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HOPE For Writers: An
Interview with C. Hope Clark
Interview by RoseEtta Stone
So you've always dreamed of being a writer. You want to write that Great
American Novel that we all supposedly have inside us. Or that book of
poetry. That cookbook in which you'll reveal secret family recipes.
That mystery because you've figured out how to commit the perfect crime.
That autobiography that will be a best-seller because of the unbelievable 'truth
is stranger than fiction' life you've led. That screenplay that will be a
blockbuster movie starring Tom Hanks.
You want to enter writing contests. Freelance and submit articles to print
and online publications. Win that writing award, grant, scholarship.
Get away from it all at a writer's retreat. Get paid writing jobs and
assignments. But instead you're A) Stuck at a 9 to 5 job you despise.
B) Working three jobs to make ends meet. Or C) You're just a mother,
housewife, and unpaid servant, tied (imprisoned) by your apron strings to the 3
H's: home, hearth, and husband.
Why are you A, B, or C, when all you want out of life is to be a writer?
Because you CAN'T AFFORD TO BE A WRITER! You can't afford the time.
And you certainly can't afford the money - money which you haven't got to spare
anyway.
Don't despair. Don't lose heart. Don't give up your dreams. There's
always HOPE for writers - C. Hope Clark, that is. And Funds for Writers.
For writers unfamiliar with "Funds for
Writers," Hope, let's begin with you telling us exactly what that is.
Funds for Writers is a family of online newsletters and web site. "FFW"
provides current markets, grants, fellowships, contests and awards for writers
trying to make a living at their passion. Frequently writers are better at
writing than marketing or business, and FFW helps to make the effort a little
less painful by providing a lot of this information each week.
While our emphasis is to provide funding sources, each newsletter carries an
article to clarify, educate or direct writers in one manner or another in making
a better living at their work. We limit one article per newsletter so as
to make room for all the funding sources. The web site (www.fundsforwriters.com)
carries at least three articles and current headlines each week - all pertaining
to funding for writers. The articles and headlines explain a grant
possibility, promote an award, describe how a nonprofit charity can benefit and
promote a writer, expose scams, and many other topics to enlighten writers on
the funding side of the job.
Where or how did the idea of letting writers know about
available sources of funding via a weekly newsletter occur to you?
I was associate editor of another newsletter and online e-zine entitled Word
Weaving and Webletter. I advised people on funding and
financial issues, finding help, and earning income, in addition to learning the
ins and outs of writing a newsletter. K.D. McIntosh, a journalist, who was
in her thirties when she died, steered me toward FFW initially.
Then I was asked to speak to a chapter of International Women's Writing Guild (IWWG)
in Atlanta. I was disturbed that the majority of the meeting revolved
around finding money. One writer didn't have postage to mail her
manuscripts. Another didn't have money to self-publish. And yet
another couldn't find gas money to attend a speaking engagement to promote her
book. By the end of the meeting, I was trying to advise writers on finding
funds as well as on some common sense ideas on money management.
I felt that fate had dealt me this hand. So I created Funds for Writers
newsletter. It grew to 300 members in a matter of three weeks. A
short two-week letter expanded to a two part weekly newsletter, and I still have
trouble containing it at times with all the information I find.
Was your FFW e-newsletter the first of its kind?
I like to think it is. I haven't found another. Many newsletters
offer contests. Others offer reporting and editorial jobs. All of
the others I see, though, have more articles and ads than funding sources.
Most newsletters cater to how-to guidelines than the actual markets themselves.
I wanted to stick to just the facts - the funds.
Does anything else distinguish Funds for Writers from
similar listings on numerous web sites and online publications?
FFW tries not to form too many opinions or take political or controversial
stands. We respond ASAP to e-mail inquiries. We answer many
questions directly to individual writers outside of the FFW newsletter and web
site. Most answers are within 12 hours, and I am not frugal with the
precise facts on what grants, markets, etc., fit a particular writer's needs.
I don't want to rope a writer into a gimmick or a "pay $20 for more
detailed information" type trick. Our services are free until such
time we can afford to charge. That affordability is in terms of number of
subscribers. We are a service.
How did you get the word out and let it be known that
FFW exists, generate interest, and find subscribers?
I put an ad in my other newsletter, Word Webletter, although its
subscription base was only 300. And every newsletter I subscribed to, I
sent a request to spread the word. Once the membership started growing, I
began paying for some ads. Then I started writing the journalism schools
at universities.
