AGT Monthly Meeting for September 2024

The Authors Guild of Tennessee held their monthly meeting on Thursday, September 5, 2024, at the Faith Lutheran Church in Farragut. Social time started at 10:30 and the business meeting at 11:00.

The following members were present:

Stephen Lyn Bales, Bill Barbour, Gene Berryhill, Stan Borgia, Bobbi Chapman, Deana Charcalla, Dave Curran, Gayle Curtin, Laura Derr, John Forcum, Brooke Gilbert, Leoma Gilley, Jim Hartsell, Ernie Lancaster, Jerry Morton, Kathy Parr, Cheryl Peyton, Nancy Pressley, Ron Pressley, Stacy Rowe, Art Stewart, Jeri Weems, and Victoria Winifred.

Visitors: Elain Jungk, Chris Rowe

Welcome – Cheryl. Introduction of visitors.

August Minutes: Approved on line.

Reports by members and Committee Chairs:

1. Festival Facts – Bobbi, Nancy P.

This coming weekend is the 11th annual Knox Asian festival, with predictions of 70-90,000 in attendance. Participants are: Deana, Bobbi, Nancy and Ron Pressley, Cheryl and Leoma.

2. Writing Contest – Art, Jerry

Several AGT members have volunteered to teach a session to the creative writing classes at Lenoir City High for the Writing Contest. They are Stacy, Jim, Ernie, Gail C, Kathy P, and Kay George. We need donations to support the contest for the $800 in expenses. A collection was taken at our meeting. We want to expand the program to Loudon County. The community is excited about this program, and the publicity we give them will make a difference to the future of these students.

New members are asking for information on writing, so the same presentations will be made at our meetings as well. Topics include: settings and world building, character development and point of view, motivation and conflict in character development, research for historical fiction, editing and revising, and plot structure.

3. Treasurer – Russ Fine

Beginning balance $2214.96

Ending balance $2179.32

Income:

Membership Dues $36.67

Book Sales:

Cookbook $15.00

IGA $72.00

Little Drug $93.10

Tellico Drugs $51.16

Winsome Stroll Market $50.42

Payments:

Author Payments $328.99

DHGraphics $34.00

Pending Transactions:

Author Payments $203.68

Bobbi Chapman (Pumpkin Fest) $42.84

4. Library – Laura Derr

Susan Kite has sent her two latest books for members to check out and read. Laura reminded everyone to donate a copy of their books to our library to be read and reviewed. A card is put in the back of each one for signing out. At the end of the meeting, we reclaim any of our books that weren’t borrowed. When you return a book, put it in the box and check your name off the list.

5. Victoria has written three new books which she showed to the group. It was reported that Russ sold over 100 books in his week at a Kroger store as part of their program to help authors sell books.

6. If you have sources for anything about writing or marketing that should be shared with the group, email Cheryl with the information and we can have this as one of our programs. For example, two sources for fonts for covers are: Creative Fabrica and Creative Market. Another is the site Voila! That “cartoonizes” photos for illustrations.

Speakers 

AGT member Stacy Rowe and her husband Chris spoke to us about Bookshop Fundraising, a platform they have created to help organizations raise money while encouraging literacy. Bookshop Fundraising works with authors to sell their books. Their website is https://www.bookshopfundraising.com. Stacy and Chris started this program about 3 months ago. They have been involved in the youth sports industry as participants, parents, and coaches.

Stacy writes under the pen name S.R. Fabrico. She’s an award-winning, best-selling author of a series of sports journals and adult fiction novels.

An organization, school, business or individual can complete the form on the website. There is a 7-day window for the fundraiser. The team creates a landing page for the organization to send out as well as custom emails and lists of all resources in their on-line library. Automatic reminders tell the organization what to do when. 50% of the cost of the books go to the

charities. The other 50% covers the author’s royalties, printing by the Bookshop Fundraising site, and operational expenses. They use on-demand printing and the books ship direct to the purchaser.

To get your self-published book into the Bookshop fundraising site, there is an application for the author at bookshopfundraising.com. A committee reviews the book for quality and appropriateness. No erotica is accepted. They would love more gift type books, cookbooks, etc. Once approved, the author submits the entire digital file and the site acts as a distributor. There is no cost to enter your book, only if it is accepted. They pay royalties once a quarter.

Benefit to you: new opportunities to reach readers, motivating buyers, and helping charitable organizations. There’s no inventory, so is low risk. You can have your own fundraising page. There is no time limit for this. You name the charity you want the 50% to go to.

All publicity is branded for the organization. A countdown clock promotes urgency. Prices for the books are approximately double what they would be on elsewhere, but that covers the cost of the book, royalties, and the half that goes to the charity. They also offer book bundles that offer savings. Not every book is in the bundle, only those over $20 retail. There are genre categories.

They have 17 authors now, and about 50 titles. They would like about 100 titles, maximum, representing various genres. There is a Meet the Author page where it links to your website or FB page. They are very open to growing the number of participating authors.

They hope to offer e-books and audiobooks in the future.

AGT could have a fundraiser for the Writing Contest. Cheryl will be the contact for now. If you would like to volunteer, let Cheryl know.

Adjournment:

Meeting adjourned at 12:17 p.m. The next meeting is set for Thursday, October 3rd at Faith Lutheran Church, 10:30 a.m. to noon.

Respectfully submitted,

Leoma Gilley, Secretary