Image via Flickr Creative Commons, courtesy of Tim Simpson.

It’s been amazing and terrifying to watch the changes in our industry just over the past six years. For generations, there was only a handful of items a writer needed to do. Write a book. Query. Get an agent. Land a deal. Hopefully continue writing more books. Though this was far simpler, there was a horrific failure rate and most writers never saw their works in print.

In The Digital Age, we live in an exciting time. E-books have offered new life to many works that were simply a bad investment in the paper-based world (novellas, epic fantasy, poetry). Yet, with new opportunity comes new responsibilities.

We must understand the business side of our business. And, as someone who teaches at many conferences, I know that until recently it has been rare to find an in-person conference that offers training outside the old paradigm.

I’ve been to conferences with all NY agents, only a class or two on social media, nothing about formatting or indie or book covers. This leaves a majority of writers ill-prepared for anything other than a traditional path (but this IS improving).

Yet, as we watch the trends, we are seeing that even authors who traditionally publish are still pursuing other paths as well to 1) increase income harnessing the power of combined sales and 2) maintain fan excitement 3) broaden/strengthen the platform.

As it stands, NY is limited to putting out a book, maybe two per year. Also, bookstores only have so much shelf space (which is negotiated by an agent/sales team). Due to the new mega-bookstore model, stores like B&N make more money off items other than books. Go into any B&N and the entire front of the store is filled with Nooks and Nook accessories (instead of books).

Additionally, they only can offer discounts by stocking only so many books and for a short period of time. This means authors with backlists generally will only have the most recent title for sale, unless they happen to be one of the big names (J.K. Rowling).

Writing now has merged art with entrepreneurship. We are essentially beginning a business (even if we choose traditional). Any successful business has a business plan. Also, we must invest in ourselves and our dream. There are a number of hard truths.

Regular People BELIEVE Writing is EASY

The average person out there has no concept of how hard it is to write a book. They think we sit and play with imaginary friends all day, which we do, but making those friends cooperate can be nothing short of a nightmare. Readers only see the final product. They only see what took months or years to complete. There is also this mistaken notion that because we have command of our native tongue, that writing a book/novel is only a matter of sitting down and writing.

Image with Twig the Fairy

Yes, butt-in-chair can be the greatest challenge, but developing dimensional characters takes profound understanding of human nature and psychology. Then we have to create realistic and interesting dialogue. Add in enough description and detail to build the world without boring the reader. We have to maintain tension on every page, know how to balance scenes and sequels, understand narrative structure and on and on and on.

But, it is this misguided perception that writing is easy that can derail us.

Forget What Other People Think

Often we are afraid to take risks because we fear failure. Yet, any true success is birthed from risk. We can’t think about what other people think or 1) we’ll quit 2) we’ll slack off 3) we’ll listen to bad advice.

Everyone has an opinion. One way humans show love is by offering “advice.” This is fine, but we have to mature enough and grab hold of what we want so tightly that we can allow other people the right to be wrong.

When I started writing, my family didn’t talk to me for two years. I even had a church elder laugh and tell me essentially that I had a better chance of being abducted by terrorists than being successful as a writer. Other family members felt I should go to law school. For a time, I listened. I even took the LSAT and gained entrance to law school.

But, I remember standing there with my acceptance letter and I had to make a choice. Did I really want to be a lawyer? NO.

Thing is, other people can give advice, and often they do this from genuine care and concern, but remember…

Only YOU will pay the price.

Image courtesy of Cellar Door Films WANA Commons

When we allow others to talk us into “real jobs”, they won’t be the ones who die a slow death every day. They won’t be the ones who throw up every day on the way to work (been there). They won’t be the one with a broken heart, an empty life and a mental spiral of what-ifs that keep them awake at night.

Commitment is the Cure

Lately, we have been talking about WANACon, which is coming up next weekend and today is the last day to use the code Valentine for $15 off. It’s an affordable way to learn from top industry experts, learn about ALL kinds of publishing—self-pub, indie, traditional—social media, branding, craft, platform-building and all for a reasonable price and from HOME. New York Times and USA Today Best-Selling Author Shirley Jump will be the keynote and agent pitch sessions are available. We have over 20 presentations from top professionals.

WANACon is largely volunteer because I was living of Ramen my first conference. Even though it was local, it still cost me over $300 and a lot of driving. I wanted to offer something for those who might be on a budget or have time or geographic challenges.

Yet, here’s the thing. Do I want you to come to WANACon? Yes, we have a lot of fun and it will spoil you. Regular conferences are costly and a physical beating (especially for introverts). Most conferences also will charge extra for recordings and we provide them for free because we want you to succeed.

BUT, I don’t care if you go to WANACon or some other conference. Just go to a conference. Commit. Attend/ join RWA (Romance Writers of America) even if you don’t write romance. Surround yourself with what you want to be. Connect and learn from professionals.

Publishing can feel a little like THIS…

I want to encourage you to take true professional steps that transition a dream into a reality. Invest in your domain name (the NAME that will be on your books). Commit to building a platform or blogging. Platforms capable of driving sales can’t be bought or POOF out of the ether. They take time and some money.

NY will not represent an author with no platform. Most agencies will google an author and if they can’t find us? Game over. Come back when we have a platform. If we go indie or self-pub? We’re dead without a platform.

The publishing world of today offers a much better chance for success, but we have to be educated and have a plan of action. We need to invest in that dream. I can’t tell you the difference my first conference made in how I viewed my career choice and even myself.

Perception is REALITY

The world thinks most writers are just wannabes typing away at a Starbucks. Why? Because a lot of us do that. I did. In the beginning, I didn’t take myself seriously. Why would others? But, when we commit and invest, this is when we change and others often do, too.

Image via Tumblr

If you met someone who claimed to be an artist, but they simply carried around a notebook and drew cool pictures, we’d think one thing. But, what if we talked to them and realized they had a web site with their work, that they’d worked an extra job to train with professional artists?

Someone who sings in the shower or in the church choir is one thing. But what about the person who gives up every extra hobby to take voice lessons and record their songs? Or a chef who creates beautiful dishes for people at home, but then later takes out a loan to start a catering business?

Our level of commitment is a reflection of our passion and our genuine desire to do this thing for real. 

This is February. Most of us are struggling with the New Year’s Resolutions. We all do. But whether you attend a conference a professional workshop, take classes, begin building your platform, make that shift. Otherwise, our “dream” will remain an intangible. Sacrificing time and money, risking failure, ignoring naysayers, these are the things that separate the “aspiring writer” from the “pre-published author.”

Regardless of what you write, which path you choose, which conference you attend, we support you 1000%. It’s why WANA works so hard to offer you all the tools for success: classes, conferences, WANACommons (for blog images you can use worry-free), WANATribe (social network for writers), #MyWANA and Facebook’s WANA group. We want you to have education, encouragement, resources, and a support network. The rest is in the doing ;).

As a gift, we have a free recording of Gabriela Pereira’s “How To Get the Most Out of a Writing Conference.” Use this for WANACon or any conference of your choosing. You can sign up for WANACon HERE and use the code Valentine for $15 off.

What are your thoughts? Have you been bombarded with naysayers and dream stealers? Is it hard to believe that your writing is a “real job”? I know I still struggle with that, too. What are your biggest challenges, fears? What are some of your successes? Share and inspire us!

I love hearing from you!

To prove it and show my love, for the month of February, everyone who leaves a comment I will put your name in a hat. If you comment and link back to my blog on your blog, you get your name in the hat twice. What do you win? The unvarnished truth from yours truly. I will pick a winner once a month and it will be a critique of the first 20 pages of your novel, or your query letter, or your synopsis (5 pages or less). 

The post Commitment is the Cure–From "Aspiring" Writer to Professional Author appeared first on Kristen Lamb.

Image via Bill_Owen Flickr Creative Commons

Writing conferences are extraordinarily valuable. We work in a creative field and sure, we can sit at a keyboard and write a book. But, without training and guidance, we can make our path to successful publishing far longer than it might have been with outside expert help. We open ourselves to learning by trial and error, which can cost time, money and be a real ego beating.

I joke that I should have called my social media book, I Did All The Dumb Stuff So You Don’t Have To. I did everything wrong. I believed because I was “smart”, I didn’t need help.

Yeah.

When it came to writing a novel, I spent four years trying to fix a train wreck. With social media, I spent two years undoing building a brand under a cutesy moniker. When it came to blogging, I blogged for a year and a half before I hit over 85 views a day because I was listening to “experts” instead of intuition. When I launched WANA International, I didn’t understand a key fundamental of life and business—Talk is cheap.

Understand the details and then you know 1) when someone is selling BS 2) you can keep others accountable 3) you will save time and money.

