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Yeah, I know. This sounds like college business school lingo, and truthfully, I snared it from Seth Godin, whose management prowess is renown. But in reading the term, I wanted to better understand it for writers, so I found the following definition at FourWeekMBA.com. 

"The minimum viable audience (MVA) represents the smallest possible audience that can sustain your business as you get it started... The main aspect of the MVA is to zoom into existing markets to find those people which needs are unmet by existing players."

To sell your services as a copywriter, to capture your audience as a novelist, to teach your writing classes to others, you have to define an unfulfilled need. Either that, or show you can fill that need better. 

You lead with what you can offer to the reader and or client. 

It isn't about how hard you worked to get where you are. It isn't how you published. It is totally about the need of the client/reader/student. 

Why is your article the absolute best fit for an editor?
What is this novel about that will intrigue the reader more than the others?
What can you teach a fledgling student that they can get no place else?

Make your product desirable, and you'll sell it all day long. 

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HOPE'S APPEARANCES

SUCCESS QUOTE

SUccess Story

Hi Hope,

I absolutely love your newsletter. I throughly read it every Friday. Thanks to your newsletter, I learned about City Limits Publishing’s playwright contests. I entered and placed in a runner-up position in their Theatrical Shorts Contest.

Thank you so much, Hope, for your newsletter and encouragement. You are the bomb! I appreciate everything you do for us writers.

Sincerely,
Martina Kranz


- - - 

If you have a success story you believe was prompted by FundsforWriters, please share with us! Send to [email protected] 
 

Featured article

Writing with Different Hats 

By Dan Brotzel

I’m a writer who wears different hats. In my day job, I do commercial copywriting and content for brands for a marketing agency; in another part of my life, I write short stories, novels and articles about fiction. Hope similarly wears different hats, as a novelist and as the person behind FundsforWriters. 

It got me thinking. What’s the best way to go about managing these diverse writing identities? 

Start by setting clear dividing lines.

I found it helpful at the outset to keep my writing identities quite separate. I blogged and commented a lot about content for work, and this felt very different to the tentative steps I was taking to develop as a fiction writer. The audiences did not necessarily cross over, and experience in one area did not always relate to another. 

Social media makes it easier to create different identities for different aspects of our lives.

I started off with a work Twitter account, and also use LinkedIn for work stuff as that’s where many of my clients and colleagues live. I later added a separate Twitter account for my fiction side. Here I share stories and connect with other writing peeps; I also do this (to a lesser extent) on Facebook, which for me is a place where work never comes up.  

Look for synergies and overlaps.

Inevitably, however, these different areas of my writing life do spill into each other. In my professional work, it can be interesting to bring in examples from fiction and literature, as in this piece on what content marketers can learn from Charles Dickens, or this one on storytelling in marketing. You start to see how one discipline can enhance or inform another. And for the multi-hatted writer, you realise how your work in one area can, with a bit of a twist, provide ideas for work in another.  

From the other side, my professional life also offers lots of material for my stories. The offices in my stories tend to be rather farcical or depressing places where lots of mad behaviour takes place, as in Infinite Rainbows or Alex, Can I Have a Word? They’re nothing like my own very civilised workplace, but my first-hand knowledge of setting gives me confidence to write about this world. So the opportunity for usable material cuts both ways. 

Cross over by invitation.

While you wouldn’t want to force the audience of one type of work to engage with quite a different one, there are ways the two come together. Many content clients have over the years become friends and expressed interest in my fiction; naturally I am happy to share! I was initially shy about ‘coming out’ to colleagues as a story writer, but when they heard about my first collection, they were incredibly supportive and several attended the book launch. Turned out there were several other budding writers in the office, and we’ve organised book groups and flash fiction competitions. 

Bringing it all together.

Finally, there are places where differences dissolve, and I feel free to write or post whatever I fancy. One such venue is Medium, where you can post stories that reflect all the different dimensions of your work. I turn to different publications on Medium (in my experience a better way to earn money than publishing solo) for different things: Slackjaw for humour; The Writing Cooperative and The Book Mechanic for craft pieces; Better Marketing for topics around content and copywriting. Another such place is FundsforWriters, of course, with its focus on monetising writing of all kinds.  

So if you’re a writer with many hats, it’s fine to keep them separate at first if that feels more convenient or comfortable. Over time, however, there will be opportunities for the different parts of your writing life to inform and enrich each other, and this can be a very valuable development in all sorts of interesting and often unexpected ways. 

