February 16th Meeting – Copyright Protection

Pocatello Writers Meeting
Marshall Public Library
February 16, 2019   3:30pm-5:30pm

In the United States, creators of original works are granted copyright © protection and exclusive rights to reproduce, perform, and distribute their own work.

Your writing is protected upon its creation, but are you still worried that it might be stolen?

Charity  Henson Samora offered to lead a discussion about copyright at our mid-month meeting next Saturday.  We would love to see you all there.  Bring your experiences and ideas.

In the meantime, please keep in touch on our Facebook open Forum at https://www.facebook.com/groups/pocatellowriters/.

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April 15th Meeting

QUERY LETTERS
Pocatello Writers Meeting
Marshall Public Library
April 15, 2017, 3:30pm-5:30pm

At our writers’ meeting this coming Saturday, Charity Samora will give us a refresher course on how to write a good query letter to an agent or publisher.

The query letter is meant to elicit an invitation to send sample chapters or even your whole manuscript. The goal is to get them to read your book.

So, join us to make sure that you are using the format and content expected by professionals.

In the meantime, keep in touch via our online open forum at https://www.facebook.com/groups/pocatellowriters/.

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April 16th Meeting – Methods & Benefits of Blogging

At our April meeting, Charity Samora will lead the group in a discussion about the how-to’s and benefits of running a blog.  More details to come.

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March 19 meeting: Self-publishing and Ebooks, 2016

Pocatello Writers Meeting
Marshall Public Library
Saturday, March 19, 2016,   3:30pm-5:30pm

At our meetings we always hear questions about ebooks and the self-publication methods used by some of our members. The internet has empowered authors with easy DIY methods never before available in history. So perhaps it is time to do a study session on the topic.

On March 19th, Sherrie Seibert Goff will give an updated overview of the various avenues available for self-publication, along with pros and cons. The success of one’s career is in our own hands now more than ever before. We hope that you will share your own experiences and knowledge about this subject during the discussion.

Second hour will be used for our usual critique session. Please email James Norris, our critique coordinator, by Wednesday Mar 16 at pocatellowriters@gmail.com to let him know that you’ll be attending and if you’ll have pages to share. He will email you back by Fri 18 March letting you know how many copies to bring based on attendance.

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What is Kindle Unlimited?

Kindle Unlimited is a new program where readers can “borrow” an unlimited number of ebooks to read for a subscription price of $10.  Writers are naturally concerned what this will do to their royalties. Bret Wilson investigated and reported his findings at our last writers meeting.  Thanks, Bret
——————————————————————————————
This is a copy of the information sent to me after my phone call with the people at Kindle Unlimited. Have a nice day. Bret

Hi Bret,
Thank you for calling in today! It was a pleasure to assist you!

Sales rank is determined by a number of different inputs and may be changed over time. If your book is borrowed from the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library or read from Kindle Unlimited, your book’s sales rank will be impacted. Please note that only the first borrow or read from a customer will be counted.

The share of the KDP Select Global Fund is calculated based on a share of the total number of times customers read all participating KDP titles.

When a Prime Kindle Unlimited user reads more than 10% of your book for the first time, or a KOLL user downloads it for the first time, that qualifies you for a share of the fund.

For example, if the monthly fund amount is $1,000,000, with unique KOLL customers downloading and unique Kindle Unlimited customers having read past 10% of 300,000 total KDP titles, and your book was read 1,500 times, you will earn 0.5% (1,500/300,000 = 0.5%), or $5,000 for that month.

The payment schedule will be the same as your other sales from KDP, and will be one combined payment that includes royalties for sales and the payout from the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library.

Regardless of your country of residence, we’ll pay you via the method you’ve chosen in your account (Electronic Funds Transfer or paper check, depending on your particular options).

If you have additional questions about KDP Select, be sure to check out our Help pages:

http://bit.ly/1mBOoux

I hope this helps. Thanks for using Amazon KDP. I hope you have a nice weekend ahead!

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April 19th Meeting – Publishing

Marshall Public Library
Saturday, April 19, 2014, 4pm-6pm

We’ve had requests to cover the topic of publishing in some of our upcoming meetings. So join us next Saturday, and we’ll get started.  Everyone, feel free to share your experiences and advice.

