Monday, April 29, 2013
7:30 SHARP to 9 p.m. (Schmoozing follows)
SOLD OUT – Sorry, reservations are closed as the room is full for this panel

In a changing marketplace, it’s more important than ever to have an advocate to fight for you when going the route of traditional publishing. Our April 29th program will present a panel of stellar Southern California agents who will provide a look at their world today. We’ll cover what you need to know to find the right representative, how to get their attention, and the steps you should take to create the strongest relationship. In addition, we’ll look at the ebook factor, transitioning from self-publishing to traditional publishing, book-to-film deals, and more. Come join us!

Panelists

CHARLOTTE GUSAY, THE CHARLOTTE GUSAY LITERARY AGENCY, has a deeply rooted love of the literary. Before opening her agency in 1988, she ran George Sands Books, a prestigious bookstore on Melrose in West Hollywood. Eclectic and choosy, Charlotte has come to be known as the “Diane Keaton” of agents. Her clients include author and venerable cartoonist Jack Mendelsohn (Jacky’s Diary and Stuff I Lern in Skool), authors Michael Fertik and David C. Thompson (The Reputation Economy – forthcoming), novelist Wendy Blackburn (Beachglass), journalist Patt Morrison (Rio L.A.: Tales from the Los Angeles River), and novelist Jane Ranson (Bye Bye). She represents both fiction and nonfiction books, YA books with movie potential, entertainment rights, books to film, selected screenplays and screenwriters. Her agency is particularly interested in innovative, unusual, eclectic, literary, historical, humorous books and those on any issues or topics, timely or socially important. Her website is gusay.

PAUL S. LEVINE, PAUL S. LEVINE LITERARY AGENCY, is a lawyer and a literary agent. He has practiced entertainment law for over 30 years, representing authors, writers, producers, actors, directors, composers, musicians, artists, photographers, and publishers, in the fields of publishing, motion pictures, television, interactive multimedia, live stage, recorded music, concerts, and the visual arts. Levine has sold over one hundred fiction and nonfiction books and has had many books developed as movies-for-television and feature films. Clients include novelist Sheila Copeland (Saved and Single), author/activist Tad Daley (Apocalypse Never), novelist John DeCure (Bluebird Rising: A Mystery), and therapist/life coach Julie M. Simon (The Emotional Eater’s Repair Manual). Leaning toward socially and politically important literature, he will consider fiction, nonfiction, children’s, and young adult manuscripts and proposals for nonfiction books. His website is paulslevinelit.

JENNIFER ROFÉ, ANDREA BROWN LITERARY AGENCY. As a literary agent, Jennifer handles children’s fiction projects, from picture books to young adult. Middle grade is her soft spot; she’s open to all genres in this category, especially the tender or hilarious. For YA, Jennifer is drawn to contemporary works, dramatic or funny romance,sss and urban fantasy/light sci-fi. For picture books, early readers, and chapter books, she’s interested in character-driven projects and smart, exceptional writing. Jennifer’s clients include Kathryn Fitzmaurice, Barry Wolverton, Nick James, Samantha Vamos, Meg Medina, and Crystal Allen. Jennifer is co-author of the picture book Piggies in the Pumpkin Patch.
Her website is andreabrownlit.

TONI LOPOPOLO, TONI LOPOPOLO LITERARY MANAGEMENT, has a book publishing resume that began in 1970 in the Publicity Department of Bantam Books. As Executive Editor at both Macmillan and later St. Martins, she published Judy Mazel’s Beverly Hills Diet and popular best-selling women’s fiction by Barbara Raskin and Kate Coscarelli. Her literary agency was founded in 1991. She has made deals for authors such as novelist/nonfiction author Sol Stein (Stein on Writing), novelist/nonfiction author Shelly Lowenkopf (The Fiction Writer’s Handbook), gritty Chicano noir mystery-writer Manuel Ramos (Brown-on-Brown: A Luis Montez Mystery), and romance author Flo Fitzgerald (Ghost of a Chance). She looks for well-written, well-edited fiction: mysteries, thrillers, mainstream fiction with pro-active female protagonists, ethnic writers, including Hispanic. In nonfiction, she is interested in memoir with a message, family-oriented subjects, health, coping with special problems, topical subjects. Toni conducts workshops for novelists, and memoirists, as well as offering coaching on creating irresistible pitches and book proposals. Her website is lopopololiterary.com.