BIO - Dan Brotzel’s debut collection of short stories is Hotel du Jack (Sandstone Press) 

COmpetitions

Submissions are now open for the DISQUIET Literary Prize! Fiction, nonfiction, and poetry winners will be published; one grand prize winner will recieve tuition, lodging, and stipend to attend Disquiet in Lisbon. A cash prize alternative will be offered in case of program cancellation. More information: http://disquietinternational.org/the-program/contests-scholarships/



ZIZZLE LITERARY FLASH FICTION CONTEST
https://zizzlelit.com/contest/
$5 ENTRY FEE. Deadline March 15, 2021. First Prize: $1,000. Second Prize: $500. Three finalists: $150 each. Every week during our submission period, we’ll post one-sentence dialogue writing prompts on our social media platforms. Choose a dialogue prompt that inspires you and write a story that includes the prompt. We are looking for fiction that will appeal to young readers from age 11 and even to full-on grown-ups. Length: 500 to 1,000 words. We welcome submissions from anywhere in the world, but stories must be written in English. Entries received within the month of December 2020 will be eligible for submission fee waivers if the designated dialogue prompt (“What a time to be alive!”) is used. 



MONADNOCK ESSAY COLLECTION PRIZE
https://bauhanpublishing.com/the-monadnock-essay-collection-prize/
$30 ENTRY FEE. Deadline December 15, 2020. Manuscripts must be typed, paginated, and roughly 120-160 pages in length or 50,000-80,000 words. Translations and self-published books are not eligible. The manuscript must be the product of only one author. Prize is $1,000, publication, and 50 complimentary copies. 



CODHILL PRESS POETRY AWARD
http://www.codhill.com/submissions/codhill-press-poetry-award-guide
$30 ENTRY FEE. Deadline December 30, 2020. Prize $1,000 and twenty-five copies. The competition is open to any poet who writes in English. Previously published poems with proper acknowledgment are acceptable. Poets should submit, by electronic submission manager, forty-eight to seventy (48-70) pages (no more than one poem per page). 



LEIBY CHAPBOOK CONTEST
https://floridareview.cah.ucf.edu/submit/chapbook-contest/
$25 ENTRY FEE. Deadline December 31, 2020. Submit up to 45 pages (double spaced and in MS Word for fiction or essay, pdf or jpeg if graphic narrative). Winners receive publication and $1,000 (upon publication). Second-place winners receive tuition for the Sanibel Writers Conference, and possible publication of a selection in The Florida Review or Aquifer: The Florida Review Online.



SAGUARO POETRY PRIZE 
https://kallistogaiapress.submittable.com/submit
$25 ENTRY FEE. Deadline December 31, 2020. Please submit 28 to 48 pages of contemporary poetry, not including title page and Table of Contents. Winner will receive $1,200, publication by Kallisto Gaia Press, 20 copies of the chapbook,  and up to 20 ARCs to be sent to reviewers and award sponsors chosen by the winner. 



ACACIA FICTION PRIZE
https://kallistogaiapress.submittable.com/submit
$25 ENTRY FEE. Deadline December 31, 2020. All who enter will receive a copy of the winning collection. Please submit a collection of  any combination of short stories, flash fiction, or novellas totaling between 40,000 and 75,000 words. Winner will receive $1,200, publication by Kallisto Gaia Press, 20 copies of the collection,  and up to 20 ARCs to be sent to reviewers and award sponsors chosen by the winner. 



PRESS 53 AWARD FOR SHORT FICTION
https://www.press53.com/award-for-short-fiction
$30 ENTRY FEE. Deadline December 31, 2020. The Press 53 Award for Short Fiction is awarded annually to an outstanding, unpublished short story collection. This contest is open to any writer, regardless of his or her publication history, provided the manuscript is written in English and the author lives in the United States or one of its territories. Award:  The winner of this contest will receive publication by Press 53, a $1,000 cash advance and fifty copies of the book; all prizes will be awarded upon publication.



BURNSIDE REVIEW PRESS BOOK AWARD
https://theburnsidereview.submittable.com/submit
$25 ENTRY FEE. Deadline January 1, 2021. Submit ~48-64 pages of poetry, including a list of acknowledgments. Each entrant will receive a copy of one Burnside Review Press title. Poems may have appeared in journals and chapbooks but not in a full-length, single-author collection. The winner of the Burnside Review Press Book Award will receive $1,000, plus ten copies of the book.



