PLACE FOR WRITERS

END OF YEAR TIPS & TRICKS

Theses are submitted, final projects are taking shape, and we’re counting down the days to graduation - ten! As many of us prepare to go out into ‘the real world’ armed with little more than our Masters’ to help us, we thought we would share some of the fantastic tips from our expert Pitch Fest panelists about the world of publishing and social media marketing.

All of the information below is courtesy of Brooke Warner, writing coach and Executive Editor at Seal Press; Liz Kracht, literary agent at Kimberly Cameron; and Meghan Ward, writer, editor and instructor for the SF Writers’ Grotto.

SUBMISSIONS TIPS & TRICKS

Do your research before submitting. Be sure the house you’re submitting to publishes your type of work. Know what their list entails!

For non-fiction writers it’s ALL ABOUT THE PROPOSAL. Be sure to make it a great one.

Agents and publishing houses are overworked so they are looking for a project that doesn’t need a lot of editing. Hire a freelance editor before you shop your book.

Go to conferences – agents and editors are more likely to read the work of people they’ve met. Don’t be intimidated to talk to them—it’s their job!

Develop an author platform and take yourself seriously.

Learn how to write a great query letter. Check out http://queryshark.blogspot.com

Subscribe to Publishers Marketplace, which has industry job listings and market news. It’s $20 a month but well worth it. Or use the free version, Publishers Lunch.

Research agents before reaching out. Be sure they are a good fit for you and explain WHY YOU CHOSE THEM in your letter. Read Jeff Herman’s Guide to Getting an Agent.

For more great writing and publishing tips, check out www.warningcoaching.com, subscribe to Brooke Warner’s newsletter, and “like” her on Facebook.

SELF-MARKETING VIA SOCIAL MEDIA: tips from Meghan Ward

Don’t try to do everything: Pick one two of three platforms to focus on.

Define your brand. Use your NAME as your website name, your name is your brand.

Build your strategy. Define your audience (who is going to buy your books) and write a blog to them.

Follow the 6:1 Rule. For every one thing you ask for (“buy my book”) provide six things back (advice, a great article, etc.)

Pace yourself. Social media is a marathon, not a sprint. Find a schedule that you can sustain in the long-term. Blog once a week until you have a book deal and then you can increase your online presence.

Stick to a schedule. Blog around the same time so your readers know when to expect a new post.

Get involved. In order to get people to comment on your blog, you must comment on theirs.

Focus on building relationships, not followers. It’s better to have 200 invested followers than 10,000 who don’t care what you have to say.

Your writing comes first. If you find yourself spending more time doing social media than writing, something’s wrong.

Have fun!  If it’s not fun, take a break and reassess.

Visit www.meghanward.com for more writing tips from Meghan or to learn more about her Social Media classes at the San Francisco Writer’s Grotto.

If anyone wants to see a sample book proposal, email either me (mweeks@mills.edu) or Kristina (kmiltenberger@mills.edu), and we can send you one from Brooke Warner.

It’s been such a pleasure blogging here at the Place. Happy summer!!
xox

BOOK ART FINAL ART OPENING

Come celebrate the end of the year & our fabulous 2nd year Book Art MFA students at the the Book Art Pocket Gallery’s final art opening:

2ND YEAR MFA (we’re almost there) RETROSPECTIVE!
Wednesday MAY 2 at 5:30PM
in the Book Art Pocket Gallery (CPM 121)

featuring artist books by Rob BORGES, Kat HOWARD, Mirabelle JONES, & Kate ROBINSON. The 2nd year Book Art MFA students are about to embark on their non-resident thesis semester & we want you to join us in celebrating their myriad accomplishments with ART! BEVERAGES! SNACKS! & CONVERSATION! This exhibition also features collagraph prints & etchings by students in the Printmaking class!

See you on Wednesday!

EL MONSTRUO EN DAS BALLROOM / AMERICA 2.NO

The students in Guillermo Gomez-Peña’s Poetry Workshop Undergraduate and Graduate classes cordially invite you to a one night only event of unique performance poetry!

Gomez-Peña’s spring poetry workshops will showcase their unique, visceral and expressive talents. The eclectic night will include embodied poetry, radical storytelling, conceptual texts, rock & sound poetry, short original films and, most importantly, raw emerging talent. Performances will begin promptly at 6:00p. Gomez-Peña will MC alongside Denise Benavides.

Part 1: America 2.N0 Featuring MFA Graduates
Part 2: El Monstruo en das Ballroom Featuring Mills Undergraduates

Some of the themes include memory, violence, race & gender politics, humor, sex, the politics of the body, censorship, media distortions, environmental destruction, the impact of corporations on ecology, and questions like How did you get here? What story are you in? Who is narrating? What will they say? Where are we in history? Shall we let go?

Tuesday, May 1, 6-8:00p, Lisser Theater, Mills College.

THIS EVENT IS FREE.

POEM IN YOUR POCKET DAY

The show runs from 10 to 11 a.m. KALW can be found on the FM dial at 91.7.

…and our very own Claudia Castro Luna will be reading a poem from her just submitted thesis, which is all about Oakland!

