Getting the most out of a writer’s conference

If you’re a writer, attending conferences can benefit your efforts to be successful.

On this blog, we’ve talked about meeting other writers and the benefits of networking. Attending a writer’s conference brings these together – especially if you plan ahead.

Conferences generally offer a mix of professional development sessions in the forms of workshops and panels. Options generally range from the big-picture view of the writing business as a whole down to topic-specific. And offerings can be for newbie writers to multi-published professionals.

There are a wide variety of conferences available that cover all types of writing, so researching what fits you best is imperative. If you’re an animal writer, attending a travel writer’s conference probably won’t do you much good.

Once you know where you’re going and when, spend time preparing. You want to have questions ready for editors you’ll meet. Maybe you can even take advantage of pitch sessions, so work on a few pitches and take advantage of the opportunity.

Sometimes conferences will post names of attendees. You can start networking with people before you meet them by taking advantage of social media.  Connect with them, if you can, on Facebook or Twitter.

One important tip is to try not to plan to do too much. It can be enticing to want to pitch to every editor possible. But you’re only human. Focus in on 1 or 2, no more than 3 editors or agents you want to meet. And prepare. Know the person you will be talking to.

At the conference:

• Ask intelligent questions. Show the person you are speaking with that you know what magazine or publisher she represents. Sincerity goes a long way to turning an initial contact into a long-lasting relationship.
• Have your business card ready. Make a note on the back before you hand it over, noting the date and place of the meeting to help the person remember you after the conference.
• Attend with an open mind. You make the best choices you when planning, but once at the conference,  you will (most likely) learn something new, find a contact that fits your goals better. Sometimes, the most successful meeting is the one you don’t anticipate.
• Be real and know that you probably won’t land a contract or be asked for a full manuscript that day. It can and does happen, but know that patience is important, and developing relationships takes time.

After the conference (for me it takes a couple of days to come off the ‘high’ of being with other writers), there are a few things to do.

• Go through your notes to (1) make sure you can read them and (2) address any items you starred or highlighted. If you made a note to e-mail someone, do it!
• Connect with your new acquaintances, friends, editors, and agents through social media. You probably received a lot of contact information during the conference, use it!
• Dig deeper into the publications, publishers, or agents that now have more of your interest. It’ll improve your queries and pitches.
• Follow-up or connect with people in a professional, yet casual way. You want to build relationships that help you reach publication, so take care in how often you contact someone.

These are just a few pointers I can recommend. Writers conferences exist for everyone. I’ve always found Shaw Guides a great place to start my search.

What do you think? Is preparation a key to getting the most out of a conference? Do you have any other tips to recommend?

Lisa J. Jackson is a New England-region journalist and a year-round chocolate and iced coffee lover. She’d be a writing conference junkie if her finances allowed it.  She writes fiction as Lisa Haselton, has an award-winning blog for book reviews and author interviews, and is on the staff of The Writer’s Chatroom. Connect with her on Facebook or Twitter. 

 

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Strength in Numbers

Writing is a solitary occupation. – Deborah Lee Luskin photo

Writing is a solitary occupation, but marketing doesn’t have to be. In fact, there are only benefits to joining others as part of a good marketing strategy. All it takes is someone with energy to start the ball rolling, someone like Beth Kanell, an author of adventure travel guides, poetry, local history, and young adult novels, who just launched The Vermont Book Shelf.

Beth Kanell, author photo

Since most of Kanell’s work is set in Vermont, and since she and her husband run Kingdom Books, a bookshop specializing in Vermont literature, Kanell started The Vermont Book Shelf to help promote the work of Vermont authors and fiction set in Vermont.

In a recent interview on Vermont Public Radio, Kanell explained that the idea behind The Vermont Book Shelf is a loose affiliation of Vermont-based literary artists seeking fellowship and sharing marketing strategy. There’s nothing formal about it: no president or secretary, or obligatory meetings. So far, there’s a blog to which Vermont writers are invited to join by contacting Kanell (bethpoet@gmail.com). The group grew from fifteen to over a hundred in a single week.

As Book Shelf member and author of Heron Island, R.A. “Robbie” Harold explains, “It’s like a farmer’s market for Vermont authors.” Readers interested in Vermont fiction can now find a bountiful harvest of fiction set in the Green Mountain State. Rather than foster competition between writers, the Vermont Book Shelf actually makes it easier for readers to find us all in one place.