BJ ROBBINS, BJ ROBBINS LITERARY AGENCY, began her book publishing career in the Publicity Department at Simon & Schuster and later moved to Harcourt, where she was Director of Marketing and then Senior Editor. In 1992, she started her own Los Angeles-based literary agency. Her client list includes novelists James D. Houston (Bird of Another Heaven), CBS TV Late Late Show host Craig Ferguson (Between the Bridge and the River), and Nafisa Haji (The Sweetness of Tears); memoirists Wendy Werris (An Alphabetical Life: Living It Up in the World of Books) and Carol Ann Harris (Storms: My Life with Lindsey Buckingham and Fleetwood Mac); nonfiction writer Roger Love (Love Your Voice); and travel writer J. Maarten Troost (The Sex Lives of Cannibals). Her agency represents quality fiction and general nonfiction, with a particular interest in literary fiction, mystery, commercial fiction, historical fiction, thrillers, offbeat/quirky memoir, history, sports, medicine, current affairs, business, psychology and health.
You can learn about BJ publishersmarketplace.com/members/bjrobbins/.

MODERATOR
ROBIN QUINN, is an award-winning book editor, book coach, and ghostwriter. She specializes in health, nutrition, self-help, spirituality, business, and the media, and she also works with fiction and memoir. Quinn has been in the book publishing business for more than two decades and regularly produces and moderates book panels. Her editorial projects include the small press best-seller The Detox Solution by health coach Patricia Fitzgerald, the award-winning The Food Is My Friend Diet by dietitian Ruth Frechman, the inspirational The Conscious Catwoman Explains Life on Earth by actress Julie Newmar (Catwoman on the TV series Batman), and the metaphysical novel Ultimaya 1.0: The Trouble with the Wishes of Leopold Stokes by spiritual advisor Saniel Bonder. Her website is writingandediting.biz.

Location:
Veterans Memorial Building
4117 Overland Avenue, Culver City
Parking entrance on Culver
Corner of Culver Boulevard.
Map of location.
Parking is free.

Note: Wear layered clothing.
The room is usually comfortable but the temperature can vary.

Admission:
IWOSC members – free
Non-members – $15

“We’re looking for a few good writers who have the stamina and imagination to reach the level of marketable authors,” Ms Lopopolo said. “We wanted to hone the skills of more talented area writers.” The camp is a three-day intensive limited to ten writers who must submit up to ten pages and a synopsis in advance to be accepted.

The bootcamp will delve into: your opening page (velocity vs. set up); refining point of view; how to avoid fatal story errors; and an area where many writers never do enough, revision, revision, revision. Other areas covered include: creating charged dialogue; how to create your character’s defining moment; how to make your story win every round; and, much more.

“So many people dive into writing without understanding that novel writing is not like a thesis for an English Lit class,” Shelly Lowenkopf said. “To be published, a writer must meet a high standard, one that is achievable IF you know where the bar is. Toni and I have been raising that bar for years and will now pass on our experience to new writers.”

Shelly Lowenkopf has held major editorial positions with Sherbourne Press (Editor-in-Chief); Dell Publishing (Director, Los Angeles office); Clio Books (Editor-in-Chief); Ross-Erickson (Editor-in-Chief); and, Capra Press (Advisory and Acquisitions Editor). He has seen over seven hundred books and hundreds of short story and essay projects through the publishing process. Currently a freelance consultant and teacher, his clients include novelists, retired and active academics, and the humorist creator of one of the most popular television series of all time. For over 30 years, he was a fixture at the Santa Barbara Writers Conference, running his famous nightly Pirate Sessions.

