Friday, 20 March 2015

CUT - a new opportunity for short story writers!

If you love reading and/or writing short stories, then check out this new resource for readers and writers
http://www.cutalongstory.com/

It is described as "a writer’s e-publishing community platform, where professional and semi-professional writers can freely get their work digitally published and marketed to a global reader audience, giving writers a ‘voice’ to their readers. This enables writers to spend time on their creative output, in the certain knowledge that they can simply upload their work and CUT will do the rest: create a beautiful e-book and market it to a global reader audience....CUT has a simple model which gives writers a fair deal, where each writer receives 50% of the sale proceeds, after deducting minimal transaction costs."
 

Saturday, 14 March 2015

Saturday 21 March Day School :How writers can stay visible

On Saturday 21 March I'm running a day school in Canterbury from 10am -4pm called The Business of Writing 2: Now you see me - how writers can stay visible .  This may be of special interest to indie and self published writers.

With more opportunities than ever before for writers to get their work out to a public readership, how do you stay visible? Is an author also a brand? And what does this mean for a writer? How do you promote yourself?

We will explore ways writers can stay visible, including author websites, book trailers, blogging and blog carnivals, social networking, book signings and launches, readings, interviews, visits, getting reviews, and ways to showcase your work. What is most effective?

We will also look at creating a personal promotion plan.
Cost is just £29.50 and you can book via the link below.
https://www.canterbury.ac.uk/cae/day-schools/spring-2015/the-business-of-writing-2.aspx

What previous students have said about my day schools:

“Jane is very knowledgeable and has a wealth of experience.”
“Fabulously engaging tutor, enthusiastic about her subject, spoke with passion and authority.”
“It was more than I imagined.  Very informative and interesting.”
“Knowledgeable about the topic.  Excellent to listen to. Inspiring.”
“Obvious sound knowledge base and good clear delivery.”
“Useful hand-outs with links that can provide even more information after the course.”
“Inspiring and informative.  Lots of ideas to work with now!”
 “Jane is clearly very experienced.  She has a good relaxed style and is very enthusiastic.”
“Very useful and clearly put across.”
“Excellent content.  Covered more than I expected.”
“Very clear information.  Very generous with the information. Helpful.”
“Very good at answering questions, very clear targets and direction, well prepared.”
 “It was excellent – very informative, well organised, encouraged questions. Engaging.”



Tuesday, 10 March 2015

Crowdfunding and where I've been


I've been absent from the blogosphere recently for a variety of reasons.  I tend to take on too many projects and then struggle to juggle everything BUT it's a great way to keep learning lots of new things and expand my horizons.  My current focus is fundraising for an arts project, on a voluntary basis. 

As a result, I set up and ran my first crowdfunder for the Mirabai Project, a not for profit group of musicians, performers and composers, for an innovative show in Kent with Argentine tango dancers.  I invested a lot of time and energy into it, but just over a week before the crowdfunder ended, the crowdfunding platform went bust.  Disaster!  After upset, anger and despondency, I eventually got myself together and decided to try again with a different platform, IdeasTap.  The link is here - do check it out - you will get to see a beautiful tango for harp and dancers on the video, and any contribution is very welcome.  Do share the link if you enjoy the music. 

Thanks!

http://www.ideastap.com/crowdfunding/project/the-mirabai-project-presents-chrysanthemums