Warnings and Cautions for Writers--Writers' Alerts

There is always a scam artist somewhere willing to take your hard earned cash just because you have a desire to see your work in print. Please, please, please always 'Google' the name of any group you are thinking of joining, or paying or applying to before you lay down the cheddar.

It really doesn't take that much time to do a little research that will save you a lot of whining later.

Start with the following link:
Warnings and Cautions for Writers--Writers' Alerts

Split This Rock Poetry Festival

Call for Panel Discussion Proposals

Split this Rock invites proposals for panel discussions and workshops on a range of topics at the intersection of poetry and social change. Possibilities are endless. Challenge us. Let's talk about craft, let's talk about mentoring young poets, let's talk about working in prisons, connecting with the activist community, sustaining ourselves in dark times, the role of poetry in wartime. Proposals are due by December 1, 2007. For more information and to apply, please click here to download the full proposal announcement and form.
Save the date!
Split This Rock Poetry Festival: Poems of Provocation & Witness

You are invited to our nation's capital for a festival that celebrates our great tradition of poetry of witness and resistance.

Split This Rock Poetry Festival will feature readings, workshops, panel discussions on poetry and social change, youth programming, films, parties, walking tours, and activism—a unique opportunity to hone our activist skills while we assess and debate the public role of the poet and the poem in this time of crisis.

As citizens and artists, our obligation has never been greater. We call on poets of conscience to move to the center of public life as we forge a visionary new arts movement for peace and justice.

Featured poets: Chris August, Jimmy Santiago Baca, Melissa Best (aka Princess of Controversy), Kenneth Carroll, Grace Cavalieri, Lucille Clifton, Joel Dias Porter (aka DJ Renegade), Mark Doty, Martín Espada, Carolyn Forché, Brian Gilmore, Sam Hamill, Joy Harjo, Galway Kinnell, Stephen Kuusisto, Semezhdin Mehmedinovic, E. Ethelbert Miller, Naomi Shihab Nye, Alix Olson, Alicia Ostriker, Ishle Yi Park, Sonia Sanchez, Patricia Smith, Susan Tichy, Pamela Uschuk, and Belle Waring.


Split This Rock Poetry Festival

Library of Congress's National Book Festival Attracts More Than 120,000 Book Lovers to the National Mall

What a beautiful day to browse books . . . outside. The seventh annual Library of Congress Book Festival was fantastic, and even more so for children. I was a bit jealous that I couldn't pose with Bulls Eye the Target Dog or get on the Magic School Bus.

If you live in the metro DC area, don't miss this one next year. The kids will love it and you will too.
Library of Congress's National Book Festival Attracts More Than 120,000 Book Lovers to the National Mall

Author hoping to spark AIDS conversation with essay collection

Author hoping to spark AIDS conversation with essay collection

5th Harlem Book Fair on Long Island (9/29/2007)

Promoting Literacy and Literary Endeavor on Long Island

African-Atlantic Genealogical Society, Inc.

5th Harlem Book Fair on Long Island (9/29/2007)
Freeport Recreation Center, 130 East Merrick Road, Freeport, NY 11520
SAVE THE DATE

http://www.aagsinc.net/Bookfair_Page.html


Page 1

Amazon Bestseller Campaigns - Are They Worth It?

We've all seen the phrase on many a website or book "Amazon Bestseller", but what does that really mean? It turns out that Amazon updates it's sales rankings hourly. That means if you can get hordes of people buying your piece at the same time, you will be that hour's bestseller.

Exactly how does that affect your overall sales?
Amazon Bestseller Campaigns - Are They Worth It? - Black Author Showcase

If sales rankings make your day, perhaps you might enjoy using one of the online book trend trackers:
Easy Trackers for Book Trends

What Does Change Have to Do With Me, the Author?

What's all this talk about change? Writing is writing, right?
Sure it is. Just pick up your quill,
No, sharpen that pencil and . .
I mean, pull out the old Olivetti - er . . .
Save the manuscript in WordStar, um . . .
and mail me,
or fax me,
I'd really rather have it in .doc or .pdf form though -
that way I can read it on my PDA on the plane.

Yeah. Writing is always the same, but the tools and rules have definitely changed.

I, Catalyst

Striking literary change can be a bear. However real change in any field is difficult for most organizations and/or individuals. Just think of the last time you tried to trim a few pounds, get used to a new job or boss, or learn a new software program. Life is just sooooo much easier when we do things the way it's always been done.

The way everyone else does it.
Without making waves.
Without discovery.
Without spark.
No life.

Boring.

I for one intend to embrace change and even act as a catalyst for others (misery just loves company). We are blessed to live in an unprecedented communicative age. Technology is expanding exponentially and everything we say or do is on a continuously sharpening edge.

Nothing is as it seems and frankly, everything you 'think' you know may be wrong.
So what.
We adapt.
We've got it like that.

Our Inaugural Author Showcase

We're off! The first Local Author Showcase will be May 22nd in the Metro Washington, DC area. This is exciting - writers forming a co-op to help other writers succeed and sell books.

Black Author Showcase

Featured authors:

Dr. Rey O. Harris
Motivational Morsels: Food for the Mind and Spirit

Stafford L. Battle
AFROCyberSpace: 1000+ African American Websites That Will Change Your World

William Powell, Jr.
Valkyrie: A Novel of Adventure

Cary T. Faison, Jr.
White Slaves and Indians in the Family

Leutrell "Mike" Osborne, Sr.
A Blackman in the CIA

Theresa Grant
Hope and Desire

For more information call:
202.489.6403 or 301.509.0217

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

5pm - 8pm
Psalms 117 Coffeehouse
949 Bonifant Street • Silver Spring, MD 20910
Refreshments served

	RSVP, Toda Motivational Morsels: Food for the Mind and Spirit by Rey O. Harris, Ph.D. . AFROCyberspace: 1000+ African American Websites That Will Change Your World by Stafford L. Battle, and Rey O. Harris, Ph.D. Black Author Showcase | Directions | Copyright Diane Williams and Stafford Battle 2007 All Rights Reserved