The VCCA and the Woodhull Institute for Ethical Leadership are partnering to offer VCCA writers a three-day workshop in writing for a mass audience. Whether the project is a book-length manuscript, a feature article, or an op-ed piece, we want to ensure that great ideas are not kept exclusively in academia, policy journals or the non-profit world. Focus will be on how to use the marketplace as a source of income and a vehicle to reach millions of readers. Led by Naomi Wolf and other faculty of the Woodhull Institute.
Registration for this workshop is limited to 25 writers. Tuition is $400. Housing is available at two levels: $150 and $350. Private writer's studio with shared bath facilities at Studio Barn:
$150
Private bedroom with semi-private bath in Fellows Residence: $350.
All meals will be provided.
Thanks to support from the Virginia Commission for the Arts, we are able to offer eight spots free of charge for writers who live in Virginia.
Registration deadline: April 20. registration form
Topics to be discussed
The Book Proposal
How to take a subject about which you are passionate and generate from it an exciting, marketable, book proposal. This section will discuss common mistakes in crafting book proposals and will demonstrate the difference between an unpublishable and a highly commercial book proposal both of which are based on an identical subject. Will Schwalbe, Editor in Chief of Hyperion, will be on hand to answer questions about what he looks for in book proposals.
The Feature Article
Many writers are taught to distain publication in middle-brow markets such as women's magazines, Sunday supplements, and specialty magazines, however, these publications influence millions and there is room in many of them for a good writer to tackle important and timely subjects. These venues also pay extremely well which is not insignificant to a serious writer. How to pitch an editor by phone and by e-mail; how to write a query letter; how to identify an important or exciting subject that is likely to engage a readership.
The Op-ed
It is vitally important in a democracy for writers to raise their voices about issues of concern in their own communities. At present a few highly funded think tanks are churning out opinion pieces while ordinary citizens - and most of the nation's writers - hesitate to submit their own opinions to regional and national publications and civic discourse suffers. Participants will learn how to craft a 750 - 1100 word op-ed that will have a better chance to be published in a regional or national opinion section of a newspaper, what is an "evergreen" topic and what is a news hook..
Contacts and Mentoring
Success is very often dependent upon access. Even the brightest and most talented people from non-elite backgrounds face additional hurdles if they are without mentors, professional role models, or coaching in the culture of financial, cultural and political influence. After the workshop, participants will have access to the Woodhull community listservs with the professional support that they provide,
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