March Presentation – LeeAnne Krusemark

Marketing Your Writing

You’ve almost finished the book. You want to sell it, but how? Not enough people know who you are for your phone to start ringing with publication offers. You’ve heard that you can make more money per book selling online through Smashwords or Amazon, but they barely push your book.

Almost no one will knows it exists unless you can get the word out.

So now what?

Do what other writers have done. Go to seminars on marketing.

Fremont Area Writers March 23rd meeting will feature a presentation by author and writers’ consultant LeeAnne Krusemark who’ll discuss your book-marketing options, including internet sites that you can post on for free.

As Adjunct Professor of Publishing and the owner of her own home-based consultancy, Krusemark has spoken widely. She’s worked in the news media as a writer and editor, written numerous “How-to” books for writers and other creative-industry professionals, some of which will be available for sale at the event.

This admission-free event welcomes writers of all skill level to the campus of 42 Silicon Valley, a cutting edge computer learning site, located 6600 Dumbarton Circle. We’ll meet March 23rd at 2PM in Room 115. Go to our website for more complete directions.

This event will be held at 2PM on Saturday March 23^th. Admission is free to the public ($5 donation is requested from members) and will take place in Room 115 of 42 Silicon Valley (formerly known as DeVry University), 6600 Dumbarton Circle, Fremont CA 94555.

President’s Message

Terry Tosh – March 2019

Things are getting very exciting! Plans for our 10th Anniversary Picnic are firming up. MARK YOUR CALENDARS—July 6 is the date, and Lake Elisabeth in Fremont at the Redwood 2 Area is the place. You’ll have more details soon; keep an eye on your email and HPB at the Fremont Hub
Saturday April 9th 2:00 – 4:00 p.m. Half Price Books Fremont Hub
Great news! Fremont Area Writers is now partnering with Half Price Books in Fremont to present “Second Saturday” — Meet Your Local FAW Authors monthly readings by FAW published writers. Readings will be scheduled from 2:00–4:00 p.m. unless arranged otherwise at time of scheduling. A dif- ferent author will be featured each month.
This opportunity is available to FAW members who are pub- lished authors with books to sell. Keep an eye on your email for more information, or contact Nancy Guarnera to schedule your month. Don’t wait, 2019 is filling up fast! faw-hpb@cwc-fremontareawriters.org.
Join FAW poet Tony Pino in April as he celebrates National Poetry Month at Half Price Books in the Fremont Hub. Tony will read poems from his book A Hidden River and discuss the many various forms poets use to express their deepest insights. Do you love poetry or find it con- fusing? If you’ve ever won- dered what makes a poem tick, don’t miss this oppor- tunity to learn more about poetic structure, style and meaning.
Ink Spots.
We’ve had some fantastic speakers and subjects already this year—if you missed attorney Kelley Anne Way’s presentation on copyright law last month, check out the Recap in this issue.
She gave us a dense overview of her subject and has agreed to come back soon to do more in- depth coverage on subjects such as contracts.
Our monthly meeting attendance is reaching record numbers and our membership is growing! A heart-felt thank you to our publicity team for your great promoting of our events; FAW has had coverage of our each of our Half Price Book “Second Saturday” events in the Tri-City Voice, as well as coverage of our monthly meeting speakers. Keep an eye out for more FAW coverage in the Voice. And thank you to those of you who are sharing our event flyers! Every bit helps!
The Half Priced Book events are rocking it, and our authors are working hard to grow and expand in the promotion of their wonderful talents and abilities. Let’s keep the momentum soaring, and keep the outreach alive, as we seek to grow our membership and to reach out to more youth.
Keep the shout-outs coming, and remember to get them published on our website and in our newsletter as KUDOS. The more you share, the more you expand your exposure and increase your potential fan base. The more we celebrate our successes the more success we will have!
Enjoy this month’s copy of Ink Spots, and note the many ways you can volunteer and participate in the success of others, as well as your own.
Thanks, everyone, for being a part of our success and our successful future.

Terry Tosh

President

FAW

Book Signing at Half Price Books

Fremont Area Writers is now partnering with Half Price Books in Fremont to present “Meet Your Local FAW Authors” monthly readings by FAW published authors on the second Saturday of each month. Readings will be scheduled from 2:00 to 4:00 pm. A different author will be featured each month. Authors will have the opportunity to read and answer questions about their work, as well as sign and sell their books.

This “free” opportunity is available to FAW members who are published authors with books to sell. Time slots for the year are filling up—so act now. Keep an eye on your email for more information or contact Nancy Guarnera

HPB at the Fremont Hub
Saturday April 9th 2:00 – 4:00 p.m. Half Price Books Fremont Hub

FAW’s Guest Speakers for 2019

Information supplied by Knuti VanHoven

April 27- Lisa Rosenberg, 2017-2018 Poet Laureate of San Mateo County and

Wallace Stegner Fellow in poetry at Stanford.

