cuyahoga county public library Archives

Western Reserve Writers Conference 2024

Introduction

I attended the 39th annual Western Reserve Writers Conference 2024 on March 23, 2024. They held the Conference at the South Euclid-Lyndhurst branch of the Cuyahoga County Public Library at the William N. Skirball writer’s center at the branch. It was a one-day event with an introduction, a keynote speaker, three breakout sessions, and one first-page critique panel.

This is the link to the Cuyahoga County Library.

https://www.cuyahogalibrary.org

This is the link to the writer’s center at the library branch.

https://www.cuyahogalibrary.org/Services/William-N-Skirball-Writers-Center.aspx

Summary

Saturday, March 23rd at 9:30 AM

Welcome and Conference Overview

Deanna R. Adams is the conference coordinator and Laurie Kincer is the librarian in charge of the writer’s center.

Laurie explained how they set up the library, where the three meeting rooms were located, and about the door prizes available at 4 PM. Deanna introduced the keynote speaker, Brandi Larsen.

They held the welcome and conference overview in the meeting room A/B/C with about 100 attendees.

Saturday, March 23rd at 9:45 AM

Keynote Speaker: What’s Best for Your Writing Right Now.

The keynote speaker was Brandi Larsen, the 2024 Cuyahoga County Public Library Writer in Residence. She is a writer, speaker, and a writing coach.

She talked about sharing how to weave in the threads of community, craft, and commerce to bring more joy and inspiration into your writing (and encourage you to approach the writing desk with confidence).

Craft: The big questions. Can you get to the page? Figure out your writing style alignment. What is your why? Can you communicate what you wish? Can you finish what you start?
Community: The world needs your work. We need each other. Find your people. Showing up matters. Books are loved into life.
Commerce: What do you want for your writing? Are you ready for your writing to become a product?

They held the talk in the meeting room A/B/C with about 100 attendees.

Saturday, March 23rd at 11:30 AM

Breakout Session: Self-Editing Tips for Writers of all kinds.

The presenter was Rebecca Ferlotti. She is an editor.

You must self-edit your work first before you even consider sending your work to an editor. So, why do you hate editing? Whatever you do, don’t stop writing to read between the lines. Read the story out loud to change your headspace. Print out the story and cut it to edit it. When you read, keep in mind detail deficits and places to pare down your writing. Also consider continuity issues, word choices and grammatical errors. Final advice: complete your first draft before your first edit.

You can find Rebecca Ferlotti at the following website.

The Content Cornerstone

They held the talk in the writer’s center meeting room with about 45 attendees.

Recommendation – Conclusion

I enjoyed attending the Western Reserve Writers Conference 2024. I also attended the conference in 2019, 2022, and 2023 (they canceled the conference in 2020 and 2021 because of COVID-19). My Star of the Con was Rebecca Ferlotti. She had some brilliant advice for writers who want to self-edit their work.

Links

This is my Recap for the Western Reserve Writers Conference on March 26, 2022, where I attended the introduction, a keynote speaker, and two breakout sessions. The Cuyahoga County Public Library held the conference at the South Euclid-Lyndhurst branch.

Western Reserve Writers Conference 2022

I attended the 36^th annual Western Reserve Writers Conference on April 27, 2019. They held the Conference at the South Euclid-Lyndhurst branch of the Cuyahoga County Public Library at the William N. Skirball writer’s center at the branch. It was a one-day event with an introduction, a keynote speaker, three breakout sessions, and one first-page critique panel. I attended the introduction, a keynote speaker, and two breakout sessions. I thought The Western Reserve Writers Conference was well run, diverse in the presentations offered, and informative. My Star of the Con was Bree Barton. Her presentation was fun, the exercises were useful, and I liked her personality.

Western Reserve Writers Conference 2019

I attended the 34^th annual Western Reserve Writers Conference on September 23, 2017. I could not attend last year. This is a link to my review of the 2017 conference.

The Western Reserve Writers Conference

Western Reserve Writers Conference 2022

Introduction

I attended the 37^th annual Western Reserve Writers Conference on March 26, 2022. They held the Conference at the South Euclid-Lyndhurst branch of the Cuyahoga County Public Library at the William N. Skirball writer’s center at the branch. It was a one-day event with an introduction, a keynote speaker, three breakout sessions, and one first-page critique panel.

