Interview with the Vampire...Book Author

When author Thomas Hewlett and I began working together, one of the first things he told me was that he took his first drink at age seventeen and promptly blacked out for thirteen years, coming out of a haze at rock bottom with the early idea for a novel—the one that would kick-start his career—scrawled across a mess of notes.

He had my attention. But it wasn’t the shock factor of that surprising opening that kept me, it was the next part: writing saved his life. Writing not only gave Thomas a career, it gave him an outlet into which to pour his struggles and triumphs, and a purpose in helping others who might be facing similar challenges he did. His personal journey is as remarkable as his Twelve Stakes series.

He and I sat down to talk about both.

On your site you state that you took your first drink when you were seventeen, blacked out and woke up thirteen years later, with little to show for your life besides a notebook full of unwritten books. Did those unwritten book help point you to your current path?

Twelve Stakes - Corrected - High Resolution - Book 1Looking back over that trail of unfinished books—and I use “books” loosely, because they’re mostly piles of disjointed paragraphs and hastily scrawled character sketches—I see an active imagination and a lot of scattered potential. But all that writing kept me anchored in the dream-reality that stories come from. It was a way to keep the fires of my creativity burning when the drink and the drugs threatened to snuff it out completely.

And oddly enough, those scribblings were leading me somewhere, though I didn’t know it at the time. The book ideas and the characters in search of stories got more fantastical the further I went, and it kept my mind limber. Those notebooks were laying the foundation for what came later. The vampires, the magic, the darkness. It’s all there in embryo form.

I’ve heard authors say that writing has saved their life. In your case, that seems to be quite literally true. Tell me a bit about that journey.

Not to sound mythic, but it was a journey to Hell and back. I started losing the plot of my life when getting drunk and high became more important than anything else. The jobs I worked got more menial, the apartments I lived in got smaller and shabbier, everything in my life got small and bleak. I kept scribbling ideas for stories here and there as a kind of lifeline (my wife read one my journals from that period and said, “Well at least your writing was improving…”). When I finally had a breakdown and ended up in the mental hospital on suicide watch, stories were the thing that I held on to. I watched and listened to every crazy person I saw in there. I went from the hospital to rehab and that’s where I started writing again. I learned in rehab that we’re all here to pursue a passion or a dream and nothing is stopping any of us from doing that except a decision. A decision to choose ourselves. I decided I was finally going to write a book, no matter what. It became a central part of my recovery, a reason to get clean and stay clean. Finishing a book became a reason to choose my life. Working on that first draft was a struggle but it helped me stay focused on getting better and getting my life together.

What was the genesis for your Twelve Stakes series?

When I was newly sober, I had dinner with a friend of mine one night, a writer named Khanh Ho. He and I were joking about different ways to write about my time in the nuthouse and were spitballing story ideas. Khanh kept suggesting wilder and wilder ideas, like heroin-addicted angels in rehab, and he finally said, “You should write about vampires in A.A.!” I immediately latched onto the idea, knowing instinctively there was a kickass story in there somewhere. Sure enough, when I started unpacking it, the story, the world, and all the characters spilled out almost fully written. The idea of monsters as addicts and blood as addictive as booze seemed perfectly made to tell a noir-style detective story, which is exactly what I was looking for.

Do you think writing was always in the cards for you?

I don’t like to romanticize writing but in this case I do think I couldn’t have been anything other than a writer. It’s what I love and it’s how I look at the world. I see stories and see characters everywhere I go. And the writer’s life has appealed to me since I was a kid. The freedom to let my imagination run wild really put a hook in me. It’s why I when I was young, I rewrote the endings of books I read when I didn’t like the final scene or how the characters ended up.

Some writers plot and outline their book, others jump in and see where their writing lead them. How would you describe your writing process?

I outline for practical purposes, because it makes the writing process faster and smoother. But I keep my outlines vague so I can leave room for surprises. The outline is a map to a place I’ve never been before. So if I make it too rigid, it cuts me off from discovering new plot points or character motivations along the way. And at some point, I have to be willing to let the outline go altogether. No outline survives contact with the story without changing. So I start with a basic thread of the storyline to get it shaped into a rough three-act structure and I give myself a page count to hit every day. After that, it’s just faith. I trust that if I show up and start writing every day, the characters will show up too and show me the way to the final scene.

How important is reading to you as a writer?

All the reading I did before I started writing was extremely important. It gave me a solid education in how stories work. How do you build tension and suspense? How do you show emotion and pain? What makes a reader keep turning pages, desperate to find out what happens next? Reading as much as possible is important because at some point, all of it sinks into your subconscious like groundwater and that’s where your personal stories spring from. I don’t have as much time to read for fun when I’m writing, so when I do I try to read non-fiction so I can absorb more data that might inspire and influence future stories.

Who are some of the writers you feel have most influenced you?

At the top of the list are the mystery and fantasy writers that have melded into my style. Writers like Raymond Chandler, Anne Rice, Michael Connelly, NK Jemisin, Richard Kadrey, Nalo Hopkinson, Charlie Huston have been my guides and inspiration…and are now my competition.
What would you like readers to take away from your writings?

Most of all I want them to strap in and enjoy the ride. I want them to get lost in the world of Twelve Stakes and get so close to the characters they shout and cry along with them. I want my readers to wonder what kind of monster they’d be in my world—are they Werewolves, Vamps, Fae or Witches? The same way people sort themselves into Hogwarts houses. (That’s right, I just compared my books to Harry Potter!) But most of all, I want my readers to see hope in all the darkness and be inspired to keep fighting, addicts or not.

Twelve Stakes is a book series, but are you also thinking beyond books as a way to express your work?

