"Our Lady of Guadalupe", by Halpin O'Reilly
Gilbert.
If you are interested in starting a writer's group or a Literary Journal, here are a few ways you can get the word out about your new venture.
1. Ask local book stores, coffee shops, and libraries if you can post flyers detailing the nature, meeting times, and contact information for your new writing group. Invite new writers into your Literary Journal.
2. Don't neglect the colleges in your local area. See if you can post flyers on their boards.
3. Large Supermarkets usually have bulletin boards near the entry way. They usually get read quite often, so post away.
4. Place classified ads in your local circulation. You might even try sending out a press release for your new group, whether or not you are a published writer.
5. If your local area has a roller channel, pay the fee to post your slide.
6. Get the smaller local businesses in on the action. They might be willing to keep flyers or cards on hand that advertise your writing group or Literary Journal, especially since there is a chance that it will bring them more business.
Though you might be excited to launch your new advertising campaign for your new group or Literary Journal, keep a few things in mind.
-Make sure you have a good location secured for the eventual meetings.
-Plan ahead for large groups as well as small groups. If more people come to the group, you will have a chance to have similar style writers work together. Small groups, however; offer the possibility of in depth critique and serious discussion. It is easier to keep the focus when there are only three to five members.
How to Conduct Your Writing Group
This is entirely up to you and the members. You will find that there will be novelists, fiction writers, horror writers, non-fiction writers, journalists, business writers, poets...Etc. You can tailor your writing group to the diversity of your group, or, if your group consists of a predominate genre; you can tailor the group to exercises that pertain to that genre.
Some writing groups meet monthly, while others will meet as often as every week. Depending on the lifestyles of the members, and the type of writing involved, you can tailor the meeting times to each of the members. You don't have to plan out the entire year before starting your group. In fact, you can write "Our first meeting will be on [date]. Meeting dates TBD. If you cannot make the first meeting, contact {info} for more information." That way, you can work out the details with the members rather then planning something that will only work for a small percentage of the people who are interested.
|
