Doris-Maria Heilmann's Blog, page 51
April 24, 2014
Upcoming Grants for Writers
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Are you living in the USA, Canada or United Kingdom? The following grants, fellowships or writers residencies are mostly offered on a yearly basis, sometimes even twice a year. Bookmark their links and check periodically their deadlines. Besides accommodation, writers often receive a stipend and travel expenses paid. A great way for writers to get out of their routine, find solitude and time to write in order to advance their career.
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Iowa Artist Fellowship
The Artist Fellowship provides support to individuals who demonstrate exceptional creativity in the arts and the capacity for continued contributions to the excellence and innovation of the arts in the State. The Artist Fellowship Program seeks to elevate the arts in Iowa by advancing the artistic careers of Iowa artists through funding and professional development. The Iowa Arts Council awards each fellow $5,000 to support the development of their artistic career.
Deadline May 1, 2014. http://www.iowaartscouncil.org/funding/overview.shtml
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Gladstone Residencies, UK
Gladstone’s Library’s immensely successful Writer in Residence program is now seeking submissions for residencies to take place in 2015. There will be four residencies offered in 2015. Each of the winning writers will be awarded a full month’s residency in the wonderfully creative atmosphere of Gladstone’s Library. During that month, each writer will publish two blogs about their stay, run a one-day workshop on the craft of creative writing, and host an evening event where they talk about any aspect of their writing life. Each residency comes with full board and lodging, travel expenses within the UK and a stipend of £100 per week.
Deadline June 30, 2014. http://www.gladstoneslibrary.org/writers/
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Nebraska Mini Grants
Mini Grants are designed to provide quick access to funds supporting a variety of arts projects that use artists or arts activities as a key component. Examples of project types include exhibitions, performances, poetry readings, commissions and/or support of new work development, arts festivals, community murals, and cultural heritage projects. Eligibility: Nonprofit organizations incorporated in Nebraska that are federally tax-exempt, public agencies and subdivisions of governmental agencies. Organizations may submit up to two Mini Grant applications per fiscal year. Maximum request: $100 – $2,000. Deadline: At least six weeks and no more than twelve weeks prior to the project start date. http://www.nebraskaartscouncil.org/grants/grant_categories.html/title/mini-grants
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Residencies in Southern California and Phoenix, AZ
Specifically, the Creatives selected will be awarded a one-year opportunity to engage the residents in one of two affordable housing communities in Southern California and Phoenix, AZ to ignite social change through sustainable practices and programs. The Creatives selected – individual and or collective groups, will be given housing (or a housing stipend), a working stipend, and a small budget to execute their projects.
Applications should be submitted to arrive no later than 11:59 p.m. PST on Friday, May 23, 2014.
http://grandcentralartcenter.wordpress.com/2014/03/10/grant-residency-opportunity-a-social-practice-initiative-of-living-resources-and-grand-central-art-center/
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New Orleans Arts Council Grants
The deadline to submit applications for FY2015 grants through the Arts Council of New Orleans’ Online Granting System is before midnight on May 15, 2014. Grants are available for arts activities to take place in Assumption, Jefferson, Lafourche, Orleans, Plaquemines, St. Charles, St. James, St. John the Baptiste and Terrebonne Parishes between October 1, 2014 – September 30, 2015 through the Louisiana Decentralized Arts Funding Program. Grants are also available for arts activities to take place in Orleans Parish during the 2015 calender year through the Community Arts Grants Program.
http://www.artscouncilofneworleans.org/index.php?topic=grants.announce
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Red Gate Residency in China
Red Gate Residency in Beijing is currently accepting applications for October, November and December of 2014 and all of 2015. Red Gate Residency is an international artists residency program providing artists, curators, writers, and academics with the opportunity to live and create work in China. Our objective is to provide facilities for artists to easily start their projects and offer a community in which they can participate as much as they like. Artists working in any medium, writers, academics, and researchers are all eligible.
http://www.chinaresidencies.com/residencies/red-gate-residency
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Island Art Residency Michigan
The Hill House Artist Residency supports talented artists—emerging songwriters, writers at all stages of their career and many kinds of non-studio artists—with the time and space to create new work. Artists age 21 and older from anywhere in the world may apply. Solo artists as well as collaborating teams of up to four people are welcome. Application deadlines: April 1 and October 1.
http://www.artmeetsearth.org
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Florida Artist Fellowship
The Individual Artist Fellowship Program recognizes the creation of new artworks by individuals of exceptional talent and demonstrated ability. Fellowship awards support the general artistic and career advancement of the individual artist.
Deadline June 2, 2014. http://www.florida-arts.org/programs/fellowship/
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Fellowship for Editorial Writing
The Eugene C. Pulliam Fellowship was established to enable a mid-career editorial writer or columnist to have time away from daily responsibilities for study and research. The cash award allows Pulliam Editorial Fellows to take courses, pursue independent study, travel, pursue other endeavors that enrich their knowledge of a public interest issue. The Pulliam Fellowship awards $75,000 to an outstanding editorial writer or columnist to help broaden his or her journalistic horizons and knowledge of the world.