IMG_9307 (1)Yes, I’m going to take Twelve Stakes across a bunch of different platforms. Jack Strayhorn, my Vampire detective character, hints in book one about the 60 or so years he traveled around solving supernatural cases. I’m turning those into a series of graphic novels. I’m also adapting the main series story into a television pilot. Netflix and Amazon are doing some amazing storytelling right now, dark and sexy stuff. My Vamps and Weres will fit right in. On the far horizon is an immersive video game set in the world of Twelves Stakes, especially if virtual reality tech catches up to my imagination.

Having gone through the process a few times now, what advice would you give to writers who are just starting their journey?

The two things I would pass along are commitment and permission. You have to commit to sitting down every day and banging out pages, no matter. Don’t feel inspired? Don’t feel like writing? Too bad. Suck it up and get to work. But while you’re writing every day, give yourself permission to suck at it. Give yourself permission to write a shitty first draft, have days where you hate every sentence you put down, and want to throw the book out the window. Those feelings will pass—as long as you keep showing up every day to write.

Check out the Twelve Stakes series at twelvestakes.com, and pick up Book 1 at The Last Bookstore today. Book 3, "A Devil of Your Own," comes out on August 1.

Skylight Books on Why Bookstores Matter

A conversation with Skylight Books Events Manager Kelsey Nolan

Nestled in Los Feliz, Skylight Books has been a neighborhood staple of the Los Angeles literary scene for more than twenty years. In a time when (to our great chagrin) bookstores are closing left and right, Skylight has expanded its reach, finding new and innovative ways to not only stay relevant, but to lead the charge in proving why reading, progressive thought, and places of learning are more important than ever.

In the last year alone, Skylight hosted events featuring the likes of Elizabeth Warren and Zadie Smith, launched an in-store nonfiction book club, facilitated fundraising for more than half a dozen human rights causes, made the news as an “oasis of dissent,” and partnered with local groups to put on a cross-city, Harry Potter-themed pub crawl that culminated in a midnight book release party. And of course, sold a lot of books. Whew. And that’s just a glimpse.

At PRFW, we’re all writers who represent writers, so for us bookstores are nothing short of sacred (not to mention we’ve all confessed to each other that we’re steadfast devotees of the printed copy). Because we approach writing from a public relations standpoint, we’re constantly looking to better understand the relationship between booksellers, authors, and the general public. See where I’m going with this? Who better to help elucidate the nuances of these relationships than the booksellers themselves.

I had the great pleasure of sitting down with Skylight Events Manager Kelsey Nolan to discuss the store, the role of bookstores in an increasingly politicized climate, and tips for new authors trying to make it.

NewBioPics_3Tell us a little bit about Skylight Books, its history, mission, and place in the Los Feliz and greater LA communities.

Skylight Books opened in 1996 on the site of a former 20-year old bookstore, Chatterton’s. The space has been an active bookstore for 40 years. Due, in part to its location, and in part to the staff it employs and the clientele it serves, Skylight Books is a community space, an advocate for progress and dissent, and an integral part of the Los Angeles literary world.

How do you choose which authors and books you carry: does Skylight’s process differ from other stores, and what factors do you consider when making stock decisions?

Skylight Books, just like Los Angeles, and just like Los Feliz, skews left. We focus on literary fiction and nonfiction, graphic novels and comics, books about politics, Women’s-, Black-, Asian-, Native American- and Latino Studies, and, of course, books about LA. With that in mind, we’ve had the same book buyer for the entirety of Skylight’s lifetime. He has watched Los Angeles and our neighborhood change and grow and, with input from the staff, he has maintained a keen eye for what our customers want, respond to, and like to discover. Plus, he does so much with the limited space we have.

I’ve had a lot of reviewers snub self-published work as not being as legitimate as those backed by a house, but we’re seeing an increasing number of self-published authors—is there a place for them in bookstores?

There is definitely a space for them in bookstores, especially indies. I think the stigma was born because, well, anyone can self-pub—which means not all self-published work is going through an editing process, so there is more potential for lower quality work. However, Skylight Books encourages and represents self-created work, particularly in the underground and DIY scene. We have a huge, carefully curated zine section that emphasizes and highlights marginalized voices, non-white voices, etc.

Do you have any advice for authors/publishers who are trying to see their books carried at Skylight or collaborate for an event?

As long as the work being presented is well done, looks nice, and is “Skylight-y” so to say (weird, thoughtful, beautiful, obscure, LA-oriented), there will probably be an advocate here pushing for it to be carried in the store. The title doesn’t necessarily need to be backed from a publishing house, it just needs to be something our community might want. Something different than what one could find a chain bookstore or online. A good example of that is the zine How to Talk to Your Cat About Gun Safety, which the store carried for many years, and is our single greatest selling item. The anonymous author put together more titles (abstinence, evolution) and eventually landed himself a book deal. Another good example is Yumi Sakugawa, a comic book artist who got her start creating the loveliest zines. She produced a ton of different titles before getting enough exposure that the publishing houses started paying attention to her. She’s local to Los Angeles and we feel very strongly about her work being tied to Skylight’s identity. (Check out her new book about Life Hacks! There is gold foil!) There are many authors and artists whom Skylight Books has supported and carried who have gone on to get large scale recognition, whether it is through book deals, national distribution, etc.

Pitching for events is different than a request to be carried in the store. Authors who are self-promoting have it tough. Often, they don’t get enough guidance from their publishers about whom to reach out to, when to reach out, and what pertinent information needs to be included, if they have a publisher at all. For our store in particular, we book events 2-3 months in advance, so we need at least that much time when considering an event in the store. Also, because of the amount of event requests we receive we tend to prioritize new books, ideally, hosting the event no more than 4-6 weeks after the pub date. For authors, this means having a well-thought out "tour" and reaching out to the ideal stores with plenty of lead-time.

