The San Francisco Writers Conference presents

The 9th San Francisco Writing for Change Conference: Writing to Make a Difference

For Fiction, Nonfiction and Children’s Book Writers

Saturday, September 9th, 2017 8:30 a.m.-5:00 p.m. Unitarian Universalist Center � 1187 Franklin at Geary

6:00-7:30 Optional: A SUNRISE PITCHATHON

If you wish, you may come to a no-host breakfast a block away. Attendees receive a guide to preparing a pitch from Co-director Mike Larsen, who will moderate the event. Listening to pitches and getting feedback on yours will enable you to improve yours significantly. Presenters are invited as our guests. Limited seating. Email Mike at epml@aol.com to register.

8:00 a.m. CHECK-IN / Coffee, tea & pastries will be available throughout the day.

8:30-8:50 WELCOME: Mike Larsen Freelance editors Pamela Feinsilber, Melissa Kirk and Mary Rakow; Jim Azevedo, Smashwords; Promotion experts Cristina Deptula and Brenda Knight; literary agents Peter Beren, Laurie

McLean, and Andy Ross; author coach Nina Amir; Advisory Board member Harvey Pawl

8:50-9:00 10 STEPS TO BECOMING A CHANGE AGENT Nina Amir, The Author Training Manual

9:00-3:00 FREE EIGHT-MINUTE CONSULTATIONS Many thanks for understanding that consultations, especially with speakers, are limited. One per category limit. Please sign up at the registration table.

EDITORIAL: Pamela Feinsilber, Melissa Kirk or Mary Rakow Bring copies of the beginning of your book to share with other attendees and an editor.

PROMOTION: Cristina Deptula or Brenda Knight

LITERARY AGENTS: Peter Beren, Laurie McLean or Andy Ross (9-10 only)

AUTHOR COACH: Nina Amir

EBOOKS: Jim Azevedo, Smashwords

9:00-10:00 WRITING FOR BETTER TOMORROWS Kathleen Archambeau, Pride and Joy LBGTQ: Artists, Icons and Everyday Heroes

Kirk Boyd, 2048: Humanity’s Agreement to Live Together

Mitali Perkins, You Bring the Distant Near

Mary Rakow, This is Why I Came

9:00-10:00 PITCH TO AN AGENT

Andy Ross will take 3 minute pitches. There will be a 5-minute time frame to ensure people can come and go within the time allotted. It will be first come first served, put your name on a list in the morning with a max of 12 people.

10:15-11:30 TRADITIONAL, HYBRID OR DIY PUBLISHING? Picking the Right Option for You and Your Book

Nina Amir, How to Blog Your Book

Jim Azevedo, Smashwords Brenda Knight, Mango Media Andy Ross, Andy Ross Literary Agency

11:45-12:15 BUFFET LUNCH

12:15-1:15 KEYNOTE: Writing That Fuels an American Evolution

Stephen Dinan, Sacred America, Sacred World: Fulfilling Our Mission in Service to All

Followed by a Q&A and signing

1:30-3:00 SHARING YOUR PASSION FOR YOUR BOOK: Helping Readers Find You Nina Amir, How to Blog Your Book Jim Azevedo, Smashwords Cristina Deptula, Authors Large and Small Brenda Knight, Mango Media Laurie McLean, Fuse Literary Moderator: Michael Larsen

3:00-3:30 NEW: HELP START A WRITER’S GROUP IN YOUR GENRE Needed: Four SFW4C attendees to act as coordinators for each genre to help attendees sign up and plan a future writer’s group meeting. Contact Mike epml@aol.com if you can help.

3:30-5:00 SPEED DATING WITH THE PROS: A Pitch-and-Learn Session You may ask questions or pitch your book to Nina Amir, Jim Azevedo, Peter Beren, Cristina

Deptula, Laurie McLean, Brenda Knight, and Mike Larsen

5:00 p.m. CONTINUING THE CONVERSATION Keep the spirit of community going! Join us for a host-free Chinese banquet at a restaurant four blocks

away. Volunteers and speakers will be guests of Advisory Board member Harvey Pawl. You are welcome to join us for $20 in cash that includes tea, tax, and tip. Many thanks for signing up at registration by 2:00.

HELPFUL INFORMATION

• AN EDITORIAL CONSULTATION—Your consultation may focus on your work, advice about getting published, or feedback on your pitch. Please sign up at registration for Pamela Feinsilber, Melissa Kirk or Mary Rakow. One consult per attendee. (As their schedules permit.)

• A PROMOTION CONSULTATION—Cristina Deptula or Brenda Knight will advise you about how to promote your book. Sign up at registration. One publicity consult per attendee. (As their schedules permit.)

• AN AGENT CONSULTATION—Peter Beren, Laurie McLean will advise you about agents, your book, and getting published. (As their schedules permit.)

