Mark your calendars. We will meet at Boiling Over Coffee Vault on Thursday December 3 at 6:30 pm until whenever.
Writing is much too solitary, even for introverts like us. Hot beverages help to fill awkward pauses in conversation. 🙂
We can talk about the anthology, what you’re writing and where you’re at on your publishing journey. Get some motivation and inspiration by having a cup of cheer with fellow writers.
Kawartha Lakes is home to a lot of talented writers. Previous paid writing opportunities in this area have existed for writers of non-fiction, historical and literary fiction, but not for genre fiction. This anthology aims showcase writing talent across other genres and pay writers for their work. Often, genre literature is able to tell stories and present issues that might not otherwise be told. It is hoped that fictional stories from genres such as science fiction, fantasy, horror, action-adventure, romance, and mystery will help form and inform the culture of Kawartha Lakes. Using Kawartha Lakes as a setting will also give opportunity to engage a wider audience with this beautiful city.
Stories must be written by Kawartha Lakes writers. Story setting must be within Kawartha Lakes. Stories should be works of fiction of about 5000 words. Shorter works will be accepted. Longer works will be considered (up to a maximum of 7000 words, but query before sending.)
If your story is chosen, I will need non-exclusive rights to it, and I will pay you $25 CAD on acceptance. I will also send you a copy of the print version of the book when it is published. (Selected stories will be edited, and writers will be expected to adhere to all deadlines.)
When submitting, indicate if the work is original and unpublished. Reprints are welcome, but query first and tell me where and when the story was published.
Excerpts from longer works will not be considered at this time. I want stories with beginnings, middles and endings, and characters I want to spend time with.
All genres accepted. Fiction preferred. Non-fiction will be considered, if it meets these guidelines.
Submissions will open January 1, 2016 and close March 15, 2016 with expected publishing date of July 1, 2016.
Your submission package will include a brief cover letter followed by your story submission in the body of the email. Your cover letter should be short and include relevant experience and publishing credits, if you have them. (See here for examples of cover letters.) Include your address in your email signature.
Send submissions to: kawarthaauthors@gmail.com
Here are some examples of what I’m looking for, but the possibilities are endless:
I want characters with agency and stories with conflict.
Please send any questions to kawarthaauthors@gmail.com
QUESTIONS
“Are these stories for children or for adults?”
At this time, I am not looking for children’s stories. If these stories were movies, then I’m looking for 14A. (Teen writers are invited to submit!) Perhaps in the future I’ll do an anthology of children’s stories.
“What does “non-exclusive rights” mean?”
Non-exclusive rights means you retain all rights to your work. Sometimes when a short story is purchased by a magazine, for example, they retain the rights, which means you cannot publish that story anywhere else. If you decide in the future you want to put together a collection of your short stories or submit your story to another anthology, I believe you should be able to do that so I’m asking for non-exclusive rights.
“Will I get paid royalties?”
At this time, there will not be royalties. Payment is a one-time only $25. All proceeds from the anthology will go towards funding future anthologies and paying writers professional rates. (Basically, I got tired of seeing writers in this area give their work away for free (or worse, paying to enter contests), so I’m funding this out of my own pocket because I believe writers should get paid and I also believe that where opportunities don’t exist, you create them.) I have plans for three more anthologies, and I expect to be able to pay more for each story as we go along.
Join me in congratulating these two local writers.
Congratulations to Stefan Ellery for self-publishing his book, A Burden of Choice, after his publisher went under! This is one of the great things about self-publishing! It allows authors to take control of their careers. Many authors with out-of-print backlists are finding themselves on the bestseller lists because of self-publishing. Way to go, Stefan! You can find his book here: http://www.amazon.ca/Burden-Choice-Circle-Roses-Novel-ebook
Kudos to Altaire Gural! She entered her play, Forgotten, in two theatre festivals– one in Toronto and one in New York. And the New York festival approved her play!
(And in semi-related news, one of the young actors from the Academy Theatre performance recently appeared on ABC’s TV show, Once Upon A Time. Watch this guy. He’s going to soar!)