Also, a major factor for us is the type of book. Skylight's audience mostly responds to new, literary fiction and nonfiction and graphic novels so that's what we generally are beholden to. That's not a strict rule, but we like to think of it as our bread and butter. We do host poetry events, as well as events for political and social histories. Events we (almost) never host tend to be self-help books, business books, religion and spirituality books. This is to say that as the author is planning her tour, it's a very good idea to research the bookstores she wants, know what their strengths are and see if her book is right for them. If not, the pitch simply dies on the vine and she will have wasted her time as well as that of the bookstore's.

Again, none of these are strict guidelines. Timing, ability to draw an audience, and type of book are simply the initial aspects we consider when deciding when to host an event. Ultimately, we like to believe that we want to support someone whose book we believe in, and we think has a chance of finding an audience here at the store, especially given our limited space.

Skylight is beloved for its dependability and neighborhood feel, but is also an active proponent of progressive thought—in fact you self-identify as “fiercely independent.” What roles and responsibilities do you feel that bookstores, and Skylight in particular, have given the current political climate?

We feel an immense responsibility to inform the masses, support those who are marginalized, and give voices those who are often underrepresented.

Even before the rise of Donald Trump, Skylight staffers were passionate about dissent, encouraging positive political discourse, and excited about bipartisan, truthful voices. Since the election, Skylight has become even more involved in the community in a way that is truly inspiring. Individually, and on their personal time, staffers work with LA's homeless population, the Women's Center for Creative Work, operate a roving feminist library, edit a feminist nonfiction magazine, and regularly attend protests and marches, donate money to organizations like Planned Parenthood, the ACLU, Southern Poverty Law Center, host gatherings such as phone banking, political dinners, and brainstorming sessions about how to create active resistance, and foster intelligent and productive conversations about how to help the world around them, most recently by launching a nonfiction in-store book club.

Skylight also helped raise funds to help support the organizations resisting the Dakota Access Pipeline by selling postcards and collecting donations at the front register of both stores, and perhaps most seismically, closing the store during the Women's March so that the entire staff could march in support. It's worth noting that the store issued a statement of values to customers and, upon opening the store later that afternoon, we found a half dozen customers who said they came to the store to shop simply to support us and our position.

We regularly hand-sell books to our customers to help educate people about intersectionality, race, poverty, disability, sexuality, abortion, in particular to those who are new to activism, in particular through our store windows, front register display (currently it reads "You Can't Gag A Bookstore" with a number of appropriate book selections) and our Current Events display. Teaching our community how to participate and resist in a thoughtful, meaningful way is ingrained in the fierce DNA of our bookstore.

Skylight Books prides itself as being the sanctuary that hosts, facilitates and fosters hope. We're very grateful and proud to work in an environment like this, at a time like this. Skylight Books feels like a light during a dark time, as it were. According to Amy Goodman, the journalist and host of Democracy Now! “Skylight Books is an oasis of dissent,” and we couldn’t agree more. The more you read, the more you know. The more you know, the better informed you are about your world and the way you move throughout it.

How does Skylight reconcile authors’ right to free speech with its arguably liberal, left-leaning brand?

Skylight Books will order any book in print for any customer because free speech is free speech, and we are the last place that will restrict access to information. However, if we aren’t thought leaders, who will be? And so we are careful to carry books we believe in, that we feel will help inform our customers to the side of decency and inclusion.

We’ve seen a lot of bookstores go under in the past decade, but Skylight is seems to be holding strong—how have you adapted to changing times that increasingly tend towards the digital?

Our community is our cornerstone for success. Because we’re in a walkable neighborhood, we have street traffic other bookstores may not see. Plus, the people in our vicinity find it important to support local businesses, which is vital. And they have responded to what we’ve worked hard to do: support minority voices, expand thoughtful discussion, and get excited about literature they may not otherwise have access to. Plus, e-books sales hit a plateau a few years ago. They’ve remained at roughly 30% which means that digital and print can coexist and the love of holding a book in your hand will never go away.

You put on fantastic events, from a Harry Potter pub crawl culminating in a midnight book release party, to talks by Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. How do you choose your content, and what does it take to coordinate these kinds of massive events?

Well, thank you! It is my great joy. I talked a lot about the right ways to pitch, and what qualifies as “Skylight-y” but in regards to what I like to book, I personally look for the impact in what we produce within our community. Whether it’s a zine that can help someone dealing with depression, an often untold history of the Indigenous People of The United States, a throwback event for adults who never stopped loving Harry Potter, or, of course, an opportunity for Los Angeles to feel brief optimism in the form of our beloved Elizabeth Warren. And, of course, the deep impact that the literary scene is having on Los Angeles is manifesting in the many local authors producing incredible fiction around town, which makes my little writer’s heart sing.

With our Elizabeth Warren event, we blew the single largest event we’d ever produced out of the water in terms of attendees. We are, at the end of the day, still a tiny bookstore, trying to make our footprint as big as possible, and that is a challenge we’re taking in stride. It’s been a labor of love learning the right (and so very wrong) way to operate our events, but the team (David Gonzalez and I) would be nothing without the rest of our staff, who have large hearts and a deep, unmovable passion for literature. And of course, our General Manager, Mary Williams, who gives us room to make these events our own, deserves a shout out. Her faith in us to pull off the impossible is unfailing and for that I’m grateful.

What can we look forward to that Skylight has planned this year—plug away!

What falls RIGHT in line with all this dissent we were discussing is our upcoming event with Naomi Klein! It’s at the Ebell Theatre, mid-city, on June 21st at 7:30pm. She’s been an activist for decades and she wrote a new book about recognizing the dangers of Trump and how best to fight him. She’ll be in conversation with the actress Brit Marling. We’re very excited about it, happy for the opportunity to continue our hard work. Tickets are available on our website.

Learn more about Skylight Books and get tickets to their June 21 event at skylightbooks.com or just swing by at 1818 Vermont Ave.

Kelsey Nolan is editor at Selfish, a biannual feminist zine; check it out at selfishmagazine.com.