This is the link to the Cuyahoga County Library.

https://www.cuyahogalibrary.org/

This is the link to the writer’s center at the library branch.

https://www.cuyahogalibrary.org/Services/William-N-Skirball-Writers-Center.aspx

Summary

Saturday, March 26th at 9:30 AM

Welcome and Conference Overview

Deanna R. Adams is the conference coordinator and Laurie Kincer is the librarian in charge of the writer’s center.

Laurie explained how they set up the library, where the three meeting rooms were located, and about the door prizes available at 4 PM. Deanna introduced the keynote speaker, Erin Hosier.

They held the welcome and conference overview in the meeting room A/B/C with about 90 attendees.

Saturday, March 26th at 9:40 AM

Keynote Speaker: The Who, What, When, Where, and Why of Literary Agents.

The keynote speaker was Erin Hosier. She is a veteran agent and author.

Erin specializes in representing non-fiction biographies, memoirs, and contemporary fiction. She gave an example of one of the books that she sold from submission to publication. Self Care by Leigh Stein is a contemporary fiction novel. It was pitched to 25 editors in March 2019. 23 responded and they held an auction three weeks later. The winner was Penguin books which published the novel on June 30, 2020.

In a Query Letter, it is important to get the comp titles correct and make them recently published.

She went over the steps for a book proposal for non-fiction works.

An editor accepted her proposal for her memoir, Don’t Let me Down: A Memoir. It took her seven years to write it.

She gets about 50 proposals a month and accepts about five per year.

They held the talk in the meeting room A/B/C with about 90 attendees.

Saturday, March 26th at 10:30 AM

Breakout Session: What Authors Should Know About the Law: Publishing Law 101.

The presenter was Jacqueline Lipton. She is a literary attorney and literary agent.

Jacqui wanted to write a book about explaining legal matters simply for writers because that book was not on the market.

She went over copywriting basics.

Trademarks are a tricky concept. She explained it this way. Trademarks (commercial) versus patent (ideas) versus Copywrite (also ideas).

Goodreads link to Jacqui’s book: Law and Authors: A Legal Handbook for Writers

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/51852533-law-and-authors

Jacqui is the founder of the Raven Quill Agency found at this web address.

Home

They held the talk in the meeting room A/B/C with about 40 attendees.

Saturday, March 26th at 3:00 PM

Breakout Session: Writing and Submitting Short Stories.

The presenter was Marie Vibbert. She has sold over 70 short stories and her debut novel, Galactic Hellcats.

What is a short story? She describes it this way. It is a complete story of about one thousand to eight thousand words. A short story is enjoyable and impacts the reader emotionally. It has at least four ideas covering character, place, a problem, and a theme.

Her advice is to know and read in your genre. Every genre has its own conventions which you learn by reading. She writes science fiction almost exclusively. Fantasy doesn’t work for her.

Beginnings are crucial. Figure out the beginning of the story to fit with the ending.

So, you have a draft. What now? Here are three ways to find markets to sell.

For Science Fiction stories, you can submit them to any of the SFWA qualifying markets.

https://www.sfwa.org/?s=market+report

Qualified markets pay a professional rate.

Use the submission grinder to track your submissions.

https://thegrinder.diabolicalplots.com/ Use an open call in a Facebook Group.

This is the link to the Goodreads page for Galactic Hellcats.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53388150-galactic-hellcats

They held the talk at the Homework Center with about 30 attendees.

Recommendation – Conclusion

The Western Reserve Writers Conference 2022 returned well. I attended the conference in 2019, but they canceled the conference in 2020 and 2021 because of COVID-19. I’m glad they held the conference, and it seems as well attended as before the pandemic. My Star of the Con was Marie Vibbert. She had some brilliant advice for aspiring short story writers. I saw her speak at the virtual conference, Cleveland Inkubator 2021 and her presentation was great then too.

Links

Western Reserve Writers Conference 2019

I attended the 34^th annual Western Reserve Writers Conference on September 23, 2017. I could not attend last year. This is a link to my review of the 2017 conference.