POETRY SOCIETY OF AMERICA INDIVIDUAL AWARDS
https://poetrysociety.org/awards/annual-awards/2021-individual-awards
The fees for non-members are: single poem awards $10, multiple poem awards are $15. Deadline December 31, 2020. Awards are varied. The Writer Magazine/Emily Dickinson Award - $250. For a poem inspired by Emily Dickinson, though not necessarily in her style. Cecil Hemley Memorial Award - $500. For a lyric poem that addresses a philosophical or epistemological concern. Lyric Poetry Award - $500. For a lyric poem on any subject. Lucille Medwick Memorial Award - $500. For an original poem in any form on a humanitarian theme. Alice Day Dui Castagnola Award - $1,000. For ten pages of poetry from a manuscript-in-progress. George Bogin Memorial Award - $500. For a selection of four or five poems that use language in an original way to reflect the encounter of the ordinary and the extraordinary and to take a stand against oppression in any of its forms. Robert H. Winner Memorial Award - $2,500. For a manuscript of 10 pages by a mid-career by a poet who has not had substantial recognition. Open to poets 40 and over who have published no more than one full-length collection of poetry. Poets who have not published a book are eligible.

 

GRANTS / FELLOWSHIPS / CROWDFUNDING

NYSCA/NYFA ARTIST FELLOWSHIP
https://www.nyfa.org/awards-grants/artist-fellowships/
Deadline February 10, 2021. This $7,000 grant is awarded in fifteen different disciplines over a three-year period (five categories a year) and the application is free to complete. The NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship is not a project grant, but is intended to fund an artist’s vision or voice, at all levels of their artistic development. Must have maintained New York State residency, and/or residency in one of the Indian Nations located therein, for at least the last two consecutive years (2019 & 2020). The following categories will be reviewed: Fiction, Folk/Traditional, Arts, Interdisciplinary Work, Painting, Video/Film. Applications for the 2021-22 award cycle will open in Fall 2021. The following categories will be reviewed: Architecture/Environmental Structures/Design, Choreography, Music/Sound, Photography, Playwriting/Screenwriting.



MISSISSIPPI ARTS COMMISSION RAPID RESPONSE GRANTS
https://arts.ms.gov/grants/
Deadline December 4, 2020. Grants up to $500 are available to individual artists. Eligible uses for Rapid Response Minigrants for Individuals include: travel and registration for workshops or conferences, promotional materials, artistic supplies or to assist in adapting an individual artist’s work in a virtual setting. Must be a Mississippi resident.



MISSISSIPPI ARTS COMMISSION INDIVIDUAL PROJECT GRANTS
https://arts.ms.gov/grants/
Deadline March 1, 2021. Grants of $2,000 provide funding to suport ideas and projects organized by or for individual artists in Mississippi. 



MISSISSIPPI ARTIST ROSTSER
https://arts.ms.gov/artist-roster/
The Mississippi Arts Commission’s Artist Roster is a listing of artists who have been accepted to the Teaching Artist Roster, the Mississippi Artist Roster, or both. Each artist or arts group applied and went through a thorough review by a panel of artists, presenters and educators. Grant funds are available to organizations for presenting Roster Artists (see Minigrants for Organizations). Individual artists may apply to be included in the Roster for a three-year term.



NEW JERSEY ARTIST RECOVERY GRANTS
https://www.state.nj.us/state/njsca/assets/pdf/2021-njsca-iar-guidelines.pdf
Deadline December 15, 2020. Individual Artist Recovery Grants (IAR grants) are awarded to practicing New Jersey professional artists to assist with financial recovery from the COVID-19 crisis. These grant awards are based solely upon demonstrated financial need, and awardees will be randomly selected from all eligible applications received. Artists may use IAR grant awards for basic living expenses, like housing, groceries, and bills; or to pursue work in their artistic discipline, including purchasing supplies, studying in a workshop situation, or renting studio space. Artist recovery funds may not be used for travel out of the country, study as a matriculated student in either a graduate or undergraduate program, or to purchase permanent equipment (equipment with a resale value exceeding $350 or having a life span over three years). Grants will be for $5,000. 



VERMONT ARTIST DEVELOPMENT GRANTS 
https://www.vermontartscouncil.org/grants/artists/artist-development
Deadlines January 11, 2021 and May 10, 2021. Artist Development Grants support artists at all stages of their careers. Grants can fund activities that enhance mastery of an artist’s craft or skills; activities that increase the viability of an artist's business; or for teaching artists, developing the skills necessary to provide instruction in K-12 schools remotely during the COVID-19 crisis. Funding may also support aspects of the creation of new work when the activity allows the grantee to accept a rare and important opportunity. Grant amounts range from $250 to $1,000. 