If we don’t know how to look for web designers, cover artists, formatters, what they should cost and what questions we should ask, we set ourselves up to be taken advantage of. We also might rely on a brand name. I know when we began teaching classes at WANA International, we chose Go To Webinar, because it supposedly was the best. That was a $1500 mistake. Their technology never worked and I refunded more than we made.

Good thing is that sometimes mistakes can lead to better things, but wouldn’t it be better to just find that better thing to begin with?

Knowledge is Power

Why are you looking for an agent? Do you know why you need one in the new paradigm? Why do you want to choose your publishing path? Why is your novel being rejected or not selling? What are the elements of a good cover and how can that impact sales? What is an author brand? What works? What is a time-suck that leads to pain, suffering and chocolate ODs?

Conferences are fabulous for connecting with experts. We recruit those we feel will offer great value, whether it is craft, business, publishing or social media. The smart writer learns from her mistakes, but the wise writer learns from the mistakes of others. Conferences connect us to people who’ve been there and can shorten our learning curve.

Every day is precious. You will never live THIS day again. It is ONE event in human history. Why not make it count? Time is a nonrenewable resource.

Connection is Vital

We don’t need to know everyone and everything. We simply need to know enough people to gain advantage from The Six Degrees of Separation. I don’t know all the answers, but I don’t need to. I’ve met enough people on social media and at conferences that I likely know someone who knows the answer. OR, they can direct me to a person who has what I need.

Conferences allow us to network. We can make friends, create a support group, and even meet authors who might blurb for our books. If we are unsure of a publishing path, we can listen to others. Which agents are great? Which indie houses are worth a look? Which cover designers are professional and affordable?

Word of mouth is far more valuable than a fancy ad. I know. I spent $3000 for a web designer for her to essentially install a $100 plug-in. The designer was a fraud who knew how to dazzle and frighten with tech-speak I didn’t understand. At the time, I didn’t yet know Laird Sapir (who is a WANA and who we now trust for all web work). At the time, I had a feeling I was being taken, but was too overloaded to do more research. It was a costly mistake I will never repeat, but sadly one I could have easily avoided with the right guidance.

Jay Donovan of TechSurgeons, WANA’s Digital Dark Knight

There are few lessons better learned than the ones that make us feel like a raging idiot. But, I am not too proud to tell you guys I’ve fallen for the Magic Beans. This is why I work so hard to blog and to bring you WANACon. My goal is that my mistakes offer some greater value to the writing community.

Transition from Hobbyist to Professional

Like the protagonists in our books, we too have turning points in our author journeys. A conference is our way of accepting the challenge and rising to the call. It means we are willing to invest in our dreams. We transition from a hobbyist to a professional. Professionals seek information, guidance and are unafraid to put their money where their mouth is.

Granted, this can be tough. I know. When I went to my first conference many years ago, I was living on Ramen an praying the lights would stay on. But I knew something was lacking and that’s why I wasn’t making any headway. That first conference changed everything and was the best investment I ever made. Something inside shifted. I walked in a wanna-be and left a pre-published author. I took myself more seriously and, as a consequence, others began taking me more seriously as well.

There are a lot of fabulous conferences out there with hardworking people putting together the best selection of experts they can recruit. I strongly recommend attending a conference this year. WANACon will never fully replace an in-person conference, but we can:

1. Be a Supplement

For years it didn’t matter if we only attended one conference a year. Publishing had barely changed in twenty years. In the Digital Age? It changes by the moment. WANACon can keep you abreast of all the shifts in the industry and keep you informed so your decisions are sound ones.

2. Be a Start

Many new writers are pinching pennies and working a full-time job. WANACon has over 20 presentations on craft, social media, business, publishing, branding, etc. We have agent and editor pitch-sessions and they are all yours to enjoy from home. Our conference is virtual and the closest thing to the real deal without a holo-deck. Other conferences might record sessions, but those cost extra. At WANACon, recordings are included so you don’t miss anything.

This WANACon does have a romance emphasis, but we are also here to help guide those who are in the NaNoWriMoWTHNow? boat.

Our conference is tailored to work around those with a job and family who might not have the luxury to drop $1000 or more and 4-7 days attending a traditional conference. Many writers are from emerging markets like Europe, Australia and New Zealand, and WANA is here to support you, too.

No airfare, hotel, babysitting or time off work. We’ve recruited talent that is just as good as any conference in the country. NYT/USA Today best-selling authors, top social media experts, successful traditionally published authors and self-published authors and more.

Completely ABSURD TSA searches NOT included.

We still have Early Bird Pricing. Sign up HERE. Also, we always kick off with PajamaCon, which is FREE. You can get a sense of what the conference is like because we know are cutting edge and some of you might want to dip a digital toe in the digital waters. WANA is reinventing the conference for The Digital Age. PajamaCon is also how we ease you into what to expect and make sure any technical issues can be sorted so you can enjoy WANACon worry-free.

Also, the FABULOUS Jami Gold has more details about WANACon AND a raffle for you to win back the cost of admission, so check out HER BLOG!

Whether you choose WANACon or another conference, I cannot recommend conferences enough. Take that vital step to invest in yourself and your dream. Save time by making better choices and connecting with people who can help.

What are your thoughts? Have you never attended a conference? Did your first conference change your outlook and attitude? What were some changes you witnessed in yourself after going to a conference? I HIGHLY recommend WANACon (of course) but the Dallas Fort Worth Writers’ Workshop Conference is one of my all-time favorites. I also love RWA conferences, even the mini-cons. Cannot recommend ANYTHING RWA enough. What are some conferences you’d recommend?

I LOVE hearing from you!

To prove it and show my love, for the month of January, everyone who leaves a comment I will put your name in a hat. If you comment and link back to my blog on your blog, you get your name in the hat twice. What do you win? The unvarnished truth from yours truly. I will pick a winner once a month and it will be a critique of the first 20 pages of your novel, or your query letter, or your synopsis (5 pages or less). 

The post Why All Writers Should Attend a Writing Conference appeared first on Kristen Lamb.

In her seeming desperation, she handed me the keys to her blog. Again…

You’d have thought she’d have learned after I hijacked her site last time. Then again, knowing Kristen, she’s aware that I ‘sampled’ a couple glasses of wine while TechGirl and I made lasagna. Kristen’s call for help at an ungodly late hour is most likely a ploy Sun Tzu would be proud of.

Regardless, challenge accepted!

Actually, this is a fantastic chance to catch everyone up on the goings on in WANAville.

First off, thanks to everyone who joined us for the October WANACon Writers Conference. We appreciate your trust in us and hope you had as good a time as we did. For those who couldn’t join us, the session recordings are available for On Demand viewing here.

The next WANACon will be Friday February 21st and Saturday February 22nd, (hopefully) far enough from the chaos of the holidays that a conference track on what to do next with your NaNoWriMo creation makes sense, and close enough to Valentine’s Day for one on writing romance.

Keep up with all the details by visiting WANACon.com or joining our mailing list.

WANA Classes are going On Demand

We’ve heard you. And finally the technology allows us to bring you an “On Demand” class experience that is good enough to receive the WANA… ->

We’re not moving away from live classes, but with busy WANAs all over the globe, we’re structuring classes to be more flexible for those who can’t attend live.

We’ll be adding dozens of classes by amazing instructors over the next few months. Click for our Current Class List or to join our mailing list.

And a shameless plug…

Book Tours in Your PJs

On Friday, my company, TechSurgeons is adding an new Author Service – Virtual Book Tours. They’ll use the same tech WANA uses for WANACon and live classes. At an introductory price of $50, you can rent a virtual room for 6 hours for you and up to 10 others at a time.  You’ll be able talk to your readers, share web cams, instant message with the shy ones, display PDFs of sample chapters, extras, and ‘out takes’ or whatever creative ideas you have. Contact me for more details.

Remember WANATribe, -the- private social media site by authors for authors.

We have Tribes for all genres and interests. And if you don’t see the one you want, you can create it. Joining and using WANATribe is free.

As a thank you prize for reading putting up with my post, here’s a video of (I believe) George Clooney and Brad Pitt dueling with a flamethrower and fire extinguisher.  Inside sources claimed this was filmed just before they went to their respective makeup artists.

Okay, that was mean. Here’s an amazingly cool video of the Ohio State band performing their “Hollywood Blockbuster” Show.
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Geek in His (un)Natural Habitat

Jay Donovan is the official WANA Tech Guy and takes care of all WANA’s technology needs. He’s writing an “Expansion Pack” on the proper use of pen names to supplement Kristen’s “Rise of the Machines” and should be working on it instead of hijacking blogs and talking about himself in third person, but where’s the fun in that?