It’s also a resource for writers. When a writer new to marketing is invited to speak at a school or a library, that newbie now has several dozen colleagues with experience to guide them through the process of asking for advice from what to wear, how long to speak, and how to ask for money. Since most writing is a solitary endeavor, most of us don’t realize that 1) we can’t show up in our pajamas; 2) public speaking is a one-shot chance; endless editing from the podium not allowed; and 3) our time is worth something.

The Vermont Book Shelf also makes it easier for outside organizations to find and to engage Vermont writers to speak at their events. In just a few weeks, Kanell, who seems to have endless energy and boundless generosity, has put out calls for various speaking gigs, serving as a kind of clearing house or speaker’s bureau. She’s also figured out how to have a bit

Vermont Home, Deborah Lee Luskin photo

of fun. She sends quirky questions members can take a moment to answer, similar to this blog’s Friday Fun. Last week, she asked us to name our favorite place in Vermont. While the majority of us answered “home,” “home” is a different place for each of us. This week, we’re invited to confess if we’ve ever based a character on a grandparent. Beth posts a few replies each day, so that the site is always refreshed with new content.

Vermont is home to many writers; it’s an environment that fosters creativity. It also represents an almost mythical place of rootedness, especially to people from away. These people translate into a potential audience for Vermont writers; The Vermont Book Shelf helps develop audience for us all. It’s a win-win way to market our books.

The Vermont Book Shelf is also a place where a writer can post information about a local reading or author event that might not otherwise be publicized in a mainstream news outlet. Once readers of Vermont writing catch on to the blog, they will learn to check it for the cameo appearances Vermont authors regularly make at parades, history fairs, and other community events.

Echo Lake, NH

Perhaps one of the reasons I’m so enthused about the collaborative and regional nature of The Vermont Book Shelf is due to my positive experience with the New Hampshire Writer’s Network, the parent of this blog. Live to Write – Write to Live is about the writing life in all it’s myriad forms and it has shown me the success of shared work and shared glory. No single one of us could produce the variety of essays we post each week, but each of us is able to produce an essay once every two. And while the group is nominally based in New Hampshire, it includes outliers in two neighboring states as well. In addition to learning from my comrades in ink, I also benefit from extending my reach to their audience base. As a result of joining this group, I’ve developed a wider audience. And when we talk about audience, we’re talking about readers. As a writer, my object in life is to be read.

What this blog and The Vermont Book Shelf have in common includes shared effort, common purpose, expanded audience, and regional identity. At a time when competitive capitalism has landed us in a recession, and national branding has created a bland culture of sameness, cooperating locally to promote homegrown stories makes great marketing sense.

How else could writers collaborate? What kind of collaborative group would you like to be part of? How would you go about getting it off the ground?

Deborah Lee Luskin is the author of Into the Wilderness, an award-winning love story set in Vermont in 1964. She keeps bees and chickens in southern Vermont.

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Meeting other writers

Do you find it hard to meet other writers? Writers are everywhere, but we aren’t a boisterous bunch.

Even if we work somewhere surrounded by people, we’re focused on our screens or our notepads. And even if we’re looking around, it’s uncommon to make eye contact when our minds are in ‘writer mode.’

The Burton Rascoe quote is perfect: “What no wife of a writer understands is that a writer is working when he’s staring out the window.” We might be looking right at each other, and not recognize a similar soul.

Letting the story work its way into my mind

But there are ways to meet other writers.

Blogs – such as this one. All of us are in New England, but we each have different networks and areas of interest.

Writer-focused or author Web sites can be a way to connect with the authors of the site, and their bio pages may then have names of writing groups or organizations they belong to. Then when  you visit one of those pages, you’ll find even more ways to connect with other writers and maybe even discover a group of like-minded writers just around the corner!

Cafés and coffee shops are natural places for writers to congregate, so check out bulletin boards and newsletters at these locations to see if groups meet that might be of interest. Asking a barista or bookseller at these places can lead you to local people, too.

Events coordinators at libraries can let you know if there are any local groups that meet. Local community colleges and high schools that offer adult education classes are also resources to check into.

