Entries Tagged 'Competitions and grants' ↓

You’ve probably heard already: we’ve started on the production schedule for the next print edition of The Australian Writer’s Marketplace 2011/12.

But don’t worry, your copy of AWM 2009/10 is still good! The eleventh edition of AWM won’t be out until late next year. It just means that anyone who has a listing in AWMonline is receiving lots of gentle (for now) reminders to make sure all your details are up to date. Listees, just head over to www.AWMonline.com.au, log in with your Username (always an email address), and click on Password Reminder if you need it. Then go to My Details > Listings Management, click on "Edit" next to each listing, check your details and click SAVE (even if you don’t change any details).

Need help? Send in a contact form and we’ll get back to you asap.

As I help people to update their listings, I get to have lots of interesting conversations with agents, publishers, writing groups and organisations, competition organisers, magazines and journals, etc etc… The Australian writing and publishing industry has been holding its breath all year, awaiting the outcome of the dreaded review into restrictions on the parallel importation of books. A long exhale of relief resounded around our country last month, and the industry is bustling with plans for next year and beyond:

• The Aurealis Awards finalists for 2009 have been announced. Congratulations to all the fabulous Australian speculative fiction writers on the list, including Writing Racers Sean Williams, Peter M. Ball, and Angela Slatter. “Our Aussie authors are some of the best in the business,” says Ron Serdiuk, Awards Coordinator. “Many of the names on this list aren’t just prominent within the science fiction and fantasy genre. They include Scott Westerfeld and Andrew McGahan, authors who are critically acclaimed and enjoyed throughout Australia and the world."
• SPUNC member and independent publisher, Aduki Press, has a new owner. After four years building Aduki from a small newsletter publisher to one of Melbourne’s healthiest small publishers, Emily Clark has decided to move on to pastures new and sell the business. New owner, Chris Chinchilla, says he is "keen to take our books and ideas to many new fronts, especially how [Aduki] can fit into the rapidly evolving world of content publishing. However, have no fear, I am definitely intending to maintain our focus on community, environment, food, migration, politics, social justice and travel as well as our existing networks and communities."
• Books Alive, the Australian Government initiative administered nationwide by the Australia Council for the Arts, is calling for entries in a book cover design competition.The winning designer shall receive $2500, their winning cover design shall appear on approximately 200,000 copies of the free book, and the cover design shall also feature in a massive media and marketing campaign. Entries close at 5 pm, Friday, 5 February 2010. See last year’s winning cover here.
• Scarlet Stiletto Awards were announced while I was away. A big congrats to all the wonderful women crime writers involved!

There are so many resources to inspire, motivate and support the Australian writer – we are very fortunate. If you are feeling overwhelmed or under-appreciated, contact your writers centre and start getting (re)connected! And have a great week of writing, everyone.

I have made a commitment to balanced blogging, since I Could Have Cats took me to task for my recent rant on the PIR debate. But then something like this comes along: Kindle hits Australia this month.

Regular Speakeasy readers will remember that one of the key issues preventing the sale of Kindle outside the US was the complexity of Amazon’s negotiations with local telecommunications providers, whose 3G networks are required for distribution of Kindle books. According to cnet:

A spokesperson for VHA said it hadn’t signed a deal with the bookseller. Telstra has yet to respond to queries. Optus said it "had nothing to confirm". On the site, however, it is possible to check wireless coverage that the device will access, which seems to be quite extensive.

So everyone’s being very coy, but if you compare coverage maps (and thanks to the very clever Mark Bahnisch for this tip), it looks like a pretty good pattern match for Optus. Don’t take my word for it.

Now, let us all take a brief moment to grok out on the fact that the gadget uses real ink. Mmmm, lo-fi…

I alluded to a little rant about this issue, and here’s the thing. Well, there are many things, as non-Optus (I’m postulating) customers will soon realise, but here’s my thing: Prices are all in USD! For some, this would be no biggie – your actual price information is just a conversion rate away. But it represents a barrier to the seamless integration of e-books into users’ experiences, one of the strongest benefits of digital publishing. It also makes me feel totally coca-colonised.

Still, if you look at this comprehensive list of kindle services, Australia is better off than most countries, especially Islamic countries, and even poor old Canada, still out in the Kindle wilderness…

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From Publishers’ Lunch:

Simon & Schuster is taking their successful Simon Spotlight Entertainment line and merging it with Pocket Books’ hardcovers and trade paperbacks to create a new imprint, Gallery Books. Pocket itself will return to focusing entirely on mass market publishing, as partner for all of the S&S imprints and continuing with paperback originals for "rising authors" such as Kresley Cole and Thomas Greanias.

