Northshore Literary Society
Notes from Deb and Pamela
Join Deb and Pamela for an inside look at the literary pulse of the greater New Orleans region. Here they will share their latest goals for the Northshore Literary Society.
Click on the Bulletin Board for the latest press coverage on the Northshore Literary Society.
Learn the benefits of becoming a NLS member. Refer to the membership guidelines on the Services or the Bulletin Board pages .
Getting the most out of attending festivals.
You don't have to attend a writing/book festival or convention to gain a wealth of contacts or storylines.
I recently attended NOWFE (the New Orleans Wine and Food Experience) for the first time and came home with pages upon pages of contacts, interviews and new story ideas.
When attending a dinner place your "cheat sheet" on your lap under your napkin with an ink pen. Never place it on the table as people will feel uncomfortable in seeing you take notes of their conversation.
I decided to do a blog on my experience at NOWFE which forced me to pay extra attention to the speaker at the dinner, along with tidbits about the food and wine. The blog not only acts as a personal journal but can be used later as an article.
www.northshoreliterarysociety.blogspot.com
You don't have to attend every seminar but enough to give the feel of the event and to acknowledge those who have treated you well in the past. It's all about building relationships and earning recognition as a well established writer.
After your blog is finished, send an email to some of those mentioned in the blog to show your support of their business or service. It could possibly turn into an assignment or offer easier access to the next festival.
The NOWFE PR person liked my blog so much she's showing it to her board of directors.
Listen to the speakers and follow up on their recommendations of places to go or things to do in the city. In doing this, I came across auxiliary stories/subjects in food, wine, historic churches and historic homes.
For some good advice on how to network and work a room, see Diana Rowland's website:
The Economies of Print Publishing
Newspapers and magazines continue to reduce their editorial staffs and cut content in an effort to stay afloat. Recently 24/7 Wall St. published ten major daily papers they feel will most likely fold or discontinue print, opting for online publications.
However, there is a silver lining...
I have also seen a purging, and some of the smaller, more editorially rich publications are beginning to shine a little brighter. True they don't pay as well, but welcome experienced writers with open arms.
www.la-road-trips.com
It's time for all of us to get creative, and I welcome the challenge.
BLOGGING NOTES
The art of blogging has seen a remarkable transformation from visually rich sites to blogging storefronts selling arts & crafts.
www.northshoreliterarysociety.blogspot.com
New publishing sites provide opportunities to turn that blog, journal or vacation into professional looking books on your own schedule.
www.blurb.com/create/book/blogbook
So now's the time to make that dream come true and fine tune that creative drive.
Until we chat again...deb
Hello All – LAUGH, WEEP, BUT MOST OF ALL—CHECK OUT YOUR RIGHTS. NEW GOOGLE SETTLEMENT MAY AFFECT YOU!
In December, 2008
The economic recession had an impact on the market and at first this appears to have been understood as a result of rising unemployment and the economy itself. But I don’t think it’s just that simple. Many of the large houses were loaded with debt as a result of mergers and acquisitions, led by Wall Street. Example – Houghton Mifflin Harcout was purchased by Vivendi Universal in 2001. A private equity firm then took it on (think leveraged buyouts-remember Other People’s Money?). The company was sold again in 2006 and was soon merged with one of their toughest competitors, Harcourt Press. Now drowning in debt, Harcourt has recently announced it will accept no more manuscripts this year!!
So it appears that Wall Street—the Masters of the Universe not understanding how publishing works—thought that as owners they’d be able to generate profits of 15 to 20 percent in the book business, as opposed to traditional profit margins of 3 to 4%. Big layoffs in December resulted at large publishers like Simon & Schuster, Random House (and their dissolution of Doubleday and Bantam Dell). Interesting because these bombshells didn’t occur just because people quit reading books! See, Read it and Weep, at www.salon.com/books/feature/2008/12/23/publishing
And there’s hope—a good book is like comfort food. Good stories and writing lift us out of our own problems; it’s good escapism and I don’t think this will ever stop. Andre Breedt, research and development analyst at Nielson Bookscan says “People have been reading and they will keep reading, no matter what happens.” And advances in technology will help publishers control their costs in the future. E-books! Authors—keep up with your rights! Check royalties in new contracts for e-book sales. Publishers have minimal printing and distributions costs for those, so the trend is for royalty percentages there to go up.
And be aware. Google’s new Library Project will allow readers to preview, read large portions of books for sale, and access the books, on-line and in libraries and universities. Currently they are supposed to be limited to displaying 20% of the book, although I believe that’s negotiable by the publishers. Check that out. So contact your agents and publishers to see if they’re working on your behalf to limit the pages accessible under the Google project. In any case, particularly if you are self-published, check out your rights under the Google Book Settlement pages on-line at www.books.google.com/googlebooks/agreement
See you soon! Pamela
For a more literary notes visit our blog at:
northshoreliterarysociety.blogspot.com