Lowenkopf taught courses in short story, novel, dramatic writing, editing, genre fiction, and revision at the graduate level in one of the most prestigious writing programs in America at University of Southern California, where he was given a Lifetime Teaching Award. He is a past regional president of the Mystery Writers of America. His most recent book, The Fiction Writer’s Companion, is a guide to terms, concepts, and forms related to storytelling.

Literary Agent, Toni Lopopolo, brings a book publishing resume that began in 1970 in the publicity dept of Bantam Books, where she helped publicize authors such as Philip Roth, Barbara Cartland, Isaac Asimov, and Louis L’Amour.

She next served as Library Promotion Director at Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, until Houghton Mifflin offered her a position in Boston as Marketing Manager, Paperback Books. Her big campaigns included Even Cowgirls Get the Blues by Tom Robbins.  When Macmillan offered Toni the title of Executive Editor, she moved back to New York City and published Judy Mazel’s Beverly Hills Diet, Elvis 56 by Al Wertheimer, among other hits. Next St. Martin’s Press made an offer she couldn’t refuse and Toni became Executive Editor from 1981 to 1990. She published Hot Flashes by Barbara Raskin and Rich and Famous by Kate Coscarelli plus Elsa Lanchester, Herself, by Elsa Lanchester, On The Other Hand by Fay Wray as well biographies of Lillian Hellman, Mary McCarthy, and many other titles. She has taught fiction and narrative non-fiction writing at Temple University in Philadelphia.

In l991, Toni opened Literary Management and has sold books for authors Sol Stein, Lee Silber, Lillian Glass, Steve Duno, Nancy Baer, Flo Fitzgerald, Judith Smith-Levin, Howard Olgin, Jeanette Baker, Larry Seeley, Shelly Lowenkopf, and many others.

To learn more about the bootcamp curriculum or how to submit pages for acceptance, visit: email Toni Lopopolo at lopopolobooks@aol.com.

The bootcamp is presented by the Pacific Institute for Professional Writing, a California 501(c)(3) educational nonprofit,

WHAT:  Bare Knuckles Bootcamp
WHEN:  May 3-4-5
TIME:  Friday: 5:30 to 8:30 pm – Saturday and Sunday: 9:30 am to 4:30 pm
PLACE:  Private home in Santa Barbara

According to Andre Schiffrin, former head of Pantheon Books, “The publishing world has been through more changes in the past 10 to 15 years than it had in the 100 years before that.” And that’s putting it mildly.

Today, E-books, Kindle, and iPad literature apps are poised to “take over” hardcover book publishing as we know it. What new opportunities – and pitfalls – does this present? How has the change from emphasizing professional career authors (e.g., Stephen King, Joyce Carol Oates) to “overnight superstar” reality-TV and celebrity authors changed what – and WHO – editors and agents are looking for? How have the new electronic platforms affected self- and small-press publishing – and how will authors and writers make their living in this brave new world?

With the demise of Borders and Blockbuster, the continued downsizing and “rebootings” of iconic magazines like Newsweek, Variety, and US News & World Report, and turmoil at the remaining major publishing houses – even as the four-year-old Great Recession finally shows signs of beginning to lift – it is more important than ever to find out how to advocate for yourself, how writers will be able to make a living, and how to navigate these game-changers in the 24-hour spin cycle that is today’s publishing world.

IWOSC’s stellar March/early April panel includes top names from every aspect of the industry, from literary agents and booksellers to publicists and social-media coaches and self-publishing gurus (and we’ll be following up on April 29th, of course, with our annual AGENTS PANEL!). They include:

E-MAIL RESERVATIONS REQUIRED — Reservations by email only. Email info@iwosc.org to make your reservation to this event. Please write “IWOSC Reservation” in the subject line. You will receive a confirming email from IWOSC, and your name will be on a list at check-in. For proof of your reservation, bring a printout of your email or show a smartphone version of your “sent” email or confirmation. Please arrive by 7:15 pm to be seated. Doors open to everyone at 7:15 and people will be admitted as space permits. Reservations close at 5 pm Saturday, March 30.  Walk-ins permitted, if there is space. Information: (310) 773-8075. If you reserve and can’t attend, please notify the office, info@iwosc.org .

