It’s an evolving trend – humankind’s search for fundamental truths by moving beyond conventional wisdom to ask the questions behind the questions, seeking the answers behind the answers. And consequently, as our personal quests draw more attention within the popular culture, an expanding group of smart thinkers are responding to our call by offering public lectures, structured lessons and a myriad of books. The more popular publications in this arena have risen to the top of the best-seller lists, such as: The “Chicken Soup” series, “A Course in Miracles,” “The Secret,” “The Last Lecture,” “The Power of Now,” “The Science of God,” “Life after Death,” “Healing through Faith,” “Law of Attraction,” and many more.
ELAINE WILKES, Ph.D., N.C., M.A., LEED
GEMINI ADAMS
MONY VITAL, Ph.D.
TODD J. LYON, M. D.
RICHARD JELUSICH
DEE WALLACE
Now that you have so many options for the dissemination of your writing, as well as the promotion of your book and/or services, the choices can be daunting — if you look at it as one package. However, when you break down the components, each one can serve to enhance all the aspects of your work … without making you crazy.
Our expert panel will explain the new methods offered today, and show you how to integrate these new tools and shortcuts to promote your work.
Moderator:
ANNETTE FIX
PENNY C. SANSEVIERI
ELLEN REID
JULIE SPIRA
In this tight economy, it’s harder and harder to compete for a publisher’s attention. And once you’ve got a book deal, harder and harder to get good editorial help from the publishing house. Having a well-edited book prior to submission will greatly increase your chances to stand out from the crowd — for sale, and possible award winning status. Our panel of expert editors will share tips on:
Common mistakes writers make and how to correct them…
Moderator: Ina Hillebrandt
Lisa Marguerite Mora
Monica Faulkner, PhD,
Robin Quinn
Roberta Edgar
Flo Selfman
Ron Kenner
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Panel
Monday, October 26, 2009
Have you ever considered ghostwriting? For our October program, professional “ghosts” will come out from the shadows to discuss why they sometimes trade visibility as a writer for the projects they receive. In addition, a co-author with a new book will share why she choose that path. We’ll cover tips as well as a look at the pitfalls you’ll want to avoid. How does a writer collaborate with the client to gather the best material? How do you capture their voice? Can your ego handle the discreet role of the ghostwriter? The panel will also explore how a ghost or collaborator can help support a client in the publishing process.
Moderator: Robin Quinn
Ellen Violette
Idelle Davidson
Claudia Suzanne
Michael Levin
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In this annual IWOSC panel discussion, top magazine editors reveal the inside track on getting your work published. Find out how to get the attention of an editor with a winning story pitch or query. Learn about the most recent trends in the magazine publishing world and where to direct your focus to generate assignments.
Every life tells a story!
Whether you’re thinking of putting the story of your own life down on paper, or writing a profile of a historical or celebrity figure you’ve long admired — or just one of the millions of readers who devour books on history or Hollywood — this panel is for you.
Our moderated panel discussion will feature both those who have found the courage to tell their own life stories — warts and all — plus top industry “names” who have written about celebrity and political figures….
Moderator: Telly Davidson
JENNIFER SKY BAND
DIANNE De La VEGA’
INA HILLEBRANDT
NAT SEGALOFF
DIGBY DIEHL
What’s the best way to get a buzz on about your work of art?
Using some of the latest marketing vehicles like social networking sites can help. So can being savvy, creative, and energetic. But you need to know how, you need to know where, you need to know what’s new, and you need to know how to do it inexpensively and time-efficiently.
Learn from our experienced panel and resolve to put some buzz into your marketing mix!
TERESA FOGARTY
ANNETTE FIX
THORA GABRIEL
ANTOINETTE KURITZ
PENNY C. SANSEVIERI
JOHN SEELEY
Today’s news and newsflashes sound like Chicken Little — dire and depressing. IWOSC believes laughter will alleviate stress and bring what’s happening into perspective. The sky’s not falling.
After all, Mark Twain, Will Rogers, Dave Barry, Erma Bombeck, Chuck Lorre and others take what is considered imminent Chicken Little danger and spin the circumstances into funny story-telling with more than a twist of truth. Why do we find their humor timeless today? How may today’s writers yearning for infinite celebrity write funny material that editors, producers and publishers want to buy? What is the potential of humor writing on New Media platforms? Where will we find the myriad avenues to lucrative humorous writing?
Humorous writing is not just one-line jokes or comedy lines. It is also satire, parody, farce, TV sit-com situations and comedic movies. Robert McKee states that if the audience laughs, it works. If the audience doesn’t laugh, it doesn’t work. End of story.
