This intensive 3-part session examines the mysterious, complicated process of creating a fictional world, including how to generate ideas, form characters, what influences decisions about what to write, how to flesh out a plot idea, and decision-making, such as writing what you want vs. writing what an agent wants, etc. Part 2 focuses on the process of novel writing: what comes first, five key elements, the heart of a novel, contemporary novel structure, discipline for getting it down on paper, tips for going the distance to complete a first draft, and crafting a synopsis. Part 3 defines the roles of the agent, the editor and the publisher and what they do/do not do for your book. Author's role/responsibility and the important role of the reader are covered as well as maximizing time and money in launching a book.

Do you want to begin a career in copyediting? Perhaps you simply want to understand what to expect from a copyeditor before hiring one. In the interactive workshop “From Writer to Editor: Copyediting Principles That Work” you will learn essential elements of the craft and receive tools that will help position you as a marketable copyeditor and allow you to communicate with seasoned publishing professionals in their language. Whether you’re interested in copyediting corporate publications, newsletters, nonfiction books, or journal, magazine, or newspapers articles, this workshop will teach you:

What the copyeditor’s job is and isn’t.
How to read like a copyeditor.
The mistakes of beginning copyeditors and how to avoid them.
The 4 Cs—clarity, coherency, consistency, and correctness—and how to achieve them.
Grammar beyond the basics: What all copyeditors know and you think you know.
Copyeditor lingo.
The copyediting guides and handbooks all copyeditors know and you should know.
How to estimate editing time.
How to determine your fee or salary.

This workshop will focus on how to avoid common mistakes to find employment. Topics to include:

• Selecting the right positions to apply for
  
• Common Resume mistakes
  
• Preparing for a phone interview
  
• Preparing for an in-person interview
  
• The follow up process
  
• Common reasons people do not get the job
  
• When to engage a recruiter
  
• How to go from just a 'job' to a career
  
• Developing your writing portfolio
  
• Posting your resume

This entrepreneurship workshop will educate you on all facets of starting a business. The handout will contain relevant links on how to conduct research for a potential business with emphasis on writing and writing-related businesses; a written questionnaire to see if you have what it takes to become an entrepreneur; a talent survey questionnaire to see what skills you already possess that will help you in business; how to set up the legal structure of a business; how to write a business plan and find money for a business including finding investors; a list of free and low-cost marketing tips; a checklist for a professional website; and a list of business deductions.

Often times, writers are internal creatures. Poring over reading material, battling over email with editors, and burning the midnight oil looking for the conclusion to a novel years in the making, is fodder for isolation, the launching paid for internalizing feelings. As such, many authors, when that little or big break comes, are often at a loss of words when the curtains go up, and the stage is set to talk about your work.

This session provides up-and-coming writers (as well as published authors) with verbal speaking tools to wow not only their listening audience, but potential new readers as well. This workshop will introduce you to the catalyst to fuel a secondary (and supplemental) career as a public speaking agent, which allows you to maximize your gift as a writer on a different platform (which is all public speaking is - good writing).

This workshop will focus on verbalizing your internal vision and focus, developing a mainstream public persona while still maintaining your individualism. S.P.E.A.K. relates to interviews, college forums, or any platform where you can equally showcase your talents as a public speaker and an author.

We all know that after the book is published, phase two of the author's life begins. Beyond The Book will provide attendees with digital tools that will allow them to extend the life of their projects, better market their work, and discover additional writing opportunities in the world of "new media". Participants will be given mini-writing assignments based on digital forums (including podcast scripts, blog entries, video scripting) with guidance on how to enter the digital media landscape.

Travel writing for and about jet-setters of the Diaspora is virtually an untapped genre open for more voices. Learn how to create a niche for yourself in the exclusive genre of travel writing. From the novice writer wanting to etch their travels in stone, to the freelancer who is looking to get published, this workshop discusses different travel writing approaches, and helps you carve out your personal style and realistic goals.

