The Writer’s World Workshop took place yesterday, and many thanks to the And I Thought Ladies, Jade and Wilnona for inviting Kim Davis to speak about Madville Publishing and small press publishing in general. What a whirlwind! Many connections were made and much information was shared in a short period of time. Pre-Covid, we didn’t see this sort of digital gathering in which people from all around the country came together, spoke candidly and laughed together about our crazy industry.
Attendees ran the gamut from right across the industry. There were writers, screenwriters, publicists, Hollywood producers, and publishers. Madville was in good company.
Who attended?
- Rose Drew – CEO of Stairwell Books – https://www.stairwellbooks.co.uk/about/
- Rosemerry Trommer opened with a beautiful poem – AHundredFallingVeils.com daily poems and rosemerry.com, https://www.wordwoman.com/about/
- It was lovely to meet Janet Todd, who joined from England where a storm named Eunice was raging outside her window. She rejoined the conversation periodically throughout the day, and she was delightful. Her most recent book is Jane Austen and Shelley in the Garden. At one point, Janet Todd drew a connection for us between Jane Austen’s development as it related to Brandy Miller’s talk. She also told us about the Lucy Cavendish College Fiction Prize for women, which is now open.
- Kathy Murphy How to attract Book clubs- Pulpwood Queens Kathy L. Murphy, CEO and Founder of The International Pulpwood Queens and Timber Guys Book Club Reading Nation.
- Angela Anderson – Marketing 101 (Book PR/Marketing). Angela is a certified word nerd, who provides quality services including literary coaching, marketing, promotions, and literary cafe events in excellence, the Angela Anderson Presents way. Read about angela here: http://angelaandersonpresents.com/about/.
- Sean Connors – Dr. Connors teaches courses on young adult literature and graphic novels. He also works with English education interns in the Master of Arts in Teaching program.
- Victorine (New York Times Bestselling Author) “How to create a book Cover.”
- Amy Ferris (author, screenwriter, editor and playwright). Co-director story summit Learn about Amy Ferris here: http://marryinggeorgeclooney.com/about/
- Parasian hostess Tamara (How to Dress Your Brand) – Creator of The Parisian Hostess Brand of hand made essential oil products, Pin Up Personality, creator of Bombshell Academy Bootcamp. Read about the Parsian hostess here: https://www.theparisianhostess.com/collections/classes
- Charlie Rossiter, http://www.poetryspokenhere.com/, gave a great talk about poetry. He talked about “forest bathing” and the amusing habit we have of naming things like being in the woods. He invited us to feel the earth beneath us.
- Susan Wingate talked about podcasting. susanwingate.com/dialog, https://www.susanwingate.com/podcast
She said there are very few platforms (podcasts where they talk about books) where you can post fiction free of charge. Most cost $250-$750 for them to share information about your book. In response to this, Susan started Dialog Between the Lines. She was asked about services for podcasts and recommended pod beam and Buzz sprout, with Sound cloud taking third place because it isn’t quite as easy to use. Next, Susan inspired everyone with a discussion of MFA programs and told us how she has worked on an MFA durning COVID and how much she’s learned. It’s interesting to hear about a multi-published author doing her MFA. - B. Daniel (B.D.) Watkins, chief programmer for I Elevate Plus TV. She is a Hollywood producer who talked about the differences between writing for screen and writing for print. She tried to give a true picture of what it is like to write for TV, and told how it has been hard for her to go back to writing books where the author has to tell everything. If we want to get a book to Hollywood, we need to investigate creating a Pitch deck, then writing a screenplay. And we need a logline.
- Tonya Todd, a writer/actress. She hosts the Dime Grinds podcast, and loves to have authors read and talk about their work. dimegrinds@gmail.com Her most recent short story is in Love in the Dunes: Las Vegas Writers on Passion and Heartache. Her podcast is https://www.youtube.com/c/The52LovePodcast/, and she could always use more subscribers to her newsletter!
- Gabriel Cleveland – CavanKerry Press – a nonprofit literary press founded in 2000.
- Madeline Goldman. Publicity and Marketing. Madweek Marketing. Contact her at madeleine@madweekmarketing.com . Madeline also writes under the pen name, Adele Royce, and she invited us to look at and comment on her lovely new author’s website: adeleroyce.com
- Recorded reading and interview with Amy Ferris. “Loveletter to Women” Read about women supporting women. Hope and confidence. Storysummit.us
- Alex Creswick – film producer – gave a general weather report for the industry. To sum in up, it’s a rough time because of Covid restrictions, but if you have a script with a low production budget and not too many actors, you have a better chance.nwww.alexcreswick.com
- Lauren Marino, author of What Would Dolly Do? also Bookish Broads: Women who Wrote themselves into History. Lauren had great advice and info for other authors about the publishing process because not only is she an author, she works for Hachette.
- D C Gomez gave up some insider secrets about how to get onto the USA Today Bestsellers.
- David Legere of Woodhall Press dllegre.com, https://www.woodhallpress.com/. They’re currently accepting all sorts of things. Check their website.