An All Day Webinar with Experts in Memoir, Marketing, and Publishing
Memoir writing is dangerous! Yes, many writers feel that they are falling off some kind of edge, taking chances, risking–what? –perhaps as memoirists, we’re risking a sense of safety by hiding our voices. But if you are writing a memoir, you ARE inviting yourself to step out and speak your truths, to write on that edge of who you are, what you think, and what you need to share with the world. What do you have to say that only you can say? What is your wisdom?
Today, your voice is more welcome than ever with many new publishing choices–eBooks can be published quickly and at a reasonable cost, small publishers are interested in new authors. You can become your own publisher in a variety of ways. In today’s marketplace, there are so many creative ways to get your books in front of your readers. The experts at this FREE webinar are going to show you how to write, revise, and publish your book information that will make your heart sing.
Amy Friedman
Writing Without a Net
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Writing compelling memoir calls upon all the craft and intelligence of any strong writing—the ability to render characters believable, scenes whole and vivid, settings your reader can not only see but smell, hear, almost taste. But memoir requires the writer to take one more step—to know that her story will resonate only if it is deeply true. That means setting aside agendas (whether these be for settling scores, for instruction, for power, or for seduction). The memoir writer must dive into her story with the understanding that she does not yet know all there is to know, that in writing this story, she will uncover truths, often discomfiting and inconvenient. And she must not shy away from those truths—doing so risks losing not only the reader’s attention, but the reader’s trust.
We will discuss:
- What you need to know about writing a compelling memoir
- Defining what are your deepest truths in your memoir
- How to discover unconscious aspects about writing your memoir
- Risk taking in writing an authentic memoir
Amy is an author and creative writing teacher whose many memoirs include Desperado’s Wife: A Memoir, the story of her marriage to a prisoner she met while covering prisons for her newspaper column. Most recently she co-authored Anne Willan’s memoir, One Souffle at a Time. Amy works as a ghostwriter and editor, and her articles, essays and stories have appeared in magazines, newspapers and numerous anthologies. She teaches memoir at UCLA Extension, The Skirball Cultural Arts Center, Idyllwild School of the Arts and many private workshops. For more see her website www.amyfriedman.net.
Look Sharp! 7 WEBSITE AND COVER DESIGN TIPS TO HELP SELL YOUR BOOK
Brian Felsen, president of Book Baby
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We all know the value of good design and yet if we are self-published authors, there is so much to learn that we don’t know—and much of the time, we don’t know that we don’t know it! Brian Felsen, president of the basics on website and cover design which will help you sell your book.
- The importance of having a streamlined purpose
- Showing yourself as a powerful, authentic authority
- Having a strong call to action
- Owning the interaction
- Following traditional design principles
- Making sure you’re visible
- Not doing everything yourself
Brian Felsen (President, BookBaby / CD Baby / HostBaby): Mr. Felsen helms BookBaby, which digitally distributes the works of independent authors, poets, memoirists, and publishers, making their eBooks available to digital retailers worldwide (including Apple iBookstore, Barnes & Noble.com, Sony’s Reader Store, and Amazon.com). He also is the President of CD Baby, the world’s largest online distributor of independent music. Previous activities include founding and running one of the largest independent music conferences in the world, composing several classical music works, creating art photography, poetry, and plays, and producing an award-winning documentary film about Turkish military coups d’état.
Jordan Rosenfeld
How to Use the Hallmark of Great Fiction Writing—the Scene—in Memoir
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We all know that to write a memoir, we must draw upon the skills of fiction writing—while still keeping true to the requirement that we write “the Truth.” to the best of our ability we must discern and capture our experiences. How does keeping true to memory affect our ability to write well, to bring the reader deeply into the world of our story?
Many memoir writers are still confused about the expectations of publishers about writing memoir. We need to be writing a story that is built and created according to the traditional techniques that appear in fiction. It’s understood that if you are writing memoir, you understand the “rules” of fiction, and one of these mainstays of fiction is being about to understand what a scene is—and is not. You need to know how a scene works to create a world, how a scene operates on different levels such as plot, character development, and creating verisimilitude.
We are so pleased to have as our guest Jordan Rosenfeld, whose book Make a Scene is one of the bibles of the craft of writing—at least in my world. Jordan can guide you through the various kinds of scenes, what is required in each one, and the special qualities each kind of scene imbues upon the story.
During the Telesummit, Jordan is going to give a mini-course in how to write scenes that you can apply immediately to your writing!
You will learn:
- The crucial elements that comprise a scene
- How to isolate specific moments in time to bring a story to life
- The necessity of creating a sense of “real time” passing
- How to use sensory detail to enliven a scene and fill in the gaps of memory
- Different kinds of “action” from dialogue to bigger physical movements
- How scenes create a “sexier simulacrum” of reality—that is, a stylized version of the truth
- How scenes build upon one another to create a narrative arc
Jordan E. Rosenfeld learned early on that people prefer a storyteller to a know-it-all. She channeled those tendencies into a career as a writing coach, editor and freelance journalist and saves the Tall Tales for her novels. She earned her MFA from the Bennington Writing Seminars and is the author of the novel Forged in Grace, and the writing books, Make A Scene: Crafting a Powerful Story One Scene at a Time (Writer’s Digest Books) and Write Free! Attracting the Creative Life with Rebecca Lawton (BeijaFlor Books). Jordan’s essays and articles have appeared in such publications as AlterNet.org, Publisher’s Weekly, The San Francisco Chronicle, The St. Petersburg Times, The Writer and Writer’s Digest magazine. Her book commentaries have appeared on The California Report, a news-magazine produced by NPR-affiliate KQED radio. She lives in Northern California with her son and husband.
https://www.facebook.com/JordanERosenfeld
@JordanRosenfeld (on twitter)
Forged in Grace: http://www.amazon.com/Forged-in-Grace-ebook/dp/B00CWSV04I
Make a Scene: http://www.amazon.com/Make-Scene-Crafting-Powerful-Story/dp/1582974799
Howard Van Es
Cashing in with Kindle
Audio recording not available. Please view webinar recording below for this presentation.
The publishing landscape has dramatically changed—fewer large publishers, and more opportunities for independent publishing. And Amazon’s Kindle program is leading the way, helping thousands of authors get in front of readers and sell books Amazon offers a variety of powerful marketing tools that independent authors can tap into. Howard Van Es, president of Let’s Write Books, Inc. is going to show you how to get your book to the top of the Amazon rankings—something that all of us want to shout out to our friends and loyal readers. Join us for this informative and potentially career changing webinar.
Discover:
- The secrets for getting your share of the exploding Kindle marketplace
- How to get your book to be # 1` in its category on Amazon
- What is the KDP Select program and how to use it market your books effectively
- The 5 critical steps you must implement to be successful with Kindle and Amazon
- Why indie authors can now compete with big publishing houses- the playing field has been leveled!
Howard Van Es is President of Let’s Write Books, Inc., a ghostwriting, book packaging, and book marketing company. Howard is a Kindle marketing expert and consultant who’s written 15 of his own books with more on the way. He is also the former owner and creative director of an award winning ad agency. Howard is passionate about help other authors succeed and build their career. www.letswritebooks.net
Webinar Link: Writing on the Edge – National Association of Memoir Writers Fall 2013 Telesummit
