The Bay Area is home to some of the finest artists in the country, who are often invited to teach in programs as far away as New York. For the first time, there is a local program committed to joining these artists with students and enthusiasts from their own communities. The Bay Area Masters Series is devoted to offering students an experience of artistic growth comparable to a BFA program. Each class aims to provide a unique approach to this growth, one engendered in the views of a nationally regarded artist.

Alan Rinzler
Executive Editor, Jossey-Bass Publishers/ John Wiley & Sons

Getting Published Today
Saturday, August 5, 9:00 AM— 4:00PM
$160 (course fee includes morning refreshments and lunch

It is not surprising to learn many writers, artists and photographers are desperate to publish books. But did you know publishers are even more desperate to find them? Editors in the book business are under great pressure to produce scores of titles in the hope that one of them may actually turn a profit (making up for the 90% that lose money). Consequently, far too many books are published—175,000 new titles in 2004 alone.

The publishing business is changing, and with it changes the role of the author. No longer an outlaw working without regard for the business, today’s author is a central figure in all aspects of developing and producing a book, and a collaborator in crucial positioning, marketing, publicity, and sales of the work. It’s more and more possible, moreover, for the author to establish a direct link to thousands of readers through web-based marketing and on-going communication among fans, special groups, and the larger community.

This is a conference for writers, artists, and photographers who seek insight into contemporary publishing practices, so they might best research, focus, structure, polish, and prepare a final manuscript or portfolio for consideration. It is an opportunity to better understand how industry works, and create a market for their ideas and creative efforts.
Alan Rinzler, a Executive Editor at Jossey-Bass, the west coast imprint of John Wiley & Sons, will explain the process from his perspective of 44 years in the publishing industry. He will present information on all aspects of the publishing process, and offer specific suggestions for aspiring authors, including:

• Developing an original idea and researching the competition in the field
• Focusing the basic theme, point of view, and original hook.
• Creating the best possible structure in a chapter-by-chapter outline for the book, whether fiction or nonfiction
• Seeking and using feedback from experts in the field: editors, teachers, and other objective professionals
• Revising the book in an average of one or two drafts
• Finding and selecting the right literary agent
• Building a “platform”—local, regional, and national visibility and name recognition— a crucial factor for all authors in today’s world of commercial book publishing
• Whether or not to hire a publicist, and if so when
• Working with a commercial book publisher. How they work, what they can do, how to get the most out of them, but what you have to do for yourself
• When and how to self-publish, economically and efficiently
• How you can position a book within your life work, your profession or career, as part of long-term career goals

Mr. Rinzler will be presenting two guests, and agent and a published writer. The conference will also include a morning reception and catered lunch, allowing attendees ample time to exchange ideas and views with fellow authors and artists.

In addition to Jossey-Bass Publishers/ John Wiley & Sons, Alan Rinzler has worked for Bantam Books, Grove Press, Simon and Schuster, The Macmillan Company, and Holt, Rinehart and Winston. He also served as Vice President and Associate Publisher in the early days of Rolling Stone magazine, and as President of Rolling Stone book divison, Straight Arrow. He has worked with and published writers and artists such as Toni Morrison, Hunter S. Thompson, Tom Robbins, Nora Ephron, Tom Wolfe, Robert Ludlum, Jerzy Kosinski, Claude Brown, Dee Brown, Andy Warhol, Frank Capra, Bill Owens, Annie Leibowitz, Danny Lyon, Bob Dylan, Woody Guthrie and John Lennon.

Mr. Rinzler has taught at Radcliffe College, New York University, and California College of the Arts, and presents at conferences such as the Squaw Valley Writer’s Conference, the San Francisco Writer’s Conference, the Jack London Writer’s Conference and at the 2005 San Miguel de Allende (Mexico) International Writer’s Conference. He is also the Academic Director for trade book publishing at the Stanford Professional Publishing Courses.