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ERMA BOMBECK WRITERS' WORKSHOP NEWSLETTER
University of Dayton
May 2007
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Dear writer:
Caveat emptor. Whether you publish your book with a traditional publisher or self-publish it, read the contract. If you don't understand the contract, find someone who can help explain it to you.
Authors often complain to me about what their publisher (traditional or POD) did or didn't do during the publishing process. Almost always, the problem had to do with misunderstanding the contract. Authors complain that they didn't get to pick the title or cover design, or that the publisher didn't promote the book the way they expected. If something is in a contract, believe it. If it isn't in the contract, don't expect it.
One heart-breaking story arrived in my e-mail inbox last month. The author said that he paid a POD company $1,400 and all he got was two copies of the book. (Actually, he got his book designed and put into online distribution channels as well.) The author had expected the POD company to market the book, and added that he lived on a pension and couldn't afford for the book not to sell. When I asked if there were things in the contract that the POD company hadn't delivered, the author said he didn't have a copy of the contract. He signed it and sent his only copy to the publisher, adding that he had been "conned."
Conned? Hardly. The contract outlined what the author was buying--his responsibilities and the responsibilities of the publisher. Unfortunately, the author signed a contract he didn't understand. I know the POD company he used, and they're a good one. I know some very satisfied authors who have used them. But, like any business transaction, if you expect something you haven't purchased, you'll be sadly disappointed.
Keep writing!
Tim Bete
Latest news...
WHAT MAKES A BEST SELLER?
“It’s an accidental profession, most of the time,” said William Strachan, editor in chief at Carroll & Graf Publishers. “If you had the key, you’d be very wealthy. Nobody has the key.” Read more.
VARIETY REPORTS "COMEDY WRITERS WANT WGA SUPPORT"
About three dozen writers on six Comedy Central skeins have asked to be repped by Writers Guild of America and are seeking a network-wide deal that would cover all future programming. Read more.
REINHARDT'S NEW BOOK INCLUDES CHAPTER ABOUT BOMBECK WORKSHOP
Susan Reinhardt, who gave a keynote address at the 2006 Erma Bombeck Writers' Workshop, included a chapter about her experience in her new book, Don't Sleep With A Bubba: Unless Your Eggs Are In Wheelchairs. The Chicago Sun-Times says the book is "Like hanging out with your bluntest, most mischievous friend, the one who never fails to crack you up." Read more.
SITCOMS ARE DEAD! LONG LIVE SITCOMS!
A recent study showed that the average American television-watching household increased its comedy watching to four and a half hours a week this season, up from less than four hours in the 1993/4 television season. Read more.
MAN vs. CHILD
Intrepid science fiction author and podcaster, Tee Morris, takes on a two-year-old to teach you how to survive. The short video is a spoof of the Discovery Channel's show Man vs. Wild. Watch it.
A WINNER IN MY BOOK
Fourteen-year-old Caroline Beauregard Shinkle didn't win this year's Erma Bombeck Writing Competition but she's not letting that get her down. She's finishing a novel and a screenplay, and looking for an agent. Her essay, Last in Translation, struck a chord with me because I've spent a lot of time on Cape Cod. Read more.
THE SECRET LIFE OF MIKE MYERS
Mike Myers swears he has been keeping busy. And he understands that he has got a lot of convincing to do. Read more.
NATIONAL LAMPOON LAUNCHES ONLINE VIDEO NETWORK
The National Lampoon Video Network joins the National Lampoon Humor Network, the most-trafficked humor sites on the Internet, as key tentpoles of National Lampoon’s online and digital media strategies. Read more.
COMEDIANS GONE WISE
Slightly serious sayings from stand-up's biggest stars. Read more.
Humor writer of the month
GLORIA SLATER
Gloria Slater, an expatriated Floridian, is a writer living and freezing in western New York. Her essays and articles have been published in The St. Petersburg Times, The Buffalo News, The Rochester D&C, Country Journal Magazine, Life In The Finger Lakes and such online magazines as LaughterLoaf, NightsAndWeekends and Humor & Life In Particular. Her fiction has been seen in Mockingbird Journal, Artsphere, WriterOnline and Flashquake. She reports for the Mendon-Honeoye Falls-Lima Sentinel and writes her award-winning column, "My Front Porch," for the Livingston County News and Discover Conesus. Visit her Web site.
Book giveaway
Each month we give away a book on writing to a few subscribers to our newsletter. If you're subscribed, you're entered to win! This issue's winners are:
* Don Barone
* Virginia Schweigert
* Bobbi Chukran
Who's publishing what?
WORKSHOP FACULTY
DON'T SLEEP WITH A BUBBA: Susan Reinhardt's new book is a collection of humor but also includes a dark decent into depression which led to a suicide attempt and stay in a psychiatric ward.
PAST WORKSHOP ATTENDEES
FAUX FILM: Sharyn Lonsdale is writing a humorous movie column for the twice-monthly Englewood Review in Florida, as her alter ego faded B movie queen and British miniseries darling, Amanda Glam.
LOST IN SUBURBIA: Tracy Beckerman's column has been picked up by Our Town News, a new newspaper in Alexandria, Virginia. Beckerman’s column is already carried by fifty newspapers in New Jersey and on two websites on the Internet, for a total circulation of 800,000 readers.
OTHER PUBLISHING NEWS
WATERS, WATERS EVERYWHERE: George Waters has been named a finalist in the Robert Benchley Humor Prize Competition. His weekly column, “On the Waters Front” has expanded into two more Southern California newspapers, the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin and the San Bernardino Sun.
CHANGE FOR THE BETTER: Jim Watkins has published Communicate to Change Lives, a book to help ministers, Sunday school teachers, missionaries, board members and parachurch workers to, well, change lives!
MATT NEEDS A JOB: Matt Ottinger was the Humor Writer of the Month in May 2005. Since then he broke out of
journalism to work in politics and then the candidate he was working for decided NOT to run for president. Now, he's unemployed, irritated and writing about it. Read more.
Markets, contests and more
FATHER AND SON SOUL: Chicken Soup for the Soul is looking for stories on all aspects of the father-son relationship, but wants women to write about this relationship from their unique vantage point for the chapter, "Through Women’s Eyes." Read more.
THE PUBLISHING CONTRARIAN: Tendentious comments and cranky critiques by Lynne W. Scanlon P.E.A. (Publisher/Editor/Author). Read more.
eBOOKS ABOUT HUMOR: New online store focuses on humorous books. Read more.
TITLE Z: Free Web site that tracks Amazon sales of your book and others. Great tool for book proposals. Read more
MISS SNARK: One of the best blogs about publishing. Read more.
EVIL EDITOR: Why you don't get published. Read more.
PUB RANTS: A very nice literary agent indulges in polite rants about queries, writers and the publishing industry. Read more.
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NETWORK WITH OTHER HUMOR WRITERS: Network with other humor writers. Join the e-mail discussion group for past attendees of the Erma Bombeck Writers' Workshop and those who would like to attend in the future. Join now.
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SUGGEST A RESOURCE: If you have a favorite book or Web site, let us know at bete@udayton.edu.
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Copyright 2007, University of Dayton