• AN AUTHOR COACH CONSULTATION—Nina Amir will advise you about writing, publishing, and promoting your book. (As her schedule permits.)

• HANDOUTS--We encourage presenters to prepare handouts about their talks which will be available for attendees on our website at http://sfwritingforchange.org. Attendees can review the more than 60 pages of handouts BEFORE the event and print them out to bring them with you to better follow the talks. Many thanks.

• BOOK SALES—Susan Tunis & Neal Sofman of Bookshop West Portal will sell books onsite during the event.

• RESOURCE TABLE—Presenters and nonprofits will have literature available on the resource table. Items of interest to writers welcome. Please ask at registration before adding items to the table.

• FREE FOLLOW UP CALLS—Attendees may call Mike Larsen at 415-673-0939 after the event

• PARKING--The garage recommended by Michael is the Holiday Inn Golden Gateway garage, 1500 Van Ness Ave., between Pine and California. The lot opens at 6 a.m., closes at 10 p.m., and charges $45 for the day. Go left when you leave the garage. Walk three blocks to Sutter St., go right one block to Franklin, go left two blocks to Geary. Give yourself 10 minutes walking time to the church. Go left when you leave the garage. Walk three blocks to Sutter St., go right one block to Franklin, go left two blocks to Geary. For those doing the pitchathon to go left when they leave the garage and walk five blocks to Geary to Mel's. There are other garages in the area closer to the church and to Mel's if you are thinking of doing the early morning pitch session. There is a garage at 1000 O'Ferrell St. that charges $32 a day and is very close to Mel's and the Unitarian church. Please take the time to Google "Public garages near the Unitarian Church in SF" to see what your alternatives are.

• The San Francisco Writing for Change TWITTER hashtag is: #W4C17. The SFWC handle is @SFWC

The Conference Team

Co-directors Michael Larsen and Laurie McLean

Registration Director Richard Santos Marketing Director Barbara Santos

SFW4C Volunteer Director Jane Glendinning Onsite Coordination: Lissa Provost

Hospitality Coordination: Tessa Bertoldi AV Manager: Aaron Provost

Dinner Impresario: Harvey Pawl Onsite Bookstore: BookShop West Portal—Susan Tunis/Neal Sofman

2017 San Francisco Writing for Change Conference

PRESENTERS

KEYNOTER Stephen Dinan, Sacred America Sacred World: Fulfilling Our Mission in Service to All

Stephen Dinan is the founder and CEO of The Shift Network and a member of the Transformational Leadership Council and Evolutionary Leaders. The Shift Network was founded in 2010 and has served over 700,000 people worldwide, with customers in 150 countries. It delivers virtual summits, courses, and trainings featuring over 50 core faculty and 1,000 thought leaders in domains as diverse as spirituality, peace, holistic health, psychology, parenting, enlightened business, shamanism, indigenous wisdom, and sustainability. Stephen is a graduate of Stanford University (Human Biology) and the California

Institute of Integral Studies (East-West Psychology). He helped create and directed the

Esalen Institute’s Center for Theory & Research, a think tank for leading scholars, researchers, and teachers to explore human potential frontiers. As the former director of membership and marketing at the Institute of Noetic

Sciences, he was the driving force behind the Shift in Action program and the One Minute Shift media series. He has been a featured speaker at the World Cultural Forum in China, the Alliance for a New Humanity in

Costa Rica, Renovemos Mexico in Mexico City, and the University of Cuenca in Ecuador, as well as many US conferences, events, radio programs, and online summits. He is also the author of Sacred America, Sacred World:

Fulfilling Our Mission in Service to All and Radical Spirit.

FEATURED SPEAKERS and CONSULTANTS

Nina Amir is the bestselling author of 17 titles, including How to Blog a Book and The Author

Training Manual. She helps aspiring authors impact the world as writers, bloggers, authorpreneurs, and blogpreneurs. Her clients have sold 300,000+ copies of their books, landed deals with major publishing houses, and created thriving businesses from their books. She founded National Nonfiction Writing Month and the Nonfiction Writers' University and created a proprietary Author Coaching/ Training curriculum. Six of her books hit the Amazon Top 100 list simultaneously. Her newest book is Creative Visualization for Writers, www.AuthorofChange.com. Kathleen Archambeau has been an LGBTQ activist since 1992 and wrote a column for one of the longest-running queer newspapers in the country. Her publications include: Climbing the Corporate

Ladder in High Heels and Pride & Joy: LGBTQ Artists, Icons and Everyday Heroes. She is a legacy donor to the University. www.kathleenarchambeau.com, kathleenarchambeau@gmail.com.

