Agent auctions her service on EBay? (Yes, for charity.)

This news item comes from Karen Dionne at Backspace.org:

Ms. Irene Goodman, president of the Irene Goodman Literary Agency, will auction a single spaced, half-page critique for 25 partial manuscripts (approximately 50 pages and a synopsis). This will be done on Ebay from Dec. 1 to Dec. 15, 2009. The 25 highest bidders will win. The critiques will all be done personally by Ms. Goodman. They will not be farmed out. Ms. Goodman will email the completed critiques to each of the authors within one month after the auction closing date. ... All starting bids must be $100 or more.

All proceeds will go directly into one of two foundations: the Foundation Fighting Blindness and the Deafness Research Foundation. Both foundations are well established, and the research in each area is incredibly promising. If the necessary funds are obtained to continue research, effective treatments can be expected in the next several years.

Booktour.com walks on the moon!

Okay, maybe not that far out, but the folks at Booktour.com have done something great. They combined an author's upcoming event calendar with the author's Amazon free blog page, making a stunning place to promote your events with exposure to your books at the same time.

More details are posted [naturally...] on my Amazon blog page here.

Want to read one like the one you just read?

You know the feeling - you read a really great book and want another one just like it, either from the same author or a similar writing style, or topic. Now you can visit Book Army http://www.bookarmy.com, a social networking site for readers. At the site you can browse titles by category, read book reviews, visit author pages to learn more about their work. and participate in discussion.

Upcoming Chicago-area event

You're welcome to attend, invite friends, or pass along this timely workshop notice.

Helen




You're welcome to attend, invite friends, or pass along this timely workshop notice.

Helen

The state of freelance from a newsman's perspective

"The combination of waiting and rejection used to drive writers to drink; now it drives them to blog. The blogosphere is an editor-free zone, a lawless, all-embracing realm from which uncertainty, disappointment, and standards have been banished. Anything goes and everyone, it sometimes seems, is there, even the talented, which is proof of the painful universality of rejection. (We all need a place safe from putdowns.) The blogosphere is the hack's idea of heaven."

Read more about the insights of Thomas Blick, a former newspaper travel editor, now a freelancer again.

Writers write... Even when they are on the force!

My favorite moment at the Printer's Row Lit Fest this weekend...


No, he's not writing a ticket, but he is a writer, and purchased Release Your Writing to get motivated. The festival was terrific, and packed! Hope you got downtown to enjoy it. Don't take these Chicago resources for granted, folks. We are incredibly lucky to live in a city that supports the Arts.

Chicago: City of Big Writers

The writing community in Chicago is best described as a self-propelled engine of change.

From Chicago's earliest writers: Nelson Algren, Theodore Dreiser, Stuart Dybek, James T. Farrell, and Studs Terkel our path was set. They made it easy for us to rest on their shoulders. We're a city of big writers and boast this weekend's Printer's Row Lit Fest, the autumn Humanities Festival, and dozens of powerhouse writing groups around the city and suburbs.

We even have a writing style manual to call our own: The Chicago Manual of Style. So write well in the history of our city, but get out and support writing groups and events too. You never know, you might meet one of our local celebs.

The incredible Encyclopedia of Chicago has marvelous research on Chicago's Literary Cultures.

Dear Reader

Suzanne Beecher is a writer and the founder of DearReader.com, an online book club where over 365,000 people read together. Sign up for the free service and Monday to Friday you'll receive a 5-minute portion of the featured book of the week.

Twelve genres to choose from, meet authors, win books, and be one of the four lucky readers each month to receive a batch of Suzanne's homemade chocolate chip cookies. Visit DearReader.com, sign up today, and start reading tomorrow. Go to: www.DearReader.com.

And, if you run out to buy all those great books, please remember to support YOUR local independent booksellers. Some of Chicago's wonderful indie bookstores are:

57th Street Books
The Book Bin
The Book Cellar
The Book Stall at Chestnut Court
Centuries & Sleuths
Women & Children First

2009 Chicago Humanities Festival promises laughs! Oct. 3-Nov16, 2009

One of the richest resources in the nation, The Chicago Humanities Festival, pays tribute to the arts with a city-wide celebration each year. The city is at its peak in autumn and the literary world lives on every corner.

This year, the 19th Chicago Humanities Festival lightens up a bit from the past few years of war and gloom. Now it moves toward The Big Idea, considers the sweep and scale of human ambition: the grand gesture, the great scheme, the Big Idea. Make the most of your Festival right here!