Participants will learn:

• Travel Writing Market for writers of color
• The basics of writing a thorough story
• Digging up story ideas and creating a constructive itinerary
• Snap & Shoot, photography for the amateur
• Flipping one trip into multiple story angles
• Travel writing sources
• Strategizing for good pitches

Are your writing assignments and deadlines competing for time with your day job? Do you work in a field that limits the hours you can commit to the craft you love? If you'd rather be penning fiction or non-fiction full time instead of at the 9 to 5, sit in on this session for solid strategies on creating the vision, timeline, partnerships and resources to make it happen. Come prepared to brainstorm the path that's best for you and leave with a roadmap which can help you move forward.

If you are interested in technical writing and want to learn what the job and profession may involve whether on-staff or as a freelancer, this is the workshop for you! This informational workshop will introduce you to the tasks you perform as a technical writer, and how your work fits into an organization's process. You will learn the five Cs of technical communication and the methodology involved to successfully complete a technical writing project as well as information you need to know about freelancing as a technical writer.

This workshop covers twenty-five very costly mistakes that are commonly made by first time self-published authors along with information on how to avoid making them.

Discover the “11 Rules of Effective Copywriting” that will help you achieve better results in one-third of the time. Whether you are branding your company, penetrating a new market, promoting an event, or selling a product or service, you will learn how to generate greater interest, responses, and sales through your promotional copy. Become a well-paid copywriter by developing the skills to move any audience to action.

You will learn how to:

• Answer the seven questions you must know about your audience before creating an offer
• Increase your response rates by tailoring your copy to connect with your audience’s motivations
• Effectively use headlines, formatting, and punctuation to maximize your results
• Use the right words to structure compelling calls-to-action
• Increase your sales with results- and benefit-oriented copy
• Test and tweak promotional copy to improve conversion rates
• Leverage your time, money, and resources by developing integrated promotional campaigns and creating multipurpose content

Your skill as a creative writer is one of your most transferable and marketable business assets. So as you're working on the next great American novel, consider using your talent to write winning proposals, too. This workshop offers an overview of non-profit and for-profit proposal writing along with ways you can use creative writing techniques to craft successful proposals for foundations, organizations, and corporations. We'll also provide tips, strategies, and resources for launching your contract/freelance or full-time proposal writing career.

A workshop dedicated to writers at all levels who are seeking to learn how to take real ideas and convert them to screenplays (reel ideas). The session will cover story development, technical aspects of screenwriting (the 3 act structure), character development and the entire creative process from FADE IN to FADE OUT.

This workshop will focus on writing fiction query letters from a former literary agent's perspective. Participants will be coached on how to turn their query letter into an effective sales pitch that stands out from the crowd. Topics covered by this class will include the elements of a good query letter, presentation tips, the submission package, interpreting rejection and revision letters, and more.

Often times, writers are internal creatures. Poring over reading material, battling over email with editors, and burning the midnight oil looking for the conclusion to a novel years in the making, is fodder for isolation, the launching paid for internalizing feelings. As such, many authors, when that little or big break comes, are often at a loss of words when the curtains go up, and the stage is set to talk about your work.

This session provides up-and-coming writers (as well as published authors) with verbal speaking tools to wow not only their listening audience, but potential new readers as well. This workshop will introduce you to the catalyst to fuel a secondary (and supplemental) career as a public speaking agent, which allows you to maximize your gift as a writer on a different platform (which is all public speaking is - good writing).

This workshop will focus on verbalizing your internal vision and focus, developing a mainstream public persona while still maintaining your individualism. S.P.E.A.K. relates to interviews, college forums, or any platform where you can equally showcase your talents as a public speaker and an author.

This workshop will explore the craft as well as the marketing and selling of poetry and poetic thought. It will explore the different forms of poetry. The workshop will go into detail on how to market yourself as a poet through chat books, cds and internet, it will also explore the national phenom of poetry slams.

This workshop will help emerging writers move from the idea or early draft stage to completing their novel or nonfiction book and assessing how to get that book into the marketplace. Adams will show participants how to write toward a goal, stick with self-imposed deadlines and move a story forward one chapter at a time. This interactive workshop will allow participants to assess where they are and how best to progress in their writing projects.