Keep up with the Forgotten news here: https://www.facebook.com/FORGOTTENtheplay/
[[If you have a success to celebrate, let me know!]]
Every November, hundreds of thousands of writers around the world attempt to write a novel in a month. This phenomenon is otherwise known as National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo. The minimum number of words to complete over the 30 days is 50,000, and although some would argue this is not a standard length for a novel (and they’d be right!) the necessary writing pace is on par with many professional novelists (even for those with a day job). So if you’ve ever wanted to know if you have what it takes to be a professional novelist, sign up and give NaNoWriMo a try.
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SPONSOR OF THE WEEK
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EDITOR’S THOUGHTS
THE SEA OF EXPERTS “Don’t try to be an expert without some workout shoes and a string of places you’ve been.” ~C. Hope Clark Yeah, I quoted myself. After a particularly tiring day of opening yet another post from someone who had no business being an expert (i.e., “let me show you how to promote your writing” when a Google search shows almost nothing about the person, much less what he wrote), I slung that quote on Twitter and Facebook. Because we’ve done something once does not make us accomplished. We don’t know if our success was a fluke or a direct result of what we did right. And in our not knowing, how can we counsel others? We see this a lot at conferences. I feel like such a fraud at conferences where much bigger names exist, and I want to slink to the back of the room and listen to the REAL pros. But then I take measure of what I know and they do not, and I choose those topics to speak about. I consciously note my expertise and lean on it, and I try my darnedest to preach what I have practiced…more than once. We live in an age where instant information makes us feel wise. We do learn faster than ever before, and what we don’t know, we can look up. But being adept at Googling does not make us experts. Experience does. A network does. Clips in your portfolio do. I’m not telling you to quit trying to be better or quit trying to earn your stripes to be an expert. But don’t let one moment of success give you the false sense of confidence that you have indeed arrived and earned the right to counsel others. Focus on your craft, career, and experience. Hone them. Teaching about what you really haven’t experienced does you and others a disservice. You quit following your dreams and they may become misguided seeking theirs. Write hard. Work hard for your dreams. The expert status will happen if you do. Forcing it can possibly derail all of it if you’re regarded as a fraud early on.
~HOPE
WEBSITE – http://www.chopeclark.com
WORDS OF SUCCESS Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience. – Ralph Waldo Emerson –
SUCCESS STORY
Hi Hope, I have great news. I have two stories being published in books coming out in October. One story is in Chicken Soup for the Soul: It’s Christmas and the other is in Chicken Soup for the Soul: Think Positive for Kids! Thanks for your wonderful newsletter. I love searching in it for new markets to submit my stories. L.A. Strucke
FEATURED ARTICLE
YOU NEED A PLATFORM AS YOU DIVE INTO WRITING By J. L. Greger What is a writer’s platform? There are as many definitions as there are experts. In the past, an author’s platform was his reputation (titles, expertise, and past awards). Now Nathan Bransford defines a platform “as the number of eyeballs you can summon as you promote your book” (http://blog.nathanbransford.com/2010/09/what-platform-means-for-writers.html). I suspect he’s right, because “tell-alls” of disgraced, shallow celebrities sell better than well-written memoirs of less famous, heroic individuals. Platforms sell books. What can you do to build this nebulous entity called a platform? You need a website, blog, and/or a newsletter. Let’s be honest: Most of us electronically reach mainly other authors, who are too busy to read our thoughts as they scramble to build their own platforms. What can you do to make your written electronic communications more effective? A few points seem obvious but are often overlooked: 1) Sound bites apply to writing. Short, frequent communications are more effective than longer ones. 2) Most readers and search engines only scan articles. Keywords and tag lines are important. The free Google Ad Words Keywords Tool and similar services can help you sharpen your selection of tags. 3) Cooperation pays. Guest blogs expand your audience, i.e. platform. Public speaking and media appearances are other key elements in building a platform. I know from past experience that drumming up a crowd for a presentation at most libraries takes more than posters plastered around town and a couple event announcements in a local newspaper. Here are ideas that worked: ==One author mentioned a certain brand of wine repeatedly in his novel, then held a book signing at the winery. ==I speak at libraries on “Science in Your Fiction” not my novels per se. I answer questions like: Could scientists now create a Jurassic Park? Are there real invisibility cloaks? I do this because I was a biology professor and both my novels Coming Flu and Murder: A New Way to Lose Weight, contain snippets of science. What do these example demonstrate? Be creative and build on your own strengths. Not surprisingly, the book signing in the winery garnered more sales. Finally, authors, who cease writing more books and focus all their efforts on publicizing their earlier books, have forgotten that building a platform is a multi-legged stool. It takes written publicity, oral presentations, and several strong books to build a sturdy platform for a novelist. It’s never too soon to start building your author’s platform. Start on it as you write your first novel. And it’s never too late to strengthen your platform, even if you have been delinquent for weeks or months. Building a platform takes sustained effort. A strong platform will make your dive into writing more successful.