May 25- Andrew Benzie on Self Publishing &, Marketing Your E-Book

June 22- Shelley Bates on Planning and Plotting Your Own Book Series

July 27- Potluck , No Speaker

August 24-

September 28-

October 26-

November 23-

December 28- Potluck, no Speaker

News!

Collected by Knuti VanHoven

Jan Small nominated for Jack London Award!

Congratulations to Jan Small, who won Fremont Area Writers nomination for the CWC’s highest honor for local group accomplishment: The Jack London Award.

Jan has been searching out sites for FAW book-signings and organizing everything from setup, take down, author recruitment and publicity. She’s even designed the promotional posters.

The Award recognizes outstanding service to a CWC branch and will be presented at the regional meeting later this year.

Thank you, Jan, from all of us!

The purpose of the Jack London Award is to honor a branch member whose service to the California Writers Club (CWC) and/or a branch has been exemplary. Each branch may select one award recipient biannually in odd-numbered years. The award is presented at the July annual CWC meeting of statewide representatives.

Carmen VonTickner has agreed to fill the vital Board position of Secretary.

Carmen began her new position at the last meeting on January 26, and has hit the ground running. Thank you Carmen!

Jan Small is Planning another Local Authors Event at NewPark Mall

Jan has negotiated for New Park Mall to host another Authors’ Event, with FAW Members displaying and selling their wares in the corridor outside the food court. People are passing by on a regular basis and last October we did make sales, while learning a few lessons: 1) Splitting the cost of a table so that one person would be selling in the morning and the other will sell in the afternoon makes for a much less tiring day. 2) Since pedestrians don’t expect to see authors at Malls, having signs about what kind of book you’re selling on the front of your table is a good thing!

The Mall’s charge for a table last time was $25, which can be split by two or more authors.

This year’s event is on February 9th. There is one table unclaimed. If interested, Contact Jan Small right away.

Remember to bring your used books to the Book Exchange Table at FAW Meetings.

Books you bring are free to members. Take any you like, but at the end of the meeting, if yours have not been selected, please take them home and bring them back next month.

If you especially recommend a book, put a marker in it with a brief note to let folks know why it’s special!

Members can save a fortune by recycling books instead of buying news ones!

Get Involved with FAW

Fremont Area Writers has lots of great volunteer opportunities!

If you’d like to to make a positive contribution to these projects please, contact our President.

Send your Book Cover jpgs to webmaster@’this website URL’ for our Members’ Book Display, then check out other members books and if you can give them a 5 star rating, go online to Amazon, Goodreads or other websites and post your review for them. This is one of the most important ways that we can help each other out!

Contest Judges Needed

The League of Women Voters has asked us to sponsor (run) Jr Hi or High School writing competition. We need Judges who’ll volunteers to read and kindly rate the entries. Having judge credits on your resume, by the way, can be a good credit. Interested? Email Us.

Shutterbug Alert! We have an on-going need for active, in-focus Photos of FAW speakers and events for Press releases and Ink Spots & this website. Faces should be as large a portion of the photo as possible with expressions of active interest in the project that’s depicted. If you get a good shot, send it to webmaster

Elevator-Speech-Polishing Event, at every FAW Meeting

FAW has a 45 minute membership meeting. 15 of those 45 minutes are set aside for up to thirty members to practice their 30-second “elevator speech”, introducing themselves and their projects. An elevator speech isn’t social chit chat or a biography. It’s a quick teaser to use at professional events, like conferences, where agents and publishers are looking for product to sell. Each of them is looking for specific types of product that they have a market for. If they don’t need what you have to sell, you need to move on and keep moving until you find your possible connections.

Once you’ve each introduced yourself with your name and role (Author, Agent, Publisher) you have 30 seconds to let them know what you have to offer: Your book’s genre, target audience, plus a couple of interesting details and what support you’re seeking.

IF that’s what they’re looking for, you exchange more information. If not, you exchange quick pleasantries and move on until you find a more suitable match.

You may need to present to many, many people before you meet one who’s after exactly your project. with the right needs. While it’s important to be congenial, it’s not time for normal socializing .

After thirty seconds, if you haven’t already moved on, your contact will either be interested or be scanning the room for their next prospect.

THIRTY SECONDS! At Every FAW meeting you can polish and refine this vital skill and get feedback afterward, at break. Going over that time at a conference risks losing your new contact’s interest or creating a situation where they feel like they can’t get away from you.

Going over that time at an FAW meeting will only get you buzzed, because, though we love you, we have other agenda items and only if everyone sticks to thirty second introductions, afterwards we’ll only have 30 minutes of meeting time left!

