Category: Writers Seminar

Seminar
Saturday, March 21, 2009

Newsletters: The Good, the Bad, and the Creative

Want to produce a newsworthy newsletter?

Whether you want to create your own newsletter to promote your business, or write newsletters for clients and employers, learn how to assemble a newsletter that readers look forward to reading. Seminar leaders Debra Eckerling and Tammy Takahashi will address layout, clarity, graphics, misspellings, typos, syntax issues, and the software to make your job easier and product better. Also learn ways to contact companies that provide newsletters and help make their product more profitable.

Presented by: DEBRA ECKERLING and TAMMY TAKAHASHI

[To read more, click the title!]

Seminar
Saturday, February 21, 2009

February is the shortest month of the year, so IWOSC is dedicating it to short stories!

Name your favorite short story.
Is it “The Gift of the Magi,” in which the wife cuts and sells her long hair to buy her husband a watch fob, while, unbeknownst to her, he sells the watch to buy her a beautiful comb for her hair? How did O. Henry create a short story of such lasting beauty? How did Edgar Allen Poe, Washington Irving, Saki, Kipling, Mark Twain, Bret Harte and many others create stories that we still read today?
More to the point, how can today’s aspiring O. Henrys write stories that editors will want to buy? And where do we find these editors, magazines, and anthologies?

Presented by:

[To read more, click the title!]

Seminar
Saturday, January 17, 2009

Does the thought of a microphone in your face turn your knees to jelly? Hate interviewing someone else to research your play or other project? How do you prepare? How do you handle handlers? How do you get close-mouthed people to open up? What is off the record? Never fear. “Interviewing 101” is on tap.

Whether you’ve interviewed dozens of people or working up to your first one, whether you interview people for print or electronic media, this experienced interviewer’s experience will benefit you. Join KPCC’s Special Correspondent and noted playwright Kitty Felde to learn the secrets of a successful interview.

Presented by: Kitty Felde

[To read more, click the title!]

Seminar
Saturday, November 15, 2008

Michele Wallerstein, the Writer’s Consultant, and former literary agent, will guide you through the ways to move your projects into the world of motion picture studios, agents, publishers, and the television markets. Learn the secrets of successful networking and follow-up, as well as who to contact and how to do it.

Presented by: Michele Wallerstein

[To read more, click the title!]

Seminar

Whether you need a book-jacket blurb or a resume opening, these few words make the reader want more. Your capsule bio can be a sleek torpedo or bloated blimp. The best writers don’t always know which they’ve launched, as Alice Romano discovered when compiling IWOSC’s own directory. Follow the journalism creed of brevity and clarity to create your tasty intro.

Alice Romano, IWOSC past President and Intensive Writing Workshop facilitator, leads this seminar on how to create a succinct biography that is a quick read and plays to your strengths.

Presented by: Alice Romano

[To read more, click the title!]

Seminar

Our speaker explains the dynamics behind creating a winning story pitch or query that will get the attention of editors around the country. Learn the fundamentals of a well-written story, one that will impress an editor every time. Tips and techniques are available for those writers who want to polish their skills.

Presented by: Karlin

[To read more, click the title!]

Seminar

The Independent Writers of Southern California (IWOSC) presents veteran publicist and consultant Flo Selfman – aided by many of her colleagues’ results-getting techniques – who will help you craft the best press release for your message, and provide pointers for getting your word out to the right places.

Presented by: Flo Selfman

[To read more, click the title!]

Seminar

How can you create a publicity buzz with your own books, blogs, and videos? Dr. Tina Tessina, Ph.D., aka Dr. Romance, tells how she did it and still does it! She’ll discuss her psychotherapy practice as a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and how she’s published 11 books in many languages to help couples find happiness.

Presented by: Dr. Tina Tessina, Ph.D., aka Dr. Romance

[To read more, click the title!]

Seminar
Saturday, May 17, 2008

To write for kids, you have to think like a kid. There are nuances and approaches that children’s authors use frequently. It is not just the words, but also the images that the words create, which draw children into reading a story.

Join two award-winning children’s book authors and illustrators Kathryn Hewitt and Deborah Nourse Lattimore as they present practical tips and guidance on how to turn your kernel of a book idea into one ready to sell to a children’s book publisher.