The new line is expected to launch in spring 2010. CEO Carolyn Reidy writes to employees that "as a company we need to insure that each of our imprints has sufficient strength and support, especially in this difficult environment." Reidy notes that Gallery will have immediate strength in areas where Pocket and SSE "have already forged well-earned reputations, such as women’s fiction, pop culture and entertainment," while it "will also operate with a mandate to acquire top authors and hot prospects in a broad range of publishing categories, both fiction and nonfiction."

Large publishers often lack agility in the marketplace, constraining their ability to respond to economic and cultural trends. It will be so interesting to see how Gallery Books performs.

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Budding scriptwriters pease note, next week is your last chance this year to throw your hat into the Neighbours pool:

The Australian Writers Guild has once again joined forces with FremantleMedia Australia to present the Neighbours Scriptwriter Training Initiative. The initiative provides the opportunity for two writers to join the Neighbours writing team for six weeks as trainee storyliners and learn what it takes to write for Australia’s favourite serial.

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FYI, Speakeasy will now be posting once weekly, as we move into the production schedule for the next AWM print edtion.

Write on, everybody!

Crime fiction writers and readers in Australia have a lot to thank the Scarlet Stiletto Awards for – they have launched many of our favourite authors. In 1991, convenor Carmel Shute set up Sisters in Crime, the organisation respnsible for finding and promoting so much new talent in Australian women’s crime fiction. I caught up with Carmel to chat about the history of this vibrant group, the latest Scarlet Stiletto Awards, and the new anthology of award winners, The First Cut.

MV: This is the 16th Scarlet Stiletto Awards – can you tell us how they started?

Back in 1994, Sisters in Crime wanted to unearth new female criminal writing talent and decided a short story competition was the best way to do that. Like many of our best ideas, it took shape over a boozy dinner. We were keen to keep the award within the tradition of the Golden and Silver Daggers presented by the Crime Writers’ Association in the UK so decided to call it the Scarlet Stiletto Award – a play on stiletto the weapon and stiletto the shoe with a suitably tartish touch! As well as receiving $750 in cash from HarperCollins, the overall winner is also presented with a trophy – a scarlet stiletto shoe with a steel stiletto heel plunging into a perspex mount.

MV: What big names in crime writing have been launched after winning a SS Award? 
 
A number of winners of the various categories in the Scarlet Stiletto Awards have gone on to have novels published – Tara Moss, Cate Kennedy, Angela Savage, Josephine Pennicott, Alex Palmer, Liz Filleul, Margaret Bevege, Patricia Bernard, Bronwen Blake, Jo McGahey and Cheryl Jorgensen – though in the case of Cate Kennedy, who won the first two Scarlet Stiletto Awards, it wasn’t in the crime field.

 Lisa Burnett with Scarlet Stiletto winner, Tara Moss

MV: What’s new about SS Awards this year?
 
This year that the prize-money has been boosted to a total of $4200 by two new sponsored awards: The Olvar Wood Late Starters Award for writers 50 or over, consisting of a $650 Weekend Package at Olvar Wood Writers’ Retreat in Palmwoods on the Sunshine Coast and ScriptWorks Great Film Idea Award ($200). Download an entry form from the Sisters in Crime website http://home.vicnet.net.au/~sincoz/
 
MV: Can people read Scarlet Stiletto winners’ stories anywhere?
 
The first 13 years’ winning stories can be found in Scarlet Stiletto: The First Cut (Mira, 2007), now available for $30 (postage paid) from Sisters in Crime, GPO Box 5319, Melbourne 3001.
 
MV: What do you think makes for a winning submission in the short story competition?
 
Good writing! The stories that most often fail to meet the mark are ones where men (mostly husbands) get killed off for no particularly compelling reason. Sisters, if you desire to get rid of your husband, you don’t have to plunge your sewing scissors into his jugular. There is always the divorce court.
 
MV: You have been putting energy and effort into SinCOz and SS for years. When and how did you become involved in SinCOz and SS? What motivates you?

Women’s crime fiction exploded in the eighties and early nineties. Every time my female friends and I got together. It seemed that our conversation invariably turned to the latest ripper read. Many of the books originated in the United States where Sara Paretsky had formed Sisters in Crime at the 1986 Bouchercon crime convention to fight for a better deal for women crime writers.

In 1991, I produced a 45-minute documentary entitled “Sisters in Crime” for Radio National’s Coming Out Show. Based on interviews with US writers Paretsky, Sue Grafton and others, it explored the phenomenon of feminist crime writing and offered a free bibliography. The response was enormous (for Radio National anyway) and a group of us in met in my lounge room in St Kilda to plot. Right away, we decided our organisation would involve readers, not just writers, and offer a forum for discussion and debate. Sisters in Crime Australia launched itself (with a debate!) at the Feminist Book Fortnight in Melbourne in September 1991.  I’ve never had such fun – and the debates are our regular events in Melbourne continue to expand my knowledge (and enjoyment) of crime fiction. I just love crime fiction and the terrific organisation we’ve created.

