PR for Writers with Sara Sheridan

Thursday 13th June, 4.30pm at the Crescent Arts Centre

Bestselling writer Sara Sheridan, (author of the Mirabelle Bevan Mysteries and The Secret Mandarin), gives an informative, practical seminar on Marketing for Writers, covering everything you need to know about PR for both your work and yourself, online and off. This talk is aimed at fledgling writers as well as more experienced practitioners and is full of hints and tips to help promote your career.

With publicity budgets being slashed at traditional publishing houses, and the e-book revolution enabling writers to upload their own material and reach their readers directly, writers need to develop new marketing and publicity skills and take control of their own career.

Covering several forms of publicity and marketing as well as looking at how to define your own work within a very crowded marketplace, bestselling writer Sara will give you insider, industry information to help you make a plan to promote both yourself and your work.

Cost: £10. Further information & to book visit the Belfast Book Festival website.

The event is part of Belfast Book Festival 2013 programme (10-16 June 2013).

In December, Chris Dolan lead a seminar on Scriptwriting for those interested in writing for radio, television, film and stage. Chris’s new novel Redlegs was published in July. His play, The Strange Case of Dr Hyde, ran every day for a week on Radio Scotland in November and his latest adaptation of a Rebus novel goes out later this month on Radio 4.

He has written 20 radio plays to date and his television drama includes Taggart and River City. Television documentaries include An Anarchist’s Story and Barbado’ed, both for BBC; Red Oil for Channel 4, and he collaborated for STV’s The Scots Who Fought Franco and BBC Scotland’s Don Roberto.

He has extensive experience in teaching, tutoring and writing residencies. He currently teaches Creative Writing at Glasgow Caledonian and Strathclyde Universities.

The masterclass was delivered by much published author Nicola Morgan and organised by LitNet NI. It took place on Wednesday 13 June at the Crescent Arts Centre as part of the Belfast Book Festival.

Nicola Morgan is the author of the universally-acclaimed Write to be Published and dozens of other books, many of them award-winning or best-selling. If you missed this insightful masterclass, visit Nicola’s new blog for more of the advice that she offers.
image (c) Andrew Culture

Derry-born, Donal McLaughlin has spent most of his life in Scotland. Alongside his own writing (Best European Fiction 2012 and an allergic reaction to national anthems & other stories) he specialises in translating contemporary Swiss fiction. His debut collection was longlisted for the Frank O’Connor Short Story Award in 2010. Donal is a recipient of the Robert Louis Stevenson Memorial Award.
Read more about Donal McLaughlin on his blog.

Lynne Edgar began writing in 2005 when she embarked on a course with the Open University. In 2010, she received an award from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland to take part in LitNet NI’s mentoring scheme where she was mentored for six months by Moyra Donaldson. Her work has been published in Poetry Ireland Review.
In October 2011, her first collection of poems, Trapeze, was published by Lapwing.

Darran McCann read English at Trinity College Dublin and took a Masters degree at Dublin City University before becoming a well-known journalist with Belfast’s Irish News. He left journalism in order to write, teach and study at Queen’s University Belfast. In 2010, he received the first doctorate in creative writing ever awarded by an Irish university, for his first novel, After the Lockout. After the Lockout was published by Fourth Estate in early 2012.
His second novel Carnival of Reaction will be published in Autumn 2013.

It was a practical workshop which aimed to give writers an introduction to the skills needed to start building an online profile with confidence. Through discussion, practical application and case studies, participants learned how to develop their online profile, aiming for maximum results through effective time management.

The workshop was facilitated by Elizabeth Murray.
Elizabeth Rose Murray is a writer and content and social media specialist who has been leading the areas of content, communications and social networking for multinational corporations for the last six years. She was also commissioned to write the official blogs/tweet for the Dublin Book Festival (2011), Cork Spring Literary Festival (2011), Dublin Writers Festival (2009 & 2010), Listowel Writers’ Week (2011) and the Cork International Short Story Festival (2011).

This workshop was presented by LitNet NI in partnership with the Crescent Arts Centre