Next Noble Pen Meeting

April 4th, 2013 at 7 pm

Scott’s Family Restaurant

1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

News

Amazon has negotiated the purchase of Goodreads.  Many people are upset, questioning whether reviews will remain neutral and if it will be harder for new books to get discovered.

Barnes & Noble are feuding with Simon and Schuster over pricing, and are ordering fewer books from them.  As if B&N needed any more troubles.

Bullying is a currently hot topic for books.   Despite the sympathy these may create, a study says that overall, literature is getting less emotional.

I was fascinated by a statement in this review of a book on early mapmakers.  The map that gave America its name shows information that shouldn’t have been known by the mapmaker at the time.  Anyone for an alternate history novel?

 Victories

Dylan as someone working on a cover for Sand and Blood.

Tyree had lots of sales at a convention and thinks that people are buying more books in general than last year.  One of his stories was nominated for a Darrell Award.

Ciuin was offered the opportunity to write an academic paper for publication.  Now if she can just find time …

Bill had a letter to the editor published in the Gazette.

Education

Dina Nayeri (no, not the blue girl) gives a glimpse inside the Iowa Writers’ Workshop.  She says the writers are very human, with all that implies, and inherently driven to write.

Writer’s Digest has been pushing the idea that writing a great book isn’t enough – they suggest you have to have a marketing plan and a large blog audience and other publicity in order to get an agent or publisher interested.  I haven’t researched how widely this idea is accepted, but it sure is discouraging.

Upcoming Schedule

Apr 4th

Janice
Tyree
Jed

Apr 11th

Tyree (double?)
Jed

Apr 18th

Mark S.
Laura
Aimee

Apr 25th

Janice
Jed
Open slot

Keep Writing,
Bill