2008 Workshops

Kristina Barnett

KNOWING WHEN TO HOLD AND WHEN TO FOLD: DO IT YOURSELF PR ON THE INTERNET with Kristina Barnett

10 AM - 1 PM
WLT Office (611 S. Congress Ave, Suite 130, Austin)

The internet can be a powerful and inexpensive self-promotion tool. Just as easily, it can make you and your book appear amateurish and uninteresting. Learn the moves that count when it comes to online, do-it-yourself PR. This seminar will help you distinguish what's important, and what isn't worth your time. Further, it will help you understand the limitations of free services and allow you to make informed decisions. With so many possibilities, the internet can be overwhelming; this course will make it less so. We'll cover the following subtopics:

Your Web Site
This section will answer the questions: Who needs a web site and why? What should be included on your site, and what shouldn't? How do you get a good web site on the cheap?

Your Online Persona
In this section, I'll talk about building a brand online. Further, I'll cover a few moves that you can make that will increase your visibility.

Your Questions and Concerns About Being Online
Here we'll open up the floor to seminar participants and discuss any questions about the seminar content or participant's experiences.

Kristina Barnett worked as a software project manager and web producer for ten years before enrolling in graduate school for sociology. Having worked as a technology professional, she now wants to do research on the social implications of the internet.

Kristina has worked on web sites large and small over the course of her career, and picked up a host of tricks and tips along the way. She is also a blogger. She has served on the staff of Austinist.com since its inception in 2005, and has a personal blog as well.

More recently, her research is focused on how people create and maintain identities online.

Cost: $49 members / $89 nonmembers

Register online with credit card, Paypal or Google Checkout. Formore information, call 512.499.8914.To join the League, visit the membership page. Refund Policy: A refund is offered only if the event is cancelled. Deadline for registration: May 9, 2008; Class limit: 25

Gail Folkins

ONE LAST LOOK: NONFICTION REVISION STRATEGIES FOR MAYBORN CONFERENCE
WRITERS with Gail Folkins

10 AM - 1 PM
WLT Office (611 S. Congress Ave, Suite 130, Austin)

This session helps you sharpen your creative nonfiction essays/articles for submission to the Mayborn Conference contest or other publication and contest opportunities. We'll discuss the most common pitfalls found in nonfiction pieces and offer revision strategies to address them, share proofreading tips to fine-tune your prose, and also allow time for specific questions about your work, which you'll bring with you to the session.

The Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Writers Conference will be held July 18 -20 at the Hilton DFW Lakes Executive Conference Center, Grapevine, Texas. Keynote speakers include: N. Scott Momaday, Pulitzer Prize winning author; Bob Shacochis, National Book Award winner; and Candice Millard, author of River of Doubt. The conference includes $15,000 in cash prizes for the top six article/essay submissions and top manuscript submission along with a book contract from UNT Press. For more information, visit The Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Writers Conference.

Gail Folkins has worked as a journalist, a writer/editor overseas, and a writing instructor. She worked as a writer/editor in both Austin, TX and Switzerland before joining the graduate program at Texas Tech University in 2003 and completing her PhD in creative nonfiction in 2006.

Cost: $89 nonmembers/$49 Writers' League members and current Mayborn Conference registrants; Class limit: 15

Register online with credit card, Paypal or Google Checkout. For more information, call 512.499.8914.To join the League, visit the membership page. Refund Policy: A refund is offered only if the event is cancelled. Deadline for registration: May 16, 2008

Suzy Spencer

FEVER PITCH: PITCHING YOUR MANUSCRIPT with Suzy Spencer

10 AM - 4PM
WLT Office (611 S. Congress Ave, Suite 130, Austin)

Are you worried about how to pitch your book to an agent or editor so that your manuscript comes across as a white-hot property while you come across as a cool, relaxed and confidant writer? New York Times best-selling author Suzy Spencer will teach you how to keep your nerves at a steady 98.6 degrees while you build your book's pitch into a fever so hot that a publisher just can't resist touching its fire.

In this day-long workshop, Suzy will help you figure out how to pitch that 100,000-word manuscript in 125 words or less, preferably less. She'll teach you marketing tips and strategies for writing the ultimate query letter. And she'll work with you perfecting your speaking abilities so that you can quickly and easily communicate the gist of your book with calm excitement, an oxymoron that's imperative to book sales.

While we will still offer a pitching workshop as part of our pre-Conference workshop line-up, this class can give the Conference-goer a head start with a more intensive look at verbal pitching. (Non-Conference attendees are welcome also.) NOTE: This workshop is limited to 20 students to allow one-on-one interaction with the instructor and is expected to fill quickly.

Suzy earned a Master's of Business Administration degree in marketing at the University of Southern California (don't hold that against her) and a Master's of Professional Writing degree in fiction, also from USC. (She roots for the University of Texas as long as the game isn't against USC or Baylor, her other alma mater. Don't hold Baylor against her, either.)

Suzy's first book, Wasted, hit the New York Times bestseller list and was a finalist in the Violet Crown Awards. It's currently being updated, repackaged and reissued for publication in December 2008. Her third book, Breaking Point, has had so many printings that she's lost count. It was a Book of the Month Club, Doubleday Book Club, Literary Guild and Mystery Guild selection. Her fourth book, The Fortune Hunter, is in development as a Lifetime movie of the week.

Right now, Suzy's finishing up four years of research and writing on a book about Americans' sex practices, which will be a lead trade paperback for Berkley Books. (Yes, a Baylor girl can write about sex. She's definitely learned how to keep cool under pressure.)

Suzy has appeared on Good Morning, America, ABC World News, Primetime, Dateline, Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, and Court TV to name just a few. You can learn more about Suzy's work at www.suzyspencer.com.

Cost: $89 members / $139 nonmembers

Register online with credit card, Paypal or Google Checkout. For more information, call 512.499.8914. To join the League, visit the membership page. Refund Policy: A refund is offered only if the event is cancelled. Deadline for registration: May 31, 2008; Class limit: 20