(Old Badge Shown! Script Frezny is now held in April!)
IMPORTANT NOTICE:
In 2009 I was selected to be the Municipal Liaison for The Southern Maine Charter of The Script Frenzy Contest. We have both year round in in-contest meetings open to all Maine writers. Meeting are held, same time, same place every year.
Here is a listing of the Write-In dates, times, and locations. These are the same as they were last year, and are the same as we have used for NaNoWriMo for over 5 years, so these dates/locations are pretty steady and not likely to change much. Should there be any changes, announcement will be made on this thread.
The Year Round General Writing Get-Togethers:
When: Every Sunday, all year long, every year.
Where: Westbrook: Panera
Time: All day long from 9AM - 7PM
NOTE: This is the "BIG" meeting, where all of Maine's MLs for both NaNoWriMo and Script Frenzy get together with all writers from the entire state. I am only there from 2PM - 5PM, and I am only guaranteed to be here every week in April and November, the rest of the year I'm there as my personal schedule permits, but other writers come and go through out the day, every week, all year long, you'll have to check with individual persons if you want to plan on getting there the same time they do.
The In-Contest Script Frenzy & NaNoWriMo Write-In Meet-Ups:
When: Mondays:
March-April-May
&
October-November-December
Where: Saco: Golden Rooster
Time: 10AM - 1PM
The In-Contest Screnzy Only (April) Meetings:
When: Saturdays in April
Where: Portland: Downtown Public Library
Time: 1PM - 3 PM
Impromptu Meetings:
When: year round
Where: check this thread for announcements
Time: varies
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FAQs & OTHER INFO About OLL Writer's Contest Meetings:
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What is the difference between a Meet-Up and a Write-In?
Meet-Up:
A social gathering where writers can sit back, relax, and talk about writing, life, the universe, and everything. Usually held at a cafe, coffee shop or fast food joint, where we can eat and write while we talk.
Write-In:
Like a Meet-Up, only every one is quietly typing at their laptops or scribbling on paper pads, furiously writing as many pages as possible.
Are these Meet-Ups or Write-Ins?
Both. Every one comes together and spends the day chatting and/or writing.
What are Impromptu Meetings?
Impromptu Meetings:
A spur of the moment meeting, that was not planned ahead.
These can be any place, any time, through out the year. Any member can announce them. All you got to do is, post here and say:
"I'm going to be at ____ at _____ o'clock today/tomorrow/next Friday. I'll be getting some writing done while I'm there. You guys are welcomed to come join me."
Please be sure to include the day, place, and time.
Impromptu Meetings are often just the person who made the announcement, which is okay. A meeting of one, can still be fun...I do it several times a week! Sometimes another person will show up to join you (usually me). If you are lucky 2 or 3 other people may join you, as well, though it's not so common. If I'm not doing something else on that day, I make an effort to try to show up at all the Impromptu Meetings announced by members.
Where can we hold Impromptu Meetings?
Any place really. At a public library is a common choice. Panera, MacDonald's, Starbucks, SubWay, Pizza Hut, Burger King, Wendy's and other such places are good options if you want to eat and write at the same time. In your living room at your house if you want. I know of a couple of members who get on the Amtrak Downeaster and spend the day on the train writing from Portland to Boston.
Places we have had Impromptu Meetings in the past, that I have personally attended, have included the following:
```Old Orchard Beach Libby Library
```Saco Dyer Library
```Biddeford McArther Library
```Portland Downtown Library
```Portland Burbank Library
```Wells Library
```Food Court at the Maine Mall
```South Portland Starbucks at Target
```Panera in Westbrook
```Panera in Biddeford
```Pizza by Michael in Saco
```MacDonald's in: Saco, Biddeford, Scarborough, Sanford
```Burger King in: Saco, Biddeford
```SubWay in: Old Orchard Beach, South Portland, Kennebunk, Biddeford
```Dairy Queen in Biddeford
As you can see from the list, I do travel across quite a big distance to make an effort to meet with my fellow writers during Script Frenzy and NaNoWriMo!
A Note About In-Home Meetings:
Personally I prefer meetings in public places as opposed to in people's homes, just you know, safer. So I do not recommend having Write-Ins at your home, and NEVER-EVER-EVER post your home address or phone number on a public forum! Remember - we want you to be safe, so only list Impromptu Meeting Announcements for public locations where there will be lots of people around!
If you want to hold meetings in your own home, send private messages ONLY to those people whom you know personally (never to strangers).
And yes, you are more than welcomed to gather up your friends and have your own personal Write-Ins at home with no need to get permission from us or post an announcement!
(I kept messing up the lines before – finally figured out what I was doing wrong.)
Near as I can tell (from talking to several of them) the ones that are making a good steady income from it, are the ones that are sending out dozens of review copies (for free) and are always out there in their local public doing book signings at libraries and book stores and clubs on topic to their book. They also have 40 or 50 books listed for sale, use the “Global Distribution” program, have given free copies of all of their books to the local libraries, and take commission copies to all the local indie bookstores.
From what I hear, the ones that are not making any money, are selling their books solely through LuLu’s Marketplace and are not giving away free copies of their books.
I’ve had my account with LuLu since 2005, but to date all I ever did with it was “private access” items. The first book that I actually put up for sale on the Marketplace was “For Fear of Little Men” on Feb 7, 2010. So it’s been only 2 weeks. So far It’s sold 2 paperbacks and 1 hardcover and 0 ebooks.
I’ve added 7 more books in the last 2 days, of course it’s too soon for sales from those because it takes a few days for them to filter down through the system.
I’ve got about 30 more books written that are waiting to be edited and formated, and so I’ll be listing those for sale over this summer and fall. They range from fiction, to non-fiction, to craft patterns to art books, plus translations of Medieval texts. So at the moment I’m focusing on getting those finished and up for sale, and once they are listed than I’ll put my marketing plan into action.
So I’ll have more details about whether LuLu turns out to be a good income bringer or not, probably in the late fall – say around October, because by than I’ll have had enough to to do some sales tracking.
Because it costs $75 per book to get “Global” (Amazon, Ingram, Barns & Nobel, etc) distribution, I don’t yet have any books listed off site and so the only way to order them is through LuLu directly, which means sales can be expected to be pretty low at the moment, because the general public doesn’t go seeking out LuLu in general.
I’ll be adding Global Distribution to each book a little at a time over the next few months, so hopefully that’ll have an impact on sales.
Like wise all of the local libraries (about 20 public/town libraries) will be getting free copies donated to their circulation department. I’m a weekly regular at each of these libraries, so I know all the librarians, and will just give them the books when I go in on my regular schedule.
The State Library does weekly book signings, author interviews, and readings, with local authors, so I’ll likely sign up for those as well.
I will also be signing several of them up for LibraryThing’s Early Reader book review program, which means I’ll have to buy 20 or 30 copies of each book and than mail them out free to reviewers, but I’ve been a LibraryThing Reviewer myself for several years now, so I’ve gotten to see how the program works from the inside and I’ve heard a lot of first hand accounts from self published authors getting better sales as a direct result of giving away all those free copies of their books through LibraryThing.
All in all, my hope is that by this time next year, LuLu will be a regular source of income. But you can keep checking back here, because I’ll be posting updates as time goes by about it.