So start planning your next elevator speech now. Time it out, and we’ll see you at the next meeting!

Anyone have a productive Agent that would be a good speaker for an FAW meeting? We need someone who’s current and can give productive tips to our members about how to choose the right agent, then how to work with them. Please email Knuti.

Help!

Are you looking for fame and fortune? While you’re working on that, how about learning the ins and outs of websites? Please offer to help maintain this site. Training given. Contact the webmaster.

Kudos!

Fremont CWC Bay Area Writers

kudos-nice work
Kudos…

In this area we record writers’ awards and successes. Keep your eye on this page as awards are received all the time.

(Please send shout-outs and Kudos to the webmaster.)

Shout-outs from FAW Members to Other Members

Respected recipients-

I’d like to post a shout-out for Nancy Guarnera’s inspirational work in infusing energy and innovation into the FAWG organization, in particular, her transitional affiliation with Half-Price Books, where she has founded second-Saturday Local Writers Reading meetings, as well as her work on renovating the FAWG logo, webpage and public persona.

Tony Pino

KUDOS to FAW Members

Tish Davidson has been selected to judge the historical nonfiction and regional nonfiction categories for the Next Generation Indie Book Awards. This is an international competition sponsored by the Independent Book Publishing Professionals Group. Books written in English from small presses, mid-size independent publishers, university presses, e-book publishers, and self-published authors are eligible. Winners are recognized with cash awards and review by a literary agent at a ceremony in Washington, DC during the American Library Association Conference in June.

Penelope Anne Cole has had three pieces published in the Tri-Valley Writers Anthology: Voices of the Valley. Her published pieces are a poem, “Captive of Love,” a memoir, “Escape from Honolulu,” and a short story, “Roamer’s World.” She is most proud to have been so honored.

Jan Small was nominated by FAW board for the Jack London Award on January 26.

Shirley Ferrante won 3^rd place for her piece “Togetherness” in the Half Price Books Flash Fiction Contest held on the 22^nd of September. (Check out Shirley’s contest winner in the FAW Writers’ Corner of the October2018 issue of FAW’s newsletter Ink Spots.)

Nancy Guarnera won 1^st and 2^nd place in the Half Price Books Flash Fiction Contest held on the 22^nd of September. Her “Home Coming” took 1^st place and “Three Times” took 2^nd place. (Check out Nancy’s contest winners in the FAW Writers’ Corner of the October2018 issue of FAW’s newsletter Ink Spots.)

Art Carey’s modern, tongue-in-cheek version of Jonathan Swift’s classic satire, A Modest Proposal, appeared in an August issue of The Satirist, America’s Most Critical Journal (Since 1999).

The following authors who participated in the FAW Book Signing at the Newpark Mall on Saturday, July 14^th : Art Carey sold 1 book; Penelope Cole sold 11 books; Paul K. Davis sold 1 book; Chris Dews sold 3 books; Jo Ann Frisch sold 5 books; Urmila Patel sold 4 books; Jan Small sold 2 books and 1 art print; Dave M. Strom sold 1 book; Anita Tosh sold 1 book; and Helen Vanderberg sold 3 books. A total of 32 books and 1 art print were sold for total sales of $402. Sales per author ranged from $2 to $95.

Chris Dews has recently published a new book – Antler Jinny and the Raven, and has revised and republished his previous book, The Druid and the Bracelet. His books will be available at Coastside Books and Ink Spell Books in Half Moon Bay. You can also find them online at Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Evelyn LaTorre, an FAW founding member, will have her memoir titled, No Guardrails, From Montana to Machu Picchu, A Peace Corps Romance, published in 2020 by She Writes Press.

Clevermag.org has notified Evelyn LaTorre that her piece about her recent trip to Ireland, “Is Ireland Really Heaven,” will be published in the Fall 2018 issue of their e-zine.

Dave M. Strom recently updated his book, Super Holly Hansson in Super Bad Hair Day to roughly 120 printed pages of stories, audio scripts, and Super Holly artwork. At Worldcon, the annual convention of the World Science Fiction Society (WSFS) recently held at the San Jose Convention Center, Dave shared a table with authors from the South Bay Writers branch of CWC. He sold nine paperback copies and one Kindle eBook.

A long-awaited anthology about the life of a dollar bill has been published by South Bay Writers. FAW’s Dave Strom was an editor and has a story in it.

Tish Davidson’s non-fiction piece “Miss Tish and the Okree Ladies” has been published in the 2018 California Writers Club Literary Review.

Evelyn LaTorre’s non-fiction piece “The Potato Caper” has been published in the 2018 California Writers Club Literary Review.

Judy Taylor’s poem “A Trail of Pap Crackers on the Beach has been published in the 2018 California Writers Club Literary Review.