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Here is an article from John Wolf:May 2010 Pen Jabs Meeting

Gathering of writers and editors of the Pen Jabs Club at Balboa Park

Linda Meckler, Larry Edwards, and John Wolf battled the harsh weather to meet at the park on 28 April to discuss life, books, and how to approach signing up for a writers conference. It was suppose to rain and be windy, but we saw nothing but a lovely day.

We discuss the SD Writers Guild meeting of this week with Karla Olson from her company Book Studio. She is an editor, book builder, author sheppard, and all round marketing expert. She gave us a convincing presentation of the power of targeting a market before you write a word. One should write to the reader and not just write a story and then wonder who to sell it to. You need to identify your audience. Once your ducks are inline, market the book wisely by chosing who, where, when, and how to maximize sales.

Branding has now become your "platform", meaning who's going to believe in your book, be your fans, be your target group and follow your information. You have to have a personal interest in the subject to make it fly. Fiction writers have to look for a hook based on popular activities. Hiring such an expert is not cheap. You have to approach this level of book building with the intent to sell a lot. Counseling is about $100/hour and overall cost range from $12k to $20k to run the champaign.

I talked about going to a new San Diego Filmmakers meeting. It's clear actors, screenwriters, and cinematographers all face the same issues as writers. These are the types of group you need to connect with to enter the world of screenwriting. I found it very inspiring to see what they are doing and planning.

We talked about the importance of preparing to go to a writers conference and not just showing up. Unless

you have never been to a conference and don't really have writing experience, the costs are hard to justify. But the experienced writer should realize you go to a conference armed with a lot of new writing, signup to have a pro evaluate what you're doing, and soak up the concepts and meet the agents with the idea you are going there to advance your skills and maybe get picked up by an agent. They cost too much to do otherwise.

Some opinions were expressed as to good conferences in the area. The SDSU conference, we felt was overrated. The La Jolla and Southern Cal conference get the highest votes.