MANA Holiday Publishing Offers Available Now!

If you have ever wanted to publish a book or place your short stories or other literary works in front of new readers, then take advantage of MarketingNewAuthors.com’s (MANA) holiday promotion. 

Why Should You Publish With MANA?

Although there are many reasons to publish with MANA, here are 5 top reasons: 

 

1. Personalized attention. Rather than watching a video or chatting with an Artificial Intelligence avatar, you will actually talk to a live person. You may ask questions and get direct answers.

2. No Do-It-Yourself (DIY) Publishing. Some authors prefer writing and are not interested in DIY publishing. MANA takes care of editing, book formatting, book cover design, and other services for you.

3. You choose the services. MANA has a wide array of services, but you can select as many—or as few—as you want. 

4. Opportunity to preview your work. You will be able to review your book before it is printed. 

5. Marketing services available. If you are a first-time author and do not have an audience of your own, MANA will promote your work to its followers while you build up your own audience. 

MANA T-shirt

• Get a $500 discount off all publishing plans, except e-book publishing plans, and receive a complimentary MANA t-shirt. 

• Get a $500 discount off all marketing plans and receive a complimentary MANA t-shirt

MANA's DR C Offers Services For College-Bound Students

Special Holiday Offer: 25% off DR C Consultant Services! Visit MarketingNewAuthors.com website to purchase.

Are you the parent of a high school senior who’s preparing for college? Or are you an adult preparing for college? 

If so, is the college entrance written essay on your list of concerns? Maybe I (DR C) can help. (Visit my website to learn more about me.)

 As a parent of college-educated children, I can understand parents’ concerns about their children’s success in college. However, I always believed my children would not develop independence at college if I or my hubby were hovering over them. 

Yes, our children could call and share with us their apprehensions and concerns, but my hubby and I did our best to let our son and daughter discover the answers and use the resources the college offered—mainly the professors.  

MANA's BLACK LIT ALIVE!: Segment #10: Excerpts from "Iola Leroy"

MANA's BLACK LIT ALIVE! podcast is a special segment of MANA on literature produced by African American writers in the 18th century and beyond. 

Through literature, the writers, whether free or slaves, realized their identity and expressed their individuality at a time when African Americans were only viewed as mere property. 

In this segment, MANA's DR C read excerpts from and discusses Iola Leroy, a novel written by Frances Ellen Watkins Harper and published in 1892. 

Iola Leroy, one of the first novels published by an African American woman, deals with racism, slavery, abolition, class, politics, reconstruction, women's rights, and other serious social issues in pre- and post-Civil War America.

Iola Leroy tells the story of the mixed-race daughter of a wealthy Mississippi planter who traveled to the North to attend school, only to be sold into slavery in the South. She is later freed by the Union army. She works to reunify her family and embraces her half-white, half-African American heritage, and devotes herself to improving the conditions of black people in America. 

Listen to DR C's latest podcast below:

Listen to other podcasts on Frances Ellen Watkins Harper on our MANA's BLACK LIT ALIVE! posts Segment #6, Segment #7, and Segment #9.

The Long Goodbye by Gregory Shafer

     Dad lay in the same position day after day. The drugs had taken away his personality, and those final days—which ran into more days and weeks of silence and darkness—became a time for reflection. I could talk to him, but he wouldn’t talk back. Occasionally though, he would surface from beneath the pain. 

     He would grimace in agony or smile at a comment I made. He had been my dad through all of the tears and victories. He had made me feel secure. He had talked to me about girls and the Detroit Lions. And now, he was dying—slowly.

Image by Sharon McCutcheon
from Pixabay

     “I’m sorry,” I said as the tears rolled down my face. “I’m sorry for not being there after the divorce. You were the best dad a guy could ever have—all of the baseball games and root beer floats. And when you needed me I was ignoring you just to please Mom. Please, please forgive me.”

     People speak of the dying in a mainly perfunctory way. They roll out all of the platitudes about a better world and the magic of God and faith. But I didn’t have any of that. I didn’t feel any of it. 

     In the quiet shadows of twilight, the diminishing sun escaping from his bedroom window, it was just the two of us and the morphine. The smell of death came and went, but it was replaced with medicine and tubes and bags of stuff that would keep him from pain—at least any that I could see. But what was he feeling or thinking? 

MANA's Call For Short Stories

Attention short story writers! 

MarketingNewAuthors.com (MANA) is putting out a call for short stories to add to the MANA Sunriser Blog. MANA's Short Story Series is a throwback to the days when print newspapers and magazines published short stories that appear as a series.

MANA has brought serials back to public life! The stories run the gamut, from suspense to comedy, from twists and turns to straightforward fare, the stories have it all! To read the short stories that are currently posted, go to the right side of this blog to view the story list. 

The stories are written in five installments, with one segment posted each week, just like the serials of bygone days.

Do you have a short story that you would like to have featured in MANA's Short Story Series? If so, submit a five-segment short story that totals 500 words, 100 words or so per segment). If the submission is accepted, MANA will post it on the MANA Sunriser Blog for a wide audience to view. 