PRFW Goes Global: Australia’s Smartphone Film Festival and a Chance to Win Free PR

PR for Writers is always looking for fun opportunities to collaborate, so we’re especially pleased about our newest partnership with Australia’s SmartFone Flick Fest (SF3). Now in its third year, SF3 an international film festival showcasing short films produced on smartphones and tablets.

The powerhouses behind it are Angela Blake and Ali Crew, two women who share PRFW’s passion for creative storytelling. Inspired by the growing prevalence and prestige of mobile work in the age of technological innovation, they wanted to offer both new and seasoned filmmakers a chance to really get involved. As Angela explains, “Smartphone filmmaking has burst into the mainstream in recent years, with many TV shows and feature films in the U.S. shooting on smartphones. The critically acclaimed 2015 film Tangerine was shot entirely on an iPhone 5s and picked up a slew of awards at some of the top international film festivals.”

SF3 Poster 2017 (1) SF3 receives hundreds of incredible entries from Australia and around the world. “Each year we’re wowed by the quality of films being submitted into the festival. From first-time filmmakers to industry stalwarts, the technology, apps and editing software that’s out there means the quality of films being produced is staggering,” notes Ali.

This year, the top ten films will be screened at the Gala Final Awards Screening at Palace Chauvel Cinema in Sydney, Australia and at the International Mobile Film Festival in San Diego, California. One film will be declared the overall winner, but there are also several other awards up for grabs, including kids’ choice, best first-time filmmaker, and—a new category this year—the SF360 for VR pieces.

Win a Month of Free PR

Naturally we’re biased, but one of our favorite parts about this is that the winner of the festival gets a free month of PR services from our firm. We’re beyond excited to check out all the fantastic submissions from around the world, and we’re looking forward to working with the next up-and-coming filmmaker.

What are you waiting for? Grab your smartphone and get filming: submissions are due August 1!

For submission details and information about the festival, visit sf3.com.au

PRFW Summer Internship Program

Want to learn the nuts and bolts of the industry?

No filing, getting coffee, or answering phones: learn how to develop and implement PR campaigns, and to maximize impact across social media platforms through compelling content and advertising. There are also three industry events at which you’ll be a guest, not counting optional partner events.

Responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

Requirements:
Must have excellent written and verbal communication skills, be able to work effectively under minimal supervision, and be comfortable with social media (principally Facebook and Twitter).

This is a part-time, unpaid summer internship. Mostly remote work, with meetings at the office twice a week. You'll build a network of industry connections and receive career coaching for your next steps as a professional. This position reports to Senior Account Executive Analise Electra Smith-Hinkley.

To apply, please send cover letter and resume to prforwriters@gmail.com by July 1.

An Interview with Philip Rebentisch, President of AMA Los Angeles

I met Philip at an event titled “How to Find and Retain New Customers,” presented by American Marketing Association (AMA) and the president of its Los Angeles branch—also known as Philip. The panel featured Ann Convery, creator of Speak Your Business™; Anil Punyapu, SVP of Sales at Cvent; Elizabeth Primm, Industry Director at Twitter; and Sean Kelly, Head of Sales at Spotify.

Philip was a great moderator. He kept the conversation moving, didn’t try to take over (as I’ve seen others do in the past), and ensured that the panelists and the audience stayed absorbed and engaged. His enthusiasm and passion for event, the AMA, and where the brave new world of marketing and creating is heading, was contagious. As such, I want to introduce you to him as well.

A brief bio: Philip was hired by NASA to create international educational television. Landing in Los Angeles after his contract expired, Philip became a staff TV writer-director for Rockwell International/Boeing, creating marketing and PR videos for NASA and Congress. From there he worked on his own video documentary projects, did freelance work including behind the scenes for HBO Comic Relief and a few shows for E! Entertainment. He then moved to the Internet, producing websites and creating content that eventually led him back to production work. He formed Wine Table Media to create digital video from concept to completion for CD, DVD, and Internet distribution. And, as earlier stated, he is now President of American Marketing Association Los Angeles. He’s also currently working as Director of Media Clearances for Manhattan Advertising & Media Law, Inc.

Philip hosts the newly launched, Get The Word Out! a monthly digital video program exploring marketing, advertising, PR, tech, and content creation in Los Angeles. He will be interviewing yours truly on June 21, on how effective PR is effective storytelling—but more on that in a later blog. As Philip’s bio states, “He’s still a content guy, he’s still curious, and still hungry.”

We chatted about the AMA, marketing, content creation, and why taglines pop into his head at 5:00 a.m. on Saturday mornings.

Tell me a bit about your background in marketing.

My career has centered on television and film content. In my junior year in college I formed a production company that produced cable commercials, music videos, and event coverage. After creating international educational television for NASA, I worked for Rockwell International/Boeing creating PR and marketing videos for the Space Shuttle and Space Station programs. When I formed my digital video company, my clients were a sports production company and nonprofits such as The American Heart Association, Aquarium of the Pacific, and the Flying Samaritans. My philosophy then and now was to tell stories to raise funding donations. For the last few years I’ve worked the legal side of the advertising business trying to prevent clients from getting into copyright or trademark issues with their advertising campaigns.

What are the major changes you’ve seen in the field over the years?

The major change is of course the digital revolution and the rise of social media. My perspective is that it has taken several years for clients to realize that marketing is no longer a “push-based” operation, it is conversation-based due to social media. The power of marketing is in the hands of the consumer, and I don’t see this changing anytime soon. Marketers must provide a reason for consumers to pay attention, and a siloed, push-messaging approach is as relevant as dial-up modems.

You’re President of American Marketing Association, Los Angeles. First, congratulations. Second, how did you first become involved with the AMA?

