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Greetings

From The

Amazing Authors Showcase

March 1, 2000

The Amazing Authors Showcase and ezine’s growth continues to astound even the most optimistic among our staff members. That big win at the P&E polls was nothing less than amazing, given the frenzied competition for readers among some 50,000 ezines on the web.

Competition is exactly what we are going to focus on in this month’s ezine and newsletters. Producing a quality online product is not easy, as I’m sure most of you know. What you may not know is how the Amazing Authors Ezine came to be or why a completely volunteer staff spends the time and effort necessary to produce it.

In the beginning, a handful of authors determined that the only way to get attention on the web was by building strength in numbers. By joining individual web sites, offering sites for those who did not have one, then opening the site so that others might join us, we have cobbled together a web location that thousands of people a month are coming to for their reading enjoyment. Those thousands, in turn, hand out links to all their friends, and the numbers just keep growing.

The Showcase was devised to gain the greatest possible access to the millions of readers the net offers every single day. The idea was to attract exposure and it has worked magnificently. And it works because we are a team--a team that dedicates time and effort to promote not just ourselves but all the authors on the site.

Most of you already know it is not enough just to write well. It’s not even enough to find a publisher interested in reading your work. You have to be self-motivated--you have to get out there and promote yourselves in cyberspace.

How exactly do you do that on the web? It’s very simple really. All you have to do is show people you are a writer by giving them easy access to samples of your stories. In most cases, that means bringing them to a web site and keeping them there long enough to get their attention.

What are the odds a reader is going to stumble onto your individual site, when there are something like eight MILLION sites to choose from right now? Not very good, unless that reader has a compelling reason to come to you. And in the next year, the number of sites will likely double.

That is why what we do at the Amazing Authors Showcase is so important to published as well as unpublished writers. We provide a venue for quality writers to show off their stuff. We do our best to bring the right people to the site in the hopes you will get noticed. For published authors, we now provide additional promotion for the sales of their books through our bookstore page(s).

AWARDS! AWARDS! AWARDS!

As a special incentive for everyone to bring new traffic to our site, we will be giving an award for the Most Popular Author (MPA) on the Showcase each month. Congratulations to co-authors Love and Seabury for earning the very first MPA award for February. Their page reached the 600 “hits” level faster than anyone ever has on the Showcase, and they did it the old fashioned way--by promoting themselves with friends, relatives and business associates via email links. You can view the MPA award on their page or see a sample on the ezine.

Now, we realize that 600 hits in a little over a month is a lot to ask, so we will also be listing the top ten "hit getters" on the front page of the ezine every month. That extra exposure will entice people to check out those authors’ pages first, which in turn should generate more hits for the next month's competition. That means you authors need to get out there and remind the world that you ARE an Amazing Author!

Why? Because in the near future, we will also be offering actual prizes for our MPA recipients and for other specially recognized authors and contributors to the Showcase. We will announce more details on this when we have them.

In addition to awards for authors on the Showcase, we also plan to offer awards to other sites that, in our opinion, provide a unique or particularly valuable service to the writing community. By offering awards to other sites, ezines, and web pages, we will automatically be linked to their front page, and that will generate traffic for everyone here. If any of you have a site in mind that you think warrants such special recognition, or that you think would be of benefit to our readers, please let us know and we'll check it out.

MORE GOOD NEWS

The next big news item this month is that we are welcoming our 50th author to the site. Christine Murphy, our newest Featured Author of the month, makes a whopping FIFTY authors listed on the Showcase. That in itself is amazing, considering the Showcase is not even 8 months old yet. Read more about Christine and her publishing credentials in the new authors section below.

We are also pleased to formally welcome Sammie Jo LaMontagne to the Showcase staff. Sammie’s skillful knowledge of HTML and computer graphics has become an invaluable asset to our efforts over the last six months. Her involvement with the Showcase will be behind the scenes, but rest assured, her work produces much of what you DO see.

Welcome also our newest staff contributors:

• Jack Riepe with his column entitled Blundering Through Life

• Janet Beaulieu with her column entitled Shards

• Eric Stump with his column entitled Eros and Thanatos---Continued

• Daphne Matthews, with her column entitled Candlelit Dreams

NEW AMAZING AUTHORS:

We've added several new writers to the Showcase since the last issue. Drop by these authors’ pages and leave a note in their guest books, or send them email and let them know you read their stories.

• More than once when she was a little girl, Christine W. Murphy came to the conclusion she'd been dropped by an alien space craft and left to grow up in a small town in Minnesota. When would they notice she was missing and come back for her, she wanted to know. After graduating from Concordia College, only 20 miles away, she decided drastic action was called for and she joined the Navy to look for them. The Navy, in their infinite wisdom, sent her to Iceland, one of the few places in this world with more Lutherans per square foot than Minnesota. After serving in Florida, Iceland, and Virginia, she realized no one was coming for her and she decided to settle for domestic bliss. Read more about Christine Murphy and preview her wonderful work here.

• Daphne Matthews: Amazing Authors Staff Columnist

Daphne’s first poem was published in 1991, at age 20. She is currently finishing a nonfiction book about Old Country Stores that her husband is co-authoring. She is also working on a teen romance novel, a collection of her poetry, and children's picture books. Ms. Matthews brings a wit, style and keen eye to the Showcase that will prove to be a tremendous asset to our readers in the future. Welcome aboard, Daphne!