Jay’s company TechSurgeons LLC provides the geeky magic for WANACon and  WANA classes. TechSurgeons also hosts the WANAIntl.com & authorkristenlamb.com websites. He’d love to be your tech guy too.

Find him on Twitter at @jaytechdad or on Facebook

The post Blog Hijack Part Deux – WANA Goings On appeared first on Kristen Lamb.

Francis, the WANA Mascot

WANACon is coming up, and we launch tomorrow evening at 6:00 PM EST (New York Time for our foreign friends) and go to 8:30 PM with PajamaCon. Since WANA is founded on a spirit of generosity, we’re offering PAJAMACon to everyone for FREE. Just go to the WANACon Page and on the right side you will see this:

Portal to F-U-N!

You see in the Conference Hall A Selector I chose PajamaCon, then enter your name (or alias) and the password is “WANARocks”. Anything that pops up, just allow. We do this to keep your computer secure.

I know that WANACon is a bit futuristic and maybe some of you are shy about how a virtual conference works, so here’s a great time to check it out. Also, I’ll be there. What more reason do you need?

Ouch! I just got a cramp patting myself on the back!

Today, I want to take a little time to point out what is going to be SO awesome about WANACon (aside from teaching from top-tier publishing pros, AMAZON, free recordings, sweet price point, NO travel, no layovers, no TSA, no hotel and no overpriced restaurant food).

Agents

Okay, a moment about agents. I made an executive decision not to have agents at this WANACon. Why? Because NYC grinds to a halt roughly in November. The odds of ANY pitch (manuscript) landing a sweet publishing contract in three weeks has roughly the same odds as me becoming a bikini model. Reality dictates that most manuscripts will sit untouched until 2014. Why waste your time or an agent’s?

You want any agent selling your work when it’s fresh and they’re still super-stoked-excited…not after your book’s sat on their desk for three months. Just my personal opinion.

So, instead?

I kidnapped recruited the head of the Amazon CreateSpace team to present and show you how to make the most of all the cool tools Amazon provides to help you succeed. For those considering any kind of indie, self-publishing or hybrid publishing? Amazon’s Thom Kephart will be there to show you the ropes.

I also have the owner of Green E-Books to demonstrate all the coolest innovations in e-book technology, and he makes this stuff so simple even I understand it (and have yet to figure out my e-mail *sigh*).

Craft

We have the LEGENDS David Corbett and Les Edgerton and these two guys alone are worth the price of the entire conference.  I’ve been to countless conferences and workshops and read all the craft books. There are very few teachers who are game-changers.

Even though I’ve been writing professionally for ten years, I still attend craft classes. It is rare that I blow through half a notebook taking notes. I stalked both Corbett and Edgerton until they agreed to do WANACon…and reconsider the restraining orders :D.

Technically this is a “virtual” conference, so I’m not in violation of the 1000 feet “rule” the “courts” have established.

My Classes

I am teaching three sessions at WANACon, all classes I’m not regularly offering.

The first is Many Roads to Rome—Choosing a Publishing Path. How do you know whether to self-publish or keep trying to score a traditional deal? Not all writers (or works) are suited to be traditionally published. Other personalities will DIE trying to self-publish. Sometimes a book is great, but the publishing path chosen is ill-suited for the work. You might want to even consider a hybrid path.

This class will offer guidance on one of the most important decisions we will ever make. How DO we publish?

Then I have Killing Little Darlings with Ruthless Efficiency. Ever heard of RAMBO? I am LAMBO. I have slayed entire villages of Little Darlings. I’m going to teach you ways to spot them, cut them, kill them and maybe even not create them in the first place.

Prevention IS the best cure.

Then, lastly, NaNoWriMo Bootcamp. 

NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) is the month of November. 50,000 words in one month. Sounds like a lot. If we write every day, roughy 1,600 words a day. If we take weekends off? 2,000 words a day. Granted, NaNoWriMo isn’t about writing a perfect book. It is, however, a GREAT introduction into what it’s like to keep and maintain a professional pace.

Many writers start out hot and heavy, write themselves into a corner, then burn out and DIE. Most of the time, this is preventable if we have some basic know-how and start off correctly. There is no sense in killing ourselves for a month to reach 50,000 words only to end up with an unfixable nightmare that chews on the furniture and pees on the rugs.

I would assume that anyone who vows to complete NaNoWriMo would like to create something that can be revised, polished and published. Throwing away a month of time and tens of thousands of words is hard on the body and the ego. Why not write something solid that can be shaped into something FANTASTIC?

Other Stuff

We have Susan Spann who is an Intellectual Property and Publishing Attorney to teach you about contracts. When do you sign? When do you walk away? When do you RUN away?

Some of you might want to add romance to your book or even a–GASP!—love scene. How do we write those without sounding like bad porn?

Hey, I’m here to fix your cable?

But I don’t HAVE cable….

Best-Selling Author Candace Havens has written more books than I could fit on our digital book table. She’s written at all levels of “heat” so whether you want the sweet romance or are writing erotica, Candy has the know-how to help you write scenes readers will love…instead of rolling their eyes.

For the NF Folks

We have long-time journalist Caitlin Kelly. She’s written multiple books and has worked as a freelance writer for most of her career. She’s had over a 100+ freelance articles in The New York Times and recently was published in Cosmopolitan Magazine. This lady KNOWS her stuff. She’s tough and will tell it straight, but this business isn’t for the faint of heart.

We also have media personality Amy Shojai to guide you how to write a NF proposal. Not only is she an amazing and energetic teacher, Amy has been featured on ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, and in USA Weekend, The New York Times, Washington Post, Reader’s Digest, Woman’s Day, Family Circle, Woman’s World, and many other leading newspapers and magazines.

She regularly appears on national radio and television in connection with her pet writing. Most recently, she appeared as a dog and cat expert on Animal Planet’s DOGS 101 and CATS 101.

Then There Will Be (Of Course) Social Media

Gaping at G+? Fried on Facebook? We have you covered ;).

Web Nightmares

I can attest that getting an author web site is about as confusing and pleasant as a colonoscopy (and the after-effects can feel strangely similar).

It’s easy to get ripped off. I have been ripped off multiple times. Why? I didn’t know what questions to ASK. When we step out to do this new thing of finally being serious enough to get a website, we are NEW.

We are too dumb to know what we don’t know. Sometimes, we think if we throw more money at it, MORE MONEY=AWESOME. Or, if we are broke, we assume we can’t have a good-looking web-site.

WRONG.

Laird Sapir is a trusted WANA web designer. She’s smart, savvy and affordable but not at WANACon to sell you anything (unless you want). I recruited her to educate you. If you don’t have a web site, how do you find a designer? The right designer? What do you need to know? What questions do you ask? What should you reasonably PAY? How do you negotiate?

If you already have a web site, what are some things you can do to make your site more appealing to visitors? What are some changes you could possibly make that might sell more books?

And SO MUCH MORE!!!

This is just a sample of the awesome that will be at WANACon (you can check out the full schedule HERE). And remember, if you can’t attend or miss a session or two, you get the recording, notes and handouts FREE as part of your conference.

WANACon is just like a REAL writing conference. The only things you’re missing out on are the super high price tags, uncomfortable flights, bad conference food, a chance at getting bed bugs from your hotel, and that awkward TSA pat down. Though the guy who sold me my Interview Van works for tips and a pat down can be arranged.

Just ignore the ankle monitor.

So you can go ahead and sign up HERE. We are also selling individual days if that fits your schedule or budget better. BUT, there isn’t ANY excuse to not stop by and check out the fun at PajamaCon. Here are our best-practices and trouble-shooting guidelines to make PajamaCon (and WANACon) as pleasant as possible. For instance, Safari will cough up a hairball with our technology. Google Chrome and Firefox play better. Simple stuff like that.

I’ll be at PajamaCon so we can meet. You can ask questions about craft, social media, branding, or even why tin foil is completely useless for keeping the aliens from reading your thoughts. It’ll be FUN :D.

For those of you who might not have met the WANA Mascot, Francis, here’s his debut film. I think a lot of us can relate. WANACon is a way to start reaching your dreams without adding time strain and financial pressure.

I hope to see you at WANACon, but at LEAST PajamaCon.

Lock the kids out of the bedroom for a couple hours and take time for YOU. Let your inner artist have a play date with the pros.

[vimeo http://vimeo.com/42861786]

The post Your Writing Future—And Now For Something Totally Different… appeared first on Kristen Lamb.

Image via Flikr Creative Commons, courtesy of Army Medicine

Many writers struggle. We hate our beginnings, revisions are a nightmare and endings can fizzle. We work, rework, cry, try again and still don’t nail it. The second act sags and we start wondering if maybe we should reconsider learning medical billing instead of writing.  Yet, I do have good news. I’ve never worked with a dying patient manuscript that couldn’t be saved.