To kick it off, I’ll give a brief overview of the four main Methods of Publishing and some of their pros and cons. With this better perspective, you may be able to research and choose the right method for yourself.

Then Wayne Minshall has agreed to provide a more in-depth presentation on one of those methods, by telling us about his experiences with Self-Publishing via Create Space. Come and find out if this is the way you want to go.

If anyone else has expertise with a particular publisher, we would love to hear about your experiences. I for one am interested in online publishing and e-books like Kindle if someone would volunteer to share their know-how in that direction, perhaps at our May meeting  (hint, hint).
– Sherrie

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MARCH MEETING – A Writer’s Business Plan

Marshall Public Library
Saturday,  March 15, 2014
4pm-6pm

Be sure to join us this coming Saturday.  Tammy Godfrey has agreed to teach us how to create a business plan to guide our writing careers.

Tammy’s topic fits superbly well as the next step to follow John’s presentations on building an author’s platform.  Assuming you’ve cultivated your own unique platform, and are well on your way to getting some writing done – you start looking forward with all hope and innocence in your heart, amazed that you’ve come this far, and just praying you’ll be one of the lucky ones.

At this stage many authors cast their fate to the winds, or their lot to the mercy of the powers-that-be, wanting more than ever to be left alone to their art.  But the world won’t let you just create.  You can cross your fingers and go with the flow – or you can switch hats yet again, make a concrete plan and become proactive.  Come learn how to take control of your future as the owner of a small business.

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Need meeting topics

We had a great meeting Saturday, with three new guests and a couple old faces we’ve been missing of late.  We talked about book fairs and writer conventions, literary contests, collecting blurbs, website hosts, Amazon and Goodreads critiques, Vista Print products, giving Q&A interviews, using diaries in writing nonfiction, and more.

We had such a good visit we ran out of time and didn’t get a chance for readings or to talk about future plans.  We’ll discuss what we want to get out of 2014 meetings in the February get-together.

In the meantime, we’re in need of suggestions, requests or volunteers for topics for our February 15th and future third-Saturday meetings.  If you want to volunteer to lead the group in a session, let me know for the schedule.  If you’ve been struggling with something or you have something you’d like to see covered, we can all pitch in and share our expertise.  You can volunteer or post your ideas in the comments section of our website’s Agenda page.   Click on the Meeting Agenda tab at the top of this page.
Happy Writing,
Sherrie (admin/sec)

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January 18th Meeting Topic

Marshall Public Library
Saturday,  January 18, 2014,  4pm-6pm
New Year’s Resolutions

Welcome back for a brand new year of writing, fellow authors.  Hope you had a great holiday season with family and friends.  Special thanks to Janice Anderson who has booked the Minnie Howard Room for all of our 2014 third-Saturday meetings.

To refresh your memory: In our meetings before Christmas, Juergen Roscher led us in exploring how to build a writers platform.  We covered all of the aspects of What is a writer’s platform?  Why does a writer need a platform? and the several Building blocks of a platform.

We planned to return in January to talk about what we had done over the holidays to build our own platforms, and to share with one another our experiences and tips.  So, next week’s meeting will be an open discussion, and we will have time later for critiques if you want to read some of your work.

Come share your experiences, hints and advice on marketing your brand as an author.  We’ll talk about what our New Years Resolutions are in the way of writing, and what we hope to get from our group meetings in 2014.

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October 19th Meeting – Building a Platform (part 2)

Marshall Public Library
4-6pm
At last month’s meeting, Juergen (John) Roscher covered the first half of an excellent presentation on building a writer’s platform. The subject is rather vast, and we had time to cover only: What is a writer’s platform? Why does a writer need a platform?  And the several building blocks of a platform. We ran out of time and put the remainder of the presentation on October’s agenda.

So tomorrow’s meeting will be a continuation of John’s talk.  Part 2 will be a how-to on Getting Started, focusing on what you will need to create your brand and organize a plan of action tailored to you. We’ll cover the content of your website and blog, your bio and your own unique goals and target audience.  Hope to see you there.

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