MARK MILLER
JUDY CARTER
MARILYN ANDERSON
HANK ROSENFELD
As every savvy writer eventually learns, getting the words down on the page is just half the battle. To get the right exposure and desirable compensation for these efforts, writers need to develop marketing intelligence. It can also help tremendously to work with someone who has been down this road many times before – the literary agent. The April program will present a stellar panel of agents and a literary attorney. Panelists will cover how to select the right agent, how to get their attention, common missteps and the role of an agent in the writer’s life. In addition, learn about new trends, how to protect yourself in the current marketplace, as well as when to work with a literary attorney.
Moderator: Robin Quinn
Attorney JONATHAN KIRSCH
Agent KELLY D. SONNACK
Agent TIM WAGER
Agent BJ ROBBINS
Agent VANESSA LIVINGSTON
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?
Moderator: is managing editor, Ex Machina Press, an award-winning
Bernadette Murphy
Mark D’anna
Christopher Meeks
Dr. Steve Heller
The death of the music industry has been widely reported, but what’s the truth for writers? With the cutbacks at newspapers and other paper-based publications, both music writers and promoters have had to look for new venues for their work—on the internet and elsewhere.
Moderator: JAMES E. FOWLER, aka Sleepy James
MARGARET WAPPLER
DENISE SULLIVAN
SCOTT YANOW
CASEY DOLAN
We present a special program on what getting “The Hollywood Treatment” means for writers—and how a writer can best position his or her work for a screen option. What can a novelist expect when your book gets an offer to be adapted into a movie? For that matter, what storytelling qualities help make a novel, biography/memoir, or news article a must-see for the screen? And likewise, how has the lightning pace of movies and TV changed what Larry McMurtry calls “the Culture of the Book?”
Moderator: Telly Davidson
BRIAN LIPSON
MARVIN J. WOLF
PETER LEFCOURT
BARBARA SCHIFFMAN
[To read more, click the title!]
Panel
Monday, October 27
Thinking of tackling a graphic novel, pictorial essay, or articles that require a photo or a drawing? You name it, we’ll discuss it. Our panel explains how to collaborate with a photographer or an illustrator to get your project realized or how to do it yourself.
Panelists:
Moderator ERIKA FABIAN
ROBERT SCHMIDT
BRAD RADER
NAT GERTLER
HELEN K. GARBER
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Panel
Monday, September 22, 2008
Top magazine editors reveal the inside track on getting your work published. Find out how to get the attention of an editor with a winning story pitch or query. Learn about the most recent trends in the magazine publishing world and where to direct your focus to generate assignments.
Panelists:
DAVID WURTH
AURELIA D’ANDREA
JEAN-NOEL BASSIOR
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A gathering of marketing professionals looks at the process of delivering persuasive communications to target audiences with techniques and hints that offer greater financial rewards.
Moderator: JOHN SEELEY
IRWIN ZUCKER
SUSAN LEVIN
LILLI CLOUD
TERESA FOGARTY
MARILYN ANDERSON
[To read more, click the title!]
The world of nonprofits offers a variety of writing opportunities. Independent Writers of Southern California (IWOSC) has assembled panelists who write grants, direct mail, publications, and PR. They’ll discuss the challenges faced working either as a freelancer or on staff.
Moderator: DEBBI SWANSON PATRICK
ELIZABETH ALLEN
NOEL DE LEON
CHERYL POSNER
KAREN ROSA
STEVE KIRK
[To read more, click the title!]
Journey through the exciting world of writing children’s literature and getting it published with a distinguished group of seven children’s book authors. Panelists will discuss developing characters, back stories, weaving compelling plots and story lines, use of age-specific language, and other tools Kid Lit writers need and what publishers are looking for.
As every savvy writer knows, getting the words down on the page is half the battle.
The right literary agent can open crucial doors for a writer in the publishing industry. The challenge is convincing the agent that your work is right for them! The agents on this panel will share their writer success stories to illustrate what it takes to make it as a literary or non-fiction writer and how to market yourself and your work. Also, the evening would not be complete without examining some of the pitfalls that could be avoided through shared tales from the dark side of publishing. In addition, the role of the agent and the pros and cons of dealing with an attorney versus an agent will be explored.
As long as Americans have buying power, the need for consumer writing won’t go away. Our distinguished panel of writers from various media has applied their writing talents to helping consumers with their purchases. While consumer reporting has been underfunded compared to other journalism beats in recent years, these writers have worked diligently to bring the best information to the public. They will discuss the state of consumer reporting today, the litigious environment some reporting has come up against, and what bright spots appear on the horizon for this area of reportage.