Do you suffer from writer's block or feel like your story is all over the place? Perhaps your friend-who always tells you the truth-said that your story is weak or your characters are boring. In the interactive workshop "Work Smarter, Not Harder: Save Time & Add Value to Fiction Through Character Development," you will receive tools to help position you as a marketable author: You will learn essential elements of fiction and how to create colorful, complex characters readers will love. If you're a novice writer who struggles to reflect on paper the story in you have in your head or a mid-level writer annoyed by your own characters, this workshop will teach you:

• How to make your fiction work harder to capture and hold your audience's attention-so you don't have to.
• How to use character development to avoid writer's block.
• The benefits of a character sketch and how to create one.
• What you have to know about your characters that readers don't.
• Sources of inspiration for creating characters.
• The importance of naming characters and how to do it.
• How to use character development to control your story's plot, setting, and style.
• How to use emotion to create unforgettable characters and tell an unforgettable story.
• The writing guides and books all professional writers know-that you should know.

Want to write a book? OR do you have book that needs to be re-energized? Well, this workshop is designed just for you! If you want to be informed, inspired and even entertained, plan on attending this session on self-publishing. Sara and Mack will discuss the 4-P’s of Self Publishing. Bring your notepad and get ready to be encouraged to stop talking and start doing! You can write and self-publish your own book!

Mack and Sara, co-authors of "How to Self-Publish & Market Your Own Book - Third Edition," have helped thousands publish their books and you can be one of them too! They are veteran speakers and will share with you a wealth of their publishing knowledge and resources.

This workshop will show how research lifts a novel out of the mundane, enabling the writer, inter alia, to give characters flesh and blood; to make the locale or environment a character in the story; to introduce compelling twists; and to inform as well as to entertain. It will discuss how to begin research, reliable sources, the need to replicate information by researching different sources, unreliable sources; what one needs to know about a local, why and how to find it. The value of internet sources. Relationships between character, occupation and local within the framework of research. The population census, vital statistics, other government generated statistics, almanacs, and the United Nations as sources of statistical information (e.g, number of inhabitants, death rates, most frequent type of illness, etc in a particular city, state or country, etc), laws relating to adoption, women’s rights, marriage, etc. and why this information is useful to the writer. Use of maps, tourist information, travel guides, etc. in researching a story.

The workshop covers the art of transitioning from self-published to published author with a major publishing company. You'll learn the business of writing and the intricacies of book distribution, book signings, dealing with the media and public, and best practices for making sound business decisions. This workshop will help you to enhance sales and prepare you to cooperate with other authors, media, the public, and bookstores and offer tips for building self-esteem and confidence for sales success.

Writers and other creative people often focus on the creative aspects of their creativity, with little attention to the business and legal pitfalls awaiting the uninformed. And let’s face it; sometimes we just don’t know what we don’t know! But the answers to the most common and important questions are found in this workshop. In a lively and engaging format, noted lawyer, professor and author Tonya Evans-Walls delivers must-have information and hot topics, myths and industry secrets about copyright, fair use, trademark, contracts to inform and empower writers at every level of their writing career.

This workshop will show you how to plot your novel by using scenes and sequels to drive the plot through its various stages from opening to climax.

The key to writing for young adults is to know what works and what doesn’t. This workshop invites writers to explore writing for young adults through reading and critical analysis. We’ll define the genre and examine many of its forms, styles and elements by exploring trends and patterns in its development.

Participants will learn the ins and outs of gaining and maintaining agent representation, including the top ten mistakes that writers make while seeking an agent and how to avoid being a toxic client once you’ve gained representation. Although there is no guaranteed formula for getting published, there are definite dos and don’ts you should know. This workshop will also address the current black publishing climate and other valuable information.

The class attendee will leave knowing the parameters of writing Christian Fiction. The attendee will gain an understanding of ministry as defined in the bible and what entertainment is by today’s standards. The attendee will also define his/her passion for writing, is it a divine call, a hobby, or a means to an end. Class will answer the question of should ministry also entertain? - If no, why not and If yes, why? This class will be an interactive study of today’s issue of where certain books should be placed on the bookshelf due to their content.

