New writing gigs...

Hey, I almost forget to tell you...

I'm also currently writing articles about Latino literature for Salsa magazine on Facebook, and I'm also writing fish article (yes, fish articles!) for the Brooklyn Aquarium Society's newsletter.

2012 Latino Authors & Writers Conference

Ho, Ho, Ho. I hope everyone is having a great holiday season! As for me, my dreams are filled with images of sugar plums and my 2012 Latino Authors & Writers Conference! This year's conference was a blast and now I'm thinking about the fun we'll all have next year! I'm thinking about the guest speakers, the sponsors, supporters and partners, and I'm thinking about the great Salsa band that will play at the end of the conference! Wow, I love it! Hope to see you there!

My Poets and Writers Event is next Saturday! I've got a dancer coming, guest speakers, poetry, writers, continental breakfast, raffles... Keynote Speaker is Judge Edwin Torres; author of "Carlito's Way." There will also be a fundraiser for an independent film, "Woven," about the interactions between an Ethiopian family and American family. One of the Writers/Producers, Salome Mulugeta, will make the presentation. Please come out and support. Bring a friend, it's only $25.00 per person.

http://www.poetsnwriters.com

Woven

Poets and Writers Event October 1st!

New York Supreme Court Judge Edwin Torres (Ret.), author of

"Carlito's Way," as well as other books and novels, will be the Keynote

Speaker at my Poets and Writers Event next Saturday!

Boo-Yah!

Iolanthe

If you'd like to attend the opera Iolanthe and my daughter who is performing in the opera, you can buy a ticket at www.savoy.org . There will be 4 shows in all: May 26 & 27 and June 10 & 11. The May shows are on a Thursday and a Friday at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia, PA. The June shows are on a Friday and Saturday at Longwood Gardens (if you don't have a car, or live far from this area, I don't suggest trying to make the Longwood Garden shows). Even if you can't make it, you can still support the Savoy Company by making donations (which are tax-deductible) to the company.

Great Books for Sale

You know, this conference has a lot of my attention and getting it together and ready is taking up a lot of my time, but I love the concept so much!

I just wanted to encourage avid readers to visit the site and check out the books by some of our authors, the books are fantastic and you would, of course, also be supporting a Latino(a) author. As we get closer to the conference date, we hope to add the works of more attendees, supporters, etc.

Thank you.

Editing

EDITING

I still argue that in the brouhaha that is publishing, we
often forget about the reasons that traditional publishing
existed to begin with, and why writers didn't just publish
themselves from the outset.

Traditional publishers fund works out of their pockets,
and they beat a dead horse in terms of preparing a book
for release. This has been true since Gutenberg printed
the first Bible. So I believe traditional publishing will
continue for many years to come.

Yes, I tend to lean to the . . . traditional side. (Bet you
thought I was going to say right or left, huh?) However, I've
self-published as well. I've seen good self-publishing and bad.
I've seen good agents and bad. I've marveled at good traditional
works and bad.

Nothing in publishing is perfect.

However, two items get overlooked, in my opinion, when it
comes to do-it-yourself publication.

1. Platform
2. Editing

The Steve Laube Literary Agency has quite the informative
blog, and lately they've run a series called, "A Defense of
Traditional Publishing." The latest post of April 26 addressed
"Content Development."

http://www.stevelaube.com/in-defense-of-traditional-publishing-part-three/

A reader cursed me (yes, I'm a "biatch") for advising her to
slow down, complete her book, and edit it to death before
considering the publisher, the movie, or the television
appearances. The point I tried to make was that editing
isn't a simple proofreading job before you forward the file
to a publisher.

Steve Laube explained the multiple editing tasks under a
traditional roof.

ACQUISITIONS EDITOR - Finds, acquires, negotiates the project.

LINE EDITOR - Performs the actual content edit (also call the
"line" or "substantive" edit).

CONTENT EDITOR - Reads for accuracy, balance and fairness,
cogency of argument, adequate treatment of the subject matters,
and conformity to the original book proposal.

COPY EDITOR - Scours the manuscript for accuracy in grammar,
citations, and factual content.

PROOF READER - Fine tunes punctuation and other nit-picky details.

Yes, there's room for self-publishing, especially if you
have a platform to die for, and a following that would
purchase anything you held up in your hand. But if you
are venturing into the publishing world alone, wouldn't
you want these people in your court?

by Hope Clark - http://www.fundsforwriters.com

The Latino Authors & Writers Conference

Hi. Well, the conference is on schedule and rolling along at full steam! We have four great agents joining us, guest speakers, a wonderful Mistress-of-Ceremony... and so much more! I want to thank all of the people, organizations, agencies, and corporations that are helping to make this possible. i also want to say thank you to all of the Latino media that's promised to do a story about us. In fact, Philadelphia Spanish daily, Al Dia, is doing a story about the conference and is interviewing our guest speaker, Dr. Hector R. Ortiz!

Wow, so it's really happening and I'm really proud of all the work (and money!) that's gone into it. It's gonna be a blast!

"Meet the Author"

Went to a "Meet the Author" in Philly on Saturday. The guest author was Hector R. Ortiz, author of "The Creative Energy of Positive Thinking." It was a very interesting and informative evening. I'm considering asking him to speak at my conference! I bought a copy of his book and he autographed it. I also had the opportunity to introduce myself and network with the president of Taller Puertorriqueno, and another lady that was head of another Latino organization. I handed out business cards and received very positive comments about the conference. Now I'm looking forward to next month's event, "What it means to be Afro-Latino in Philadelphia: Stories from El Barrio." This is going to be a photo-documentary by photographer Sandra Andino, and it promises to be interesting as well.

Vote for me!

Host with the Most!

Arnaldo L.

The New Year!

Well, it's a new year and I'm really hoping for great things to happen in 2011! I'm looking forward to getting this conference up and running, I'm hoping that this Fantasy novel I've written gets published by a major publisher, I'm going to try and get more short stories published, and I'm working on an artsy coffee-table book with a friend that I hope gets published too! All in all, I'm going to be working on a lot of projects and I'm hoping they all do well! Happy New Year!