Erika M Szabo: Author, Artist
  • HOME
    • ABOUT ME
      • My Author Gang
    • AUTHOR FRIENDS
    • VIDEOS
    • Photos
    • Paying it Forward
      • LINKS
  • CONTACT
  • BOOKSTORE
    • BOOKS on AMAZON
    • PAPERBACK
    • EBOOKS
  • READING ROOM
  • My Thinking Board
    • Bragging Blog
    • THIS-n-THAT
    • My bragging post
  • FICTION NOVELS
  • Rainbows and Couds
  • The Ancestors' Secrets
  • The Curse
  • Book Reviews
  • CHILDREN'S BOOKS
  • Creepy Hollow Adventures
  • Pico, the Pesky Parrot
  • The Haunted Bakery
  • A Basketful of Kittens
  • Who Stole Terry's Music Box?
  • Look, I Can Talk With My Fingers
  • Terry and the Number Fairy
  • My Book-My Stories
  • Me Too
  • libros espanoles
    • Mira, ¡puedo hablar con los dedos!
  • PUBLISHING
    • Book Formatting
    • ILLUSTRATION
    • Book Promotion
    • Book Cover Art
    • Publishing Coach
  • NATURAL HEALING
    • ASTHMA
    • BIZARRE SYMPTOMS
    • Natural Skin Care
    • Healing crystals
    • Natural remedies
    • Aromatherapy
    • Pets and Fleas
    • Detox Your Body Naturally
    • HIGH CHOLESTEROL
    • HUNGARIAN
    • Természetgyógyászat
  • HOME
    • ABOUT ME
      • My Author Gang
    • AUTHOR FRIENDS
    • VIDEOS
    • Photos
    • Paying it Forward
      • LINKS
  • CONTACT
  • BOOKSTORE
    • BOOKS on AMAZON
    • PAPERBACK
    • EBOOKS
  • READING ROOM
  • My Thinking Board
    • Bragging Blog
    • THIS-n-THAT
    • My bragging post
  • FICTION NOVELS
  • Rainbows and Couds
  • The Ancestors' Secrets
  • The Curse
  • Book Reviews
  • CHILDREN'S BOOKS
  • Creepy Hollow Adventures
  • Pico, the Pesky Parrot
  • The Haunted Bakery
  • A Basketful of Kittens
  • Who Stole Terry's Music Box?
  • Look, I Can Talk With My Fingers
  • Terry and the Number Fairy
  • My Book-My Stories
  • Me Too
  • libros espanoles
    • Mira, ¡puedo hablar con los dedos!
  • PUBLISHING
    • Book Formatting
    • ILLUSTRATION
    • Book Promotion
    • Book Cover Art
    • Publishing Coach
  • NATURAL HEALING
    • ASTHMA
    • BIZARRE SYMPTOMS
    • Natural Skin Care
    • Healing crystals
    • Natural remedies
    • Aromatherapy
    • Pets and Fleas
    • Detox Your Body Naturally
    • HIGH CHOLESTEROL
    • HUNGARIAN
    • Természetgyógyászat

My thinking board

My thoughts about this and that...

I would Love To Have a Shiny Sticker on My Resume!

3/8/2016

2 Comments

 
Picture
Yup, I would love to display a sticker like that! Who wouldn't?
There are so many books out there proudly displaying their literary award winner stickers. Of course, I would love to have a shiny sticker on all of my books and have a chance to brag about being an award winner author, but... here is always a but.  Which contest should I enter? Are these award contest legitimate? Will it help my writing career if I would win one of these contests? Is it worth entering any literary contests just because they have an attractive website and promise recognition? . I wouldn't do that without a very thorough research on the prestige of the contest.

Many writers enter literary contests hoping to be noticed by agents and publishers, a way to add writing credits, or promote a self-published book. This can definitely worth adding to your writing resume if the contest is sponsored by an organization with high standing in the publishing industry.

I id some research to get a general idea about the real and fake award contests. I know that there must be a lot of fake contests out there, so I started my research with the scams.

Here is what I found so far:
There are very few of the hundreds of award contests out there has prestige that would make entering their contests worthwhile. Winning a contest run by an internet contest mill probably don't carry any weight with agents and readers because they may be aware that small contests are much less likely to have professional judging standards.

