Registration for our popular Ask-a-Pro sessions is now CLOSED. These sessions will open again for the 9th annual Nonfiction Writers Conference, happening May 8-10, 2019. Be sure to join our mailing list and watch your email for details.
About Ask-a-Pro Sessions
Many conferences of all kinds allow attendees to sign up for brief consultations with event speakers and experts. The pros are there to answer attendee questions and give as much guidance as possible in a short amount of time.
For NFWC, we round up some top publishing industry experts including book editors, PR pros, marketing consultants, writing coaches, and literary agents to offer complimentary consults to Gold, Platinum, and VIP attendees. These sessions are a HUGE HIT with our attendees and pros alike!
How does it work?
Ask-a-Pro sessions are 15-minute complimentary consultations conducted one-on-one between you and the pro of your choice—delivered via phone or Skype. (The pro will call you during your scheduled time.) This is not a sales pitch for either party. It’s an opportunity for NFWC attendees to ask questions and receive guidance from industry professionals.
What does it cost?
Ask-a-Pro is completely FREE for Gold, Platinum, and VIP NFWC attendees.
(Sorry, Live access attendees are not eligible.)
How many sessions are available?
Space is absolutely limited for our Ask-a-Pro sessions and they fill up fast. Most of our consultants have just a handful of appointment times available. So, if there is someone in particular you really want to meet with, be sure to sign up right away.
When do consults happen?
Consults are offered during the week of the conference, and some consults may happen concurrently during conference hours. Please plan accordingly.
Registered attendees receive instructions via email to reserve up to three consultation sessions with the pros. Make sure you register for the conference early.
Once the consulting sessions fill up, they’re gone for good!
Register for the 2019 Nonfiction Writers Conference
Meet the PAST PROS – NFWC Fall Con 2018
Deltina Hay is the Director of Technology and Elearning Development at Elearning Delta. She is a programmer, web developer, software aficionado, writer, teacher, digital strategist, and instructional designer.
For nearly 30 years, Deltina has helped businesses of all sizes with their custom programming, database management, web development, search optimization, and social media marketing. Some of her past clients include Real Simple Magazine, Nestle Toll House, Victoria’s Secret, H-E-B, Kraft, Hachette Books, RaceWorldTV, and the University of Missouri.
In 2001, Deltina founded Dalton Publishing. The company published and distributed the monthly magazine, Creative Pulse, and released 20 titles by 16 authors—many of them award-winning books. Dalton Publishing gained international distribution in 2006. Deltina served as the chair of the IBPA board of directors from 2013 to 2015.
Deltina is the author of three books on social media, the mobile web, and search optimization. Her first book, The Social Media Survival Guide, is used as a textbook in colleges and universities all over the world.
For the past five years, Deltina has applied her diverse skill set to the education industry. She developed and taught the graduate-level social media certificate program for Drury University, and has designed and developed social media, digital marketing, mobile marketing, and search optimization certification programs for several online colleges and training sites, including Udemy for Business, 360Training, Meditec, and WorldEducation. Her online courses have helped over 20,000 students find success online.
Charmaine Hammond is a bestselling author (of 5 books & featured in 6 others), CSP™ (Certified Speaking Professional) and has had tremendous success in finding corporate sponsors to fund her speaking and book projects/events/tours including her printing, graphic design, venues, travel, media, technology, hotels, even her pet food and dog poop bags! She has developed sponsorship relationships with more than 40 sponsors and 60 business partners.
Her recent speaking and book tour, Million Acts of Kindness, involved a 14,000 KM tour in a 32 foot sponsored motor home, hotels sponsored for the team, and more than 40 businesses and retail chains raising funds in their stores/businesses to support this movement…A Million Acts of Kindness. She has helped her clients secure cash sponsorship, get their clothes, travel, event needs and more sponsored through the power of relationships and collaboration.
Since 2000, Peter Bowerman has been helping freelance writers and self-publishing authors separate the words “starving” and “writer,” and make a GOOD living from their words. A veteran commercial copywriter, popular speaker and workshop leader, he is the self-published author of the three multiple-award-winning Well-Fed Writer titles (www.wellfedwriter.com), how-to “standards” on lucrative “commercial” freelance writing.
He chronicled his self-publishing success (100,000 copies of his books/ebooks in print and a full-time living for 10+ years) in the 2007 release (and its 2014 update—both multiple-award-winners): The Well-Fed Self-Publisher: How to Turn One Book into a Full-Time Living. www.wellfedsp.com.
