MFA Writers' Club???

[Martin Atkins]

Jeff was thinking about starting an MFA writers' club with the goal of publishing eBooks on amazon, which is free to do but amazon takes a cut for each sale.  You set your price at $0.99 or more and people can download your book on their Kindle.  I think that the minimum submission length is 60 pages. Would anyone be interested?

Advancing reason, science and secular government through education

[Leo Alessi]

Definitely.

Sapere aude!

On Aug 22, 2013, at 12:06 PM, Martin Atkins <mfafree...@gmail.com> wrote:

Jeff was thinking about starting an MFA writers' club with the goal of publishing eBooks on amazon, which is free to do but amazon takes a cut for each sale.  You set your price at $0.99 or more and people can download your book on their Kindle.  I think that the minimum submission length is 60 pages. Would anyone be interested?

Advancing reason, science and secular government through education

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[sudo]

It was a dark and stormy night....

 

 

On Thursday, August 22, 2013 12:18:25 PM UTC-5, la3111 wrote:

Definitely.

Sapere aude!

On Aug 22, 2013, at 12:06 PM, Martin Atkins <mfafree...@gmail.com> wrote:

Jeff was thinking about starting an MFA writers' club with the goal of publishing eBooks on amazon, which is free to do but amazon takes a cut for each sale.  You set your price at $0.99 or more and people can download your book on their Kindle.  I think that the minimum submission length is 60 pages. Would anyone be interested?

Advancing reason, science and secular government through education

--
--
Disclaimer: This MFA Forum is a public site and does not necessarily express the official opinion of Memphis Freethought Alliance, Inc. or its members. Posters on this forum include MFA members as well as non-members. People are encouraged to give their honest opinion about ideas and critique other people's ideas and not to attack people personally. Please keep posts open, honest, and civil. Please review the the rules and guidelines to this forum: http://www.memphisfreethought.com/DiscussionForum.html (copy and paste the web address into your browser if necessary)
 
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[Tom]

Lazy bastard here.  Writing more than a page pains me nor would I commit to reading 60+ pages of amatuer writing unless the first couple pulled me in.  I have had to watch dozens of amateur films for the Florida Film festival and I hated it. 
I think maybe a smaller project might be fun though, like a magazine or website article submission - might be exciting to proofread and provide comment upon.

Caveat Lector!

Tom

so you want to be a writer?

  by Charles Bukowski

if it doesn't come bursting out of you
in spite of everything,
don't do it.
unless it comes unasked out of your
heart and your mind and your mouth
and your gut,
don't do it.
if you have to sit for hours
staring at your computer screen
or hunched over your
typewriter
searching for words,
don't do it.
if you're doing it for money or
fame,
don't do it.
if you're doing it because you want
women in your bed,
don't do it.
if you have to sit there and
rewrite it again and again,
don't do it.
if it's hard work just thinking about doing it,
don't do it.
if you're trying to write like somebody
else,
forget about it.


if you have to wait for it to roar out of
you,
then wait patiently.
if it never does roar out of you,
do something else.

if you first have to read it to your wife
or your girlfriend or your boyfriend
or your parents or to anybody at all,
you're not ready.

don't be like so many writers,
don't be like so many thousands of
people who call themselves writers,
don't be dull and boring and
pretentious, don't be consumed with self-
love.
the libraries of the world have
yawned themselves to
sleep
over your kind.
don't add to that.
don't do it.
unless it comes out of
your soul like a rocket,
unless being still would
drive you to madness or
suicide or murder,
don't do it.
unless the sun inside you is
burning your gut,
don't do it.

when it is truly time,
and if you have been chosen,
it will do it by
itself and it will keep on doing it
until you die or it dies in you.

there is no other way.

and there never was.

On Thu, Aug 22, 2013 at 12:06 PM, Martin Atkins <mfafree...@gmail.com> wrote:

Jeff was thinking about starting an MFA writers' club with the goal of publishing eBooks on amazon, which is free to do but amazon takes a cut for each sale.  You set your price at $0.99 or more and people can download your book on their Kindle.  I think that the minimum submission length is 60 pages. Would anyone be interested?

Advancing reason, science and secular government through education

--

--
Disclaimer: This MFA Forum is a public site and does not necessarily express the official opinion of Memphis Freethought Alliance, Inc. or its members. Posters on this forum include MFA members as well as non-members. People are encouraged to give their honest opinion about ideas and critique other people's ideas and not to attack people personally. Please keep posts open, honest, and civil. Please review the the rules and guidelines to this forum: http://www.memphisfreethought.com/DiscussionForum.html (copy and paste the web address into your browser if necessary)
 
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google
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[Martin F. Atkins]

So the freethought writers' club can be to submit .....

1) articles and essays to newspapers, magazines, and journals
2) eBooks to amazon
3) letters to the editor to newspapers and magazines
4) etc

The point is to get amateur freethinkers published and practice some more polished writing. Posting on these forums is kind of an echo box.

[Orson Zedd]

aaah well I was wondering what the objective was exactly. I suppose
this might be a good way to keep myself on task

[Tom]

If anyone's interested - it won't give you feedback, but as a resource, here are a bunch of free online writing courses from the MIT opencourseware program:

http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/writing-and-humanistic-studies/index.htm

[fun4alll]

Count me in. I have some ideas for books, but they are not about free thought.

