Saturday and Sunday, November 2 & 3: the third annual Ventura County Writers’ Weekend in Camarillo. The theme is Get Published! and offers workshops and panel discussions.
Memoirists Alice Rene, Jervey Tervalon, and Matt Pallamary will discuss how real-life experiences were crafted into award-winning memoirs.
NY Times best-selling author Margaret Brownley and non-fiction author Tom Silver join the panel on building an author’s platform, the social media and web tools that can boost book sales. They are joined by book publicist Flo Selfman and author/book marketer Stephen Smoke.
Four Southern California literary agents will discuss what publishers are buying and the trends for next year. Los Angeles agents B.J. Robbins and Charlotte Gusay are new to Ventura. Returning speakers are agent and lawyer Dana Newman and agent Toni Lopopolo.
A half-day workshop showcases editor and author Shelly Lowenkopf. He has seen over 700 books to publication throughout his career and continues to editor books for top authors. Shelly is joined by Toni Lopopolo. They will discuss how to craft the perfect elevator or log line pitch. The second half of the workshop is on revising and re-visualizing a manuscript to have it leap off the page.
Another half-day workshop addresses self-publishing. Author Ayn Cates-Sullivan, former New York book designer Deborah Daly, book shepherd Ellen Reid, and VCWC anthology publisher Barbara Piszczek review the self-publishing route: selecting a printer, how to distribute online, navigating Amazon, and more.
Seating is limited. The event takes place at the PleasantValleyCommunityPark in the SeniorCenter and runs from 9 to 5 on Saturday and 10 to 5 on Sunday.
Registration and full details for each class is at: www.PIPWWritersWeekend.com or phone 805-607-6717.