Monday, May 28, 2012

fiction opportunity

MuseItUp Publishing [of Alberta, Canada] reopens to submissions June 1: romance, sci fi, cozy mystery, young adult, vampires, etc., etc. Apparently they publish an e-book first and possibly later a print book. Here's the link: http://museituppublishing.com. Look at list on left and click on submissions.

 

 

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

sampling new books on Facebook: Hachette Book Group

Hachette Book Group has been talking about harnessing Facebook as a way for readers to sample and share books. Wednesday the company launched their ChapterShare Facebook app. The app lets authors themselves as well as HBG staff post chapters onto Facebook pages from forthcoming books. Facebook friends can read and share the samples, as well as pre-order titles. HBG ceo Ken Michaels notes in the announcement, "…apps like ChapterShare allow us to connect directly with consumers. Publishers need to become application developers in order to connect writers and readers more closely…"

Sunday, May 20, 2012

young adult sci fi & fantasy opportunity: Jennifer Azantian

Jennifer Azantian of the Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency is accepting submissions of young adult science fiction and fantasy. Click on the following link, then on Jennifer Azantian [near the top]: http://www.dijkstraagency.com/meet-the-agents.html

 

Friday, May 18, 2012

Ajax Mine & Kamloops

The south end of our lovely city, Kamloops, is the proposed site for the KGHM Ajax Mine [open-pit copper and gold mine]. Part of it would be within city limits. My husband, atmospheric physicist Robert Schemenauer, has addressed city council and some local media about weather-related concerns associated with locating a mine so close to where 90,000 people live. These concerns include haze causing reduced sunshine and air quality. His interview with CFJC-TV is at http//cfjctv.com/ [click link, find search box at upper right, and type in Ajax Weather Concerns].

Among other mine-related concerns are its potential impacts on:
-health [from breathing dust, toxic aerosols, etc.]
-noise levels [blasting is loud]
-ecosystems and wildlife [forests, grasslands, lakes, etc.]
-Kamloops' reputation as a pleasant place to live, work, play, and retire
-Kamloops' reputation as Canada's Tournament Capital
-tourism in general
-real estate values
-the economy
If you have questions, feedback, or expertise relating to these concerns, I'd encourage you to share them with government, media, and/or the mining company. Following is some contact information.

KGHM Ajax Mining Inc.
330 Seymour Street
Kamloops, BC
Canada V2C 2G2
T 250-374-5446

City of Kamloops
7 Victoria Street West, Kamloops
British Columbia, V2C 1A2
Ph 250 828 3311
Email citycouncil@kamloops.ca

Kevin Krueger
MLA for Kamloops-South Thompson
East Annex
Parliament Buildings
Victoria, BC
V8V 1X4      
Ph 250 952-7269 or 250 314-6031
Fax 250 952-7263 or 250 314-6040

BC Ministry of Environment
PO BOX 9339 STN PROV GOVT
VICTORIA BC V8W 9M1
Ph 250 387-1161
Fax 250 387-5669

Honourable Terry Lake
BC Minister of Environment
PO BOX 9047 STN PROV GOVT
VICTORIA BC V8W 9E2
Ph 250 387-1187
Fax 250 387-1356

Broadcast Centre (includes CFJC-TV, B-100 radio, and CIFM radio)
460 Pemberton Terrace
Kamloops, BC
V2C 1T5
Ph 250-372-3322
Fax 250-372-5229
news@cfjctv.com
  
NL Broadcasting Ltd.
611 Lansdowne Street
Kamloops, BC
V2C 1Y6
Ph 250-571-5222, 250-374-1610
Fax 250-571-5241
nlnews@radionl.com

Kamloops Daily News
393 Seymour Street
Kamloops, BC
V2C 6P6
Ph 250-371-6149
Fax 250-374-3884
kamloopsnews@telus.net

Kamloops This Week
1365B Dalhousie Drive
Kamloops, BC
V2C 5P6
Ph 250-374-7467
Fax 250-374-1033
editor@kamloopsthisweek.com

Shaw Cable TV
180 Briar Avenue
Kamloops, BC
V2B 1C1
Ph 250-376-8888
Fax 250-312-7119
expresskamloops@sjrb.ca

CBC Kelowna
Ph 250-861-3781
Fax 250-861-6644
kelowna@cbc.ca

Vancouver Sun/Province Newsroom
Ph 604-605-2000
Fax 604-605-2720

Edge Publishing Inc.
Downtown Echo, North Shore Echo, Seniors Own Echo
Ph 250-374-3246
Fax 250-374-3247
echo@shawcable.com
  
The Omega - Thompson Rivers University's Student Newspaper
900 McGill Road
Kamloops, BC
V2C 5N3
Ph 250-372-1272
Fax 250-372-5331
omega@tru.ca

Senior Connector
The Seniors' Own Newspaper
Box 729
Kamloops, B.C.,
Canada   V2C 5M4
Ph 250-376-8883
Fax 250-376-8806
           

  

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

publishing e-books: Jane Friedman

Jane Friedman gives a list of resources on publishing e-books at:
http://janefriedman.com/2012/05/14/best-informational-resources-on-e-publishing/


Elma Schemenauer, author of 75 books published in Canada and the USA, editor
of many others. Blog www.elmasalmanac.blogspot.com Website www.elma03.com

ambiguity of literature

"Politics tends to be ideological, religion tends to be dogmatic, but
literature is always ambiguous." Author Carlos Fuentes apparently said that.
Do we agree? Why or why not?


