December 2011 - The ASJA Monthly

THE OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF JOURNALISTS AND AUTHORS 

ECKSTUT & STERRY 

THE BOOK DOCTORS 

TECH REVIEW 

LIVESCRIBE PEN 

SUBLIME SATISFACTION 

WRITING ESSAYS 

CONSULTING ADULTS 

COVERING PORN 

VOLUME 60 • NUMBER 11 • DECEMBER 2011 

THE 

PAYMENT 

PROBLEM 

BY DEBORAH ABRAMS KAPLAN 

WE WRITE WHAT YOU READ

The 

Monthly 

VOLUME 60 • NUMBER 11 

DECEMBER 2011 

Features 

Voices on Writing: Arielle Eckstut & David Henry Sterry 

BY BARBARA DEMARCO-BARRETT 6 

2012 ASJA Annual Writing Awards Call For Submissions 10 

PUBLICATIONS CHAIR 

Tina Tessina 

EDITOR 

Barbara DeMarco-Barrett 

DESIGN & LAYOUT 

Dave Mosso 

COVER ILLUSTRATION 

Andy Mitchell 

CONTRIBUTORS 

Patchen Barss, Bob Brody, 

Lisa Collier Cool, Melissa Gaskill, 

Deborah Huso, 

Deborah Abrams Kaplan, Janine Latus, 

Alexandra Owens, Patchen Barrs, 

Gini Graham Scott, Salley Shannon, 

PROOFREADERS 

Theresa Barger, Sharon Hazard, 

Joan Heilman, Carole Moore, 

Kathryn Wilkens, Arline Zatz 

The ASJA Monthly (ISSN 1541-8928) 

is published monthly, except for a 

combined July/August issue, by the 

American Society of Journalists and 

Authors, Inc., 1501 Broadway, Suite 403, 

New York, NY 10036. Subscriptions: 

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© 2011 American Society of 

Journalists and Authors, Inc. 

The articles and opinions on these pages 

are those of the individual writers and do 

not necessarily represent the philosophy of 

ASJA. Please obtain permission from ASJA 

and individual writers before reproducing 

any part of this newsletter. 

The deadline for submissions to The ASJA 

Monthly is the first of each month for two 

months out. 

$#&*! BY GINI GRAHAM SCOTT 

Dealing with defamatory reviews on Amazon 12 

Columns & Departments 

From the President’s Desk BY SALLEY SHANNON 

Some who write aren’t in it for their career or a living … can we call a truce 3 

Society Page 

New and noteworthy member happenings 4 

Websites and Social Media Outposts 5 

Technology BY JANINE LATUS 

Reviewing the LiveScribe Pulse Pen 8 

Banned Books Week Recap BY ALEXANDRA OWENS 9 

WEAF: Writers Helping Writers 14 

Writing Life BY PATCHEN BARRS 

Tales of covering the adult entertainment industry … for the articles 16 

What's in Store BOOK REVIEWS BY MELISSA GASKILL 18 

ASJA Mission and Administration 19 

Features 

The Payment Problem BY DEBORAH ABRAMS KAPLAN 

Getting paid in alternative ways as a freelancer C1 

Columns & Departments 

Writing Life BY BOB BRODY 

The sublime rewards of writing essays 

C4 

Inside ASJA WITH ASJA’S EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR ALEXANDRA OWENS 

Industry News The latest information from around the industry 

New & Reinstated Members 

MarketRate Formerly PayCheck 

Warning List 

C12 

C8 

The Confidential section is for ASJA members only. All the information in this section must be kept confidential. 

C7 

Interested in the contents of the entire newsletter, and not just the public section ASJA members receive all 32 pages, including trade 

secrets, market information, and publishing contacts. Information on membership requirements is available on the website at www.asja.org. 

C6 

2 THE ASJA MONTHLY DECEMBER 2011 WWW.ASJA.ORG

FROM THE PRESIDENT’S DESK 

BY SALLEY SHANNON 

A Holiday Truce 

I 

f I could give gifts to all my writer friends—and to myself—it 

wouldn’t be cash or tips about editors with stories 

to assign, or the book publisher with the dynamite idea, but 

lacks the perfect writer. 

We’d all have a better shot at finding work, not to mention 

our equilibrium, if the first holiday present we unwrap holds 

courage and generosity of spirit. Both are as important as money, 

now that the world is tilting digital and ... what next 

Courage, coupled with skills and a hefty streak of stubborn, 

is what divides writers from wannabes. If you add in diligence, 

good timing and luck, you have the difference between a writer of 

bestsellers or one whose name appears in top tier pubs, and writers 

who dwell in the comfortable middle aisles. 

The ability to write clear prose To persuade or to make 

readers cry It certainly helps. But I submit that the writers who 

make it into the top ranks are no more blessed with inherent talent 

than are any random 25 percent of their peers. 

Many of us write very well indeed. So do many amateurs. 

There, I’ve said it! We don’t like to admit it, but plenty of people 

can do what we do—occasionally. That’s why More.com, the 

Huffington Post, and many others are faring well, despite using 

“content producers” who don’t demand payment. There’s a huge 

universe of people who write well enough to be published every 

now and then. 

Publishers who use them don’t need us. It’s that simple. No 

money is disappearing from our pockets. It was never there. 

The publishers who do need reliable, well-written, factcheckable 

copy every time at bat still turn to us and pay us. The 

demand in some genres—business writing and science writing— 

even seems to be increasing. It’s just that right now we’re slamdunk 

in the middle of a revolution, so it’s taking a while to sort 

out the “how” and “paid for what.” Trust me, chickadees: We may 

not be writing the same things, but professional writers will always 

have paid work. 

It takes courage to believe that when you’re scrambling for 

next month’s mortgage money. It takes generosity of spirit not to 

throw stones at those who write for free. 

We tell one another that those poor suckers writing for nothing 

are fools. It’s time to stop the name calling, which makes us 

seem desperate and diminishes what we do. They aren’t fools. 

They’re folks with day jobs who are passionate about a topic or 

else dream of being a writer. 

Can we blame them for that Didn’t you get high on your 

first byline and every one since And when you held your new 

book in your hands for the first time 

Admitting that some of these folks write well is not to say 

that all amateur writers are able. Much of what’s on the Internet 

is copycat commentary, poorly expressed and too often, plagiarized. 

(Not always intentionally, ignorance being bliss.) 

Also, while the good amateur bloggers are very good indeed, 

many posts are built on issues raised by professional journalists. 

If all bloggers were forced to report every story and have it 

fact-checked, they’d vanish like potato chips at a picnic. For really 

getting the goods, the Internet still needs the pros. Us. And 

our friends in newsrooms, real and digital. That isn’t going to 

change. 

It’s time to acknowledge that amateur writers aren’t going 

away, and neither are we, because there’s room for all of us. 

Recognizing that doesn’t mean we step back from our long-time 

ASJA tenet that writers should be paid for their efforts. It just 

inserts the word “professional” in there. We always meant that, 

anyway. 

Are you willing to sign petitions and march because Aunt 

Mamie, who’s never written a word before, wasn’t paid when a 

site put up her essay I’m not. I never was. She didn’t intend to 

pay the rent with that essay, and nobody forced her to send it in. 

Would I be willing to picket a mega-publisher who frequently, 

routinely stiffs members Pick a date. I’ll meet you on Columbus 

Circle. Fellow writers need their rent money. 

It’s time to acknowledge that amateur 

writers aren’t going away, and neither 

are we, because there’s room for all of us. 

Elegant writing is the flag on the mountaintop. Having a 

way with words may get you blown to the occasional peak, but to 

get there consistently, you need a sturdy set of writer skills. 

Skills like being able to research the breeding of sperm 

whales, so you’ll know what questions to ask a scientist who studies 

them. Or the equally valuable skill of knowing when it’s safe to 

stop researching and move into writing. The skill of recognizing 

bogus research when you trip over it, because once you barked 

your shins, and an editor caught you out. How to coax a nervous 

interviewee into chatting happily, or what is tougher: channeling 

the verbal onslaught of interviewees who talk like Niagara Falls. 

Then there is the skill that really is a gut-level moral perception: 

that absolute honesty truly is the best policy when it comes 

to interviewing and writing, and that anything short of it puts 

you in shaky legal territory. It takes experience to know an editor’s 

“Just tell her we’ll say it another way” doesn’t absolve you of 

the sin of being a user. 

These skills are the professional writer’s tool kit and they 

aren’t developed overnight. The amateur writers love writing and 

words, just as we do, but it’s the rare writer among them who can 

even approach our skills or our consistency. 

They’re not us. They don’t get paid. We’re not them. We do. 

That’s the known world. No rock-throwing, please. ¢ 

ASJA president Salley Shannon urges you to join her 

in giving to WEAF, the Writers Emergency Action Fund, 

by automatic deduction. When combined, our small 

sums rescue writers in dire need. Visit asja.org/weaf/ 

help02.php. 

Receive The ASJA Monthly Electronically 

Download or have emailed 

to you each issue of 

The ASJA Monthly in PDF 

format before it even 

hits the printer. 