The members now are my best marketing tool. Through word of mouth, the
members are spreading the word. They are forwarding their copy of FFW to
their writing friends who eventually subscribe. Some include free
publicity in their lists and newsletters. The larger the membership, the
easier the word spreads. Old-fashioned way of doing business but it works.
And how do you find the grants, writing contests, jobs,
etc., that you advertise in your newsletter? That research itself seems
like a full-time job.
I have a natural knack for research. I've always loved to tackle a
challenge, as well. I find the sources from many areas: other newsletters
(I try to reference them in FFW), government lists and sites, writing sites,
professional association sites, university sites, philanthropic publications,
newspapers, and even direct email requests to me from editors. There are
actually too many for me to list, and thus, too many funding sources for me to
publish every week. I could publish a newsletter twice its size, but some
readers already say FFW is almost an overload in reading material so I try to
hold back.
Do you ever get feedback from readers/writers who've
won contests, grants, awards, and/or gotten jobs, etc., listed in your
newsletter?
I receive e-mail daily from members. Some just offer their thanks.
Others tell me what contest they've won, award success, or market achievement.
I love those letters. Some are very touching, and I have lost count of the
ones that brought tears to my eyes. These people are downright wonderful!
Those e-mails pick me up on bad days, and the timing of special e-mails on my
worst days is just amazing.
Funds for Writers is a free newsletter sent weekly to
subscribers. Would you say then, based on your own experience, that the
prerequisites for launching a successful online newsletter are its free
availability and original, unique content?
Absolutely. The Internet has too much free information for a newsletter to
charge much initially. While my goal is to charge once FFW reaches 5000
members, I don't want to quite yet. I wish FFW to be a household name, and
known for its unique ability to aid writers. Too many newsletters provide
the same information - how-to articles and personal "how I did it"
articles. I prefer to do the how-to teaching through URL, email addresses,
and snail mail addresses of grants, markets, awards, contests, and fellowships.
I like to give the facts rather than the theory. I think that is different
than most newsletters and zines.
I understand that you have other FFW newsletters, such
as one for kids.
We have three newsletters:
FundsforWriters - the parent newsletter for serious writers.
FFWJunior - the newsletter for the novice or hobby writer.
WritingKid - the newsletter for the younger writer.
I learned that not all writers wanted $1,000 contests and $1/word markets.
Some wanted to write recreationally or were just getting started. Thus,
FFWJunior was born with smaller monetary funding sources. Those members
are quite loyal and love the information. Those are the "just for
fun" type funds. WritingKid is to aid young people in publishing
early in life and entice regular writing as a habit. Too many children
don't write seriously anymore, and my day job was so much influenced by my
ability to write, that I felt a need to instill that in young people. That
newsletter is fledgling and only at 100 members, but we are hoping it soon takes
off since the school year has just started. I would love to have teachers
subscribe. But alas, these markets are VERY difficult to find. I
spend more time searching for these markets than probably the other newsletters.
Are similar offers and information in the kids'
newsletter?
WritingKid offers contests and awards and the occasional internship for kids.
The kids are divided into three age groups - Mach I, II and III. I is 12
and under, II is 18 and under, III is college age. I try to find
publishing sources that offer reward in some physical shape such as shirts,
books, savings bonds and even money and scholarships. Rewards are
necessary to keep the interest of the beginning writer.
The newsletters are sent via Yahoo, where you have your
own e-group named Funds for Writers. What advantages or benefits do
writers derive from having their own group? Is being a group leader, as
opposed to being a group member, career enhancing?
Yahoo is just one version of a list supporter. Topica is another.
The benefit of using a list server like Yahoo is that I don't have to physically
subscribe and unsubscribe the members. And by virtue of a blank email to
the published addresses of FundsforWriters-subscribe@yahoogroups.com and
FundsforWriters-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com, members can control their own
subscription. That gives me more time to research the actual copy for the
newsletters themselves than managing a subscription list.
And a group leader is nothing more than the editor. I chose to use my list
through Yahoogroups as a one way distribution of a newsletter. Others have
active lists with members e-mailing each other back and forth through the list
in almost chat style. I wished to have a publication, not a chat room.
Does Yahoo provide group leaders with subscription
lists?
No.
What, exactly, does being a group leader entail?
Is being one very time consuming?
Actually, being the group leader (editor) of a group is easy. It gives me
a good tool to maintain the membership, distribute the newsletter, and maintain
the archives. I'd have to develop a program to do that for me otherwise.