COMPETITIONS
WRITERS VILLAGE SHORT STORY PRIZE http://www.writers-village.org/ — ENTRY FEE £15. The first prize is £1,000 ($1,600), with a second prize of £250 ($400) and five runner up prizes of £50 ($80). A further five Highly Commended entrants will receive a free entry in the next round. Every entrant wins because… everyone, winner or not, gets back detailed feedback on how their story was assessed. Deadline November 30, 2013. Any form of short story may be submitted up to 3,000 words and in any genre (e.g. mystery, romance, fantasy, crime, science fiction, children’s).
RHINO FOUNDER’S PRIZE http://rhinopoetry.org/contests/founders-prize/ — $10 ENTRY FEE. Open to all poets with a voice. Deadline October 31, 2013. All contest submissions will also be considered for regular publication in the 2014 edition of RHINO Poetry. The winner will receive $300, publication in the next issue, and will be featured on our website, and nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Two runners up will receive $50, publication in the next issue, and will be featured on our website. We occasionally nominate a runner-up for a Pushcart Prize. Submit up to five poems per entry fee.
BROAD RIVER REVIEW CONTEST http://broadriverreview.org/official-contest-rules/ — $15 ENTRY FEE. Poetry entries limited to five poems, no more than ten pages. Fiction limited to 5,000 words. Deadline November 15, 2013. We will award $500 to the winner of each contest, as well as publication in the next volume of the Broad River Review, which will appear in Spring 2014. Finalists will also be considered for publication.
GEMINI MAGAZINE POETRY OPEN http://www.gemini-magazine.com/poetryopen.html — $5 ENTRY FEE (UP TO THREE POEMS). Grand prize $1,000. Second place $100. Four honorable mentions at $25. Deadline January 2, 2014. Prose poem, rhyme, rondeau, free verse, haiku, lyric, narrative, sestina, sonnet….doesn’t matter what it’s called as long as it moves us! We welcome work from widely published poets as well as newcomers.
CREATIVE NONFICTION ESSAY CONTEST ON MISTAKES www.creativenonfiction.org/submissions/mistakes — $20 ENTRY FEE. For an upcoming issue, Creative Nonfiction is seeking new essays about mistakes, major or minor, tragic or serendipitous, funny or painful. We’re looking for stories about poor decisions, missteps, or miscalculations; we want to read about embarrassing boo-boos, dangerous misjudgments, or fortuitous faux pas in well-crafted stories that explore the nature and outcomes of human fallibility. $1,000 for Best Essay & $500 for runner-up. Essays must be previously unpublished and no longer than 4,000 words. All essays will be considered for publication in a special “Mistakes” issue. Deadline: November 1, 2013.