Jim Azevedo is Marketing Director at Smashwords--the largest distributor of eBooks in the world. He is sought after as a speaker for his self-publishing strategies and up-to-the-minute knowledge of trends and statistics. His expertise in media and industry analyst relations includes launching several startups and working with multi-billion dollar, publicly traded companies (Bite Communications, Advanced Micro Devices, BMC Software & ProactiveNet.) Peter Beren, AAR, is a literary agent and publishing consultant who specializes in photography, how-to and popular culture. The former Publisher of Sierra Club Books and VIA Books, he is the author or co-author of seven books including The Writers Legal Companion (Basic Books), California the

Beautiful (Rizzoli) and The Golden Gate (Insight Editions). His clients include photographers Art Wolfe, Frans Lanting, and Baron Wolman; and graphic novelist Jack Katz, www.peterberen.com.

Kirk Boyd, PhD. book, 2048: Humanities Agreement to Live Together, was a San Francisco Chronicle bestseller for four weeks. Kirk is Executive Director for Unite for Rights. He has three law degrees, including a doctorate, from U.C. Berkeley. He has argued at the Supreme Court and teaches civil rights at UC. Kirk is writing a sequel, One Family, One Planet: Creating a Global Bill of Rights to Bring

Peace and Prosperity for All. Cristina Deptula founded the literary publicity agency Authors, Large and Small in 2013 after providing book outreach services for a Bay Area publisher. Her team helps writers strategize on how to find and reach their readers where they are already gathering. The business strives for eco-friendliness and hires people with disabilities for part time research work, www.authorslargeandsmall.com. Cristina will be offering publicity consults during the SFW4C event.

Melissa Kirk has been a developmental and acquisitions editor for over 15 years—at Wiley and New Harbinger Publications—honing her expertise in psychology, self-improvement, spirituality, and wellness. She offers content development and management, book publishing consultation, pitch and proposal help, and book representation to nonfiction authors. She has written for Tiny Buddha, Huffington Post, and Psychology Today. Her blog is www.joyattheheart.com.

Melissa will be offering independent editor consults during the SFW4C event.

Pamela Feinsilber was, for ten years, a senior editor at San Francisco magazine, working with both new and established writers. She edits novels and nonfiction, from consulting on theme and structure—her memos brought her the nickname “The Queen of Questions”—to line and copy editing. She is a mentor and editor in the Book Passage Path to Publishing program and writes occasionally, most recently for Huffington Post, www.pamelafeinsilber.com, feinsilber@comcast.net.

Brenda Knight began her career at HarperCollins, working with Marianne Williamson, Huston Smith, and Paolo Coelho. As Publisher of Cleis Press she was awarded IndieFab's Publisher of the Year in 2014. She is the author of Wild Women and Books, Be a Good in the World, and Women of

the Beat Generation, which won an American Book Award. She is the cofounder of PI: Promotional

Intelligence for Authors, Publisher and other Creatives and Publishing Director of Mango Media. Mike Larsen is co-director of the San Francisco Writing for Change Conference and San Francisco Writers Conference. His books include How to Write a Book Proposal, How to Get a Literary Agent,

and Guerrilla Marketing for Writers (co-author). An agent for more than four decades, he is now an author coach.

Laurie McLean is the co-founder and partner of Fuse Literary, actively creating the literary agency of the future and igniting author careers. Laurie ran her own eponymous publicity agency for 20 years and then spent 8 years as an agent before forming Fuse in 2013. Laurie specializes in adult/young adult/middle grade genre fiction, but also listens to pitches at conferences for the entire agency of 8 agents. Query her at Laurie@FuseLiterary.com.

Mitali Perkins is the author of several acclaimed YA and children’s books including Rickshaw Girl

(soon to be a movie), Bamboo People, Tiger Boy and You Bring the Distant Near. Born in Kolkata (Calcutta) she has lived in Ghana, Cameroon, London, New York and Mexico. Now an East Bay resident, she is an Adjunct Associate Professor at Saint Mary's College. Mitali will appear at the 2018 San Francisco Writers Conference in February.

Mary Rakow, Ph.D. is an award-winning novelist. She has mentored in the PEN Emerging Writers’ Program, UCLA Extension, and has worked with over 50 writers in the Bay Area. Her most recent novel, This Is Why I Came (2015) was heralded as a "Blakean tour de force" and was favorably reviewed in The Washington Post, Boston Globe, The Atlantic, Christian Century, and O magazine, www.maryrakow.com, www.thisiswhybook.com.

Andy Ross, AAR, owned the legendary Cody's Books in Berkeley for 30 years, and became a literary agent in 2008. He represents books in a wide range of subjects including narrative non-fiction, science, journalism, history, religion, and also young adult, literary and commercial fiction. He seeks projects where the subject or its treatment is smart, original, and has a strong narrative voice, www.andyrossagency.com, www.andyrossagency.wordpress.com.