California Dreamin’ Is Right Around the Corner
February 2, 2017 by A Slice of Orange in category Writing Conferences, Writing: It's a Business
Only seven weeks to go until the California Dreamin’ Conference, March 24-26, 2017 at the beautiful Embassy Suites in Brea, California.
There’s still time to register!
Here’s an update from your conference committee:
- We’ve opened the signup for book cover advertising. For $25, you provide the artwork, we’ll produce the slide. If you’re an author, you just need to provide your photo and one book cover image and we’ll do the rest. The slide show runs during certain portions of the conference for all attendees. Add additional covers if you wish for just $20 each. Deadline is March 1st. Sign up here.
- Want a chance to win free registration at the 2019 California Dreamin’ Conference? Sign up to be a volunteer here. Remember, the conference is a non-profit endeavor of the four Southern California RWA chapters, and it can’t happen without the help of many generous volunteers.
- Our Conference Extras page is open for business. Need a marketing consultation? A professional headshot? A massage break at the conference? Check out all the good things being offered as Conference Extras and sign up here.
- Do you want to be part of the official conference thumb drive that will go to every conference attendee? If you’re registered for the conference, you can take advantage of this fabulous promotional opportunity sponsored by Smashwords by putting up to three of your books on the 4GB drive at no cost to you. Find more information here. Deadline is March 3rd. [When you’re ready to submit your book, be sure to look for the registration confirmation notice you received when you signed up for the conference and retrieve the registration ID that was sent to you.]
- Our slate of special Saturday Night Tales events has been announced. Tickets to these exclusive events will be drawn at the Saturday keynote dinner. Find out more information at https://caldreaminwriters.com/
Feb. Online Class: Visual Content Marketing for the Confused and Terrified Writer
January 16, 2017 by A Slice of Orange in category Writing Classes
It has been my privilege and pleasure to find and schedule online classes for OCCRWA, and next month’s class on Visual Content Marketing, taught by our own Elena Dillon, sounds fabulous! Here’s the scoop from Elena:
Visual Content Marketing
for the Confused and Terrified Writer
What is visual content and why do you need it for your marketing strategy? And how does this apply to your author business? The answer is fairly simple.
Visual content is anything that uses pictures, graphics, video, etc. When you see a GIF of cats falling off tables? That’s visual content. A pretty graphic with a quote from a book? Visual Content. Those fabulous cooking videos where they make a cinnamon roll apple pie in twenty seconds? Visual content.
It’s what will get your content seen. As a matter of fact, statistically your readers are 44% more likely to engage with visual content. Hmmm. 44%? Hard to ignore. We all want to work smarter not harder, right? In this class, you will learn:
- How to decide what kind of visuals will work for you and your business
- How to create all kinds of visuals
- How to make one piece of content work in many different ways
- Drive traffic where you want it to go (your website, lead page, Amazon or other retailer page)
- Save time and effort in your marketing efforts
This class for you if you’ve never created any kind of graphics on your own. It’s for authors who need to learn how to create visual content for their author business and are unsure about using new technology. We will go over:
- Strategies for smarter marketing
- Tools that make visual content easier to create and more manageable
- How to plan out your content and marketing so it takes up less precious writing time.
And believe it or not? I’ll make it fun. I’ll teach you how to create a graphic while you’re standing in line for coffee. =)
Join me for the fun in the February 2017 OCCRWA Visual Content Marketing for the Confused and Terrified Writer class!
About the instructor:
Who Am I?
I’m Elena Dillon, an author of the award winning Young Adult “Breathe†series. When I’m not writing, I love to help my author friends with technology and social media. I’ve taught Social Media for the Confused and Terrified, Pinterest for the Confused and Terrified, Visual Content for Authors and spoken at numerous conferences, chapters and groups about social media and indie publishing.
Most of the time, I’m a wife to my husband of twenty-six years, mom to my two grown kids and servant to my high-maintenance English bulldog, Brutus, while I wait, not so patiently, for grandbabies.
Enrollment Information
Schedule of Classes for 2017
We’ve had to cancel the January class Overcoming Perfectionism and Procrastination with MM Pollard, but I’m hoping to reschedule it for later this year or 2018. MM is a fabulous teacher.
Here’s the rest of the 2017 schedule of classes:
April 10 – May 5: The Feminine Journey with Mary O’Gara
May 15 – 26: Self-Editing (two week class) with Linda Carroll-Bradd
June 12 – July 7: Horse Sense with Shannon Donnelley
August 14 – Sept. 8: Monster Revisions with Suzanne Johnson
Oct. 16 – Nov. 10: Time Management Secrets for Authors with Stacy Juba
Linda McLaughlin
0 0 Read moreThe 2017 Book Buyers Best Contest for Published Authors
January 8, 2017 by A Slice of Orange in category Contests, Writing Contest tagged as BBB, Book Buyers Best, contest
The Orange County Chapter of Romance Writers of America is proud to announce that the Book Buyer’s Best Contest for 2017 is now open.
