First, I want to thank you signing up for this great newsletter. You lucky person, you get to be the first to know all the new stuff! My grandson is visiting and running me ragged, so this will be short. I promise. Let's take a moment to remember our friends in the flood ravaged parts of the country like Houston Texas. Some of my closest friends live there and I'm still waiting to hear from some of them. But I did hear from Rex Anderson, Author of "My Dead Brother." He is fine but describes the devastating effect that nature has taken in graphic detail in his e-mail to me.

I suggest a moment of silence for those who lost their lives in this disaster.

On a Lighter Side, Here's The Good News:

What's in this newsletter:
GOOD NEWS
JUMP START EXCERPT
FREE STUFF
OTHER NEWS

GOOD NEWS:
Jump Start Your Writing Career With Electronic Publishers is now available as download or on CD at Crossroadspub.com http://www.crossroadspub.com/JumpStart.htm For you writers out there, here is an excerpt:

Jump Start Your Writing Career
With Electronic Publishers
S.Joan Popek
Copyright 2000
ISBN 1-58338-416-2
CrossroadsPub.Com
http://www.crossroadspub.com
Publication June, 2001
Cover Art by Duncan Long

Are you tired of rejections? Are you tired of submitting to markets where the submissions
outnumber the needs of publishers 1,000 to 1? No one enjoys constant rejection of work that they have poured their soul into.
Well, you don't have to suffer that anymore. Even good manuscripts are rejected in today's
publishing world because the person who wrote them is either unpublished or under published.
It is not because your work isn't good.
It is not because your story did not impress the editor.
It is because big names sell, and there are only so many lines available in a printed publication or only so many slots to fill in the print book industry.
These publishers are in the business to make money. Big names make money. It's a matter of
semantics. How many "unknowns" have you seen on the New York Times Best Seller List lately? Does this mean that they will never publish unknowns? No. It means that in the world of high finance and publishing house mergers, of both well-known magazines and book publishers, the bottom line is a profit margin, and the new authors published each year by such conglomerates is dwindling. Sure it happens. Occasionally a new author sneaks into the big publishing houses, but the chances are very slim. Are you really interested in getting published? Once you are a published author, editors look at you in a completely different light. A few years ago, my only publication credits were poems in a couple of magazines that didn't even pay with copies. Today, I have articles published in Writer's Digest, Fiction Writer and many others. I have a novel and a collection of short stories published electronically and in print. I co-edit an online magazine and conduct workshops and speaking engagements at writers' conventions and gatherings. I owe this success to a love of writing, a desire to learn, a dedication to my craft, hard work and to the electronic publishing industry.
It was an electronic magazine publisher who bought my first short story and an e-book publisher who bought my first book.
Am I saying that if you turn to e-books and e-zines you will automatically have your work accepted every time? No, you won't. I still get rejections every week. Rejection slips will still be arriving in the mail, but I am saying that if you present quality work, your chances will increase dramatically, and mixed in with those nasty "No's" will be the wonderful acceptance note that says, "Yes! We want to publish your story."
Don't get left out. Look to electronic publications and Cyberspace for the boost your career needs.
You can only grow from there.

Here is how.
I have not designed this book as a primer for the mechanics of writing. You probably already have some of those. If you do not, you should get at least one or two. If you bought this book, you feel you are ready for publication or at least close to it. I have divided the information into seven parts:
What is electronic publishing?

Nuts & bolts of writing.

What are your rights?

Finding agents and publishers.

Self-promotion.

Alternative publishing ideas.

How to use this book effectively and the Appendix.

Although we will touch on some of the basics such as grammar, some writing exercises and
character profiles to kick-start your creative process, the main purpose of this book is to help you get published. My second goal is to show you how to promote yourself and your work after you are published. To accomplish this task, I include a series of real questions and answers from successful authors and comments from professional editors taken directly from a survey that my column, Ask Dr. Web-Write, conducted for Millennium Science Fiction & Fantasy Magazine.
The general focus of this book is writing and selling fiction, but the techniques and submission procedures apply to nonfiction as well. Whether you write short stories, nonfiction articles, essays or novels, using the tips in this book can help you get published. The methods I talk about really work, and I know because I've used them.
I will address issues that concern professional authors as well as those just getting started. If you want to get published, you are on the right track. You have this book in your hands or on the computer screen if you are reading it electronically. How you use it is up to you.

End Excerpt: Jumpstart

To read a review, go here: http://www.thebookreviewersite.com/article1041.html

AND
If you want to see what I really think about things, check out my interview at: http://www.thebookreviewersite.com/article1040.html

Got a new story up at The Reviewer's site. If you want to see the lighter side of my work (and of fairy tales) take a look at "The Pie-Eyed Piper. http://www.thebookreviewersite.com/page1009.html
And an article about writing Feghoots in Dowse Articles
http://www.dowse.com/articles/Feghoot-article.html
and its accompanying Feghoot,
http://www.dowse.com/fiction/Feghoot-story.html
and on the darker side, "Friendship" at Dowse Fiction Hub
http://www.dowse.com/fiction/Joan.html

FREE STUFF:
Download free books and find links to free and almost free software at my site, http://www.sjoanpopek.com

Dr Bob Rich Winner of the EPPIE 2001 SF Award, bobrich@web.solutions.net.au is offering a contest. Just vote in his free-edit contest and earn a free e-book http://www.bobswriting.com/

Want to hear your favorite authors read from their own work in their own voice? How about audio interviews? It's free to download and hear what they have to say. http://www.radiofreegallery.com/

Get free animated graphics at http://www.animfactory.com/

OTHER NEWS:
I'm going to be in Amarillo, Texas September 29, 2001 at The Fourth Annual High Plains Book Fair as a guest speaker. I'm speaking about How Science Fiction has changed. Hope to meet you there. For more information, check here: http://bookfestival.arn.net/


I told you it would be short so take care all of you and let me know how you are doing.
So long until next time,
Jo