Many apologies to all for the delay in firming up the venue for this session. We were hoping to use the multi-media facilities as The Playhouse, but the room is being decorated and we just heard it will not be ready in time. Ali Shaw has also had to pull out at the last minute, but we still have a great session even if we have to huddle around laptop computers.
WE WILL NOW BE AT BLACKWELL’S AGAIN.
The panel will be:
Cherry Mosteshar, who will talk about the how and why of Twitter and Facebook.
Susie Day, who writes for children and Young Adults, who will talk about setting up a blog. You can find Susie’s delightful blog at http://susieday.com.
Next Wednesday, July 24th, we are at Blackwell’s again from 7pm to 9pm for a session on Self-publishing.
The panel will be:
Robert Bullard, a writer, editor and book coach, will reveal the do’s and don’ts of self-publishing: he’ll guide you through your self-publishing options, and give some essential tips for cover design and book marketing. Robert is a former journalist and now runs perfecttext.org; he lives in Oxford and helped 8 people write and self-publish books in the last 18 months.
Kamal Latharka who will give talk about his personal Self Publishing Journey
He says, “This will contain the following elements
Briefly, why I started to write the book
The experience with the publishers and agents and dropping and being dropped
Deciding to go it alone / albeit with my sister
Setting up the company, and needing to produce a quality product.
The steps involved in the process:
Artwork
Editing
Branding – the title, the spine, the look
Marketing and tales of woe and success
Touch on Online and Social media – time effort and strategy
I started The Oxford Editors in 2007 to help writers at every stage and in every genre. We have a strong academic tradition as well as working with writers of fiction, non-fiction and poetry. We also help children's writers, playwrights, screen writers and business writers.
We offer a wide set of services for writers from mentoring, manuscript assessment, copy editing, proof reading, ghost writing, query letter writing, literary agent search, and much more. We will write your blog for you, perfect that speech or help you self-publish that book. If you write, our team of published authors, publishing industry experts and academics can help you.
My bio:
I am an award-winning writer and editor working on academic, non-fiction and fiction manuscripts. I regularly work with fiction and children’s writers as well as doctoral students. I have also edited books and papers for academics throughout the world, and for many authors at publishers including Oxford University Press, Harvard University Press and Yale University Press. I have also guided many writers of fiction to publishing success. I am an author, ghost writer and an international journalist. After the publication of my book, Unveiled: Love and Death Among the Ayatollahs, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei condemned me as ‘a notorious man-hater’ for the book’s strong attack on the violation of women’s rights in Iran.
I also work with writers as a mentor and I have guided authors of fiction, non-fiction and academic works. My latest book, a crime thriller, will be published soon.
I worked for many years at The Financial Times, The Independent and The Guardian and has been a regular contributor to The Economist. I have also written for The Washington Post, The New York Times, The South China Morning Post and many other newspapers and magazines worldwide. I have appeared on the BBC – including Radio 4’s the Today programme and on Newsnight.
I have edited several major academic studies, and also edited books by professors at Oxford and Harvard – among others. As well as writing fiction for adults and children. I have also written several screenplays.
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8 thoughts on “Social Media session July 17th / Self-publishing session July 24th”
Hi Cherry
Is it 7 – 9pm tomorrow night in Blackwells? I will try to come to that one.
Yes, Tessa, I think it is. And Cherry, would it be helpful then if some of us brought our own laptops, so that we can log on/sign up or whatever we have to do?! Philip
Yes, sorry it is 7-9 pm. I think Kevin is bringing a projector, but it would be good if some of you had your own laptops so that we can start tweeting each other or posting on facebook.
The session seems to be becoming a ‘how-to’. I don’t have a laptop and already use Facebook daily. I have no interest in ‘doing’ Twitter too (one bad habit is enough…). I was hoping for tips on how to maximise one’s return on time invested in FB. Which is all to say that I’m presenting my apologies on this one. Shall definitely be down next week for e-publishing. If anyone wants to ‘friend’ me on FB – happy to hear from you.
Dear Judi, The how to is just five or ten minutes and then the session will concentrate on how to make the best of these tools. It is very much about what works and what does not, from my experience. For example, twitter is a very good tool to find the sort of people you want to reach and and to then direct them onto your Facebook or your blog page. With Facebook and Blogs it is often people who have to find you and that is more difficult. For example if I do #amwriting search I have hundreds of writers come up on twitter and I can make friends and then direct them to my website.
WE now have a projector so you don’t need to have your laptop. It was just so people who had could see what was going on and the others could look over my shoulder, but now that we have a projector that is not an issue.
Not How To at all really, more why to and what to do.
Also lots and lots of agents are on twitter trying to connect with writers.
OK! Thanks for that. Interesting of itself, and as a trailer for the evening. Now all I have to do is take a spanner to my current mindset (dismantling the idea of something long and cold on a lounger in the garden) and get in the car [FX of rummaging in toolbox].
I also use Facebook daily, but not Twitter (yet). I hope it will be more than just a “how to”. If social media are key planks of book sale strategies, then this is what we need to know. See you later, Philip.
The link above is a short tutorial for self publishing on Lulu. I’ve used Lulu and found them very easy to publish on, but I don’t know how good they are compared to others.
The Oxford Editors Writing Group 
Hi Cherry
Is it 7 – 9pm tomorrow night in Blackwells? I will try to come to that one.
Tessa
Sent from my iPad
Yes, Tessa, I think it is. And Cherry, would it be helpful then if some of us brought our own laptops, so that we can log on/sign up or whatever we have to do?! Philip
Yes, sorry it is 7-9 pm. I think Kevin is bringing a projector, but it would be good if some of you had your own laptops so that we can start tweeting each other or posting on facebook.
The session seems to be becoming a ‘how-to’. I don’t have a laptop and already use Facebook daily. I have no interest in ‘doing’ Twitter too (one bad habit is enough…). I was hoping for tips on how to maximise one’s return on time invested in FB. Which is all to say that I’m presenting my apologies on this one. Shall definitely be down next week for e-publishing. If anyone wants to ‘friend’ me on FB – happy to hear from you.
Dear Judi, The how to is just five or ten minutes and then the session will concentrate on how to make the best of these tools. It is very much about what works and what does not, from my experience. For example, twitter is a very good tool to find the sort of people you want to reach and and to then direct them onto your Facebook or your blog page. With Facebook and Blogs it is often people who have to find you and that is more difficult. For example if I do #amwriting search I have hundreds of writers come up on twitter and I can make friends and then direct them to my website.
WE now have a projector so you don’t need to have your laptop. It was just so people who had could see what was going on and the others could look over my shoulder, but now that we have a projector that is not an issue.
Not How To at all really, more why to and what to do.
Also lots and lots of agents are on twitter trying to connect with writers.
OK! Thanks for that. Interesting of itself, and as a trailer for the evening. Now all I have to do is take a spanner to my current mindset (dismantling the idea of something long and cold on a lounger in the garden) and get in the car [FX of rummaging in toolbox].
I also use Facebook daily, but not Twitter (yet). I hope it will be more than just a “how to”. If social media are key planks of book sale strategies, then this is what we need to know. See you later, Philip.
The link above is a short tutorial for self publishing on Lulu. I’ve used Lulu and found them very easy to publish on, but I don’t know how good they are compared to others.