The main 2011 San Francisco Writers Conference has already sold out, but you can still put yourself on the waiting list or sign up for one of the extra sessions before or after the conference. (And you’ll be able to buy recordings after the conference is over.)
On Thursday, February 17th, there’s a pre-conference pitch tutorial led by literary agent Katharine Sands. (6 to 9 pm at The Mark Hopkins Hotel, San Francisco) That’s designed to prepare attendees for the Speed Dating with Agents session on Sunday at the main conference, but it should be equally helpful for pitching on any occasion.
Among the full-day and half-day classes on Monday, February 21st, here are a few of note:
Social Media for Authors
This is especially noteworthy because one of the instructors is my friend Tee Morris. I’ve known Tee since I started listening to his “Survival Guide to Writing Fantasy” podcast in 2005. Tee writes both fiction (fantasy adventure, fantasy/mystery, and steampunk) and non-fiction (Podcasting for Dummies, Sam’s Teach Yourself Twitter in Ten Minutes) and has serious social media chops. Plus he’s a really fun guy and a highly entertaining presenter. He’s also leading at least two sessions at the main conference, so he’s going to be a tired puppy by the time he gets back on the plane to Virginia.
Self-Publishing Boot Camp
Carla King, Alan Rinzler, Joel Friedlander, Mark Petrakis, Alexis Masters, Walter Hardy, Karen Leland, Mark Coker, and Tammy Nam are a lineup guaranteed to leave no stone unturned in mapping out all the details of self-publishing both print books and e-books. Among the topics covered are book design, manuscript editing, marketing and PR, SEO, and e-book formats from Kindle to Smashwords.
How to Write a Book Proposal
Led by literary agent Michael Larsen (one of the conference’s founders) and editor Alan Rinzler, this half-day class is a good pairing with Thursday’s pitch training. If you’ve read Larsen’s book by the same name, you might prefer one of the other classes, but I suspect there’s going to be more in the class than there was in the book, and not just because of Rinzler’s input. In any case, I do recommend the book, particularly if Michael Larsen is one of the agents you want to send your proposal to!