The Northwest Author Series Presents Memoirist Melissa Hart on How to Craft & Market Life Stories

Hosted by Christina Katz at the Wilsonville Public Library
Sunday, November 15 at 3:30 p.m.
$5 at the door ($3 for students & seniors)

If you can tell your own stories skillfully in an entertaining voice, you’ll find opportunities to publish short essays in magazines and newspapers. You’ll also have a shot at publishing book-length memoir. This presentation will teach you how to identify a particular time period and/or theme in your life on which to focus your memoir. We’ll talk about the structure of short memoir and the various forms it can take, including essays, social commentary, and slice-of-life vignettes. The course will cover characterization, plot, setting and theme. We’ll discuss how to craft a book-length work, and we’ll pay particular attention to the challenges of memory, dialogue, hyperbole, and responses from family members and friends. Participants will receive a bibliography of current books on crafting memoir, as well as a list of magazine and newspaper editors particularly interested in the genre. You’ll come away with a new-found respect for the stories that only you can tell, and a solid sense of where and how to market them to editors.

Melissa Hart is the author of the memoir Gringa: A Contradictory Girlhood (Seal, 2009). Her short memoir has appeared in The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, Mothering, The Advocate, Hemispheres, Fourth Genre, Woman’s Day, High Country News, Orion, and various other publications. Melissa teaches journalism at the University of Oregon, and memoir writing for U.C. Berkeley’s online extension program. She’s a contributing editor to The Writer Magazine.

Marina’s Notes from Kati Neville’s Presentation on Test-Market Your Idea with Self-Publishing

Christina Katz, Marina Cameron & Kati Neville

Notes from “Test-Market with Self-Publishing: Get Your Ideas Reader Ready”

Kati Neville is co-author of Fix, Freeze, Feast (Storey Publishing, 2007) and an expert on self-publishing. She was quite successful with self-publishing, and was a great resource for those interested in publishing their own works.

Kati Neville asked some key questions for writers to explore when thinking self-publishing:

1.)   How is your idea unique? What resources are similar/different from it? Make the business case for your project without emotion.

1. Who is your market?
2. Who will sell it?
3. Competition?
4. Think about timing, try to tie into key events.

2.)   Do you need to partner with others to strengthen or balance your content? If yes, list the qualities of your ideal partner before you search. Do not enter into a partnership lightly.

1. View it like a marriage
2. Be realistic about “convenient people,” you may not want your neighbor or your sister to be your business partner.
3. It’s okay to have a “business perspective.” You can be formal, it may speed things up.

3.)   What professional contractors and supplies do you need to complete your project? If your goal is to use self-publishing as a stepping-stone to a traditional publishing relationship, you should budget more for professional services/products. And don’t skimp.

1. Often times people you can work with people who are just starting out in the business to get a deal, even though they have less experience, it may be worth it.

4.)   Are there industry standards or style guidelines you should use? Find out before you sit down to write.

1. Do a little research before you begin writing, there might be a format that you should use, especially for things like cookbooks and instructional books.

5.)   Will your final product be printed traditionally or electronically? Develop a solid knowledge of your audience and take into account your marketing/publicity plans (and those of any partners). Focus on small print runs, even though they cost more per copy.

1. Think about the audience you want, are they “book people?”
2. Cooking is tactile, the people are gift givers, they like to have something to read in their hands.
3. When printing, you can always print more but not less. It’s hard to know how many books will sell.

6.)   Do you have professional headshots and the beginnings of a professional platform. This is critical for those angling for a traditional publishing deal.

1. This is important to express to the editor who you are, it’s important for people to see you.
2. You have to display your expertise in the field, convince them you are a professional even if you aren’t.

7.)   What is your marketing/publishing plan? Define the actions and contacts that will increase the visibility of your work among its audience over the long haul. If your product is an e-book, this includes the professional appearance and reach of your host company.

1. How do you get out the word?
   1. Blog/website
   2. Classes/seminars
   3. Podcasts
      1. Get an interview on a more popular podcast
      2. Script it
      3. Work on social networking
2. Things take a long time, be in it for the long haul.

The Northwest Author Series Presents Cookbook Author Kati Neville on Test-market with Self-publishing: Get Your Ideas Reader-ready

Hosted by Christina Katz at the Wilsonville Public Library
Sunday, October 18 at 3:30 p.m.
$5 at the door ($3 for students & seniors)

Self-publishing belongs in every writer’s portfolio. For hobby writers and generalists, self-publishing is a fun, creative outlet. For professionals, it offers an opportunity to test markets while gaining audience and momentum for a traditional publishing relationship. Aspiring cookbook authors can use online publishing tools and resources to gather feedback on recipes and cooking styles. Whether or not you are an aspiring cookbook author, self-publishing can advance your career to author status. Bring your book ideas and questions to this workshop, where we’re sure to have a lively discussion.

