Should You Be Writing Kindle E-Books?

"Should You Be Writing Kindle E-books?" is the title of Lee Jackson's talk, host of our upcoming meeting 7 pm, Tuesday, August 22. We will meet on the third floor of the First United Methodist Church, Maryville. Anyone with an interest in writing is welcome to join us.

Lee has published two e-books and a number of print books. Lee began publishing in the 1980s. Lee spent her working life as a family and consumer sciences high school teacher. She continues to enjoy and write about subjects related to home and family life. Her early sojourn into the world of independent publishing has been an added plus to her life. Cookbooks and children's books are the areas of focus.

Following are a few of Lee's publications and awards:

My apple cookbook, "Apples, Apples Everywhere - Favorite Recipes From America's Orchards" received an award from Mid America Publishers Association.

"Careers in Focus - Family and Consumer Sciences" textbook published by Goodheart-Willcox received the Missouri Writers Guild Major Award.

Books I have published for other authors, Amy Houts and Robert Bohlken, Ph.D., have received awards from Midwest Independent Publishers Association and "Mom's Choice Award" from The Just For Mom Foundation.

Her book, "The Littlest Christmas Kitten", has received great reviews from parents and children, as well as reviewers and the School Library. It received 1st Place Award in Children's Picture Books from Midwest Independent Publishers Association.

Hope to see you there!

#amwriting #Kindle #ebook #author #literature #nonfiction #fiction #MissouriWritersGuild 

Resources for Authors

Finding good research materials when writing historical fiction can be a challenge, depending on how far back your story is set. It's important to remember that the voices and experiences of those old settlers are not all together lost.
National, state, and county documents, letters, photographs, newspapers, and other items are being carefully preserved by agencies and historical societies, like our own Nodaway County Historical Society and the The State Historical Society of Missouri, as well as the US National Archives, The Library of Congress, National Park Service, and thousands of museums and libraries, and other online databases.
Google Books and Internet Archive are great places to read digitized books and publications, even those printed hundreds of years ago. I recently downloaded to my computer a few digitized books from the 1700s and 1800s. It's nice to have these keyword-searchable texts, and it's just plain fun to read them. They can help with character development, help focus an author's attention on the details of day-to-day life, and even provide authors with a more accurate perspective on the attitudes and politics and social norms of a given period.
So, if you're looking to pack some historical fact and detail into your next work of historical fiction, don't forget these resources. And, if you're writing nonfiction, you can't live without them.

#amwriting #fiction #nonfiction #books #readers #history #historical #database #Missouri #UnitedStates #Archives #journalism #newspapers

Congratulations to Our Local Readers!

Congratulations to all those who participated in the Summer Reading Program at the Maryville Public Library, Maryville, MO this summer. Wow, more than 10,000 books read. That's impressive. A special congratulations to the winners of the program awards.🏅We're proud of you all.

And a special thanks to the entire staff at the library that works so hard to make this program a success every year. We don't always say it, but you make the library a great place to be.

Keep turning those pages, readers, and we authors will keep writing so that you will have new stuff to read when you're ready.

#amwriting #fiction #nonfiction #authors #writers #library #readingchallenge#poetry

Maryville Daily Forum

Library names summer reading winners

MARYVILLE, Mo. — The Maryville Public Library’s Summer Reading Challenge drew more than 330 participants this year.

MARYVILLEDAILYFORUM.COM

An Interesting Article on Book Awards for Self-Published Authors

This is an interesting article and the comments from Tara Johnson at Writer's Digest are thought-provoking.

"“Fifteen years ago we got books that weren’t much more than copies from Kinkos,” said Tara Johnson, who manages the self-pub awards program at Writer’s Digest. “Now I would say that 95% of the books that come in look basically the same as the books you might see coming from a major publisher.”

This is an interesting article and the comments from Tara Johnson at Writer's Digest are thought-provoking.

"“Fifteen years ago we got books that weren’t much more than copies from Kinkos,” said Tara Johnson, who manages the self-pub awards program at Writer’s Digest. “Now I would say that 95% of the books that come in look basically the same as the books you might see coming from a major publisher.”

According to Johnson, the number of submissions has grown in step with the level of quality. Nearly 2,900 submissions poured into the Writer’s Digest Self-Published Book Awards in 2014. Writer’s Digest also received about 700 submissions this year for its Self-Published E-Books Awards, which was founded two years ago for self-published authors who choose not to go down the printed path." From the site - [Note: this article was originally published in February 2015 and was updated on April 10, 2017.]

My only question is, why is there still a distinction made between "traditionally published" and "self-published" when it comes to the contests? A good or bad piece of work, regardless of the publishing mechanism utilized by the author of the work, should be granted the same consideration when being evaluated.

Just my opinion. What are your thoughts on this, members? Many of you are both traditionally published and self-published. Does it concern you or bother you to know that your self-published works may be considered less credible or of lower quality, without closer scrutiny, merely because they weren't "traditionally published"?

DIY: Book Awards for Self-Published Authors

With hundreds of thousands of self-published books hitting the shelves every year, indie authors need to find a way to stand out. Book awards for self-published writers are one way to do that.

PUBLISHERSWEEKLY.COM

Author's Directory at the Missouri Center for the Book

If you have been published through a "traditional" path to publication, and received payment for your work through that publisher, then you may be eligible to be listed in the Author's Directory at the Missouri Center for the book at http://books.missouri.org/Author.

Quoted from their site: "NOTE: The Missouri Center for the Book encourages all writers to pursue their muse. However, the designation "Author" connotes a category of achievement validated by the acknowledgment ...

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Authors Directory | Missouri Center for the Book

This database contains information about authors who live in Missouri. You can find out about their publications, the genre and audience they write for, whether they accept speaking engagements, and…

BOOKS.MISSOURI.ORG