Individual Consultations with Seasoned Professionals During the Conference
Some members of our talented, world-class faculty are offering you the opportunity to work with them in an individual session on your personal project.
Consultations are available only to Full Conference and “No Frills” registrants. To make an appointment for an individual consultation during the Conference, e-mail our Services Coordinator, Carole Schor []. Please tell Carole:• the person with whom you would like an appointment.
• whether you prefer an hour or a half hour, if there is a choice.
• whether you plan to register for an Intensive workshop on Monday and Tuesday (morning or the afternoon?).
Carole will inform you by e-mail of your appointment time. At that time, you will meet your consultant at the “Individual Consultations” desk in the lobby.
You will pay your consultant directly at the time of your appointment. Please bring sufficient cash (dollars preferred) or your check book.
You may still make an appointment at the Conference itself if any appointment times remain, although please note that some consultants need to see your manuscript before the Conference.
Blogging as an Earning Platform with Bill Belew.
Half Hour: $45 Full Hour: $60 Your choice. During this consultation you will learn exactly what you need to do to get more exposure online. You will receive pointed advice to make your existing website (if you have one) more search engine and reader friendly. You will receive a solid impartial critique as well as pointed recommendations to improve your website as a platform. If you do not have a website, I will give you step-by-step directions for getting online.
Writing The Fiction You Can Write with Rosalind Brackenbury.
Half hour: $45 ; Full hour: $60 Your choice. Please send five to ten pages by e-mail ([email protected]) or present printed pages at the Conference. Please formulate 3 questions you want to ask about your work.
Sharpen, Define, and Sell Your Story with Linda Bergman.
Half hour: $45. I am a working screenwriter and producer. Whether you are a screenwriter or not, our one-on-one session can streamline the process of what works and what doesn’t in any story. I will help you sharpen your plot points, define your characters and spin your story to its best conclusion.
Manuscript Critique with Susan Sutliff Brown, PhD.
Special conference rates for manuscript review and one hour consultation: $5 per page–minimum fifteen pages maximum 100. Please submit between 15 and 100 pages of a manuscript or manuscripts by email attachment at least two weeks before the conference to [email protected]. I bring 35 years as writing coach, collaborator, and editorial consultant to a reading of your work in progress. My usual rates and credentials plus a list of the published books to which I have contributed are listed on my website: susansbrown.com
For the conference, I offer a conference rate for my services as an editorial consultant for your works in progress. Please submit between 15 to 100 pages of a manuscript or manuscripts by email attachment at least two weeks before the conference. Signing up for this service entitles you to my comprehensive reading of your work and a one-hour consultation during the conference. My concentration is on identifying strengths and weaknesses and providing guidance about the critical elements in a piece of writing. I don’t provide any line editing of basic mechanical or grammatical errors.
For fiction and non-fiction, I address style (imagery, sentence variety, diction), content (symbolism, characterization, dialogue, setting), theme (depth and meaning); organization (flashbacks, narrative flow, unity, and logic of content divisions), and tone (consistency and appropriateness to material) as well as anything else relevant to a discussion of your work. In the email with your attachment, describe the project and your list specific questions, if any.
Manuscript Critique: Plot, Character, Storyline, Style, or Voice As Needed with Carole Bugge.
Reading fee: $60/hour. Consultation: One hour: $60; Half hour: $45. (Typed, double-spaced manuscripts may be submitted at the conference.) Our private session will feature discussion and critique of your work, including written notes on the work and manuscript analysis. Sessions will be tailored toward your particular needs, whether advice on plot, character, storyline, or style and voice. Chapters of novels are fine, as well as short stories, essays, and “treatments” or novel synopsis. Also short plays or excerpts from longer works. Typed, double-spaced manuscripts may be submitted at the conference; the fee for reading is $60/hour. There is a suggested page limit of 25 pages, though longer work can be considered, time permitting.
Poetry or Prose Critique with Jennifer Clement.
Half hour: $45 – Full hour: $60 Your choice. Please bring up to 3 pages of poetry or prose to the session. I will help you identify the strength of the work and help you discover and establish your own voice.
Travel Writing Online with Anne Dimon.
Half hour: $45. During this session we will review your goals. For example, do you want to find a regular outlet or launch your own travel blog or website.
You will learn
• how you can find and develop an area of expertise
• how to approach editors and pitch stories
• how to reach out to tourism boards and get on their media lists
• five tips on writing for the online market
Increase Your Book Sales and Profitability! with Aysha Griffin.
One hour: $60. Whether you are already published or plan to publish – traditional or self-publish – the reality is that marketing your book is your business. While there are an overwhelming number of strategies both online and off to sell more books, leverage your expertise and establish your reputation for future publication, it’s important to identify which ones will work best for you and your book. Rather than make “stabs” in various directions, we will focus on your strengths and maximize your efforts by considering your genre, audience and goals, and tailoring a specific plan for your budget, time, comfort level, and personality. If you already have a marketing plan or notes, bring them to review, prioritize and improve. If not, we’ll construct one you can begin to implement immediately to see and track results. With a solid plan in hand of do-able tasks that build momentum, you will create a growing and sustainable business that empowers and supports you as an author.
Nonfiction Book Development with Gerard Helferich.
Full hour: $60. For 25 years I edited nonfiction at several publishing houses in New York, and over the past decade I have written three critically acclaimed and award-winning books of my own. Drawing on this varied experience, I can help a writer to:
* Judge the viability of a nonfiction book idea
* Sharpen an idea to enhance its literary value and market potential
* Prepare a winning proposal
* Decide between commercial and self-publishing
* Develop a strategy for approaching agents and publishers
The Bill of Writes – Manuscript Critique – Spanish or English with Jorge F. Hernández.