GRANTS
INSIDE ZONE TRANSYLVANIA RESIDENCY www.insidezone.eu — The Transylvania’s artist residency InSide Zone will start on 4th of May. It will last two weeks but artists may decide to stay longer. The residency is in the area of Carpathian mountains, in Borsec town, Romania. The upper town, once a famous spa in Austro-Hungarian empire is now “beautiful in its own ruins” and still seems to be an ideal place for inspiration and art.It strongly remembers the landscape of Andrei Tarkovsky’s movie, The Stalker, and the mysterious Zone. Interested writers and artists may apply by email sending their bio and samples of work. At the end of residency between 15 to 17 of May the yearly poetry and arts festival will be organized in the town. The residency’s participants may be involved in it if the work they produced during their stay is related with Zone, Borsec town, the area etc. Email transylvanianresidency@gmail.com for details.
LEDIG HOUSE RESIDENCY http://www.artomi.org/program.php?Writers-OMI-4 — Deadline October 20, 2013. Guests may select a residency of one week to two months; about ten at a time gather to live and work in a rural setting overlooking the Catskill Mountains. Ledig House provides all meals, and each night a local chef prepares dinner. Daytime is reserved for writing and quiet activities, while evenings are more communal. A program of weekly visits bring guests from the New York publishing community. Noted editors, agents and book scouts are invited to share dinner and conversation on both creative and practical subjects, offering insight into the workings of the publishing industry, and introductions to some of its key professionals.
HAWTHORNDEN CASTLE FELLOWSHIP http://www.writersservices.com/reference/hawthornden-castle-fellowship — Established 1982 to provide a peaceful setting where published writers can work without disturbance. The Retreat houses five writers at a time, who are known as Hawthornden Fellows. Writers from any part of the world may apply for the fellowships. No monetary assistance is given, nor any contribution to travelling expenses, but once arrived at Hawthornden, the writer is the guest of the Retreat. Applications on forms provided must be made by the end of June for the following calendar year.
BREAKOUT NOVELIST SCHOLARSHPIPS (AUSTRALIA) http://www.novelwritingretreatsaustralia.com/p/breakout-novelist-scholarships-australia.html — Novel Writing Retreats Australia has up to six scholarship places available for a 9 day/8 night Breakout Novelist Retreat in 2014. The Breakout Novelist Retreat takes place on Feb 15-23, 2014 at the retreat property located in Taroona, Tasmania. Applications close at midnight on November 30, 2013. There is no application fee. Successful applicants will be notified on December 5, 2013.
WRITERS ADVANCE BOOT CAMP SCHOLARSHIPS http://writersadvancebootcamp.com/scholarships — The Suzie Benforado Missionary Scholarships are available to writers who have a need and also who have a love to write “outside the box” and their comfort zone to reach those in need of Christ. Scholarship deadline will be December 26, 2013 and winners will be notified by December 28, 2013.
FREELANCE MARKETS
CHICKEN SOUP: REBOOTING YOUR LIFE http://www.chickensoup.com — We are looking for first-person true stories and poems up to 1,200 words about how you changed the direction your life was taking or how you got out of your rut. Was it a major change or was it an attitude adjustment? Did you change your life overnight or did it take you a while? Stories can be serious or humorous, or both. Your stories should inspire our readers to take a chance and give them the courage to reboot their own lives. Pays $200 and 10 copies of the book. Deadline January 30, 2014.
SHAPE http://www.shape.com/media-kit/shape-2012-2013-media-kit — Strives to give readers practical ways to improve health, fitness and nutrition in their lives. The editors consider it a whole lifestyle magazine. They are open to pitches in almost all sections of the magazine, to include features. Not particular about word count. Avoid pitching the front-of-the-book news sections. Feel free to pitch the online market, as well. Lifestyle is a particularly good place to break in. Study the masthead and pitch the correct editor, sending the pitch with a photo. Pays $1.50 to $2.00/word. Pays $100 for short blog posts and $400 for longer pieces. Has a kill fee of 1/3 the story fee.