Meetup.com is an international resource. You can find people with similar interests in your area – or if you’re planning to travel, you can easily find people at your destination to start a conversation with before you leave.

Facebook is another resource for meeting writers. I haven’t found way to search on multiple keywords, but there are certainly quite a few writing-related groups and pages there to get you started in meeting other writers.

In New Hampshire, the New Hampshire Writers’ Project offers “Writer’s Night Out” at various venues across the state on the first Monday evening of every month. It’s a fantastic way to get out and socialize with other local writers. Perhaps there’s something like this in your area. Start by searching for a state writing organization.

The best luck I’ve had to date is with book store writing groups and meeting writers through the mystery writer’s organization that I belong to. But lately I’ve noticed the more I talk about being a writer wherever I go, the more writers I’m meeting.

Maybe we just need to wear labels saying “Hi, I’m a writer”!

Where have you met most of your writer friends?

Lisa J. Jackson is a a New England region journalist and a year-round chocolate and iced coffee lover. She writes fiction as Lisa Haselton, has an award-winning blog for book reviews and author interviews, and is on the staff of The Writer’s Chatroom. 

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Writing isn’t enough. Authors must also master public speaking.

New Ways to Get Naked by Daniela Vladimirova

I know you don’t want to hear it, but it’s true.

It’s no longer enough to be a brilliant writer – to craft characters and worlds, to give ideas foundations and wings. Now, (on top of being her own PR maven and marketing wiz) a writer also has to be a personality – a performer. We need to be not only the brain behind our book, but also the engine behind our sales and promotion.

It’s not an easy task, and for many writers, the toughest part is the public speaking.

There’s good news, though: You can learn to excel at public speaking … and even enjoy it.

Your “voice” is more than your words. 

When we writers talk about “voice,” we are most often referring to the elusive quality – the je ne sais quoi – that defines an author’s writing style. However, most successful writers also develop a more literal voice – the voice they use when speaking in front of live audiences.

It’s scary. I know. Most of the writers I know would rather jam slivers of flaming bamboo under their fingernails than speak in front of an audience, but speaking can play a big role in your book’s success. Whether that role is a positive one, or a negative one depends on how you develop and project your presence.

Your presence is how you stand in the world and how you interact with others.

You know a powerful presence when you see one. Whether the person is a teacher in a third grade classroom, a seasoned musician on stage, or a business leader speaking at a press conference, people with presence make lasting impressions. They have the ability to capture our attention, engage our imaginations, and persuade us to see things from their perspective. A person with a powerful presence might be called a storyteller, an orator, or simply a “people person.” She knows how to talk to people, how to make her point, how to connect with her audience in an intimate and moving way.

Do you think you have a powerful presence?

Everyone has an authentic presence – you just have to find it. 

I’ve always been deathly afraid of public speaking … until now.

When I signed on to take my friend Cheryl Dolan’s Platinum Presence workshop I had no idea it would deliver such a paradigm shift for me. I knew that speaking could have a positive impact on both my marketing and writing work, but I had never known how to get past my fear of standing at the front of the room. My knees would buckle, my palms would sweat, my voice would drop an octave and fall almost to a whisper. It wasn’t a presence that was going to capture anyone’s attention, let alone their imagination.

What I learned in Cheryl’s class is that developing your presence is less about how you deliver a speech and more about being confident and comfortable in your own skin so that you can be fully and dynamically present for others. I also learned that your success as a presenter is as much about learning to “listen” to the non-verbal language of others as it is about discovering how you can use that language to improve your own communication skills.

How to find your authentic presence:

The first step is figuring out how and when you feel your best. In the workshop, Cheryl had each of us think of a time when we really “nailed it.” She asked us to bring ourselves back to that moment in as much detail as possible – remembering the situation, what we were wearing, how we were interacting, what persona we were projecting, what it felt like to be in the “flow.” When I went through this exercise, I learned I felt best when I:

• Had a very strong knowledge about my subject matter
• Could move around a lot
• Was able to put my audience at ease with a little humor and conversation
• Took a no-drama, lets-get-this-done kind of attitude
• Focused on the outcome (for my audience) rather than my performance

That last bit is a big part of the second step:  know your intention. Know clearly what you want to deliver and what you want to get out of any situation, whether it’s an interview, a networking conversation, or a presentation to a crowd. You need to understand what your goal is and also – more importantly – what your audience’s goal is. Then you need to find a way to bring those two things together.