For details, visit www.asja.org/newsletter 

THE ASJA MONTHLY DECEMBER 2011 WWW.ASJA.ORG 3

Society Page 

New & Noteworthy Member Happenings 

Francesca 

De Grandis 

Joan 

Wester 

Anderson 

Kerry 

Hannon 

Joan Wester Anderson’s eighth book in her angels/miracles series 

was a finalist in the 8th annual USA Today Best Books of 2011. Angelic 

Tails: True Stories of Heavenly Canine Companions was one of 500 

books chosen by the premier on-line review website from “an unprecedented 

number of entries” published in 2010 and 2011 … Josephine 

Bacon has written 15 books, two of them published this September 

and October. The September book is her second guide to wild mushrooms, 

Les champignons du nord-est de l’Amerique du Nord followed 

by The Popeye Cookbook in October … Ivan Berger has been elected 

by the Consumer Electronics Association to the Consumer Electronics 

Hall of Fame, together with freelancer Lancelot Braithwaite, for the 

work the two of them did at Video magazine under the byline “Berger- 

Braithwaite Labs” … Francesca De Grandis’ new book Share My 

Insanity: It Improves Everything (White River Press) was released in 

September and hit Amazon’s “Best Sellers in Spiritual Self-Help” list 

… Kay Harwell Fernandez released the third version of her iPhone/ 

iPad app Chocoholic Traveler (now renamed Chocolate Travel) published 

by Sutro Media and Apple iTunes. With 175 entries and 950 photos, 

the app covers chocolate museums, festivals, themed travel, trails, 

tours, attractions, spas, and artisan chocolatiers … Kerry Hannon 

was named a 2011-2012 MetLife Foundation Journalists in Aging 

Fellow. Her book, What’s Next Follow Your Passion and Find Your 

Dream Job won the 2011 Independent Book Publishers (IPPY) bronze 

medal in the business/career category and the 2011 Axiom Business 

Books bronze medal … Mardi Jo Link won Creative Nonfiction’s 

“Anger & Revenge” contest for her essay, “Rebecca vs. Mr. Wonderful.” 

She will receive a $1,000 prize and publication in this month’s CNF 

#43, edited by Lee Gutkind. Creative Nonfiction has been exclusively 

devoted to publishing literary nonfiction since 1994. 

Rodney J. Moore is writing Intranet copy and White Papers for two 

separate medical clients (finally). He is not sure if his personal trainer 

certification had anything to do with his good fortune, but it probably 

didn’t hurt … Mary L. Peachin announces the publication of two new 

books in soft cover and Kindle format. They are Sharks: The Sleek and 

the Savage with up close and personal encounters (a revision of The 

Complete Idiot’s Guide to Sharks) and Sport Fishing in the Caribbean 

… Alvin H. “Skip” Reiss is one of 11 national winners of the Beautiful 

Mardi Jo 

Link 

Rodney J. Moore 

Mary L. Peachin 


Minds campaign honoring seniors. In October, he started a weekly 

newspaper column in the Somers Record, his article on traveling 

with grandkids appeared in Generations Magazine and he and his 

block song were featured in American Theatre Magazine. In January, 

the periodical he edits, Arts Management, which he co-founded with 

Alvin Toffler, celebrates its 50th year … 

Arthur G. Sharp’s recent book, The Everything Guide to the Middle 

East: Understand the people, the politics, and the culture of this conflicted 

region, was published by Adams Media in October. It is an 

updated version of the book published originally in 2004 … Elaine 

Fantle Shimberg’s newest book is Growing Up Jewish in Small Town 

America: A Memoir (Abernathy House Publishing). A departure from 

her usual 22 other books on health subjects and family issues, this focuses 

on her growing up years in Fort Dodge, Iowa, in the ‘40s and ‘50s, 

where there were just 32 Jewish families … Kayt Sukel’s first book, 

Dirty Minds: How Our Brains Influence Love, Sex and Relationships, 

will be published by the Free Press in January 2012. This edgy and 

irreverent look at love and the brain has already been praised as “seductively 

interesting,” “fascinating,” and “compulsively readable” 

… Deborah Swiss’ The Tin Ticket: The Heroic Journey of Australia’s 

Convict Women (Berkley Books/Penguin) is out in paperback and has 

been optioned for a feature film by Toronto-based EVN Productions 

… The Mom’s Choice Awards® has named Hot (Sweaty) Mamas: Five 

Secrets to Life as a Fit Mom (Andrews McMeel 2011) among the best 

in family-friendly media. Co-author Kara Douglass Thom was also 

selected by Revlon as a role model for their ad campaign in the Oct. 24 

issue of People Magazine. The high-profile magazine placement was a 

result of successful renegade marketing that she took part in while in 

New York City for the 2011 ASJA Conference … Erin Torneo (Picking 

Cotton) has moved with her husband and toddler twins to Dublin, 

Ireland, and is blogging about her adventures at othersideoftheroad. 

net … Lynn Voedisch new historical novel, The God’s Wife (Fiction 

Studio Books) is being sold as both an e-book on all platforms (iPad, 

Kindle, nook, etc.) and as a paperback … Barry Yeoman has created 

some buzz in environmental circles with an Audubon Magazine article 

exploring why the green movement remains so white at audubonmagazine.org/articles/living/facing-future. 

Correction 

Jan Goodwin has won two Clarion Awards this year, not one as previously 

listed. The first was for “Broken Promises,” on political asylum, 

which ran in Ladies’ Home Journal and the second for an expose on 

the VA’s health care for Good Housekeeping. This is her third Clarion. ¢ 

Kayt Sukel’s 

Dirty Minds 

Kara Douglass Thom’s 

Hot Sweaty Mamas 

Deborah J. Swiss’ 

The Tin Ticket 

Barry Yeoman 

Websites & Social Media Outposts* 

Francesca De Grandis outlawbunny.com 

Kay Harwell Fernandez 

@chocolatetravel 

kayharwellfernandez 

Kerry Hannon kerryhannon.com 

Rodney J. Moore rodneyjmoore.com 

Mary Peachin peachin.com 

Elaine Fantle Shimberg ElainesBooks.com 

Kayt Sukel kaytsukel.typepad.com 

@kaytsukel 

Deborah Swiss deborahswiss.com 

Kara Douglass Thom karathom.com 

Lynn Voedisch lynnvoedisch.com 

Joan Wester Anderson joanwanderson.com 

Barry Yeoman barryyeoman.com 

@Barry_Yeoman 

* Mostly gleaned from the Society Page above. Send yours to theasjamonthly@asja.org 


Voices on Writing 

The Book Doctors 

Arielle Eckstut & 

David Henry Sterry 

D 

avid Henry Sterry & Arielle Eckstut 

are co-founders of The Book Doctors, a 

company dedicated to helping authors 

get successfully published. They are also co-authors 

of The Essential Guide to Getting Your 

Book Published. Between them they’ve written 14 

books, agented hundreds of others, and appeared 

everywhere from the cover of The Sunday New 

York Times Book Review to NPR to USA Today. 

They can be found at www.thebookdoctors.com. 

by Barbara DeMarco-Barrett 

You’ve been doing a lot of workshops on “perfecting your 

pitch,” also a chapter in your book. Why is having a pitch so 

important 

Most people who aren’t in the publishing business (and 

frankly, some who actually are) don’t understand how important 

the pitch is. If you are an unknown writer, it’s very very difficult 

to get your stuff read by an agent or editor who’s any good. The 

first thing they’re going to read is your pitch. If they don’t fall in 

love with it—and by proxy, you—you get one of those horrible rejection 

letters back that begins with: “While I really enjoyed the 

opportunity to read your material, at the present time it does not 

fit our needs, blah, blah, blah…” 

Your pitch will follow you around from the first time you tell 

a friend, “Hey, I’ve decided to write a book!” through and past 

publication. It will go to an agent, then to an editor, then to an 

editorial board, then to the sales department, then to the publicity 

team (if you are lucky enough to have one). Once a publisher 

buys the book, the sales reps will use your pitch as they go out 

and try to sell it to bookstores. Then when a customer walks into 

the bookstore and asks for a book similar to yours, hopefully a 

bookseller will hand-sell your book, using the pitch which you 

took all that time to perfect. And, if you’re extremely lucky, people 

will be pitching your book long after you’re dead. 

Barbara DeMarco-Barrett is editor of The ASJA 

Monthly and author of the ASJA award-winning Pen on 

Fire (Harcourt, 2004). She hosts Writers on Writing on 

KUCI-FM, in Southern California. She’s a contributor to 

the bestselling Orange County Noir (Akashic, 2010). 

What about the books that defy having a perfect pitch I 

can think of a few literary novels, for instance, that would be 

difficult to sum up and pitch in a way that sounds brilliant. 

It’s our contention that there is no book that defies a perfect 

pitch. One of the things that people don’t understand is that 

the voice of the book should come through in the pitch. So even if 

you’re James Joyce pitching Ulysses, you can find a way to bring 

your signature style into the pitch. 

That said, condensing a book into a pitch is one of the most 

difficult things to do. It’s kind of like constructing a 200-word 

poem. Recently a friend of ours, Alice LaPlante, wrote a stunning 

literary thriller called Turn of Mind. Her pitch: A brilliant 

surgeon is accused of killing her best friend. But she has 

Alzheimer’s, and can’t remember whether she is a murderer. 

In two sentences, she makes you want to read the book. 