Granted, we might have to do massive reconstructive surgery, but I have yet to have a patient die on the table :).

I’ve been blessed enough to help countless writers see the story they were trying to tell all along….just couldn’t seem to execute. Often this is a perceptual problem.

We can be too close to our own work.

Also, remember, high school and college English classes aren’t preparation for understanding HOW to create a work spanning 60,000-110,00 words. I might be going out on a limb here, but MFA students aside, I doubt’ y’all ever wrote a paper longer than 50 pages (more like 20). So stop beating yourself up. You might just need a little training and surgical residency.

Let’s look at some reasons for the most common maladies that can kill novels.

Weak, Flawed or Unclear Story Problem

When we have a weak, confusing or flawed story, there’s no way to know where to begin or even end. Why? We don’t know where we’re going. There is a difference between a clever idea and a defined problem in need of solving.

A recent BBT Advanced student brought me book she’s been working on since the 90s. Why didn’t it work? She had a clever idea, not a strong plot problem (the heart was weak…ok not there).

The problem wasn’t big enough and worse, the story problem made the protagonist unsympathetic. The protagonist was part of a matriarchal society who essentially used men for the purposes of propagation only. The laws had been set that if a woman didn’t birth a female child by a certain age, then she’d lose everything and be banished.

Interesting premise, but then I spotted the problem…

The writer’s goal for the book was for the protagonist to have the law changed and extend the time she had to birth a child because she hadn’t found the “right guy” and didn’t want to be exiled.

Yet, my first comment after hearing her story idea was, “Um, but you’re essentially wanting us to sympathize with a reluctant sex-trafficking slave-owner whose biggest goal is to modify an inhumane law so she has more time to get preggo. And what is the Big Boss Battle? C-Span? She changes a law? Doesn’t seem terribly exciting.”

*Cues Schoolhouse Rock’s I’m Just a Bill*

Her answer? Wow, um didn’t see that.

Without this observation, the writer could have revised into 2020 and still not have a workable story, because the core was flawed (though pretty simple to repair). She was fixing ingrown toenails when the beating heart of the story was dead.

But, with these critical pieces of information, we could go back to the drawing board surgical table and make her character into a hero. Yes, the protagonist is born into this matriarchal society that uses men like human cattle, but WHY are they doing it? What started it? What are the consequences for a society like this? What happens if protag fails?

HOW do we make the protagonist into a person who dismantles the evil system and brings freedom and restores love?

By the end of our talk, the writer still had all the essential pieces of the story, but they’d been strengthened and put into proper order. Now she has the template for a three-book work that is heroic and that addresses problems as old as humans—freedom and love.

Strong beating heart.

More Problems

There are other problems that can create MAJOR pits of WIP death.

Image via Flikr Creative Commons, courtesy of Sally Jean

Story SiameseTwins

We may be trying to make one book do too much (and it needs to be more than one book).

Story Anemia

Our story might be confusing or the premise too weak to support something novel-length.

Story Disfigurement

Events might be in the wrong order. How effective could we be with our legs growing out of our head? Same with stories.

These maladies can make revisions a living nightmare. How can we know what and where to cut? It’s like performing surgery with no diagnostic tools. We’re just opening the body and hoping we don’t cut out the wrong parts while leaving in the diseased ones.

Story Surgery

This is one of the reasons I run my Antagonist Class. One is coming up in three days (Sept. 20th) and this one is a early class, which is ideal for those who need a daytime class or for any of our overseas peeps.

I’m also offering an evening version on October 16th. These classes starts at a basic level $49 (webinar, recording and detailed notes) and go up to $249 (on the phone/in the digital classroom helping you plot a series or trilogy). Use WANA15 to get 15% off.

The extra levels are optional, of course, but it gives you time working with me, one-on-one to help build or repair your story problem and plot. Sometimes another set of (trained) eyes can really help. The added benefit is that once you’ve been through the process, you will have the skills to fix other unfinished works or start new ones the proper way.

Feel free to read craft books (which I recommend), but even if we only read four craft books, that’s almost 50 hours of reading time, instead of 2-4 hours with me talking specifically about your story and FIXING it.

With the skeleton created, the “Boys in the Basement” have something to work with and can come up with twists and turns, themes and subplots that only the subconscious can create.

Another Option

As y’all know, WANACon is coming soon. I’ve recruited the BEST of the BEST. Learn from the likes of Les Edgerton, NYTBSA Allison Brennan, Best-Selling Author Candace Havens, Award-Winning Author David Corbett and more. Twenty-seven sessions to help you grow in craft and social media from home and recordings are provided for free, which is essentially $5.50 a class. Check out the line-up HERE.

How to Triage Your Novel

I just work hard to give you guys as many cost-efficient tools as possible to make you the best writer you can be. To check the health of your story:

Ask:

What is the CORE problem that will be solved in Act Three?

Can I state what my book is about in one sentence?

Does my book relate to larger human issues?

Is my protagonist sympathetic? Can we at least empathize?

What are the stakes? What happens if my protagonist FAILS? What will be the consequences not only for the protagonist, but the larger world around him/her?

How does my character change due to the plot problem? I.e. Slave-owner who mildly questions the ethics of her society to freedom fighter.

Am I generating drama or melodrama in each scene?

Some references to help you, Hooked (Les Edgerton), Scene and Structure (Jack Bickham), The Art of Character (David Corbett), The Writer’s Journey (Christopher Vogler), Save the Cat (Blake Snyder), Plot and Structure (James Scott Bell), Story Engineering (Larry Brooks), Three Uses of the Knife: On the Nature & Purpose of Drama (David Mamet), Writing Screenplays that Sell (Michael Hague).

***NOTE: Two of these masters (Les Edgerton and David Corbett) will be presenting at WANACon.

Do you have a WIP on life-support? Have you ever resurrected a WIP from the dead? What did you do? What suggestions do you have?

I LOVE hearing from you!

To prove it and show my love, for the month of September, everyone who leaves a comment I will put your name in a hat. If you comment and link back to my blog on your blog, you get your name in the hat twice. What do you win? The unvarnished truth from yours truly. I will pick a winner once a month and it will be a critique of the first 20 pages of your novel, or your query letter, or your synopsis (5 pages or less).

My new social media book, Rise of the Machines–Human Authors in a Digital World is NOW AVAILABLE. Only $6.99.

The post How Sick is Your Novel—Can It Be Saved? appeared first on Kristen Lamb.

Image via Frank Selmo WANA Commons

The Digital Age is moving at light speed and there is a new frontier WANA has set out to conquer—the writing conference. First, let me say there is no exact substitute for face-time, for an in-person conference. Yet, just because there isn’t a substitute, doesn’t mean there couldn’t be a supplement.

Publishing is transforming rapidly. Back in 2007, it didn’t matter if we could only make one, maybe two conferences a year. Publishing hadn’t changed all that much in a hundred years. Now?

Don’t…blink.

Facebook rearranges the digital furniture quarterly. Each social platform is constantly adding new features and removing old ones. Don’t get me started with algorithms. How do we use CreateSpace? How do we know what publishing option is best or even how to get started? Some of us don’t learn so well from books. We need face-time with good teachers and professionals who know what they’re doing because they’ve done it.

The Face of the Modern Writer…Times are a Changin’

Who is the modern writer? He looks a lot like the retiree on a fixed income, the mom juggling two jobs, or the Stay-At-Home Dad scrabbling for all the freelance work he can get so he has the joy of being with his children.

In a corporate culture that frowns on taking vacation (and is often stingier than Ebeneezer Scrooge with days off) how realistic is relying on a traditional conference? The economy is suffering and our money no longer goes as far.

Travel is now nothing short of a nightmare.

Arrive an hour and a half early. Get half-undressed. Wait for the TSA to swab snacks for bomb residue, and hope to GOD the plane doesn’t have mechanical issues because, with fewer planes in the air? We might not even make our destination.

Even if a conference is priced reasonably, air travel, parking, food, hotel, and time off work (and possibly babysitting) add up quickly. A $200 conference can become $1000 out-of-pocket quickly (or more).

Many writers have disabilities or health issues. Doesn’t mean they can’t write like the wind, but travel is a beating. I was once stranded in San Diego Airport for 15 hours with nothing to eat—made it home at almost SIX in the morning. Imagine if I was over 65 or in a wheelchair?

DELTA banned me from flying back in 2002 because I “was drunk” and stranded me in Atlanta. I wasn’t drunk, they’d checked the wrong bag, the one with my anti-convulsive medicine and then refused me access to my bag. I wasn’t drunk, I was having complex partial seizures (which slur your speech and affect balance). I’ve been a disabled person flying and it is NO picnic (and I boycotted DELTA for years over this).

