Your Crafty host, Fiona Veitch Smith, has just had an anthology of short stories published as an e-book. For a limited period only, Crafty Publishing is giving away free downloads of Different Tracks.
Continue reading ‘Free e-book giveaway’
Salt Publishing, one of the UK’s most respected independent publishers, faces closure. The Bookseller reports that Salt has relaunched its “Just One Book” campaign after a tough first half of the year has left them with “less than one week’s cash left”, despite its grant from Arts Council England.
The company needs to sell roughly £45,000 worth of books to keep afloat for the rest of the year. Publishing director Chris Hamilton-Emery said the company had not wanted to repeat the initiative “because we thought it was unrepeatable, but we have just reached crunch time this week”. He added: “We realised if we didn’t get some sales, we would probably go bust very shortly.”
Hamilton-Emery said a number of factors had contributed to Salt’s financial woes, including the recession, the World Cup and the demise of Borders UK late last year. “They were a good customer of ours, so that was a real blow,” he said.
The Crafty Writer’s guest poetry tutor, Andrew Philip, is published by Salt. He says: “It’s harder and harder these days for authors – début authors and mid-listers in particular – to find publishers. The big houses are taking on fewer writers and concentrating their marketing power on certain titles in their lists. So writers need publishers such as Salt more than ever. Publishers who don’t simply bend to the howling winds of celebrity memoirs. Publishers who will take a risk on writing they simply believe in. Publishers who believe in you and give readers the chance to let your voice enter their hearts and minds. If Salt goes, we all lose.”
Writers and book lovers are being asked to buy just one book to help save Salt, Andy recommends:
In my creative and non-fiction writing classes there are always people who want to write stories about animals. Here’s a contest for you.
The Angel Animals Network 2010 True Story Contest is now accepting submissions of true stories of animals helping children, parents, and families deal with difficult situations and circumstances. Animals featured can be dogs, cats, horses, gerbils, rabbits, ferrets, or any house pet or animal in nature. They can be family pets or therapy, assistance, or service animals.
The stories can be written by parents or guardians of children or by the children or teens themselves. Stories can also be written by adults who recall a special animal from childhood or teen years who helped them through a tough period.
This contest hopes to find real-life stories that demonstrate animals comforting and helping to heal children during everyday ups and downs or traumatic events such as divorce or other losses. The stories can depict how children and teens de-stress with animals while learning valuable life lessons. The deadline is 15 September 2010. For more details visit Angel Animals.
Platinum Page accepts submissions from writers of all levels of experience. Editor Vivienne Hall tells me the magazine publishes “well written short stories. No features, no articles, just quality writing. Poets are also included, and in each edition of Platinum Page there are several poems sprinkled throughout.” The maximum word count for short stories is 1500 words
“I’m pretty much easy on subjects: funny, light-hearted, twist-in-the-tale, thought provoking, crime, sci-fi, things along those lines. Nothing dark, heavy of graphically hideous! As for poets, as long as the poem fits on an A4 sheet, it should be fine,” says Vivienne. Unfortunately, they don’t accept writing for children at this time
There is a print and electronic version of the magazine which comes out bi-monthly. It’s published in the UK but accepts submissions from abroad. There is no payment for publication, but if you would like to showcase your writing, this may be an outlet for you. Good luck!
That’s the tagline for the first part of my SF mystery story, The Dreamsavers, appearing in this month’s edition of Aquila magazine. So if you have children in the 8 – 13 age bracket, why not order a copy now? The second part will be out next month. Aquila have published a number of my other short stories including The Wheelchair Wonder and the two-part Murder in the Deep.
My short film Enemy Lines is about to cross the Atlantic. Director Mike Steel and I are honoured to have been chosen to showcase our film at the Short Short Story Film Festival in New York, this Saturday 21 November 2009, then the following Saturday on the 28th.
Festival organisers, Merging Art Productions, ask:
How do filmmakers tell a story in less than five minutes? Not just trailers, music videos, or experimental projects, but honest-to-goodness beginning-middle-end stories?
The Short Short Story Film Festival celebrates brevity in filmmaking, featuring films from across the globe. For more information visit the festival website