Isn’t there the danger of your pitch sounding canned 

Anything artificial, poorly constructed, and ill-conceived 

will, by its very definition, sound canned. When we are developing 

a pitch, we practice it over and over and over again, polishing 

and buffing, tweaking and molding, until it’s just right. It took 

us six months to write, memorize, and choreograph our pitch 

for The Essential Guide to Getting Your Book Published. Writers 

make the mistake of constructing a pitch that sounds like a book 

report. Your pitch is your audition as a writer. It should contain 

the very best of your writing. If your writing sounds canned, 

probably your pitch will. But if you’re a good writer, your pitch 

needs to be full of good writing. 


In your book you also talk about “defining your identity.” 

Is this important for all writers, or just writers on prescriptive 

nonfiction 

Defining your identity helps you define your audience. 

Understanding who your audience is, and how to reach them, 

is the cornerstone of any business, particularly now in the world 

of the long tail, and increasingly well-defined niches. To identify 

and connect with your tribe is one of the paramount things you 

can do as a writer. It’s practically a cliché now, but the idea of a 

writer branding him/herself is still a vital notion. Whatever kind 

of book you’re writing. When you approach a book a la Stephen 

King, there’s a certain promise that is inherent. You know that 

some crazy, terrifying, often supernatural stuff is going to happen. 

Same with everyone from Mark Twain to Dostoevsky to 

David Foster Wallace to Suzanne Collins to Jackie Collins. 

Is maintaining a presence on Facebook and Twitter more 

important than having a blog, or do they all work together 

Everything should feed everything else. We post things 

on many different platforms simultaneously. Our Facebook, 

Twitter, and website/blog are all hooked up together. We also 

often post things on Goodreads, Redroom, our Amazon page, 

LinkedIn and now Google+. Our attitude is that doing social media 

is like brushing your teeth. You don’t need to spend hours 

brushing your teeth. But you have to do it very well, every day.   

Arielle, you’ve been an agent for quite a while. How has 

agenting changed from when you started 

Well, that world has turned upside down. Yes, of course, 

there are still lots of very successful agents who very much work 

in the old-fashioned model of publishing. They find writers, they 

sell books to publishers, etc. But the smart agents are doing what 

smart writers are doing. They know the bloggers who write in the 

categories they represent. They are proactive and look for those 

successful self-publishers who are ready to be snapped up. They 

are also becoming publishers themselves, or offering services to 

self-publishers who want to do it right. This never would’ve happened 

even five years ago. 

Do you think ebook deals, without books in print, are 

good things, or should a writer accept an ebook-only deal 

if all other avenues to traditional publishing have been 

exhausted 

It all depends on your goals a writer. We know many writers, 

especially those working in the genres of science fiction, mystery, 

thriller, romance, fantasy, and erotica, who know exactly how to 

reach their audience online, and are able to make money selling 

their ebooks. Of course, if you sell enough ebooks, publishers 

will come running for you. It can take such an enormous amount 

of time and effort and emotional perseverance to find an agent, 

and/or publisher. If you can reach your audience directly, in this 

day and age, it makes sense to publish your book electronically. 

If your interest is more in being the author of a beautifully bound 

hardcover book, then perhaps ebooks are not where you should 

be putting your effort. David is just about to start putting his 

short stories and novellas up individually, and in bundles, strictly 

as ebooks. The great thing is, you can change the price, according 

to what the market dictates. And you can continually update the 

book and send it all over the universe with the push of a button. 

It’s a miraculous age we live in, and we think it’s the greatest time 

in history to be a writer.  

Talk about book titles. How important are they 

A great title can literally sell a book. There are several very 

successful books, which shall remain nameless here, which have 

become bestsellers mainly on the merit of their title. When you 

pick up these books, and start investigating what’s inside, it’s 

rather shocking how bad some of them are. People judge books 

by their covers. People judge books by their titles. People judge 

books by their pitches. And nowadays, especially if you’re writing 

nonfiction, having words in your title that are search engine 

optimization-friendly is absolutely crucial. Because when someone 

sits down to do a Google search to find a book that’s like 

yours, naturally you want your book to come up first. And title 

can be a powerful tool in this regard. Six years ago, our book 

was called Putting Your Passion Into Print. We changed that title 

to make it friendly to search engines. The Essential Guide to 

Getting Your Book Published: How to Write It, Sell It, and Market 

It… Successfully! is such a mouthful, but we wanted to make it 

easy for writers to find us. 

Many writers, especially those working in the 

genres of science fiction, mystery, thriller, 

romance, fantasy, and erotica, who know 

exactly how to reach their audience online, 

and are able to make money selling their ebooks. 

Why does it seem that nonfiction books, especially memoirs, 

need subtitles, but not so for fiction 

Novels aren’t about conveying information (at least not 

overtly). The tradition of the subtitle is communicating further 

the information you will find in a book. So, while we haven’t 

looked up the history on this, we’re pretty sure this is why fiction 

remains subtitle-less. 

Does it ever make sense to get a deal without an agent 

Yes, yes and yes! David made his last book deal without an 

agent. He didn’t hire a lawyer to look the contract over. The book 

was with the tiny, though respected publisher, Soft Skull. He 

and his co-author, Richard Martin, assumed it would be a small 

book, that very few people would even become aware of. To his 

utter astonishment, that book ended up on the front cover of the 

Sunday New York Times Book Review. It attracted the interest of 

some Hollywood people, one of whom eventually optioned the 

book. In general, with smaller books, it is not necessary—nor will 

it be possible—to get an agent. And agents are getting pickier 

and pickier as the established publishing industry shrinks. That 

said, it is important to know the downsides of going agent-less. 

For example, the contract David signed with his publisher turned 

out to be problematic when it came to his Hollywood deal. So he 

had to pay a lawyer to go back in and negotiate with the publisher, 

and it ended up costing him a lot more than 15 percent. We believe 

that it is always good to have somebody who specializes in 

book contracts, be it a lawyer or someone who provides services 

like us at The Book Doctors, to carefully go over your contract. 

And whatever you do, hire a lawyer who’s conversant in this area 

of the law. Lawyers who don’t specialize in publishing may end 

up asking for ridiculous things that no publisher is ever going to 

give, and in the end guess who pays for it all You. 

continued on page 17 


TECHNOLOGY 

BY JANINE LATUS 

Livescribe Pulse Pen 

A 

year ago I was heading to Israel for a job I got through 

ASJA’s Freelance Writer Search. (Side note: I was able to 

negotiate for more money because of information shared 

by an ASJA friend.) The sources spoke Hebrew first and English 

second, and I knew that most of our interviews would happen in 

coffee shops, crowded rooms or in the car as we drove past Camel 

Crossing signs. 

I could have kept my head 

down, frantically scribbling, 

trying to catch every number, 

name and pithy phrasing. I also 

could have schlepped around 

a tape recorder and hit the index 

button every time there was 

something important to remember, 

then spent weeks transcribing 

a trip’s-worth of talking. 

Instead I took my magic 

pen. The Livescribe Pulse 

Smartpen—recommended by 

a panelist at the ASJA conference—looks 

like a classy ink pen, 

which it is, but it is also a digital 

recorder with its own set of directional 

microphone ear buds 

that home in on what a source is 

saying, even when a cappuccino 

machine is grinding in the background. My Smartpen heard better 

than I did at the coffee shops and sidewalk cafes we visited 

half a dozen times a day, which left me free to truly engage in the 

conversation, only occasionally writing slugs like “brain tumor,” 

or “not a bomb” on the pen’s special dot-matrix paper. When it 

came time to write I just tapped my pen on any given word and 

listened to whatever was being said at the time. 

Plus, when I plug my Smartpen into a USB-port my notes appear 

on my computer screen in my own handwriting – diagrams, 

doodles and all. I can then point and click on anything and the 

audio that was recorded at that moment plays back through my 

computer speakers. I’ve learned to jot key words at regular intervals 

so I can choose precisely what I want to listen to later. 

Janine Latus is the author of the international bestseller 

If I Am Missing or Dead: a sister’s story of love, 

murder and liberation, which has been translated 

into six languages. She writes for magazines as she 

tries to convince editors to buy her next book. 

I can easily drag and drop notes into my various chapter and 

story files and I have the option of sharing my notes via email, 

Googledocs or even Facebook directly from the Livescribe software, 

which means I can send them off to my transcriptionist 

without hassle. 

If that isn’t enough, there’s an app store where I can buy software 

that transcribes my handwriting 

into type (also a whole 

bunch of tempting time sucks 

like hangman, video poker and 

faux guitars and pianos). There 

are add-ons that translate written 

text into another language, 

search Wikipedia or a dictionary 

or a thesaurus, or do your 

math for you. Frankly, I’m looking 

for what button to push to 

turn it into a jet pack. 

You can get a refurbished 

Pulse pen for anywhere from 

$50 to $100, but the new model—called 

the Echo—will run 

you from $150 to $250, plus the 

price of the magic paper, which 

costs from $8 to $13 dollars per 

notebook. Remember, though, 

that you will only be writing a 

fraction as much as you do with a regular pen and paper. You also 

can print out your own dot matrix paper with your color printer. 

