August 25, 2017
The Berkeley Branch is the founding branch of the oldest professional writers’ club West of the Missisippi.
Join us for our next meeting:
September 17th, 2017
Click here to commit to your writing career.
September 14, 2017
One of the nicest inscriptions an author/friend once wrote in his book was, “may all ships rise with the tide.” This is the dream of the California Writers Club, as we support one another in achieving our many goals. Please join us this Sunday as we kick off our speaker programs for the year with the knowledgable Nina Amir at 3:00pm. Be sure to get there early so you can join one of our success groups and/or schmooze with other literary types.
Come for the whole meeting or part of it! Cover charge for the whole afternoon is $5 for members, $10 for non-members.
12:00–1:00 – Craft Support Group
1:00–2:00 – Marketing Group
2:00–2:30 – Break, Book Sale
2:30–3:00 – Business & Announcements
3:00–3:15 – CWC Featured member Karma Bennett reads & introduces…
3:15–4:00 – Featured Speaker Nina Amir: “How to Craft a Book that Sells”
Here’s some more information:
MEMBERS:
Sign up to bring a snack or volunteer – this month, or any month!
Don’t forget to bring a headshot and a book cover. We will decorate the space with US! Always bring books to sell or trade!
Have you renewed your membership? Do it today at this link or bring a check to the September meeting. Please don’t forget… after this week you will have to join as a new member!
GUESTS:
Would you like to join the club? We welcome writers of every genre, both published and aspiring, plus industry professionals such as agents, publicists, and editors. Come to the meeting and introduce yourself!
EVERYONE:
Say you are coming on Meetup!
Get club announcements by clicking the “follow by email” link on the right side of the web page, www.cwc-berkeley.org.
The meeting is at 1204 Preservation Parkway in Downtown Oakland, just a few blocks from BART. We will be meeting downstairs in the Robinson Classrooms. See our website for more details.
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and now please enjoy these messages from our sponsor:
Can you write, edit, or design (Word, WordPress, and/or Mailchimp)? Write Angles is waiting for its return. Each month features a president’s message, Member News, Club News, Featured speakers, Member Profles, and more…if you choose.
Would you like to get to know other members? We need help on our Membership Team.
Contact berkeley.cwc at gmail.com if you are interested in helping out! Many hands, as they say, make light work.
Sail On!
Kristen Caven
www.kristencaven.com
President 2017-2018
berkeley.cwc
August 22, 2017
Announcements, Events, Speakers book marketing, Guest Speakers, Monthly Meetings, Nina Amir, Preservation Park Leave a comment
****We’ve moved! See below for our new location!****
Our new meeting space, Preservation Park, is convenient to BART and 980, near downtown Oakland.
The average book today sells only about 250 copies per year and 3,000 in its lifetime. Improve your odds of becoming a successful author by producing a business plan for your book before you write a word. As you do, you develop an Author Attitude, craft a marketable book idea, and evaluate your idea and yourself through a publishing professional’s lens. You also develop a career plan to help you reach your goal: successful authorship.
At our September meeting, learn how to determine if your book is not only a great creative idea but also marketable product—a viable business venture. Go through the Author Training Process, the foundation for creating books that sell—to publishers and to readers! This nine-step evaluation tool helps you determine if your book is ready to go to market—to be shopped to agents, publishers or readers—and if you are ready to become an author.
(Based on Nina Amir’s book, The Author Training Manual, Writer’s Digest Books, March 2014.)
Nina Amir is an Amazon bestselling author of such books as How to Blog a Book, The Author Training Manual and Creative Visualization for Writers. She is known as the Inspiration to Creation Coach because she helps writers, bloggers and other creative people combine their passion and purpose so they move from idea to inspired action and achieve more inspired results.
Nina is a hybrid author who has self-published 17 books and had as many as 11 books on Amazon Top 100 lists and six on the same bestseller list (Authorship) at the same time.
As an Author Coach, some of her clients have sold 300,000+ copies of their books, landed deals with major publishing houses and created thriving businesses around their books. She is an international speaker and award-winning journalist and blogger as well as the founder of National Nonfiction Writing Month and the Nonfiction Writers’ University.
Find her at NinaAmir.com.
Our next meeting will be right off 980 in downtown Oakland, at beautiful Preservation Park. Just off 12th Street, naturally you can get there from the 12th St. BART station. Those with limited ability can use the parking lot off of MLK Way; otherwise there should be plenty of FREE parking within the park and on surrounding streets.
