Weekend Edition-News and More News

Keeping up with the industry we are a part of is an important part of the writing journey. Today's weekend edition is a primer on just how and where to keep up with what's going on in the writing industry via the web.

• Check out Publisher's Lunch by subscribing to the free daily e-newsletter. It provides a snapshot of the daily publishing deals. Then consider the subscription which provides access to the deluxe newsletter and the PublishersMarketplace website. " ..the biggest and best dedicated marketplace for publishing professionals to find critical information and unique databases, find each other, and to do business better electronically."

• PW Daily is the free daily e-newsletter of Publisher's Weekly magazine. PW Daily covers big deals, personnel moves, sales information and technology developments. Authors on the Air provides daily updates on scheduled author media appearances. Delivers breaking news across the publishing spectrum every morning. PW also has other newsletters which are weekly including: Religion Bookline, Children's Bookshelf and PW Comics Week--and Cooking the Books (bi-weekly).

• From MediaBistro.com, sign up for the Daily News Feed, and have it delivered to your in box or subscribe to my personal favorite, Galley Cat which is geared towards the book publishing industry.
  

• WritersMarket.com. Writer's Market, the freelance writer's bible, brings you "Market Updates From Writer's Market," the official e-mail newsletter of WritersMarket.com offering you all the tips, tricks and insider information you need to market your manuscripts and make the most of your writing talent. You can also sign up for "Tips and Updates From Writer's Digest" email newsletter as well. This free newsletter delivers writing technique tips and inspiration every week.
  

• Romance author, Cindi Myers does a great job of delivering romance industry news, including recaps of RWA conference workshop spotlights with editors in her Yahoo group. It is a no chat group where you simply get the market news weekly. By the way, Cindi is our guest in Seekerville on January 6, 2009. You can sign up for Cindi's newsletter (which has over 2,000 members) by sending an email request to:CynthiaSterling-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

Finally, a few interesting news items from the sources I listed above:


From Writer's Market editor, Robert Lee Brewer:

Freelance Success Stories Contest

It's that time of year again when I start asking for submissions to the Freelance Success Stories contest for the next edition of Writer's Market. I love reading about all the successes, but what really gets me is just how many routes to success there seem to be.

This year's contest has a deadline of December 31. It's open to any writer and should be between 800-1,500 words in length. As usual, there is no entry fee. An exciting development is that I've increased the first place prize to $500 along with publication in the 2010 Writer's Market!

Entries can be sent to writersmarket@fwmedia.com with "Freelance Success Stories Entry" in the subject line.

I'd suggest checking out a 2009 Writer's Market for previous winning entries, but success stories have to be nonfiction and personal (your success story, not someone else's). It can be about your first byline, first big sale, moment you realized you made it, odd writing gig, etc.

Good luck!

From Galley Cat

Free Romance Books on the iPhone

As the publishing world braces for a recession-themed holiday season, Harlequin just released four free e-books on Stanza, the iPhone digital reader.

The titles include romance classics like Wrapped and Ready, The Mistress' Secret, Stroke of Midnight, and The Spy Who Loved Her. The giveaway will promote the 3,000 other romance titles that Harlequin has on the Stanza.

As GalleyCat reported, romance titles are among the most successful during this tough time for publishing. From the release: "Romance is one of the few genres of physical books that are doing well in what has been a tough time for publishers and a tough time in the economy for a lot of people. Many people don't realize this but romance is the #1 genre of books overall with some eye popping statistics."