The company’s website says the pen’s battery will record 

writing and sound for five and a half hours, which is far longer 

than my ability to sustain an intelligent interview, so my pen 

has never run out of juice. Likewise my pen cartridge is still going 

most of a year later, but several reviews said the ink runs out 

quickly and that customer service is lousy. Some reviewers also 

complain that the recharge jack and headphones are proprietary, 

although that hasn’t proven to be a problem for me. 

I’m doing research now for a complex book on the art and 

science and ethics behind the scenes at Colonial Williamsburg, 

so I spend my days capturing both arcane material and quirky 

personalities, often with a forge blazing or a lathe turning in 

the background. My magic pen—combined with my cell phone’s 

camera—make it easy. ¢ 

For more information go to livescribe.com. For user reviews, 

check Amazon and other online sites. 

Need a writer, editor, or project manager 

ASJA’s Freelance Writer Search 

When you need a professional for the job. 

www.freelancewritersearch.com 


650 VIDEOS POSTED DURING 

BANNED BOOKS READ-OUT 

Defending the freedom to speak, write, and 

read is—and will remain—one of ASJA’s most 

important missions. 2011 marks ASJA’s 30 th year 

as a primary sponsor of Banned Books Week. 

Attacks on the First Amendment are not going 

away and ASJA members are hit close to home 

as writers and readers when attacks occur. To 

keep the freedom-to-read fires burning bright, we 

mailed our iconic “I Read Banned Books” buttons 

out to 300 newer members this past fall, and many 

members participated in the Virtual Read Out. 

The following is a press release from the Banned 

Books Week organizers about this year’s activities. 

– Alexandra Owens 

CHICAGO – More than 650 people read from their favorite banned books during the virtual read-out that took place on YouTube 

as part of the recently concluded Banned Books Week. 

People of all ages were filmed in bookstores, libraries and their own homes throughout the United States. They were joined by 

Whoopi Goldberg and many authors whose books have been challenged, including Judy Blume, Lauren Myracle, Jay Asher, and Chris 

Crutcher. The videos are posted at youtube.com/bannedbooksweek . 

“We are absolutely delighted with the response to our first virtual read-out,” said Barbara Jones, the director of the American 

Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom. “Without question, this is the largest number of people to ever participate in a 

read-out, and we will be looking for ways to expand next year during the 30th anniversary of Banned Books Week.” 

The virtual read-out was the centerpiece of an expanded Banned Books Week, which focuses attention on the censorship of 

books in schools and libraries. The sponsors launched a redesigned website: bannedbooksweek.org. In addition to providing information 

about the virtual read-out, it includes an interactive map that shows the location of book challenges in recent years as well 

as a listing of featured events and a state-by-state listing of libraries, bookstores and other groups that are participating in Banned 

Books Week. 

To provide additional organizational support for Banned Books Week, the current sponsors—the ALA, the American Booksellers 

Foundation for Free Expression, the American Society of Journalists and Authors (ASJA), the Association of American Publishers 

(AAP), and the National Association of College Stores (NACS)—recruited several new sponsors this year: NCAC, the Comic Book 

Legal Defense Fund (CBLDF), the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) and PEN American Center (PEN). Project 

Censored joined the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress as an endorser of Banned Books Week. 

Publishers increased their support and participation as well. A number of AAP member publishers, including Hachette, Penguin, 

Random House, Scholastic, HarperCollins and Simon & Schuster provided guidance for the observance through an AAP Banned 

Books Week Publisher Task Force. 

Contact: 

Chris Finan 

American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression 

(212) 587-4025, ext. 4 

Barbara Jones 

American Library Association 

(312) 280-4222 

Judith Platt 

Association of American Publishers 

(202) 220-4551 

Christopher Finan, president 

American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression (ABFFE) 

19 Fulton St., Suite 407 


Office: (212) 587-4025 

Cell: (917) 509-0340 

abffe.org 


2012 

ASJA ANNUAL 

WRITING AWARDS 

SUBMISSION DEADLINE: JANUARY 13, 2012 

Each year ASJA recognizes its members’ distinguished achievements in articles and books with a 

series of awards, which are presented at the annual ASJA Writers Conference. 

OUTSTANDING BOOK AWARDS 

These awards are conferred upon ASJA members 

whose nonfiction books, either alone or added to a 

body of work, are deemed highly significant. Solo or 

collaborative works may be nominated in any of four 

categories: 

• Children/Young Adult Nonfiction 

• General Nonfiction 

• Memoir/Autobiography 

• Service/Self-Help 

Entries for the 2012 Book Awards must have been published 

in 2011. You may nominate your own book or that 

of another member. Full-length, self-published books 

are eligible for all book awards. 

OUTSTANDING ARTICLE AWARDS 

These awards honor members whose articles, produced 

on a freelance basis, have demonstrated excellence 

in eight distinct categories: 

• Business/Technology article (for consumer publication) 

• First-person personal experience or dramatic narrative 

(including “as-told-to”) 

• Lifestyle article (narrative on subject such as travel, 

food & wine, culture) 

• Personal essay, opinion, or op-ed (may include blogtype 

pieces published by third parties such as The 

Huffington Post) 

• Profiles 

• Reporting on a significant topic (for example, narrative 

or literary journalism dealing with a topic such as 

a medical breakthrough, new legislation, business/ 

finance, etc., for consumer publications) 

• Service article (for example, advice, self-help, guidance, 

how-to) 

• Trade article (written for a specialized industry publication) 

Entries for the 2012 Article Awards must have been published 

in 2011. Articles written for Internet publications 

should be entered in the appropriate category and will 

be given full consideration. Members may submit their 

own articles and/or articles by other members. 

NAMED AWARDS 

The Arlenes: Books and Articles 

That Make a Difference 

An endowment by long-time ASJA member Howard 

Eisenberg In honor of his late wife, the author of What 

to Expect When You’re Expecting and other bestselling 

books that made a difference in the lives of mothers 

worldwide, established the Arlene Eisenberg Memorial 

Fund. Income generated by the fund provides monetary 

awards to writers whose freelance article(s) and/or 

trade book(s) make a documented difference by inspiring 

action that has a positive impact on the community, 

society, or the world. Examples include motivating readers 

to lobby for legislation or form an advocacy group 

or stirring officials to launch an investigation, correct an 

injustice, or remove a hazard. 

The Arlene Article Award is presented annually for an 

article published within the prior two years. For 2012, 

eligible articles must have been published in 2010 or 

2011. Members may nominate their own work, or the 

work of other writers. 

The Arlene Book Award is typically offered every three 

years; last presented in 2010. It will next be presented 

in 2013. 

June Roth Memorial Awards for Outstanding 

Medical Book and Article 

The late Fred Roth established the June Roth Memorial 

Fund to honor his wife, the 31 st president of the Society, 

who died in 1990. Income generated by the fund provides 

monetary awards to ASJA members whose freelance 

articles and trade books represent exceptional 

achievement in the field of health and medical writing. 

The June Roth Article Award is offered every year. Eligible 

articles must have been published in 2011. 


The June Roth Book Award is typically offered every 

three years; last offered in 2010. It will next be offered 

in 2013. 

Donald Robinson Memorial Award for 

Investigative Journalism Article 

A bequest from Donald Robinson, the third president 

of ASJA, established the Donald Robinson Memorial 

Fund. This fund generates income to provide an annual 

monetary award to a writer who has published an 

article, produced on a freelance basis that represents 

exceptional achievement in the field of investigative reporting 

or exposé. Entries eligible for the 2012 award 

must have been published during 2011. Members may 

nominate their own articles, or articles written by others. 

Robert C. Anderson Memorial Award 

This award, first presented in 1992, honors an individual—an 

editor, book editor, other purchaser of writers’ 

work, teacher, or mentor—who has the unusual qualities 

of character possessed by our late colleague Bob Anderson. 

This award is for a person who goes far beyond 

the norm to support and encourage writers in their work, 

displaying outstanding humaneness, compassion, and 

generosity. The individual need not be a member of the 

society, but only ASJA members may make nominations 

(no self-nominations accepted). Nominations are made 

in essay form. 

CAREER ACHIEVEMENT AWARD 

The Career Achievement Award may be presented 

to any ASJA member whose ability to tell a story and 

whose style, range, and diversity of career exemplify 

the profession of independent nonfiction writer. Members 

may nominate a fellow member by writing an essay 

explaining why this individual deserves the award 

(no self-nominations accepted). 

EXTRAORDINARY SERVICE AWARD 

The Extraordinary Service Award may be presented annually 

to any ASJA member whose pattern of providing 

service, assistance, information, and encouragement 

to other members–or to the entire membership or profession–exemplifies 

the society’s role as a supportive 

organization. Members may nominate a fellow member 

by writing an essay explaining why this individual deserves 

the award (no self-nominations accepted). 

SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS FOR 

ARTICLE AND BOOK AWARDS 

There are no printed nomination forms. All article and 

book nominations must be made via the ASJA website. 

Go to www.asja.org/awards for detailed submission 

instructions and links. 

INSTRUCTIONS FOR OTHER AWARDS 

ASJA CAREER ACHIEVEMENT AWARD 

ASJA EXTRAORDINARY SERVICE AWARD 

ROBERT C. ANDERSON AWARD 

To nominate someone for any of these awards, write 

a letter supporting your nomination to awards@asja. 

org. The letter must include the following information: 

• Name of nominee 

• Name of nominator 

• Contact information for Nominator 

• Brief essay detailing the reasons for the nomination 

The office will confirm receipt of all submissions; if you 

don’t receive such confirmation within two business 

days, please follow up. 