One hour: $65. Send manuscript ahead of time to [email protected]. I can help in the fields of essays, non-fiction, short stories, and pure fiction. Using videos and a conversation that will concentrate specifically on the paragraphs, questions, knots and doubts of each promising writer, I will to offer solutions and practical encouragement for the miracle of the final draft.
Art and Politics of Translation with Claire Joysmith.
Half hour: $45 or full hour $60 – Your choice We will discussion of several aspects of bilingual/interlingual translation strategies and their application to specific texts, particularly Chicano/a and Mexicano/a texts. We will focus on literary appreciation of potential cultural politics to take into account during such a translation process.
First Chapter and Plot Critique with Jodie Renner.
Half hour: $45 moving to full hour for $60 if we decide we need it.
Please email me the first 15-20 pages in advance ([email protected]). I am a fiction editor, specializing in thrillers, romantic suspense, and other crime fiction. I also edit mainstream, YA, and historical fiction. I’ll do a critique of your first chapter or so, plus your plot outline.. We’ll look at your premise, opening (first few paragraphs and first page), characterization, dialogue, point of view, pacing, plot, and other fiction-writing techniques such as “show, don’t tell.”
Book Structure (Fiction/Nonfiction) with Rick Skwiot.
One hour: $60
Please e-mail me ahead of time a one page synopsis or outline of the work. ([email protected]). I can help you investigate how your novel, memoir or creative nonfiction work might be better organized, expanded, concentrated, deepened, and enriched. We’ll talk about theme, characters, story line, causality, motivation, pacing, compression, point of view, and how best to discover and mine the material you have at your disposal, to find its richest veins.
Get Behind the Mule with Sarah Stonich.
Manuscript assessment and one-hour consultation fee: $80
Prose or non-fiction writers should submit ten pages and synopsis by Dec 1st. Snail mail is preferable, but I will accept email submissions. Address below.
Writing is work, plain and simple. This one-hour consultation is for those ready dig into what needs doing to achieve a polished draft. The mule approach is less about prose style (hopefully, you’ve got that down) and more about the nuts and bolts of structure, flow, what is working, what’s not, and what steps are necessary to get it done. This hour would be most beneficial for those aiming to submit a piece for publication.
I loved the what’s-wrong-with-this-picture on Highlights magazine so much I would knock down my kid sister to get at it first. My compulsion to find out what’s wrong, missing, out of order, or messed up makes me a likely editor, but a lousy sibling. More about me at wordstalkers.com and sarahstonich.com.
Submit manuscript by December 1 to [email protected]
OR
Sarah Stonich
1831 Benjamin Street NE
Minneapolis, MN 55418
Discover Your Story Through Improvisation with Scotty Watson
.
Half hour: $45 Full hour: $60 Your choice
You can feel it. It’s in there and it’s burning to get out. You’ve written and re-written… but it’s not quite right. How do you find out what YOU are really trying to say? Scotty Watson has helped many New York writers and actors discover their story and meet new characters through Improvisation. Through simple exercises, Scotty will guide you through an exploration of your own mind and get to your true voice. You will find the simple raw message that you are trying to convey… the foundation of the piece that you are writing and the voices of the characters inside your head.
“I had a two-hour improvisation/writing session with Scotty and found it one of the most valuable two hours I have spent on anything. He is so skilled in his craft, and in teaching, that he helped me achieve an artistic break-through. If you want to dig inside yourself and find the essence of your creativity, work with Scotty and see the amazing results. He is a gem!” — Dr. Dorothy Marcic, Writer of Respect and Sistas: The Musical
“I immediately found a better sense and understanding of who the character was. I was able to better develop her and write her story because Scotty helped me see who she was. Thanks Scotty!” — Lourdes Robles, New York Performance Artist
“When I work with Scotty I feel like I’m discovering the story.” — Carrie Keskinen, Writer & Performer of Cat Lady Without A Cat
Accessing Your Inner Humorist with Ruth Yunker.
Half hour: $45 Full hour: $60
My areas of expertise are humor, dialogue, and timing. During your session, we will discuss the humor in your work, and how to work with humor in an organic way for any piece you write. It will be helpful if you bring specific questions with you. If you would like me to critique a specific piece of work (with a limit of seven to ten pages), please sign up for a full hour.
Plan the Work . . . Work the Plan with Judyth Hill
Half hour: $45 Full hour: $60
I am always available for private mentoring. I am happy to work with you in whatever way will benefit you in your writing/creative process!
If we are co-creating your Dream project: your poetry book, your memoir, novel, essays, cookbook, travel book, children’s book, and so on, we can sketch a plan for the project, all the way through giving Readings, book in hand!
I can help set goals, and later, by email, support the process with deep reading and respond as you write, and support you all the way, in every way!
As well, in our time together, I can work with you to create a writing schedule, or show you how to WildWrite, and revise; choose a publisher, write your bio, marketing letter, and fulfill the submission guidelines for your selected publishers.
I have taken many poets through the entire process of editing their poems for a collection, and putting the poems into an organic, sensuous and powerful order; a river, if you will…of poems. I can suggest a few appropriate publishers, explain writing query letters and picking out the best poems to include in the approach.
I have guided many authors with large unwieldy projects to Plan the Work…and Work the Plan! Then I gift you a blurb for your back cover!