IWOSC, the Independent Writers of Southern California, is a nonprofit association, now celebrating its 30^th anniversary, providing support, tools, and resources to help self-employed professional writers in Southern California since 1982.   Please visit us at www.IWOSC.org.

Two Days of Education for Writers of All Genres

Seven information-packed seminars over two full days will feature leading Southern California publishing professionals discussing today’s hot topics. Speakers include: literary agents, publishers, book publicists, published authors, social media experts, book shepherds, editors, writing instructors, and more.

Author, Amanda Ashby says “I love everything about this fabulous, funny, snarky book.”

If youd like to read a sneak peek, the Bookish Brunette has included one as part of last May’s Zombie Craze (http://www.bookish-brunette.com/evan-lowe-zombie-craze-post/).

“The best writing is re-writing.”- E.B White, Elements of Style

After I finished the first draft of my first novel (now Book Three in the McCool Saga) I began sending out queries. I had 600 pages, I announced with pride, which I had copied word for word from ten spiral notebooks. Within about two weeks the responses started rolling in. After a half-dozen of these, I began looking up rejection-statistics on published writers to make myself feel better. Then the tide turned. I got four requests for pages.

I sent out my pages and received back two unceremonious ‘no’s’, plus one positive response which had been sent to me by mistake (an intern confused me with another writer). Then I got the bomb. An agent telling me in emphatic language to call off my blitz campaign. “You need an editor,” she said. “And you need to revise.”

Editor? Revise? Hmmfff. But I stopped. Then a friend told me about a Novelist’s Boot-Camp being offered at a place not far from where I lived. “You have to have written a whole novel,” she said. “And you have to apply to get in.”

Well, apply I did. Within hours I received a response from Toni Lopopolo, former Editor at St. Martin’s Press turned Literary Agent. She cut to the chase, too. “Take out all the ‘ly’ adverbs and ‘ings’, then send it back.” I thought she was nuts but I did it. An agent was giving me a chance.

“You’re going to hate me,” she announced at the first session. Toni promised to ruin our reading pleasure by turning us into Editors, first for one another (and for the published books we were reading) and then for ourselves. She also promised to boot us to the next level in our writing. For those of us who stuck it out, she delivered on both counts.

I have always had the impulse to tell a story. When I met Toni, I had a lot of passion and a decent vocabulary but no clue about writing fiction. I had composed a doorstop with no discernible plot. Now, deprived of adverbs, I could no longer let someone in my story declare angrily or smile sweetly. I had to work. Think. Feel. Ugh.

The ‘ings’ were next to go. When I removed them, the writing came to life. I didn’t understand why at the time. I do now, but that’s another essay. Suffice it to say that I had a lot to learn.

They teach you the basics in High School. Beginning, middle, end. They even give you lists of adverbs. While I didn’t study writing in college, some in this group had, and even they were amazed by what they heard that day.

Toni read our pages aloud. Then everyone got to comment. Hearing what you’ve written while others listen can be like getting your skirt caught in your underpants. Every awkward sentence and stupid piece of dialogue sticks out its tongue at you and laughs in your face. You hear the rhythm and flow of your prose. Or the lack of it.  But if you don’t die of humiliation, you gain a layer of skin.

Image by Hollee J. Chadwick, Eve Corbel, and Brian Klems

No one can ever be totally objective about his or her own work, but we can develop skills that give us a leg up. I’m not just talking about finding your own spelling and punctuation errors, but developing the eyes and ears to spot a dead-end paragraph (or scene or chapter). To sense when a character isn’t working. To know where to start a scene and where to end it. To master and utilize Point-of-View.

