Indie Publishing. Is It For You?

February 4-8

Is Indie Publishing the Next Big Thing? Or is it just a thing? How do you know if it's right for you? Or if you're ready to take that step? Join author Terry Odell as she presents the ins, outs, pros and cons of publishing your books yourself. Odell has published traditionally in print and with digital publishers, and has moved her focus to going indie, with eleven titles published. She'll be posting information and answering questions starting February 4th.

Terry Odell is an author of mystery and romance. I can’t remember learning to read, only that I always did. My parents tell people they had to move from our first home because I finished the library. Learning to write is another story. In some ways, I’ve always been a writer—I just never put the words on paper. Most of my ideas were based on books or television shows or movies I thought I could “improve” with my own plot or character changes.

How To Write A Romance Novel

Dates - TBA

Have you ever thought about writing a romance novel but don’t know where to begin? Or maybe you’ve started one but need some motivation to keep going. In this week long seminar you’ll learn-

How to craft characters both editors and readers will love.

How to put create natural sounding dialogue.

How to not run afoul of heading hopping.

How to compose an attention grabbing cover letter and synopsis.

Susan Palmquist is the author of short stories and novels in both the romance and mystery genres. Under her pen name, Vanessa Devereaux, she’s the bestselling author of over 40 erotica stories and erotic romances. She’s also a writing tutor and teaches workshops for various chapters of the RWA. This seminar is a mini workshop based on her Amazon bestseller, How To Write a Romance Novel…getting it started and getting it published.

At the end of the seminar there will be prize drawing where one participant will win a copy of the electronic version of the book, plus feedback by Susan of a 1-2 page synopsis.

Visit Susan’s Web sites at Susan Palmquist, Vanessa Devereaux and her blog

Using Prompts to Expand Your Repertoire

Using Prompts to Expand Your Repertoire

Have you always wanted to write, but don’t know where to start?

Are you a writer and feel stuck in a rut?

Are you an author and want to find new ideas to re-energize your material?

Writing prompts are a simple way to spark creativity. Whether or not you write for a living, discover a deep wellspring of plots and story ideas you can use. As the old saying goes, “practice makes perfect,” and prompts are a great way to practice.

04/01-06/2013: Introductory Week
04/07-13/2013: Week 1 – starting with prompts
04/14-20/2013: Week 2 – generating new prompt ideas
04/21-27/2013: Week 3 – resources for expanding your work
04/28-30/2013: Wrap Party

Seminar Host: A. Catherine Noon

Writing the film strip in your head

May 4

This seminar will help aid in visualization of situations, locations and characters.  It is the same technique used in film or television storyboarding, where each strip or picture helps round out elements used to bring your story to visual life.  

In addition, the seminar will feature the essential features of the screenwriting technique of plot points to add to key important turning points in the seminar.  

Both of these techniques will help writers add to creating a faster paced more visual manuscript.

I am a former theatre actress/director and a television producer/writer and director.  I have used these techniques in building all of my books.  I am also a former college instructor and have conducted online seminars for many of my corporate clients.

Seminar Host: Meg Lacy

Grammar Basics

June 25-30

The Many Roles of Words is a five-day, five-lesson workshop beginning June 25 and ending June 29, 2013. I use simple prose as examples to make the lessons in the ways words are used to communicate easy to understand. Each lesson discusses one or maybe two of the many roles of words. I give one or a few websites that offer practice in the topic of the day as homework. These sites are also excellent resources for you after the workshop for other grammar challenges you might encounter. Because writers rarely write four- or five-word sentences, you will not submit sentences from your writing for homework.

Who needs this workshop? Can you answer these questions? You may check your answers on my blog.

Which word role/s would you omit if you wanted to cut wordiness?

Which role has a (large) handful of words called “stuntmen” in it?

Which role qualifies as a “sentence” all by itself?

If these questions had you stumped, this workshop is for you. You do want to communicate with your readers clearly, succinctly, and effectively, don’t you?

Seminar Host: MM Pollard's Blog

Seminar Host: Ashlynn Monroe

How to Turn Your Blog Into a Powerful Marketing Tool

October 1-11

Topics will include:

- Using Triberr, a blog sharing platform, to drive traffic toward your blog.

