A St. Louis Writer's Mecca

When it comes to being a writer in St. Louis, it doesn't get any better than this past Saturday.

I attended a St. Louis Writers Guild workshop presented by attorney Mark Sableman about many of the questions writers have about contracts, copyrights and publishing in this electronic age. Catherine Rankovic gives a great overview of part of this presentation on her blog at http://www.theconfidentwriter.blogspot.com/. By the way, Catherine will be giving pointers for polishing your manuscript and giving it those all-important final revisions in her breakout at the 2011 "Just Write!" Conference.
She will also be doing the pre-conference critiques---up to 25 pages of fiction, non-fiction or poetry. See our conference registration information for how to submit.

Freelance writer and poet Faye Adams, our MWG chapter representative for SLWG (I feel like I'm writing in code), and her husband Bill, were also there. Bill is a small-lot publisher of hard-bound books, including the Missouri State Poetry Society anthology. Poets, they're looking for submissions! Find out more by visiting Faye's website at http://www.fayeadams.com/. Faye will be giving writers tips to save $$$ on their taxes in a 2011 conference breakout and Bill will be sitting on a literary panel during the Other than Books: Publishing in Places You Can't Overlook panels on Friday, April 8th at "Just Write!"

St. Louis Writers Guild has had some real literary notables in their ranks throughout their 90-year history and the future promises even more. SLWG is accepting submissions to their St. Louis Reflections anthology until September 4th. More information about the group or the anthology can be found at http://www.stlouiswritersguild.org/ or visit SLWG on Facebook.

It was a great morning! Then there was the rest of the day.

If you're a writer, you know that getting yourself published is only half the battle. Then there's promotion to deal with. No matter how you look at it, the only way you're successful is to get your book into the hands of readers. Bookstores are happy to host book signings because they're beneficial to everyone involved. I knew there were a few taking place around the city Saturday, but since I was headed to St. Charles anyway, I dropped by Main Street Books in St. Charles to see MWG prez Claire Applewhite promoting her book Crazy for You. It was Claire's third stop in Missouri for the week, having done signings in Union and Springfield as well. See above photo of Claire at Half-Price Books of the Ozarks in Springfield.

But there's another point to be made here. When you support a writer by attending their book signing, you get a real bonus......you get to meet other writers and that's what happened. It was invigorating to have the opportunity to see a number of people I hadn't seen since the 2010 conference and met some new Facebook writer friends face-to-face! Talk about striking gold!

So, if you have an upcoming literary event---book signing or otherwise---please let us know so we can post it for you, then plan to support our writers by attending their events! See ya!

Countdown to Registration launch for the 2011 "Just Write!" Conference is 6 days.