GRAYWOLF PRESS LITERARY FELLOWSHIP
https://graywolfpress.submittable.com/submit/178571/2021-citizen-literary-fellowship
The Citizen Literary Fellowship is a paid, comprehensive ten-month fellowship designed to support a person who is interested in learning more about the publishing industry through an introductory, hands-on experience. Through substantial project-based work in the editorial and marketing/publicity departments, the fellow will gain a broad base in publishing and be prepared to launch or further a career in the field. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the fellowship, which has been traditionally based in our Minneapolis office, will now be a remote opportunity. This is a part-time (24 hours per week), non-exempt ten-month position with a start date in February 2020. Compensation includes $25,000 (paid twice monthly as regular wages), paid time off, and health and dental insurance.



GAIA FENNA MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP - MINNESOTA
https://toftelake.org/gaia-fenna-memorial-scholarship
Deadline December 31, 2020. TLC will host its seventh annual week-long residency for a Minnesota artist who exemplifies the spirit, passions, and values of artist and nature lover Gaia Fenna.  The 2021 residency dates will be determined in January 2021. Applicants must live in Minnesota.  After the residency is completed, the recipient will be asked to  submit a one to two-page testimonial of their experience which could be shared with the public, to help keep Gaia’s artistic legacy alive. Lodging is subsidized: the Fellowship provides a solo cabin with kitchen and bath facilities. The Fellowship provides an honorarium of $200 to help with meals and travel. Meals are the responsibility of the artist.

 

FREELANCE MARKETS / JOBS

In this free report from Freelance Writers Den founder Carol Tice, you'll discover a process that will help you get you out of analysis paralysis so you can FINALLY start earning money as a freelance writer.

• The questions you NEED to ask yourself 

• How to follow the money

• Where to find your first paying writing jobs

HOUSTONIA
https://www.houstoniamag.com/pages/about-us
A news, entertainment and information source as smart, exciting and vital as the people who call Houston home. Each month we canvass the nation’s fourth largest city in search of the newsmakers and tastemakers, people who are changing the way we eat, play, dress and think. Chock-full of timely, engaging stories, as well as spectacular photography and cutting-edge design, our goal is a signature mix of in-depth news stories, provocative essays, and guides to the best of the city that no Houstonian can live without. "Email editor Dianna Wray: [email protected]. Rate $500+ based on experience.”



THE LIT QUARTERLY
https://litquarterly.ca/submissions/
We accept submissions year round, with acceptances taking place quarterly. We compensate authors fairly and equally around $100 (Canadian) per acceptance, contingent on available funding and categorical genre (i.e. fiction, non-fiction, or poetry). We seek fiction ranging from 1,000 to 5,000 words, whether short story, excerpt, epistolary, theatre, interview, prose poem, among others. We prefer to publish verse poetry of 12–40 lines, albeit we remain open-minded to submissions of fewer and greater verses. We are proud to see nonfiction into print, chiefly in the form of essays between 1,500 and 5,000 words broaching political, historical, or sociological topics, but not excluding submissions of literary criticism, polemic or satire.



THE IOWA REVIEW
https://iowareview.org/content/writers-guidelines
Deadline November 30, 2020. The Iowa Review looks for the best poetry, fiction, and nonfiction being written today and is often pleased to introduce new writers. The page limit for prose is 25 pages and for poetry is eight pages (query by email if you have a longer poem). Prose submissions should be double-spaced. We pay $1.50 per line for poetry ($40 minimum) and $0.08 per word for prose ($100 minimum). Non-contest manuscripts are welcome during the fall semester only: September, October, and November. 



SOMEWHERE WE ARE HUMAN
https://www.migrantanthology.com/
Deadline December 5, 2020. The anthology will be published by HarperCollins in English and Spanish. Contributors will be compensated a minimum of $800. During this time of political unrest, how do we shift the nation’s collective imagination about migrants towards one rooted in humanity and justice? What stories about ourselves and communities need to be told during these times of border militarization, mass detention, and draconian anti-immigrant legislation?  