Moderator: LILLI CLOUD
GERRI MILLER
SUSAN KARLIN
DOUG KRIEGEL
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Writing is a business. Yet, if you can keep your mind open to creative possibilities, you can make the business work for you. Keeping flexible to various options can be the key to discovering alternative ways to enjoy success.
This eclectic panel has used a combination of talent, tenacity and tricks to earn their writing success. They’ll share…
Panel:
ROCHELLE KRICH
PETER COLLEY
COLLEEN DUNN BATES
GINA NAHAI
“When did the rules change?” Many writers and journalists have pondered this question over and over about book publishing, which has completely undergone a metamorphosis in the past decade. The Internet, media consolidation, big-box vs. independent bookstores, the boom in self-publishing, online “e-books” and blogs, and Hollywood-style demographics, age discrimination, and target-audience issues have transformed what was once the most stable and reliable of media industries into a completely new — and relatively uncharted — landscape.
IWOSC kicks off 2008 with a panel created to untangle some of these knotty career issues. It includes experts from every checkpoint of modern publishing — an agent for one of Hollywood’s A-list literary and talent agencies and a top book publicist. Plus, two of LA’s most prominent booksellers — one anchored in the independent bookseller world, while the other is from one of the nation’s premiere chain bookstores.
A sampling of issues to be addressed:
Moderator: TELLY DAVIDSON
KIM DOWER
TYSON CORNELL
ANDREA “Andy” BARZVIA
Today, the most successful specialized magazines are taking a cue from their online competitors and are building “communities” of devoted readers.
Angeleno magazine Editor in Chief Degen Pener moderates a panel of editors from Boulevard, Gorgeous, and Nurses World. They’ll discuss the Los Angeles magazine scene and opportunities in their publications for writers. Pener joined Angeleno in April. Previously, he did staff editing and writing stints at Entertainment Weekly, Details, Santa Barbara magazine, and New York magazine.
The editors will tell you how to get their attention and which departments are looking for fresh ideas. Each editor will describe what the magazine is broadly about, and what kinds of things it does cover and does not cover. They’ll tell how to contact them, and will provide a calendar of upcoming topics.
Moderator: DEGEN PENER
RASPIN STUWART
SEAN O’MEARA
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Panel
Monday, October 29, 2007
Between appearing on The Oprah Winfrey Show and the time it aired, Grammar Girl blogger Mignon Fogarty had already created an audiobook, which quickly climbed to the top of iTunes’ best-selling books list.
Like Fogarty, audio is hot, and it’s constantly evolving. At IWOSC’s October General Meeting, learn about downloadable audiobooks, how audiobooks are handled at the major publishers, and how authors and others are creating their own audio products. Our speakers include former Audio Publishers Association President Jessica Kaye, Media Staff Studio President Jerry Maybrook, Hachette Audio Producer Dennis Kao, audio expert Ian Rich, and Marie Elena Rigo, creator of the Everyday Feng Shui instructional CD. Robin Quinn, an independent L.A. writer/editor, is the producer and moderator of this panel.
Moderator: Robin Quinn
IAN RICH
DENNIS KAO
JERRY MAYBROOK
MARIE ELENA RIGO
JESSICA KAYE
[To read more, click the title!]
Panel
Monday, September 24, 2007
A top-notch panel of book reviewers moderated by Digby Diehl demystifies the steps involved in critiquing a work of literature: what they look for, what matters, and what qualities make literature resonate with the public. In addition, who is it that decides which books are reviewed? Panelists include Los Angeles Times Book Review critic Erika Schickel, Amazon reviewer Dr. John L. Murphy, literary fiction reviewer Edward St. John, nationally syndicated radio host Michael Dresser, and award-winning author and critic Amy Wilentz.
Moderator: Digby Diehl
MICHAEL DRESSER
EDWARD ST. JOHN
DR. JOHN L. MURPHY
ERIKA SCHICKEL
AMY WILENTZ
[To read more, click the title!]
Two largely unsung heroes, who have inspired and given hope to many, will receive well-deserved Lifetime Achievement Awards at IWOSC’s July General Meeting.
Actress/Author Mariette Hartley is known for her tireless work with the American Society for Suicide Prevention. Comedienne/Author Marcia Wallace is a national spokesperson for Breast Cancer Awareness. In addition to their artistic accomplishments, they are generous with sharing their personal stories, in written and spoken word, in order to help others make changes in their lives.
For this IWOSC program, the pair will be interviewed by author and personality Digby Diehl. They will share what drew them to the writing life, and how their books and other written works — along with their talent and Hollywood clout — have helped make a difference.
[To read more, click the title!]
