WAM! - Sunday Late Morning Sessions

Again I'm going to go to more than one session.

How to Get Heard: The Art of Strategic Communication with Editors
Barbara Beckwith, Jeanne Harnois, and Shirley Moskow

• Don't turn in an assignment without pitching a new story
• Hang out with writers - It's a lifestyle
• Never pitch a story with an attachment - It will end up in a spam folder
• Always turn in things on time
• Just get out there and do it
• Don't be afraid to push back

Barbara's notes

• While most people say that you shouldn't work for free, she did start out writing for Sojourner which paid very little ($15) or nothing at all. Her early writing was her experience that she used to be a more professional writer.
• Don't minimize your experience. You aren't just a college student - You wrote for the Beacon.
• Meet your editor if you can in person.
  
• How to approach an editor - Know that you have value, express a sense of congeniality, don't use their first name until they use yours thou, know that they need your ideas to get their work done.
  
• Bringing up money enhances your credibility and professional status in an editor's eyes.
• Try the top, try the bottom. Don't think that you have work your way up from the bottom.
  

Conscious Women Rock the Page: Using Hip Hop Fiction to Incite Feminist Action
JLove Calderon, Elisha Miranda, Sofia Quintero, and Marcella Runell Hall

I jumped in and out of this session NOT because it sucked but because my brain is full. I needed to find a place to chill out a bit before brunch.

Technorati tags: WAM!, WAM! 2008