MAYA’S TOP FIVE PICKS

Or, Top Five Ways To Get Out Of Your Head When You Have Been Writing (And Reading (And Writing)) Much Too Much

The end of the semester is nuts for all of us, but a big CONGRATULATIONS to all the second-years who’ve just handed in their theses. This time next year, when I’ve had my head inside a screen for many too many hours each week, I am going to try to remember these things that I am reminding myself of now.

Take one of Mills crazy/amazing P.E. classes. For all the time you spend sitting—if you’re like me, cross-legged at your metal work table, hunched over for hours, forgetting to breathe, let alone stretch—doing brain work, it’s totally, totally worth it to let the rest of your body do some work for an hour twice a week. I thought about signing up for Pan-African Aerobics (there are still 21 spots left!) but decided I’m just going to do ballet (actually in the Dance department, not P.E.) again. Because I like practicing plies at the bus stop and a leotard is not normally part of my poet costume. Plus, my teacher, Kate McGinity, rules. Too bad we lose her next year to the world beyond Mills as she’s graduating. Maybe a reason to go off campus for dance classes, if she’s not too busy dancing professionally…

Meditation at Mills. I know the semester’s just about over, but if you’re freaking out and just need some space to breathe, there’s always tomorrow at 12:10 in the Mills Chapel. Laura Engelken leads this low-key meditation at lunchtime every Thursday, beginning with tea and ending with bells. I’m not very good at keeping my eyes shut, but I like to just sit in the soft light and breath in the (cedar?) smell of the chapel for half an hour. Once I started crying for no apparent reason. It would probably be good for me to go more often.

As Joni Mitchell says, “laughin’ and cryin’ / you know it’s the same release.” May Day (historic workers’ day of action, May 1st, last day of Tuesday classes) is sure to be a day of both. From 6 a.m. on, you can occupy the Golden Gate Bridge, participate in Oakland General Strike actions, and March for Dignity & Resistance beginning at Fruitvale BART. Also, because “every day should be strike day,” there is, on Monday, April 30, The Strike Starts Early Street Party in Dolores Park in the Mission! 8 pm.

Also, that same day, you should totally make sure to make it to Mills for a marvelous evening of performance poetry. El Monstruo en Das Ballroom is the culminating event of Guillermo Gomez-Peña’s poetry workshops, which will showcase embodied poetry, radical storytelling, conceptual texts, rock & sound poetry, short original films and, most importantly, raw emerging talent. Some of the themes include memory, violence, race & gender politics, humor, sex, the politics of the body, censorship, media dystortions, environmental destruction, the impact of corporations on ecology, and questions like How did you get here? What story are you in? Who is narrating? What will they say? Where are we in history? Shall we let go? Performances will begin promptly at 6:00 p.m. in the Lisser Theater with Gomez-Peña MCing alongside Denise Benavides.

Finally, I always find it comforting to cook when I am stressed out (unless I am already hangry, in which case any Parmesan that was supposed to go into the recipe will go straight into my stomach). So I’m going to suggest eating a satisfying dinner first, and then trying to bake this flourless carrot cake. ‘Cause carrots never seem to go out of season. Or style. Oh, and if you’re still looking for a recipe for dinner, I’m really excited about xgfx.org, devoted solely to vegan, gluten-free dishes - from Moroccan Spiced Chickpea burgers to Coconut Milk Mint Chip Ice Cream. Mmmmm summer.

xo
maya

HOUSTEN’S TOP FIVE PICKS

Dutch photographer Rineke Djikstra has a career-spanning retrospective at the SFMOMA right now.  Amazing portrait photography, as well as a couple video installations of Liverpool club kids in the 90s dancing alone for her camera.

On our side of the bay, the Berkeley Art Museum has a massive and fantastic exhibition up right now on conceptual art in the 1970s in California.  Awesome stuff like Bas Jan Ader crying for three and a half minutes for some unknown reason.

Critical theory POWERHOUSE Slavoj Zizek is coming to San Francisco to talk about his new book on God and violence.  Should be a fun-filled event.

I don’t know how I feel about Lena Dunham and I guess I never will, but I can’t stop being fascinated with everything she does.  A lot of people feel the same way about Miranda July, as I understand it.  But I still really want to watch Dunham’s new series on HBO, though I don’t have HBO or cable of any sort and can’t seem to find any available torrents*.  If anyone can help me out with that, through legal channels or otherwise, I’d appreciate it.  I have to watch it now because by the time it’s on DVD it’ll no longer be pertinent to this generation and this moment RIGHT NOW.

*Oh nevermind I found it.  But I do want to make clear that I don’t encourage online piracy in any fashion.  Please donate money to the starving people in HBO.

I’m currently working on a paper reclaiming Allen Ginsberg as a politically conscious poet of the Left, and I ran across this video of Ginsberg and William F. Buckley Jr.  This little clip, filmed in May of 1968 while the world, wracked with war and economic inequality, seemed to be on the cusp of great change (nudge nudge) demonstrates just how astute Ginsberg is about his role as a political figure of social change—shown here in his great ability to discuss censorship, language, and state violence.