To all MouseMuseians (a new term I’ve conjured up for all followers of things MouseMuse and lovers of the well told tale) - We are about to embark on a new season of Storytelling that should bring our audiences to the floor, either with tears or laughter. Three evenings of entertainment at the Fairfield Museum and Historic Center. Three additional evenings at the Gaelic Club in Fairfield. Shows, produced by MouseMuse, of a slightly different tale, at the Bijou Theatre in Bridgeport. Over 50 storytellers will grace the stages in the coming months and weave their tales of love or lust, travail and travel, work, non-work, mistakes, blunders, histories, comedic encounters and, who knows, perhaps alien adventures. Like a story strapped to the hood of an Indy race car, we fine tune the engine, coach the driver, check the oil, fill the tank and set them loose. We never know exactly who’s coming in first, who might have a technical problem, or even bump into the guardrail along the telling. 10 minute bursts of insight, passion, escape, and hilarity. Join us as we set forth on six months in a row of storytelling extravaganza!
A few weeks ago, I reluctantly went to a talk at Barnes & Noble where a some esteemed traditional published writers had gone the self publishing. I listened to David Wilk, who made sense, and whose company does quality work for any serious writer who now knows that you can wait around forever, but the book market as we once knew it and valued it is gone. I highly recommend going to this seminar and learning what you have to do to make yourself successful. It's not about vanity. Its about reality.
BookWorks.com: The Self-Publishers Association Presents
Self Publishing Workshop (WITH WINE! }
Learn from the experts
Everything you’ve always wanted to know about self-publishing
but didn’t know who to ask
Tired of spinning your wheels? Spending thousands of dollars to publish your book
and not getting the results you want? Let the experts show you how to produce,
publish and promote your book, whatever your special needs may be.
Betty Kelly Sargent—freelance editor, former editor-in-chief of William Morrow
David Wilk—founder of consulting firm Booktrix.com, production and promotion expert
Dan Blank— founder of WeGrowMedia.com, social media and marketing specialist
Eric Rayman—publishing lawyer, intellectual property expert
Jason Ashlock—president of Movable Type Management, author business consultant
The Beekman Hotel
First Ave at 49th Street, NYC
Tuesday, June 26, Monday, September 24, and Tuesday, October 23
from 6 to 8 pm
$99 workshop fee
{ includes a free drink after the workshop at The Top of the Beekman Tower }
Call us at 212-486-1531, visit bookworks.com or email david@booktrix.com
Great Writers’ Café last Wednesday with 16 lively writers who showed up in addition to Ina and me. They had plenty to brag about, too. So much so, in fact, that I can’t put everything down here, or you’d never get to the end of the post.
Ina reiterated that the submission forms for the Memoir writing contest, entitled Déjà vu, that we’re running for the Center for contemporary Printmaking is live online this week. Here's the link:
https://www.contemprints.org/writers/index.php
I saw an interesting article by the people at Writers’ Relief, about the benefits of print vs. ebook publishing. I left my printed copy at home so here’s the link. (The benefit of online publishing!)
http://www.writersrelief.com/blog/2011/08/print-online-digital-publishing/
Ivy Eisenberg has just started a new humorous blog (tag line: Nothing is off limits) about trying to follow a weightwatchers diet. Check it out here:
http://schmeightschmatchers.wordpress.com
We discussed some of the many topics related to creating a writer’s platform. Essentially, a platform is a marketing campaign and the product you’re selling is you.
As a result, we’re wondering whether anyone would be interested in a short workshop which would enable you to get yourself organized on Facebook and/or Twitter. We could also do workshops on how to set up a website and how to start a blog. These workshops would be hands-on. Let us know if you’re interested.
Jane Sherman had attended Adair Heitmann’s presentation on how to create a writer’s platform the night before (Tuesday) at the Darien Library. She found it interesting because it covered so many topics. Our workshop would be complementary in that it would show you not only why you should do it, but how to do it. Here’s the link to Adair’s blog:
http://creativityandwellness.wordpress.com/
If you’d like to contact Jane for more details about the presentation, email me at Gabi@mousemuse.com, and I’ll forward your email to her.
And then the following day, the New York Times ran a couple of articles on the issue of whether people are becoming swamped with social media, and what to do about that. Even Ina and I were intimidated simply by the number of social media sites out there. That’s why we’re sticking to something simpler to start with. Here are the links for those articles:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/11/fashion/tips-for-managing-social-networking-burnout.html?emc=eta1
SO – plenty to think about…and we’ll keep you updated on when and where next month’s Café will be.
If you’d like to take a look at my brand new blog, here’s the link to it:
http://gabicoatsworth.wordpress.com/