The 2009 schedule is not posted yet. But, if you're not familiar with this rare Chicago gem, click here to view last year's list of programs and presenters.

2009 Printer's Row Lit Fest

It's time! It's here! Chicago's very own 2009 Printer's Row Lit Fest promises to be the biggest and best ever. Don't even think about not going. You know you'll be there, June 6 and 7, 2009.

Some events are already sold out. Check the schedule here. And visit the many vendor booths, Chicago book stores, and free workshops. I'll be at Midwest Writers booth Sunday from 10 a.m. til noon. Stop by for a free publishing consultation.

Helen Gallagher

Another good agent research site

After learning one of my agent-finding recommendations was charging about $12/month for a subscription, I hunted around for an alternative.

I'm happy to recommend LitMatch (what a great name!). With free registration, you can:

* Track the queries, proposals and manuscripts you send to literary agents and view your entire submission history at a glance.

* Store information for multiple titles and track your submissions for each one independently.

* Use our matching search to find the agents who will be most receptive to your work.

* Save literary agents and agencies to your Hotlist for future reference.

If you're seeking representation for an upcoming book, sign up now at LitMatch.

BlogHer Conference in Chicago: July 23-25, 2009

Here are the details on the BlogHer Conference for Chicago this summer.

BlogHer '09 will be at the The Chicago Sheraton and Towers from July 23-25, 2009. We will kick off on Thursday July 23rd with out third annual BlogHer Business Conference, and will continue with the two-day 5th annual BlogHer Annual Conference on Friday and Saturday, July 24-25.

If you're a semi-pro1 blogger, and you are if you've paid attention to my workshops these last few years!) come and see what the online blogging life does to people once they show up in a group of thousands enjoying all Chicago has to offer. It's a chance to "celebrate blogging, whether personal, professional or political, has brought us real work, real friends, real satisfaction and is most definitely a significant part of our real life!" - Read more on their site.

Cross-posted at CClarity.blogspot.com

A Rising Tide Lifts All Books

We've all been reading about the rise in book sales, partly because Amazon's Kindle making people lust for bedtime reading, as an instant download for a flat $9.99. And, partly because more people are choosing Print-on-Demand to bypass the rejection channels, and have a book published in months rather than years.

Today, Salon.com pulled this from the AP Wire...

May 19th, 2009 | NEW YORK -- A shrinking economy and rising technology have transformed how, and how many, books are being published.

With publishers cutting back new releases in response to declining sales, an estimated 275,000 traditional books were released in the United States last year, a drop of about 9,000 from 2007, according to Bowker, a New Providence, N.J.-based company that compiles industry statistics.

Categories with the biggest reductions included travel, religion and biography, Bowker said Tuesday.

But the number of "on-demand" books, a category featuring works with tiny, digitally stored print runs, topped 285,000 in 2008, the first time they outnumbered traditional texts. In 2006, there were fewer than 22,000 on-demand titles, which have become an increasingly popular way to bring old books back in print or keep recent releases from going out of print.

Today is Writers Worth Day

Lori Widmer launched the 2nd Annual Writers Worth Day.

Here is her press release promoting fair pay for writers:

United States of America (Press Release) May 6, 2009 --
May 6, 2009 (Valley Forge, PA) – The Second Annual Writers Worth Day has been scheduled for May 15, 2009. This online event, the brainchild of Lori Widmer, a Philadelphia-based writer and editor, is designed to promote the fair market value of writers through education, awareness, and ongoing support.

“Writers Worth Day was established in response to the increasing amount of job postings that offer little, if any, compensation for the amount of work expected,” says Widmer, a veteran writer and editor, who has seen a decline in market rates. “More beginning freelancers accept abominable rates. The message of Writers Worth Day is every writer has marketable skills, and those skills should be compensated fairly and within industry-acceptable standards.”

All this month, Widmer’s weblog – Words on the Page – is highlighting numerous career tips for new writers and extending into the blogging community to inspire other established writers to educate and offer guidance to their followers and all within the writing community. Numerous other bloggers have already joined Writers Worth Day and will be posting their own tips and inspirational posts to extend the reach of the Writers Worth Day message.
source: FPR

“While we cannot change the rates job posters offer, we can educate our ranks to accept no less than we are worth. It hurts all of us when writers devalue themselves and operate on the mistaken notion that they must accept nonpayment or low payment in order to establish a portfolio. It sets an unreal precedent that makes it difficult for professional, educated writers and editors to earn reasonable wages for their skills.”

For more information, please contact Lori Widmer at lwbean AT gmail DOT com.