It’s a funny story. I knew nothing about the AMA until one day when my neighbor was on chapter panel and he wanted a friend in the audience. I showed up and was impressed with the level of the discussion. I started attending events, became an AMA member, and often asked questions during the Q&A sessions. It’s my nature! After a few months, I was literally tapped on the shoulder by the president at the time who invited me to join the board. I did and it has made an enormous difference in my life.

How would you describe the AMA?

We help people become better marketers! The AMA is the largest marketing association in the world with over 30,000 global members and its tagline is Answers in Action.® As an AMA member, you have access to a diverse wealth of information in the form of research papers/case studies, webinars, seminars, magazines, podcasts, and national conferences just to name a few benefits. The local chapters exist to further those benefits and provide the networking and educational opportunities for their community. The Los Angeles chapter is currently the largest chapter on the West Coast with nearly 400 members.

What is the Association’s primary mission?

Our chapter’s tagline is: AMA Los Angeles. Network. Educate. Volunteer. Move Forward With Us. This tagline popped into my head at 5:00 a.m. on a Saturday morning (like all good taglines) and it truly represents our primary mission. Leveraging the resources of the national organization, we provide professional, meaningful networking opportunities; create high level, diverse educational programming to chapter members and the LA marketing community; provide pro bono community outreach services; and help people move forward in their careers. We refuse to waste anyone’s time at any event, and we take this responsibility very seriously.

How does someone become a member?

It’s very easy! Go to the national AMA website at www.ama.org and sign up! Now through June 10, 2017 our Spring membership drive is underway so you can save on membership fees. You become a national AMA member and then select your specific chapter membership.

What are some of the benefits of becoming a member?

Free admission to all our educational events to start! We are the only AMA chapter that does not charge admission to our monthly educational events. In addition, you have access to the national AMA resources which include continuing education certificate programs. To sum it up, the AMA is focused on helping develop the individual’s skills, not a top-down, company based approach. Going forward, there is a new emphasis of being part of a national (and global) organization, and AMA Los Angeles helped lead the way in the re-branding effort.

You’ve launched a new TV show called Get The Word Out!. Tell me a bit about that.

Los Angeles is a media-centric town, and we felt it was important to represent that element as a chapter. It goes straight to the membership value proposition. Our communication goals for this year were to launch a blog, podcast, and video programming. Get The Word Out! is a monthly digital video program exploring marketing, advertising, PR, tech, and content creation in Los Angeles. Got a good story to tell about your business? Then get the word out about it!

What is the focus and format?

I host the show on the WCOBM.TV multi-channel network and we’re always seeking interesting stories and people. Los Angeles has always been a town about invention, or even re-invention, and we’re curious about the myriad of topics out there from Silicon Beach to Hollywood, with fashion and music included! Each show consists of four separate, 10 minute interviews exploring that guest’s personal or company story. The show streams live on WCOBM, Facebook, and YouTube at 4:00 p.m. on the third Wednesday of every month and is then available on demand. Find us at https://www.wcobm.tv/gtwo.

What is on the horizon for you and AMA Los Angeles?

This year is going to be even more focused on the membership value proposition. In other words, we want to ensure that membership provides the benefits that are important to each member. For example, we’re launching a new executive programming track for members only to learn from and network with local marketing executives in an intimate, exclusive format. We’re excited! We’ve also developed partnerships with the other West Coast chapters where LA members may attend events in San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, and others as if they are a member of that chapter, and vice versa for us.

Learn more about the American Marketing Association (and become a member!) at ama.org.

Producing A Film? What’s Your PR Plan?

Producing a film can be a magical experience, but many filmmakers get so excited about, and engrossed in, the process that they forget producing their film is only step one. Actually, the production of your film should be pretty far down the line in your initial to-do list. Particularly with new filmmakers, the excitement of making a film and all that is involved in scripting, pre-producing, casting, production, and post production, tends to become (understandably) all-consuming. Creating the film becomes everything.

But here are questions you need to ask (and answer) before the process even starts:

What are you going to do once your film (filled with joy, enthusiasm and dreams as well as blood sweat and tears) is completed?

How are you going to get your film, promoted, marketed, distributed?

How are you going to build that bridge between your finished product and your audience?

If this article were a script, we’d be having a flashback sequence here. We would fade back to before you edited, shot, cast, or wrote your film add a new focus to the process. In this sequence your new flash back approach in the past would change your future. You’d figure out a game plan outlining how to PR, promote and market your film. Your new public relations plan would act as a guide, as a roadmap as you moved forward in your filmmaking process. It would be a bridge-building process between you, your audience, distributors, potential investors and influences. It would be the focus that helped insure your film would have a strong shot at succeeding.

Sadly, most filmmakers don’t outline and budget for a PR and marketing campaign before they start production. If you made that mistake, correct it now. Put your marketing campaign at the top of your to-do list. Not always an easy thing to do, but those filmmakers with whom we have the most success start with us during pre-production. They realize that marketing is an essential part of the game plan and keep that in mind during the production process.

Ideally you want to start promoting your film and creating a buzz online and in the media before you finish shooting or editing your project. A well thought out media relations and social media campaign can serve you in a number of ways. One outreach can be directed to the general public, another to a more targeted group of viewers, another to distributors and still another to possible investors. You can also start creating a buzz for upcoming projects while promoting your current film.

So dive in to your film project. Make the very best film you can. But be smart about it. Make a PR and marketing campaign an essential part of your film’s game plan. You’ve put your heart, soul, time and money into you film project. You now owe it to the film and to yourself to give it a chance to succeed.

Ann Convery: Featured Panelist at How to Find and Retain New Customers Event

On Thursday, May 25th, 2017 Ann Convery, creator of Speak Your Business™, will be a featured panelist at the event How to Find and Retain New Customers, presented by American Marketing Association (AMA) Los Angeles. This unique event, which will be held at General Assembly in Santa Monica, California, will focus on how marketing professionals, agencies, and content creators can best attract and keep their clients and customers.