The third step is learning the art and science of skilful communication.  That’s not a topic I can tackle in one humble blog post, but what I can tell you is that there are a LOT of fascinating and informative resources covering topics from psychology to neuroscience to kinetics. As Cheryl says, there are always two conversations happening – the verbal and the non-verbal. If the two don’t align, people won’t believe that you are being honest. The insights and knowledge that Cheryl shared with her students touched on the power of eye contact, how to use your hands effectively, how to trigger the happy chemicals in your brain to help calm and center yourself before any interaction or presentation, and so much more.

One of my favorite tips for boosting energy, confidence, and creative juices is bouncing on an exercise ball. I was resistant to this at first, but am now a regular “bouncer” – using it to calm my nerves, clear my head, and unlock my muse. Here’s a brief video of Cheryl talking with Pam Slim about why the bouncing works so well:

This is just the tip of the iceberg, but it’s an iceberg worth exploring further. 

I’m so excited about everything I learned with Cheryl, that I could go on and on (and on!), but this blog post is about to hit 1,000 words, and I think I’ve already taken up enough of your time. Let me leave you with this – even if you are one of those people who dreads public speaking with such intensity that you get sick to your stomach just thinking about it, you can learn to be comfortable and confident in front of an audience. Whether you engage someone like Cheryl as a coach, take a workshop like Platinum Presence, or just do some research on your own by reading books and watching other presenters (Google “Ted Talks presentation skills” for a start), give yourself the gift of believing you can overcome your personal presentation demons, and then go out and start figuring out how to whoop their butts.

As I said at the beginning of this post, it’s not enough for writers to write. Today, an author needs to be more than a scribe. An author needs to learn to use her literal voice as well as her literary voice so she can create a strong presence in the minds of her audience.

What do you think? How important are speaking skills to a writer’s success? Do you feel like you have strengths in this area, or do you struggle? Have you taken part in any training or coaching that has helped you? Can you suggest any other resources that might help people understand how to become a more powerful presence?

Jamie Lee Wallace is a writer who also happens to be a marketer. She helps her Suddenly Marketing clients discover their voice, connect with their audience, and find their marketing groove. She is also a mom, a prolific blogger, and a student of voice and trapeze (not at the same time). Introduce yourself on facebook or twitter. She doesn’t bite … usually.

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5 ways to increase your exposure

You’re a writer who needs to get her name out in the world. You want magazines, businesses, and organizations to discover how talented you are and hire you to write for them. Here are five ways to get you started on a plan that will get yourself and your business better known.

Network, network, and network some more
You’re making writing your business, and like many businesses, it’s more about who you know than what you know, at least to get in the door. Networking, both in-person at events and online through social media, is a solid way to add new clients. Make sure to at least know who your target client is and what makes you the best writer for their needs. You can also think of who can introduce you to the person who can introduce you to the contact you really want to meet.

Ask for referrals
Sure you need to have clients to be in business, so you can’t ask for referrals until you have some satisfied customers, but referrals are a powerful way to build your credibility. When a client compliments you on a job well done, take that moment to ask them for a recommendation or referral. It’s nice to assume that that client will tell a friend who will tell a friend, but ask, and you’ll make sure it happens. Or it may be more comfortable for you to could offer a future discount to clients who refer new clients to you.

Publish content
You’re a writer, so, write something and publish it. It’s the best way to get exposure. You can publish online, through your blog or online article directories (as a way to start). Get your writing published in print newspapers or magazines. Starting with local and regional publications is fun (at least I’m enjoying myself immensely writing for community papers and a regional magazine). And then you can move up to  national and international publications. And a lot of print articles also end up online, so that multiplies your exposure.

Offer a freebie
Everyone loves giveaways, especially those that are relevant and helpful. Free reports can help you accomplish two goals at once. Report content can help establish you as a good writer and as a solid, credible source of information. Offering a useful freebie can entice prospective clients to your Web site and motivate them to hire you for your services.