 

Publishers/agents

HUB CITY PRESS
https://hubcity.submittable.com/submit
Hub City Press publishes books of literary fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, regional nonfiction, nature, and art. We are seeking new and extraordinary voices from the American South. Well-crafted, high-quality works by new and established authors. We are particularly interested in books with a strong sense of place. We believe strongly that the publishing industry needs to promote a more diverse range of experiences, and so have committed ourselves to spotlighting lesser-heard Southern voices including: people of color, gender diversity, LGBTQIA, people with disabilities, as well as ethnic, cultural, and religious minorities. Hub City is a small press, publishing six to eight titles per year. In general, our publication schedule operates at least 12-18 months in advance of release.



QUIRK BOOKS
https://www.quirkbooks.com/page/submissions#
We love smart, original, cool, and fun books! If you are an author who would like to submit directly to Quirk, please submit your query letter and proposal or manuscript to [email protected]. We don't have requirements on the amount of material you submit, but you must include a query letter. This inbox is monitored by our editorial assistant, Jessica Yang. If you think your project is a good match for a specific editor, feel free to note that in your query. There are very specific desires of each agent, as posted on the site.



McCLELLAND & STEWART
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/imprints/MS/mcclelland-stewart
In particular, our editors are looking for high quality literary fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. We encourage you to visit our about us page to learn more about our mission and the books we publish. Please note that we do not accept screenplays, stage plays, young adult fiction, or picture book queries. 



INKYARD PRESS
https://www.inkyardpress.com/
A boutique young adult imprint publishing bestselling, award-winning, critically acclaimed, and commercial fiction. Our YA list focuses on commercial stories across genres that appeal to older teens and an adult crossover audience. We want stories that pull you in and make you feel—whether it’s joy, sorrow, laughter, or empathy, or sometimes all of the above! Agented submissions only, please, unless otherwise noted. Follow @InkyardPress on social media for announcements about unagented submission dates.



BOOKOUTURE
http://www.bookouture.com/submission-guidelines/
We are looking for full-length, commercial fiction and some text-lead nonfiction, but no children’s books, film scripts, poetry or short stories. Please send us a complete manuscript of your full-length book in a clear font with double spacing. Our decisions are based on what will work for us commercially and how we can position a book with forensic precision.



DOUGLAS & McINTYRE
https://douglas-mcintyre.com/pages/submission-policy
We accept unsolicited manuscripts and regularly receive over 1,000 per year, which we process as time permits. We publish predominately Canadian authors. We confirm receipt of all manuscripts. We offer full distribution across Canada and into the U.S. and U.K. where appropriate. Foreign language rights and subsidiary rights (film, etc.) are actively marketed. 



HISTRIA BOOKS
https://histriabooks.com/submission-guidelines/
Originally established in 1996 as an academic publishing house, Histria Books is now an independent publishing house with offices in Las Vegas, Oxford, and Palm Beach. Our imprints include:

Vita Histria – an imprint dedicated to academic books on a wide-range of subjects; Vita Histria has a special focus on American and European history. Current area of special interest for Vita Histria include medieval history, Renaissance history, military history, East European and Russian history, nineteenth-century America, including the U.S. Civil War.

Gaudium – an imprint dedicated to non-fiction books on lifestyle, culture, sports, and politics, as well as biography and autobiography. Gaudium seek books that challenge, inspire, and offer unique points of view;
Center for Romanian Studies – an imprint dedicated to the finest scholarship in the English language on the history and culture of Romania;

Addison & Highsmith – an imprint dedicated to outstanding works of adult fiction, including historical fiction, science fiction, detective novels, and most other categories of fiction. Current areas of special interest for Addison & Highsmith include pre-twentieth century historical fiction.

Prende Publishing – an imprint dedicated to books about contemporary lifestyle, the entertainment industry, including adult entertainment, erotica, as well as creative works of poetry. Named for the Albanian goddess of love and beauty, Prende seeks to break down barriers, challenge established norms, and overcome prejudice and discrimination in all its forms.

Histria Kids – an imprint dedicated to books for children and young adults that seek both to educate and to entertain. For children’s picture books, we give priority to book proposals that already have an illustrator, although occasionally we consider works for which we will engage our own illustrator.

 

SPONSORS

www.fundsforwriters.com/advertising 

FINE PRINT

Please forward the newsletter in its entirety. To reprint any editorials, contact [email protected] for permission. Please do not assume that acknowledgements listed in your publication is considered a valid right to publish.

C. Hope Clark
E-mail: [email protected]
140-A Amicks Ferry Road #4
Chapin, SC 29036
http://www.fundsforwriters.com

Copyright 2000-2020, C. Hope Clark
ISSN: 1533-1326

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