Kati Neville secured a traditional publishing relationship for her self-published cookbook, The Warehouse Gourmet. In 2007, it was revised, expanded, and re-branded as, Fix, Freeze, Feast. Today, it’s a bestseller. Kati is a contributing editor for “The Saver’s Kitchen” podcast and writes about podcasting for writers in “The Get Known Groove.” She has shared recipes and money-saving tips with the audiences of Better.TV, Showcase Minnesota, Real Simple, Costco Connection, and Prevention.

Marina’s Notes from Laura Whitcomb’s Presentation on Novel Shortcuts

By Marina Cameron, Northwest Author Series WHS student intern

Laura Whitcomb spoke at the library September 27th about novel shortcuts and how to speed up the writing process without cutting down on quality.

Here are some of her main points:

The Core

• You have to keep track of why you are writing in the first place
• One thing to do is to write a dust jacket for your novel (at least 100 words). Make them want to read it.

The Crosshairs

• What is the most important moment in your whole story? Where do the most important moments in each chapter lie?
• Imagine your novel being nominated for the Oscars, what clip would they show?
• Imagine your novel being made into a movie, what would the preview look like?
• One trick is to go thorough your manuscript and mark the “crosshairs” in each chapter

Culling the Poetry

To get ideas faster, set aside to write about…

1. What should happen in the scene?
2. Project dialogue
3. 10 minute free write (think about the time, the lighting, the overall feel, thought)

“Heartstorm” for 5 minutes (include senses, details, and emotions) about a scene from your novel.

After your heartstorm, choose your favorite words/phrases (at least 10) and line them up like a poem.

Put on some music, it helps you use more of the creative side of your brain

You can check out an unfamiliar movie from the library and listen to their soundtrack

Some good movies (depending on style)

• The Mission
• The Englishman Who Went up a Hill but Came Down a Mountain
• Chocolat
• Rob Roy
• Hamelet

Listening to your Ghosts

Sometimes seemingly irrelevant ideas come calling as your write a scene from your novel in progress, those can be really  useful to your writing…

Try to be open minded while you attempt to use this ideas

One thing you can do is a word association exercise

Here are some prompts

• Smell
• Color
• Sound
• Sensations
• Taste

Dreams can also be very inspiring, before you go to sleep, tell yourself what scene from your novel you want to dream about before going to sleep, each morning write down what came to you

What to do when your writing stinks?

• Don’t rewrite crap and don’t be afraid to delete
• Make sure you have consistent character, plot and voice
• Backtracking can be helpful here

Tips for crossing the finish line…

Go through and mark up your writing,

• Awk: for awkward
• More: when elaboration is needed
• NO!: If something is totally off
• Close: if it needs a small amount of rewriting
• Circle: words that should be changed to improve word choice
• Move: don’t be afraid to rearrange
• Check fact: check history for a fact that you want to refer to
• Check back: check to ensure your novel is consistent

Characters

One way to visualize characters is to imagine they have baggage for going on the journey of the novel:

A suitcase

This is what they are all about, their main goal or character trait

Ex: Indiana Jones is searching for lost artifacts

A carry on

Something that makes the complicates the first

Ex: But he is in love

A secret pocket

A surprise for the audience

Ex: He also has a fear of snakes

To learn more about Laura Whitcomb, visit www.laurawhitcomb.com

Books by Laura Whitcomb include:

A Certain Slant of Light (2005) and The Fetch (2009) from Houghton Mifflin

Your First Novel (2006) and Novel Shortcuts (2009) from Writers Digest Books

The Northwest Author Series Presents Laura Whitcomb on Novel Shortcuts

Award-winning young adult author Laura Whitcomb of Wilsonville kicks off the 2009- 2010 Northwest Author Series on September 27th at the Wilsonville Public Library. Her presentation, “Novel Shortcuts,” takes place in the Oak Room from 3:30 – 5:30 p.m. Tickets are available at the door for $5.00 or $3.00 for seniors/students. No advance registration is required.

Topic: Novel Shortcuts–Speed Depth in Fiction Writing

Laura Whitcomb will teach “Shortcut to the Scene,” the exercise around which her book Novel Shortcuts, was written. She’ll also share techniques for writing faster and better including: using music to get at the core emotion in your story, finding the crosshairs of your novel (and each chapter), and tips for crossing the finish line faster. This workshop will include in-class writing and “homework.” If you have a manuscript you are working on, bring it along.