If you want to answer the call, then submit your work to MANA today. We will review your story and notify you if we accept your story for publication. You will maintain full copyright. 

To submit a short story, attach a Word file, and send it via email to info@marketingnewauthors.com.

MANA's BLACK LIT ALIVE! Podcast Featuring Poems by Frances Ellen Watkins Harper—Segment #9

MANA's BLACK LIT ALIVE! podcast is a special segment of MANA on literature produced by African American writers in the 18th century and beyond. 

Through literature, the writers, whether free or slaves, realized their identity and expressed their individuality at a time when African Americans were only viewed as mere property. 

In this podcast, MANA's DR C reads poems by Frances Ellen Watkins Harper (September 24, 1825 - February 22, 1911), one of the first African American women to be published in the United States. Born free in Baltimore, Maryland, she became an abolitionist, suffragist, teacher, public speaker, poet, and writer. Harper's short story, "Two Offers" was published in the Anglo-African in 1859, making literary history as the first short story published by a black woman. 

(DR C reads Harper's poem, "The Slave Mother," in another post. Click here to listen.)

Listen to DR C's podcast below where she reads the poems, "The Dying Bondman," "A Double Standard," and "Learning to Read."

Follow along with DR C as she recites Harper's poems:

What's The Big Deal About Grammar?

We studied grammar as children in elementary school. Now that we are adults, grammar doesn't matter anymore, right? Wrong!

Proper grammar and usage are just as important today as when we were children.

Buy Bare Essentials
English grammar handbook
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For instance, if you are writing a book with an intent to publish it, do you think that readers would enjoy a story that’s riddled with improper grammar and spelling errors? Do you think people would want to read anything else that you write? 

It’s true that writers have used excuses, such as:

• “I didn’t want to pay for proofreading and editing.”

• “Why are there so many errors if I use a grammar checker app?”

• “I never understood grammar anyway!”

Many readers are turned off by self-published authors. In fact, typos and poor grammar are among the major reasons why books written by self-published authors fail. 

So, what’s the big deal about grammar? 

There are three reasons why grammar is a big deal: 

MANA's BLACK LIT ALIVE! Podcast: A Variety of Early Works By African American Writers —Segment #8

MANA's BLACK LIT ALIVE! is a special segment of MANA that features podcasts on literature produced by African American writers in the 18th century and beyond. 

Through literature, the writers, whether free or slaves, realized their identity and expressed their individuality at a time when African Americans were only viewed as mere property.

Listen to the podcast below in which MANA's DR C reads: 

1. The poem, "An Evening Thought: Salvation by Christ, with Penitential Cries" by Jupiter Hammon (c. 1711-1806), and published in New York in 1761. Hammon is considered to be the founder of African American literature. "An Evening Thought," was the first poem published by an African American in North America. In a previous post, BLACK LIT ALIVE! features another poem by Jupiter. Go HERE to read the work, "Essay on Slavery, with justification to Divine providence, that God Rules over all things."

2. The poem, "On Being Brought From Africa to America," by Phillis Wheatley (c. 1753-1784), the first African American author of a book of poetry. Go HERE to listen to a previous BLACK LIT ALIVE! podcast regarding Wheatley. DR C reads "On Being Brought From Africa to America," twice in this latest podcast. 

3. More excerpts from The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Or Gustavus Vassa, The African by Gustavus Vassa. The book was first published in 1789 in London. Listen to Part 1 and Part 2 of a previous BLACK LIT ALIVE! podcast on Vassa. 

4. Excerpts from A Narrative of the Adventures and Escape of Moses, Roper, from American Slavery by Moses Roper (c.1815-April 15.1891). Roper's book was one of the major early books about life as a slave in the United States. 

5. The poem, "On Liberty and Slavery" by George Moses Horton (1798-1883), who is considered "the Black bard of North Carolina." Go HERE to listen to a previous BLACK LIT ALIVE! podcast on Horton.

Follow along with DR C as she recites:

MANA's BLACK LIT ALIVE! Featuring Frederick Douglass and Frances Ellen Watkins Harper—Segment #7

 MANA's BLACK LIT ALIVE! is a special segment of MANA, which will have podcasts on literature produced by African American writers in the 18th century and beyond. 

Through literature, the writers, whether free or slaves, realized their identity and expressed their individuality at a time when African Americans were only viewed as mere property. 

In this podcast, MANA’s DR C reads excerpts from Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave. Douglass (c. February 1818 - February 20, 1895) was an abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman. He escaped from slavery in Maryland and later became a national leader of the abolitionist movement in Massachusetts and New York. 

Frances Ellen Watkins Harper (September 24, 1825 - February 22, 1911) was one of the first African American women to be published in the United States. Born free in Baltimore, Maryland, she became an abolitionist, suffragist, teacher, public speaker, poet, and writer. Harper made literary history when her short story, "Two Offers" was published in the Anglo-African in 1859. This was the first short story published by a black woman. 

Listen to DR C's podcast where she reads excerpts from Douglass' narrative and Harper's poem, "The Slave Auction" and "The Dying Bondman":

Follow along with DR C as she recites excerpts from Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, and Harper's poems: