Friday, August 21, 2009

Canadian Federation of Poets News



CFP MEMBER NEWS

Tracy Repchuk -

* Appeared on Build a Better Network to share my story and internet marketing endeavours


Nikhil Parekh
* Applied for another Limca World Record and expanded his YouTube presence: Nikhil Parekh Youtube poetry sample

Tod Gaines -
* Was a featured poet on a Hip Hop Radio show as he combined his poetry to music
(Good thinking out of the box)

Paul Hartal

* The Carrer Museum in Milan, Italy, issued this year six art stamps of Paul Hartal. Engraved on the margins of Portrait, Triumphal Arch, Landscape, Afternoon Faces, Victoria, and Blue Mountain, the colourful miniature visual poems display the name of the artist, the title of the work and the year 2009. An envelope mailed from Milan to Montreal this summer with a combined array of Italian postal stamps and Paul Hartal art stamps is marked over with the official cancellation seal of the Italian post. Founded in 1946, the Carrer Mail Art Museum and Archive in Milano houses thousands of works, among them by Salvador Dali, Max Ernst, Paul Klee, Pablo Picasso and Victor Vasarely.

http://www.mailart-carrer.net/035new%20works.htm

http://www.mailart-carrer.net/0242autori.htm

Mary Anne Lonergan -
* Her latest poems -"The Talons Of Prisms" was published in the The Ontario Poetry Society - Verse Afire

* The Newmaket's branch - Canadian Hearing Society has asked me to read a couple of her poems in September to expose hearing and deafness talents. One of the poem is called: "Deafness" and unsure yet what the other will be called till that time comes.

* Her second manuscript is now finished and she is working on her third.

Tuesday, August 04, 2009

Canadian Poetry - New Methods of Publishing Amazon Kindle




The Cheapest Method of Publishing

Last month we talked about YouTube as a distribution
channel for your poetry. Nikhil Parekh is using that tool to its fullest.

This month I want to talk about 2 trends that are taking the internet by storm - and one of them is fast becoming a mainstream publishing alternative. Now I am not talking about self publishing places such as www.lulu.com where you can produce your own book, your way, and keep all of the profits versus a royalty publishing option - I am going to introduce you to Amazon Kindle and ebooks.
I'll start with an ebook - which simply is an electronic version or digital version of your book. It is a matter of creating the book as usual in a word processor, and saving it as a PDF, and selling that version.
For some who cherish the feel of a book and its pages you will think this is ridiculous, but I have made 10 x more on ebook sales, than made of book sale profits. The best part is there is no overhead, no inventory, no shipping, they get the book instantly, they enjoy your work and you make 100% profit.

I sell my bestseller 31 Days to Millionaire Marketing Miracles on Amazon, and make about $1.20 profit per book. I sell my ebook and make a $47 profit. In fact, I offer a workbook with my ebook, and 80% of the purchasers upgrade to the ebook/workbook combination and with this I make a $97 profit.
Here is that website if you want to look at the format 31 Days to Millionaire Marketing Miracles

Now some of you might be thinking – well that’s not publishing.

I would have to disagree, as does the world’s largest bookstore and distributor of books, who not only sells ebooks now, but even better – sells your book on a Kindle device – which is an electronic device that can hold hundreds of books.




Check out this article in Newsweek called "The Future of Reading"

This device which has taken the publishing industry by storm, and has the largest publishers in the world scrambling to create and modify their line up of books into this format.

And technically – it is an ebook, that appears on a device you carry – the size of a typical book for those who like to hold something as they read – you can take hundreds of books with you everywhere and always have access to your favourite stories – at the push of a button.

As a world traveler, I see them on planes all the time. You can read them at the beach. Anywhere -but what is really great for you as a poet and writer – is it’s free to create a kindle version, you can list it on the Amazon.com site like a normal book, and people can take you with them – anytime.

AND … it’s an accepted form of publishing, otherwise authors such as Stephen King, Donald Trump, Margaret Atwood, Michael Ondaatje wouldn't be there - and they are!

AND… you don’t need a fancy publisher to participate.

Isn't the point of getting published to get your work out there, to share your story, get well known, and making money along the way would totally rock right?

Take a person like Julie Powell who did a blog about Julia Child's cooking - and now it's in a movie called Julie and Julia. Think she might make some money from that, have some influence, get a major book deal - so embrace some of the new technologies because you never know what the future will bring. Take publishing out of the box and just do it.

A great resource to also check out:

How to Prepare your Book for the Kindle Device



Tracy Repchuk
President of Canadian Federation of Poets

PS - Join the CFP and be promoted in our newsletter, our site, and in our bookstore. Join today - Canadian Poetry At It's Finest