The Western Reserve Writers Conference

Indie Author Conference Parma 2019

Introduction

I attended the Indie Author Conference in Parma, Ohio on October 12, 2019, at the Parma-Snow branch of the Cuyahoga County Library at 2121 Snow Road Parma, Ohio 44134. The Cuyahoga County Library sponsored the conference for the fourth time. There were three presentations in the morning and a local author fair in the afternoon. The focus of the conference was for writers and authors to learn more about self-publishing. They featured thirty-one authors in the showcase. The listed authors all had at least one published book in either 2018 or 2019 for sale.

Link to Cuyahoga County Library website

https://www.cuyahogalibrary.org/

Summary

Saturday, October 12th at 10 AM

Understanding Amazon.com presentation with J. Thorn

The goal of his presentation was to show how to best sell a self-published book on Amazon. The slides to this presentation can be found at https://theauthorlife.com/iad2019/ J. Thorn also offers a free book on how to self-publish on his website https://theauthorlife.com/ The first important point to understand is that your cover must tell your genre. He became a bestseller when e-books just began in 2012 with his book, The Seventh Seal, which had 34 thousand downloads that year. After writing the book and looking at reviews, he realized that you need an editor to make your book the best you can make it.

Amazon is algorithmically driven. It isn’t like the library, Kobo, or Barnes & Noble. Amazon shows the potential buyer selections based on the algorithm. In the others, purchasers select the books to be displayed. The order of importance in selling a book is the cover, then title, then description. Know and target your ideal reader to cater to the algorithm. Amazon cares about the reader, not the author. Think like them to sell the most.

Using these methods, his book, Dawn, had one million page reads in 100 days. He thinks it is better to keep writing instead of chasing reviews since he gets one review per 1000 reads of his books. To help to find your ideal reader, he suggests the book by Chris Fox, Write to Market: Deliver a Book That Sells. Be a part of the community you want to serve. Engage your audience through social media or other means. Get to be a super fan of your genre to learn the conventions of the genre. Write what you read, don’t write the flavor of the month. Your readers will know if you understand them.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13511587-the-seventh-seal

They held the presentation in the Administration Building Auditorium with 32 attendees and the start increasing to 50 attendees at the end.

Saturday, October 12th at 11 AM

Protecting Your Work presentation with Willie and Rachel Scott

They Started TKI Publishing to help writers publish.

Willie and Rachel started TKI Publishing to help writers publish.

https://tkipublishing.com/

This talk was about protecting your work. The ISBN captures the information for your book. It is necessary to have an ISBN to sell your book online. Book barcodes are created from the ISBN which is needed for print books. You should own your own ISBN. ISBNs can be bought from Bowker at https://www.myidentifiers.com/

If you want to Copywrite your book, get a Library of Congress number at https://www.copyright.gov/ for $55.

They held the presentation in the Administration Building Auditorium with 50 attendees.

Saturday, October 12th at 12 PM

How My Self-Published Book Sold Over 100K Copies presentation with Dustin Brady

Dustin Brady Self-Published his children’s book, Trapped in a Video Game, in 2016. He had the idea to write the book that he would have liked as a ten-year-old boy. Watching the Nickelodeon Arcade inspired him to write his book with the protagonist playing inside a video game. The book has sold 250K copies to date. He said his secret was that he got lucky. His marketing strategy is to promise something that someone wants, then overdeliver on that promise.

The someone is your target audience which should be small and definable. He discovered his audience were the parents of small boys who hate reading. The promise starts with the cover. He learned that parents and teachers are the ones who buy his books, not the boys themselves. The cover should tell what the book is about and how it meets their needs. Over-deliver by putting in the work, it’s the only way to succeed. He found that the author’s guild helped him by giving lawyer advise about reviewing contracts. https://www.authorsguild.org/

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30969081-trapped-in-a-video-game

They held the presentation in the Administration Building Auditorium with 50 attendees.

Saturday, October 12th from 1 PM to 4 PM

Showcase with 31 Authors.

The authors set their tables up to sell their books. Willie and Rachel Scott and Dustin Brady ha tables set up. The authors gave five-minute readings of their work.

They held the showcase in the Parma-Snow Auditorium.