I KID you NOT. They are checking my Vienna Sausages for bomb residue.

Finding someone to take our kids for three to five days? A challenge even for the best of us. And though the conference is almost always an enjoyable experience, the travel alone can leave us feeling as if we’ve been tossed in a bag of hammers and shaken.

Thus, I started thinking about all the writers who were falling through the cracks, the ones in financial straits, the ones with physical or health limitations, the ones who were older, the writers who couldn’t easily get days off or find reliable childcare. Then what about the emerging markets in the UK, New Zealand, Australia? These countries have writers, but very few conferences. How realistic was it to expect someone to fly to the US from AUSTRALIA? Was it even necessary anymore?

In short? NO.

The Answer? WANACon

WANACon isn’t a glorified blog tour with a chat on Twitter. It isn’t a series of prerecorded classes. WANACon is the closest one can get to the REAL conference experience without leaving home. We had our first WANACon last February and it was AWESOME. I could make dinner and change diapers while listening to NYTBSAs teach me how to better my craft.

We had writers from Australia, New Zealand, the UK, Canada, Arab Emirates, all over the continental US and all in ONE PLACE…making friends and learning :D.

I could ask questions and interact real-time. For anything I missed? Recordings were (are) provided. I could lie in bed eating dinner and enjoy a nice glass of wine while learning about publishing contracts.

In a word? HEAVEN.

We are holding another WANACon October 3-5. The 3rd will be an evening session with me to launch and we affectionately call it PAJAMACON. PAJAMACON is to familiarize you with the virtual classroom (which was designed to home-school children and is super easy) and make sure we can head off any tech issues before the start of the conference.

Then, the next two days? DUAL classrooms packed with the best of the best. NYTBSAs, USA Today Best-Selling Authors, award-winning authors, best-selling INDIE authors, top social media experts, e-book and web site experts, and even AMAZON will be there.  I kidnapped recruited the head of CreateSpace to present. Some are returning speakers with new content and some are brand new presenters.

The coolest thing about all of them? They are freely offering their time to help writers and reinvent the writing conference.

All from home and now BOTH DAYS for $119.00 (Early Bird Special). We will have the official schedule posted this week, because eventually you guys can choose to attend PAJAMACON with BOTH days or PAJAMACON with the day of your choice. Yet, with the special? It’s $20 more and you get PAJAMACON and both days, so why not enjoy a few less Frappucinos and enjoy a REAL conference, the ENTIRE conference, from HOME?

TSA pat-downs can be provided, but they work for tips :D.

Hope to see you guys there, and contest winner for my monthly drawing will be announced Friday.

For those who attended WANACon, share your experience. Are you guys excited about trying something new? A conference that comes to you? For an idea of how WANACon looks/operates, check out this blog from February.

The post In the Age of Lightning Speed, How Can Writers Keep Up? appeared first on Kristen Lamb.

Welcome to WANACon. We are here to serve you.
(Image via Flikr Creative Commons user KB35)

This week, we’ve been talking about WANACon, yet some of you might have questions. How does this work? What will the experience BE like? WANACon is very different than any conference. Our goal is to get as close to the actual conference experience as possible so presentations will be live, where you can see the instructor and interact, ask questions and gain valuable feedback.

All sessions but two are recorded in case you happen to miss anything. Susan Spann’s legal classes are the only ones not recorded, but Susan, being the kind and generous gal she is, has a PDF full of the information she’s teaching that she will freely share to attendees.

This is a conference for ALL kinds of authors, traditional and non-traditional.

We have experts from all areas of the industry; traditional, indie and self-publishing.

The Classroom

Our classroom is powered by innovative technology that was originally designed for homeschooling children. This means it is very simple and user-friendly. Here are some Classroom FAQs. Most computers (if you’ve purchased within the past four years) will be just fine.

Yes, it is a WORLDWIDE Conference

The conference schedule is based off EST (NYC time). We understand that some of you might have some late nights or early mornings, but that’s nothing compared to the jet lag you’d have if you had to travel to the States for this kind of line-up. For sessions you can’t make, the recording will be available to you.

We are working on teleportation technology for future conferences, but Jay has to build me a real light-saber first :D. When it comes to the writing conference experience, this is the best option we have for our writer friends across The Pond or Down Under.

The Process

Upon registration, we will e-mail you instructions, but the process is a little like this. Each day of the conference has it’s own password to gain entry. If you purchase one day, you will get one password. Purchase both and you get two passwords. Purchase an agent pitch, and you will have a third password.

You will go to The WANACon page. Off to the right, you will see this:

There are only TWO conference rooms. Classroom A is for all of the classes and Classroom B is for agent pitches. You will (for the conference) select Classroom A, then enter your name, and then the password. At this point, your computer will open our digital classroom and you will see this appear:

This is to connect you into the classroom, so you want to click ALLOW and then Join Audio.

Off to the left, you see where all the listener’s names appear (it’s why you enter your name when logging in. The center of the screen is where instructors can upload a Power Point, or (more likely) where you will watch them present, live, in-person and real-time.

Captain America wears a Scrunchee. The truth is out. Where you see my face…I mean Captain America is where you will see the presenter. Notice off to the right, there is an IM window.

The IM window allows you to chat with each other, to ask the presenter questions. It’s also a way for you to let Jay the Digital Dark Knight know if you are having any troubles with the audio. Notice there is a main IM window, then next to it, there is a tab with a +.

This is a way to send messages privately, so should you have any technical issues, Jay can troubleshoot with you one on one. Thus far, I’ve had amazing success with this system, but issues DO happen. That is the nature of technology.

Now notice in this picture, I am the only one in class, but in the conference this will be populated with all of you (our attendees). Remember you had to join the audio? Here is where your presenter can mute the class, then later unmute for Q&A.

If you have a question, our WANA Digital Classroom has a way you can raise your hand.

Just click the icon that looks like a hand and that icon will appear next to your name. At the appropriate point, the instructor can then unmute your audio and allow you to ask your question.

All audio and IMs (except the two legal classes) are recorded in case you miss something. If you happen to live in a part of the world where you just can’t make it until four in the morning, no worries. Attend the ones you can and get the audio for those you miss.

The agent pitch sessions work the same way. You can (if you choose) activate your webcam, which is the middle icon that looks like a web cam.

This will be in the upper left quadrant (refer to above image). BBB will give you a preview of your video so you can check your hair, then you press a PLAY button and your video will appear. Then the person on the other end can just drag that box front and center so you can be face-to-face. If you’ve ever chatted on Skype, then the experience is familiar.

After each presentation, Jay will clear the classroom and you will log back in. This is to help us keep the recordings separate.

To make sure everyone gets a chance to get acclimated, we are having a social time tomorrow night. This will give you an opportunity for you to get an idea of what our classrooms are like. It will also give us an opportunity to fix any issues you may have before the conference.

Most of the time the audio works right off your computer. Some computers may require a headset. I just use my cell phone headset in those cases. There is also a call-in number in the IM box.

There will be continual tech support and many of the WANA instructors will be there to help shepherd anyone who gets lost. Additionally, we have backup speakers in case of any technical difficulty. Captain America has volunteered to teach about how to write great villains. He’s fought plenty.

The goal of WANACon is to give you a true conference experience from home. One of the most valuable aspects of any conference is the face-time with experts, and we have a bunch of those.

Our line up:

WANACon 2013 Speakers and Agents

Best-Selling Author Candace Havens – Keynote Speaker

Bestselling author Candace Havens has written six novels for Berkley including, Charmed & Dangerous,Charmed & Ready, Charmed & Deadly, Like A Charm, The Demon King and I and Dragons Prefer Blondes. Her new venture is writing for the Blaze line of Harlequin. Those books include Take Me If You Dare, She Who Dares, Wins, Truth and Dare, and The Model Marine. She is also in the anthology Spirited, and the proceeds go to help literacy. Her books have received nominations for the RITA’s, Holt Medallion and Write Touch Reader Awards.

She is the author of the biography Joss Whedon: The Genius Behind Buffy and a contributor to several anthologies. She is also one of the nation’s leading entertainment journalists and has interviewed countless celebrities including Tom Hanks, Nicolas Cage, Tom Cruise, George Clooney and many more. Her entertainment columns can be read in more than 600 newspapers across the country. Candace also runs a free online writing workshop for more than 1800 writers, and teaches comprehensive writing class. She does film reviews with the Dorsey Gang on New Country 96.3, and is the President of the Television Critics Association.