AFAR http://about.afar.com/about/guidelines-and-terms/writers-guidelines/ — Celebrates experiential travel all over the globe, covering destinations abroad and in the U.S., with an in-depth perspective. Pitch the smaller sections, not features, for best odds. AFAR.com is a rapidly growing guide for experiential travelers. The site is currently looking for writers and bloggers who can create local guides to their own cities. For more information on how to become a local expert, visit afar.com/local_experts. Pays $1/word and up.
VIA http://www.viamagazine.com/ — VIA boasts one of the larger circulations in magazine publishing. It’s the magazine of the American Automobile Association for 4.2 million AAA members in Northern California, Nevada, Utah, Oregon, southern Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and Alaska. VIA’s coverage is primarily focused in the West, which encompasses the states its readers live in as well as Arizona, Washington, Colorado, Alaska, Hawaii — even Vancouver, B.C., and some spots south of the border. Avoid pitching the features. Consider the front-of-the-book section called On the Road as well as sections entitled Souvenir, Treasure, Detour, Tastes, and Neighborhood. Pays $1/word and up.
JOURNEY http://www.aaajourney.com/magazine/contact/wguidelines.asp — Journey’s editorial mission is to reflect the lifestyles and tastes of Washington state residents and provide travel coverage from a uniquely Northwestern perspective. As one of AAA’s 40 regional magazines across the country, content focuses on subjects one would expect from an auto club membership publication — safety, technology, insurance and disaster preparedness — but it’s also one of the few mags in the Northwest that covers not only statewide and regional travel, but national and international wanderlust, too. Local writers have a better chance. Columns to pitch include Departures, and other small sections. Pays 50 cents to $1/word. Articles range from 500 to 1,800 words. We assign stories based on writers’ proposals, and rarely accept completed manuscripts.
JOBS
HEALTH ECONOMICS WRITER
PUBLISHERS
HENERY PRESS http://henerypress.com/submissions-humorous-mystery-series/ — Mystery (all subgenres including traditional, humorous, paranormal, and cozy). Thriller/Suspense. Chick Lit (yeah, we said it). No YA or Middle Grade submissions unless they are mysteries, please.
BOOKS & SUCH LITERARY AGENCY: JANET KOBOBEL GRANT http://www.booksandsuch.biz/blog/seeking-inspirational-romance-writers/ — I’d like to represent more authors who want to write pure romanc: contemporary romance, romantic suspense, and historical romance.
SWOON READS http://www.swoonreads.com/submit-a-manuscript — Do you have an unpublished teen romance novel? Great! We’re so excited to read it! Uploading your novel to Swoon Reads is simple. They accept both teen romance and new adult novels, but the work must be “original, completed novels that are not, and have never been under contract with another publisher.” (NOTE: An article was written recently on the ins and outs of the contract at Swoon Reads. See more at: http://accrispin.blogspot.com/2013/10/swoon-reads-new-crowdsourced-teen.html)
ABERDEEN BAY http://www.aberdeenbay.com/submission.aspx — We publish mostly memoirs and mainstream fiction. We only publish manuscripts that are of high professional quality. It is not necessary for prospective authors to have an agent or any publishing history in order to submit their manuscripts to us.
BITTER LEMON PRESS http://www.bitterlemonpress.com/ — Our books are entertaining and gripping crime fiction that expose the darker side of foreign places. They explore what lies just beneath the surface of the bustling life of cities such as Paris, Havana, Munich and Mexico City. These are books for your travels, whether imaginary or real.
SPONSORS
A FREE Master Class in Creative Writing Success Enroll FREE in a 14-part ‘mini course’ in short story writing success. This highly acclaimed Writers’ Village ‘Master Class’ shows you how to get published – profitably – plus win cash prizes in fiction awards. Discover how to open a chapter with ‘wow’ impact, add new energy to a scene, build a character in moments, sustain page-turning suspense even through long passages of exposition… plus 97 further powerful ideas you can use at once. Enjoy the course without charge now at: http://www.writers-village.org/writing-success.php
Join us! http://bit.ly/179aDWs |
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On Thursday, September 26 at 7pm, the Kawartha Lakes Public Library is pleased to present local author, R.H. Morrison, in the Meeting Room of the Lindsay branch.
