New York Writers Workshop : Pitch Conferences for Writers of Non-Fiction and Fiction : Registration Now Open!

New York Writers Workshop hosts three-day Pitch Conferences in New York for writers of non-fiction and fiction. Participants polish their pitches with the help of conference leaders, then present them to three different editors from major New York publishing houses. Editors provide feedback and may request to see proposals or manuscripts after the conference. Attend one of our conferences and see what past participants have been raving about.
 
New York Writers Workshop Non-Fiction Pitch Conference
Next Non-Fiction Pitch Conference: February 11-13, 2011
 
New York Writers Workshop Perfect Pitch Fiction Conference
Next Perfect Pitch Fiction Conference: March 4-6, 2011

For further information and sign up information, please visit New York Writers Workshop website:  http://www.newyorkwritersworkshop.com/

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You’re Invited! James Joyce Birthday Party!, Wednesday, February, 2, 2011

Under the aegis of the Harvard Club of Washington DC and American Independent Writers, there will be a gathering of existing and would-be Joycomaniacs to celebrate Jim’s 129th birthday, particularly significant since 129 is the sum of the first 10 prime numbers (and the product of two prime multiplicands). If he doesn’t show up this year, one might well ask if he ever will; it is, however, legal to consume both Irish and Mexican beer on the 33rd day of the year in the District of Columbia (especially duringa reading).

You are welcome to: the Reading; the Happy Hour; or Both.

Participant readers are invited to volunteer at bobkolive@gmail.com (genuine draft script available, suggestions encouraged – particularly if they involve enthusiasm, exaggeration or exuberance).

When: Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Time: Reading at 5:00 PM (featuring excerpts from Dubliners, Portrait of the Artist, Ulysses, and Finnegan’s Wake), Happy Hour at 6:30 PM

Place: Guapo’s Restaurant, Fiesta Room (On the Second Floor) 4515 Wisconsin Avenue, NW, next to Taneytown Metro Station (parking available nearby at Whole Foods)

Admissions: No Charge – Public Welcome, Patronage of Host Restaurant Encouraged.

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AIW 2010 HOLIDAY HAPPY HOUR, Monday, December 13

Put away your “to do” list and postpone your errands to focus on what’s truly important this holiday season, connecting with your fellow AIW friends and meeting new ones. Join the Board of Directors and members of American Independent Writers for a social evening celebrating writers and the writing life. Guests are welcome, too.

• Network with colleagues
• Meet AIW Board members to share your ideas and suggestions
• Bring friends interested in joining AIW
• Learn about upcoming programs and the Conference in June 2011
• Find out how you can become more active in AIW activities
• Share some pre-holiday cheer!

When: Monday, December 13, 2010 5:00 p.m.-8:00 p.m.

Where: Bravo! Bravo! (No host cash bar), 1001 Connecticut Avenue, N.W., Washington, DC 20036. The restaurant is actually in the basement of the building where the AIW office is located. There is a street entrance on Connecticut, near the K Street entrance to the Farragut North Metro station or you can enter the AIW office building and take the stairs or the elevator down to the restaurant.

Metro: Farragut North on the Red line, Farragut West on the Orange and Blue lines

Please confirm your plans to attend at rsvp@amerindywriters.org.

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AIW Pubspeak: THE FRENCH REVOLUTION: A NOVEL by Matt Stewart, October 25, 2010

Matt Stewart will hoist pints and dish on his debut novel, The French Revolution, touching on:

• How and why the historical French Revolution has anything to do with the modern-day San Francisco family saga he wound up writing
• The challenge of weaving five different plot tracks–food, politics, business, music, drugs–into a story that hangs together
• Matt’s wild road to publication, including the somewhat infamous tale of how he headlines worldwide by releasing The French Revolution via Twitter on Bastille Day 2009–and landed a book deal

 Matt Stewart’s debut novel, The French Revolution, has been called “wildly imaginative,” “brilliant,” and “an excellent achievement,” and was named a Notable Debut by Poets & Writers. He’s mildly infamous for releasing the novel on Twitter first. A DC area native, Matt went to high school right up the road at Richard Montgomery HS, where he did surprisingly little creative writing. Grab his free FrenchRev iPhone app on matt-stewart.com.