Would you rather be known as a “best-writing” author or a “best-selling” author? For years, many writers have thought the success of their work depended on the quality of their writing and failed to plan for their book’s marketability. Due to this misconception, many great books have been left unpublished or have sat collecting dust. In this workshop, you will learn a step-by-step process for quickly completing a best-selling nonfiction book. You will discover specific techniques applicable to any nonfiction genre including: autobiography, biography, essay, history, how-to, memoir, politics, self-help, technical, and travel writing.

You will learn how to:

• Establish your credibility and expertise as a nonfiction writer
  
• Target a reading audience and assess your book’s marketability
  
• Organize your thoughts, create a book proposal, and form an accurate timetable for completing your book
  
• Choose a book title that will sell
  
• Determine the chapters, topics, and points of your book
  
• Find low cost and free research, quotations, artwork, and stories to support your ideas
  
• Overcome writer’s block
  
• Use self-editing techniques to improve your writing
  
• Partner with others to complete your book in less than 90 days
• Get "big-name" people to endorse and support your work

[Workshop description to come]

If the idea of writing for children excites you but you don’t know where to begin, So You Want to Write for Children! is the place for you. This interactive workshop provides the aspiring children’s writer with the basic background information needed to enter the wonderful world of children’s writing. The workshop covers the various types of children’s books, their structure and characteristics, knowing when the manuscript is ready and how to prepare it for submission. Briefly addressed are writing for magazines and the Web. As an added bonus, a discussion of how to select the right publisher is included.

A wealth of resources (conferences, books, websites, etc.) is provided to help children’s writers hone to their craft and, with persistence and perseverance, to get published.

The workshop covers the art of transitioning from self-published to published author with a major publishing company. You'll learn the business of writing and the intricacies of book distribution, book signings, dealing with the media and public, and best practices for making sound business decisions. This workshop will help you to enhance sales and prepare you to cooperate with other authors, media, the public, and bookstores and offer tips for building self-esteem and confidence for sales success.

This workshop will help writers make the transition from writers to business people by focusing on five key areas of a book marketing plan.

This workshop empowers participants to consider writing plays as a viable and important part of writing. Too few of our stories are being told on the stage, yet any story can be told. This workshop answers the question: 'how do you tell it?' and covers the structure of writing a play (specifically a two-act play), the benefit of seeing your words come to life, and how meaningful connections can be explored through the telling of our stories. We'll also discuss the business side of playwriting and how to get your plays produced on your own terms.

This workshop will explore the craft as well as the marketing and selling of poetry and poetic thought. It will explore the different forms of poetry. The workshop will go into detail on how to market yourself as a poet through chat books, cds and internet, it will also explore the national phenom of poetry slams.

Do you want to increase your book success? This inspiring workshop will provide a strategy to expand your product line (your book) that will sell to your current and future readership. Learn how to transform your book into several other formats, such as e-books, ezine articles, CDs, DVDs, and other digital formats. Topics include niche marketing and product development. Gain insight on the emerging product trends.

This course is an informative and engaging workshop tailored specifically for writers and independent publishers who want straightforward, clear, and concise answers to the most common and pressing legal issues in the publishing industry. After attending this workshop, you will understand the basics on copyright and trademark laws as they apply to writers and the “why, when, and how” of copyright and trademark registration, including why the “Poor Man’s Copyright is a MYTH! We will also touch on the important but often confusing boilerplate contract language in standard publishing agreements, and what you need to do during the writing phase to significantly reduce the possibility of exposing yourself to lawsuits that could result when you write about real people and events or incorporate other creative works in your own work.

This workshop is designed to inform and inspire both aspiring writers and veteran authors. Plan to attend this workshop to discover how the four P's of publishing will help you publish your book using multiple marketing resources. You'll learn the advantages and challenges of traditional publishing and self-publishing.

Mack and Sara, co-authors of "How to Self-Publish & Market Your Own Book - Third Edition," have helped thousands publish their books and you can be one of them too! They are veteran speakers and will share with you a wealth of their publishing knowledge and resources.