Visit the author’s website: http://www.rhmorrison.ca/
For more information about the Autumn Local Author Series pick up a brochure at your local library.
If you are an author and interested in taking part in the Local Author Series, please contact Diane Lansdell at 705 324-9411 ext. 1265.
The Kawartha Lakes Public Library is pleased to present a Memoir Writing Workshop with Ruth Waring on Tuesday, October 22 at 1 – 3 pm in the Meeting Room at the Lindsay branch.
About Ruth Waring: Currently living in Lindsay, Ontario, Canada, Ruth is married to Doug, her high school sweetheart! She is the mother of three adult children and Nana to three grandchildren. She lived her primary years in the hub of Toronto where the world of writing entered her life. The question of Why I Want a Dog at a Canadian National Exhibition contest was duly answered and chosen from among 15,000 letters. An English cocker spaniel puppy, dubbed Susie, entered Ruth’s life and her love for dogs began.
Visit her website: http://www.ruthwaring.com/
ArcAs a nationally focused magazine whose exclusive focus is poetry and poetry-related reviews, interviews and articles, Arc occupies near-exclusive terrain: it has the longest uninterrupted publishing history of a poetry-only literary journal in the country, is the only one of its kind in Ontario, and maintains a commitment to extensive critical discussion of poetry as a form, of work by new poets and new work by established poets.
Brick is one of North America’s oldest and most respected literary magazines. Edited by three Michaels (Helm, Ondaatje and Redhill) and two Spaldings (Linda and Esta), Brick is published twice yearly out of Toronto, and has readers in every corner of the planet. Brick is known especially as a journal of literary non-fiction focusing on literature and the arts. We publish essays, interviews with writers, cultural commentaries, and belles lettres on everything from film to food. Brick prizes the personal voice, and celebrates opinion, passion, revelation, and the occasional bad joke. In 29 years of publishing, we have featured a great many of the world’s best-loved writers, including Alice Munro, Lawrence Weschler, Jeffrey Eugenides, Margaret Atwood, Robert Creeley, Jose Saramago, Jane Jacobs, Colm Toibin, Marilynne Robinson, Russell Banks, Anne Carson, and many, many others.
Canadian Poetry: Studies, Documents, Reviews (1977- ) is a peer-reviewed journal devoted to the study of Canadian poetry and related materials from all periods and regions in Canada. Edited by D.M.R. Bentley (Department of English, University of Western Ontario) and published twice yearly, it includes reviews of scholarly works and documents of scholarly importance (such as interviews with Canadian poets) as well as articles of varying lengths.
The Danforth Review publishes four issues of fiction annually and includes interviews and other features about Canadian literature with a focus on the small press scene.
Now in its third decade, Descant is a quarterly journal publishing new and established contemporary writers and visual artists from Canada and around the world.
Originally started by Toronto writer Emily Schultz to promote her novel of the same name, Joyland has blossomed into a truly remarkable literary playground. From Schultz’s novel, the site moved its focus to short fiction from Toronto, and then expanded operations to include franchises across North America.
LICHEN Arts & Letters Preview was launched on May 19, 1999 by four Durham Region writers, Lucy Brennan, Rabindranath Maharaj, Gwynn Scheltema, and Ruth E. Walker. Taking a cue from their publication’s botanical namesake, lichen, the founding editors of this non-profit venture were determined to publish the many creative artists whose diverse work springs from the bedrock of this community. In the pages of LICHEN, the work of local poets, writers, and visual artists appears alongside that of others from across Canada and beyond.
Every three months, Queen’s Quarterly, Canada’s oldest multidisciplinary journal, reviews and debates the important events that shape the cultural, political and intellectual life of the country.
Quill & Quire is the monthly magazine of the Canadian book trade. Its primary audience is publishers, booksellers, librarians, writers, students and educators, and other media in every province. With an average circulation of 5,000 copies per issue, Quill & Quire reaches an audience of over 25,000 readers. More than 6,000 copies of the magazine are sold on the newsstand each year.
