Southern Breeze:

Jen McVeity’s Book Boot Camp

Friday, June 17 – Sunday, June 19, 2005
Camp Sumatanga, Alabama

Introduction |  Schedule |  What Others Say |  Registration |  www.jenmcveity.com  |  Gallery

Introduction

Jen McVeity currently the SCBWI Board Chairperson, has won the Australian equivalent of the Newbery, and is a Churchill Fellow, meaning Australia sent her to this country for several months to build bridges between the Australian publishing world and the United States publishing houses in New York and CA. She has tons of energy and will deliver much information and inspiration to those of us lucky enough to be able to set aside Father's Day weekend in June at Camp Sumatanga.

Jen's List of Questions to be Answered at Boot Camp: 

• What are the four things to include in a cover letter to help the editor get your book past the 'suits' and the marketing department?
• Pitching a proposal can save you a year.  What should you include, allude to and say?
• Contracts are boring - or are they?  What are the top four things you should negotiate in a contract to make you money?
• How come you get only a few cents when your publisher sells on your book?  Learn how and why you should sell international rights. 
• What are the four levels of conversation?  Do you use all of them when actually writing dialogue?  No!
• How can a paperclip and a piece of cotton help you achieve creative flow in just minutes?  (And help with the way you draft and edit as well.)
• Can you name the 16 different flirting gestures?  Jen can. And she'll also show you how body language can make your characters and writing come alive.
• Can First Pages be fun and non-confronting?  Challenge Jen to make TWO positive comments on your manuscript and only ONE recommendation for improvement.
• Want to discover how to brainstorm 100 story ideas in ten minutes?  Discover how telling jokes actually works as plot practice?  Get a visual guide to planning stories that really works?  Jen's Planning for Success segment shows how.
• What are the three top functions of dialogue and how can you use them to make writing really dynamic?
• What are the three ways language changes when writing tension?

Friday, June 17

7.30 - 9.00 pm

• Enhancing Creativity
• Editing  (Participant interaction)
• First pages (half an hour, impromptu)

Saturday, June 18

Morning

• Plan
• Starts
• Tension
• Endings

Afternoon

• Researching Publishers
• Reducing Rejection
• How to submit

Night

• Dialogue
• Body Language

Sunday, June 19

9.00am - noon

• Cover Letter
• Negotiating Contracts

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