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Check out our meeting schedule for 2008 Check out the topics and speakers we had in 2007 Check out the topics and speakers we had in 2006 Copyright
2005–2008 |
All meetings are on Saturdays. Doors open at 10:00 a.m. and close at 12:30 p.m.
Click on the meeting date for program details. Further details will be listed as they become available January 27 — Marketing Your Book or Published Product From Unknown to Best-Seller February 24 — Blog Your Book: The Easy Way to Write and Market Your Book March 31 — Traveling the Traditional Publishing Path: Which Books Sell and Why April 28 — Creating Profitable Spin-Offs: Write Once, Sell Often May 26 — Everything You've Always Wanted to Ask About Publishing June 30 — Website WOW July 28 — The Top 10 Most-Effective Marketing Tactics You Can Do Today August 25 — More of Everything You've Always Wanted to Ask About Publishing September 29 — Behind the Printing Press: A Guided Tour of CPS Printing October 27 — Book Design Do's and Don'ts November & December — Holiday social in early December; no formal meeting these months 
Marketing Your Book or Published Product From Unknown to Best-Seller Guest Expert: Carolyn Howard-Johnson The publishing world has changed. Now the key to a book’s exposure and promotion is almost solely in the writer’s hands. If you are willing to accept that fact, you can construct the framework for your fiction or nonfiction book’s success long before it is published and promote it effectively after its release. In this session, you will learn:
About Our Guest Expert Carolyn Howard-Johnson is an award-winning author of both fiction and nonfiction. She is a former publicist for the New York PR firm that created the "10 Best Dressed" award, a marketing instructor for the UCLA Extension's Writers' Program, and the founder of a critique group for her city's library. She has appeared on hundreds of TV and radio stations, both nationally and locally and her poetry, essays, columns and stories are published frequently in literary journals, newspapers and on the Web. Her book, The Frugal Book Promoter: How to Do What Your Publisher Won't, also available in trade paperback, was named USA Book News' Best Professional Book 2004. She is the recipient of the Book Publicists of Southern California's Irwin Award and members of the California Legislature named her Woman of the Year in Arts and Entertainment and is an instructor for UCLA Extension's renowned Writers' Program. Her new book The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success will be released winter of 2006. Find Carolyn online at www.carolynhoward-johnson.com. 
Blog Your Book : The Easy Way to Write and Market Your Book Guest Experts: The Blog Squad — Patsi Krakoff, Psy.D. and Denise Wakeman One of the most important things an author needs in order to successfully market a book to a publisher is a ready-made audience and systems for marketing their work. Publishers want to know you can provide buyers for the book. A blog helps you build an audience of interested readers who will clamor for your book! You will learn:
About Our Guest Experts As The Blog Squad ™, Patsi Krakoff and Denise Wakeman have teamed up to work with authors, consultants and other solo professionals to maximize their marketing strategies by implementing ezines, blogs and ecommerce tactics. Their "blog crisis prevention" programs help turn ordinary blogs from boring to brilliant! Krakoff and Wakeman have co-authored Build a Better Blog: The Ultimate Guide for Boosting Your Business with a Professional Blog, Confessions of a Reluctant Blogger: From Boring to Brilliant in 30 Days, and the Blog to Book Project. Check out their blog at www.buildabetterblog.com.  March 31, 2007
Traveling the Traditional Publishing Path: Which Books Sell and Why Lee Silber, Speaker and tour guide For this special meeting award-winning author will take you on a tour through Barnes & Noble to examine why some books are best-sellers and others end up on the remainder rack. He will explore and explain the valuable lessons learned from the success and failure of dozens of books now in bookstores. This is a hands-on, interactive and unique workshop that is guaranteed to teach you something you didn't know about the book business. You will gain more practical knowledge about what it takes to make it (and what pitfalls to avoid) as an author and/or publisher by seeing with your own eyes what works and what doesn't. We will...
About Our Guest Expert Lee Silber is the award-winning author of eleven published books including five self-published titles, four with Random House, one with St. Martin's Press and one with a small press. Silber's book Self-Promotion for the Creative Person won the prestigious Theodor S. Geisel Award. To learn more about Lee go to www.creativelee.com. 
Creating Profitable Spin-Offs: Write Once, Sell Often Resident Expert: Paulette Ensign What if people love the topic of your book but they don't like to read? They can still be your customers! Or what if they love your topic and want more or less depth? Sell them the alphabet soup of products – CDs, DVDs, PDFs, and MP3s for starters. Consider posters, teleclasses, e-courses, tip-a-day messages, T-shirts, and more — all based on your book. Create these products from your own company budget or license specific rights for the client to do all the work, in English and in other languages. Paulette Ensign, the Tips Booklet Queen, will show you how to take the printed word and turn it into many other products that go "ka-ching, ka-ching!" About Our Expert Paulette Ensign is the author of 110 Ideas for Organizing Your Business Life, a 16-page booklet that she has personally sold over a million copies in various languages and formats — without spending a penny in advertising. She has also written How to Write and Market Booklets for Cash, How to Promote Your Business with Booklets, and How to Make Huge Profits Licensing Your Booklet. Paulette has been a guest on radio and television shows, commercial teleseminars, in-flight audio programming, and as an in-person public speaker. She has had hundreds of articles published by and about her, and has contributed to more than a dozen books in the areas of publishing, small business, personal success, and marketing. For more details, go to www.tipsbooklets.com. 