Joining Ann on the panel will be:

► Anil Punyapu: SVP of Sales, Cvent

► Elizabeth Primm: Industry Director, Twitter

► Sean Kelly: Head of Sales, Spotify

The event will be moderated by Philip Rebentisch, President of AMA Los Angeles

TALK TO THE LIZARD BRAIN

Speak Your Business™, Ann’s signature system, uses neuromarketing and other tools to show business owners how to transform their messages into client magnets that increase revenues, win the pitch, and boost the bottom line. Ann’s system focuses on targeting the Lizard Brain, the part of the brain that makes decisions. With Ann’s system, business owners talk to the “decision-maker” every time they communicate.

CAPTURE, KEEP, SHARE

Ann’s system shows how using the 5 rules of the Lizard Brain, in a brief story, makes it possible to capture anyone’s attention in 8 seconds. Lizard Brain stories make it a cinch to keep that attention, and get prospects and customers to care about the story they just heard.

GLOBAL TO LOCAL

Ann has delivered over 150 trainings in Barcelona, Madrid, Liverpool, Mexico City, New York, Chicago, Seattle, and California. She has worked in over 25 different industries with clients on four continents. Recently Ann worked with digital tech entrepreneurs at Cross Campus, the hub of L.A.’s Silicon Beach community.

For over 15 years Ann has prepared top professionals to appear on CNN, Oprah, Fx News, 60 Minutes, The Wall Street Journal, and numerous other outlets. Her media training evolved into Speak Your Business, a company that is out to revolutionize the way business owners communicate.

ALL MARKETING CHANNELS

Speak your Business works across all marketing channels, including personal introductions, customer and investor pitches, speeches, presentations, sales conversion, and b2b or b2c – online and off.

Ann has been interviewed by The Los Angeles Times, Elle, Cosmopolitan, ABC-TV, Entrepreneur, and many other media. Her two books were published by Harper Collins.

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Thursday, May 25, 2017
6:30 – 9:00 pm PDT

General Assembly
1520 2nd Street
Santa Monica, CA 90401

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A Conversation with Kathleen Sexton Kaiser

I met Kathleen at the wonderfully produced 805 Writers’ Conference. I make a point of that, since she produced it. Kathleen is a savvy navigator of all things publishing. With four published books and three plays under her belt, she understands how authors and artists are often confused by the new world of marketing their products and themselves. Kathleen, whose expertise encompasses seminars, conferences, special events, publicity, marketing communications and trade show production, maintains a small list of clients that allow her to continue her volunteerism, which includes being co-founder and executive director of the Pacific Institute for Professional Writing, producer of the annual 805 Writers’ Conference, president of the national organization Small Publishers, Artists & Writers Network (SPAWN), and organizer of a monthly literary meeting in Thousand Oaks, CA sponsored by SPAWN and the Independent Writers of Southern California. The following is a conversation with Kathleen on books, writers and the brave new world of publishing.

How did you get started working with writers?

I’ve always had people that write in my world. My career began as a music journalist and most of my friends were writers for local papers or magazines. Moving into the corporate world, I wrote marketing copy or hired copywriters. It was a learning curve to understand how to creatively describe a business or product.

I’d written a novel, and took it to the Santa Barbara Writers Conference in 1998. That’s where I met this new world of writers and instructors—pros that were writing or editing everyday. The conference was a master class for me and is where I met the legendary southern California editor, Shelly Lowenkopf. He changed my entire view of writing.

What initially drew you to the field?

Always been a storyteller. Made up stories for my paper dolls, then for friends to act out. Was a school newspaper columnist by seventh grade and published in a local newspaper at sixteen. Founded a Beatles Fan Club in San Diego at fifteen and wrote a small newsletter. By twenty, I was an editor at Teen Screen Magazine in Hollywood, next west coast editor for Rock Magazine while freelancing articles. I worked until I was 32 as either a music journalist or publicist writing press releases. During that time, I wrote countless articles for publications in America, Canada, England, Italy and Japan and four books on rock and roll for Japan.

In 1997 I fell and broke my foot. Cooped up in the house I came up with an idea for a screenplay that eventually became my novel.

What are the main changes you’ve seen since you began working with authors?

How much they have to do to market their books and become mini-entrepreneurs. They must have an ability to write blogs, tweets, and talk about their books. Fortunately, I worked for 20 years in graphic design following the desktop publishing revolution of the late 80s right into the internet. Gave me a leg up on understanding the technology and, by working with a real futurist, Jonathan Seybold, I was introduced early to new tools that made writing and designing books easier. Then the World Wide Web exploded and we can never look back.

Authors are now in control of their destiny as long as they want to put in the hard work. Publishing is a business, not a hobby. It takes commitment.

How has self-publishing changed the publishing world?

It’s not really self-publishing that changed, it was two things that changed publishing: going digital drastically lowered the price of producing a quality looking book; and two, Amazon. Vanity presses have been around forever. Now you don’t need to fill your garage with boxes of boxes. Everything is done Print on Demand. If anyone tells you to order hundreds of books, run away. Totally not necessary. They are just taking your money.

For years independent films have been considered art, but self-published books were viewed as vanity projects.  Is that changing and if so, why?

The content and quality are what matter. Is it art? Only if it moves you. It’s all in story. Personally, I put down a book with grammar and construction errors because they pull me right out of the story. Most important relationship a writer has is with a great editor. They can save your book. And I don’t mean editors for grammar or punctuation. I mean real development and content editors.

What are some of the biggest pitfalls that self-published writers need to be aware of? 

Cost, distribution, marketing, and the time commitment you need to make to have any success. Plus, having a well-written story that follows the norms for writing in the 21st Century. If you haven’t read 20 bestsellers in your genre over the last 3 years, then you have no idea how much style has drastically changed. What readers want now are action from the first page. The days of 70s and 80s writing with long setups are gone.