I believe any writer can begin developing these skills by engaging in the editing process. Joining a group can be a way to do this. Or writers can take courses and workshops like the ones Ms. Lopopolo teaches. Another way is to hire an Editor.

This is a big step, maybe even a scary one. But it’s vital that we hear what does and does not work in our story. As a writer I know that how we hear this can make all the difference in how we implement suggestion and criticism. We need objective, even cold scrutiny, but we also need heart. An Editor has to be that cold hard eye, the set of sensibilities that can track a story in bloodhound fashion. But she also has to relay information to a writer in a way the writer can metabolize.

For the past 10 years I’ve worked as Toni’s assistant, responding to queries, reading pages and editing book-length fiction. I feel nothing but gratitude for the agent who took the time to speak to me personally. And to Toni for her patience, mentorship and knowledge of the craft.

Because writing is a craft. But it’s also an intuitive process. There are rules. But to truly fly you have to break some of them. This sets writing (and Editing) in the realm of paradox. And if that’s not enough of a mind-twist, consider that no two writers are alike. ‘One man’s meat…” applies here in spades. As an editor, my job is to connect with the writer’s voice, or maybe more specifically, the voice of the novel, and to listen for where it fades. To identify where the story falls away and the author steps in. To stand back and chart the arc of each characters and plot line.

Novels are complex. Writing them is an all-consuming and solitary act. Yet we can’t do it alone. We need someone to mirror back to us what we’ve set down and suggest to us how we might do it better. I feel honored by the writers who have trusted me with their work. I am continually amazed by the will and drive these people have, and by the love they possess for their stories. They inspire me in my own work and make me proud to be a part of their club.

Recommended Reading

• Stein on Writing by Sol Stein
• Self-Editing For Fiction Writers by Renni Browne and Dave King

Seldom do the writers, who send their pages to this agency, know they use “hack” writing.  Hack meaning now overused by almost every writer.  Starting a sentence with the “as” parallel, or its brother, the gerund (e.g  Having shot her, he turned on his heel and said as he passed, “So long, sucker.”).  That’s a double “hack” by the way.  Or the adverb plague that a lot of writer’s still lean on: “I hate you!” she said furiously.  The exclamation point to show the reader how really angry “she” is ( as though punctuation conveys emotions); then the tacked on adverb to make sure the reader knows what the writer meant. (Insecure writer flag)  I see all this over and over and if I didn’t have my dogs to show me how they live with joy in the moment, I’d grow sad. Once in a great while, something will come to the agency that shows writing that reads like  pure silk, my hackles remain smoothed,  my editing pencil goes untouched.

Because I find so many would be novelists, who’ve worked hours and hours, wrote pages and pages, and most of that work needed heavy editing, I developed a course for writers and began giving workshops.  That started in 1992, and continues to this day.  What I learn from some of those who attend my workshops, or the bootcamps in tandem with Shelly Lowenkopf, is that though some have taken courses, worked in writing groups, no one ever taught them to master the basic skills, e. g. point of view.

I’m proud to say, one of these writers, who took the pen name of Robin Winter, I was able to place with a publisher last month. Ms Winter and I have worked together since October 2010. She worked hard rewriting the entire ms over and over. And finally, after submitting to several publishers the last draft, we found an enthusiastic publisher in Imajin Books of Edmonton, Canada. I am so proud.

Several other writers are almost to the point of delivering a finished manuscript to this agency, after working with me for many years. Because writers do have to work at day jobs, keep house, raise children, take care of aging parents,  their writing takes time to polish and refine. I understand.

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Sunday, July 22, 2 pm, Los Angeles Valley College

Join Toni Lopopolo, literary agent and famed lecturer, as she discusses: one-dimensional characters, dull dialog, not writing from real life, POV, telling not showing, and five more essential issues every first novelist should consider.

Learn more about the Greater Los Angeles Writers Conference