However, we can't really label literary CONTEST MILLS scams with high entry fees and dozens of entry categories, since there usually are winners, who generally do receive the promise prize. But keep in mind that they conduct the contests with their high entry fees (anywhere from $60 to $80) with the sole purpose, to make money. However, because of the probable lack of rigorous judging standards (judges are rarely identified, and in some cases we can suspect that they may not exist at all), are unlikely to carry much weight and professional prestige. They promise much of the benefits that prestigious awards can bring to your career, and there’s even a nice trophy or a shiny sticker. Some of them advertise enormous prizes up to $15,000 for the winners, but if you read the fine print (usually hard to find on their website), you’ll see that the contest owner reserves the right to award prizes on a pro-rated basis. It means that the prize amounts are determined by the number of entrants, thus guaranteeing their profit no matter what. 

Similar to the contest mills are the AWARD MILLS that mostly focus on a small press or self-published authors, who face major challenges in getting their work noticed. Although there may be a real prize (money, gift certificates, consults with literary agents), winners are most likely receive little more than a shiny sticker and an announcement on the organization’s website.

Contests by fee-charging publishers. Often the prize is a book contract, but winners don’t find out until afterward that the contract terms are restrictive, or that they must pay a fee for publication, or agree to pre-purchase large numbers of books.

The most common of the fake contests I've found are those conducted by the vanity anthology companies. They publish anthologies of poems or short stories, which are NOT sold to the public, only to the contributors, so the writers are pressured to buy multiple copies.

After about three hours of searching for the perfect award contest for my books, I gave up for now.

I decided that I need to do a lot more research before I consider entering my books in any contest.
2 Comments

There is so Much More to Communication than Just Speaking

3/5/2016

0 Comments

 
My good friend gave me the best present today by sending me this picture with a heartwarming message, that made me cry with joy.

It made me so happy to see two grown men reading my English and Spanish children's books and enjoying the story. Jeanne's husband, who is a hearing person, is learning to sign to communicate easier with his friend. 
Picture
Jeanne wrote in her email:
​I thought you should see this picture. You will notice my husband, on the left, trying to learn how to sign. On the right of the picture is our friend Jimmy. He is profoundly deaf, but reads lips and we communicate very well. I was sitting across the table with Jimmy's wife, Lucy, who is deaf, but can hear some and can speak fairly well. I can vouch for the fact that there is so much more to communication than speaking. We all fully enjoyed the book you wrote and Jimmy and Lucy commended you for the Spanish version, which they say was excellent as well. Apparently there are subtle differences in the sign for Spanish. Anyway, I wanted you to have this picture. You have written a wonderful story, with a great message!
I meet a lot of wonderful people with some form of disability in my line of work as a nurse. It always saddens me when I see the difficulties their illness or condition cause and the ridicule and isolation they have to endure. I write fantasy novels, but I decided to publish these books for children about the hardship of hearing loss that is a vital part of good communication .

As a nurse, sadly, I come across a lot of people with deeply embedded preconception or prejudice about disability, skin color, gender, ancestry, and so on.  It is very hard for an adult or especially for an older person to change how they relate to others.

However, if we can teach our children how to judge people by their personalities and actions instead of judging them just because they happened to be deaf, sitting in a wheelchair, have a different skin color or were born in a foreign county, we can raise a compassionate and unbiased next generation.
 
I hid an important message to children in these English and Spanish picture books, how to learn not to judge, bully or make fun of anyone just because they’re different. The life of any disabled person is no fun and living with a disability has many challenges, but we can learn to make their life easier and not harder.
Picture
Picture
ENGLISH
Look, I Can Talk With My Fingers!
A little girl teaches her family and her friends how to relate to someone who is hearing impaired.
If you'd like to have an eBook or paperback copy or just read about the story, click on the BOOK'S PAGE 

SPANISH
Mira, ipuedo hablar con los dedos!
Sandra enseƱa a su familia y amigos a comunicarse con personas con discapacidad auditiva.
Rad about the story on the BOOK'S PAGE

Pages from the English book

Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture

My good friend, J.E. Rogers

My friend, Jeanne, is also a children's book author. 
She is, very cleverly, without sounding educational, introducing Australian wildlife to children with amazingly well-developed characters and fascinating, adventure filled story-line in her anthropomorphic fantasy stories. She manages the perfect balance of plot, tension building and conclusion with moral messages to keep the reader entranced and engaged. Her stories also teach children about true friendship, tolerance, the importance of family and dedication to a good cause. I can highly recommend it to middle-grade children, but as an adult I really enjoyed her stories as well.
Visit her WEBSITE and read about her books and about the fasscinating Australian wildlife.
Picture
Picture
0 Comments
    Erika M Szabo
    Author of epic fantasy/magical realism novels and children's books, Publishing Coach at
    Golden Box Books Publishing