Recommendation – Conclusion

The Indie Author Conference at the Parma-Snow library was interesting and well run. The presenters each gave a personal and relatable story with their lectures. They didn’t know what they didn’t know when they started but persisted with luck and perseverance. J. Thorn made navigating the Amazon.com jungle easier, the Scotts made protecting your information crystal clear, and Dustin Brady showed how he made his book series a success. You can find proof of the possibility of success at the independent author showcase. My Star of the Con was J. Thorn. His presentation was the most interesting. It was another excellent conference at the library, and I intend to return next year.

Links

I attended the Indie Author Conference and Showcase on November 12, 2016, at the Parma-Snow branch of the Cuyahoga County Public Library in Parma, Ohio. This is the link to my recap.

Indie Author Conference and Showcase

I attended the Indie Author Day on October 14, 2017, at the South Euclid-Lyndhurst branch of the Cuyahoga County Public Library in South Euclid, Ohio. This is the link to my recap.

Indie Author Day 2017

Indie Author Conference and Showcase

Indie Author Conference and Showcase 2016.

I attended the Indie Author Conference and Showcase 2016.

Introduction

The Indie Author Conference and Showcase were held on November 12, 2016, at the Parma-Snow branch of the Cuyahoga County Public Library in Parma, Ohio.

Three lectures were presented concerning different aspects of self-publishing. Following the lectures, a showcase was presented featuring over 50 self-published authors.

The first lecture was by Dana Kaye, called “Your Book, Your Brand”.

She presented the lessons she learned as a publicist and detailed in her book. It is important to create and establish your author brand, which consists of you and your book. To find your brand search for the common denominator in your writing and distill that into a short tagline. To establish your brand, first get your online house in order. Make sure that all the platforms that you use, reflect the message that you want to convey. Update your website. Secure your online real estate. Create accounts even if you do not use them now, because at some time you might want to use them and you do not want someone else to use a site that can be confused with content coming from you. Identify your target audience. Develop a content strategy. Do not be afraid to say no, if an opportunity does not fit your brand.

The second lecture was by Deanna Adams, called “Beta Readers and Editors: Don’t Publish Without Them”.

There is more to creating your best work than just self-editing your manuscript. It is important to invest in yourself and in your book. Search for an editor because they can see what you can’t, they understand the industry, and can help you become a better writer. The Editorial Freelancers Association job listing service is a good place to look for freelance editors at http://www.the-efa.org/ Writer’s groups are a good resource for beta readers. Beta readers in your genre can give insights into where your writing is going right and going wrong.

The last lecture was by A. E. Jones on “Self-Publishing Doesn’t Mean You Have to Do Everything Yourself.”

First, every author must ask some basic questions. Why do you want to publish? Why do you write? What do you want to accomplish? How much can you afford to spend? How much time can you dedicate to writing? Depending on how an author answers these questions, determines where you go next. Everyone needs a support system. You must find your tribe. Your tribe is like-minded individuals that share your goals. Determine what you can do on your own and when you need to call on your tribe.

The following are the steps for publishing your work. Write the book. Determine your goals and motivations. Determine your publishing path, traditional, completely self-published, or independently published. If you choose Indie, then learn the process. Determine what you can do yourself and what you need help on. She handed out an information sheet which gave many examples of the websites that further expand on her steps for publishing.

She offered one of her books for free on https://www.instafreebie.com/ I have downloaded several additional books from the website. The site offers different genre books at different times.

Conclusion

The best thing for me at this conference was that I found one person from my tribe. Cat Russell, the self-described writer, reader, vegan, poetess of the Greek Gods can be found at https://catherinerussellwriter.wordpress.com/ and https://twitter.com/ganymeder

I’m glad I went to this conference, I learned a lot.

Links

A similar Conference to the Indie Author Conference and Showcase 2016 was the Western Reserve Writers Conference 2016. Winter Fiction Fest is sponsored by Literary Cleveland while the Cuyahoga County Public Library sponsors a similar event called the Western Reserve Writers Conference 2016.