New York Times & USA Today Best-Selling Author Shirley Jump – Keynote Speaker

Shirley Jump is a New York Times and USA Today best-selling author. She has sold twenty-five novels and now writes stories for Harlequin/Silhouette and Kensington Books about love, family and food—the three most important things in her life (though, there are many days when the order is reversed), using that English degree everyone said would be so useless. Read excerpts, see reviews or learn more about Shirley at: www.shirleyjump.com.

New York Times Best-Selling Author Allison Brennan

New York Times Bestselling Author Allison Brennan is the author of nineteen novels and several short stories. A former consultant in the California State Legislature, she lives in Northern California with her husband Dan and their five children.

Allison is currently writing the Lucy Kincaid series about an FBI recruit. The fifth book, Stalked, is on sale now. Stolen will be out on June 4, 2013, followed by Cold Snap on 10.29.13. Also, she’s thrilled to announce a new mystery series that will launch in March, 2014 starting with Maximum Exposure. For more information about investigative crime reporter Maxine Revere, visit her website, www.allisonbrennan.com.

Marcy Kennedy

Marcy Kennedy is a fantasy writer and freelance writer and editor who believes there’s always hope. Sometimes you just have to dig a little harder to find it. In 2007, she won the suspense/thriller category of Writer’s Digest’s Popular Fiction Competition, and in 2009, she won the grand prize. In 2011, she was honored to win the short feature category in the Canadian Christian Writing Awards. Although she still writes magazine and newspaper articles and edits projects for small businesses and individuals, her first love has always been fiction. Marcy is currently working on a co-written historical fantasy for the general market.

Jared Kuritz

Jared Kuritz is the Director of the La Jolla Writer’s Conference and a Managing Partner with STRATEGIES Literary Public Relations—a San Diego-based firm that works with NY Times bestselling authors and first time authors alike.  Unlike traditional PR firms, STRATEGIES works with many authors from the infancy of their projects to help decide their business model, the most ideal method(s) of publication, and the proper platform building activities.

Award-Winning Author Joshua Graham

Winner of the International Book Awards (Beyond Justice),
#1 bestselling author Joshua Graham’s award-winning novel Darkroom hit 3 bestseller lists on Amazon the night of its release.

CBS News described Darkroom as a book with “action, political intrigue and well-rounded characters…a novel that thriller fans will devour.”

Publishers Weekly described Beyond Justice as: “A riveting legal thriller…breaking new ground with a vengeance…demonically entertaining and surprisingly inspiring.”

Suspense Magazine listed Beyond Justice in its BEST OF 2010, alongside titles by Scott Turrow, Ted Dekker, Steven James and Brad Thor.

His short story The Door’s Open won the HarperCollins Authonomy Competition (Christmas 2010.)

Writing under the pen name Ian Alexander, Graham debuted with his first Epic Fantasy novel Once We Were Kings, an Amazon #1 Bestseller in multiple categories and Award-Winning Finalist in the SciFi/Fantasy category of The USA “Best Books 2011? Awards, as well as an Award-Winning Finalist in the Young Adult Fiction category of The USA “Best Books 2011? Awards, and an Award Winner in the 2011 Forward National Literature Awards in the Teen/Young Adult category. Once We Were Kings is available in e-book and hardcover editions.

J.E. Fishman

J.E. Fishman

Former Doubleday editor and literary agent, J.E. Fishman is author of the critically acclaimed animal-rights thriller Primacy, the comic mystery Cadaver Blues (A Phuoc Goldberg Fiasco), and the new financial thriller The Dark Pool. He also sponsors The 1000-Word Cliffhanger Contest. Find out more and follow him through http://jefishman.com.

Literary Agent Helen Zimmermann

Helen Zimmermann has been a marketing executive at The Crown Publishing Group, worked as the events director at an independent bookstore, and founded her agency in 2003. Her experience gives her unique and invaluable insight into each project that she works on. She is well aware of the value of in-house buzz, online marketing, store placement, social media, author platform, etc. and works hard to make sure all of these marketing components are in place for each and every project.

It is her goal to successfully steer her clients through the entire publication process, from writing, editing and polishing the content to marketing, publicity, production, and all aspects of the publication process. She has been a member of AAR since 2007.

Jenny Hansen

Jenny Hansen has been teaching software courses for more than 15 years in both live and online environments. Her ability to teach students at all levels has made her a primary trainer in many large projects for companies like Nestlé, Capital Group, Kaiser Permanente and CBS.

Currently, Jenny provides training and social media marketing for an accounting firm in addition to her training for WANA International. She writes memoir and women’s fiction, and has loads of fun blogging at More Cowbell. You can also find her on Twitter at @jhansenwrites.

Jason Chatraw

Jason Chatraw is the co-founder and CEO of Green E-Books, a small company he started three years ago with two other publisher but who quickly left him when their personal publishing companies became incredibly successful. For the past 23 years, Jason has been involved in the publishing industry on various levels.

He’s served as a sports editor of a daily newspaper, assistant editor on a million-circulation magazine, and written for The New York Times, and ghostwritten, co-authored or authored nearly 20 books. For the past few years, his focus has been on eBook publishing. As an eBook architect, Jason has designed more than 200 eBooks and has helped previously published authors find a new following through converting out-of-print titles into eBooks.

Lisa Hall-Wilson

Lisa Hall-Wilson is a freelance writer published across Canada specializing in marketing copy for faith-based non-profits, and short non-fiction pieces for magazines and newspapers. She specializes in interviews, profiles, and social justice initiatives. She’s passionate about making this world a better place one get-off-your-butt-and-do-something article at a time. She writes dark fantasy novels to find the authentic, the real, the heart-of-the-matter, because she’s convinced that the truth sets you free.

Best-Selling Author Aaron Patterson

Aaron Patterson is the author of the best-selling WJA series, as well as two Digital Shorts: 19 and The Craigslist Killer. He was home-schooled and grew up in the west. Aaron loved to read as a small child and would often be found behind a book, reading one to three a day on average. This love drove him to want to write, but he never thought he had the talent. His wife Karissa prodded him to try it, and with this encouragement, he wrote Sweet Dreams, the first book in the WJA series, in 2008. Airel is his first teen series, and plans for more to come are already in the works. He lives in Boise, Idaho with his family, Soleil, Kale and Klayton.

Intellectual Property Attorney Susan Spann

Susan Spann is a practicing California attorney with over ten years’ experience in intellectual property, publishing and contract law. Her publishing clients include book and magazine publishers, authors (both traditionally and  independently published), and developers of e-books and digital apps. She is also the author of  Claws of the Cat (St. Martin’s/Minotaur, July 2013), Book 1 of the Shinobi Mysteries featuring ninja detective Hiro Hattori.

Literary Agent Gordon Warnock

Gordon Warnock is a Senior Agent at Andrea Hurst Literary Management. He is a frequent teacher and speaker at conferences and MFA programs from coast to coast and a member of the oldest author services firm in the nation. His client list is an even balance of seasoned veterans and promising new voices including Robert V. Taylor, Howard Steven Friedman, and Tanya Chernov.

Gordon seeks to establish involved, long-term working relationships with talented and dedicated authors in such areas as: commercial fiction, graphic novels, contemporary YA and new adult, memoir, political and current affairs, pop-culture, self-help, humor and cookbooks. He is not looking for: religious fiction, genre fiction, new age, children’s, middle grade or anthologies.

Literary Agent Laurie McLean

At Larsen Pomada Literary Agents in San Francisco, Northern California’s oldest literary agency founded in 1972, Laurie McLean represents adult genre fiction (romance, fantasy, science fiction, horror, hip new westerns, mysteries, suspense, thrillers, etc.) as well as middle-grade and young-adult children’s books. She looks for great writing, first and foremost, followed by memorable characters, a searing storyline and solid world building.

For more than 20 years Laurie ran a multi-million dollar eponymous public relations agency in California’s Silicon Valley. She is passionate about marketing, publicity, negotiating, editing and a host of other business-critical areas. She is also a novelist herself, so she can empathize with the author’s journey to and through publication.

Laurie is the dean of San Francisco Writers University at www.SFWritersU.com and a key member of the management team of the San Francisco Writers Conference, www.SFWriters.org. In 2012 she and her author partners formed two ePublishing companies: JoyrideBooks.com for out-of-print vintage romance books, and AmbushBooks.com for classic out-of-print tween and teen children’s books.

Check out her agent blog, www.agentsavant.com, for tales of the agenting life, and the agency’s site, www.larsenpomada.com, for valuable information and links.

Literary Agent Pam van Hylckama Vlieg

Agent Pam van Hylckama Vlieg joined Larsen Pomada as an Associate Literary Agent in 2012 to represent young adult and middle grade children’s book authors, and adult romance authors. Over the past four years Pam has become one of the top YA book bloggers in the country at Bookalicious.org. She also partners her blog with Hicklebee’s, a children’s bookstore in San Jose, CA.