Presented by: Kathryn Hewitt and Deborah Nourse Lattimore

[To read more, click the title!]

Seminar
Saturday, April 12, 2008

Once the final few sentences of that great American novel have been penned or a non-fiction tale that no one else could scribe, it’s time to get your manuscript in front of an agent. Agents have the contacts to get your work seen and read by editors in publishing houses, looking for the newest acquisition. But where does one begin? Powerhouse author and screenwriter Marvin J. Wolf offers practical advice and savvy tips on how to turn your work into an attractive product ripe for picking by the book-publishing establishment.

Presented by: MARVIN J. WOLF

[To read more, click the title!]

Seminar
Saturday, March 15, 2008

What can you do to make your writing stand out in a crowded field? According to Lilli Cloud, communications trainer and owner of Blue Feet, you need to “write for differentiation.” In this seminar on business writing, Cloud will provide you with worthwhile tips and guidance on how to effectively differentiate a product, service or even yourself. The workshop will also include hands-on exercises

This workshop covers…

Presented by: LILLI CLOUD

[To read more, click the title!]

Seminar
Saturday, February 16, 2008

Whether you’re writing to impress an editor, agent or publisher, your finished product should reflect the highest standards of professionalism. Whether you’re turning out autobiographies, corporate newsletters, or other writing projects, every professional endeavor requires editing and proofreading. Our two accomplished experts, editor and publishing consultant Monica Faulkner, and IWOSC President, PR consultant and proofreader-copyeditor Flo Selfman demystify the editing process, as well as the nuts and bolts of proofreading and copyediting.

A sampling of questions to be addressed…

Presented by: Monica Faulkner and Flo Selfman

[To read more, click the title!]

Seminar
Saturday, January 19, 2008

Guest speakers Gerald Everett Jones and Helen Jupiter have each found a way to expound on the universe through blogs. If you’re a writer, blogging can be a powerful tool for promoting your ideas, expertise, book or platform both on purpose and accidentally in a “viral” form. With the right positioning, a blog can show up in Internet searches all over the world, compounding your media exposure exponentially. Let our experts explain why, where, when, and how to blog on a budget.

Presented by: Gerald Everett Jones and Helen Jupiter

[To read more, click the title!]

Seminar
Saturday, November 17, 2007

Powerhouse writing partners, Marvin J. Wolf and Larry Mintz, explain the subtle dynamics behind writing a successful screenplay. Several of their projects have aired on the small screen since their collaboration began in 2001. Between them, the men represent more than 70 years of professional writing.

Presented by: Marvin J. Wolf and Larry Mintz

[To read more, click the title!]

Seminar
Saturday, October 20 , 2007

Levine’s talk gives you the tools to immediately and permanently super-charge your career. In more than 20 years as founder of Levine Communications Office, he has cultivated several effective tactics for success, which can be applied to many types of business.

Move than motivate, he’ll teach you how to structure your career like a super-success. His Guerilla P.R. (Harper Collins) is the most widely used text around the world for beginner public relations courses. His most recent book. Broken Windows Broken Business (Warner Books) uses the metaphor of broken windows to describe the small problems in business that escalate into serious consequences. Levine’s book offers a road map on how companies can fix broken windows promptly.

Presented by: Michael Levine

[To read more, click the title!]

Seminar
Saturday, September 15 , 2007

Become a valuable “edutainer” with an arsenal of talking points that can be used effectively during an interview or any media opportunity and discover why passion is the secret to presence. Mindy Bradish, Director of Membership and Events at the West Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, thought her patter to chamber members was working until hearing Convery’s 15-minute speech. Bradish hired Convery for an additional two-hour meeting with the entire staff. “I realized that while I could get away with my pitch, she could teach me to take it to the next level…From that two-hour meeting, I took away ten different sound bites and a polished elevator speech, which I started using that very day,” says Bradish.

For this IWOSC seminar, she’ll share her tips on how to convey your specialty and position yourself as an expert resource to the media — in 60 seconds or less.

Presented by: Ann Convery

[To read more, click the title!]

Seminar
Saturday, July 21, 2007

What do YOU think?

Ever since 16th-century writer Montaigne created the essay form, scribes and littérateurs have experimented with the boundaries of non-fiction prose. Today, the display of private experience as public intimacy through memoirs, one-person stage performances, and personal essays has become an increasingly important part of the writing business.

