December 2011 - The ASJA Monthly

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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: $120 per year as a benefit of membership. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY, and additional mailing office. POSTMASTER Send address changes to: The ASJA Monthly American Society of Journalists and Authors 1501 Broadway, Suite 403 New York, NY 10036 Phone: (212) 997-0947 Fax: (212) 937-2315 www.asja.org Email: asjaoffice@asja.org Newsletter Editor: theasjamonthly@asja.org © 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
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December 2011 - The ASJA Monthly

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