Deadline June 22, 2014. http://www.spj.org/a-pulliamfellow.asp
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Arts in Education, NH
The Council invites applications from professional artists in all disciplines who are experienced in their field/s and can make a strong personal commitment to working in an educational setting with students, educators, administrators and parents to apply to the Arts in Education (AIE) Roster. Interested artists should contact the Arts in Education (AIE) Coordinator Catherine O’Brian to discuss their application prior to submitting it.
Deadline May 2, 2014. http://www.nh.gov/nharts/grants/artists/aieroster.htm
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Canada Council for the Arts Travel Grants
These grants contribute to travel costs associated with participation in professional and career development activities in order for applicants to network, share knowledge, gain skills in specific arts practices and engage in dialogue about equity in the arts. No deadline. You may apply for one of the following fixed amounts to help cover your travel costs, based on excursion fares: $500, $750, $1,000, $1,500, $2,000 or $2,500. However, the two highest amounts ($2,000 and $2,500) are available only if you are traveling to or from northern Canada or to international destinations other than the United States and Europe. These grants cannot be used for travel that occurs before the date that the application is submitted.
http://canadacouncil.ca/en/council/grants/find-a-grant/grants/capacity-building-initiative-travel-grants
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Tagged: Fellowships, how to apply for grants, Stipend, Writers Grants, Writers residency
April 21, 2014
17 Social Media Mistakes to Avoid on Twitter
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Falkland Island Penguins Photo Stephan Westphal
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Want to become successful on Twitter and network with as many followers as possible? Here are are some basic principles to keep in mind when you tweet 140 characters to millions of people. Keep in mind that not only your followers, but also their followers can read it. Make your Twitter profile an irresistible force to your ideal audience. Who I would NOT follow:
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1. “Contributed” Twitter Accounts
Twitter accounts that are not run by the owner, but by his/her “team” – who sprinkle annoying advertisements between the tweets they schedule: “Contributed Tweets for @xxxxxx are delivered by @….Team https://……co”; I don’t want to deal with a “team”, rather with real people.
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2. Missing or No Bio Information
Why should I follow someone who doesn’t even show anything to entice me following him/her? Twitter gives you 160 characters to fill in your profile. Use them. Make sure it yr;;d something about you
and/or your (writing) business, so people can decide whether or not they want to follow you. If you want to stay anonymous, don’t use Social Media!
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3. No Avatar – Instead an Image of Your Pet
Who wants to talk with an egg, or a cat, child or your dog? OK, if you have a company, you can use the company logo, but for everyone else: get a great studio photo once in ten years and use it for all your marketing needs including your book cover or on your website. Would you send a potential employer a photo of your house pet, your book or a toddler’s image? No? Why then show these annoying images to your potential customers? Be professional! Sometimes I am inclined to publish a book with the worst avatars!
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4. “Private” Accounts
If you set your Twitter account to “private” status, prospective followers won’t be able to see your tweets. Why would anyone follow you if they cannot see what you Tweet about? I often get followers, and when attempting to follow back, I am stopped by their “lock”.
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5. No profile image
No matter how camera-shy you may be, don’t fail to upload a headshot or company logo. When people see the default Twitter image in your profile, they tend to assume a) that you don’t know what you’re
doing on Twitter yet; b) that you don’t care; or c) that you’re not a ‘real’ person but a spammer/robot. Say cheese!
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6. Never, Ever, Use TrueTwit Validation Service!
Some are nice Welcome messages, but 90 per cent are spam. But I read them in the past, first I answered, telling them that I DO NOT use TrueTwit Validation Service, but then I gave up and just
ignored the sender.The irony is, that these people are often following me, and then when I want to follow them back, their message appears! Why did they choose to follow me and then want ME to validate??? You just lost a reader, a customer, a potential fan, a potential reviewer.
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7. Not Following Back
Some Tweeps hardly ever bother to follow (legitimate) followers back. They seem to be proud to have more followers or want to show how “popular” they are – even buying twitter followers… I un-follow people if they haven’t followed me back after a couple of months. Others will un-follow you if you don’t follow back within the week – which is unfair, as someone could be in vacation, or ill, or just overwhelmed with work for a couple of days. But if I see 5000 people following you, and you are only following 300 of them, it shows me right away you are not very engaging.
