About

While writing a book presents a thousand challenges, there are two main sides to it that, if handled well, will result in deep satisfaction rather than frustration and disappointment. One side is developing the identity of being a writer, of knowing how to create and sustain your work through the many ups and downs, the doubts and fears, and triumphs of any creative process. The second side is knowing how to operate within the business of publishing, learning how to demonstrate the value of your book with regard to the bottom line, along with the literary merit.

Part One of this workshop is led by William Kenower, Editor-in-Chief of Author magazine, and the author of Fearless Writing (Writer’s Digest). All writing requires getting into the proper, fearless frame of mind. Most people can get into this frame of mind accidentally; not everyone knows how to do it on purpose, however. In this class, William Kenower demonstrates basic rules and approaches that you can practice every day to help you write as fearlessly as possible:

• Unlock your creative potential
• Find more time to write
• Overcome writer’s block
• Learn how to use spiritual principles like Law of Attraction in your writing practice

Part Two focuses on ways to gain an insider’s knowledge of the publishing industry, long before you plan to release your book. Led by Bryan Tomasovich, an editor, publisher, and professor of writing and literature for 20 years, we cover topics including:

• How to set goals and expectations for publishing, depending on genre and subject
• When and how to build an author platform
• How to decide if traditional, hybrid, or self-publishing is the right route

Participants have the opportunity to discover and evaluate these factors, working on their own and in small groups for 5-10 minutes at a time.

We also review the main steps in publishing with a conventional press: agent research, query letters, manuscript samples, and book proposals. Best practices for self-publishing professionally are covered as well, so are you thinking and acting like a successful publisher: budget, book design, author platform, printing, distribution, publicity, marketing, and events.

Instructors: William Kenower is the author of Fearless Writing: How to Create Boldly and Write with Confidence, and Write Within Yourself: An Author’s Companion. Also Editor-in-Chief of Author magazine, Kenower is a sought-after speaker and teacher.He’s been published in The New York Times and Edible Seattle, and has been a featured blogger for the Huffington Post. His video interviews with hundreds of writers from Nora Ephron, to Amy Tan, to William Gibson, are widely considered the best of their kind on the Internet. Bill also hosts the online radio program, Author2Author, where every week he and a different guest discuss the books we write and the lives we lead.

Bryan Tomasovich is the owner of The Publishing World, a Bainbridge-based company dedicated to assisting authors one-on-one with editing, agent research and queries for traditional publishing, and full-service advising and project management for professionally self-published books. He has also worked as a senior editor at Emergency Press, an independent publisher based in New York, and as a professor of writing, literature, and media at Antioch University Seattle and the University of Puget Sound.