 The evening might be called: “Tweeting past NO – One debut novelist’s story of overcoming a tanking economy and publisher recalcitrance to land a book deal through the power of social media.”

Program 7:00-9:00 p.m., food and beverage orders from 6:30 p.m.

La Madeleine, 7607 Old Georgetown Road, Bethesda, MD 20814. Wheelchair accessible. Metro: Bethesda, on the Red Line

 Member cost is $10 and nonmember cost is $30.  Reservations are required. To RSVP, call (202) 775-5150, or send e-mail to rsvp@amerindywriters.org.  Please mention the event for which you are responding and your membership status.

REGISTER NOW!

• AIW Member Regular Registration Price: $10.00
• Nonmember Regular Registration Price: $30.00

After you make your selection, the shopping cart will appear for you to check out.

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AIW Seminar : Going Freelance, October 9, 2010

GOING FREELANCE: An all-day seminar on practical aspects of a freelance writing career. Jointly sponsored by Johns Hopkins University Masters of Arts in Writing program and American Independent Writers

When: Saturday, October 9, 2010

Where: The Johns Hopkins University
Bernstein-Offit Building
1717 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC 20036 (Lower-Level Conference Hall)

AIW Seminar : Going Freelance :  Schedule of Events

8:30-9:00 a.m.                        Registration and Continental breakfast

9:15-10:30 a.m.                      The Fundamentals of Freelance Business

Freelancing comes with a distinct set of business challenges. Learn how to set your rates, manage your accounts and record keeping, deal with potential legal issues, and get answers to your tax questions

John D. Mason is a Washington DC/Maryland based art, entertainment, and intellectual property attorney. His practice focuses on copyright and trademark matters, litigation, contracts, and commercial matters. He works with writers, artists, and creative people and companies to protect and exploit their work and is also a literary agent. The website for his firm, The Intellectual Property Group, PLLC, is www.artlaws.com and his e-mail is artlaws2@aol.com.

Ken Norkin is an ADDY- and ASPC Colonial Award-winning copywriter and full-time freelancer specializing in business-to-business marketing communications for technology-based products and services. Since establishing his own business—KN Creative—in 1991, he has written ads, brochures, annual reports and Web content for Sprint, Nextel, Mobile ESPN, IBM, Citrix, Carl Zeiss, Road Runner, MCI, Savin, Sharp and the American Gas Association. Beyond the tech market, Norkin has written for T. Rowe Price, Arlington and Prince William Counties, The Overseas Private Investment Corporation, Holy Cross Hospital, the Vince Lombardi Cancer Research Center, The Washington Post, PBS, the Discovery Channel and many other companies. His ability to share what he’s learned in 30 years of writing for a living makes Norkin a frequent and sought-after speaker on the business of freelancing and creative self-employment.

Alan Portner is a columnist on Public Policy for http://www.examiner.com/.  He is a retired daily newspaper publisher, active writer, and proprietor of The Assignment Desk, LLC.  Portner has been writing for pay or managing media properties since 1968.  He writes for magazines, newsletters, proposal presentations, technical documents, newspapers, and on the Internet.  He published daily newspapers in eight states and served as Vice President of a mid-sized newspaper company.  He is a frequent guest lecturer at universities and for member associations on freelance writing and the media business model.  The Assignment Desk is Portner’s limited liability company formed in 2004 to ferret out contract work for himself and a stable of other experienced writers and photographers.  Available writers include a number presidential level speechwriters and photographers, journalists, technical writers, authors and public relations veterans. Portner is an officer of American Independent Writers’ Freedom to Write Fund and former long time Treasurer of AIW.  He holds a Bachelor of Science in Journalism from Northern Illinois University and postgraduate work in computer science, accounting, and technical writing.  He can be contacted at alanportner@gmail.com.

10:45-12 noon             Finding Work and Networking in Commercial Writing

Freelancing usually involves writing that is less glamorous than feature stories and restaurant reviews. In between writing those Pulitzer-worthy pieces, find out how to approach potential clients, land gigs producing annual reports, media and press releases, as well as other various communications materials.

