Christina Katz - The Empowered Writer

Christina Katz – The Empowered Writer
Willamette Writers – 10/2/2010


Querying: Once your finished with your book, don’t just pitch it in the conference. Instead, also send it out to 50 agents. If you’ve worked years on it, send it out to as many agents as you can. DON’T GIVE IT AS AN EXCLUSIVE FOR ONE AGENT ONLY.

Check out: ???
1) Drinking the Tears of the World
2) [e-mail]
3) wisdombridge.net
4) Willamette Writers: [e-mail]

Saturday Talk Schedule:
11/ 6/2010: Bill Johnson – Getting Emotion into Character
12/4/2010: Book sale
1/8/2011: Larry Brooks – Structure in Writing for Fiction Writers
3/5/2011: Sage Cohen – Poetry (latest book ->”Productive Writer”)
5/7/2011: Jessica Morrell – Character Development
Openings: February, April, June 2011
Other: Alyssa Lukara - Platform

Schedule:
Morning: What is an Empowered Writer
Afternoon: Our goals, Career Goals


START:

She says we range from nervous to “scared to death”. Risking something by writing. The more nervous we are, the happier we should be with it.

Circle: From Inside Out:

1) Central circle: You the Writer
2) 2nd circle from inside – around 1 -> Your writing
3) 3rd surrounding circle: -> Selling your writing – Self-production to get what we need to get published
4) 4th concentric circle: -> Professional Development
5) 5th and largest concentric circle: -> Self-promotion
a. Start from 1) (You the writer) and work outwards.

Question: How easy are your jumps from where you’re at to your next step?




Steps:

Short Range Medium Range Long Range
Haiku
Filler
Flash Fiction
Personal Essays Personal Essays Memoirs
Poetry Poetry Epic
Collection of Poems
List Articles List Feature
Tips
How-to Articles How-to Features Non-fiction Books
How-to Books
E-books
Blog Posts Series of Blog Posts Entire Blog
Short Stories Novellas Fiction Novels
Anthologies


Important: Stay focused on next thing. Keep early work in mind, but don’t let it limit yourself with it. Progress improving writing skills.

Worst Nightmare: Having a deadline and nothing in mind to write about.


Generalist versus Specialist: She’s interested in Generalists.

Generalist:
1) A more flexible personality.
a. Eg.Writing Fillers, Guest Topics
i. Not given assignments – Decide on own topics
ii. Today there are many more writers in the pool (don’t want to limit self)
2) Generalists find niches.
a. Eg. Gardening
b. Notice patterns and repeat them
i. Don’t have to have just one subject or niche – can have a few
1. Eg. - (She writes about writing and parenting)
c. Want to cultivate aptitude

Aside: Plagiarism -> Someone takes and copies word for word without giving credit. Not someone copying a few lines or paragraph
1) Don’t need to sue – Just confront them – don’t get all worked up over. Don’t let fear of plagiarism stop us
2) We can still control process.
a. Focus on process, not history.



Exercise: Write list of everything you want in your writing career. Don’t look at for a year. Then, see what you’ve done and change. (DON’T GET OBSESSED WITH END-GOAL – INSTEAD FOCUS ON NEXT GOAL)

Eg. JK Rowland – Had nothing to prepare her for her success. We can have our own successes at each step along the way.

New Market – Less books being published.
1) Unknowns -> High Quality
2) Already Established -> Those with high visibility already

Her Talk Today: This is the age of the empowered writer. Best time for writers. We have more opportunity to succeed. We have control of the process, whereas earlier agents and publishers had control of process. (Take responsibility for your career). Now with the Internet, we have more opportunity (Result->empowered writers).
Goal: Partner to those in industry rather than wait around to be discovered and launched by publishers and agents.

She likes writers already with their own momentum.
1) Use synergy to connect big and little ideas together. Most important areas are between writing
and audiences.
a. Need willingness to take the jumps.
i. May hit a bottom
1. Remember you can bounce back from it and come back up
2) She doesn’t like basing writer value on talent
a. Would rather have a hard worker
i. These are the ones who get published
ii. Our choice as writers as to which we want to be

Example: Mark Acito (markacito.com): He decides what he’s going to do and does it. (Good one to watch).
1) Books:
a. “How I Paid for College”- novel of Sex, and Theft
i. (She recommends as great book).
b. “Theatre People”
2) Went to writing plays
3) Went to adapting musicals
What would our career look like if we were like Mark?
(Want to be project-oriented).

Cynthia is fluent in all the circles.
What she does:
1) Write books: (Working on 3rd book for Writer’s Digest)
2) Teaching classes (turn her stuff into a curriculum)
a. Memoirs and Essay Writers
b. Online Weekly Assignments
c. Pitching
d. Platform
e. Writing
i. For Mom’s
3) Teaching Writing Students
a. (Kicking their Butts)
i. Once they arrive they don’t need her anymore
4) Partners with people to help with new technology:
a. Kindal, Amazon, smart phones
5) Blogging/websites: (Update every 3 months) -
a. Free offers
b. About Her
c. Platform

Aside: Her blog: northwestauthorswriters.com?


Next Step: What will you do for self-promotion. (It’s empowering to put up what you have).
1) Listen to Instincts
2) Hustle
3) Be willing
4) Produce your own success
5) Work with Partners ->
a. Work with publisher
i. Don’t become a hater of publishers
b. Establish professional identity
c. Partner in a critique group
d. Partner with Businesses
e. Partnering with other people most important
i. Get partners on the same wavelength
6) Practice writing
7) Don’t wait to be discovered
8) Like having a baby – create all new stuff


Questions:

1) What does it mean to be platform ready?

Answer: Have to be on outside circle. Start selling and self-promotion early. Gain marketing skills early on. Again, gather early successes and promote them. Work towards pushing the next product out. (Have a book coming out and determine why someone would want to read your book.

2) e-publishing:

Answer: Writers earn less for e-books. But publishing costs are cheaper than physical books. Focus
on publishing business but be careful: want to be informed but don’t let it get in the way of your writing.

You can focus on your career without being self-centered. Put self at center (doesn’t mean your self-centered). Professional development comes from focusing on self. (Nervousness and self-consciousness can make you self-centered.

Aside: With Internet don’t need business cards anymore.



AFTERNOON WORKSHOP:

1) Write list of accomplishments.
a. Should gather them up and put somewhere you can look at them
b. Try to distinguish between having public purposes and private stuff for self only
2) Who we are is who we’re writing for – can take this and go as far as you want
a. Determine your audience
3) Niches
a. Have to come from your “writing” experiences. Can’t come up with a niche out of the blue.
i. Writer develops niches.
b. Specialization:
c. Write on the subject that clicks with you.


QUESTION: What’s next?
Answer: Blogs/Websites? Arrows to Links, Facebook, Twitter.

Aside: Reader sites:
Check out – (similar to mine?)
1) goodreader.com
2) redroom.com