Women get together for charity
The meeting was held at Bedfordview's Mercure Hotel last Thursday.
Diamonds, lace and denim were the order of the day at this month’s installment of the ABC Breakfast Club’s meetings.
Members came in their numbers to not only raise money for charity, but to also network and celebrate books.
The meeting was held at Bedfordview’s Mercure Hotel last Thursday.
Chairperson Mrs Tania Sutherland told the gathering that writing and publishing a book is not as dreadful as many believe.
“Today’s session is for those who have always dreamt of being published authors. I hope you will take home the message that it is possible,” she said.
Guest speakers on the day included Bedford Park resident and self-published author, Dr Pam Heller-Stern.
Dr Heller-Stern said writing and publishing a book is 90 percent sweat and 10 percent inspiration.
“The biggest agony for any writer is sitting in front of a blank page. You can have a million ideas about what you are going to write, but for some reason, the moment you sit down to start writing, nothing comes to you. This is why I say writing is more sweat than inspiration,” she said.
Also giving the keynote address were representatives from Jonathan Ball Publishers, Ms Sarah Rose and Ms Tracy Schweitzer.
Ms Rose encouraged the women to follow their passion to write.
“However, your book must have the hook. There must be something special about it. Over the years I have seen the best-written books perform badly as far as sales is concerned. I have also seen poorly written books fly off the shelves. That’s the thing about the world of books, we never know. So I encourage anyone who wishes to write and have a book published to go ahead, but make sure your book has a hook,” said Ms Rose.
Ms Schweitzer said there was a market in South Africa for political literature.
“People out there want to read about our South African stories. It is also amazing to see that our authors produce quality books that give international authors a run for their money,” she said.
The club raises money during its meetings throughout the year which it distributes to three different charity organisations in November.
Books and beauty products were auctioned off on the day and proceeds went to the coffers for charity.
