Blogs and Columns Format: MP3 Download or USB Flash Drive These lectures were audio recorded at the Erma Bombeck Writers' Workshops between 2010 and 2018. Download the MP3 files today or have them shipped to you on a USB flash drive. Listen to these wonderful speakers recorded live.   THIS PACKAGE INCLUDES ALL OF THESE PRESENTATIONS: From Misfit with Blog to Author With Deal Jenny Lawson Jenny Lawson (aka “the Bloggess”) is an Internet rock star, with millions of readers — women and men — clicking on her every irreverent, hilarious thought. Her blog is consistently rated as one of the top blogs in the country. How do you create a social media persona, draw the attention of readers and build a community? Discover how to improve your blog, promote your writing — and maybe even land a book deal. Turn Your Blog into a Book Elaine Ambrose This session focuses on the nuts and bolts of creating a self-published book from your best blogs. You will learn how to compile and format chapters, hire professional designers to create the cover and layout, hire editors to read your manuscript, obtain reviews for the cover, purchase an ISBN number and bar code, and submit to print sources such as CreateSpace to produce a paperback and e-book for mass distribution. Targeted to experienced writers who have written at least 100 blogs or 10,000 words of a manuscript. The Real Hollywood Dream Is in Your Purse: How to Use a Smartphone to Create an Empire Cathryn Michon Though some mistakenly think dreaming of being a creative artist in Hollywood is a long shot, and you need to live in L.A. or New York to realistically pursue mass media, nothing could be further from the truth. The rise of social media has leveled the playing field like never before in history — and anyone can turn their creativity into a media empire. Just ask Psy, who with one deliciously crazy music video (Gagnam Style), turned himself into the world’s most-watched pop star ever! Discover how to use your smartphone, Twitter feed, Facebook fan base, Tumblr blog and other new media to market yourself and promote your writing — whether it’s your blog or book — to build an audience, develop leads, attract mainstream media attention and perhaps even land a contract, or better yet, to monetize and distribute your content without old media middlemen. The most powerful writer in Hollywood, E.L. James, started as a self-published fiction author. The power is in your purse (or backpack!). Learn social media tips from author/screenwriter/director/actress/entrepreneur Cathryn Michon, who created a “movie-ment” with her small, independent film, Muffin Top: A Love Story, now available on Netflix and multiple other platforms. Crafting Compelling Personal Essays Adair Lara Writing coach, columnist, essayist and author of Naked, Drunk and Writing, Adair Lara will teach you how to write very funny short pieces using setup, angle and voice. A humor columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle for 16 years, she will show writers how to use ordinary details and events to create extraordinary insights. Workshop includes great handouts (including a list of essay markets) and some fun (and useful!) writing exercises. Hundreds of Adair’s students have gone on to successful writing careers (including her son, who writes humor pieces for the New Yorker). Is There a Secret to Writing Funny? Alan Zweibel Erma Bombeck wrote, “There is a thin line that separates laughter and pain, comedy and tragedy, humor and hurt.” Great humor writers — from Mark Twain to Tina Fey — have been adept at straddling those thin lines. Learn how to write funnier from one of the funniest writers in the country. Tapping into his wealth of experience as an award-winning television writer, screenwriter, playwright and novelist, Alan Zweibel will offer his secrets for writing humorous essays, sketches, stand-up routines, blogs and novels. This Ain’t Your Mother’s Résumé: Turning a Simple Blog into a Great Website Tracy Beckerman There was a time when you would have to mail a cover letter, your résumé and writing samples to an editor in order to get a writing job. Not anymore. These days your website is your résumé, and email is your cover letter. Writing samples? They’re hyperlinks to your work online. If you’re not optimizing your website to make it your most effective selling tool, you’re missing a huge opportunity to market yourself and get work. However, creating a great website can be incredibly intimidating. In this session, you’ll learn to how to turn a simple blog into a compelling website that catches an editor’s eye and increases readership. How to Blog Your Way to a Book Deal Nina Amir If you can write, you can blog. Blogging a book is the easiest and quickest way to write a book and promote it at the same time. Nina