The way you can measure a society's soul is by the way that it treats its children.
Nelson Mandela

Issue No. 41 - 28th June 2007

Welcome to Kidz Newz especially to all new subscribers.  And a special welcome to all the new subscribers from the recent ECCPA in Melbourne. Kidz Newz is a regular newsletter with information and teaching tips for anyone involved with young children.  You are receiving this because you have attended one of my workshops, purchased a book, or you have requested to be on the mailing list.  Thank you.  Please forward this to anyone you feel it may be of interest to.

Feedback is welcome.

My PD/Conference Updates

ASME (Australian Society for Music Education) 40th Anniversary Conference. Perth (Western Australia) Convention Centre 6-10 July 2007.  I will be presenting two workshop sessions -
Movement and Dance in the Early Childhood Classroom
Multicultural Music and Movement.

CAYPAKS (Children And Young People Are Key Stakeholders) Conference Perth Western Australia 23-25 July 2007.  I will be conducting a Skills and Activity Based Workshop titled "Using Music and Movement to Empower Children at Risk".

New Book

The much anticipated second book in the Kidz-Fiz-Biz series has finally arrived!  It is called Kidz-Fiz-Biz MULTICULTURAL.  Subtitle is 'learning about other cultures through drama, dance and song'.  All the rhymes, fingerplays and music are in foreign languages with translation into English.  It contains loads of activities and is fully illustrated.  The music is fantastic and I'm sure teachers and children alike will find it great fun. 

The book will retail for A$95.00 including GST.  As a special offer to all Kidz Newz readers for the months of June and July it will be package and post free (saving of A$9.00 in Australia, $15.00 outside Australia).  I will also throw in a free copy of my E-Book, Triumphs and Tribulations, which is about my journey into self-publishing. Email me directly to get this special offer - info@kidzfizbiz.com.

For details of other products, please go to www.kidzfizbiz.com. The same special offer applies.

Why Self-Publish?

I came across this article by Wayne Mansfield in 'The Maverick Spirit' of 25^th June 2007 (www.waynemansfield.com) and thought it very relevant to my experiences in publishing (and more particularly, self-publishing). If you've ever wondered whether you should publish that song, novel, textbook or poem, just do it. May this article inspire you. Sometimes you just have to do whatever it takes. Thanks Wayne.

'When Richard Paul Evans wrote his first book, The Christmas Box, it was simply a gift of love to his two young daughters.

Later, he made photocopies for family and friends, and word spread quickly about this heart warming tale. Spurred on by this positive reaction, Rick sought a publisher for the book. When there were no takers, Rick decided to publish it himself.

To promote the book, he took a booth at a regional American Book-Sellers Association conference, where, among other activities, celebrity authors were signing books at one end of the exhibit hall. Rick noticed these celebrity authors were the only ones getting attention from the press.

He also noticed that when the next group of celebrities arrived for their scheduled tine, one author had failed to arrive.

With his fear being crowded out by his courage and commitment to his cram, Rick decided to take a leap. He picked up two boxes of books, walked toward the empty chair, sat down, and began to sign.

Seeing him at the table, a woman from the show approached him to ask him to leave. Undaunted, Evans looked up and before she could speak said, "Sorry I'm late."

The stunned woman just looked at him and asked, "Can I get you something to drink?" The next year, Evans was the premier author at the show as his book climbed to Number I on the New York Times Best-Seller List. Since then. The Christmas Box has sold more than 8 million copies in 18 languages and has been made into an Emmy Award-winning CBS television movie.

The book, which had been previously rejected by several major publishing houses, was eventually purchased by Simon & Schuster for a record $4.2 million.
 

Richard Hooker worked for seven years on his humorous war novel, M*A*S*H* only to have it rejected by twenty-one publishers before Morrow decided to publish it. It went on to become a runaway bestseller, spawning a blockbuster movie and a highly successful television series.

Did you know that Richard Bach completed only one year of college, then trained to become an Air Force jet-fighter pilot. Twenty months after earning his wings, he resigned. Then he became an editor of an aviation magazine that went bankrupt. Life became one failure after another. Even when he wrote Jonathan Livingston Seagull, he couldn't think of an ending.

The 10,000-word manuscript lay dormant for eight years before he decided how to finish it--only to have eighteen publishers reject it before it was finally published by Macmillan. However once it was published, the book went on to sell more than 7 million copies in numerous languages and make Richard Bach an internationally known and respected author.'

The moral of the story is that if you want your book published, sometimes you just need to take the bull by the horns and do it yourself. If you read about any successful author, almost without exception they were on the verge of giving up writing when finally they were 'discovered'. The rest, as described above, self-published first.

My e-book is all about my self-publishing journey and subsequent 'discovery' by a publisher (well, three actually, but that's another story). This is available from my website ' www.kidzfizbiz.com. Remember that it's free for the months of June and July to readers of this e-zine.

The 2006 winners of the Bulwer-Lytton contest, aka "Dark and Stormy Night Contest" (run by the English Dept. of San Jose State University), wherein one writes only the first line of a bad novel:

"As a scientist, Throckmorton knew that if he were ever to break wind in the echo chamber, he would never hear the end of it."

"Just beyond the Narrows, the river widens."

"With a curvaceous figure that Venus would have envied, a tanned, unblemished oval face framed with lustrous thick brown hair, deep azure-blue eyes fringed with long black lashes, perfect teeth that vied for competition, and a small straight nose, Marilee had a beauty that defied description."

"Andre, a simple peasant, had only one thing on his mind as he crept along the East wall: 'Andre creep... Andre creep... Andre creep."

"Stanislaus Smedley, a man always on the cutting edge of narcissism, was about to give his body and soul to a back alley sex-change surgeon to become the woman he loved."

Some comments from ECCPA 2007

What was the most useful thing you learned today? -

'How to do exercises and relaxation for toddlers'                                                                   'How to adapt songs in other languages and make them more accessible'                                 'Songs in different languages'                                                                                                  'I loved the Maori children's song.  It was good to see some songs out of print now available.'                                                                                                                 'Remembering movement activities with the ribbon sticks'                                                       'How to make ribbon sticks'                                                                                            'Practical ideas especially with ribbon sticks'                                                                             'Relaxation section'                                                                                                              'To do everything on both sides of the body'                                                                      'Great multicultural music choices for early childhood and varied repertoire'                        'Finger Plays'                                                                                                                     'Use of multicultural music in a diverse classroom'                                                                'The importance of using music from around the world'                                                   'Creating ideas from ideas'