• Eric Stump: Amazing Authors Ezine Columnist

Eric attended UCLA, majoring in Political Science and contributing his writings to local newspapers. Social critique continues to serve as the foundation of his essays. He currently lives in Philadelphia, where he attends law school. Eric will be contributing his unique view of the world through a monthly column in the ezine.

• Jacob Bettany:

Jacob lives in Bristol, England. He is 26 and has studied philosophy at Durham University. He wants more than anything to have the opportunity to write full-time. He is in the process of establishing a new ezine called 'Fictive' and is looking for submissions, exposure and advice.

• James Brady:

James is a fan of the sci-fi/horror genre. Finding many of the horror plots similar to his own, he decided to put them on paper. Like so many writers, once he finally began writing his stories, he found he actually enjoyed the process. He now works at Penn State University, where he had the great fortune to take a writing class under Dr. Charles Hackenberry, contributing author to the Amazing Authors ezine.

NEWS FROM OTHER AMAZING AUTHORS:

• From: Jim Gleacher (jim@odos.com)

Thanks for sending me the newsletters. I always like to hear about what is going on. In your March 1st newsletter you can mention that my novel Roll Again is beginning its serialization at Savoy (www.savoymag.net) in the first week of March and that I hope people will go and read it. Thanks!

ACCOLADES TO AMAZING AUTHORS

• Talk about being good for the writers -- I just checked, and I'm at 1299 hits since the site first went up! That really amazes me -- guess I'm an Amazing Author or something! I'd enjoy some kind of author involvement, if it's the kind of thing that will fit in my schedule.

Janet Beaulieu

Gwerllyd@aol.com

• I'm very happy for the success of (the Showcase)...it's so well deserved. You work SOO hard and it really shows. It's a wild and changing publishing world out there and it's only going to get BETTER for authors and writers alike!!

Robin C. Westmiller

Author

Red Wine For Breakfast

• Pepper, I have read your marvelous short story, Santa Was A Trucker--it is a very heartwarming and entertaining tale. Congratulations on your first place finish on the P&E Poll and to Jon on his victory in the Novel category. The accolades are well-deserved. Good luck with the "Eternity Best of the Web (polling)." The accomplishments that you both have made can only help the other writers at the Amazing Authors Showcase. Thank you.

Ray E. Spencer

Author

Tender Nightmare

• ...Congrats on your poll (results). You have a wonderful site and I am truly thankful for it.

Ed Twardokus

Stage345@aol.com

WRITING NEWS:

• TELL YOUR TALE OF WRITING WOE and win prizes! Many of you have lamented the scathing rejection, the cold editorial comments, the unsent manuscript, the difficulty of writing for a living ~ writing's not a pretty job, but *someone* has to do it! Here's your chance to whine, gripe, moan, complain, weep and gnash your teeth to your heart's content with Scribe & Quill's "Tell Your Tale of Writing Woe" contest. Give us stories that'll make us sympathize - and empathize - with your writer's woes. Fiction or nonfiction - real or imagined - make us feel sorry for you over the hardships of your writing life. Do that better than anyone else, and you'll win a brand-new OFFICIAL logo Scribe & Quill T-shirt or mousepad (your choice!) along with a $10 gift certificate or cash equivalent.

!!Scribe & Quill's "Tale of Woe" Writing Contest

Submissions to:Editor@scribequill.com

• Book-On-Disc (http://www.book-on-disc.com) is looking for fresh, professional and completed manuscripts in most fiction genres. Sorry, no erotica or anything beyond romance novel acceptance. We would especially like to see Mainstream Fiction: Westerns, adventures, good family stories, Mysteries, conspiracy/intrigue, horror and Science Fiction. We are of course open to the Romance genres and cross over genres. Please send query letter with short, one to two page synopsis and general information as to total manuscript length in pages, words and chapters, also include estimate average page length of chapters. Identify the genre, if your story crosses over into another genre please tell us which one. Send synopsis as an attachment in e-mail (book@book-on-disc.com). If BOOK-ON-DISC.COM is interested, you will receive a request back for chapters. Please do not send chapters unless they are requested. All submissions will be handled through e-mail and by use of attached files.

• Microsoft Announces Frankfurt eBook Awards

Microsoft Corporation has announced its founding sponsorship of the Frankfurt eBook Awards, the first awards designed to honor literary achievements in the emerging eBook industry. A total of seven awards will be presented annually for works in various categories, including a grand prize of $100,000 for the best work published originally in electronic form.

The first recipients will be announced at the 2000 Frankfurt Book Fair, which will be the permanent site for the awards. Submissions for the Frankfurt eBook Awards will be accepted starting in January 2000.

An international panel of judges, including educators, members of the media, authors and other publishing-industry professionals, will determine the winning entries in the following categories:

$100,000 - Grand Prize, for a work originally published in eBook form

$ 10,000 - Best fiction work originally published in eBook form

$ 10,000 - Best nonfiction work originally published in eBook form

$ 10,000 - Best recent fiction work converted from print to eBook form

$ 10,000 - Best recent nonfiction work converted from print to eBook form

$ 10,000 - Best spoken-word or audio book title delivered in digital form

$ 10,000 - Technology award for the advancement of electronic publishing

(For further information, visit http://frankfurt-ebook-awards.org/)

THE BOTTOM LINES:

If you have news of your own writing exploits or something you think will be of value to the Amazing Authors readership, please send the information to be included with the next newsletter to AmazingAuthors@aol.com. The next issue of the ezine will be online around the first of April. Until then, we wish you great success in your writing and creative efforts.

The Staff of the Amazing Authors Showcase

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