Beat The Book
The Santa Barbara Writers Conference Invites You to Take Part in an Exciting New Writing Opportunity
- At the Santa Barbara Writers Conference, you:
- Learn
- Collaborate
- Become inspired!
- But writing is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.
- How do you sustain your Santa Barbara high after you leave?
- Who do you turn to for the same expert advice you get on-site?
- How do you stay connected to the writing community all year long?
- How do you do the hard work of writing in solitude, while juggling a job and other family responsibilities, so that by next year’s conference you have a complete, polished manuscript to present to agents?
- How do you do all that from home?
Join Beat the Book, an affordable, year-long program founded by multi published author/editor Lynn Vannucci and offered through the SBWC. Beat the Book is designed to meet writers needs for professional support and guidance as they write and ready their manuscripts for selling in today’s highly competitive marketplace.
Beat the Book founder Lynn Vannucci is a professional, working writer and editor who has edited both fiction and non-fiction books that have been published by Bantam, Palgrave-Macmillan, NeWest and Reverence Press among top publishing houses. Through the Beat the Book program, she can help you bring your work to fruition too.
“In all the years I’ve been working as an editor, I find the biggest roadblock for the new writers I work with is accountability. Their talent is apparent, their ideas inspired, but their projects languish because they don’t yet know how to use their time like a professional writer to bring their work to fruition.” — Lynn Vannucci
- In Beat the Book program, writers will:
- receive expert editorial guidance from a professional editor
- connect with other professionals through regular guest speaker events
- work from home as published authors do, writing, rewriting and shaping story
- complete a manuscript that is submission-ready.
How does Beat the Book work?
Class Size: Beat the Book will admit a maximum of ten writers with qualified projects.
- Criteria: Writers of fiction or non-fiction, science fiction to mystery to romance to memoir to young adult novels are welcome to submit to form a vibrant group of diverse voices. Criterion for selection includes:
- Quality of writing
- Ability to participate productively in a group
- Commercial viability of proposed project
- Personal commitment to accomplishing the goal of producing one book
Program Structure
- CLASSES
- Group classes will be conducted on the first Thursday of each month. Each class will last two hours, from 6 to 8 p.m. PST.
- Participation is convenient as classes will be conducted via telephone conference call and facilitated through the Santa Barbara Writers Conference web site.
- One week prior to each class, participants will be responsible for submitting a minimum of 30 and a maximum of 50 new pages of their book-length project to the class leader.
- Each class will consist of critiques of participant’s work by the class leader, writing partner and others. See Beat the Book Curriculum for more details.
- The class leader will guide each month’s discussion via group conference call.
- PRIVATE EDITORIAL CONSULTATION
- Members will receive one hour per month of private editorial consultation via telephone with the class leader.
- SPECIAL EVENTS
- On the second Thursday of each month there will be a one-hour special event featuring a guest speaker. The speakers will include best selling authors, marketing pros, and agents. Members will be included in dialogue.
- ADDITIONAL
- E-mail reminders sent as needed. Beat the Book hiatus in December.
Beat the Book Curriculum
A full-length book is approximately 300 pages long. Averaging one page/day, a full length manuscript can be ready for agent submission within the Beat the Book time frame.
Beat the Book Overview
JULY — Outlining
30 pages of manuscript.
The art of outlining and tools/tricks writers use to shape the work is the focus.
AUGUST — Housekeeping
60 pages of manuscript.
Formatting a manuscript for submission to agents and acquisitions editors is the focus.
SEPTEMBER — Plot and Story Arcs
90 pages of manuscript.
Assessment of outline to plot: plot movement must engage an acquisitions editor and captivate your readers.
OCTOBER — Character Development
120 pages of manuscript.
Are characters fully realized? Focus is on tools to use to make your characters compelling, come alive and be memorable.
NOVEMBER — Emotional Logic
150 pages of manuscript.
Halfway mark! It’s at this point that a writer can often begin to see the final form of the full manuscript — the goal within reach. Focus is on the emotional logic driving your story and revisiting early pages to add the layers.
