Agent/Editor Panel -
An introduction to attending agents and editors, what genres they represent, how they like submissions, and Q & A time. Writer down your questions and bring them along.

Advanced Storytelling: The Art of Revision - Holly Payne
Great writing is rewriting. How do you know your manuscript is "great" and ready to submit to an agent or editor? How complete is your 'completed draft'? You have one chance to make a first impression with an agent or editor, so take a deep breath, exercise patience and get ready to transform your manuscript from good to great! This 2-hour interactive workshop will help you pinpoint specific story elements that you may not have addressed yet - including structural snags (story design issues) and character development and assure that your draft is 'final' and ready to submit. Bring a one-page 500-word synopsis of your novel.

Dazzling Dialogue - James Scott Bell
Dialogue is the fastest way to both elevate or sink a manuscript. Fortunately there are easy to understand techniques that will make all the difference in the world for the success of your manuscript. You'll learn about orchestration, the "side step," a model for instant conflict, and many other nuts and bolts for fictional talk.

Plotting For Perfect Structure, Every Time - James Scott Bell
In this workshop you will learn how to maximize the crucial factors of Lead, Objective, Confrontation and Knock-out Ending, which will give your novel a solid structure every time.

Agents Dos and Don'ts - Ginger Clark
How to properly approach an agent, via a query or in person; how to deal with suggested revisions or the dreaded rejection; how to handle that call when the agent has offered representation; and how to communicate well and flourish in your relationship with your agent.

Building One's Fiction Platform - Anne Bensson
Ever wonder how you as a fiction writer can build a platform that will be attractive to agents and editors? This workshop will help you understand what a platform means for novelists, what kinds of promotion are most attractive to editors and other publishing professionals, and what you can do to best promote yourself and your book online and in the real world.

Twitter& Social Media Marketing - Janet Lane
Social media marketing-tool, or time-waster? We'll draw from the experiences of other writers, and we'll share our own experiences with this new method of marketing. Is it useful if you're a published author, and is it useful if you're pre-pubbed? We'll discuss ways to tap Twitter's strengths. We'll look at the pitfalls of Tweeting, and learn how your web site, blogs and Tweets can work together to promote your book and your brand.

Critique Groups: One Size Does Not Fit All - Jeanne Stein
Everyone comes into the world naked and unpublished. Here's a chance to find out what works in a critique group and what doesn't.

Book Club Discussions with Holly Payne, Bill Brands, & James Scott Bell
Each author will take part in a 15-minute discussion about their book. Holly's book, Kingdom of Simplicity, Bill Brands book, Traitor to His Class: The Privileged Life and Radical Presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and James Scott Bell's book, Try Dying.

Agent/Editor First Pages Panel -
Agents and editors take turns reading volunteers' first pages out loud as if it was a submission coming across their desk, then the panel briefly comments on it. What worked, what didn't. How far the agent or editor would read (one paragraph , the whole page, request more) and why? To keep our panel on their toes, there are a few current best-selling authors' first pages mixed in. Think they can identify them?

Storytelling in Non-Fiction Format - Bill Brands
Authors of history and authors of fiction share (or should share) a passion for stories. The difference lies in the compact they make with readers: for the historians (and other nonfiction writers), the stories have to be true. The workshop will discuss the constraints this places on the historians--and the opportunities it affords them.

The Dreaded Synopsis - Joanna Stampfel-Volpe
You've written and revised your novel, polished your query, and then the agent/editor asks you for...dun, dun, DUN!!...the dreaded synopsis. Before you toss your computer out the window, let me help show that your dreaded synopsis doesn't have to be so dreadful in my intro workshop on how to create the perfect synopsis.

Alternative Publishing Options For the Bold and Hopeful - Holly Payne
Self-published titles topped 764,000 in 2009 - while traditional titles dropped to 289,729 books. Despite the doom and gloom of traditional publishers, one thing remains certain: if you've written a truly great book, you can and will find readers! With the advent of digital books, e-books, Print-on-Demand books and the plethora of "vanity" presses and publishing services designed to help unknown authors realize their publishing dreams, there is no better time than now to launch your book. In this 45-minute presentation, you'll learn about the choices you have to publish your book by taking matters into your own hands. You decide what's best. With so many ways to Mecca, you can publish your book in the way you want!

Chat with Editor Christine Pride
Ask Christine Pride-editor at Broadway Books, anything about any issue related to publishing itself, or her role as an editor.

Free Range Characters - Janet Lane
Are your characters sufficiently motivated at major turning points? Are they in charge or are they stuck in a cage of your making, just reacting to author needs? Produce stronger characters, endings, novels. Movies discussed include Cars, Beauty and the Beast, Silence of the Lambs, Titanic, Avatar. Give your characters free-range to grow and triumph at story's end.

Publishing Business: Crash Course in Publishing Commercial Fiction - Jeanne Stein
Topics covered in this crash course include some "rules" of writing, determining point of view and world building, story structure including plotting and story question, character development, writing good dialogue, creating conflict and maintaining suspense We'll look at the business of writing, how the money works. We'll discuss publishing venues: big house, small house, self-publishing. Quick and Dirty.

Closing with Kaki Warner
Pearls of wisdom from previous Sandy Finalist and CB Writer member made good with 2 three-book contracts with Berkley