Remember, buyers can read the first 3 pages on Amazon. If you don’t grab them within 3 pages, they don’t buy your book. Writing is competing with film, which drops you into the action immediately and your character must fight they way out from page one.

Pitfalls include the many scammers out there pretending to be publishers who take your book and then charge you a small fortune to publish your book. NO REAL PUBLISHER charges the writer. There are some good hybrid publishers who charge a small fee, but READ THE FINE PRINT.

Tell me about The Small Publishers, Artists & Writers Network (SPAWN)

SPAWN has been around for twenty years. In the beginning their goal was to build a community of writers, which the internet allowed because we didn’t need meetings with everything online. We have an award-winning website that is a top resource for writers. Our free monthly newsletter goes out to over 4,000 writers in five countries. Our Market Update, which is a member benefit, gives tips for marketing a book, for illustrators on style and color trends, for small publishers an update on what is happening in the world of publishing. I read or monitor over 50 newsletters to create each Update, bringing what I feel is the latest news, trends, and tips SPAWN members need to stay on the leading edge of book publishing.

How did you become involved with the 805 Writers’ Conference?

I produced the Ventura Writers Fair in 2010 and invited Shelly Lowenkopf to speak. He and I got talking afterwards about the many changes happening in the 805 area, the decline in the Santa Barbara Writers Conference and the need for better education. We co-founded the Pacific Institute for Professional Writing in 2011 and launched the first conference along with a series of workshops and intensives. This year we launched the Indie Author Seminars for writers considering self-publishing. Since I produced technology conferences and trade shows for years, it was a natural fit to be the producer of the 805 Writers’ Conference.

What part of your work fulfills you the most? 

Hearing the joy in a writer’s voice when they receive that first printed copy of their book. The struggle and time invested to get to that point can be exhausting and the sheer triumph of holding your new book is amazing. I know it was for me.

Helping people avoid mistakes I’ve seen done in the past. Showing them how to build an audience and sell some books. Though I run two literary groups, my main work is in book marketing. I want to share what I’ve learned with others.

What are the three main tips you’d give to writers?

  1. Learn the craft. Take classes from established pros that work in the industry. If you can’t find one in your area, take university writing classes at night.
  2. Attend writer conferences. Meet the instructors, get on their newsletter or Facebook lists and learn. Meet agents and editors. Submit your book to qualified editors and listen to what they say. With my novel, I went through two editors that helped my writing more than anything else.
  3. Understand that publishing is a business that must be worked. You need to commit to finding and building your audience. Even bestselling authors must now market their own books. Marketing departments at publishers have gone the way of dodo birds.

Learn more about Kathleen at www.KathleenKaiserAndAssociates.com.

Focus on the Author, Not the Book

When launching a PR campaign focus on the author, not the book.

Publishers invariably disagree with me on this one. Perhaps the most heated discussions that I've had with publishers have dealt with that topic.

Don’t misunderstand me, I understand where the publishers are coming from. They’ve put their time and money into producing, publishing and distributing the book, so, from their perspective, all of the PR and marketing efforts should be focused around one topic – the book.

Point taken.

The only trouble is that they are wrong!

Yes, a major focus is on the book. That’s generally going to be the PR engine that drives the train. But if you expand the focus to include the author, you’ve suddenly greatly enlarged your marketing bullseye. The story could be about an author’s journey, or a cause that the author is involved in or a unique incident in the author’s life, or a previous work that acts as a gateway to the new book

Point is, you never know where the story that will interest the media lies. And, chances are it’s not going to be a one-size-fits all pitch that is going to work. You’re going to want to develop different stories to appeal to various media outlets.

This approach seldom appeals to publishers. They feel the book will get lost. But think about it. The book is the author’s baby. That book represents blood sweat and tears as well as hopes and dreams.

Believe me, the author will bring the book into the story.

So, whether you’re working with a major publisher, a boutique publishing house, or are self-publishing remember that your story is vital to the PR and marketing.

And remember that, like it or not, the bulk of the PR outreach is going to fall on you. So, make it fun. Make a list of the various possible story ideas.

Utilize your storytelling gift to tell your story and sell your book.

 

A Conversation with Author/Publisher Christopher Meeks

Christopher Meeks is an author, publisher and college teacher. Chris told me about his long and winding road through the worlds of writing and publishing. He first published short fiction in a number of literary journals, and the stories are available in two collections, The Middle-Aged Man and the Sea and Months and Seasons. The audiobook of The Middle-Aged Man and the Sea appears on Audible and Amazon. He’s also published the literary novels The Brightest Moon of the Century and Love at Absolute Zero, and the crime novels Blood Drama and A Death in Vegas. In August, his war novel, The Chords of War with Iraq war veteran Samuel Gonzalez, will arrive.

We first met at a writing conference where I heard him speak and then over coffee in Atwater Ca. As good a conversationalist as he is a writer...

When did you start writing? 

I majored in filmmaking at the University of Denver. I wrote my first screenplays then. I added psychology as a second major as I thought understanding people and how they thought would certainly add to my visual storytelling. Then in my senior year, I took creative writing to satisfy electives—first poetry and then fiction. I loved both. I found I could be visual with words. I didn’t need film or film splicers or actors or cameras or assistant directors and the like – I could do everything on the page, and the fiction and poetry I could publish.

You’ve written short stories, plays and novels.  Does one form feel like a better fit than the others?

I love them all, and they each have their own needs, which match my needs when I dive into their forms. Writing plays had been the best of all worlds—working with people as in film, but the playwright has more power and respect than a screenwriter ever does. Still, getting a play produced is almost as difficult as getting a film made, and there’s so little money for the playwright unless it’s performed in New York or nationally. One needs to live in New York to start as a working playwright.

