After being asked to be a judge for a creative nonfiction contest at Notes & Grace Notes, an online site for writers, I read the editor’s mission statement and was impressed with the venue for writers seeking peer response and an audience:

Our mission is to nourish new talent, reward excellence, and help writers achieve their dreams by giving them the tools to grow within their craft through feedback on both a peer and professional level, community, links, writing related classifieds, scam warnings, market research newsletters, publishing opportunities through Grace Notes Books and our affiliate publications who read all our winning entries and have often made publication offers not only to winners but to general users, and monthly cash prizes.
After I’d judged the entries, I emailed Harmoni McGlothlin, asking for an interview so Writing It Real subscribers would have the opportunity to learn about Notes & Grace Notes.

Sheila
Wow! You are engaged in quite a lot through your website–contests, postings, reader responses, lists of paying markets, and a publishing company, among other activities like partnerships with magazines. I am very interested in sharing information about how people can get involved using your site to keep them writing and about your belief that the website’s peer-to-peer response opportunities are helping writers.

Let’s start at the beginning. When you conceived your site before the Internet was as developed as it is today, what was motivating you to create a project that would help other writers?

 Harmoni
When I was a new writer (early 20’s) I found, through the Internet, a few pen pals. They were more experienced and their criticism was always tremendously helpful. It occurred to me that an online workshop of sorts would be exceptionally helpful and that if there were a way to bring in the more experienced authors and editors, it would be an invaluable tool. Unfortunately, web design was very expensive and very difficult at the time. Ten years later– voila!

Sheila
What became available in the way of Internet tools that made your dream possible?

Harmoni
The advent of CMS (content management systems), primarily. These are programs created to make web design a user-friendly experience and enabled me to design my own site free of charge. Granted, there was a lot of trial and error in the beginning, but eventually I got the swing of things.

Sheila
How did you come together with the other editors who are part of your project?

Harmoni
They are authors I have met (and published) through my work with Notes & Grace Notes, along with judges who wanted to get more involved after assisting in the process. I have been so blessed to be able to work with so many brilliant minds who share my vision for a literary community.

Sheila
What are the most important elements, in your opinion and your users’ opinions, of Notes & Grace Notes?

Harmoni
The communal feedback through site users, our administrators, and our professional panel of judges provides the new writer with a variety of advice and input they won’t find anywhere else– especially free of charge. We also use a different group of volunteer judges monthly to add even more variety and opportunity to our users. Many users have been offered publication through our judges alone, as well as with members of our affiliate organizations who read and consider all finalists. On top of all that– Caper Journal is now offering to publish all Grace Notes winners. So, in short, the answer is: opportunity.

Sheila
How do you find the time to write and administer this site and branch out into a publishing wing?

Harmoni
With lots of help! I spend my days running the administrative end–working with judges and affiliates, reviewing new entries, updating the website, and answering emails; my nights writing (unless I am on a deadline in which case I get rather behind on everything!).

It’s a lot to manage but again I am very fortunate to have so many wonderful people helping with promotion, reading entries, reviews, and a million other details.

Sheila
Can you describe how a writer can best use your site?

Harmoni
This is a great question because I often get emails from new members asking why their work isn’t getting much attention from peers and the answer is always the same: Make yourself part of the community. Read other people’s work, “friend” them on the site’s system, comment on what they are doing.

These small things will generally generate more reads for your own work, which can be immensely helpful. In addition, we offer reviews of new books, helpful writing related links, and discussion boards. All geared toward helping the new writer grow within their craft and to make some good friends along the way.

Sheila
Why is there not a screenplay section? (At least I didn’t notice one)

Harmoni
Another excellent question! There was a competition for short screenplays when I launched the site but it simply didn’t get many entries. I think the issue is that screenwriters and poets/fiction authors/essayists don’t often mingle. It’s unusual for a website to host all types of writers. Screenwriters are often considered in a separate class– a mold that I would love to break. That being said, there has been a great deal of discussion about building a site for screenwriters alone but we haven’t set a definite date for that yet.

Sheila
Are writers worried about their ideas being “stolen” by people they don’t know?

Harmoni
I think anyone posting online worries about this. The risk exists anywhere online as well as submitting to magazines and unknown publishers. My advice to new writers is to frequently register or copyright new works. The Writers’ Guild of America will register any type of writing. It can be done online and is much less expensive than copyright. I myself register anything new I’ve written with them on a regular basis.

In addition, Notes &Grace Notes archives all past entries and is willing to provide the date of the post and name of the user who posted it upon request, should a writer find the legal need to prove their work. Though theft of poetry and short fiction is relatively uncommon it does happen and we are willing to do anything necessary to assist a writer who has been plagiarized.