Since 2002, he has been a coach for commercial-writing startup and self-publishing ventures. In 2010, he launched the Title Tailor, providing publishers and self-publishing authors with help in creating book titles and back-cover copy (www.titletailor.com).
To maximize your 15-minute session with me, please visit http://www.wellfedsp.com/NFWC-Coach.html.
Anne Janzer is an award-winning author and nonfiction writing coach on a mission to help people communicate more effectively through writing. She is author of the books Writing to Be Understood, The Writer’s Process, and The Workplace Writer’s Process. Ask her questions about indie publishing or (you guessed it) the writing process – specifically, the process of writing your nonfiction book. https://annejanzer.com/
Melinda Copp, founder and executive editor of The Writer’s Sherpa, LLC, is a book ghostwriter and editorial consultant based in Bluffton, South Carolina. She specializes in helping aspiring authors get clear on the real story they were meant to tell, organizing their material in a powerful way, and then using the client’s ideas to write an engaging and compelling book that delivers their big message. Melinda has ghostwritten thirteen books on a wide range of topics, including memoir, self-help, and business. She has an MFA in creative writing from Goucher College and a BS in journalism from West Virginia University. Melinda also teaches writing workshops and provides one-on-one editorial consulting for aspiring nonfiction authors. Visit her online at www.writerssherpa.com.
Stephanie Chandler is the author of several books including The Nonfiction Book Publishing Plan: The Professional Guide to Profitable Self-Publishing and The Nonfiction Book Marketing Plan: Online and Offline Promotion Strategies to Build Your Audience and Sell More Books. Stephanie is also founder and CEO of the Nonfiction Authors Association, a vibrant educational community for writers, and the Nonfiction Writers Conference, twice-yearly events conducted entirely online.
A frequent speaker at business events and on the radio, she has been featured in Entrepreneur, BusinessWeek, and Wired magazine. See also: @steph__chandler and @NonfictionAssoc on Twitter and Facebook.com/NonfictionAuthorsAssociation.
Joel Friedlander is an award-winning book designer, blogger, and writer. He speaks regularly at industry events and is the author of The Book Blueprint and coauthor of The Self-Publisher’s Ultimate Resource Guide. The blogger behind TheBookDesigner, Joel is a columnist for Publishers Weekly, and was named by Writer’s Digest as one of the 10 people to follow in book publishing. Joel also operates BookDesignTemplates.com, where he provides predesigned interior book templates for Word and InDesign; AuthorToolkits.com, where authors find digital products to help in their marketing and business activities; and BookPlanner.com, the only project planning tool specifically designed for indie authors.
John Cousins is an author of over 20 books, blogger, podcaster, online course creator, investor, inventor, entrepreneur and musician. John began his career, after graduating from Boston University and MIT with degrees in Media Studies and Electronics, working for one of the great early Silicon Valley tech firms: Ampex. He then spent a decade in Manhattan working for ABC Television as a systems engineer designing and building facilities for the network and managing programs for sports and news; big spectacles like the Olympics and political conventions.
John then received his MBA from Wharton. He has since taken two companies public as CFO and CEO and has had 15 years experience as a public company CFO and ten years experience as a public company CEO. John has been involved in many start up and public company financings and deal making. He has founded numerous startups in alternative energy, life sciences, and technology. His career shifted to teaching at numerous universities in US and internationally in the past ten years. His company MBA ASAP delivers digital content on business topics via eBooks, paperbacks, audiobooks, podcasts and online courses. Visit http://www.mba-asap.com/
Malaga Baldi has worked as an independent literary agent since 1986. The Baldi Agency is an eclectic agency specializing in literary fiction, memoir and cultural history with over forty clients. She worked as a cashier at Gotham Book Mart, in the Ballantine Books Publicity Department, as an associate at Candida Donadio & Associates and the Elaine Markson Agency before going out on her own. Baldi graduated from Hampshire College and lives in NYC with her spouse, daughter and aged black standard poodle.