We are looking for entrants as well as preliminary round judges. If you wish to judge please contact the contest coordinators at: bbbcontest@occrwa.org.
The categories are:
- Contemporary Series Romance
- Contemporary Single Title Romance (Over 70,000 Words)
- Mainstream Fiction with a Central Romance
- Historical & Regency (Both Series and Single Title)
- Romantic Suspense & Mystery with romantic elements (Over 70,000 Words)
- Paranormal/Time Travel/Fantasy/Futuristic Romance (Both Series and Single Title)
- Young Adult
- Inspirational
- Erotic Romance
- Novella (Specify Category) (Over 15,000 to 40,000)
GLBT entries: Authors are to place their entries in the appropriate category
Judging
The preliminary round will be judged by booksellers, librarians and romance readers. First, second and third place will be awarded in each category. Highest score in each category will advance to the final round to be judged by the Top Pick Judge (TBA).
For a complete list of the rules and the official entry form, please visit: http://occrwa.org/contests/book-buyers-best/
If you need to contact the contest coordinators, Nikki Prince and/or Sabrina Sol please email: bbbcontest@occrwa.org
Update on the California Dreamin’ Conference
January 2, 2017 by A Slice of Orange in category Writing Conferences tagged as Orange County, Writing conferenceHappy New Year!
The Twelve Days of Christmas have almost passed, but there’s still time for you to register for the California Dreamin’ Conference, at the regular rate, before prices go up on January 15, 2017.
Your California Dreamin’ Committee is working hard to make this year’s conference the best ever. We’ve lost some presenters for business and personal reasons, including OCC member Kitty Bucholtz who is now residing in a beach front home in Wellington, New Zealand (tough life, right?!).
But, we’re excited to announce we’ve added a new speaker, Robin Blakely, a top business coach, who’ll present a workshop STORYography Cards: From Big Idea to Marketing Success.
Here’s part of the blurb for her workshop:
Writers, you CAN make a solid living from your talent. But first, you have to write or re-write the storyline for the success of your talent-driven brand. Top business coach Robin Blakely, CEO of Creative Center of America and a member of the Forbes Coaches Council, shows you how to bring structure–and a sense of peace–to the common chaos of your creative career.
And there are still spots available for Debra Dixon’s Book Camp on Friday, March 24, 2017.
This pre-conference add-on provides valuable tools a writer needs to pull a book together. The intensive workshop covers the three most important elements of popular fiction-goal, motivation and conflict (GMC), and how those elements work with the mythic structure of Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey to help writers conceive and create strong plots and compelling characters.
Book Camp is available as a single purchase for those not attending the conference. Writers from any genre will benefit and are most welcome.
If you have questions, check out the conference FAQ page, or come speak to me or Jann Audiss at the January OCC meeting.
Alina K. Field
The Latest on the California Dreamin’ Writers Conference
December 2, 2016 by A Slice of Orange in category Writing Conferences tagged as Orange County, Writing conferenceAt the last OCCRWA meeting, Jann Audiss and I updated everyone on the latest plans for the California Dreamin’ Writers Conference.
Ready for your Headshot?
Even putting aside holiday distractions (who has time to bake cookies?) committee members are working away, ironing out details for the upcoming conference. As we announced, in November, Jann and I met with VJ Dunraven of Period Images and her two top designers, and we’re happy to announce that they’ll be providing custom head shot services on Saturday of the conference. They’ll even bring along makeup and hair experts to give clients the best camera-ready look possible.
Calling all Readers
I also want to mention that reader signups have opened for California Readin’, the Barbara Vey Event for Readers. Do you know an avid romance reader? Invite her to sign up for this event here. Tickets are $5, and each attendee will receive a bag of author sponsored swag and a $5 coupon to spend at the book signing that follows the event. Also, everyone is welcome to participate in the weekly Facebook parties at the California Readin’ Facebook page for a chance to party with authors and score some giveaways.
Saturday Night Parties
Some of our special presenters will be holding special Saturday night events for the lucky winners of our opportunity drawing. Here’s the lineup:
- Deb Dixon will host “Through the Looking Glass”, a frank Q&A with someone who’s been on the front lines an in the trenches over the years
- Sarah MacLean and Tessa Dare will host a tea, and chat about the Regency
- Laura Drake will talk about “Bikers and Cowboys after Dark”
- M.A. Taylor is back with “Cop Tales”
Workshop Lineup
All of this is on top of our lineup of workshops, running from Friday night through Sunday morning. Get a peek at our workshop lineup here.
Questions?
If you have questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to contact Jann Audiss or me, or better yet, submit your questsion to http://caldreaminwriters.com/contact-us/ and a committee member will get back to you.
There’s still time to register before the price goes up on January 15th, so why not put this conference on your holiday wish list!
Wishing all of you a wonderful December and the happiest of holidays!
Alina K. Field
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ADVENGING THE EARL’S LADY
He’s the most irritating, inscrutable, insufferable lord in the kingdom.
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