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8. Greeting New followers with FB likes / Book Promotions
You get a message in your mailbox: Someone mentioned you. Curious you check it, but no, you are only summoned to go to their Facebook account and LIKE their page. Or they send you the link to their
books sales page. And that’s the greeting for following them… Do they sign up with Twitter only to advertise their wares? Same: Sending DM’s with advertisements. You open the Direct message and
you are greeted with advertising. My reaction: immediately UNFOLLOWING. Thanks and nice to meet you…
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9. Never Interacting With Others
If you post only about yourself and never take time to say ‘hi’ or ‘thank-you’ to people, or you never re-tweet or reply to people’s comments, your followers will get upset and are likely to un-follow you. If prospective followers see no engagement, they might not bother to follow you in the first place. In the process of choosing followers, one can sometimes scroll down their timeline for a whole week
and don’t find a single re-tweet. Or the opposite: you want to re-tweet and cannot find anything the person ever tweeted … only re-tweets of others’ content.
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10. Talk Only to Their Friends
When someone only uses Twitter to chat-surf, others might not wish to follow you, when you are constantly chatting with your friends. Being social is great, but this is too much! Why should I re-tweet what you are talking with your friends? Not interesting for others.
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11. Having No Bio or Real Name
Your name and @name, should be searchable on Twitter. It means people can type you into Twitter’s search engine and find you. Use your own name or try to get the actual name of your small publishing
business on Twitter. Keep it as short as possible, to give tweeps more space to re-tweet your content or to communicate with you.
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12. Not Tweeting Regularly
There are several programs that can analyse which of your followers are totally inactive. JustUnfollow or Tweet Adder for example can identify them. I stop following people if I don’t see any action on their account for 2 months. If you want to keep your followers, be sure to stay active on Twitter. Avoid to barely ever re-tweeting others, or answering them. Twitter is a SOCIAL network, don’t use it as a advertisement board only. Answer or re-tweet others – and they will return the favor.
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13. Tweeting the Same Message Over and Over
Tweeting the same content over and over is a recipe to get un-followed. Why would I follow you if there is never anything new? Same with re-tweeting only other peoples content. If you want to grow your following, show others who YOU are and create your own presence. Stop your continuing posts, varying from three to six subjects, and this for pages and pages… What I found so far: 80% of these are male and/or are introvert writers or “leadership business advisers”.
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14. Broken Links
Click before you tweet – there is nothing that frustrates more than a link to a post or resource that does not work. If the link is broken, no one can re-tweet your message.
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15. Every Tweet is a Sales Tweet
If you do nothing but tweet “Get my book on Amazon” or “Like me on Facebook”, you are considered a spammer, only trying to sell to followers. Talking about your book (only): Buy my book, buy my book, buy my book, buy my book – pretty boring, isn’t it? Aim to send out entertaining, thoughtful, funny content or news, that are interesting for your fellow tweeps. You could for example improve these points:
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16. Not Having at Least 2,000 Followers – or Stuck With 2,000
Some books and blog articles advice to never follow anyone with less than 2,000 followers. Doesn’t sound fair, as everyone has to start somewhere. On the other hand some tweeps click on every name they see on Twitter to reach 2,000 followers very fast – and then stuck. For them, instead to un-follow successive those who do not follow, they just wait it out to get 2,000 people who follow them, in order to continue their growth.
But this can take forever, as no one wants to to follow THEM – and then wait for months or even longer, until they reciprocate – or worse: never do. Un-follow people who haven’t followed you back after a while. This is especially important to avoid “follow limits”. If you have anything like these numbers – you are in trouble: 268 TWEETS – 2000 FOLLOWING – 345 FOLLOWERS
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17. Too Few or Too Much Content
When people on Twitter are following close to 2000 people and they’ve only Tweeted a few times (or sometimes not at all). Without content, those you have followed are unlikely to follow you back. On the other hand, I see people with maybe a few hundred followers, and they are tweeting tens of thousands of times.
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These are just a few of many issues that make it difficult to interact for others on Twitter – or prevents tweeps to click on follow you – and also for you to build social networksand your writer’s platform. To become successful and popular on Twitter do this:
Pick the right time of day
Leave room for a re-tweet
Tweet the latest news in your field
Write a tempting tweet headline
Choose a short Twitter name
Don’t make the tweets only about you
Avoid not being social – or being too social
Follow others, tweet something valuable for others and don’t use Twitter only as a cheap way to advertise! Create a nice mixture of your own, really interesting tweets and do some re-tweeting. If you want to become popular on Twitter and have your tweets go viral, learn how to use Twitter in a smart and social way, and nurse your relationships – that’s what Twitter is there for. Twitter is a tool that creates relationships and conversation – using it only for “advertising” would be devaluing the system
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Tagged: how to use Twitter, infographic, Peak hours on Twitter, Please re-tweet, re-tweet your post, re-tweets, Things to avoid on Twitter, twitter followers, Twitter following, Twitter Statistics
Don’t Compare Yourself With Others. Star
Don’t Compare Yourself With Others. Staring at famous writers & being jelious doesn’t make you more successful or happier http://bit.ly/Qhlhoh
April 19, 2014
The new #Kindle #Countdown #Deals are li
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Selling your book on your website: Great
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