MV: What are you most interested in at the moment in Australian women’s crime writing – trends/opportunities /industry developments? 

Sisters in Crime’s overriding mission to get women crime writers published  and debated. With the Productivity Commission report hanging over the Australian publishing industry like an executioner’s axe, we’re naturally very nervous at the moment. It’s taken a lot of effort to persuade Australian publishers to ‘risk’ taking on Australian women crime writers. We’d hate to see them just opt for the latest hot crime book from overseas.
 
MV: SinCOz is an amazing, vibrant resource for crime writers. Can you tell us how regional SinCOz members (or aspiring members) can connect with their local group, or with other activities? E.g. Are there plans to start recording or podcasting SinCOz Melbourne activities?

Sisters in Crime has chapters in Melbourne (where most members live and most events happen), Perth, Brisbane and Sydney where the organisation is called Partners in Crime. We’d welcome some new members to help revitalise the Brisbane chapter. We’re planning a brand new interactive website later this year. We already record events (to use as a basis for article in Stiletto magazine) but will think about podcasting. The latest Stiletto – all 88 pages of it – is just out. To join, download a form from the existing Sisters in Crime website http://home.vicnet.net.au/~sincoz/

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Join us at AWMonline tonight for the regular Writing Race, 7:45pm for an 8pm start. Enjoy an hour of dedicated writing in the company of your AWMonline Writing Race buddies.

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Tristan Bancks is running a BBWF 09 workshop You’ve got to be kidding! on writing novels for children. He has also co-authored a YA novel its yr life with former Home and Away co-star Tempany Deckhart. They teamed up between Australia and LA via email to write a suspense novel filled with links, web references and partly written in text-speak: interesting that the online collaboration method of writing is reflected in the composition and digital enrichment of the book itself.

The Write Around the Murray Festival offers events, workshops, school programs and more, reflecting the vibrant literary culture around Albury City and region.

Check out SavingAussieBooks – go for the lols, but stay for Darren Groth’s irrefutable ’stache-tastic logic in The Magnum PI Arguwrite Against PI.

Today was the final day for submissions to Hachette Australia and QWC’s national manuscript development competition, with QWC receiving close to 200 submissions. To everyone who submitted, hearty congratulations for taking that big step and putting your manuscript out there… Give yourself a pat on the back, and enjoy a glass of your preferred celebratory beverage!

Have a happy writing weekend, all.

The Scarlet Stiletto Awards for crime fiction are now open, so polish your best crime short story for a chance to become part of Australian women’s crime fic history! Also, the Davitt Award: Books in Contention are listed here. Will Katherine Howell take out two in a row with her second book The Darkest Hour? Will hugely successful Kate Morton pip her at the post for The Forgotten Garden? Will Australian crime legend Kerry Greenwood get the nod for Phyrne Fisher mystery #17? Will Chloe Hooper continue her winning run and take out the True Crime Davitt for her depth and precision in The Tall Man? With 41 titles from a range of publishers big and small, the Davitts represent the best of the best in Australian women’s crime writing. Join SinCOz to have your vote.

UDPATE: The Scarlet Stiletto Awards application form will be available soon at the SinCOz website. Meanwhile, this is it here.

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A new writing prize:

‘Telstra, in conjunction with the Telecommunications Journal of Australia (TJA) and the Hon Bill Shorten MP, Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities and Children’s Services, launched the Telstra-TJA Christopher Newell Prize for Telecommunications and Disability. This new prize of $20 000 will be awarded for the best original paper offered for publication by TJA that demonstrates the tangible benefits that an innovative use of telecommunications technology can deliver in assisting individuals with disabilities.’

See here for more details.

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A mythical opportunity for stamp collectors and lovers of geeky art, fantasy, mythology, ‘n’stuff. Fairies or dragons? I can’t decide!

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Every writer has a different idea of fun. Mine is crime fiction, oh yeah! Maybe yours is writing the next great Australian literary novel, designing computer games, or spending night and day crafting the silence around the words haijin style . As writers, it pays to follow our passions: chances are, the level of experience and commitment it takes to achieve publication will be linked to our personal interests.

But what draws us to our chosen fields? I was a rebel born into a family of lawyers, so crime fic is no mystery (geddid?). How did you develop your abiding dedication to manga, life writing, alternative history, etc?

Here’s some niche tidbits for writers:

Aspiring (or closet) fan fic writers take note: no sex, and no killing off Kirk. All this and more on Star Trek Novel submission guidelines.  

