Electric volts shoot off her five-ten frame. Her face looks spotlighted against black hair and blacker clothes and her laugh is infectious — wait, she’d cross that out and write, “Cliche.” Let’s try again — her laugh is sexy with a hint of raspy ex-smoker.

There is life before meeting Shapiro, and life afterwards in Shapiroville.

Before Susan Shapiro

I’d published four short stories in Chicken Soup for the Soul books and an essay in a Long Island regional paper.

Life in Shapiroville

My personal essay was published in The New York Times, Dr. Drew saw it. He called and had me as a guest on his show. Three editors asked me to write follow up pieces. A few more editors paid me to reprint it. And now it is required reading in a course at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY. I received hundreds of comments, emails and phone calls. It felt like my entire hometown contacted me. And best of all, young girls reached out to me for help.

Here I am reading the essay to Dr. Jan Yager‘s class:

Here’s what happened after the essay was published in The New York Times:

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE DR. DREW TV INTERVIEW

Here I answer the question that I am asked the most:
“Why didn’t you tell your mother, father, or two older sisters?”

And, as if all of that isn’t enough, under Shapiro’s tutelage I won the New York Press creative non-fiction award for my essay about suicide, “9 Lives for a Weeble.” I’ve written frequently for The Jewish Daily Forward (forward.com), The Fix (thefix.com), and many more publications. I am now hard at work on my memoir.

Writers and Wannabe Writers

Visit Susan Shapiro’s website: susanshapiro.net. Buy her books. Take her class.

The post Want To Be a Successful Writer? Two Magic Words: SUSAN SHAPIRO appeared first on Award-Winning Writer and Graphic Designer.

I just finished editing My ASJA Conference Notes! Now they are legible enough to share with you in a Google Doc. This Google Doc contains my “scribblings” from the panels that I attended at this year’s #ASJA writers conference. I also added a few post-conference bits. Please note, these were written for myself but it would take me too long to go in and delete all of my side comments (Like, “Hahaha” or “Weeeee!”) so those were left in. Please feel free to ignore those side commentaries. I promise you there is a ton of useful info for all writers in this doc.

This year, I spoke on two panels, which I’ve done for many years. One panel was “Use Social Media to Land Writing Gigs and Make Money” and here’s a link to my social media handout.

My second panel was “Secrets of Interviewing Famous People.”

For any writer who doesn’t already know, ASJA is the American Society of Journalists and Authors. It is a non-profit organization for writers to network with each other and with editors, publishers, agents. This org has been incredibly helpful to me and is a big chunk of what helped me become a full-time freelance writer.

The other great boost to my writing career came after I’d published a few short stories and a couple of articles. I decided to get serious about full-time writing and took Susan Shapiro’s “Instant Gratification Takes Too Long” essay classes. The idea is to write and sell a piece during the class to pay for the class. She’s a phenomenal teacher and I love to tell people about her.

Speakers quoted in my notes include:

Susan Shapiro, author and professor

Daniel Jones, Modern Love editor, NYTimes

Honor Jones, Opinionator editor, NYTimes (no relation to Daniel)

Rob Spillman, editor at Tin House literary magazine

and many more…

Laura Shin, Catherine Dold, Linda Konner, John Hanc, Susan Lennon, Beena Kamlani, Kirby Kim, Renee Zuckerbrot, Victoria Moy, Katia Bachko, Whitney Frick, Molly Langmuir, David Lidsky, Jessica Winter, Royal Young, Kate Walter, Gabrielle Selz, Kevin Scott Hall, Sharon Goldman, Alicianne Rand, Clare McDermott, Laura Lorber, Allison Mezzafonte, Jack El-Hai, Tina Traster, Laurie Chittenden, Tracy Bernstein, Shaun Dolan, Kathleen Napolitano, Sherri Amatenstein

Tutorials

Please contact me if you’d like to learn social media tips and tricks that can land you writing gigs and sell your books. I give classes in person or via Skype or telephone. If you email me with the subject line #ASJA2010 or #BEA15 and let me know that you are contacting me to set up a lesson, I will give you the discounted price of $80 per hour. My normal fee is $100/hour.

We will discuss your specific business goals and who your target audience is. Then I will provide you with instruction tailored to your unique needs.

In addition to social media, I teach branding, marketing and SEO (search engine optimization).

Click here for my Google Doc of ASJA Conference Notes

The post Notes from #ASJA2015 Annual Conference for Writers appeared first on Award-Winning Writer and Graphic Designer.