[I M Probulos]

I write under a pseudonym (this is Jeff, top secret). I have 13 publications on Amazon.com and often have between 5 - 7 in the top 20 on Amazon under Agnosticism. Sometimes 9 in the top 25.

 

http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/digital-text/158552011/ref=pd_zg_hrsr_kstore_1_6_last

 

I have been at this for nearly a year and I have a wealth of information concerning the process. I publish both fiction and non-fiction. My four and soon to be  five fiction stories are:

 

The Balance of Nature

A Hole in the Sand

Adam and Eve Revisited

The Other God's Earth

 

 

and within probably two weeks, a screenplay, When All Is Lost, I wrote in 1996 that I will convert to a Novella on Amazon and sell for the tidy fee of $.99.

 

Check out this link for a list of all my publications

 

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=ntt_athr_dp_sr_1?_encoding=UTF8&field-author=I.%20M.%20Probulos&search-alias=digital-text&sort=relevancerank

 

I call it my Publishing Empire. it is profitable although considering the thousands of hours I have spent my wage would be quite small.

 

The 101 lists and humorous quote book have consistently been in the top 5 for about 3 - 5 months.

 

Have much more to share. Anyone serious? I'm your guy. Let's pick a day and time. Maybe Tues or Thurs at 6:30. I live near Germantown Road area so that is preferred but open.

 

Plus I am both self-published (1992) and really published (Hatherleigh/Random House) in 2008.

 

Check out this link.

 

http://www.randomhouse.com/book/140639/get-fit-through-gardening-by-jeffrey-p-restuccio/9781578262687/

 

I M Probulos

[Martin F. Atkins]

Here is a proposal for the general guidelines...

Memphis Freethought Alliance Writers’ Club Guidelines

• The Memphis Freethought Alliance Writers’ Club is a club to help freethinkers and other writers with their written works intended for print publication, including essays, books, letters to the editors, and so forth.   
• Civil critiques of each author's writings will be encouraged with the intention of polishing the writer's ideas and writing.  
• Discussions or work that is shared electronically or during a meeting will be confidential and is not to leave the group unless the author gives specific permission. Creative and clearly thought out ideas are protected within the group. This group will not violate the creativity or plagiarize another author’s work. However, people’s ideas may overlap and one another may generate ideas for other authors.
• Group or personal issues (complaints, etc.,) should be expressed to the facilitator (or MFA Officer) to work towards a resolution.
• Authors will commit to submit their writings and support others during their writing process.
• Honest and genuine constructive feedback must support the author in a compassionate manner (but not necessarily his ideas) and build on strengths rather than focus on weaknesses.  
• While each author will be given credit for his or her work, the Memphis Freethought Alliance Writers’ Club would appreciate any warranted recognition that would improve the writers’ club through advertisement and so forth.

[I M Probulos]

This is great. Note that there is a Memphis Writers Collective meetup group as well and I have attended a number of meetings. Some are more interesting than others. Several have published on Amazon with limited success. I sell total between 800 - 900 books per month. Most do not do that. But I am a machine. I don't think many have had much success the old-fashioned way--getting a publisher. Also, most never finish anything, ever. I am really big on finishing your work and getting it out. There are no excuses! You can have a book online and available in 30 days! It can be done

 

There is no limit but there is a ton of competition out there and a lot of noise so do not think that if you write it they will come. That's only in the movies.

 

BTW: You only make $.35 on a $.99 book (35%)  but you make $2.10 (70%) on a $2.99 book. So the goal is to sell books at the $2.99 - $9.99 range. However, there is a ton of competition out there so don't think you can command that unless your story is compelling and you work it.

 

I M Probulos

[Martin F. Atkins]

We may want to start by meeting once per month, say, every first Tuesday of the month from 6:30 pm to 8 pm...or whatever time and day.  Again, the point is the get our ideas out to the public instead of shouting at each other within our little echo box. 

 

Yes, this is an amateur writers' club; however, some people may make some money by selling their works via Amazon and so forth.  However, profit is not the primary intent but it's also not discouraged. If your primary motive is profit, you may want to consider more profitable ways of spending your time than writing. And just for the record: Most freethought and science writers don't make all their money with writing and few writers are good enough to write full-time.  Even popular freethought authors (Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, etc.) have regular jobs on top of their writing careers.  Christopher Hitchens was one of the sole exceptions to this general rule.

[Martin F. Atkins]

Good post based on experience IM Publuos.

[I M Probulos]

Propose meet on Sept 3 at 6 30 at Panera Bread on Germantown Road in the Trinity Shopping

center.

 

bring questions

anything you want.

I will help edit if you help edit my stuff <=> reciprocal editing is nice and very helpful for finding "groaner errors" as I call them.

I have plenty to share for budding amateur and not so amateur writers.

 

It's really easy to not make money. Making every $100 a month is really hard. Also the goal should be getting your creation/message/information out there. In other words, you could write some clever opus and sell it for $.99 and still nobody wants it. Seriously.

 

I will check with Jason to see how we set up a Meetup for this

 

I M Probulos

On Tuesday, August 27, 2013 1:29:39 PM UTC-5, Martin F. Atkins wrote:

[Fan of Reason]

This is exciting! What a great idea. I hope the Writer's Group becomes very productive. :)

[Martin F. Atkins]

This Meet Up is on the Memphis Freethought Alliance Meet Up site.