Apart from some new writers’ events, we talked about self-publishing, book launches, and marketing and dictating your book – and came up with some suggestions.

Head to Byrd’s Books in Bethel on Sunday, March 10 at 4pm for an afternoon of poetry at the store and on Zoom. The series of three events starts with Gail Carson Levine, Nicole Caruso Garcia, Phillip K. Lu, and Susan Campbell Bartoletti. Further events are planned for April 5 at 7pm and May 10 at 7pm. Register here.

The North Street Book Prize for self-published or hybrid-published books is looking for submissions of books in one of the following categories, up to 200,000 words in length, mainstream/literary, genre fiction, creative nonfiction & memoir, poetry, children’s picture book, middle grade, graphic novel & memoir. One grand prize winner will receive $10,000, and the top winner in each category receives $1,000. One honorable mention in each category will receive $300. One finalist in each category will receive a free, full-length private critique from Winning Writers (value: $90-$180)  All entrants who submit online via Submittable will receive a brief commentary from one of the judges (5-10 sentences). Deadline July 2, at 6:00 AM. Entry fee $79 per book. Winning Writers, who run the contest, have a lot of others, which you can check out here.

The Poets’ Salon under the leadership of Alison McBain and Ed Ahern, issues a monthly newsletter for poets listing all the poetry events and submission opportunities that are taking place. Sign up on Meetup to get on their list and/or attend their monthly meetings on Zoom (second Saturday of each month 10-12am ET).

Bewildering Stories is an online magazine/journal that publishes weekly and has 10,000 subscribers, so it’s an excellent place to submit your work. They encourage new writers, and best of all, if they don’t take your work immediately, instead of sending a form refusal, they’ll suggest ways to improve it, which is invaluable.

We talked about ways to write when you’re on the go, or are having difficulty using a keyboard for whatever reason. In addition to the speech-to-text option in Word (use the dictate feature on the Home menu), member Alison McBain suggested Amazon’s voice-to-text software. And she recommended this comprehensive list of other available programs.

And self-publishing was a popular topic, as always. Many writers think the only option for self-publishing and distribution is Amazon, but you can also self-publish your book with Barnes & Noble Press—a free, fast, and easy-to-use self-publishing service that enables you to publish and sell print or ebooks directly to their readers. They also provide good sales reporting, and feature selected books in their newsletter. Learn about their features & services here.

The Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi) monitors the self-publishing industry and you can find their ratings of some of the best and worst self-publishing services here—and some that are in-between, listed in alphabetical order. There’s also a convenient search box. ALLi reserves their highest rating for our partner members, services that sign up to our Code of Standards and a vetting process, highlighted in green below, with a convenient link to take you to their websites. (And in their member database, log-in needed) and Self-Publishing Services Directory.

Joanna Penn, podcaster and an early adopter of self-publishing, is issuing a new edition of her book Author Blueprint. This free book covers almost everything you want to know about writing and editing, publishing, marketing, and making a living with your writing. It’s now available through Bookfunnel as an ePub, so you can send it to your phone or e-reader, or download as a PDF. She’s also working on a paperback edition and an audiobook, which should be available in the next week or so. The book is free for those who sign up to her email list, and you can do so here. The Blueprint is for email subscribers only.

Book launches and marketing produced more recommendations from Alison who suggested this pretty good overall timeline for book release marketing.

Here are some other resources: AllAuthor will promote/make ads for your new book if you’re a member ($59 for 1-year membership) – they post on their website and social media every week.

And The Indie Review has a list of book reviewers when you’re ready to promote your book.

Until next month – keep writing!