Did You Spring Forward? Time Change is a reminder Spring is in the air.
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Monday March 12th Meeting Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf 6:00 PM – 8:30 PM. 4550 S. Maryland Pkwy across from UNLV. Speaker Judi Moreo. Topic: Say What You Mean & Look Like You Mean It. Judi Moreo is a world renowned professional motivational speaker and author of You Are More Than Enough. Learn more about Judi and all her publications at http://judimoreo.com
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| March 2012 Sun Mon Tues Wed Thur Fri Sat | ||||||
| | | | | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| 4 | 5 Saxby’s Coffee 6:30-8:30 Pm | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
| 11 | 12 Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf 6:00 -8:30 PM Speaker Judi Moreo | 13 | 14 Writers Pen & Grill http://penandgrill.com | 15 | 16 | 17 |
| 18 | 19 Saxby’s Coffee 6:30-8:30 PM | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 |
| 25 | 26 Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf 6:00 -8:30 PM | 27 | 28 Roundtable Pizza Mtg. 6:30-8:30PM | 29 | 30 | 31 |
| | | | | | | |
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Special Announcement: Board Member Change A note from HWG Treasurer Janelle Evans:
“I am officially stepping down as treasurer for the HWG. My husband has decided to take a job in another state. I will miss all of you and wish each of you the best of luck in your writing careers.
Karlo Ohanian will be the new treasurer, his email is stetsonblue1929@yahoo.com Please direct any financial question you may have to him. I have agreed to guide, as it were, in the background for a time, but this is now his office to control. I know he will do a great job.
Please consider donating items or gift cards to be raffled off at the 2012 Las Vegas Conference. All proceeds go to our scholarship fund.
Thank you for the many years of learning.”
~Janelle
Janelle we will all miss your abundant energy and dedication to the writers group. Thank you so much for all of your hard work and outstanding knack for accounting details.
We wish you all the best in your new adventure!
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Mike Dennis a former member of HWG receives a great review. I add the review to this weeks newsletter because many of us heard the stories before they were published. Mike now resides is Key West, Florida and for those of us who faithfully attend the West Side meetings heard the “gripping” (wink to Mike) chapter in The Ghosts of Havana that made us all gasp with the reveal of the great twist to the story. Want to know what made us all gasp out loud? Buy the book, it’s a great read! You can read more about Mike Dennis and ALL of his publications at http://mikedennisnoir.com/
Congratulations Mike!! We all miss your “next gripping chapters” and wish you all the best in your author journey.
Read the review and leave a comment! http://noirjournal.typepad.com/noir-journal/2012/03/noir-journal-50-mike-dennis-and-key-west-noir.html#comments
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It’s Conference Preparation Season. Every year in April the Henderson Writer’s Group holds the annual Las Vegas Writers Conference. All Monday meetings beginning March 12th will be dedicated to preparing the writers who plan to attend. Are you in Las Vegas and plan to attend the conference or curious as to what happens at a writers conference? You don’t have to be a member to attend any of our meetings. If you’re a writer and would like to see what we do and learn more about HWG, please feel free to attend and tell a friend!
Las Vegas Writers Conference
http://lasvegaswritersconference.com
April 19-21, 2012 Sam’s Town Hotel & Gambling Hall
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A few notes for attending any writers conference or if you plan to start submitting your work for traditional publication:
Email Addresses. Cutesy email address are not professional and often find their way into spam folders. USE YOUR NAME OR PEN NAME. Email addresses are FREE. Create an email address dedicated to your PROFESSIONAL writing career. *** Think for a minute an agent/publisher telling their intern or assistant --- “Did you email Sally Jo Smith about submitting her manuscript. I have an editor I want to pitch it to.”--- Now, the assistant or intern searching through their submission list, and it has thousands of email address, for (lover of writing at not a clue dot com) … . And, you don’t have to put writer or author in front of your name. They know you write and you’re an author, that’s why you are contacting them…
* DON’T create an email with the name of your book. I’ve overheard MORE than one agent refer to this as a pet peeve. If your book is traditionally published, it’s 90% likely to change. Establish yourself as a writer – not a one book wonder. Keep all your submission, correspondence and writing related work to one email address. The old saying of having an AOL, MSN or some other generic connection is just that – an old saying. The norm is gmail, yahoo, etc.. Also not having a “website” email address is no longer considered unprofessional. The reality of our virtual times is here, let’s get up to date.
*DON’T share your email address. Create one for you and you only. (Sam and Sally at aren’t we a cute couple dot com) doesn’t show you are a serious writer dedicated to YOUR career.
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Sending out e-queries or follow up from conference meeting. First, FOLLOW THE GUIDELINES ON THE AGENT/PUBLSIHERS WEBSITE or instructions from face to face meeting. Never ever send multiple To and or Bcc. Send one email to one person at a time. Always address contact person by name. Even if you’re sending your email to queries at such and such dot com. The person reading the email needs to know who it is you’re contacting.
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Don’t use stationary. Often the email stationary shows as an attachment and what happens to attachments? They don’t get opened and often go into spam boxes. We check spam boxes they don’t.
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Undo spam check. We all hate spam email, but if you have that little “verify you’re a person” check for people sending you an email, here’s a note – you won’t get that email. They won’t go any further, people in publishing don’t have time to fill out a form. This is one of the reasons you create a separate email for your professional work. If you are that paranoid about identity fraud, then don’t write a book(s) you want the public to read.
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Check spam folder everyday. Publishers and Agents often have an assistant or one or two interns in an office. Especially, if they house multiple agents/publishers. It is common for one assistant or intern to handle more than one person in the office. You might send your inquiry to one person’s computer, but the response may come from another computer or the reality, from a personal home computer, laptop or phone. Publishing people don’t work 8-5.
As an attendee of conferences I have sat at tables with agents/publishers and after meals or down time periods I have often observed them reading emails on their phones.
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Business Cards. As technical as the world has become, business cards still exist and are still requested. You don’t have to spend a non-existent cash flow to create them or hire a graphic artist to design your life on a tiny card. There are thousands, probably millions of FREE images that relate to your genre. You do not have to create fancy colors or glossy slick spendy images, you’re just getting started – they get it. You’re writing and professional mannerism is what stands out. If you have Word (and you should if you write) you can create a business card in the tools section under Envelopes & Labels. Go down to your office supply store and spend about $10.00 on pre-cut blank business cards. They often give you the Avery template to use for printing. If you don’t have the template you can download them for free on Microsoft.com. They don’t take a lot of space on your computer.
You should include: Your name. Title – Author, Writer. Your (dedicated) email address. Website/blog (if you have one). Or if you’re a phone person a phone number. Don’t put your picture on your business card, you’re not selling real estate. Your picture will be on your website or dedicated blog. They remember your writing/story not your remarkable smile. If they are looking for writing styles or for past work they’ll see you on your site.
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Until Next Week! Keep Writing, keep moving forward, and stay productive, positive and let’s get published!!
Teresa L. Watts, Editor
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