GENERAL RULES 

1. All articles and books considered for an award must 

have been published in 2011, unless otherwise noted. 

2. A member may enter a maximum of three articles. 

The works may be entered in the same category, 

or in different categories. There is a three-book limit 

on book entries. Unless otherwise noted, entries 

may be self-nominated or nominated by a fellow 

member. (The majority of entries are self-nominated 

and receive full consideration.) 

3. Each entry can be nominated in only one category. 

4. All entries are judged by the ASJA Awards Committee. 

The judges determine whether there is a winner 

in any particular category. 

5. Finalists will be notified approximately one month 

prior to the awards presentation event. 

6. Nominations and all materials must be received 

by the ASJA office by January 13, 2012, to be 

considered. 

SUBMISSION DEADLINE: 

JANUARY 13, 2012 

Go to www.asja.org/awards for details 


$#&*! 

Dealing with Defamatory 

Reviews on Amazon 

By Gini Graham Scott 

I 

was delighted when a mid-sized publisher offered to pick 

up my book, The Complete Guide To Using LinkedIn to 

Promote Your Business or Yourself, which I had self-published 

through iUniverse three months prior as a Print-On- 

Demand (POD) book under the title: Top Secrets for Using 

LinkedIn to Promote Your Business or Yourself. 

But my elation turned to shock and dismay when the publisher 

told me he had discovered a devastating one-star review 

about the book on Amazon. I checked, and found the one searing 

review. It had been up there for a month. At first glance, it 

appeared to savage the book, but when I looked closer, I found it 

was an attack on me, not the book. 

Among other things, the headline read: “Megalomaniac author, 

poorly written, images are just washed out.” The reviewer 

went on to say: “The author Gini Graham Scott is bragging all 

the time about herself.” 

The publisher had included my name on the top of each alternating 

page on the left, because I had put a Ph.D. after my 

name, and in my bio, I mentioned, among other things, that I had 

been on Oprah and Good Morning America. Geez! I was under 

the impression that you should feature your strengths and accomplishments 

to encourage book sales. 

The reviewer objected that my name was in bold red letters 

on the cover, and that I mentioned graduating from U.C. Berkeley 

on the back cover. He even objected to me “dressing in red to get 

attention.” He also complained that the extra spacing of the lines 

increased page length, and that it should have been 40-50 pages 

long rather than 134 pages “to create an impression of a bigger 

book.” He concluded by claiming “she lacks basic skills” and the 

book is a “waste of money.” He got facts wrong about the book itself, 

and when I researched his Amazon reviews, I found he had 

written only one other review that was a similarly off-the-wall 

rant—bashing a Fisher-Price toddler rocker. 

I felt insulted, libeled, and defamed—and I feared that if 

this review was allowed to stand by itself, not only would this interfere 

with sales to potential customers, but I could lose the upcoming 

sale to this mid-sized publisher. 

Many authors have confronted the problem of not only negative, 

but unfounded and even defamatory, book reviews on Amazon, 

but they haven’t been able to do much about it. Amazon commonly 

ignores requests to remove the reviews in question. Likewise, authors 

haven’t been successful in getting Amazon to even respond 

to their request for removal, much less remove the reviews, even 

when they are by reviewers who clearly haven’t read the books. And 

normally, Amazon doesn’t allow authors to deal with the problem 

by reviewing their own book. And lawsuits against the scurrilous 

poster, or against Amazon, can be expensive and difficult to pursue, 

especially if the author is a public figure or an expert. 

Perhaps Amazon has been unresponsive due to concerns 

about free speech, or because the time involved in dealing with 

such complaints can be excessive. 

I wasn’t sure what to do first. I emailed Amazon’s customer 

service the day after I saw the review asking if I could remove it. 

But as might be expected, there was no response, other than an 

automatic reply saying they had received my email. I posted a notice 

about this in the ASJA books forum. Members said it was “real 

tough to get Amazon to remove a posted review.” One member got 

Gini Graham Scott has written more than 50 books with 

various publishers including Random House, Simon 

& Schuster, Prentice-Hall, Contemporary Books, and 

Source Books. She now has her own publishing company, 

Changemakers Publishing using CreateSpace. Oh, 

and her favorite color is red. 


a review removed because it was an incorrect, derogatory categorization 

of his sexual orientation, clearly a violation of Amazon 

standards. Yet, only after enormous effort, including a threat that 

a letter from his lawyer was forthcoming and Amazon, as publishers 

of libel, would be responsible for damages to his character and 

reputation, was the review removed. Another ASJA member said 

that she had a review by someone who obviously hadn’t read her 

book, but had written three identical reviews on different sexuality 

books. Her letter to Amazon was ignored. 

A few days after I wrote to Amazon and received no response, 

I contacted a lawyer asking what I might do, and was told that 

due to free speech concerns, I probably couldn’t do much, plus it 

would be difficult proving any damages. But if I still wanted him 

to do something, it would cost $350 to write a letter. 

As a last resort, I wrote my own review, pointing up the fallacies 

in the outrageous reviewer’s comments, and found customers 

to post their own positive reviews. As I discovered, though 

Amazon’s stated policy is not to allow authors to review their 

own work, my 5-star review was published just like any other review, 

perhaps because these reviews are read, not by a person but 

by automated software. 

And my own review provided just the platform necessary to 

refute all of the reviewer’s false and defamatory claims and avoid 

the possibility of litigation—possibly an approach that other 

writers suffering from similarly off-the-wall reviews might use. 

After identifying myself as a book and screenplay writer 

from Oakland, California, here’s what I wrote: 

“This is to respond to a negative defamatory and libelous 

review which attacks me rather than the content of the book. I 

just learned of it from another publisher who will be publishing 

an expanded edition of the book. The reviewer calls me a ‘megalomaniac’ 

writer because my name is on one side of the page 

and I have included past credits on my bio. But he doesn’t understand 

that the formatting of the book is determined by the publisher, 

and a common practice is to put the author’s name on one 

page and the title of the book on the other, and it is often common 

practice to put a bio of the author on the back page or cover. 

Also, the publisher determines the layout and formatting of the 

book, and there is nothing unusual about the size of the print or 

the spacing. I have used the book in dozens of workshops where 

people have bought the book, and some have bought the book for 

their friends after reading it themselves. 

“The focus of the book is on different ways of using 

LinkedIn, with the focus on how the reader can use this, and it 

includes many strategies, including how you can create a powerful 

LinkedIn profile and company profile, how to use recommendations, 

the importance of joining groups, starting your own 

group, making connections with members, using search to find 

contacts and information, finding answers and asking questions, 

using applications, including Company Buzz, WordPress, Blog 

Link, Google Presentation, SlideShare Presentations, Events, 

My Travel, Box.net Files, Reading List, and Polls. It also discusses 

how to decide on the best strategy and assess your campaign. 

“I hope you will not be put off by this reviewer, whose only 

other review is a negative one about another product.” 

At least that review appeared on the top of the negative reviews 

and got my average rating to three stars. And then I put out 

a call for others who had read the book to rate it and write their 

own review. The result was two glowing five-star reviews, which 

effectively solved the problem. 

The average of my four reviews is now four stars, and the 

three positive reviews come first since they are more recent, and 

the defamatory review is now on the next page, so one has to click 

for more reviews to find it. The publisher was happy that the negative 

review had been put in its place, so to speak, and will be 

publishing the book shortly on a non-exclusive arrangement. I 

also published my own expanded edition of the books with more 

than 400 screenshots as The Complete Guide edition. Meanwhile, 

the sales of the book have risen, both for the POD and Kindle edition, 

which were both linked to the negative review. 

This two-pronged approach of writing my own response and 

enlisting some previous book customers to write positive reviews 

worked to counter the negative personal attack, and perhaps this 

is an approach others subjected to negative reviews might use. ¢ 

What ASJA Membership Means To Me: 

Freelance writing can be a solitary endeavor, one filled with 

rejection, wound-licking, fear, procrastination, and fridgeraiding. 

ASJA has given me the equivalent of a virtual office—one 

complete with hundreds of virtual co-workers who 

lift me up when I’m down, help me solve problems, and support 

my mental health and career. ASJA members have been 

instrumental in getting me publicity for my upcoming book. 

They’ve helped me nail assignments. They’ve workshopped 

essays with me. They’ve kept me from going insane. They’ve 

showed me my strengths and they’ve helped me to overcome 

my weaknesses. ASJA is my family. 

—Alisa Bowman 

alisabowman.com 


Meet Paula Dranov, the new leader of ASJA’s 

The Writers Emergency Assistance Fund 

BY LISA COLLIER COOL 

F 

or ASJA member Paula Dranov, the new chair of the 

Writers Emergency Assistance Fund (WEAF), charity 

literally began at home. As a child, Paula watched 

her mother tuck $2 in cash into envelopes. 

“She responded to every appeal, and never threw an envelope 

into the trash. She couldn’t send much but she always 

sent something,” says Paula, who served on the WEAF board 

as deputy chair before assuming her new leadership role at 

ASJA’s charity for professional writers facing financial hardship 

due to illness, disability, infirmity, or an extraordinary 

crisis. 

