10/14/2007: "Two Classes Offered On Marketing A Manuscript"

Alice b. Acheson lives on San Juan Island, and in her former life worked at McGraw-Hill (editor, then publicist), later Simon & Schuster, and Crown. Since then, Alice has been an independent publicist for 25 years including the last 15 years as publishing consultant.

Her publicity efforts have included those bestsellers and OLD TURTLE by Douglas Wood, the American Booksellers Assoc. Book of the Year -- quite a feat for a first book from a house that had never published a children's book nor marketed any book nationally. Her efforts won the Literary Market Place Outside Services Award for Advertising/Promotion/Publicity.

Alice is offering two classes the public may find of interest.

The first one is advertised as: "You're Writing The Manuscript, Now What?" This ten-hour workshop (Class limit: 15 students) is for:

● authors, illustrators and/or photographers searching for a publisher and/or
● those who have a published book, were disappointed with the marketing efforts, and want more for next book
The aim is to empower your project with an incredible amount of publishing and marketing knowledge, such as:
● strategies for finding -- and impressing -- an agent/publisher,
● industry procedures -- from signing the contract to post-publication,
● what you need to do -- and when -- in order to gain realistic control over the marketing process and publisher support,
● specifics relating to your project(s),
● abundant handouts covering all stages of publication, and
● "a thorough destroying of illusions, replaced with real tools and great methods to deal with actual situations." -- Janice Crow, workshop student
Required Assignment: Write a cover letter to agent or editor, per instructions sent upon registration.

The workshop will be held Saturday, Nov. 3, 2007 (10-4:45) AND Sunday, Nov. 4, 2007 (8:45-12:45) at Alice’s home on San Juan. The fee for the class is $150 if the registration/fee is received by 10/19/07; otherwise it is $175

The second workshop is intended to answer the question of what do you do and say when you meet someone -- agent, publisher, bookseller, future reader, and they ask what you are doing, and you're not prepared -- or, you blow the opportunity with the wrong description.

What works, what doesn't -- and why? "The Greatest Marketing Tool Of All": The Verbal Pitch; Class limit: 10, and will be held Friday, November 2, 2007 (4:15-7:15 p.m.) Having "pitched" hundreds of books, including four that simultaneously landed on the New York Times bestseller list, the instructor will share tools to refine the pre-class assignment into a sparkling, selling verbal pitch. Best of all, you'll leave with a well-honed, ever-useful, 30-second pitch that can be expanded after you capture the audience's attention. Fee: $50 registration/fee received by 10/19/07; $60 thereafter. Alice B. Acheson, Phone/FAX: 360/378-2815; AliceBA@aol.com (P. O. Box 735, Friday Harbor, WA 98250);