The Ventura County Writers’ Weekend takes a different path this year.
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On Saturday, authors who are succeeding will be on the panels for each session. Nothing like authors really doing self-publishing, book marketing, publicity and/or social media to speak about what they have done, how they did it, and the results. Each session presents a specific topic, how to avoid pitfalls and come out a winner. Speakers will debunk some myths and tell you how to expand and build an audience for your book.
Sunday‘s session this year is special. PIPW co-founder Shelly Lowenkopf and literary agent Toni Lopopolo will present, a full-day Master Class highlighting skills from their highly successful weekend Writers Master Class for fiction, memoir, and narrative nonfiction. Past attendees requested more information re: voice, point-of-view, dialogue, and narrative. These are the skills writers need to successfully finish their books. Whether they are considering self-publishing or wish to seek an agent and take the traditional route, Mr. Lowenkopf and Ms. Lopopolo’s workshop will give them an excellent framework to edit and judge their own writing in order to publish the best book possible. |
Purchase a full weekend pass, one-day pass or individual sessions.
After the event, each attendee receives a free podcast of the session they attend.
Sitting is limited for each session.
Bonus: Full weekend or full day Saturday registrants receive a media
list for regional radio, television, print media and 40 top book bloggers.
DAY ONE: SATURDAY
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DAY TWO: SUNDAY
Full Day Workshop Master The Skills Needed To Write Your First Novel 9:30 am to 5 pm with a one-hour lunch break For this full-day interactive Master Class, please bring the first chapter of your novel, or at least 6 pages, as well as a one-page synopsis. Email the chapter to Toni ([email protected]) well before the conference to receive a chance to revise before the class. Be sure to double-space. (tip: Single spacing brands you an amateur).
Editors in New York publishing houses tell literary agent Toni Lopopolo:
This can’t be said too often: To impress a publisher enough to receive a contract for a novel, no matter the genre, a writer must know what skills he/she needs, then must master those skills. Guaranteed to raise your present skills several levels, this Master Class will help any writer learn:
During this Master Class, you will be given short assignments and the time to complete them. Come prepared. Get the books needed early from Amazon:
About the instructors…
Toni Lopopolo spent 20 years in New York City publishing, then took her street creds to open her literary agent in 1991. Toni served as executive editor at Macmillan, then St Martin’s Press. As an acquiring editor, Toni reviewed the best projects sent to her by agents. But as a new literary agent, Toni realized, by what writers sent to her agency as “finished” manuscripts, that most writers who approached her to represent them had not mastered the skills required. To impress a publisher enough to receive a contract on a first novel, a writer must know what skills he/she needs, then master those skills. Toni, in her capacity as an editor, writing instructor, and literary agent, developed methods to help writers learn those skills, practice those skills, and, master them. No wonder students flock to Shelly Lowenkopf’s classes and well-published professionals come to him now for consults. He spent most of his years in the working side of publishing as a “shirt-sleeves” editor, acquiring and developing genre, mainstream, and literary fiction as well as dramatic biography and theme-based nonfiction inquiry. A versatile and ambitious writer as well, Shelly’s editorial skills reflect both sides of the desk. His years of leading students to publishing contracts makes him an ideal other voice for Toni Lopopolo in demonstrating these necessary steps to significant and continued publication. Direct quotes from some of Shelly’s student evaluations: “This course, [Reading Like a Writer] “ led me to publication.” “I wish I’d had this course [Developing a Literary Voice]a long time ago.” “There are introductions to writing and there is Shelly’s Introduction to Publication.” |