Laura Whitcomb’s first novel A Certain Slant of Light (Houghton Mifflin, 2005), was a Barnes & Noble “Discover Great New Writers” selection, a Book Sense Pick, and an ALA Best Books for Young Adults selection. Her second novel, The Fetch (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, February 2009) was ranked fifth in the YA Top Ten “Next List” (formerly Book Sense) and is nominated as a “Best Books for Young Adults” by YALSA. Her first writing book, Your First Novel (Writers Digest, 2006) was co-authored by literary agent Ann Rittenberg.

Books will be available for purchase and signing by the author afterwards. The series is sponsored by The Wilsonville Public Library, the Wilsonville Arts & Culture Council, and the Friends of the Wilsonville Library.

Christina Katz, author of Get Known Before the Book Deal and Writer Mama (Writer’s Digest Book), created and hosts the series. She has selected Wilsonville High School senior Marina Cameron to be the student intern this season. The Northwest Author Series will run September through May each month during the school year except December.

Please join us as we kick off our third season on Sunday, September 27th!

The Lineup for the 2009 – 2010 Northwest Author Series

The Northwest Author Series has selected the line-up of authors for the 2009-2010 season:

September 27: Young adult fiction author, Laura Whitcomb – “Novel Shortcuts”

October 18: Cookbook author, Kati Neville – “Test Market with Self-publishing”

November 15: Memoirist, Melissa Hart – “Memoir that Sells”

January 24: Children’s author, Amber J. Keyser, Ph.D. – “How to Use a Critique Group”

February 21: Nonfiction author, Cindy Hudson – “The Nonfiction Book”

March 14: Fiction author, Naseem Rakha – “Write What People Remember”

April 18: Romance author, Deborah Schneider – “Romance 101”

May 16: Children’s author, David Michael Slater – “Plotting Your Success”

We look forward to seeing you on September 27th when award-winning young adult author Laura Whitcomb kicks off the 2009- 2010 Northwest Author Series at the Wilsonville Public Library.

Her presentation, “Novel Shortcuts,” takes place in the Oak Room from 3:30 – 5:30 p.m. Tickets are available at the door for $5.00 or $3.00 for seniors/students. No advance registration is required.

Books will be available for purchase and signing by the author afterwards. The series is sponsored by The Wilsonville Public Library, the Wilsonville Arts & Culture Council, and the Friends of the Wilsonville Library.

To learn more about Wilsonville’s Northwest Author Series, contact Christina Katz at christinakatz at earthlink dot net.

The Northwest Author Series Call for Presenters for the 2009-2010 Season

The Northwest Author Series is a literary speaker series sponsored by The Wilsonville Public Library, The Wilsonville Friends of the Library and the Wilsonville Arts & Culture Council. The series is created, publicized and hosted by Wilsonville author Christina Katz.

We are now scheduling our third season.

Our presenters last season included Elizabeth Lyon, Carmen T. Bernier Grand,  Brian Libby, Christine Fletcher, Linda Kuhlmann, Cynthia Whitcomb, and Samantha Ducloux Waltz. In our first season, we welcomed Marc Acito, Heather Sharfeddin, Cynthia Whitcomb, Shelly Lipkin, Sage Cohen, Susan Fletcher and Elizabeth Rusch.

The series takes place the third Sunday of each month during the school year (September – May) and features writing professionals who have a desire to share what they have learned in a how-to format with our growing suburban literary community. Attendance at our monthly event averages between 30-40 writers, authors and aspiring authors all eager to learn as much as they can in each author’s one-and-a-half hour presentation.

Refreshments are served. Door prizes are given to two members of the audience and a grand time is had by all. If you’d like to hear from our hostess and some of our attendees, please scroll down to the next post and watch the video about our series by Bill Johnson.

Presenters are encouraged to include as much anyone-can-try-it how-to instruction throughout their 90-minute presentations. We strongly prefer a how-to presentation rather than a how-I-did-it presentation. Writers come to our series to learn new skills that they can turn around and apply themselves.

Final selections will be made by June 30, 2009 for the 09-10 season. We will contact those selected at that time to set a presentation date.

Anyone who is interested in being considered for the upcoming season, please submit your brief course description, a short bio, and a professional-quality headshot to Christina Katz (see e-mail address in the sample presentation). Presenter pitches should follow our sample format. Pitches that do not follow the format will not be considered.

The Friends of the Wilsonville Library offers our presenters an modest honorarium. Sorry, we cannot cover travel expenses.

Interested in applying? Please closely model your pitch after NAS Sample Presentation Pitch 2009.

Submissions instructions are included in the sample. Topics that have been covered include:

• humor writing
• platform development
• children’s writing
• book proposal writing
• freelance writing
• writing fiction
• self-publishing books
• screenwriting
• playwriting
• personal essay writing
• poetry writing
• researching children’s writing and young adult fiction

We would love to offer fresh topics in 2009-2010! So if you have something else you can offer in a how-to format, please submit a proposal.