I do feel writing fiction is the most challenging because it’s being one-on-one with an audience. Readers see your strengths and any weaknesses. It’s the form I focus on the most.

What was the impetus to start your own publishing company?

I had an agent at the time, who found my short fiction amazing and thought I had a novel in me. However, he did not want to send a manuscript of my short fiction out, a collection of stories already published in literary magazines. He said, “Fifteen percent of nothing is nothing.” He felt his energy and mine would be better served if I wrote my first novel. He was a great motivator in that way. That novel became The Brightest Moon of the Century.

I complained to a graphic designer friend about my agent and my short fiction manuscript. My friend had worked with me at Prelude Press, a Los Angeles publisher where I’d been the senior editor for six years. He suggested I start my own company, much like Prelude Press. He would design my first book for free. It was my short story collection, The Middle-Aged Man and the Sea.

I marketed it as we would have at Prelude, focusing on well-known reviewers and using a PR agency. The first review was in the Los Angeles Times. At that point, my agent, now my former agent, called and congratulated me and said he’d been wrong. That was nice of him to make that call. The book was later mentioned in Entertainment Weekly. It’s done well and now even has an audiobook version.

You’ve worked in different aspects of the publishing world.  What changes in publishing have surprised you the most?

The publishing industry has been changing rapidly since I started White Whisker Books in late 2005. First there was print-on-demand (POD), which meant small publishers didn’t have to print short runs and store a bunch of books in the garage. Books were printed instantly when a book order came in. Then along came eBooks, which meant, for the small publisher specializing in them, that returned books were no longer a problem.

Printed books returned are costly. Bookstores only order if they can return them if they don’t sell. The better the reviews and awards, the more bookstores order. I’ve learned the more orders you get, the more returns you’ll receive. For instance, Shelly Lowenkopf’s short story collection, Love Will Make You Drink and Gamble, Stay Out Late at Night, received great reviews, including one in an important publishing industry journal, and it won an award in the Los Angeles Book Festival. Bookstores ordered a lot. The returns put me in the red on that one. A bunch of returns from a bunch of bookstores can cause a small publisher to go bankrupt.

Marketing is the biggest challenge for all publishers, including self-publishers. Marketing changes quickly. Something works for a while then doesn’t. Over the last few years a number of methods have come and gone (or come and stayed), including free giveaways of eBooks, advertising with certain websites such as Bookbub, running a blog tour, getting many book reviews (from print or web sources), getting many reviews from customers, offering book trailers, and many other things. There is no sure method at this point other than appearing in Oprah’s Bookclub. Maybe have Donald Trump tweet your book.

What are some of the books you’ve published from other authors, and what was it about those writers that spoke to you?

I started publishing other authors when a former professor of mine, David Scott Milton, didn’t know what to do with his novel now that his agent died. Mainly a screenwriter and playwright, he’d published three novels over the years, and he thought he might have to self-publish his new one.

I realized that at over seventy years old, he wasn’t about to learn all the marketing things he needed to do. Also, I read his manuscript for Iron City, and it was damn good. I said I’d publish it. Once I did, I started having agents and acquaintances call. I published a few of those people. Basically, I looked for two things: did I like the book and would it take much editorial work to get it in shape? Also, could I market that particular topic?

The most popular of what I’ve done is the Falling Angeles Saga, by E. Van Lowe, four young-adult paranormal romance novels. It starts with Boyfriend from Hell. Mr. Van Lowe used to write for and produce The Cosby Show along with many other sitcoms. He’s got an incredible ear for dialogue and a great sense of both humor and drama. His stories rocket along. For a few years, TV producers considered making the books into a series.

The agent for another former professor from USC called. She offered The Fiction Writer’s Handbook, a masterwork from Shelly Lowenkopf. It’s built like an encyclopedia and goes over terms and concepts for fiction writers, from novice to expert. I’m proud to have published it.

My most recent author is Robin Winter, who came up with Watch the Shadows, a scary book that takes place just outside of Santa Barbara. Something is making homeless people and small animals disappear. It’s before Trump came along. Ms. Winter came from an agent submission.

You write, teach and publish how do you keep all those balls in the air? 

The balls are falling all around me. I’ve stopped looking at new work from new authors as marketing has changed so much in the last few years, my old methods don’t work well now. I don’t have the money to invest in marketing as I once had. I’m having to rethink where I’m going to go. I have a new book or two to publish over the next year, and also one from E. Van Lowe, but after that, I don’t know. I’m looking for a new agent, myself, so that gives you a sense of where I’m at.

I’m happily writing and teaching. It’s the publishing part that’s frustrating. I also may have a film that may go into production from a screenplay I wrote fourteen years ago.

What are you currently working on? 

I’ve finished writing a literary novel, The Chords of War, which I co-wrote with a former student who fought in Iraq. It may be my best novel yet, and a film producer has optioned it even before it’s published. That took a year of negotiating, and his option period will be up in six months. The man hired a screenwriter, but I sense it didn’t go well. Two other screenwriters are now working on it. Still, I’m not holding my breath.

I rewrote a screenplay on another topic, Albert Einstein, which may be optioned this week. Why Hollywood is calling after all this time, I don’t know.

In the meantime, I’ve been experiencing some of life’s huge challenges: health and marriage issues in particular, which has found me madly writing short stories, which I haven’t done in a decade. I might call it Life on Mars.

What are your top two pointers for writers looking to publish their works? 

The first pointer is that quality is always paramount. Don’t rush to publish, but rather show people what you’ve written, and keep honing your work until it’s brilliant. Writing is rewriting.

The second is that know that as much time and energy that you put into the book, you’ll probably have to spend twice as long finding an agent and publisher or self-publishing and learning a hell of a lot about marketing. It’s important, even if you prefer to be writing.

To learn more about Chris and his work visit: http://www.chrismeeks.com