Pam writes supernatural YA and MG fiction and is represented by Laurie McLean, also of Larsen Pomada Literary Agents. She lives in the Bay Area of California with her Dutch husband, two children–a boy and a girl the perfect set–a Jack Russell terrier, a bull dog puppy, and a small guinea pig. It is her greatest dream to own a menagerie.And finally, MOI!

Social Media Jedi Kristen Lamb

Kristen Lamb is the author of the #1 best selling books, “We Are Not Alone–The Writer’s Guide to Social Media” and “Are You There, Blog? It’s Me, Writer.”

She is currently represented by Russell Galen of SGG Literary NYC. In her free time, Kristen trains sea monkeys for the purposes of world domination….when she isn’t trying to saw through her ankle monitor.

Registration is open through Saturday, but seats are limited and filling.

Registration

Again, here is where you can view the full conference schedule.

Sign up for BOTH DAYS of WANACon for a mere $125 (this includes ALL the parties and Surprise Pajama Sunday). Register HERE.

If you can only do one day? No problem! Registration is $75. Register HERE for DAY ONE or HERE for DAY TWO.

Ready to get an agent? Sign up for Agent Pitch Sessions HERE.

We hope to see you at WANACon and PAJAMACon. Seats are limited, so sign up asap. If you can’t attend WANACon, please at least help us spread the word. Since we don’t believe in traditional marketing or spam, WANA relies on genuine word of mouth. Please help spread the WANA love. Sow love and support then see what grows.

Do you have any more questions about WANACon? We are happy to help how ever we can, so ask away!

The post All You Ever Wanted to Know About the Writing Conference of the Future–WANACon appeared first on Kristen Lamb.

As you know, we are ramping up for the very first Worldwide WANACon! Enjoy a conference experience that’s as close to the real thing as possible. Technology now gives us the ability to meet top tier publishing professionals face to face, real-time and from the comfort of home. Finally! A conference you can attend in your PJs. Learn from the best in the industry, pitch agents, and socialize. It’s now all here in one place.

I was fortunate to meet Joel at Thrillerfest this past summer, and I was just blown away by his knowledge, his energy and his personality. That was why he made my premium list of WANACon recruits. Not only does he have experience as an editor, but he’s also worn agent shoes and now is an author as well. Who else better to help us explore what great books really look like?

Today, we are highlighting a small slice of what you can expect from this editor-agent-now-turned-to-The-Dark-Side-author, J.E. Fishman.

Take it away, Joel!

***

We all know that famous dictum — courtesy of Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart — about pornography. To paraphrase: we may not be able to define porn with precision, but we sure do know it when we see it.

The same might be said for book quality.

God knows that certain aspects of quality reside only in the eye of the beholder. And, furthermore, when it comes to books — as with so many things — quality is no guarantee of sales. Similarly, commercial success is no definitive indication of quality. And yet, as creators we ignore quality at our peril.

There are tangible qualities, such as the properties of a paperback book binding. And there are intangible qualities, such as delivery of a good story. The important thing to remember is that, when it comes to books, the intangibles can often be as important to readers as the tangibles.

I have in the past compared storytelling to buildings and to trips down a river, but I used those metaphors to benefit writers. The reader, for her part, will never think of a story that way because the reader doesn’t want to work that hard. Unless pressed, a person won’t ask what’s wrong with that building; she’ll only say, “It doesn’t please me.” She won’t necessarily speculate on what makes for a good trip down the river, but she’ll know for sure whether she enjoyed the journey.

So it is with any kind of book. The reader won’t necessarily bother to analyze what’s wrong or right with it; she’ll only know whether it “works” for her.

Since quality is in the eye of the beholder, the first step toward achieving a quality product is understanding what the customer wants. After all, our delight or disappointment in a book is largely a matter of expectations. While as the writer you can manage those expectations, you are making a big mistake if you think you can dictate them.

Expectations come from the reader, not from the author.

Thus, it behooves you as an author — whether you’re writing fiction or nonfiction — to focus on what the reader wants, not what you want.

For example, as a novelist I like having big moral themes in my work. While readers of mysteries and thrillers may willingly consume books that are heavy on themes, they aren’t coming to my books for the themes themselves. I can deliver the theme along with a page-turning story, but if I deliver theme without story then I’m lecturing.

No one wants a thriller to read like a polemic. On the other hand, if we’re looking to read a polemic, we may find a genre story to be a low-quality substitute indeed.

To take an example from the realm of nonfiction, imagine that you are a celebrity chef. Your cooking is to die for, but your personality not so much. What people want from you is recipes. If you set out to write a memoir about your childhood instead, you are quite likely to disappointment those who want you to shut up and cook. I can guarantee that these folks won’t come away with the impression that you wrote a quality memoir.

What of it? you might ask. Can’t I write a quality book that no one will read?

The answer is yes and no. If you write a book that has a natural audience of 100 people, and you know what those 100 people want, and you deliver, then that group will have a perception of quality because their expectations have been met.

On the other hand, if you set out to write a book with a natural audience of a million people but write one that appeals only to 100, those to whom you’ve marketed that book will have a perception of low quality.

No one ever says, “That book disappointed me, but it was A-plus in every other way.”

Expectations are the context in which quality gets judged. That’s why giving the reader the content that she wants is the first step toward quality.

***

THANK YOU, Joel! We really appreciate you taking time out of your busy schedule to be here.

J.E. Fishman

Former Doubleday editor and literary agent, J.E. Fishman is author of the critically acclaimed animal-rights thriller Primacy, the comic mystery Cadaver Blues (A Phuoc Goldberg Fiasco), and the new financial thriller The Dark Pool. He also sponsors The 1000-Word Cliffhanger Contest. Find out more and follow him throughhttp://jefishman.com. You can also check out his critically acclaimed novels HERE.

REMEMBER: WANACon is only two days away. We begin with a Thursday night social so you can get acclimated to our state-of-the-art digital classrooms. Then, we hop on a wild ride filled with NY Times best-selling authors, a USA Today best-selling authors, top agents, and more.

Registration

Again, here is where you can view the full conference schedule.

Sign up for BOTH DAYS of WANACon for a mere $125 (this includes ALL the parties and Surprise Pajama Sunday). Register HERE.

If you can only do one day? No problem! Registration is $75. Register HERE for DAY ONE or HERE for DAY TWO.

Ready to get an agent? Sign up for Agent Pitch Sessions HERE.

We hope to see you at WANACon and PAJAMACon. Seats are limited, so sign up asap. If you can’t attend WANACon, please at least help us spread the word. Since we don’t believe in traditional marketing or spam, WANA relies on genuine word of mouth. Please help spread the WANA love. Sow love and support then see what grows.

The post The First Step to a Quality Book–A Doubleday Editor Turned Author Speaks appeared first on Kristen Lamb.

 

One of the main reasons I launched WANA International was I realized that we were entering an entirely new paradigm and authors were vulnerable. Sure, we have a better chance of success than ever before, but we are open to old predators and new. We can’t fight what we don’t understand. We can’t defend against what we don’t know exists.

Intellectual Property Attorney Susan Spann is here with me today. This week, I want to take an opportunity to introduce you to some of the speakers that will be at WANACon this coming weekend, and I hope you will clearly see why I stalked, begged asked them to present. We writers are in a perilous world, and people like Susan can help keep you and your writing safe.

Take it away, Susan!

***

Would you give away your book for free?

I don’t mean a single copy. I mean the copyright – all copies, all languages, forever. Would you give that away for free, knowing you’d never make a penny and that the person you gave it to could make as much (or as little) as he or she liked?

If you would, feel free to go about your day.

But the rest of you, gather ‘round. I have a scary tale to tell.

As a publishing lawyer, I speak with a lot of writers. The lucky ones find me before they sign a contract. But there are others … not so lucky.

The ones who come too late, when there’s often nothing I can do.

The ones who signed a publishing contract that doesn’t require the publisher to account for moneys earned or amounts deducted from profits before “net royalties” are paid.

The ones who inadvertently granted their TV and movie rights to printer (not even a publisher) – for the life of copyright – and now won’t see a dime if the film rights sell.

The ones who entered their work in a contest – not realizing the entry rules contained a hidden copyright license that renders the work un-publishable by the author.

There are more. Many more, some even worse than the ones I’ve mentioned. (It does get worse. You’ll have to trust me there.)

And independent authors aren’t any safer than their traditional counterparts. Every time a book is published, in print or in digital format, there is a contract. Some indie websites and printers refer to their contracts as “terms of service,” but terms of service are legally binding contracts too.