Nina Amir speaks at 3:15, but remember our meetings start at 12, and include interactive groups to help you with your writing and your book sales. In our craft group, we discuss how to tackle challenges in our writing. In the marketing group we help you spread the word about your books and build your platform. We also provide tasty snacks and plenty of opportunities to network with other writers.
12:00–1:00 – Craft Support Group
1:00–2:00 – Marketing Group
12:30–2:00 – Social Hour
2:00–2:30 – Break, Book Sale
2:30–3:00 – Announcements
3:00–3:15 – CWC Featured member Karma Bennett reads
3:15–4:30 – Featured Speaker Nina Amir
Meetings are $5 for members, $10 for non-members.
July 12, 2017
Announcements, From the President, Member Events, Social 1 Comment
There will be no statewide picnic in Joaquin Miller Park this year, our club’s original “home base,” but we will once again be holding an “open house” for all “California Writers.”
(That’s a lot of “quotation marks.” We writers sure know how to use our tools, don’t we?)
Join the Berkeley Branch of the California Writers Club at Jack London’s favorite hangout, Heinold’s First and Last Chance Saloon in Jack London Square, from 3:30-5:30pm on Sunday, July 23rd. No-host bar & lots and lots of writers.
We welcome all California Writers, and invite you to come and see if joining the club will benefit your writing career.
P.S. Although this is an “open house,” Jack London’s cabin won’t actually be open but you can learn about this important founding member of our branch.
June 30, 2017
Announcements, From the President Leave a comment
Summertime… may the writing be easy! While The California Writers Club is on break for the summer, I hope you will keep writing. We writers have things to say, words to wrangle, and a world full of plot twists in need of happy endings.
Hello, I’m Kristen Caven, the new president of the Berkeley Branch.
I have been a member for 11 years, and fondly remember our “Captain,” AL Levenson, who “discovered” my design business, Cowgirl Creative, and asked me for help with this website and our newsletter, Write Angles, and taught me a lot about friendly leadership. My mission as a writer is to “bring forth the treasures hidden within” and, as a human, to help others do the same.
This summer, you can:
If you’d like to contribute to the club,* contact me or another board member.
Nearly a yard of books by our club authors!
* We need a newsletter editor! And people to work the door at meetings! And someone to administer our 5th grade story contest! And a new, BART-able, accessible space to feature our monthly speaker program!
June 8, 2017
Announcements, Events, Speakers audiobooks, book marketing, Events, Howard Van Es, Joanne Ainsworth, speakers Leave a comment
Our June meeting will feature Howard Van Es, president of Let’s Write Books, Inc. His company helps authors with editing, design, publishing and book marketing services. He’s going to talk to us about audiobooks.
Howard Van Es will speak at our June 18th meeting on how to turn your book into an audiobook
The market for audiobooks is exploding due to the growing number of computers, smartphones, and tablets, which make it easy for the consumer to purchase and instantly listen to their favorite books. Interestingly, Amazon has seen this trend and purchased Audible a few years ago. They also own ACX, which is the major distributor of audiobooks to Amazon, Audible, and iTunes, the three big platforms for audiobook sales.
The digital platform is another way to easily repurpose the content of books while tapping into more channels of distribution, which means more people being exposed to your book resulting in more sales and royalty payments for you. Howard Van Es will show you how to turn your book into an audiobook and tap into this hot trend in book sales.
In addition to running his company, Van Es is also author of 30 books of his own and has ghostwritten many others for clients. He is also the former owner and creative director of an award winning advertising agency.
Find out more about Howard Van Es at LetsWriteBooks.net
Howard Van Es will speak at 3:15, but remember our meetings start at 12, and include interactive groups to help you with your writing and your book sales. In our craft group, we discuss how to tackle challenges in our writing. In the marketing group we help you spread the word about your books and build your platform. We also provide tasty snacks and plenty of opportunities to network with other writers.
Our June meeting will also be when we announce our new executive board. Find out who is going to be running the Berkeley CA Writers Club throughout 2017, what they have planned and how they will steer this ship.
12:00–1:00 – Craft Support Group
1:00–2:00 – Marketing Group
Simultaneously
12:30–2:00 – Social Hour
2:00–2:30 – Break, Book Sale
2:30–3:00 – Announcements & MEET THE NEW CWC EXECUTIVE BOARD!
Featured Speakers
3:00–3:15 – CWC Featured Member Joanne Ainsworth reads
3:15–4:30 – Featured Speaker Howard Van Es
Meetings are $5 for members, $10 for non-members.
We are a proud partner of the 2016 Jack London Legacy Celebration!