And what do members get out of belonging to the group?
What members get out of the Yahoogroup membership is access to the archives of
FFW newsletters (3 years' worth) and ability to vote in any poll I offer.
Earlier you mentioned your Funds for Writers web site (www.fundsforwriters.com),
which was selected as one of "101 Best Writing Sites for Writers," by
Writer's Digest in 2001 and 2. Tell us about this award-winning site,
Hope.
Some people don't like to read newsletters, so I created FFW online. Also
I wanted the search engines to find us. Some people wouldn't find out
about the newsletter without finding the site through Excite, Lycos, GoTo, Ask
Jeeves, Yahoo or Alta Vista.
You also have a second site. Should all
writers/aspiring writers have more than one web site, if they can afford to?
I believe one is enough. I started FFW under www.chopeclark.com/fundsforwriters.htm.
That is the actual site that won the award. I maintain www.chopeclark.com
for my personal writing. This site is purely for my own personal work.
You've also written books about funding sources for
writers. What can writers learn from them that isn't in your newsletters
or on your web sites?
FundsforWriters: The Book is a self-published book I produced in honor of
K.D. McIntosh in October, 2000 (1stbooks.com). It gives successful
examples and more theory and educational information that the newsletter just
doesn't have the space to pursue. Also, the book offers lists and lists of
sources for grants, awards, and contests. It's just a nice compilation of
all the information offered in the newsletters each week. I've also
published three other books: Grants for the Serious Writer -
FFW Publications - e-book - February 2002, Awards for the Serious Writer
- FFW Publications - e-book - December 2001, and Writers Ransom - FFW
Publications - e-book - March 2002.
Last, but not least, you've written a novel - a
romantic mystery. What can you tell us about the book? And do you
plan to write others?
Yes, I wrote a novel that had been inside me for about 8 years. It took me
two years to write it. The basis for it was the chance meeting of my
husband and me. He is a federal agent and I was a loan officer for the federal
government. I was offered a bribe and I called in the Feds to help catch
the criminal. Other than that, the story is fiction. I took the two
main characters as ourselves then spun out a romantic mystery. It was fun,
but I still have not found a publishing home for it yet. I'll be polishing
on it for a while yet and keeping my fingers crossed that one of the many
manuscripts I sent out find a publishing home. And I have another one
started now. I believe it will be a little easier to write. That is
some hard work writing a novel. You learn to better appreciate those that
make a respectable living from doing so.
Now, if I've got this all right, you hold a full-time
job while having a successful freelance writing career. On behalf of all
writers, everywhere, let me ask how you manage to work 9 to 5, yet find the time
to write books, maintain two web sites, lead an e-group, locate resources for
FFW, write and send out three weekly newsletters, write and submit articles to
various publications, lecture, and oh yes, be a wife and mother - have I left
anything out?
I am a management nut. I hold a federal job in USDA (US Department of
Agriculture) in management. I am so grateful I have that income, frankly,
because the "successful" part of the writer hasn't started bringing in
much bacon yet. I write at night and on weekends and especially on
business trips when I have time alone. My children are teenagers now,
which also allows me more time. I don't know how writers with toddlers do
it. And I have a very supportive husband and children. Writing is
what I love, and without it I am not whole. I'll let the house go to the
dogs before missing my writing time. My writing is also my sanity. I
experienced two serious burnouts from my day job, which is a very stressful
position. My boss is a politician, which makes my position precarious at
times as I attempt to keep the ethics intact as ethics officer, just one of the
many duties I manage. So I write to maintain a balance and lose the
stress. I've always been organized.
Which of all your professional endeavors do you see
yourself still engaged in ten years from now?
The novel writing first. FFW will still be a major part, but I wish to
develop my own personal writing and make it my long-term mainstay. I have
a feeling, though, that the need of the writers out there will keep me drawn to
FFW just as it did when I first started. I couldn't get away from it.
Are there any last comments, Hope, or observations that
you'd care to make?
Success is no good without failure, and success is not measured in income.
I stand by both these mantras, because as a writer, if you don't understand
these two concepts, you can't make it.
RoseEtta Stone is the Editor/Publisher of (the) X - RATED
CHILDREN'S BOOKS NEWSLETTER: Book Reviews and Interviews with Banned,
Censored, Challenged Authors of Banned, Censored, Challenged and Burned
Childrens' Books. Visit by clicking here: X-RatedChildrensBooks.
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