,190.70; 2nd Prize: $169; 3rd Prize: $60; 5Honorable Mentions: $38 each; plus all winners and honorablementions will be published at WinningWriters.comELECTRONIC ENTRY: Yes, use online entry formEMAIL: flompcontest"at"winningwriters.comURL: http://www.winningwriters.com/contests/wergle/we_guidelines.php >>-----------------------------------------------------<< Foley Poetry AwardDEADLINE: April 18, 2006GENRE: PoetryOPEN TO: AllLENGTH: 30 lines or fewerTHEME: America, the National Catholic Weekly, sponsors the annualcontest in honor of William T. Foley, M.D. Submit only one poem.PRIZE: $1,000ELECTRONIC ENTRY: YesADDRESS: Foley Poetry Contest, America, 106 West 56th Street,New York, NY 10019-3803URL: http://www.americamagazine.org/poetry.cfm*****************************************************************New Listings on THE AUTHOR'S BOOKSHELF:---------------------------------------Have you just had a book published? If so, let the readers ofWriting World know: just click on the link below to list yourbook.FULL CIRCLE: ESCAPE FROM BAGHDAD AND THE RETURN,by Saul Silas FathiHOW TO WRITE FOR MAGAZINES, by Moira AllenMEDLEY OF MURDER, edited by Susan Budavan and Suzanne FlagTEN YEARS RUNNING, by Mary Johnsen Find these and more great books at http://www.writing-world.com/books/index.shtml Advertise your own book on Writing-World.com: http://www.writing-world.com/books/listyours.shtml*****************************************************************ADVERTISE in WRITING WORLD or on WRITING-WORLD.COM! For detailson how to reach 50,000 writers a month with your product, serviceor book title, visit http://www.writing-world.com/admin1/adrates.shtml****************************************************************Writing World is a publication of Writing-World.comhttp://www.writing-world.comEditor/Publisher: MOIRA ALLEN (writing-world"at"cox.net)Newsletter Managing Editor:DAWN COPEMAN (DawnCopeman"at"write-away.biz)Copyright 2006 Moira AllenIndividual articles copyrighted by their authors.Back issues archived athttp://www.writing-world.com/newsletter/index.shtmlWriting World is hosted by Listbox.com - http://v2.listbox.com*****************************************************************Subscribers are welcome to recirculate Writing World tofriends, discussion lists, etc., as long as the ENTIRE textof the newsletter is included and appropriate credit is given.Writing World may not be circulated for profit purposes.*****************************************************************Do not reply to this message to subscribe or unsubscribe! 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