This is my recap for the Western Reserve Writers Conference 2016 on September 24, 2016. It was located at the South Euclid-Lyndhurst branch of the Cuyahoga County Public Library at the new William N. Skirball writer’s center which is located at the branch. It was a one-day event with an introduction, a keynote speaker, three breakout sessions, and one Q & A panel.

Western Reserve Writers Conference

Western Reserve Writers Conference

Introduction

The Western Reserve Writers Conference was held on September 24, 2016, at Lyndhurst, Ohio

I attended the 33^rd annual Western Reserve Writers Conference on September 24, 2016. It was located at the South Euclid-Lyndhurst branch of the Cuyahoga County Public Library at the new William N. Skirball writer’s center which is located at the branch. It was a one-day event with an introduction, a key note speaker, three breakout sessions and one Q & A panel.

The conference is sponsored by the Cuyahoga County Public Library.

https://cuyahogalibrary.org/

Summary – Keynote Speaker

The day began at the large meeting room which contained chairs for over 100 attendees and the tables for the presenters’ book sale. We were first welcomed by Laurie Kincer, the librarian for the writer’s center, and Deanna R. Adams, the conference coordinator. They detailed how the conference would proceed. The conference was previously located at Lakeland Community College located in Kirtland, Ohio. This is the first year that the conference has been held at this location. The keynote speaker, John Ettorre, was introduced. He spoke about his relationship with writer and editor William Zinsser. Zinsser was a mentor of his who had passed away last year. He described how Zinsser had encouraged him and many others in the craft of writing. Zinsser’s most famous book is On Writing Well.

Summary – Organizing Your Novel

At the first breakout session, I chose to listen to Julie Anne Lindsey who commented on organizing your novel. She writes young adult novels and cozy mysteries. She said that she finds that what helps in her writing is to create outlines. That way she knows that every writing day she has one chapter to write and what that chapter will contain. I thought that it was interesting that she mentioned Stephen King’s On Writing as a great resource since he advocates writing as you feel. George R. R. Martin comments on his Not a Blog that writers are either gardeners or architects. King and Martin are certainly gardeners while I would put Lindsey as an architect. Both are valid ways to write. Every writer has their own process and it was an invaluable insight to learn Lindsey’s process.

Summary – Query Letter

I listened to Deanna R. Adams at the second breakout session. Her presentation was about how to draft a winning query letter. She showed us examples straight from her book, The Writer’s GPS. In fiction writing, the author must finish and edit the work before sending out a query letter. The query letter goes to agents and not to publishers. The agent will submit the work to publishers. The query letter is a business letter, double spaced with four sections. Those sections are the lead (a hook), the body (a synopsis), the author’s credentials, and a short conclusion. Her information was clear and to the point.

Summary – Q and A

Next was a Q & A panel with three panelists. Steve FitzGerald handed out a list of upcoming Ohio writers retreats. His meet-up group is called Island Writers club found at http://www.meetup.com/Ohio-Writers-Retreats/ Deanna R. Adams talked about perfecting your first pages. Lastly, Diane Taylor talked about the benefits of belonging to a writers group.

Summary – Les Roberts

In the last breakout session, I chose to attend Les Roberts’s talk about “Using Red Herrings in Mystery Writing.” His thesis was that every character must be a suspect. All must be in some way corrupt. The reader must be surprised on every page. The writer needs to shock the reader. He advises writers to write what they want to write since he writes the books that he wants to read. He also believes that the most important writing that a writer does is the re-write. His latest novel is Speaking of Murder, the 19^th novel in his Milan Jacovich series. His session was fun with his anecdotes and informative on his thoughts about being a writer.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I was very much impressed with the content and variety that was found at this conference. I will be sure to attend next year.

Links

The Confluence 2016 Conference was a writing conference similar to the Western Reserve Writers Conference. I attended the Confluence 2016 Conference on July 30 and July 31, 2016. I drove from Cleveland, Ohio to the conference that was located at the Sheraton Pittsburgh Airport Hotel. The Parsec organization of Pittsburgh runs the conference. It is a literary science fiction, fantasy, and horror conference. The events included panels, readings, interviews, writing workshops, and filk concerts. I attended as many panels as I possibly could on Saturday and Sunday. I attended 15 panels and the U.S.S. Improvise improv sketch comedy routine.

Confluence 2016 Conference