Amir, a nonfiction editor and book coach, proposal consultant, blog-to-book coach with more than three decades of experience in the publishing field and author of How to Blog a Book and The Author Training Manual, will show you how to turn your blog into one that attracts readers, agents and publishers, how to produce books as you blog and how to produce a book from previously blogged material. A blog with an established readership represents a successfully test-marketed book idea. A blogger with a large readership is an attractive publishing partner. Staying Power Advice From Top Opinion Columnists Suzette Martinez Standring The superstars of opinion writing — Ellen Goodman, Connie Schultz, Clarence Page and others — all faced closed doors, biases or rejection early in their careers. Their answer was to blaze new trails, and to pioneer innovative columns with irresistible writing. Learn the writing strategies of famous award-winning columnists known for career longevity. Suzette Standring featured outstanding op-ed writers in her new newly published book, The Art of Opinion Writing: Insider Secrets from Top Op Ed Columnists. Write Out Loud: Blogs, Books and Beyond Donna Cavanagh In an Internet-driven world, a blog is often the cornerstone of a writer’s professional foundation. But cookie-cutter blogs aren’t the answer to professional success. Are single-person blogs preferable to multi-writer sites? Is team-driven traffic preferable to flying solo? What level of professional and financial commitment is necessary for the vast number of blogging options? Which blog appeals to your personality? Which type will prepare you to grow as a writer? Which will showcase you best as an author, screenwriter or playwright? It’s time to give the blog the respect it deserves while focusing on your ultimate goal. Whether it’s books, Broadway or beyond, let’s take the first step together. Column Writing: How Personal is Too Personal? Gina Barreca TMI. PDA. Everybody, it seems, is sharing all the intimate details of their lives — and that’s just while standing in line for coffee. Soon we’ll be able to hear all about it for hours on end in a locked airline cabin, since everybody will be shouting into a cell phone. As a writer, should you be shouting above everybody else, taking notes or checking with your own family members about whether they’ve already engaged legal representation? Internationally celebrated humor columnist Gina Barreca believes “we create, construct and tell stories to own them.” In this workshop, she’ll share tips on how writers can find the courage, wit and honesty to transform own deepest, most personal moments into works that capture, embrace and illuminate the universal experience. Self-Publishing is the New Black David Braughler and Robin O'Bryant No longer do self-published authors have to hang their heads in shame when asked the dreaded question, “Who published your book?” Learn from two Indie book vets: David Braughler, publishing adviser with Greyden Press, who works with independent authors, organizations, coaches and executives to help them take their stories and expertise into published books. And Robin O’Bryant, a stay-at home mom, turned blogger, who leveraged a small-town newspaper column to begin building a platform for her self-published book, Ketchup is a Vegetable & Other Lies Moms Tell Themselves. Ketchup reached #12 on the Amazon Bestseller list, hit #3 on the New York Times list and was subsequently purchased to be republished by St Martin’s Press. Let David and Robin give you an overview of the self-publishing process, and you’ll leave convinced that self publishing is the “new black.” In Their Own Write Tony Cochran and Tom Batiuk Tony Cochran (Agnes) and Tom Batiuk (Funky Winkerbean and Crankshaft) each create daily comic strips syndicated in hundreds of papers . . . day after day, every day until the day they die. It is a sentence they not only welcome, but sought out as well. Find out how they keep it fresh, make it funny and stay relevant in a world of cyberspeed . . . day after day, every day until the day they die. If You Blog It, They Will Come: How to Blog Your Own Field of Dreams Nettie Reynolds The Craft of Column Writing Mary McCarty, W. Bruce Cameron, Craig Wilson, Connie Schultz, Moderated by Laura Pulfer Lunch with Connie Schultz - The Craft of Column Writing Connie Schultz Marketing Your Work to Regional Prarenting Magazines Terri Nighswonger How to Bully, Plead and Cajole Your Way Into Syndication Tracy Beckerman Better Living Through Blogging Danny Gallagher Erma Says: Three Columnists Discuss the Columns of Erma Bombeck Gail Collins, Mary McCarty and Laura Pulfer Chookooloonks: Much More Than a Blog Karen Walrond Hypnotic Recall Creates Spellbinding Columns Suzette Martinez Standring