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The Pitch Slam looms ever nearer!

After a parade of supercharged presentations this morning, the Writer’s Digest Conference 2011 has swung into full swing. The conference rooms are packed! Here’s what’s on deck for this afternoon:

• How to Be an Author in a World Where Everyone Is a Writer: Editor and publisher Richard Nash on the opportunities in post-traditional publishing.
• 10 Essential Things You Must Know to Craft an Effective Query: The infamous Query Shark, Janet Reid, teaches you how to write a kick-ass query.
• Effective Strategies for Producing Yourself Online & Growing Readership: Presented by David Carnoy, April Hamilton, and Jane Friedman as moderator.
• The Art of the Page Turner: Hallie Ephron
• Pitch Slam (58 Literary Agents)
• Three Hurdles to Publishing Success No One Tells You About: Phil Sexton, the publisher of Writer’s Digest—and a man with experience across sales, marketing, editorial, AND authorship—draws back the curtain on the inner workings of the publishing industry.

Are you ready for the Pitch Slam?

What follows is a beta mashup from Saturday afternoon’s sessions. I’m curating digital artifacts from Twitter, blogs, etc. to tell the digital story of Writer’s Digest Conference 2011, but I’m sure to miss great content. Please tweet me (@virtualDavis) or contact me directly with links to great tweets, blog posts, videos, etc. so that I can add them. Thanks!

http://storify.com/virtualdavis/wdc11saturday2

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• Writer’s Digest Conference 2011, Part #1 (virtualdavis.com)
• Writer’s Digest Conference 2011, Part #2 (virtualdavis.com)
• Book Proposals in the Digital Age (janefriedman.com)
• Fifty Ways to Build an Author Platform (digitalbookworld.com)

The Writer’s Digest Conference 2011 has already exceeded my expectations by a factor of three. At least! If you’re just joining me, check out yesterday’s coverage of day one which included these presentations:

• The Future of Publishing: Don’t Give Up On Books: Richard Curtis is a sage voice amidst the noise, and a longtime agent.
• Pitch Perfect: Chuck Sambuchino on pitching a manuscript to agents
• Branding Yourself: Dan Blank gives us this rare and valuable opportunity for writers to get some of the best wisdom out there on marketing and community building.

On this crisp Saturday morning a strengthening Pitch Slam undercurrent — fueled by Chuck Sambuchino’s presentation yesterday and literary agent Janet Reid’s selachimorphic pitching pointers — is whipping up the waters. But before writers and agents start speed dating this afternoon, the morning is packed with compelling presentations:

• Marketing Yourself in Digital Age: Guy LeCharles Gonzalez  explains why self-marketing is critical for writers.
• Your Publishing Options: Jane Friedman on traditional publishing, indy publishing and self-publishing.
• Putting Fire in Your Fiction: Donald Maass on how to infuse your writing with conviction and passion.
• Ask the Agents Panel: Chuck Sambuchino moderates literary agent panel with Janet Reid, Mary Kole, Jud Laghi, Donald Maass.
• Panel: Do It Yourself Publishing: Jane Friedman moderates panel on DIY publishing with Patricia V. Davis, David Carnoy, Moriah Jovan, April Hamilton.
• Building the Perfect Plot: James Scott Bell on effective plot structuring.

As the pre-conference buzz transforms into real-time conference buzz, more and more participants are commenting and covering the event via social media. What follows is a beta mashup from Saturday morning’s sessions. I’m curating digital artifacts from Twitter, blogs, etc. to tell the digital story of Writer’s Digest Conference 2011, but I’m sure to miss great content. Please tweet me (@virtualDavis) or contact me directly with links to great tweets, blog posts, videos, etc. so that I can add them. Thanks!

http://storify.com/virtualdavis/wdc11saturday

Related articles

• Buzz: Writer’s Digest Conference 2011 (virtualdavis.com)
• Writer’s Digest Conference 2011, Part #1 (virtualdavis.com)
• Fifty Ways to Build an Author Platform (digitalbookworld.com)
• How Perfect Does Your Manuscript Have to Be? (janefriedman.com)

Yesterday afternoon at Writer’s Digest Conference 2011 was a game-changer for most participants, indeed for everyone that I’ve spoken to so far. Top notch presenters packing our heads and To Do lists with critical advice. And then the much anticipated opportunity to pitch our manuscripts to multiple literary agents while the coaching is still fresh. Exhilarating, empowering, humbling, encouraging, exhausting…

It was an intense two hours. Personally, the Pitch Slam offered some of the most important feedback and inspiration in my writing experience. Smart, attentive agents telling me what I can do, must do, will do. A road map. And opportunities. Whether or not agents expressed interest in your manuscript, their feedback was priceless. An opportunity to learn how to proceed.