Lester Reingold has been a freelance writer and editor for more than 30 years, concentrating primarily on aviation and space. He has written for magazines such as Air & Space/Smithsonian, American Heritage and Condé Nast Traveler and newspapers such The Washington Post and USA Today, plus many aerospace trade publications. His first book, a pictorial history of the Wright Brothers’ home town—Dayton, Ohio—was published in 2005. He is a commentator for WAMU and for NPR’s Morning Edition. After the accident that destroyed Space Shuttle Columbia, Reingold served as Lead Editor in the investigation. Since then, he has continued to work as Publications Editor on projects for NASA, including an independent panel established by the White House in 2009 to assess U.S. space flight plans. A former AIW Board member, Reingold won the 2004 Washington Writing Prize for Reported Nonfiction and was runner-up in 2003. Since then, he has served as judge in the prize competition.

Ed Vilade has more than 40 years of experience as a speechwriter, communications manager, media relations and strategic communications consultant, award-winning newspaper and magazine writer and editor.  He has completed one book and is at work on three others.  Ed has worked with and for the White House, U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. Department of Commerce, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Fortune 500 companies, U.S. Senators and Congressmen, Governors and leading Washington, D.C. trade associations.  He has served three successful tours of duty as a freelancer – the most recent starting in 2000 and lasting “until either my brain or my fingers stop working.”

One more panelist to be named later

12:00-1:30                              Lunch and Networking on your own

1:30-2:45 p.m.                        Marketing Your Creative Writing

You’ve written the short story, nonfiction profile, or front-page health story—now how and where do you get it published? Learn the steps to take to successfully pitch and sell your work. Find out how to craft a query, research potential markets, and how to send out your work. Then, sit back and wait for the byline!

Michelle Brafman’s fiction has received numerous honors, including a Special Mention in the 2010 Pushcart Prize Anthology, a story South Million Writer’s Award listing as one of the best online stories published in 2009, and a nomination for Best New American Voices 2009. A past winner of the F. Scott Fitzgerald Short Story Contest, her stories have appeared in the minnesota review, Lilith Magazine, Gargoyle, Blackbird Literary Journal, and many other publications. She teaches creative writing at George Washington University.

Kelly DiNardo is a freelance writer and the author of Gilded Lili: Lili St. Cyr and the Striptease Mystique. Spanning a broad range of topics from politics and business to food and health, Kelly’s work has been published in The Washington Post, USA Today, Washingtonian, Glamour, Redbook, Woman’s Day, Cooking Light and several other national publications.

Karen Houppert writes for The Washington Post magazine and also freelances for other magazines, covering social and political issues. Houppert’s reporting has appeared in a wide variety of publications, including The Washington Post, The New York Times, Newsday, The Nation, Salon, Mother Jones, Ms, The Village Voice, The Baltimore Sun, Glamour, Self, Fitness, etc. She is the author of two nonfiction books, The Curse (pub Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1999) which examines the culture of concealment surrounding menstruation and Home Fires Burning (pub Ballantine, 2005) which chronicles a year in the life of various military wives whose husbands are deployed to Iraq.

David A. Taylor is the author of the award-winning books Ginseng, the Divine Root (Algonquin, 2006), Soul of a People: The WPA Writers’ Project Uncovers Depression America (Wiley, 2009), and a fiction collection, Success: Stories (WWPH, 2008). His work has appeared in Smithsonian, The Washington Post, Village Voice, The American Scholar, Outside, and elsewhere, and can be found at www.davidataylor.com. He has written and co-produced documentary films for PBS, National Geographic, the Discovery Channel, and the Smithsonian Channel, including Soul of a People, nominated for a 2010 Writers Guild award. He teaches at The Writer’s Center in Bethesda.

3:00-4:15 p.m.                        Blogs, social networking and other Web-based Writing

There is an art to online writing – whether you have your own blog or blog for others. Find out how to best use social media to market yourself and build an audience of devoted readers.

Tamar Abrams is currently leading the communications team at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, and is working as a consultant on several projects for the Gates Foundation and ExxonMobil Foundation to improve the lives of women in the developing world. She is a regular contributor to Huffington Post, writing on topics ranging from homelessness to maternal mortality to celebrity profiles. She has also written for Washingtonian, BUST magazine, Self and a variety of blogs. She is currently writing her first novel.