Baldi works with large and small houses alike — from Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Knopf, Harper Collins, Simon Schuster to Skyhorse, Cleis Press, Bellevue Literary Books and the University of Wisconsin Press. Award Winning William J. Mann’s biography of Marlon Brando, THE CONTENDER is due out in 2019 from Harper Collins. Mann’s WISECRACKER, KATE are currently in development for the screen. Mann’s TINSELTOWN received an Edgar Best Fact Crime Award and is optioned for television. Kia Corthron’s THE CASTLE CROSS THE MAGNET CARTER won the Center for Fiction First Novel Award, Blanche Boyd’s TOMB OF THE UNKNOWN was selected as an Amazon best May 2018 novel.
Angela Bole is chief executive officer of the Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA), the largest book publishing association in the U.S. serving independent publishers and self-published authors. IBPA’s mission is to lead and serve the independent publishing community through advocacy, education, and tools for success. IBPA’s vision is a world where every independent publisher has the tools and knowledge needed to professionally engage in all aspects of the publishing industry.
Prior to joining IBPA, Angela served two years as deputy executive director of the Book Industry Study Group (BISG), an organization that fosters conversation and consensus across all sectors of the book business. Before that, she served two years as BISG’s associate director and two years as its marketing and communications manager.
Angela holds a Masters of Science in Book Publishing from New York University and currently serves on the board of directors for the Book Industry Study Group. In 2017, she was awarded the Book Industry Study Group’s Industry Champion Award, given to an individual whose efforts have gone beyond the requirements of his or her position to advance the book industry.
Julie Schoerke founded JKS Communications, a book publicity firm that has represented over 700 authors and more than 1,200 books in the past 13 years. Some are New York Times bestsellers, some drastically change people’s lives, some are flat-out fun or interesting. We also become partners and cheerleaders for debut authors and new publishers.
She has done everything to promote a book from driving over 2,000 miles with an author on tour (both in tears from exhaustion) to hosting an ice-cream feast at Serendipity in New York City in order to introduce debut novelists to the New York media (FYI, journalists prefer ice cream over booze at an event!) – to wearing a ball gown for four days straight in London to promote a book about death at 14 formal events, and swimming with clients’ books in hand in the ocean to stage photo ops on rocks in the Virgin Islands.
Authors are her rock stars. She’s been lucky enough to be invited to speak at conferences at the University of Chicago, Decatur Book Festival, Oxford Creative Non-fiction Conference, James River Writer’s Conference and Killer Nashville among others. She has also been a columnist for several literary magazines.
Mike Larsen is an author coach who loves helping writers. He worked in publishing in New York before moving to San Francisco and starting Michael Larsen-Elizabeth Pomada Literary Agents in 1972. Mike and Elizabeth sold hundreds of books to more than 100 publishers and imprints, before they stopped taking new clients.
Books: How to Write a Book Proposal, 5th Edition, Jody Rein with Michael Larsen, How to Get a Literary Agent, Guerrilla Marketing for Writers: 100 Weapons for Selling Your Work (coauthor).
Carla King is the founder of Self-Pub Boot Camp, an educational series of books, workshops, and online courses to help authors self-publish professionally. She also hosts the Author Friendly Podcast, which interviews the people behind the companies that help authors self-publish. Books include the Self-Publishing Boot Camp Guide for Authors, now in its 4th edition, and a free Consumer’s Guide for Self-Publishers. Carla runs the self-publishing and technology track at the San Francisco Writers Conference and writes the technology column for BookWorks. Formerly a technology and travel writer, she authored one of the first travel blogs on the internet as she explored America’s borders on a cranky Russian sidecar motorcycle. This was the first of many motorcycle misadventures to come, all blogged in realtime from China, India, Africa, and Europe. You can find her adventures on CarlaKing.com and her podcast and self-publishing services at SelfPubBootCamp.com.
Penny Sansevieri, CEO and founder of Author Marketing Experts, Inc. (AME) and Adjunct Professor at NYU, is a best-selling author and internationally recognized book marketing and media relations expert. Her company is one of the leaders in the publishing industry and has developed some of the most cutting-edge book marketing campaigns.
Drew Gerber, “Nomad CEO” of Wasabi Publicity, is on a mission to change global conversations and challenge industry conventions. He lives to spark “aha” moments, helping people discover new ways of thinking to create positive change. Recognized by PR Week and Good Morning America for its innovative business practices, Wasabi Publicity helps clients expand their impact through top media. A member of Forbes Agency Council, Drew is author of “Destination Aha! Becoming Unstuck in Life and Business.” He lives in Budapest, Hungary, and Serbia, where he started an IT training center and employs locals as part of Wasabi’s international team.