In a November 2, blog post, I shared information about a webinar from Ladies Who Launch on how to make your book a best-seller.  Today, I came up with another great reason women writers might benefit from this webinar:  the blatant sexual discrimination against women in the literary world.  Honestly, I had no idea how bad it was.  But now, I do, so I am passing this important information along to you.

Publisher's Weekly recently published their annual "Ten Best Books of 2009" list.  Once again, all the authors chosen for a plug are male. A scathing post on PoliticsDaily.com, "Same Old Story: Best-Books List," by Lizzie Skurnick, offers some insight into gender discrimination that lives on in the publisher's realm.

Another article by Alison Flood, "Fury After Women Writers Excluded From Books of the Year," shares information about a new United States literary organization, Women in Letters and Literary Arts (WILLA), that has formed in response to this unfair balance, and "...has gathered more than 5,500 members since it launched in August with the aim of bringing "increased attention to women's literary accomplishments and [questioning] the American literary establishment's historical slow-footedness in recognising and rewarding women writers' achievements."

WILLA has now created their own list of "Great Books by Women in 2009."  If you are looking for a good new read purely based on a publisher's "top" list, you might want to reconsider their objectivity if the list consists entirely of all male authors.

Dulles Airport Plane Pull
Brad Whitford

Participate in Survey for Nonprofits to be Eligible for Free Graphic Art Services

Brad Whitford, a student working on his thesis, wrote to me (at my own nonprofit) asking me to participate in an online survey about the importance of graphic arts for charitable organizations.  I took the survey a few weeks ago, but received a recent update:  he needs more participants for his thesis, "Graphics for a cause - creating revenue for the nonprofit in a foundering economy."

Brad will select one survey participant to receive free graphic arts services to help their cause.  He is graciously offering to create a variety of design materials such as website design, brochures, posters, logos, HTML eblasts, pocket folders, mailers, etc.

You can participate in the survey at:  Free Online Surveys

Visit Brad's Website to see his work, or to contact him with questions about the survey.

I received a notice today from Joomla warning users that 1.5.x Joomla installs prior to and including 1.5.14 have a new issue.  When logged into the front end with "Author" access, it is  possible to replace an article written by another user.  If you have not upgraded Joomla recently do it ASAP.

Joomla and Drupal are two of the most frequently hacked open source software applications.  They are great tools, but you absolutely MUST keep your software updated.  Even with updates it is a good idea to check your site regularly for strange files.

For more information visit Joomla.org.

According to a recent email from the National Organization of Women (NOW), there may be some positive news for women regarding the Affordable Health Care for America Act (H.R. 3962):

...Positive features that would benefit women are: a prohibition on gender-rating -- the practice of charging women more than men for the same coverage in the individual insurance market. Insurers would now be required to cover maternity services as part of an essential benefits package and out-of-pocket payments would be limited for certain preventive care services, among other benefits. The House bill would ban insurance companies from denying coverage in the individual market based on a woman's history as a domestic violence survivor, which would go into effect as soon as the bill is signed into law (enacted as of January 1, 2010).

Currently, many health insurance companies can legally, and often do, deny coverage to women who have been raped or abused in the past.

Throughout the nation, even in states that have made insurance rescission illegal (the practice of post-claims underwriting and retroactively canceling coverage when an insured files an claim) many women who think they have coverage, find out the hard way that their coverage can be canceled if they did not disclose rape or abuse when they applied for insurance benefits.

I will keep you posted!