I had fascinating conversations with other writers last night about what they gained from the experience. Even those who were disappointed not to have received as much interest as they’d hoped were grateful for the guidance and feedback they received. Many others were practically giddy with fresh encouragement and hope kindled by the interest of literary agents.

The positive vibe continued this morning, the final day of Writer’s Digest Conference 2011. Here are the offerings:

• How to Use Social Media to Get Noticed and Sell Your Work: Dan Blank, Brent Sampson, Kate Rados, Moriah Jovan, and Guy Gonzalez as moderator on a panel on using social media effectively to build your platform
• Writers and Mobile Apps: The Big Opportunity: Question of the Day creator Al Katkowsky on the mobile app opportunity for writers.
• Showing & Telling: The old adage, “Show, don’t tell” is wrong. Find out why from an experienced novelist, Laurie Alberts.
• The Kindle Publishing Workshop: This is a detailed and technical walk-through of how to get your work on the Kindle (without a publisher) presented by April Hamilton.
• Book or Bestseller: Which Will You Choose?: Patricia V. Davis on working with agent, publishers and booksellers to build your writing career.
• The Writer’s Compass: Using Story Maps to Build Better Fiction: Nancy Ellen Dodd on story mapping.
• Revision: Learn How to Love It: Only James Scott Bell could turn a thing that most writers hate into something that you can attack with confidence—and yes, even a bit of love.
• Successfully Promoting Your Book: Kevin Smokler, Brent Sampson, Kate Rados as moderator present this panel full of personality, wit, and damn good advice.
• Success Strategies and Systems for Writing & Selling More: The lovely and inspiring (and productive!) Sage Cohen offers 10 ways to exponentially increase the results and rewards of your writing life.
• Creating a Backstory: How and Why It Can Make or Break Your Novel: Hallie Ephron tells us how to use backstory to make a reader care about a character (rather than slow down the story).
• Blogging as a Platform and Publicity Machine: Dan Blank on blogging to build your platform.
• The More Things Change… (Benjamin LeRoy)

What follows is a beta mashup from Sunday morning’s sessions. I’m curating digital artifacts from Twitter, blogs, etc. to tell the digital story of Writer’s Digest Conference 2011, but I’m sure to miss great content. Please tweet me (@virtualDavis) or contact me directly with links to great tweets, blog posts, videos, etc. so that I can add them. Thanks!

http://storify.com/virtualdavis/wdc11sunday

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• Writer’s Digest Conference 2011, Part #1 (virtualdavis.com)
• Writer’s Digest Conference 2011, Part #2 (virtualdavis.com)
• Writer’s Digest Conference 2011, Part #3 (virtualdavis.com)
• My Best Advice for Writers From 2011 (janefriedman.com)
• Writer’s Digest Launches Self-Publishing Division (prweb.com)

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Time to start shopping Rosslyn Redux around to agents.

This is a first time experience for me. New territory. Lots of learning. Risks. Excitement. And I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that there’s a fair dose of anxiety in the mix. Totally out of my comfort zone. (Which is actually a damned exhilarating place to be!)

On Saturday I’ll be participating in the Writer’s Digest Conference Pitch Slam and I’ve been exploring what constitutes a good book pitch to a literary agent. Turns out there’s no one magic formula, but I’ve been receiving lots of helpful advice. Here’s a glimpse at some of the more interesting (and easily shareable) tips. Read the rest of this entry »

Smashwords is an ebook publishing and distribution platform for ebook authors, publishers and readers… At Smashwords, our authors and publishers have complete control over the sampling, pricing and marketing of their written works. Smashwords is ideal for publishing novels, short fiction, poetry, personal memoirs, monographs, non-fiction, research reports, essays, or other written forms that haven’t even been invented yet.

It’s free to publish and distribute with Smashwords. (Smashwords.com)

I’ve been hearing more and more about Smashwords.com lately:

• “Don’t Write, Create”
• “Thus Spoke Seth Godin”
• “Dress up your ebook for the Kindle Ball”

And just about everywhere else that folks are chewing the publishing industry fat. I’ve wandered their website and read miscelaneous tidbits here and there, but I’d really like to hear some firsthand accounts. Have you published a digital version of your book with Smashwords? What was your experience? Thanks!

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• How to Self-Publish an Ebook with Smashwords: 31 Authors Share Their Tips and Tricks (smashwords.com)
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• In Praise of Simple Ebooks (smashwords.com)
• 85,000 Titles Strong, Smashwords Pitches the Agents (ereads.com)
• On Smashwords and Amazon (joleenenaylor.wordpress.com)