From magazines to such book series as “Chicken Soup for the Soul,” personal essays have a home in today’s literary marketplace. In this IWOSC seminar, author Marvin J. Wolf will discuss both style and sales, helping participants identify their own unique experiences worth writing about.

Presented by:

[To read more, click the title!]

Seminar
Saturday, April 21, 2007

You write brochures, flyers, press releases, and reports for your business clients. In this hands-on, interactive seminar, you will learn how to optimize your clients’ business-to-business communications.

Instructor Trish Lester teaches techniques that will help improve your clients’ communications to other businesses as well as directly to the consumer.

Presented by: Trish Lester

[To read more, click the title!]

Seminar
Saturday, February 17, 2007

You wrote a screenplay. Now learn how to get a good agent, manager, producer, and deal.

Agent Victoria Wisdom has represented screenwriters as diverse as 2007 Oscar nominee writer/director Deepa Mehta (“Fire,” “Water”), Ernest Thompson (“On Golden Pond”), and Christopher McQuarrie (“The Usual Suspects”).

In this workshop, she will help you understand…

Presented by: Victoria Wisdom

[To read more, click the title!]

Seminar
Saturday, November 19, 2006

IWOSC is pleased to present humorist and author Michael J. Herman’s workshop, “The Profitable Pen: New Approaches to Making Money as a Writer.” According to Herman, the reason writers are perpetually broke is because they don’t understand that writing is not just an art form or a craft, it is a business, plain and simple. Until you approach it as such, he says, you will never make any money!

In this dynamic, humorous, fast-paced, irreverent, and revolutionary program, Herman will show you…

Presented by: Michael J. Herman

[To read more, click the title!]

Seminar
Saturday, November 18, 2006

Grant writing is truly satisfying work for a writer, but it has a reputation for being a stodgy, bureaucratic form. But during the course of IWOSC’s November Saturday Seminar, Kim Zanti, who has spent two decades in the fundraising, business communications, corporate identity, and public relations sectors, hopes to dispel that notion!

In truth, your well-thought, persuasive and passionate words, sent to carefully-evaluated foundations and/or other funding sources, can result in children being educated, affordable housing being constructed, or an arts program being established. While you are earning money as a writer, you are also bringing hope to people and help to organizations in need.

This IWOSC-sponsored grant writing seminar offers writers…

Presented by: Kim Zanti

[To read more, click the title!]

Seminar
Saturday, Oct 21, 2006

So, you have a great idea for a book. Now you need to sell that idea to an editor and publisher! In this IWOSC seminar, Marvin J. Wolf, the author of a dozen books and hundreds of magazine articles, presents the art and science of writing successful book proposals.

A book proposal is a sales pitch, the information (both form and content) that publishers use to decide whether they want to publish your book and how much money they will devote to it. In this seminar, you’ll learn how…

Presented by: Marvin J. Wolf

[To read more, click the title!]

Seminar
Saturday, September 30, 2006

A key in nonfiction magazine and book writing of the past several decades is the increasing use of creative and literary writing techniques in the telling of a true tale.

Instructor Deanne Stillman is a widely published writer whose book of literary nonfiction, Twentynine Palms: A True Story of Murder, Marines, and the Mojave, was an L.A. Times Book Review “best book of 2001.”

Presented by: Deanne Stillman

Seminar
Saturday, August 19, 2006

If you are an author, writer or publisher of any sort, whether of books, via the Internet, games, or any other kind of publisher, intellectual property laws affect you very directly.

This seminar is designed to give an overview of the laws of copyright, trademark, contracts, and other issues related to publishing and writing. It includes information on how those laws and issues have been impacted and modified by the Internet, as well as the business and entrepreneurship issues related to writing and publishing.

Presented by: Ivan Hoffman

[To read more, click the title!]

Seminar
Saturday, July 15, 2006

Get me rewrite! Screen scribe Tom Lazarus, author of Secrets of Film Writing and former IWOSC panelist, is back with a new book, Rewriting Secrets for Screenwriters: Seven Strategies to Improve and Sell Your Work.

One of the important, if not the most important, parts of screenwriting is rewriting.

Presented by: Tom Lazarus

[To read more, click the title!]