Paula is an award-winning freelance writer who specializes 

in health, nutrition, and fitness. She writes on a regular 

basis for drweil.com, the website of integrative medicine 

pioneer Dr. Andrew Weil. She has written seven books as 

well as hundreds of articles for leading national magazines, 

including Redbook, Good Housekeeping, Harper’s Bazaar, 

Cosmopolitan, and Reader’s Digest. She lives in New York 

City with two gorgeous—but very demanding—rescue cats. 

Joining Paula at the helm of WEAF, as deputy chair, is 

Gloria Hochman. Winner of ASJA’s Career Achievement 

Award in 2006 as well as 27 journalism awards, Gloria has 

written hundreds of articles for Health, Ladies Home Journal, 

Philadelphia Inquirer, Science Digest, The New York Times 

book review, and many other publications. She’s the coauthor, 

with Patty Duke, of the bestseller, A Brilliant Madness, 

and serves as director of communications at the National 

Adoption Center in Philadelphia. 

With WEAF’s 30 th anniversary coming up in 2012, I 

spoke to Paula about her plans for the year ahead and some of 

the questions she’s often asked about WEAF. 

You have held various positions in ASJA, including being 

secretary in the 1980s. Why do you now direct a major 

portion of your efforts to the Writers Emergency Assistance 

Fund 

Of all the volunteer positions I’ve held, this is by far the most 

gratifying. What we do as writers can be so difficult, and if we 

don’t look after each other, who will The WEAF board hears 

terrible stories about freelancers with Stage 4 breast cancer or 

horrible injuries, and it really makes us appreciate how important 

it is to share a bit of our better luck with professional writers 

who are struggling. Although WEAF’s grants are modest, they 

can make an incredible difference. 

What portion of ASJA members contribute to the fund 

In our last fiscal year, we received only 169 donations. About 

100 members added $5 or more to their dues payment as a donation 

to WEAF. The largest donation was $5,000, from an extremely 

generous ASJA member who was a former WEAF grant 

recipient. He is now doing so well that he was able to donate far 

more than he received as a grant. He told us that he believes in 

tithing, so he sent us 10 percent of the money he has in the bank, 

as a way of giving back so the money will there for someone else 

who needs it. Overall, the number of members who donate has 

dropped significantly, since 2008 when 522 members donated. 

Lisa Colllier Cool, a long time ASJA member and WEAF 

board member, has written for dozens of national magazines 

and is author of How to Write an Irresistible 

Query Letter. More at lisacolliercool.com. 

Do you have a goal for 2012 

It would be great to get at least $40,000 in donations. 

Clearly we have to do much better than last year when WEAF 

received $17,757 in donations and gave out $38,770 in grants. 

WEAF can’t sustain a trend of giving out more in grants than it 

receives in donations. 

How close are we 

Unfortunately, there’s a long way to go. We have received a 

number of donations this fiscal year, including $5,000 from an 

anonymous donor and $1,200 from an ASJA member. WEAF urgently 

needs donations of any amount. I’m hoping that members 

will consider donating $10 to $100 when they pay their annual 

dues. That’s been the traditional fundraising path for WEAF. 

However, I would like to see more members make monthly pledges. 

Many wouldn’t miss $5 to $10 a month—and if one-third of 

ASJA members donated an average of $20 per month (a few already 

donate $75 or more per month), WEAF would have more 

than $110,000 a year, enough to put us on a sound financial footing. 

It’s easy to make a tax-deductible donation online at weaf. 

org, using your credit card. 

Exactly how does WEAF help writers 

WEAF has awarded hundreds of grants to freelancers who 

are seriously ill and unable to pay their bills, those who have been 

injured or were victims of a natural disaster, and some who are 

simply too old to support themselves through writing. WEAF 

also alerts applicants to other groups that award grants to writers. 

Weaf.org has a list of these resources. 


All writers—members and non-members alike—can apply 

for grants. What’s the proportion of members helped vs. 

nonmembers 

The majority of grants—about 75 percent or more—go to 

nonmembers. To be eligible, applicants must be established professional 

writers with similar qualifications to those of ASJA 

members, who are suffering financial hardship due to illness, 

disability, natural disaster, infirmity, or an extraordinary crisis 

that impairs their ability to write. 

What’s the largest grant WEAF has ever given out 

Due to WEAF’s financial crisis, with grants exceeding donations, 

the board recently was forced to cut the maximum grant 

to $4,000. Previously, the maximum was $5,000. In the past, 

WEAF sometimes gave second grants of up to $2,500 in cases 

of extreme emergency, but to conserve its rapidly shrinking resources, 

the lifetime limit is now one grant per applicant. 

How does the WEAF board decide which applicants 

should receive grants For instance, you have 10 requests. 

What’s likely to tip you over to a particular applicant 

It was heartbreaking to have to turn down a man left totally 

blind by medical malpractice a few years ago, but he didn’t 

meet the eligibility criteria. He was actually a professional photographer 

who had written a handful of articles decades ago, and 

wanted to make a career change to writing. However, WEAF’s 

bylaws bar funding works-in-progress. Since applicants must be 

established professional writers of nonfiction, the board checks 

to see if applicants have written enough books or articles for major 

and substantial publishers to qualify. WEAF’s criteria are the 

same as those of ASJA’s in evaluating prospective members. If 

some of the publications are unfamiliar, I ask ASJA Membership 

Committee chair, Terry Whalin, for guidance. Sometimes it’s a 

very close call, so if Terry says there’s a reasonable possibility that 

someone would be admitted with those credentials and that person 

is struggling with a terrible situation, then I send the application 

to the board for a vote. 

The key factor is the nature of the crisis. A recent applicant 

was the author of a dozen books who was facing eviction. But 

he was young, healthy, and wasn’t in any way impaired from 

writing. He was bitterly disappointed when the board turned 

him down--and appealed the decision five times. However, 

WEAF doesn’t view having insufficient work to make ends meet 

to be an extraordinary crisis—it’s one of the unfortunate risks of 

freelance work. A crisis must be a problem that prevents a writer 

from working, such as a lawsuit or caring for a seriously ill 

spouse. 

How often are deserving applicants turned down 

To date, WEAF has never had to turn down a qualified applicant, 

because in its nearly 30-year history, there was always 

enough money in the bank to issue grants to desperate freelancers 

who meet the criteria. But obviously, WEAF can’t continue 

to do that if we run out of money. I’ve always found writers to 

be incredibly helpful and generous one-on-one so I hope ASJA 

members will respond to the needs of other writers facing financial 

crises in this tough economy. WEAF belongs to ASJA and 

represents the response of ASJA members to fellow writers who, 

through no fault of their own, are dealing with financial crises. 

Any especially moving stories of late 

Two stand out. One is a writer whose byline everyone on the 

board instantly recognized—he had had a long and successful 

career writing for top magazines, but is now in his 80s with “a 

touch of colon cancer” struggling to make ends meet for himself 

and his wife with social security and food stamps. The other is a 

former ASJA member who was injured in a freak accident and 

more than a year later is able to work only two hours a day because 

of the residual effects of her injury. When those applications 

came in, I felt (and I suspect most members of the board 

felt) “there but for the grace of God go I,” nothing religious about 

it, but the recognition of how fragile our careers can be. 

Are contributions tax-deductible 

Absolutely. WEAF is a registered 501 (c) (3) charity, so all 

donations are fully tax-deductible. Not only can you donate online, 

but you can also send a check by mail to the ASJA office, 

1501 Broadway, Suite 403, NY, NY 10036. Make the check payable 

to “ASJA Charitable Trust” and mark it “for WEAF.” ¢ 

WANTED: 

WRITERS for THE ASJA MONTHLY 

We need your work on our pages. Features, Writing Life essays, Market Reports and 

Technology columns, and more. You will own the rights and can place what you contribute 

in other publications, as past member-contributors have. And if you have an idea for a 

piece or a column, but don’t have the time to write it, please feel free to send it our way. 

EMAIL EDITOR BARBARA DEMARCO-BARRETT at theASJAMONTHLY@ASJA.ORG 


WRITING LIFE 

BY PATCHEN BARSS 

Discomfort Zone 

I 

n 2009, while researching The Erotic Engine, I attended a 

spectacle known as the Adult Entertainment Expo. Held at 

the Sands Convention Center in Las Vegas, the AEE is the 

largest gathering of pornography producers, distributors, and 

performers in the world. 

As I was getting ready to turn in on my first evening there, 

I popped a vitamin pill (and no, that is not code for anything). It 

lodged in my throat and utterly cut off my breathing. My face in 

the mirror was a contorted combination of panic and resignation. 

“This is the way it ends,” I thought. “I die alone in a hotel 

room. Choking on a pill. In Vegas. At a porn convention.” 

Of course, it didn’t end that way—the pill skittered across 

the carpet, I drew air, and life carried on. That breathless moment, 

though, provided stark clarity of exactly how far I’d strayed 

from my familiar life. 

How did I get there Here’s the chain of events: Twenty years 

ago, I got a job in the computer department at a major city newspaper. 

I parlayed this role into a weekly technology column. Over 

many years as a tech writer, I became increasingly aware both 

that pornography holds great sway over technological development 

and that few people want to talk about it. 

When I began thinking about writing a book, this seemed 

like a natural subject—a major, rarely discussed phenomenon 

that has transformed the business and technology mass communications. 