    Click to read my portfolio

    Picture

    Fiction  novels

    Picture

    Children's books

    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture

    Categories

    All
    10 Self-publishing Tips
    About Free Books
    A Dear Friend Wrote A Poem For Me
    Animals Always Find Me
    A Sweet Christmas Tradition
    Bigger Is Not Always Better
    Book Promo Fees Gone Too High
    Cats Love Stories Too!
    CHILDREN LEARN HATE AND INTOLERANCE FROM US
    Children's Books
    Children's Books For Halloween
    December Newsletter
    Discrimination
    Dude
    East Facelift
    Emotional Stages Of Becoming A Writer
    EMPTY PROMISES
    Every Life Is Precious
    Everyone Gets Paid From Book Sales- Except The Author
    Favorite Internet Pastime
    Fundraiser For Animals
    Genderless Characters In Books?
    Good Old Fashioned Romance
    Got Money? Buy Votes!
    Hearing Loss
    Hidden Messages
    Holiday Book Sale
    Inferior Or Equal?
    Is The Lovely Shade Of Romance Turning Dark?
    It's Monday!
    I Would Love To Have A Shiny Sticker On My Resume!
    I Write Children's Books Because...
    MBR Bookwatch Review
    #metoo
    My Books Are Getting A Makeover
    My Green Thumb
    MY SHORTS
    Oreo
    Paranormal Fantasy
    Prejudice
    Rainbows And Clouds
    Raise Some Paws
    Readers Do Judge A Book By Its Cover!
    Read For Animals
    READING IS GOOD
    Re-blogged: Full Moon Dare
    Self-publishing Made Too Easy
    Share Some Book Tweets On Tuesdays
    Sharing & Linking Frenzy
    Sign Language
    SPOOKY
    Spooky Story For Children
    STUCK AT 31
    The Bad Guys In Books
    The Danger Of A Quiet Simile
    The Mascot
    The New Kind Of Book Hoarder
    There Is So Much More To Communication Than Just Speaking
    The Warning Signs Of Vanity Publishers
    Those Dreaded Negative Reviews
    Vanishing Book Reviews
    WANNA SEE? CLICK!
    Watch Live: 2019 Celebrations Around The Globe
    WHERE DO YOU SELL YOUR BOOKS?
    Who Are You Jared?
    Why Do I Tell Stories?
    Why Should I Write Book Reviews?
    Write A Book They Said
    You Make A Hungarian Flinch When...

    Archives

    February 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    August 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    May 2017
    March 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    August 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    April 2015
    December 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014

    RSS Feed

For retailers, bookstores, and libraries, my books are available from INGRAM with returnability option

My books are available in many online store

Picture
Copyright 2012 © Erika M Szabo
Disclaimer: the photos posted on this website are either the property of the owner, purchased or donated to be displayed on the website by the photographer, or public domain pictures. If you find a picture and you recognize it as your own and not a public domain photo, please let us know ​CONTACT
  • HOME
    • ABOUT ME
      • My Author Gang
    • AUTHOR FRIENDS
    • VIDEOS
    • Photos
    • Paying it Forward
      • LINKS
  • CONTACT
  • BOOKSTORE
    • BOOKS on AMAZON
    • PAPERBACK
    • EBOOKS
  • READING ROOM
  • My Thinking Board
    • Bragging Blog
    • THIS-n-THAT
    • My bragging post
  • FICTION NOVELS
  • Rainbows and Couds
  • The Ancestors' Secrets
  • The Curse
  • Book Reviews
  • CHILDREN'S BOOKS
  • Creepy Hollow Adventures
  • Pico, the Pesky Parrot
  • The Haunted Bakery
  • A Basketful of Kittens
  • Who Stole Terry's Music Box?
  • Look, I Can Talk With My Fingers
  • Terry and the Number Fairy
  • My Book-My Stories
  • Me Too
  • libros espanoles
    • Mira, ¡puedo hablar con los dedos!
  • PUBLISHING
    • Book Formatting
    • ILLUSTRATION
    • Book Promotion
    • Book Cover Art
    • Publishing Coach
  • NATURAL HEALING
    • ASTHMA
    • BIZARRE SYMPTOMS
    • Natural Skin Care
    • Healing crystals
    • Natural remedies
    • Aromatherapy
    • Pets and Fleas
    • Detox Your Body Naturally
    • HIGH CHOLESTEROL
    • HUNGARIAN
    • Természetgyógyászat