Host Your Own Writing Contest

A friend of mine who works in marketing for a bookstore in Katy, Texas (Katy Budget Books - great place to visit if you're in the Houston area) approached me the other day, asking for advice on how to get more participation in the monthly poetry reading night held at the store. Immediately I suggested a poetry or short story writing contest, as this is a fun, easy way to get people excited about writing as well as reading.

If you attend groups like this, try organizing one yourself and let us know how things went!

Here are a few suggestions:

1) Focus attention on local talent and reward top participants. You could have a first, second, third place prize and two honorable mentions. The authors should be invited to read their winning entries. Parents are more apt to support and promote participation in things like this if they know that their child will have some kind of official recognition for their efforts.

2) Advertise on your web site, to patrons at the store with flyers, and through email. In addition to the prizes and honorable mentions, you could host a store raffle for the same night, where an additional coupon is available, along with signed copies of books by local authors.

3) The contest should be held in conjunction with a specially advertised store sale for the same day. That way you'd attract more patrons, and they would find out about the poetry or short story night and be more interested with its focus on charity and a contest.

4) All the entry fees from the contest should go to a well known charity such as the March of Dimes (https://www.marchofdimes.com/howtohelp/donate_online.asp) or UNICEF (see http://www.unicefusa.org/donate/). Be sure to appoint a responsible person to care for this and follow up with them to ensure all donations are promptly submitted.

5) The entry fee for the writing contest could be something reasonable like $10. The store would put up the prize money itself for the poems, which should be minimal ($35 cash prize for 1st, $25 gift card to the store for 2nd, and 50% discount off book purchases for 3rd; and of course the two honorable mentions cost you nothing; the raffle costs only the cost of the tickets, which can be printed on a computer with colored paper).

6) Definitely have clearly spelled out contest rules, such as what kind of content is prohibited and have a specific theme for the contest.

7) Also, to really get more attention and participation approach local schools. In fact, the entry fees could be donated to a local school in lieu of a charity. Ask some of the school staff to be judges. Make sure that the deadline for entries is at least a week before the award ceremony to allow enough time for the judges to get together and decide which entries will be awarded.

8) The raffle should be after the award ceremony to make sure that people get a chance to see what is going on with the contest. People will not leave if they know they might have a chance at winning something later on.

If you have other ideas, please post them here on the blog!

CT

Encourage Children to Read

I was visiting some friends over the weekend and was amazed to find out how little their children were reading. My friend has two boys, ages seven and nine. From the moment I hit the door they were both busy wearing out two video game controllers. I asked what was planned for the next day and was told how much they were looking forward to a movie (Monster vs. Aliens). Of course, there is nothing wrong with kids watching movies or getting that pixel high from video games, but it's no secret that the reading level of many youths and adults is not where it should be, not to mention the level of interest in written media.

So, since we're competing with all of this electronic entertainment, how can parents get kids more interested in reading? Can reading be presented in a way that isn't a complete bore?

Here are a few suggestions:

1. Let your child know how excited you are to read. You are their greatest role model. If they see you reading, over time your example may have a good effect. Let them understand that you loved that movie you saw, but that you loved the book even more. Tell them why, and put some enthusiasm in your voice when you do.

2. Before allowing your child to view a movie that has a book version that's readable for their age, tell them they must read the book with you first. (A great example of this is, Charlie and the Chocolate factory by Roald Dahl). Make it fun as if it were a movie night. Reading night can also include popcorn and sweets! Then after your child actually sees the movie, encourage him/her to voice which one was better. For example you could ask: If you could only hear the words in the movie, with no sounds or visual effects, would it have been better than the book? Why or why not?

3. Alternately you could have a family read around night. Begin by reading a page in a book that seems interesting to your child. Pass the book to the next person. Each member of the family reads a page of the story and tries to animate the story by the way they read out loud. Eventually, the kids will be competing to see who can read in the most entertaining way.

4. Have an artistic night where the children can draw, paint, or sculpt the various characters and scenes from the story. Combine with reading night or do it as a stand alone.

5. Reward your child with a theme dinner. For example, if they just finished reading James and the Giant Peach, then you could do a theme dinner featuring foods and ideas from the book. Kick it up a notch by making it a costume party.

Don't stop there. This is by no means an exhaustive list. There are dozens of other ways to generate a buzz around books! Once you start brainstorming ideas, they will keep coming and coming.

CT

New Website Update

If you've been keeping up with the evolution of my web site, you'll notice that it has gone from a one page place holder to a real site with pages. Not that there is complete content yet, not by far. However, it is an improvement. Already, the new pages placed on the site have been completely overhauled and expanded by twice the size. The makeover should be ready for publishing in approximately ten days.

I am extremely excited about being able to offer my material on the web and hope you will enjoy it. During the web site makeover, I decided to separate my children and teen works from the rest of my repertoire. The second site is still in the bare bones stages and will take a little more time to complete. However, before the end of the month I promise to have significant reading available on both sites. The web addresses are listed below.

CT

www.ctmartinauthor.com

www.ctmartinauthor.net