And so, I began to winnow out the mechanisms by 

which this marginal sector wielded such mainstream clout. 

People had some funny ideas about what was involved with 

this kind of research. 

It was far from universal, but men tended to regard me with 

a sense of awe and envy. Women skewed more toward disgust. 

Both reactions stemmed from a misapprehension that I was 

not doing research, so much as “doing research.” There is a very 

big difference, though, between looking at the porn industry and 

looking at porn. I was interested in how a shadowy multi-billiondollar 

industry had effectively launched technologies like the 

VCR, cable television and the Internet—not in finding excuses to 

consume pornography. 

I traveled not just to Las Vegas, but also Barcelona, New 

York, London and other centres of media innovation. I interviewed 

scores of people who work in the porn industry, as well 

as museum curators, media analysts, historians, and antiquarians. 

I found that the influence of erotic material goes far beyond 

modern technology, extending back to the cave drawings 

and Paleolithic sculptures that are the first recorded forms of human 

communication. 

Patchen Barss writes about science, research, 

technology, and culture. His next book tells the 

story of how yeast transformed our hunger, thirst, 

and scientific curiosity. He lives in Toronto. 

I discovered elements of this story that were quite positive— 

stories of liberation, education and new means of connecting intimately 

with other people. But there was also no shortage of 

ugliness. 

I was focused on how porn accelerated technology, but I 

couldn’t ignore issues of sexism, violence, and exploitation that 

kept cropping up in my research. I had left my comfort zone, and 

felt a responsibility take readers along for the ride. 

One of the big issues I grappled with was how 

to deal with unlikeable sources. I almost never 

asked what people thought about pornography. 

But they still told me. 

I actually expected to find that the people who do the grunt 

work in the adult industry—techies, marketers, programmers— 

would have temperaments much like those of their mainstream 

counterparts. 

It wasn’t always so. True, I met many generous, thoughtful 

people who worked in the industry. But I also crossed paths with 

extreme personalities the likes of which I have never seen anywhere 

else. 

One of the big issues I grappled with was how to deal with 

unlikeable sources. I almost never asked what people thought 

about pornography. But they still told me. 

I heard from pornographic videogame designers whose idea 

of opposing violence against women was to prevent players from 

striking female characters more than a couple of times. I spoke 

to a cable television innovator who derided women who didn’t 

accede when he badgered them to get naked for the camera. 

Many others simply railed that anyone who says they don’t like 

pornography is either a liar or a hypocrite. 

I struggled with how to fold such characters into the narrative. 

They were clearly part of the story, but they didn’t make for 

a pleasant tale. 

I mainly portrayed them using their own words with a minimum 

of commentary. Though I didn’t care for what they had to 

say, they starkly demonstrated how the porn industry’s accelerating 

effect isn’t necessarily due to technological visionaries setting 

out to benefit mankind. 

Once out of my comfort zone, I never fully returned. Today, 

when I walk into a consumer electronics store, it sometimes 

makes me shudder to think about the provenance of all that technology. 

(I did an informal assessment at a Best Buy after finishing 

the book. I estimate roughly 80 percent of their products owe 

a major debt to the world of pornography.) 

I don’t regret this journey. In the end, I’d rather know than 

not know where my technology comes from. Still, parts of this 

story will always remain a tough pill to swallow. ¢ 

HERE’S A SECRET: (DON’T TELL ANYBODY) 

Writing a Market Report for The ASJA Monthly allows you to sneak 

in the back door and talk to an editor you’ve longed to meet. 

email theasjamonthly@asja.org for details 


Voices on Writing continued from page 7 

What about self-publishing—has it become a viable avenue 

to publishing 

Self-publishing is like starting your own business. If you 

actually want anyone besides your immediate loved ones to 

read your book, you have to be what we call an authorpreneur. 

There is still a stigma from traditional publishing people about 

the whole idea of self-publishing. But the more outrageous successes 

which occur in the world of self-publishing, the less that 

stigma rears its ugly head. The great news about self-publishing 

is that now anyone can get published. The bad news is that, 

anyone can get published. So you have to rise above all the 

noise to get anyone to hear you. And you have to play publisher 

and all the roles that that entails: editor, copyeditor, book 

designer, publicist, sales rep, and on and on. So many people 

aren’t equipped to create or even art direct a great book cover. 

As a result, every single week we get a batch of sad little 

self-published books that you don’t even want to shelve in your 

house, they’re so embarrassing. And don’t get us started about 

punctuation and spelling. We had one that came in, and on the 

acknowledgment page it said, “I’d like to thank my murther.” 

We highly suggest, if you are going to self-publish, hire 

trained professionals. Self-publishing is one of the biggest 

growth industries in America. There’s a reason for that. If it’s 

done right, you can be in control of your book’s fate. You don’t 

have to wait for someone else to validate you, or like you, or 

agree to take you on. There are so few slots available in the 

publishing world and so many people who want to fill them. 

Self-publishing only yields what you put into it. 

What is the biggest challenge in self-publishing 

In a way, it’s the same challenge as in any publishing, or in 

any business. The biggest challenge in self-publishing is selling 

books. Most people don’t understand how ridiculously difficult 

it is to sell a book. Apart from overcoming the challenge 

of making a book that looks professional, promoting and marketing 

it, reaching the hands, heads and hearts of readers all 

over the world, continues to be the biggest ring of fire any writer 

must jump through. 

We’ve been published by everyone from Random House 

and HarperCollins to Simon & Schuster to Penguin. All of 

them were helpful in promoting and marketing our books in 

some ways, but ultimately, we were the train that drove all 

those books. It was up to us to plan and execute a successful 

promotion and marketing plans. 

With our new book, we are the ones who came up with the 

idea for Pitchapalooza. We’re the ones who contact the bookstores 

and set up the events, and contact the media. Anyone 

can do that. If they know how. The difference between us and 

a self-published author is that we have the name of Workman 

behind us. It automatically opens doors for us, because Peter 

Workman has made one of the most successful publishing 

companies, in America. Obviously, if you’re a self-published 

author, your job is more difficult because you have to establish 

credibility all by yourself. 

One of the biggest challenges in self-publishing is also 

figuring out how to get your book distributed into Barnes & 

Noble and Borders. Whoops, scratch Borders off that list. The 

good news is, traditional distribution doesn’t matter nearly 

as much anymore. You can do your outreach to your audience 

dressed in your bunny slippers, in your comfy robe, in the privacy 

of your own home. If you know how.     

Is there a problem you see over and over again with 

query letters 

There are several problems we see repeatedly. One is the 

anonymous letter we get: “Dear Agent…” Any letter that starts 

that way gets automatically trashed. On the other end of the 

spectrum are the people who tell you that you are their soulmate. 

Those are people you want to take out a restraining order 

on. 

If you don’t have a direct referral, make sure that you are 

extremely conversant with the list of books the agent and/or 

publisher deals in. And don’t oversell. Don’t tell me your book 

is the next Harry Potter, Eat Pray Love, Twilight. It is almost 

certainly not. And it makes you look like an amateur. Don’t 

tell me that your book is funny, or touching, or sad. Anyone 

can make that claim. Somewhere in your query letter you need 

to make me laugh, touch me, bring a tear to my eye. Shorter is 

better than longer. If you don’t have a big writing resume, you 

can include accomplishments that demonstrate the same kind 

of skills that would be required to become a successful author. 

Book proposals 

Thin, weak, undernourished audience (“My book is for 

all people of all ages.”), competition promotion (“My book is 

like no book ever written.”) And marketing sections in which 

you say will entertain all offers to appear on national television, 

and to speak in front of large groups ... You better have 

very concrete and specific plans for how you’re going to get 

your book out into the world. Regarding illustrations and art, 

please, we’re begging you: Don’t let your sister’s cousin who 

knows a little bit about Photoshop design a cover or do illustrations 

for you. Unless you are a world-class artist, or have access 

to one, don’t include amateurish art. It will just hurt your 

chances. And make you look like, well, an amateur. 

Any changes you see coming down the road 

No. Not at all. Kidding! Yes, of course. The publishing 

business has changed since we first started answering these 

questions at the top of the page. Who knows when the upsurge 

in electronic books will plateau Barnes & Noble is contracting 

even as we speak. Borders is gone completely. But we have 

observed over and over again that the best independent 

bookstores in America are doing quite well, thank you very 

much. As they’ve figured out how to connect with their 

audience, to provide value and serve their community. There 

are so many new ways to get books into the hands of readers. 

And we expect this to continue. We believe that soon people 

have monitors surgically implanted into their forearms so they 

can read books. It’s a brave new world, and those who embrace 

it will sprout wings and fly. And some will end up buried in the 

tar pits of history. ¢ 


What’s In Store 

Book Reviews by Melissa Gaskill 

Annoying: The Science of What Bugs Us, by Joe 

Palca and Flora Lichtman. John Wiley & Sons, 

2011, 262 pages, hardback. $25.95 

This book explores the science of what annoyance 

is and why things trigger it. Something 

remarkably similar to annoyance occurs 

across a broad spectrum of the animal kingdom, 

so it clearly serves some purpose, perhaps 

reminding us of what we should avoid 

to survive. 