Amanda McClements is the founder and editor of Metrcourean.com, the go-to resource for all things food in the DC metro area. Her work has appeared in Food & Wine magazine, The Washington Post, ForbesTraveler.com and DC Modern Luxury, among others.

Meredith Fineman was born and raised in Washington, D.C. and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 2009 with a degree in Communication and Hispanic Studies. She spent the past year living and working in Buenos Aires, Argentina for Young & Rubicam advertising agency. She now freelances in the Northern Hemisphere from her parents’ basement in the District. Her newest project is a humorous Jewish dating blog called Fifty First (J)Dates (www.fiftyfirstjdates.com), which has been featured in the Washington Post, the Washington Examiner, and is featured weekly on the Huffington Post. 

REGISTER NOW!

• AIW Member Regular Registration Price: $69.00
• Nonmember Regular Registration Price: $99.00

After you make your selection, the shopping cart will appear for you to check out.

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A message to all AIW Members from David Stewart, President of the Freedom to Write Fund, AIW’s 501c3 foundation

The Cure for the Vanishing Book Review!

•· Have you noticed that it’s more and more difficult to find thoughtful reviews of interesting books?

•· Are you spending more time poking around the Internet looking for reliable, entertaining guidance on what you might read next? Or for book reviews so good that you don’t have to read the book yourself?

•· Would you like to do some reviewing yourself? To share some extraordinary writing you have stumbled upon? To expose as a true fraud someone who is selling gazillions of volumes? And would you like to post it somewhere other than your own blog, cross-posted on Facebook (which, you know for a fact, is read faithfully by your college roommates and close family members)?

•· Can you spare a few hours a week or month to edit an online book review – choosing books to review, dreaming up features, editing and posting content?

No, these questions are not designed to be an annoying imitation of Andy Rooney’s annoying schtick on 60 Minutes. They are designed to get you away from the keyboard and down to a planning session of an online book review that the AIW Freedom to Write Fund intends to launch this fall: The Washington Independent Review of Books.

We need reviewers and editors. We need book bloggers and designers. Shoot, you could turn out to be in charge. Together we can put together a fun, stimulating, lean, and restless book review website that entertains and enlightens.

Please join us on Thursday, September 23, 2010 at 7 p.m., at the offices of American Independent Writers, 1000 Connecticut Avenue, Suite 701. Let’s do something great! RSVP to rsvp@amerindywriters.org

(You should know that leading Washington writers – including Alice McDermott, George Pelecanos, Kitty Kelley, Marie Arana, and James Swanson — are supporting the Independent.)

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AIW Pubspeak : Poet-Essayist-Songwriter Patrick Frank on Self-Publishing and Interactive Events, Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Patrick Frank is a Master’s level teacher-counselor, poet-essayist-songwriter, and advocate for the poor from Kingstree, S.C.. His writing has been published in more than 70 online and print periodicals and anthologized three times. He self-published his first book, On the Blue Line, in 2010. Since then he has been engaging in interactive events at independent bookstores in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Virginia. He has two new writing projects: a compilation of his prose-poems and editing an anthology of short poetry with an English professor at Emory University.
 
In his presentation, Frank will discuss self-publishing, but will also focus on his experience in conducting interactive events at a variety of locations and audiences, explaining what he has learned to date through both “success” and “failure.” He will also encourage the audience to share their experiences with each other. Finally, he will present a couple of his songs and/or prose-poems.
 
Patrick Frank’s  On the Blue Ridge Line: A Collection of Country-Folk-Blues Lyrics, with an Exploration of the Creative Process, Beckoning Dove Press, Asheville, N.C., Soft cover–$12.50, Published through Amazon.

Event Cost: AIW Members, $10, and Nonmembers, $30. Reservations are required. To RSVP, call (202) 775-5150, or send an e-mail to rsvp@amerindywriters.org. Please mention the event for which you are responding and your membership status.

Time: 7:00-9:00 p.m., food and beverage orders from 6:30 p.m.

Place: Irish Channel Restaurant & Pub, 500 H Street N.W., Washington, DC 20001,
(202) 216-0046

Metro: Gallery Place/Chinatown on the Red, Yellow, and Green lines

REGISTER NOW!

• AIW Member Regular Registration Price: $10.00
• Nonmember Regular Registration Price: $30.00

After you make your selection, the shopping cart will appear for you to check out.