Web Site WOW Now that you have written your book, it's time to make it a bestseller. Web site WOW will show you why a Web site can be one of your most powerful marketing tools. This seminar will get you off and running. Building a web site doesn't have to be painful. You'll learn:
Your portal to bestseller status is just a click away! About Our Guest Expert Jeniffer Thompson is president of Monkey C Media, a full design house offering web site services, screensavers, personalized blogs, photography, company collateral packages, branding, copy writing, copy editing and book cover design. Monkey C Media also offers author template sites for $700. Jeniffer is a freelance lifestyle writer in the San Diego area, has worked in the publishing industry for more than 10 years, and offers consulting services for authors and free web site analyses. Her latest book, Website WOW: How to Turn Your Web Site Into Your Most Powerful Marketing Tool will be available in 2007. Visit Monkey C Media at www.monkeycmedia.com. 
The Top 10 Most-Effective Marketing Tactics You Can Do Today Speaker: Andrew Chapman Authors, writers, and small
publishers everywhere struggle with promoting themselves. With all the
options available online for marketing — not to mention in the
real world — getting the word out is more daunting than ever. But
it doesn't have to be.
This program will reveal the key marketing techniques you can employ right away that will get you the most bang for the buck. No money or time for promotion? Don't worry … there are still ways you can successfully promote, and you'll learn them in this presentation. Andrew's experience as a coach, consultant, and speaker to authors and publishers has taught him that there are always things you can do to keep your marketing machine going. In this talk, he'll share his ten favorites — and you'll leave inspired and ready to put them into action. About Our Speaker Andrew Chapman is the current president of PWSD and has been in publishing for over 20 years. He is a recognized expert and professional speaker in the industry, having coached thousands of people individually and in audiences throughout the U.S., U.K., and Australia. Locally, he teaches publishing classes for Learning Annex. His current professional focus is reaching a broader audience to help authors through his new website AskThePublishingPro.com. For more info or to contact Andrew, visit www.AskThePublishingPro.com. September 29, 2007 Behind the Printing Press - A guided tour of CPS Printing in Carlsbad Guest Expert: Doug Strickland This will be a very special opportunity to see the workings of a traditional press in person. We'll be guided through the printing process and most likely see actual jobs in progress.
You'll be able to see:
Additionally, Doug will allow time for questions and answers as they relate to printing in general. About Our Guest Expert Doug Strickland has been in the printing industry for nearly two decades and has worked in almost every facet of the business. As a sales rep with CPS Printing, Doug's job is not only to bring in the work but to know everything about the operation so he can recommend the best process for his clients. Doug's knowledge has been an intregal part of CPS's success. CPS Printing started in 1989 as Carlsbad Printing Service — then a small shop featuring quick-print work and duplicating services — and is now a state-of-the-art full-service printing facility. CPS is ranked in the top five of all commercial printers countywide in sales volume. CPS’s 31,000 square-foot corporate headquarters and printing facility features a unique computer tracking system that traces every print project from its inception — whether it’s a simple one-color job or a sophisticated six-color die-cut assignment. CPS also features an electronic pre-press department that allows for printing preparations via the Internet. Attention to quality control and detail earned CPS its ISO 9001 certification in June 1998. This highly prestigious certification was earned in nine months — the typical period of review for ISO 9001 certification is two years. For more info on CPS Printing's capabilities, visit www.cpsprinting.com. 
Book Design Do's and Don'ts Guest Expert: Ellen Goodwin So you've written your draft. You've rewritten your draft. You've reworked your draft. You've cajoled friends into reading your draft. Now you think you might possibly be ready to take it from draft to final product — an actual book. The jump from concept to product is a big one which is fraught with decisions, questions, information overload and self doubt. What you decide will determine how or if your book sells. Do you design your book on your own? Do you hire a graphic designer? Do you go with the design services of a print-on-demand service? This talk will answer all of those questions and more:
About Our Guest Expert Ellen Goodwin is a graphic designer and the owner of Ellen Goodwin Graphics. Ellen designs and produces books for local authors and companies. Prior to opening her own business, Ellen worked in advertising both on a local and international level. Ellen strives to make all graphics do their job of communicating their message in a straightforward, informative and understandable format. Ellen lives and works in San Diego where she is assisted daily, whether she likes it or not, by her 21-year-old deaf cat. Ellen can be reached at ellengoodwin@cox.net. |