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ERMA BOMBECK WRITERS' WORKSHOP NEWSLETTER
University of Dayton
August/September 2008
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Dear writer:
Is your publisher as cool as mine? Peter Honsberger, the
president of Cold Tree Publishing, liked my book trailer
so much, he created a version of his own. And it's his
"pirate voice" you hear in the trailer to the right. Now
THAT'S dedication.
Here's the update on my blog tour. During the July tour I
had more than 35 posts about my book, GUIDE TO PIRATE
PARENTING. In fact, because Dorothy Thompson (who ran
the tour) has many of her own blogs and wrote daily about
my tour, I probably ended up with a total of 70 to 80 posts.
That translated into great search engine rankings, which
was my goal. For the term "pirate humor book," my book
was in the top three results on Google. For "pirate humor,"
I had two listings on the first page of Google. I also made
the first page of the Google news search and Blog search.
In fact, almost all of the blog search results for "pirate
humor book" were related to my book. My book trailer
videos have now been viewed more than 3,800 times.
With all of this translate into book sales? I'll have to wait until I get my next royalty statement to see. But for the money I spent ( a few hundred dollars) I think the blog tour was a huge success buzzing my book. I couldn't have done what Dorothy did. And she did a fine job of managing the tour, providing interview questions and other requests from bloggers. I highly recommend her service. I doubt any writer could do what she does for the money.
Tim Bete
author of Guide to Pirate Parenting
P.S. If you didn't attend, you can still purchase the 2008 workshop recordings for just $129.
(The 2006 Bombeck Workshop recordings are still available, too.)
Latest news...
NSNC ANNOUNCES NEWSPAPER COLUMN CONTEST WINNERS
Humor awards for 2008 included:
Humor (circulation 100,000+) 1st Place - Lynn Yaeger - The Village Voice 2nd Place - Bill Ervolino - The Record 3rd Place - Brian O'Connor - The Detroit NewsHumor (circulation <100,000) 1st Place - Robert Simpson - The Polk County Pulse 2nd Place - Saralee Perel - Cape Cod Times 3rd Place - Mary Bufe - Webster-Kirkwood TimesOnline (all circulations)1st Place - Alan Paul - The Wall Street Journal Online 2nd Place - Joel Schwartzberg - The Star-Ledger 3rd Place - Robert Gilbert - Gilbert CommunicationsPEREL'S DREAM
Saralee Perel had a dream about accepting her award from the National Society of Newspaper Columnists. Read more.
WE KNOW NOTHING
In 2004, Marybeth Hicks entered the Erma Bombeck Writers' Workshop Book Proposal Contest -- and lost. So she sold her book for a nice advance and it was just published by Penguin. Bringing Up Geeks: How to Protect Your Kid's Childhood in a Grow-Up-Too-Fast World is getting rave reviews, including one by Pat Sajak, father, husband and host of “Wheel of Fortune” The book is already an Amazon.com best-seller, too. Take a look at Marybeth's Web site.
WRITER TAKES SERIOUS LOOK AT HISTORY OF HUMOR
A recent study by researchers at the University of Wolverhampton in England found that the oldest recorded joke was from 1900 BC in Sumeria, now southern Iraq. It's about female flatulence, showing toilet humor has always been popular. Read more.
NEW ORLEANS RESURRECTION--SEEING IS BELIEVING by Suzette Martinez Standring
I wish you could have come to New Orleans for a once in a lifetime experience. Over 50 members of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists went in search of continuing stories as part of our annual meeting, “New Orleans, We Have Not Forgotten” on June 20-21, 2008. Read more.
BENCHLEY HUMOR AWARD
Bob Newhart named New York City-based humor columnist, Madeleine Begun Kane, winner of the 2008 Robert Benchley Society Award for Humor. Read more.
PAT PAULSEN FOR PRESIDENT
Dr. Joel Goodman, founder and director of The HUMOR Project, Inc has agreed to serve as New York State campaign manager for Pat Paulsen.. Read more.
THURBER PRIZE FINALISTS: A former writer and producer for "The Simpsons," a former writer for "Saturday Night Live" and a former president of the Harvard Lampoon are finalists for the Thurber Prize for American Humor, a $5,000 award. Read more.
HOW DUMB ARE YOU? The forthcoming book How Dumb Are You? The Great American Stupidity Quiz (National Lampoon Press: October 7) is loaded with questions every mildly-educated American should be able to answer -- but often can't. Read more.
Humor writer of the month
DAN SEIDMAN
Dan Seidman has been selected as one of the “Top 12 Sales Coaches in America." He runs the award-winning humorous Web site SalesAutopsy.com, a “cult hit among salesfolks.” Dan’s first book is The Death of 20th Century Selling: 50 Hilarious Sales Blunders and How You can Profit from Them. He is currently working on a book on Sales Language and is producing the first-ever comic book for salespeople – with cartoons drawn from some of his 500+ sales stories.Visit his 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:
* Deirdre Waitt
* Judy Pugh
* Tom Petersen
Each has won a copy of Book Proposals That Sell by Terry Whalin.
Who's publishing what?
WORKSHOP FACULTY
CAROLYN WINS: Brian A. Klems, online managing editor at Writer's Digest, named award-winning author Carolyn Howard-Johnson's blog, Sharing with Writers to his magazine's 101 Best Websites in 2008.
NOT GUILTY: Leigh Anne Jasheway-Bryant has a video about her new book, Not Guilty by Reason of Menopause.
PAST WORKSHOP ATTENDEES
MAHONEY INK: Kathryn Mahoney has a new parenting blog based on her “Cracked at Birth” humor column and book.
UPDATED PEREL: Saralee Perel has a new Web site.
MAGGIE AT POST: Maggie Van Ostrand is now blogging for the Huffington Post.
HICKS ON GEEKS: Marybeth Hicks has published Bringing Up Geeks, which is getting rave reviews.
OTHER PUBLISHING NEWS...
A-LIST: Diane Ketcham's novel, The Vanishing A-list, took the silver medal in the 2008 Independent Publisher Book Awards mystery/suspense/thriller category. The A-list also was a finalist in The Next Generation INDY Book Awards.
ONLINE WINNER: Joel Schwartzberg, has been named a finalist in the 2008 National Online News Association Awards in the category "Best Commentary".
Markets, contests and more
WOW! Women On Writing: WOW! Women On Writing is an free online magazine that promotes the communication between women writers, authors, editors, literary agents, publishers and readers. Read more.
PBS NOW CONTEST: Submit your own cartoon caption and the NOW editors will select qualified submissions to appear on their Web site. Read more.
CHICKEN SOUP: Chicken Soup for the Soul is looing for College Tales, Twins, Endurance Sports, Learning From Our Cats, Not Really Retired, and many other. Read more.
ZOETROPE SHORT FICTION CONTEST: All genres of literary fiction; 5,000 words or less; postmarked by October 1, 2008. Read more.
WD POPULAR FICTION AWARDS: The Grand Prize-Winner will receive $2,500 cash, $100 worth of Writer's Digest Books and the 2009 Novel & Short Story Writer's market. Read more.
SHORT SHORT STORY COMPETITION: Writer's Digest is now accepting entries for the 9th Annual Short Short Story Competition. We're looking for fiction that's bold, brilliant...but brief. 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 2008, University of Dayton