Rampike magazine, in print since 1979, edited by Karl Jirgens, features post-modern art and writing from around the world with a strong focus on Canadian expression. The journal has received substantial support from the Canada Council and the Ontario Arts Council and has published interviews and works by internationally acclaimed figures including Charles Bernstein, Nicole Brossard, William Burroughs, Joseph Beuys, Grand Chief Matthew Coon-Come, Jacques Derrida, Umberto Eco, Martin Esslin, Tomson Highway, Linda Hutcheon, Thomas King, Al Purdy, Julia Kristeva, Robert Kroetsch, Eli Mandel, Louise Nevelson, Dennis Oppenheim, Al Purdy, Josef Skvorecky, Rosemary Sullivan, Phillipe Sollers, and David Foster Wallace, to name only a very few.
The Puritan describes itself as “an online, quarterly publication based in Toronto, Ontario committed to publishing the best in new fiction, poetry, interviews, and reviews.” Specifically, its mission is to publish what it calls “pioneering” literature, though it seems to have a broad definition of what that term means. This is a good thing, since variety is the spice of lit.
Acclaimed as one of the finest journals focused on the humanities, the University of Toronto Quarterly publishes interdisciplinary articles and reviews of international repute. This interdisciplinary approach provides a depth and quality to the journal that attracts both general readers and specialists from across the humanities. UTQ accepts submissions in either English or French. Discover Canada’s Best Kept Literary Secret! – Letters in Canada Subscribers anticipate the ‘Letters in Canada’ issue, published each winter, which contains reviews of the previous year’s work in Canadian fiction, poetry, drama, translations and works in the humanities.
Author Chuck Wendig has this advice for indie bookstores:
Help authors be awesome, and authors will help bookstores be the same.
In his post, Wendig brings up some very good points.
I’ve spoken with a few indie bookstores that treated me like I was, I dunno, bugging them. Like, “Oh, you’re… an author? Ew.” As if authors were not the people who helped fill that bookstore with crazy wonder. I assume it was because I wasn’t a bestselling author?
Cover charges for bookstore events. I was thinking about this recently– specifically I was thinking about how the book industry could learn from the music industry. The music industry has already had to deal with price drops and piracy, and the music industry handled these a whole lot quicker and better than the book industry. I got to thinking about how the music industry probably makes a bulk of their money on ticket prices for concert tours, and how authors (and bookstores) need to be doing the same. But mentioning cover charges for bookstore events brings up a hoopla of backlash. Some don’t think they should be charged anything to have an author sign their pile of books. But they’re forgetting the costs involved to the bookstore and author just to make that signing happen.
Wendig’s advice totally makes sense:
One book minimum.
Like, if I go to a comedy club, there’s a drink minimum.
Wendig also suggests authors partner with bookstores for more than just books.
No reason that an author/publisher and a bookstore cannot partner together to offer unique swag: this could be anything, really. Bookmarks. Postcards.
Also, a point Wendig didn’t cover but is totally worth mentioning, is having indie bookstores fill world-wide orders for signed books by local authors. I realize some booksellers may not want the hassle of shipping books around the world, but think about it: a signed book is a unique product. You get to be the only distributor. Exclusive content. Especially when the author adds a little value like a personal message or a doodle.
I highly recommend getting your name added to Brian Henry’s newsletter email list. Here’s a sample of what you will find:
Writing Markets and Contests
More writing contests here: http://tinyurl.com/743hfsw
More markets for short pieces here: http://tinyurl.com/cqjm7xp
More book publishers here: http://tinyurl.com/ctper8s
Sign up for the list here: http://quick-brown-fox-canada.blogspot.ca/
Brian Henry is coming to Peterborough on July 21. Have you registered for his workshop yet? Details here.
— BIO: J. L. Greger, as a biologist and professor emerita of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, enjoys putting tidbits of science into mystery/suspense novels. You can learn more about JL Greger and her dog Bug at her website: 
kawarthalakeswriters.com 