Bodice rippers are booming and "although most book sales were flat or down in February 2009 from the year before, a spokesperson for the Borders book chain says that science fiction and fantasy were up—as were humor titles."

Script writers, playwrights and poets take note: applications are now open for the Varuna Longlines Program.

And for those of you who have a brilliant manuscript stashed in your bottom drawer, or who know someone who has, the 2009 Text Publishing YA Prize opens on 4 May – there’s a $10,000 prize!

Now, should I brave the wet roads for the Byron Bay Writers Festival Sponsors Launch this evening? I’m schmoozin’ in the rain, just schmoozin’ in the rain…

Will the innovative use of Twitter never end? Following in the footsteps of Paulo Coelho, who serialised The Winner Stands Alone for readers’ mobile phones, crime fiction writer R.N. Morris is serialising a A Gentle Axe in Tweets. For a listing of authors on Twitter, click here and follow to your heart’s content. BTW, is anyone else surprised that Stephen Fry is on the Top Ten list of popular Tweeters? I mean, he’s a terrific writer and all, but he’s up there with Obama and Britney! Which kinda restores my faith in humanity…

Need some inspiration for your writing? For some writers, a picture inspires a thousand words, so enjoy this bookmark site of the most beautiful photos in the land of the w’s. But, remember, no procrastinating in the name of research! If you need a reminder on how to write productively in the face of a plethora of online distractions, have another look at Cory Doctorow’s article of useful tips.

Here’s some snippets of current opportunities for writers, but where would you go for more details? Just a little place called AWMonline, people. 

• The 2009 NSW Premier’s History Awards nominations are due by 17 April.
• The PressPress Chapbook Award for an unpublished chapbook length manuscript of poetry submissions are due by 30 May.

And some wonderful news … Arts Law’s telephone advice service has been re-opened. If you require advice please call (02) 9356 2566 or 1800 221 457. Hurrah, and well done Arts Law supporters! Truly, they are fleet and wise as Tiny Plaid Ninjas.

Speakeasy Top Clicks for the Week…

• Pool your Ideas and win an internship with ABC Radio National! This month you can mash up, tweak, or remix some Creative Commons content for fun and prizes.
• Know your copyrights: A new listing with AWMonline has training relevant to all writers.
• Queryfail, where agents tweet author queries doomed for rejection. It’s a real Snark’s playpen, but funny and educational. See a summary here.
• Booklovers and geeks alike can graph your journey through the world of books with bkkeepr - but are you really ready to measure the velocity of your reading? Like LibraryThing, it’s integrated with Twitter.
• *Chuckle* The Clam before the Storm. Proofreading tips: Auto-correct and Find users beware! (A couple of my writerly friends take great pride when they reach that point in their manuscripts where the error message pops up "There are too many spelling and grammatical errors in this document to continue displaying them." Power to the peeps!!)

Wishing you a productive writing weekend, folks. And remember, Friday is funday. Celebrate today with a toasted felafel roll for lunch; I find nothing else will do.

To help you achieve your writing goals for 2009, AWMonline is offering subscribers the opportunity to join in a regular, live, online writing race.

Our celebrity guest KIM WILKINS will be joining us for our first AWMonline writing race, tonight at 8pm AEST for one hour.

Subscribers can log in tonight at 7.45pm AEST and go to "forums" under "writing resources". Let us know you’re online, check for the correct starting time, and then get writing!

At 9pm AEST, it’s pens (keyboards) down… Let us know your word count for the night, and how you feel about your progress. You’ll be amazed at how motivated you are when racing alongside your online writing buddies!

So AWmonline subscribers, start planning for a night of productive writing. If you want to join us and become an online writing racer, it’s easy to subscribe at www.awmonline.com.au  – subscriptions start at $19.95.

Yay, Friday – random links day!

• An incredible opportunity for Australian playwrights just got even better! 
• Drive trucks? Write poetry? Then get on board dust poems! But truckie poets take note, if you want to contribute to the anthology, the deadline is tomorrow…
• All the postulating about the recession leading to better book sales might come true, if this article is anything to go by. Apparently, hard liquor sales and art class attendance soars in hard times .
• Starting at 5 bucks and going as high as your wallet and compassion extends, Issue #1 of Hope is ready and waiting for you!  ‘Hope is a new multi-part fanzine raising money for bushfire relief in the Australian state of Victoria. It is edited by [...] Grant Watson, with contributions donated by writers, artists and fans in Australia and from overseas. It is supported by the Western Australian Science Fiction Foundation (WASFF), and has received assistance from the Film & Television Institute of WA, Supanova and Big Finish Productions.’
•  And of course, you already know about the Daily Cabal, don’t you? Bite-size fiction to enliven each and every working day!

Have a great writing weekend. I’m going to write a scene set in a pathology lab. Can’t wait!