Please note that all of our presenters for the Northwest Author Series are traditionally published authors. We won’t be repeating any of  the authors from the last two seasons next year.

Thank you for your interest in the Northwest Author Series. I hope we will have a chance to enjoy your presentation.

Contact christina katz at earthlink dot net if you have any questions.

An Introduction to the Northwest Author Series

Thanks to Bill Johnson from Oregon Writers Speak for coming down to Wilsonville to kindly shoot and edit this video.

You can hear more Oregon authors speak here.

Highlights from Elizabeth Lyon’s Presentation on How to Write Nonfiction Book Proposals

Notes by Ashleigh Rousselle

A nonfiction book proposal is a business report but it needs to get people excited about your work.

Sixty pages or three chapters should be included.

Novelists have to write the entire novel before; Nonfiction authors need to see if their idea should be developed.

“About the Author” means “Why are you qualified to write this book?”

Expect to be studied personally to see how well you can sell your books. Build your platform! (Platform is self promotion.)

It’s guesswork—you need to convince them that your book will sell in one-three years. Find statistics.

Memoirs can’t just be about yourself, you need a universal/relatable theme.

“A book for everybody is a book for no one”—Define your audience: gender, age groups…  (Women buy more books).

An illusion: making money off books.  75% of books published don’t make back their advance.

Writing books for not a lot of money still allows you to reach the audience you want to reach and could still bring future opportunities.

Multiple books can build an audience.

Go to amazon.net; be clever with synonyms. Find books comparable to what you plan to write (That aren’t self published, and came out within the last five years).

Comparing your book to books that are already published pushes you to make yours different.

If you have already written your book, it probably will need to be revised (a lot), but it’ll be finished by the deadline…

Your writing has to be deemed “professional,” continue improving it

You need to write in an entertaining way, it has to be rewarding/interesting on every page.

If you’re writing a memoir, be prepared to be asked for the whole thing. (Though you could always chop it into smaller pieces and publish them wherever you can.)

Anything you’ve written is already copyrighted. (Protects writers.)

“Fast tracked books” come out six months to a year.

Books can be deemed “out of print”—located in the contract.

Children’s Writers: publishers prefer to assign illustrators for your book.

When selecting your theee sample chapters select consecutive for memoirs, and representative for “how to” books.

Thanks to everyone who contributed to our successful second season!

I thought I’d post an official thank you to everyone who helped make the second season of the Northwest Author Series such a wonderful success.

Big thanks to Pat Duke from the Wilsonville Public Library for generously providing the space, the books, and “thumb’s up” for our series to happen.

While I’m thanking people from the library, I’d like to especially thank Malia, Burton, Andrea and Greg for their contributions.

Malia and Greg cheerfully set up our space and provide back-up support for our numerous requests. Burton creates our great poster and graphics. And Andrea handles publicity.

Pat also acts as liason with the Friends of the Library, who offer our speakers a generous honorarium. On behalf of all the authors, thanks!

I want to thank Theonie Gilmore, who is the Executive Director of the Wilsonville Arts and Culture Council, for articulating the idea for the series and inviting me to join the WACC board. Theonie attends the NAS regularly and is always ready to jump in and help when needed.

Special thanks to Ashleigh Rousselle, our student intern for the 2008-2009 season. Ashleigh was in charge of transporting the cookies and coffee from our sponsors. She also wrote up notes after each event for our blog and was an all-around big help. I know that she has benefited a great deal from attending all eight talks and I hope the information she’s heard serves her and her writing career in the long run.

I want to thank our presenters this season: Samantha Ducloux Waltz, Cynthia Whitcomb, Linda Kuhlmann, Christine Fletcher, Brian Libby, Carmen T. Berneir Grand, and Elizabeth Lyon.

Thanks to Jane Friedman at Writer’s Digest Books for providing our door prizes, which never fail to bring a smile to winners’ faces.

And thanks to Lamb’s Thriftway Bakery and Starbucks in the Wilsonville Town Center for supplying our refreshments.

Thanks for a great season, everyone. It would not have been nearly as successful without everyone’s contributions.

I am looking forward to steady improvement in 2009-2010. Speaking of, now would be a great time to make suggestions for speakers for 2009-2010. Please e-mail them to me (christina katz at earthlink dot net) before the end of the month.

I’ll post the application guides for the 2009-2010 season by May 31st and select the line-up by June 30th.

Hope everyone has a lovely summer!

Warmly,

Christina Katz

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CHRISTINA KATZ
The Northwest Author Series
http://northwestauthorseries.wordpress.com/
Sponsored by the Wilsonville Public Library, The Friends of the Wilsonville Public Library & the Wilsonville Arts and Culture Council
Created  and hosted by Christina Katz