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AIW and Partners Workshop : WHAT CAN AN AGENT DO FOR YOU AS A WRITER?, Monday, September 27, 2010, 6:00—8:00 p.m.

Interested in learning what an agent can do for you as a writer? Curious about hot topics in publishing? Do contracts look like they’re written in a foreign language? Join us for an informative and informal evening with some of DC’s top literary agents. Following a networking reception in the Hillyer gallery, get answers to your questions about the publishing industry and working with an agent in an informative Q&A session with some of the areas top literary agents.  Light appetizers and beverages will be served.  Anticipated discussion topics include:
Selecting/pitching an agent, Do’s and don’ts of working with an agent, Tips for your first sale, Digital rights and e-publishing, and much more!

Cost: $10 for WALA, WRW, AIW, and IAA members; $15 for non-members

Location: International Arts & Artists Hillyer Gallery, 9 Hillyer Court, N.W., Washington, DC 20008

Metro: Dupont Circle

Register:  http://www.eventbrite.com/event/816272493?ref=ebtn

Detailed information on venue: www.artsandartists.org

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NEW YORK WRITERS WORKSHOP PITCH CONFERENCES HALF-PRICE SPECIAL FOR AMERICAN INDEPENDENT WRITERS MEMBERS

Non-Fiction Pitch Conference October 8-10 and Fiction Pitch Conference November 12-14, 2010.

Twice a year New York Writers Workshop offers three-day Pitch Conferences for writers of non-fiction. Participants refine pitches for their proposals or manuscripts, then meet with and pitch to three different editors from major New York publishing houses (Bantam Dell, Berkley Publishing Group, Dutton, Random House, Rodale, St. Martin’s Press, and others).

Before the conference begins, participants prepare drafts of their pitches that can be presented orally in about three minutes. The draft should include the book’s premise and hook, and the writer’s platform. Then:

Day 1:
Participants workshop their pitches with a workshop leader from New York Writers Workshop. Each participant reads his/her synopsis. The NYWW instructor provides guidance in revision for clarity, concision, and impact. The instructor also discusses, as appropriate, the realities of the publishing market. The rest of the group participates, as appropriate, and learns from each example.

Day Two:
Participants make two pitches to editors today. The first pitch is “public,” meaning participants pitch to an editor in the presence of their group. The public session is followed by a short Q&A with the editor. The second pitch is private, one-on-one with an editor, with an NYWW instructor present. Each pitch lasts approximately five minutes.

Day Three:
Today each participant makes one private pitch to an editor, again with an NYWW instructor present. The day wraps with a group conference with an NYWW instructor.

Regular price is $395, but now for AIW members only $200, thanks to newly elected AIW Board member Charles Salzberg, a founding member of the New York Writers Workshop, who has arranged the special pricing to encourage AIW members to make the trip to New York for the sessions.

Details are at the New York Writers Workshop website, www.newyorkwritersworkshop.com, and be sure to indicate that you are an AIW member when you register.

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AIW members are eligible for registration discounts for ”Finding Your Niche/Expanding Your Horizons,” the fifth annual “Build Your Communications Business” Conference

The early-bird deadline for the best registration rates for “Finding Your Niche/Expanding Your Horizons,” the fifth annual “Build Your Communications Business” of Communication Central, is September 1. AIW members are eligible for registration discounts for the the conference, to be held October 1-2, 2010, at the Staybridge Suites-Rochester University in Rochester, NY. 

Speakers and topics include Rich Adin on getting the rates you deserve; Michael Brady on building a brand through effective design; Bevi Chagnon on using Word to go to InDesign; Katharine O’Moore-Klopf on profiting from being online; Karl Heinz Kremer on using Acrobat in editing; Hilary Powers on setting up Word for editing; and Jack Lyon, Dan Wilson and Hilary in an unprecedented “Word Summit.” I’ll present a session on what it takes to start and manage a communications business, and Communication Central co-owner Kat Nagel will offer tips for effective websites.

Full details are at:
http://www.communication-central.com/

(The website may be down for a few days in the next week or so as it is converted to a new format; if that is the case, please feel free to contact Ruth E. Thaler-Carter directly with any questions at Ruth@writerruth.com or info@communication-central.com).

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