DECEMBER- Beat the Book hiatus
A month to write/rewrite.
JANUARY — The Writer’s Life
180 pages of manuscript.
Focus on keeping the creative embers burning.
FEBRUARY — Plot and Story Arcs
210 pages of manuscript.
Outline/plot check. Focus will include how your outline/story is moving to conclusion and tools that can help shape a dramatic ending.
MARCH — Platform
240 pages of manuscript.
Focus is marketing which includes platform building and ways to enhance it so your platform catches the interest of an acquisitions editor.
APRIL — Marketing
270 pages of manuscript.
Focus is formal development of marketing plan.
MAY — Finding an Agent.
Time to celebrate! Your manuscript is polished, complete and ready for an agent to fall in love. How do you find one? Beat the Book can help you find the right one.
Submission guidelines for Beat the Book
Prior to June 20, 2008
Submit a maximum of 30 typed, double-spaced, single-sided pages to:
Lynn Vannucci
P.O. Box 87
Geyserville, CA 95441
Include non-refundable application fee of $25; checks should be made out to: Lynn Vannucci E-mail submissions not accepted for application purposes.
After June 20, 2008
Submissions can be made and application fee paid at the Santa Barbara Writers Conference, at the reception desk, until Noon on Monday, June 23, 2008
Interviews will be scheduled with qualified writers for Tuesday, June 24th, 2008 at the Santa Barbara Writer’s Conference; schedule will be available at the reception desk. Please note: submitted manuscripts will be returned at the scheduled interview. If you have not been selected to advance to the interview process, you will be able to pick up your manuscript at the Santa Barbara Writer’s Conference reception desk after 9 a.m. on June 24th. Manuscripts not claimed at the end of the conference will be recycled.
Your submission does not guarantee selection for the Beat the Book program. Each Beat the Book group is comprised of maximum of 10 writers. Final selections will be made after interviews are completed and announced on Wednesday, June 25th at the Santa Barbara Writers Conference. Payment due at that time.
Beat the Book Workshop
Wednesday, June 25th, Marla Miller, morning session; OPEN TO ALL SANTA BARBARA WRITER’S CONFERENCE ATTENDEES
If you’ve been selected to b a participant in Beat the Book, please attend Marla Miller’s workshop with Lynn Vannucci on the morning of Wednesday, June 25th for orientation. This workshop is NOT limited to writers selected for the program. It is a valuable introduction to the concepts of the Beat the Book program and we encourage all writers who are interested in writing a book to attend.
- Workshop will include the following
- How writers can develop the discipline and structure a daily routine to realize his or her publication goals;
- How writers can incorporate accountability into his or her writing life by working with a writing partner, in a writing group, or with an independent editor;
- How writers can develop a methodology for efficiently and effectively moving through the writing (and rewriting!) process of producing a full-length manuscript. We are not taking about “formula” but about the steps every writer has to take to produce a book, identifying each part of the process and making it your own.
Value
Beat the Book is a year long writing workshop offering professional critique and guidance that enables writers to complete a book-length project and to develop on-going creative partnerships with other writers and industry professionals.
Based on the standard editorial rate of $100 per hour, Beat the Book is a $5000 value. In order to make this unique, year-long intensive affordable to qualified writers, the Santa Barbara Writer’s Conference can offer the Beat the Book program for just $2,500 per qualified participant.
Payment Schedule
Payment is due upon being accepted into the Beat the Book program – and upon your commitment to your class leader, to your class colleagues, and to yourself to accomplish the writing ahead.
$1,250 due June 25, 2008
$1,250 due September 1, 2008
Payment in full will be accepted on June 25, 2008 at a reduced rate of $2,250
Additional costs:
You will be billed by your phone company for the conference calls at your normal long-distance rate. Additional hours of private editorial consultation can be scheduled with the class leader at the writer’s request at a special Beat the Book rate of $75 per hour.