As we never seem to get enough time with author Steven M. Thomas (Criminal Karma), this year we’re doubling the dose. In addition to handling advance submission critique duties he’ll be conducting two new workshops being added to the schedule, “Addictive Fiction: Using Conflict to Capture Readers” and “Words of Life: How to Write Killer Dialogue.”
Aboard for the first time is literary agent Dana Newman. Representing her own agency, Dana’s got a keen interest in exceptional narrative and practical non-fiction. Historically, of course, the SCWC has delivered a lot on the non-fiction front with such choice books as Stacey O’Brien‘s Wesley The Owl, Karen Ronney’s Proud Parent’s Guide, and Peggy Vincent’s Babycatcher, just to name a few. Given the quality of material coming across the advance submission desk, we thinks she may score here her first time out.
For the entrepreneureal author, perhaps at no other time in history has there been so many tools to find and cultivate an audience than those available only a mouse click away today. Author branding, now such a crucial part of the publishing puzzle, is all the rage and for good reason. Thing is, there’s so much noise out there, so much distraction and misinformation, that plenty of it amounts to nothing more than a tremendously ineffectual time-suck for writers who’d rather be finishing their books. Understanding the social networking tools and tactics to successfully build a platform on which to bolster the potential of success for your book is the subject of another new workshop: “There’s No Such Thing As A Good Book, Only A Good Brand.” Being led by the team behind startup BackMyBook.com, make no mistake that Gk Parish-Philp, Tay Nguyen and Wayland Myers know the terrain and how to walk it. Check out their bios. This is probably the number one subject everybody’s been wanting us to address this conference.
Don’t forget that Drusilla Campbell’s NovelCram: Building the Better Book is on again for LA8. We’ve sold out this immersion track the last four conferences so if you’re looking to expand your tacklebox of writing tools (forgive me, Lynn), this might be the one for you.
Finally, it’s another new Writer Replay — Woo-hoo! In this episode, Penny prepares for her first ever read & critique workshop.
