New Authors Guild Seattle Chapter Reception

You are invited to a kick-off event celebrating the new Seattle Chapter of the Authors Guild!

Sunday, July 29
2–4 p.m.
Seattle Public Library
University Branch
5009 Roosevelt Way NE


Please RSVP here by Friday, July 27.


Hello, fellow authors.

Following up the results of our recent survey—my thanks to the many who responded—I’m delighted to announce the first meeting of the Seattle chapter of the Authors Guild. We’ll be gathering Sunday, July 29, from 2–4 p.m. at the University branch of the Seattle Public Library, 5009 Roosevelt Way NE, Seattle, convenient to I-5. Our featured speaker will be William Kenower, memoirist, writing coach, and a gifted, impassioned teacher.

If you’ve ever seen Bill at work, you’ll know what I mean; if you haven’t, you have a treat in store. His theme will be “Marketing for Authors Who Hate to Market,” and his presentation will take about an hour, leaving time to socialize and enjoy refreshments.

More than a few of you commented that you’ve been waiting for a group like ours to take shape. So have I, and I’m excited to be a part of it.

If you think you’ll come July 29, I’d love an RSVP, so we know about how many people to expect. Hope to see you there.

Sincerely,

Larry Zuckerman
Chair, Seattle Chapter, Authors Guild
seattlechapter@authorsguild.org

P.S. Many of you asked for information on forthcoming conferences in our area. See below:

Port Townsend Writers Conference, July 15-22, 2018, Fort Worden State Park, Port Townsend, WA 

Rivers of Ink, August 17-18, Richland Public Library, 955 Northgate Drive, Richland, WA

Poets on the Coast, a Writing Retreat for Women, September 7-9, 2018, La Connor, WA

Pacific Northwest Writers Conference: September 13-16, 2018, DoubleTree Hotel Sea-Tac Airport

LiTFUSE Poets’ Workshop, September 28-30, 2018, Tieton, WA (near Yakima)

Write on the Sound, October 5-7, 2018, Frances Anderson Center, 700 Main Street, Edmonds, WA

Emerald City Writers Conference, Greater Seattle Romance Writers of America, October 26-28, 2018, Bellevue, WA

Sign on for net neutrality

Are you an Author's Guild member? (If not, perhaps you should be.) Read the Guild's letter to the FCC regarding the upcoming vote on net neutrality and, if you agree that the regulations about to be repealed should be upheld, sign on here.

For better or worse, SCBWI has traditionally stayed away from most political advocacy, other than those directly related to literacy. The Guild takes a much more active approach to issues that affect authors, illustrators, and publishers, ranging from copyright infringement to First Amendment topics. That's one of the many reasons to consider Guild membership, too. Learn more.

Pay for pages

Important information from Lois V. Harris:


Sharing the beginning of a message from The Authors Guild...not good for children's authors...stay tuned for more on this from The Authors Guild.

Starting July 1, Amazon will pay royalties to its indie authors based on the number of pages users actually read, rather than the number of times the book is “borrowed.” In its announcement, Amazon touted its unilateral amendment to its terms for self-published e-books enrolled in its Kindle Unlimited (KU) and Kindle Owners’ Lending Library (KOLL) e-lending services. The change, Amazon said, is a response to authors’ complaints about the unfairness of its current single rate for all books, regardless of length. Writers of longer works will stand to benefit, provided those books are read in full, but it could slash the earnings of entire classes of authors, such as poets and children’s book writers, whose works tend to have fewer pages. The new regime leaves intact Amazon’s unfortunate practice of paying indie authors out of an opaque royalty pool, which pits self-published authors against one another in a zero-sum scramble for readers. With a finite amount of money to go around each month, one author’s gain is another’s loss.

Another perk of the Author's Guild!

We've posted before about the advantages of Authors Guild membership, but member Lois Harris has another example to add: free publicity.

She explains, "In 2006, I joined because I needed a website and didn't have a clue about how to get or build one, and the Authors Guild had a Sitebuilder software program for members. You can play around with different themes, colors, design, etc. I am not a computer type but found the program easy to use, and I'm happy with the results.

"Was I surprised the other day when the AG's marketing communications manager emailed, saying they liked the looks of my website and wanted permission to use it in an ad on the back cover of Poets & Writers Magazine's November/December issue.

"Of course, I said yes —unexpected publicity for my books! I'm tickled. If anyone out there gets or sees the magazine, please email me and let me know how the ad looks."