Blog
Having a blog helps drive traffic to your business and your business site, and it builds your brand. Your writing ability will shine through in your blog’s content, but don’t make it all about you all the time. Make sure to include useful information for your visitors. Of course you want to share what you can do, but also offer helpful links to other sites, links to resources, ways for your reader to find events local to themselves, and other similar things.

What do you do to get your name out there and showcase your writing?

Lisa J. Jackson is a solopreneur who works hard to take her own advice. She’s also a New England region journalist and a year-round chocolate and iced coffee lover. She writes fiction as Lisa Haselton, has an award-winning blog for book reviews and author interviews, and is on the staff of The Writer’s Chatroom. 

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Dear self-publishing writer …

Me – preparing to climb up on my soapbox at NHCC’s self-publishing event.

Self-publishing is big. Really big. Everyone is talking about it – writers, publishers, retailers, the press, industry analysts … everyone. It’s no surprise. Today’s technology gives anyone anywhere the ability to bypass traditional publishing and take her work to the street, so to speak. Three cheers for the emancipation of the artist!

Or not.

I recently had the absolute pleasure of speaking, along with two others, to a group of writers and artists at the New Hampshire Creative Club (NHCC). (Note to any creatives looking for a great professional organization – these people are super nice and super talented. Worth checking out.) The topic at hand was self-publishing. The other speakers covered things from the perspective of the writer and the publisher. Lee Richmond, a published author, told the story of his adventures in old school publishing as compared to his new adventure with self-publishing. Peter Randall, an indie publisher since 1970, provided an inside look at what goes into making a book – from printing to distribution. Me? I talked about marketing.

I got up on my soapbox a bit, too.

As an aspiring novelist (I can say that even though I haven’t written a word of fiction in three years), it pains me to see how frequently marketing is tacked on as an afterthought. I get that the creative piece is The Thing. Crafting the story is the soul of our efforts. It is driven by our deepest, most heartfelt “why.” There is a reason so many people compare writing a book with giving birth to a child. We put so much of ourselves and our lives into the process; it’s easy to be blind to anything outside our cocoon or ideas and words.

But, if our intention is to make the project profitable, we have to balance our inner work with the realities of the outside world. We have to tear our bleary eyes away from the screen, pry our fingers from around our lucky fountain pens. We must think beyond the creation of the book and consider the audience for the book. Who will read this story of ours? How we will get it into their hands?

That’s where marketing comes in.

In my presentation to the folks of the NHCC, I explained that marketing is not – as many people assume – about selling. Sales is about selling. Marketing is about connecting. If you do a good job with your marketing, if you create a strong enough connection with your audience, sales will take care of themselves. Nice, right?

So, how do you do that?

The answer is certainly longer than I can cram into this modest blog post, but I pulled together a few relevant posts and other information and created a resources page for the NHCC gang. (Oops! Their site clearly states that they are not a gang … just a club). I don’t think they’d mind if I shared it with you. (They really are that nice.) So, dear self-publishing writers and self-publishing writers-to-be, I hope that you will take a few minutes to peruse this selection of posts (many from my archives here on Live to Write-Write to Live) and think about how you can start getting into a marketing mindset for your book project. It’s never too early to start thinking about how to brand yourself and your work, how to build your platform and your network, how to get yourself and your book “out there.”

If you have any additional resources you’d like to share on the topic, please feel free to add them to the comments on this page or the resources page. Writers helping writers is what it’s all about – I’d love to hear your insights and suggestions. 

P.S. New England area artists and writers – don’t forget to check out the NHCC!

P.S.S. If any of you are writing books that need illustrations – there’s a serious pool of talent at the NHCC. You can cruise the NHCC business directory for more details.

 

Jamie Lee Wallace is a writer who also happens to be a marketer. She helps her Suddenly Marketing clients discover their voice, connect with their audience, and find their marketing groove. She is also a mom, a prolific blogger, and a student of voice and trapeze (not at the same time). Introduce yourself on facebook or twitter. She doesn’t bite … usually.

Photo Credit: Kevin Harkins (Thanks, Kevin!)

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LinkedIn for writers

The mention of LinkedIn probably sends your mind to “that’s a site for people who need jobs,” or something along those lines.

It’s actually a very powerful networking tool that offers a lot for writers and I’d like to offer it to you for consideration. Whether you’re just starting out, or you’re multi-published; whether you write fiction or non-fiction; whether you write long or short, LinkedIn can help you improve your craft and make connections.

