Who doesn’t like a deal? This weekend only at the Racine & Kenosha Authors Book Fair (Saturday, May 23, 2015, 2-5 p.m., Rhode Center for The Arts), you can purchase copies of my books for special book fair price: four books for $16. Limited quantities are available. So come early. See you there.
Late Night Writing is now in its third printing and the new edition features a foreword by the poet Pasckie Pascua. Copies of Late Night Writing will be available the Racine & Kenosha Authors Book Fair is this weekend, Saturday, May 23, 2015 at Rhode Center for The Arts. A special book fair price makes it very affordable to purchase and I will personally sign your copy (and if you ask nicely, I may even add a quick drawing/sketch).
Haitian author Dimitry Elias Léger, in a recent interview, said “We need poets, music, literature to fill in the gaps between news reports,…”
With that in mind, the Racine & Kenosha Authors Book Fair is next weekend, Saturday, May 23, 2015 at Rhode Center for The Arts (514 56th St, Kenosha, WI 53140). The book fair begins at 2 p.m. and concludes at 5 p.m. So you have plenty of time to do your morning errands or yard work, join me and fellow authors and then spend the rest of the day enjoying Kenosha’s lovely lakefront area with an armful of books by local authors.
Copies of my books will be available for sale (and I will personally sign your copies) and I am scheduled to read at the event. Look forward to meeting you at the Racine & Kenosha Authors Book Fair nest weekend!
The Village Ink Creative Writers Guild has an open house tonight at 6:30 p.m.
What to expect tonight? Expect puppy chow (yes, puppy chow) and cupcakes and maybe peanuts. Expect poetry and prose. Expect good stories by good writers. Expect to have a great time with local writers.
The Village Ink Creative Writers Guild authors plan to share recent works like “Animal Hospital” (children’s literature), “Disturbed” (fiction), “Popular Fiction” (fiction) “Genie-soul” (non-fiction) and selected poetry and prose.
The evening will conclude with a question and answer session for those who have questions about the guild and the craft of writing.
Hope to see you all there!
Graham Public Library, Union Grove, Wisconsin
April 7, 2015, 6:30 pm
FREE to the public. Light refreshments will be served.
You are invited to the Village Ink Creative Writers Guild authors reading open house at
Graham Public Library
Union Grove, Wisconsin
Tuesday, April 7, 2015
6:30 pm
Five local writers present selections of their work. The Village Ink Creative Writers Guild meets every Tuesday at the Graham Public Library and is open to writers of all genres and disciplines.
The open house is a great way to celebrate National Poetry month and the event will highlight the last six months of creative energy and writing endeavors.
Selected works include children’s literature, fiction, poetry and creative non-fiction.
For more details, please leave a comment. Thanks!
The open house is FREE to the public. Light refreshments will be served.
You are invited to the Village Ink Creative Writers Guild authors reading open house at
Graham Public Library
Union Grove, Wisconsin
Tuesday, April 7, 2015
6:30 pm
Five local writers (including myself) present selections of their work. The Village Ink Creative Writers Guild meets every Tuesday at the Graham Public Library and is open to writers of all genres and disciplines. The open house is a great way to celebrate National Poetry month and the event will highlight the last six months of creative energy and writing endeavors. Selected works include children’s literature, fiction, poetry and creative non-fiction.
For more details, please leave a comment. Thanks!
The open house is FREE to the public. Light refreshments will be served.
Rumor has it that I am one of the many authors at this event.
Here are details of the event from the Racine and Kenosha Authors Book Fair Facebook page:
September 20 from 6 to 9 pm, authors from all over Racine and Kenosha will converge at the Racine Arts Council. Six featured poets and authors will give readings (Kenosha Poet Laureate Jean Preston, Kelsey Marie Harris, Dan Nielsen, Nick Demske, Marcie Eanes, and Kelsey Hoff), and many more will be present to sign their books and meet with readers. This event is also the official release of Sad Girl Poems, a chapbook self-published by Kelsey Hoff. Light refreshments will be served.
The Racine and Kenosha area is a thriving arts community, with a surprising number of authors and literary publications in residence. This event will represent the diversity of that community, with up-and-coming writers side by side with well-established ones in multiple genres including poetry, fiction, young adult, and nonfiction. Representatives from Left of the Lake and Straylight Literary Arts Magazine will be present with copies of their publications available.
When it comes to promoting my own work, I am extremely self-consciousness. However, here are three announcements that may interest you.
For the last few years, Poets & Writers highlights the independent publishing scene in America. This year is no different.
Recently arrived in the post is the November/December issue of Poets & Writers. In the past, it has been my practice to read each issue from cover to cover. However, (and in light of my post last week that elicited much conversation: Are trade publishers gatekeepers?[1]), I abandoned protocol and started on the self-publishing special section.
As I am still reading and processing the articles in this issue, one item caught my attention that I would like to share. Reportedly, more than 391,000 books were self-published in 2012.[2] That is a large number of self-published books. To be honest, I may have read only a handful of self-published works that year. An article in Poets & Writers offer some perspective on the matter. I would like to learn your response to the following:
A highly regarded agent recently remarked that the odds are stacked heavily against self-published authors—that only three or four titles really “make a splash” each year.[3]
NOTES:
[1] Closing out the blog post, I asked: “What are your thought about publishers as gatekeepers?” One commented suggested that publishers “think that they are [gatekeepers], but they’re not. They are commercial retailers…. They buy what sells. The quality only needs to be high enough not to send readers screaming.” Someone else commented that “I depend on publishers to be gatekeepers. While I know that they publish a lot of crap and don’t publish a lot of great stuff… I still believe that the ratio of things I’d enjoy reading to things I wouldn’t is higher among traditionally published books than among self-published ones. I’m sure I miss some really great reads this way, but I just don’t feel I have time to wade through the slush pile myself.”
[2] Jason Boog, Galleycat, “Bowker Counted 391,000+ Self-Published Books Last Year,” October 9, 2013, accessed October 23, 2013, http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/bowker-counted-391000-self-published-books-in-2012_b78844
[3] Kevin Larimer, Poets & Writers, “Self-publishing Perspectives,” November/December 2013
The Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance (SIBA) offers advice to authors seeking to work with indie books stores:
This is good advice for authors when working with indie booksellers. The operative words are “with indie booksellers.” Truth be told, the majority of the sales for books I’ve helped publish come from Amazon.com. The reason for this, I suspect, is that Amazon.com is where the masses go to buy books.
Know that I am a big supporter of indie bookstores. But I’m also practical and know that indie bookstores attract a niche audience of readers. Some book titles do better at indie bookstores than others. For example, if you’re a local writer with a book on regional hiking trails or you’re a local poet with a book, you may do better at an indie store than on Amazon.com. That being said, Amazon offers a 45/55 terms of sale (a smidge better than indie stores offering a 40/60 terms of sales). That may not seem like much, but if you’re a small publisher, that 5% difference may cover cost of shipping products to bookstores which directly impacts breakeven numbers for book titles.
As an author (or small press publisher), know that you have sales options. And avoid mentioning Amazon.com when working with indie booksellers — it gives them ulcers.
Coffeehouse Junkie 