Don’t be fooled.  A contract by any other name is just as thorny and just as dangerous to the unaware. Smart authors know how to recognize them, how to read them, and how to make smart decisions about them.

But how? How do I make decisions about something I don’t understand?

Feel like contracts might as well be written in CHINESE?

Good question. Here’s the answer.

1. Smart Authors Take Responsibility for Their Careers

As an author, whether you choose traditional publishing, independent publishing, or both, you are the one in charge of your career. Agents, editors, publishers, printers, and everyone else in the industry is a potential business partner, not an employer and not a mystical power controlling your destiny.

When you choose to write for publication – regardless of method or path – you are actually choosing a career. You wouldn’t enter a standard job expecting someone else to make choices for you. Don’t treat publishing differently than any other job.

2. Smart Authors Educate Themselves About the Industry

Don’t listen to hype, and don’t fall for myths and tricks. If you want a publishing career, learn about the business from every angle. It doesn’t matter whether you want to “go indie” or believe your choice is “brick and mortar all the way.” Learn about all the options, and continue learning throughout your entire career.

You can’t decide which option is best if you don’t know what the available options are.

Take your time. Read blogs. Read books. Explore resources. Ask questions every chance you get. Talk with authors – independent as well as traditionally published. Listen and learn. The more you know, the less likely you are to get caught in a trap.

3. Smart Authors Learn Some Publishing Legalese

Learn to read a publishing contract. Know the standard terms. Understand the places where contracts trap you, and have a reliable place to get answers when questions arise.

Find an attorney, an agent, or a qualified professional you can trust – and make sure that person understands publishing contracts. Publishing legalese differs from other forms of legal agreements. You need a specialist with experience in the industry.

Don’t let yourself be trapped or fooled by someone who seems “too nice to be taking advantage.” Don’t let the other side tell you what the contract says or what the strange words mean. Learn for yourself. Protect yourself. At the end of the day, you are your own best watchdog.

So be the best watchdog, and the most responsible author, you can be.

It’s your book. It’s the world you built in your head, and it deserves the very best chance of success you can give it.

And it’s more than just your book: it’s your career.

I ask again: would you give away your book for free?

No?

Then don’t let anyone take it from you either.

You are the President, CEO, and manager of your publishing career. Don’t take the responsibility lightly. Learn the industry. Be the watchdog. Save your (fictitious) world.

*          *          *

Huge thanks to Kristen Lamb for sharing her blogging platform with me today, and also for inviting me to speak at the upcoming WANACon online writing convention. I’ll be teaching a class on understanding publishing contracts and another on “being your own best watchdog,” and I’m honored to be part of the fantastic lineup of professionals that Kristen and WANA International have brought together for WANACon to help equip writers with the tools to establish, grow, and manage their careers.

*          *          *

Susan Spann is a practicing California attorney with over ten years’ experience in intellectual property, publishing and contract law. Her publishing clients include book and magazine publishers, authors (both traditionally and independently published), and developers of e-books and digital apps. She is the author of Claws of the Cat (St. Martin’s/Minotaur, July 2013), a Shinobi Mystery featuring ninja detective Hiro Hattori. Susan blogs about law, writing and seahorses at http://www.susanspann.com, and can be found on Twitter @SusanSpann

THANK YOU SUSAN! What Susan has to teach is SO vital, she has TWO classes at WANACon, and that’s because WANA is here for authors, ALL authors, no matter what road you choose to take for your publishing future. Thanks for stopping by, and details for WANACon are below.

Do you have any thoughts? Questions? Maybe a horror story to share? Did you nearly fall into a contract trap?

Registration

Again, here is where you can view the full conference schedule. WANACon is an on-line digital conference and it starts with a social Thursday night. The main conference and agent pitches are this Friday and Saturday and then there is the special PajamaCon with ME this Sunday. February 21-24 from YOUR HOME…ALL AWESOME.

Sign up for BOTH DAYS of WANACon for a mere $125 (this includes ALL the parties and Surprise Pajama Sunday). Register HERE.

If you can only do one day? No problem! Registration is $75. Register HERE for DAY ONE or HERE for DAY TWO.

Ready to get an agent? Sign up for Agent Pitch Sessions HERE.

We hope to see you at WANACon and PAJAMACon. Seats are limited, so sign up asap.

If you can’t attend WANACon, please at least help us spread the word. Since we don’t believe in traditional marketing or spam, WANA relies on genuine word of mouth. Please help spread the WANA love. Sow love and support then see what grows.

The post BE THE WATCHDOG – SAVE THE WORLD appeared first on Kristen Lamb.

Need some adverbs taken out?

All right, Valentines Day is tomorrow. The perfect gift for the writer in your life? WANACon. Perfect gift for yourself, for the LOVE of your writing? WANACon. Last week, I detailed all the wonders of this revolutionary new conference. It’s from home. No travel. No heap of extra expenses like air fare, baggage fees, taxi rides, hotel, food, and parking. No body cavity search from the TSA. It’s affordable. It’s GLOBAL.

We have two New York Times best-selling authors, a USA Today best-selling author, award-winning and nationally best-selling authors, one of the TOP PR firms in the US, and a brilliant Intellectual Property Attorney to talk contracts. And we have hip, cool agents who understand and embrace the new publishing paradigm just waiting to hear about your novel.

WANA is here to help all writers, no matter the path you choose to take.

We even have SUPER successful indies to teach about Amazon, how to successfully self-publish, and how to make your self-published book as good if not better quality than even the big publishers.

What could be better than that, right?

PAJAMACon.

WANA is all about reinventing the publishing paradigm, and what goes better with the Internet than PJs (and Monster Energy Drinks)? For those of you who sign up for Worldwide WANACon, you get a BONUS. Sunday with ME, in your jammies from 11-1 EST. I will be teaching Rise of the Machines–Human Authors in a Digital World (which is the title of my new book, btw).

We will talk about author brand, blogging and secrets to having your content go viral. There will even be a Q&A with me. Ask me anything you want to know about social media, blogging, craft or even how to genetically modify sea monkeys for the purpose of global domination.

Regular conferences are awesome, but they require a tie and slacks or makeup and Spanx. NOT PAJAMACon. It’s all about the PJs.

Yes, this is a bonus day, but the coolest part is that if you send us your jammy pictures, we will choose three winners. Surprise! Send us your Sponge Bob Jammies, your Star Wars Jammies, maybe even some irreverent Happy Bunny Jammies. We know you’re writers, so we are betting you have the best jammies out there (all PG, please). Put curlers in your hair or even show us your best bed head. Pose clutching a coffee pot with toddlers climbing your head…you know, how you normally write every day :D.

I will be teaching in jammies as well, namely because it’s always been a dream of mine :D. Other than having a REAL light saber.

PAJAMACon–the Conference full of WIN!

What’s Behind Door #1?

A 9 disc set of The Star Wars Saga on Blue Ray. Because, yes, WANA is ruled by geeks.

What’s Behind Door #2?

Gets me, The Death Star to read and critique the first ONE HUNDRED pages of your novel. If there are problems I will help you detail a plan to whip that WIP into publishing shape. Four years ago, I did this with Piper Bayard and now she has a sweet publishing deal and blurbs from no less than four NY Times Best-Selling Authors and a rave review from the Associated Press. Who knows what I might be able to do with your little gem? (Though, as a disclaimer, I’m an editor, not a magician. I will do my best ;)).

What’s Behind Door #3?

One winner will receive a YEAR of any participating WANA International class (up to Gold level) for only $10 a class (and 99% are participating). I would give the classes for FREE, but the $10 covers the technology that powers the classes. But, since most Gold level classes are $150 and above, this is a SWEET deal. You get a YEAR to learn about craft, business, law, social media, blogging, tweeting, as much as you can handle.

Registration

Again, here is where you can view the full conference schedule.

Sign up for BOTH DAYS of WANACon for a mere $125 (this includes ALL the parties and Surprise Pajama Sunday). Register HERE.

If you can only do one day? No problem! Registration is $75. Register HERE for DAY ONE or HERE for DAY TWO.

Ready to get an agent? Sign up for Agent Pitch Sessions HERE.

We hope to see you at WANACon and PAJAMACon. Seats are limited, so sign up asap. This is perhaps the ONLY V-Day gift better than chocolate and at WANACon, you will lose weight since you’ll be having so much fun, you might just forget to eat ;).

If you can’t attend WANACon, please at least help us spread the word. Since we don’t believe in traditional marketing or spam, WANA relies on genuine word of mouth. Please help spread the WANA love. Sow love and support then see what grows.

The post A Party in Your PJs–PAJAMACON The Ultimate Writer Fantasy appeared first on Kristen Lamb.