Sheila
Can you describe how a writer can best use your site?

Harmoni
This is a great question because I often get emails from new members asking why their work isn’t getting much attention from peers and the answer is always the same: Make yourself part of the community. Read other people’s work, “friend” them on the site’s system, comment on what they are doing.

These small things will generally generate more reads for your own work, which can be immensely helpful. In addition, we offer reviews of new books, helpful writing related links, and discussion boards. All geared toward helping the new writer grow within their craft and to make some good friends along the way.

Sheila
I think before we end, it would be good for you to tell us a little more about yourself as a writer. Please let us know the genres you work in and about some of your publications.

Harmoni
Well, I dabble in just about everything. My first volume of poetry, Venus Laughs, was recently published by Grace Notes Books. My second book, a collection of short stories and essays, will be entitled Church Bells and is scheduled for release late this summer.

In addition, I work consistently as a screenwriter and have several projects at various stages of development with various producers. My first feature film, Mud Dog Blues, begins filming next month and I am honored to be working on the set as a content consultant, working with the actors and director.

On top of that, I have plans in the works to make my debut as writer/director with filming to begin by the end of this year.

Sheila
Well, that’s a lot of involvement! And you have a Grace Notes book-publishing venture, too

Harmoni
Grace Notes Books was an accident, really. I have a friend, Jan Thie, who is one of the most brilliant poets I’ve ever encountered. I suggested that he attempt to publish his collection and he responded that there just aren’t enough publishers who consider poetry and that self-publishing wasn’t an option for him. I said ,”Well. I’ll publish your book then,” and Grace Notes Books was born. What Lingers, Jan’s collection, was published shortly after we spoke, and the book has enjoyed wonderful reviews and sales. From there, I also made a publishing inquiry to Allan Shapiro, whose fictional stories always made me laugh and think in ways I never had before. He sent me several hundred pages of short stories. From those, I fell in love with a series concerning a neurotic grocery store clerk who had the tendency to find a gun in his pocket (for no good reason); I decided to publish these. The result was The Butcher and The Breather, five hilarious stories that examine love, life, society, and the damaging health affects of Google on hypochondriacs at large.

Currently, we are running a book-length poetry competition and the winner will receive a cash prize as well as a generous publishing offer.

Sheila
When you partner with other organizations and magazines, what are you interested in and how do your associations form?

Harmoni
When I first launched N&GN, I sent queries to a number of other creative writing organizations, literary magazines, and other venues suggesting a partnership. Primarily, I offer free promotion and advertising to select organizations in exchange for their giving priority consideration to our monthly winners. This was a successful idea and a number of groups were interested. Some of the bonds have been stronger than others though. Currently, the Ampersand Review has published numerous N&GN entries, many of which were not winners. The editors at the Ampersand frequently browse our entries, leave helpful comments, participate in our discussion forums, and publish work found there. We’ve also joined forces with Caper Journal, a new online zine, and they are willing to publish N&GN winners. We also do review exchanges with several wonderful small presses.

Sheila
So before we end, if you were going to tell a new user what to do first, then second, and then third, and fourth at your site, what would those actions be?

Harmoni
1st– Sign up and read the entry guidelines thoroughly.

2nd– Post your work either as an entry in our monthly contest, a submission to our upcoming Magazine, or as a general post.

3rd– READ other posts by other authors, leave thoughtful and honest feedback.

4th– Use the input you receive from other N&GN users, our in-house editors, and our judges to guide you through the writing process.

Repeat!

Most users find the site extremely helpful on many levels and following these simple steps will help a new user make friends quickly and therefore maximize the opportunity to receive a variety of feedback to help strengthen their work.

Sheila
Do you have any ideas for others who might want to develop a web presence for themselves or for a group of writers?

Harmoni
The net is fantastic in terms of networking, really. Between Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter it is very easy to build a strong social base on the web. Anyone with talent and time can create a strong presence on the web, and what you put into it is what you get out of it. I have so many wonderful friends who make extra money (some make more than just “extra”) running their own blogs, which, of course, are free through WordPress and a number of other organizations.

To the author or editor looking to build their own website. I would highly recommend looking into CMS programs such as Joomla and Droopal. These programs allow one to easily build a website with no design knowledge.

From there the key is TIME. Promoting yourself and your new site on the web can be inexpensive and effective but it requires a certain amount of dedication.

Sheila
You are certainly a model of dedication. Thank you so much for what you do for writers and for taking the time to help Writing It Real subscribers learn about Notes & Grace Notes. I look forward to learning how they use your site and, hopefully, to hearing they become winners in your contests!