Groups and resources on LinkedIn include (this is nowhere near an extensive list, just examples):

Asking questions in the “Writing and Editing” category. Ask any question you want and people will reply.

You don’t have to belong to any groups to ask questions in this general forum.

Join one or more groups. There are groups specifically for writers – some are open and anyone can view, post, and comment in them. Other groups are closed and you have to become a member to view, post, and comment.

As of Jan 16, doing a search for groups related to “writing” results in 1,929 groups. A search for groups on the word “writers” results in 2,384 possibilities. “Magazine writing” has 18 possible groups to choose from. “Fiction writing” gives 50 results (example below).

Here is a close up of the details at the bottom of the first group in the above snapshot – the Creative Designers and Writers group listing:

You can see how many discussions were active the prior day, how many jobs were posted (some groups allow job postings), the group owner’s name (which is clickable so you can view his profile), and how many members are currently in the group.

Search terms are unlimited and the more specific you can get, of course, the more relevant your returned searches will be.

Joining groups is a great way to meet other writers who share your interests, find potential work if you freelance, and improve your writing skills by sharing with others.

You can search for people with the same search terms you use when searching for groups.

People are ranked based on keywords (which I can talk about in another post). This is a great way to connect with other writers in your field or area of interest. It’s a way to find authors you might like to read, writers who have similar experience as you.

These are just a few examples of the power of LinkedIn and how you can connect with writers, literary agents, publishers, newspapers, magazines, and so much more.

If you’re on LinkedIn already, feel free to send me a connect request. Let me know you saw this post. Have you found it helpful?

If you aren’t on LinkedIn yet, I hope you give it a shot. It’s free to sign up.

Lisa Jackson is an independent editor, writer, New England region journalist, and a year-round chocolate and iced coffee lover. She writes fiction as Lisa Haselton, has an award-winning blog for book reviews and author interviews, and is on the staff of The Writer’s Chatroom which is now a 5-time winner of Writer’s Digest’s 101 Best Websites for Writers, where she gets to chat with best-selling authors, non-fiction writers, publishers, and other writing professionals on a weekly basis.

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Starting a blog even though it seems scary

Today’s post is from guest blogger Diane MacKinnon.

For years, I wanted to start a blog.  I am a life coach and feel a strong need to connect with other people and try to communicate about how to live a happier life. I would write blog posts in my head, in my journal, and even in a folder on my computer marked “Posts for Future Blog.” So why didn’t I start a blog?  One word: fear.

Once, when I was eleven, I came home from school to find my mom and my older brother laughing over my journal.  While there was a part of me that was flattered they thought it was funny, I was horrified to think they were reading my private thoughts.

Although I kept journaling, I never wrote down anything that I wouldn’t want anyone else to read.  Pretty boring.  Eventually, as an adult, I consciously stopped censoring my thoughts and actually wrote down in my journal my true thoughts—even the really petty, stupid ones that make no sense at all unless you were there.

But to write things down and then put them out there into the world? Saying, “this is what I think and this is what I believe?”—that still seemed very risky to me.

So I snuck up on it.

I read other people’s blogs, I kept writing my own blog posts in my journal, and then in January of 2011 I took a Blogging 101 class with Dan Blank. I did all the class assignments, including getting a blog set up on Word Press.  I wrote out an editorial calendar and brainstormed more topics.  What fun!

And did I start my blog on February 1^st, as my editorial calendar had scheduled? Nope.  But I kept thinking about it and doing little pieces.  I’m a big fan of turtle steps—taking such small steps forward in completing a task that they feel doable, even easy.  But if you want to start a blog, one day you actually have to publish a blog post.

I finally took the leap in June.  I just pasted a blog post into my Word Press blog site and clicked Publish. I didn’t tell anyone I did it, but it still felt really scary—and exhilarating.  About a week later, I mentioned to a close friend that I had started a blog.  Then I told a few more people.  And when I sent out my monthly life coaching newsletter, I mentioned it there.  Every time I mentioned it, it felt a little less scary.