- Syndicating your blog through sites such as Amazon, Goodreads, Facebook, and Twitter and tips for getting followers.

- Helpful plug-ins and buttons to maximize your blog's effectiveness

- Tips for writing effective blog posts without taking away from your novel-writing

- Leads on where to find blog hops and blog tours to host, how to participate in regular ongoing events, and using Rafflecopter to enhance your giveaways.

- Can you turn your blog into a book?

- Monetizing your blog through affiliate links from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, Apple and Kobo.

Stacy Juba will provide helpful tips, resources, and use examples from her own blog to illustrate how authors can use their blogs as an effective marketing tool. In addition to writing books for adults, teenagers, and children,  Stacy also regularly posts on her blog One Stop Reading. Her blog has a reach of over 766,000 through Twitter and Triberr, and her book 25 Years in the Rearview Mirror: 52 Authors Look Back originated on her blog and serves as a promotional tool for her romantic suspense novel Twenty-Five Years Ago Today. She is a former journalist with more than a dozen writing awards to her credit.

Seminar Host: Stacy Juba

We all love books and there are many MANY events that points out the excellence and achievements in this industry, but sometimes it is hard to find them. So we are working on gathering all of this information so you can find it in one place. If you know of something that isn't here, tell us!

 

ARIANA

The best cover in each category will win the ARIANA Best in Category award. The fifteen ARIANA winners will go on to compete for the QUASAR Best Cover of 2008 Award. The QUASAR and the ARIANA are engraved awards presented at the EPICon awards banquet. Awards are mailed to any winners not present.

Caldecott Medal

The Caldecott Medal was named in honor of nineteenth-century English illustrator Randolph Caldecott. It is awarded annually by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association, to the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children.

The New Covey Awards

Cover Awards

Currently there are two Award Categories.

1. Most Eye-Catching Cover
   
2. Most Relevant Cover

What do these categories mean?

Most Eye-Catching Cover is simple. This is the Cover that would make you stop and pick up the novel for a closer look.

Most Relevant Cover refers to how relevant the Cover is in relation to the back cover blurb. In other words, does the cover reflect the idea of the novel?

Trailer Awards

The NEW Covey Trailer Awards are the same as The NEW Covey Awards but for Book Trailers (sometimes also called Book Peeks) instead of Book Covers.

The goal of The NEW Covey Trailer Awards is to recognize Book Trailers that would make you interested in the book, make you stop and perhaps visit the authors website to read the excerpt. Like The NEW Covey Awards, it is also a forum that provides additional exposure for new authors.

Each person who wins a NEW Covey Trailer Award will receive an icon and will be listed as an Award Recipient. The icon and a link can be posted on their website or blog to show the world that their Book Trailer rocks.

Trailer Awards Site

Bram Stoker Awards

Each year, the Horror Writer's Association presents the Bram Stoker Awards for Superior Achievement, named in honor of Bram Stoker, author of the seminal horror work, Dracula. The Stoker Awards were instituted immediately after the organization's incorporation in 1987. While many members, including HWA's first President, Dean Koontz, had reservations about awards for writing -- since the point of HWA was for writers to cooperate for their mutual benefit, not to compete against one another -- the majority of members heavily favored presenting awards, both to recognize outstanding work in the horror field and to publicize HWA's activities.

To ameliorate the competitive nature of awards, the Stokers are given "for superior achievement," not for "best of the year," and the rules are deliberately designed to make ties fairly probable. The first awards were presented in 1988 (for works published in 1987), and they have been presented every year since. The award itself is an eight-inch replica of a fanciful haunted house, designed specifically for HWA by sculptor Steven Kirk. The door of the house opens to reveal a brass plaque engraved with the name of the winning work and its author.

EPPIE Awards

The EPPIE Awards have been given annually since the first EPIC conference to recognize outstanding achievement in e-publishing.

The categories are judged by members of EPIC, all published authors. After the first round of judging, the works of the finalists are sent to another panel of judges, and winners in all eighteen categories are selected. The winners are announced at the EPIC conference's gala award ceremony at the annual EPICon Convention.