Elma Schemenauer, author of 75 books published in Canada and the USA, editor
of many others. Blog www.elmasalmanac.blogspot.com Website www.elma03.com

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

real-life love story opportunity

Publisher OakTara seeks short real-life love stories for an anthology to be published this fall. If your story is chosen, you'll receive either cash or a royalty percentage of net retail sales, plus complimentary copies of the book. Deadline for submissions is June 15, 2012. Here's the link: http://oaktara.com/tellusabout 

 

new ways of printing books

My online friend Robert L. Bacon, a professional editor and publishing guru who sends subscribers a free newsletter, The Perfect Write, has useful thoughts about new ways of printing and selling books. Following is his discussion of The Expresso Book Machine. [Robert's web site is http://theperfectwrite.com/home/]

 

I've been advocating the replacement of large brick and mortar bookstores with kiosks in malls that contain the latest copier technology which allows for a book to be printed with a cover and a perfect spine before the customer can even let the coffee cool enough to drink.  The machine is even being billed as The Expresso Book Machine, and the original model dates back to 2007.

 

If you don't click another link in my Newsletter all year, access this one and spend the five minutes to view the Expresso Book Machine Video.  It's a Xerox 4112 copier and two other machines assembled together as one unit.  From the information I gleaned from the many articles I read, when it rolled out in 2007 it had all the usual glitches associated with any new technology.  At the forefront, it was notorious for crunching the book covers!  Now, however, it apparently works as designed, and a writer can expect a 300-page paperback printed in less than four minutes, and that includes a four-color cover.  The book will also have a perfect spine, which means it will look just like what we see on a bookshelf.

 

Here are a few issues to consider:

 

The Expresso Book Machine is marketed by On-Demand Books in conjunction with Xerox the relationship was never fully explained in any of the material I accessed).  The latest-generation equipment is around $125,000 for all the bells and whistles and the fastest speed.  Currently, the cost per page is advertised at a penny each.  Add to this the cost of the cover, which I'll generously put at a buck, and someone wanting to self-publish can at least have a baseline from which to negotiate.  I'm going to guess that it wouldn't take a lot of arm twisting to get 100 books printed for between $7 to $8 each, as this should provide the machine's owner with a margin of somewhere around 40 to 50 percent.

 

There will be a slight setup fee, which it appears has averaged $10, and authors should be prepared for a rough first copy to get out the bugs before the machine is configured correctly for their manuscripts.  If I understand what I've read, all Expresso Books are converted to a PDF format, and the software will accommodate material written in Word.  Here's the link to Using the Expresso Book Machine that's furnished by a library in California.  The instructions are rather daunting, but this library lets a patron schedule a 30-minute session that I believe comes with a human "helper." 

 

In any setting that has one of these machines, I'd once again prepare for the first book's not meeting the standards of the desired finished product (read "It's gonna come out crummy"). This is why it's probably not a bad idea--if the desire is for more than a few copies--to pay a premium and go to an outfit like Lightning Source (Ingram's POD subsidiary) once the book is copy-perfect and the writer doesn't relish the task of facing off with the technology.  But this is a topic for another time, as I'm primarily interested in explaining how easy it will be to have a single book printed once this technology becomes more widespread and user-friendly.  Currently, a single softcover of new material in the 300-to-400-page range should come in at around $35, and the print time, again, is four to five minutes.  I expect both the cost for new material and speed to improve.

 

[Robert's web site is http://theperfectwrite.com/home/]

 

Thursday, May 10, 2012

biggest challenges facing publishing

Author and former literary agent Nathan Bransford just posted enlightening thoughts on challenges facing publishing. Here's the link to his blog: http://blog.nathanbransford.com/

 

Saturday, May 5, 2012

Salmon Arm, BC literary festival May 25-27

The Shuswap Association of Writers will hold its annual writing and reading festival, called Word on the Lake, in Salmon Arm, British Columbia May 25-27, 2012. It's one of the BC Interior's major literary events. More info at http://www.saow.ca/

 

Thursday, May 3, 2012

sci fi & fantasy novels

Daw is currently accepting submissions of sci fi and fantasy novels. More
info at: http://us.penguingroup.com/static/pages/daw/submissions.html

Elma Schemenauer, author of 75 books published in Canada and the USA, editor
of many others. Blog www.elmasalmanac.blogspot.com Website www.elma03.com

Chicken Soup for the Soul seeks submissions

Chicken Soup for the Soul currently seeks submissions on topics including
Children with Autism and Aspergers; Inspiration for Writers; Parenthood;
Independent Women. More info is at
http://www.chickensoup.com/form.asp?cid=possible_books


Elma Schemenauer, author of 75 books published in Canada and the USA, editor
of many others. Blog www.elmasalmanac.blogspot.com Website www.elma03.com

new lifestyle books: Random House

Random House of Canada is launching a new line of books under an imprint called Appetite. Based in Vancouver, Appetite will focus on books about food, wine, health, and other aspects of lifestyle. For more information, visit the Random House site, http://www.randomhouse.ca/. Scroll down and follow the link to the press release.


Elma Schemenauer, author of 75 books published in Canada and the USA, editor
of many others. Blog www.elmasalmanac.blogspot.com Website www.elma03.com