Next HSW Meeting
Saturday January 11th at 10 am at
Raleys ONE Supermarket on Wedge Parkway in the Community Room
| CRITIQUING WORKSHOP!Please join us on January 11th for a presentation about the proper etiquette for critiquing. Linda Enos (writing as Lynda Bailey) will lead the discussion which will include critiquing do’s and don’ts. She will also do a tutorial on the best way to format your documents. Meeting will start 10am-ish and run approximately 2 hours in the conference room of Raleys One on Wedge Parkway. If you have a cold read you’d like to have the attending members critique, please email no more than 6 pages, double-spaced, New Times Roman font (or similar) 12pt with one inch margins all around to Linda at least 2 days before the meeting. If you have any questions, concerns or suggestions, email Linda at Lynda.r.bailey@gmail.com. RESULTS OF THE FIRST BOOK LAUNCH PROMOTION Matt will discuss how the planned promotion for January 2nd and 3rd went. He’ll give us his insight and how well it worked, what results he got, and how much participation he got on the BUY Day. |
GUEST OR TOPIC IDEAS!
If you have a topic area you’d like covered or know of someone you’d like to have as a guest speaker at an upcoming meeting, please drop a line to board@highsierrawriters.org
Critique Groups Update
| Reminder: You must be a current PAID member of HSW in order to participate in one of our critique groups. If you’d like to join a group or have general questions about critiquing, contact Linda Enos at lynda.r.bailey@gmail.com MYSTERY WRITERS (and more) WANTED! The Mystery and More group is looking for authors! If you write mystery, or any genre other than romance or children’s, let Linda know. She’ll put you in touch with the group leader, Ron, so you can learn more details. MEMOIRISTS WANTED! We have an increased interest in starting a memoir-only critique group. If you’re a memoirist and would like more information about joining such a group, contact Linda. FINISHED GROUP ON THE HORIZON Starting in February, possibly March, we’re looking to form another Finished Group. If you have a completed manuscript and would like to get some “fresh eyes” on the entire story, contact Linda for more details. PLEASE REMEMBER… If you have a few pages you’d like the HSW members to critique cold, don’t forget to send your submission (max of 6 pages, double spaced with New Times Roman, or similar font, 12pt) to Linda at least 2 days before the monthly meeting so hard copies can be made. FYI… The After-the-Regular-Meeting (ATRM) critique group will gather following the meeting on January 11th. Please feel free to sit in and observe. Don’t forget to contact Linda Enos at lynda.r.bailey@gmail.com with any questions or concerns! |
Change in Price for 2025 Dues
Annual dues are $5 for 2025
Our dues are climbing back up for 2025 and will be $5 for the year. We need to pay for the coffee somehow!
You can pay them online using this payment link for PayPal: $5-for-25
or send a check to:
High Sierra Writers
PO BOX 17205 – RENO NV 89511
(Please let us know by email to board@highsierrawriters.org if you mail it in, so we can check the mailbox.)
Drop-in Critique Group at B&N
Matt hosts a drop-in critique meeting at the Barnes & Noble cafe on S Virginia Street from 6 PM to 8 PM. Meetings will be held on the FIRST and THIRD Wednesdays of each month, EXCEPT JANUARY! This month the meetings will be the Second and Fourth Wednesdays.
Drop-in means no prep and no homework. Just bring 5 or 6 pages on which you want feedback and read them to the group. If you want, someone else can read your material out loud. If you’re really ambitious, you can bring hard copies, but that starts to look like homework and we really want to avoid work of any sort.
Your material can be a chapter or a passage you want to test, like an action scene, or dialogue, or something you’re just not sure about. Fiction or nonfiction.
You don’t need to be there for the whole meeting. If you can’t make it until 7 PM, no big deal.
You don’t have to bring material. These sessions are a great way to build up your editing muscles by analyzing work of other writers.
See you there.
| FIRST PAGES Matt will be doing First Pages at the January meeting. If you would like to get feedback on the first page of your work from the group, then send it to Matt (MattBayan@aol.com) before 6 pm by Friday, January 10th. The page should be double-spaced in Times New Roman or equivalent 12 pt type. Do not include your name on the page, but do include the genre. |
| NEED TO GET A BOOK COVER? Several places sell affordable book covers and although many are premade, you can still get a good deal on a custom cover. 100Covers,com sells their custom e-book and audio covers for $100. The paperback copy is another $100. They also create a hard copy wrap. They offer a professional package for $400 that includes A+ content, promotional images, and anything else you need designed for your book. Twice a year, they run a sale where you can get both the -book, audio, and paperback cover for $100. I used them to create the cover for my paranormal cozy mystery and will have them create the next cover in the series for design continuity. GetCovers.com is also a custom cover creator. Their prices will get you a premium print cover and e-book design for $35. You’ll work with an adviser who matches you to the artist for the job. You provide a description of what you’d like to see on the cover or enough information about the book for them to create your design. They will revise several times if needed. I just used them for my 2nd Edition of a sci-fi fantasy book and got a great cover after several revisions. Self Pub Book Covers is now affiliated with Draft2Digital, but you can find them at selfpubbookcovers.com. They have a wide variety of pre-made book covers in many genres. Their prices vary from about $65 to $125 for an e-book cover. You pay additional for a paperback cover. They also do custom covers Honestly, if you look at some of the cover designs on best-selling books, many can be created in Book Brush or Canva if you have a good eye for design. Many other designers and cover sites are out there if you look for them. These are the ones I’ve used. |
HSW Writers’ Success Stories
High Sierra Writers has quite a few published writers in the group. We have a page featuring the various books grouped by author under genre. These are under HSW Authors link. As our authors release new books, we’ll feature them here. If you have a release coming up, send me your press release to RPAverett@gmail.com.