The Hammett Prize

IACW/NA awards THE HAMMETT PRIZE annually for literary excellence in the field of crime-writing, as reflected in a book published in the English language in the US and/or Canada. The winner receives a "Thin Man" trophy, designed by sculptor Peter Boiger.

James Beard/KitchenAid Award

The James Beard/KitchenAid Awards recognize the best books on culinary topics in categories including Cookbook of the Year, Wine and Spirits and Baking and Desserts. James Beard is recognized as the father of American gastronomy, and his restaurant awards are considered extremely prestigious.

Click on the sidebar to see winners from previous years. Past winners include "A Vineyard Garden" by Molly Chappellet and "A Mediterranean Feast" by Clifford A. Wright.

Man Booker Prize for Fiction

The Man Booker Prize promotes the finest in fiction by rewarding the very best book of the year. The prize is the world's most important literary award and has the power to transform the fortunes of authors and even publishers.

The Man Booker judges are selected from the country's finest critics, writers and academics to maintain the consistent excellence of the prize.  The winner of the Man Booker Prize receives £50,000 and both the winner and the shortlisted authors are guaranteed a worldwide readership plus a dramatic increase in book sales.

Newbery Medal

The Newbery Medal was named for eighteenth-century British bookseller John Newbery. It is awarded annually by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association, to the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children.

Nobel Prize in Literature

The very first Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded in 1901 to the French poet and philosopher Sully Prudhomme, who in his poetry showed the "rare combination of the qualities of both heart and intellect". Over the years, the Nobel Prize in Literature has distinguished the works of authors from many different languages and cultural backgrounds. The prize has been awarded to unknown masters as well as authors acclaimed worldwide.

PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction

The PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction is a national prize which honors the best published works of fiction by American citizens in a calendar year. Three judges, chosen annually by the directors of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation, select five books from among the more than 300 works submitted, making this the largest peer-juried award in the country. The winning writer and four finalists are honored at a ceremony held in Washington at the Folger Shakespeare Library in May.

Pulitzer Prize

The will of Joseph Pulitzer, a crusading newspaper journalist, provided for the establishment of the Pulitzer Prizes. Since its inception in 1917, the prizes have recognized the best in journalism, letters, drama and music. Many consider it the most prestigious award a journalist or author can achieve.

QUASAR

Recognizing Excellence in E-book Covers

Rita Awards

The RITA Award. RITA awards are presented annually to the best published romance novels of the year. The award itself is a golden statuette named after RWA's first president, Rita Clay Estrada, and has become the symbol for the best in published romance fiction.

The Ruby Awards

The Ruby Award for Website Excellence is to encourage authors who are using the internet in positive and innovative ways to market their writing, and for community groups providing reviews, education, and other services for authors. It will be offered in four parts.

• Author - Author designed sites
• Design - Professionally designed sites (graphic will go to author and to designer)
• Simple - Simple free sites such as freewebs, geocities, etc.
• Community - Community sites providing reviews, education, or other services

Each award will be held for a one year period.

Prizes may include free featured author space, banner creation, author promos, marketing workshops, promo material, interviews, book promos,  advertising, and more.

After the conclusion of the nomination period (open to the public), a panel of judges will visit nominated sites and vote. An online presentation party will be held in a live chat format and the awards will be announced. Nominees will receive graphics to post on their sites, and the winners will receive recognition on sites sponsoring the event and awards (i.e., Coffee Time Romance, Romance Junkies, The Romance Studio, and AuthorMBA Blog have already expressed interest).

The Spur Awards

The Spur Awards, given annually for distinguished writing about the American West, are among the oldest and most prestigious in American literature. In 1953, when the awards were established by WWA, western fiction was a staple of American publishing. At the time awards were given to the best western novel, best historical novel, best juvenile, and best short story.

Since then the awards have been broadened to include other types of writing about the West. Today, Spurs are offered for the best western novel (short novel), best novel of the west (long novel), best original paperback novel, best short story, best short nonfiction. Also, best contemporary nonfiction, best biography, best history, best juvenile fiction and nonfiction, best TV or motion picture drama, best TV or motion picture documentary, and best first novel (called The Medicine Pipe Bearer's Award).