WANACon: New Workshops and a Giveaway

It’s time for another WANACon! Yay! This WANACon is scheduled for February 21 and 22, 2014 at a computer near you.

In addition to the usual Craft, Social Media, and Business workshops, Kristen Lamb and her WANA International organization have decided this WANACon will pay special attention to the Romance genre in celebration of Valentine’s Day, with extra sessions on strengthening our love story.

Don’t write romance? No worries. The second focus of this WANACon is heavy-duty editing for those post-NaNoWriMo manuscripts. They’ll have agents taking pitches and sessions on non-fiction and horror too. In short, there’s something for everyone. *smile*

WANACon: The Online (i.e., Pajama-Friendly) Writer’s Conference

If you’re not familiar with WANACon, let me bring you up to date:

Imagine a writers’ conference with high-quality speakers, matching those found at national conferences. Imagine being able to attend for a fraction of the cost of other national writers’ conferences and with no travel costs. Imagine being able to attend no matter your location, time zone, health or family issues, etc.

Now imagine all that in a virtual conference center, complete with a “lobby” for chatting between sessions, social activities to get to know other attendees, live presentations with webcams and screen sharing, and real-time question and answer sessions. In short, imagine an online conference that feels like an in-person conference—other than the pajamas and fuzzy slippers.

The Keynote speaker is NYT and USA Today bestselling author Shirley Jump, who will be presenting “Creating Compelling, Unforgettable Characters.” Other sessions include everything from self-publishing, working with small presses, how to fit in writing time, revisions and self-editing, using OneNote, etc.

WANACon Freebie: Branding for Writers by Kristen Lamb

New this time around, the pre-WANACon PajamaCon is not only open to the public for checking out our online classrooms, but will also include a bonus workshop—completely free and open to the public. Cool, huh?

On Thursday, February 20th at 6:00 p.m. Eastern (New York) time, Kristen Lamb will present Branding for Writers. She’ll be covering all the basics for a strong author brand that is resilient and flexible enough to grow and change with us.

(Note: Click on the link above to add the event to your Google Calendar. Closer to the 20th, the event will be updated with instructions for how to log in. Instructions will also be posted on the WANACon homepage for those without Google Calendar.)

WANACon Giveaway: A Free Conference for 3 Attendees

Also new this time, WANA International will give three lucky attendees free admission. After you sign up for WANACon, be sure to complete the Rafflecopter entry for your chances to win.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

(Click through the link if you don’t see the Rafflecopter form, or click here. After you enter, be sure to come back to one of these links often to qualify for more entries.)

If you sign up by January 31st, take advantage of the Early Bird Special (promo code: EarlyBird) for $30 off the registration fee. Registration includes all sessions and all recordings.

Want to Get More Involved with WANACon?

I’m also looking for volunteers willing to moderate a few workshops. The best part? Volunteers who moderate three or more sessions will earn a full refund of their WANACon registration fee!

If you’re available most of the day on February 21 and 22, have a decent computer and internet connection, and own a quality headset microphone, volunteering as a moderator might be a way to earn free admission. (And don’t worry, everyone receives hands-on training. *smile*)

Like the attendees, moderators receive recordings of every workshop, so no one will miss what’s going on in the other sessions either. (Which is a really good thing, as I typically need to be everywhere at once during WANACon.)

WANACon: Introducing “An Introvert’s Guide to Twitter”

Yep, the reason I’m excited for WANACon is not only because of the great lineup of workshops and presenters, but also because I’ll be presenting a brand new workshop:

An Introvert’s Guide to Twitter

Many authors are introverts at heart, and yet we need to interact with others to be successful. Other writers can help us through the maze of our career path, and our readers want to know the “real” us. Twitter is an easy way to connect with others, stay on top of industry news, and build our platform. But how can we make Twitter work for us if we’re an introvert?

Twitter is much more than a place for spammy “buy my book” links and updates on what we had for lunch. Learn proven techniques to join Twitter conversations and make friends:

• Learn the difference between @ replies and retweets—and when to use each
• Identify opportunities to reach out to others
• How to “get credit” for helping others
• Learn about planned Twitter chats
• Know what makes us likable in online interactions

This is the same workshop I’ll be presenting at the Desert Dreams Conference in April (for those who prefer an in-person conference with a built-in excuse for a Phoenix resort vacation *smile*). But WANACon attendees get to be my guinea pigs, er, sneak peek students.

I hope you can join me and all the other attendees and presenters. And I’ll try to contain my excitement. *grin*

Have you been to any of the previous WANACons? Do you have any questions about WANACon? Do you have any questions about my new workshop? If you attended last time, are you going to make it to this WANACon? Want to be one of my moderator minions? *grin*