Certain annoyances have to do with personal 

sensitivities. Others seem to transcend 

race, gender, age, and culture. One of the latter 

is overheard cell phone conversations—in part because unpredictability 

and annoying-ness correlate. With our brains trained 

to pay attention to dialogue, and to predict what comes next, 

hearing one side of a conversation is annoying. Palca, a science 

correspondent for National Public Radio, and Lichtman, multimedia 

editor for Science Friday, examine those things we find 

annoying, including sounds, smells, minor problems, change, 

and minor injustice. 

It isn’t possible to simply ignore something annoying; you 

have to focus on something else. Studies using fMRI (functional 

magnetic resonance imaging) show annoyance involves the part 

of the forebrain that serves as a gatekeeper between automatic 

processes and more conscious, fact-based ones. The brain chemical 

oxytocin also appears to play a role in annoyance, more evidence 

that annoyance played some protective function for our 

early ancestors—an irritant alarm of sorts. 

Journalists work with a wide variety of people and settings, 

offering plenty of opportunity to be annoyed. Research suggests 

that people have no idea when they’re annoying, so when 

faced with a client or interview subject who is, the burden falls 

on you to keep things civil and get through the encounter as well 

as you can. Will the knowledge that something is annoying help 

us overcome it Probably not, the authors conclude. Now that’s 

annoying. 

The Craft of Scientific Communication by Joseph 

E. Harmon and Alan G. Gross. The University of 

Chicago Press, 2010, 220 pages, paperback. $20. 

Scientists who write readable, understandable prose can 

help the rest of us better understand scientific papers to do our 

jobs better, too. The authors analyze the various parts of a scientific 

paper, beginning with the introduction, which contains a 

An independent journalist for 17 years, Melissa 

Gaskill writes about science and travel, primarily the 

outdoor, active kind. She’s an avid camper, hiker, 

kayaker, and scuba diver and is the author of Best 

Hikes with Dogs: Texas Hill Country and Gulf Coast 

(Mountaineers Books), now in its second printing. 

She’s currently working on a book about sea turtles. 

statement of the problem and the approach 

to solving it, and should tell readers up front 

why it matters that a scientist solved this 

particular problem. 

Abstracts, often the only part people 

read, tell what was done and how, and what 

was discovered. Good abstracts also persuade 

people to keep reading by telling them 

why this is important. Titles help scientists, 

and us, find relevant studies. 

Results and Discussion sections contain charts, tables, 

graphs and illustrations. Text generally includes comparisons to 

other work, and explanation of the qualifications and limitations 

of the current work. The Conclusion section is a good place to 

consider the “so what” question, and it sometimes includes anticipated 

or needed further study. The Methods section is essential 

because it tells us why we should believe the rest of the paper. 

The book also covers grant and proposal writing, writing 

for the public, giving scientific talks, as well as writing style and 

common pecadillos of science writing. 

Communicating scientific information is a long-standing 

tradition—since the 1600s, who knew—and still important today. 

Scientific papers are the first step in that process; the next 

steps are our responsibility as professional writers. If you write 

about science, this book may help you do it better. 

Sixty Candles: Reflections on the Writing Life, by 

members of the American Society of Journalists 

and Authors. iUniverse, 2008, 167 pages, paperback. 

$14.95 

This isn’t a new book, but it never received 

a review in our own journal. In this, 

my last review column, I right that egregious 

wrong. 

Sixty Candles contains short pieces contributed 

by ASJA members of all types and 

stripes (which, I must say, made reviewing 

this book a bit daunting!). The first two entries, 

from founding members, give a bit of 

insight into the origins of the organization. 

Topical chapters follow: in Becoming a Writer, members share 

their funny, touching, and tragic tales of early days. In Chapter 

2, The Writer’s Life, you’ll no doubt find a lot of common ground. 

Perhaps it’s Tim Harper’s exchange with a parent at a rec league: 

“My husband would love to help coach, but he works.” Tim: “I 

work, too.” Parent: “Oh...somebody told me you were a writer.” Or 

maybe the advice of a fellow writer to Cindy La Ferle: If you’re not 

getting rejection slips, you’re not aiming high enough or sending 

out enough material. (Yeah, that’s it! I’m aiming high!) Or, 

Linda Eve Diamond’s favorite question: “Are you a real writer” 

Chapter 4, Telling Stories, chronicles the ups, downs, and weird 

in-betweens of this profession/calling/art. At least one is bound 

to be stranger than yours. You’ll find practical stuff in Chapter 5, 

Seasoned Advice—get organized, don’t listen to negative voices, 


write what you know, don’t sweat the small stuff, and enjoy the 

slow times (working on that one). Take a quick look at the final 

chapter, Why ASJA Matters, when your dues bill comes. You’ll 

happily write that check. 

Read Sixty Candles through or flip to a random page, or a 

particular section that addresses your current need, and be encouraged 

by your fellow writers—or at least know that someone 

understands. ¢ 

A Few Words about ASJA’s Writers Emergency Assistance Fund 

“I was so touched by ASJA’s generosity 

and honored to be a recipient. 

The money has helped tremendously” 

—WEAF Grant Recipient, 2008 

Make a one-time tax-deductible contribution 

by credit card or check today. 

You might need help yourself someday. 

ASJA Mission and Administration 

Founded in 1948, the American Society of Journalists and Authors is the nation’s professional association of independent nonfiction 

writers. ASJA is a primary voice in representing freelancers’ interests, serving as spokesperson for their right to control and profit 

from the uses of their work in online media and elsewhere. ASJA brings leadership in establishing professional and ethical standards, 

and in recognizing and encouraging the pursuit of excellence in nonfiction writing. ASJA headquarters is in New York City. 

BOARD OF DIRECTORS 

PRESIDENT Salley Shannon 

VICE PRESIDENT Minda Zetlin 

TREASURER Janine Latus 

SECRETARY Gina Roberts-Grey 

IMMEDIATE PAST PRESIDENT Russell Wild 

AT-LARGE MEMBERS 

Terms expiring 2012 

Mickey Goodman, Caitlin Kelly, 

Tina B. Tessina 


Damon Brown, Randy Dotinga, Holly Tucker 


Laird Harrison, Linda Melone, 

Brooke Stoddard 

CHAPTER PRESIDENTS 

Chicago Area 

Kelly James-Enger 

New York City Tristate 

Daylle Deanna Schwartz 

Northern California D. Patrick Miller 

Rocky Mountain Sandra E. Lamb 

Southeast Mickey Goodman 

Southern California 

Barbara DeMarco-Barrett 

Upper Midwest John Rosengren 

Upstate New York Gina Roberts-Grey 

Washington, DC 

Pat McNees and Emily Paulsen 

STANDING COMMITTEE CHAIRS* 

ADVOCACY Tina Tessina 

ANNUAL WRITERS CONFERENCE 

Alisa Bowman and Linda Melone 

AWARDS Barbara DeMarco-Barrett 

CONTRACTS Milt Toby 

EXECUTIVE Salley Shannon 

FINANCE Randy Myers 

FIRST AMENDMENT Claire Safran 

FORUM Nona Aguilar 

GRIEVANCE Gina Roberts-Grey 

HOSPITALITY Andrea Campbell 

INDUSTRY TRENDS Anne Stuart 

MARKET REPORTS Jackie Dishner 

MEMBERSHIP Terry Whalin 

NOMINATING TBD 

PAST PRESIDENTS Samuel Greengard 

PUBLICATIONS Tina Tessina 

SOCIAL MEDIA & PROMOTIONS 

Gina Roberts-Grey 

TELECONFERENCE Randy Dotinga, Cathie 

Gandel (co-chairs) 

ASJA STAFF 

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Alexandra Owens 

OFFICE MANAGER Lisa Jordan 

IT MANAGER Bruce W. Miller 

STAFF ASSISTANT Diana Pacheco 

ASJA CHARITABLE TRUST 

BOARD OF DIRECTORS Salley Shannon 

(chair), Paula Dranov, Janine Latus, 

Gina Roberts-Grey, Minda Zetlin 

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Alexandra Owens 

WRITERS EMERGENCY ASSISTANCE 

FUND BOARD 

Chair Paula Dranov 

Deputy Chair Gloria Hochman 

Secretary Joan Rattner Heil man 

Board Members Donna G. Banks, 

Fran Carpentier, Betsy Carter, 

John Mack Carter (emeritus), Lisa Collier 

Cool, Greg Daugherty, Katharine Davis 

Fishman, Florence Isaacs, Julia Kagan, Caitlin 

Kelly, Al Silverman, Grace W. Weinstein 

ASJA EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION 

Steering Committee 

Gina Roberts-Grey (chair), Lisa Armstrong, 

Robin DeMattia, Erica Manfred 

* Please see the ASJA website for a full listing of committees and their members. 


PERIODICALS 

American Society of Journalists and Authors 

1501 Broadway, Suite 403 


visit us on the Web 

www.asja.org 

Three days 

of intense 

training and 

workshops … 

Guaranteed 

to whip your 

writing career 

into shape. 

★ ★ ★ ★ 

APRIL 26 - 28, 2012 ★ ★ ★ ★ 

www.asja.org/wc 

Sponsored by the ASJA Educational Foundation, 

A Program of the American Society of Journalists & Authors Charitable Trust

December 2011 - The ASJA Monthly

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