My blog is not getting a ton of hits, I don’t have all my “tags” listed.  My RSS feed sign-up is not working exactly the way I want it to.  But I can fix all that.  The important thing is that I am being true to myself and I am putting it out there.

Have you started a blog? What was the scariest part for you? If you want to start a blog and haven’t, try turtle steps.

Diane MacKinnon is currently a full-time mother, part-time life coach.  She is passionate about her son, her writing and using her mind to create a wonderful present moment.  Find her blog at http://www.dianemackinnon.com/blog.

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BlogHer Writers ’11

BlogHer, one of the Internet’s best known sites for women bloggers and blogs of interest to women is offering a one day conference for “writers ready to use social media skills as authors”

The conference is sponsored by Penguin Publishing, home to such imprints as The Penguin Press, Penguin, Berkley Books, and The Viking Press among others. Many of the speakers and mentors for the event will be Penguin staff, authors or agents who have successfully worked with Penguin in the past. Penguin’s imprints represent a broad range of authors and titles, for example, The Help by Kathryn Stockett, The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World by Alan Greenspan and Otherwise Known as Sheila The Great by Judy Blume.

BlogHer Writers ‘ll is structured to be a mix of large group learning and small group mentoring and brainstorming. According to Erin Groh, from BlogHer, “[A]ttendance is capped at 200 people, including our speakers and small group leaders/mentors. We intentionally keep this event small to foster a sense of intimacy and in depth networking.”

Who should attend? Bloggers and other social media writers looking to expand their writing outlets. Groh says “As bloggers, our audience are already experienced writers in the online and social media fields. This conference is an opportunity to help them leverage that experience to break into more traditional publishing.”

Writers ’11 will be held Friday October 21, 2011 at the Hilton New York. A welcome reception will be held the night before from 6pm – 8pm. The cost is $199 (+ a $5.97 processing fee) per person. Conference details are at http://www.blogher.com/blogher-writers-11. Registration information can be found at http://blogherwriters11.eventbrite.com/. BlogHer has a block of rooms at the Hilton for $299 per night. There is also a conference community where you can find a roommate, discuss conference expectations and meet other attendees before the event.

What do you think?  Are you attending? Why? Why not?

Disclosure: Information presented here is for educational purposes only. NHWN has no relationship with BlogHer or Penguin.

Lee Laughlin is a writer, wife, and mom, frequently all of those things at once. She blogs at Livefearlesslee.com. Her words have appeared in a broad range of publications from community newspapers to the Boston Globe.

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Solace & Hope

            On Sunday, August 28, Irene cried on my village, destroying whole sections of it. Gratefully, no life has been lost, but friends’ and neighbors’ homes have been washed away – along with their land and belongings. Roads are gone, bridges broken. I suffered no property damage, but I am changed by the devastation – and I’m not just talking about the inconvenience of closed roads.

Since the storm, I’ve been doing what I can for local relief. As always, in times of crisis I resort to my two mainstays: food and words. By Tuesday, I’d organized potluck dinners at our community hall, where those with power could bring covered dishes and those without power could eat hot food. We held four of these dinners last week. Others have organized a daily hot breakfast at the hall.

           Not only do we feed people at these meals, but we also gather and disseminate information at them. All of us – those who lost nothing, those who lost all and those somewhere in between these extremes – take comfort not just from the food, but also from the fellowship that is part of helping one another in time of need. We need to see and hear and reassure each other that life will go on, we will continue, we’ll get through this – and be stronger for it.

I may have started the potluck dinners, but others have stepped up to do the heavy lifting, from working the phones for food donations to cooking, serving, and washing up after. By Irene-plus-five, it became clear that we were emerging from our shock and starting to adjust to this new normal of a drastically changed landscape and vastly different civic circumstances. By then, I’d already filed a Commentary for Vermont Public Radio. But we needed more. We needed poetry.

I’ve been gathering, printing and posting poems for public consumption. Because we don’t just need food, shelter and clothing. We also need poetry to soothe our souls and give us ‘that thing with feathers’ – what Emily Dickinson called Hope.

Deborah Lee Luskin often writes about Vermont, where she has lived since 1984. She is a commentator for Vermont Public Radio, a Visiting Scholar for the Vermont Humanities Council and the author of the award winning novel, Into The Wilderness. For more information, visit her website at www.deborahleeluskin.com

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