Right below this post is the list of online workshops and how to sign up for them. They are open to anyone who is willing to spend five hours or so per week learning. If interested, read that post or under the Online Workshops tab above.

This post is announcing the schedule for the workshops being held here at the coast.

As I have said before, these are like the continuing education for professional fiction writers. That doesn’t mean you have to had sold anything, just that you are beyond the beginner stages of your writing. In other words, a million or so words under your fingers.

How to Sign Up:

If you are interested in any of these coast workshops, write me at dean (at) deanwesleysmith (dot) com and put only

the word WORKSHOPS in the subject line. Otherwise my spam filter will eat it. And trust me, it gets enough to eat.

In the letter tell me a little about your writing goals, what you are doing with your writing, how much you write each week, if you have things out or published either indie or traditional, and where you hope to be with your fiction writing in five years.

If you don’t hear back from me in two or three days, write me again. I will either invite you to the workshops or tell you why you wouldn’t be right for them. When in doubt, let me decide. You might be surprised. Kris and I know what we are looking for in writers to come here to the coast. If you are really interested, don’t try to outguess us. Just tell us what you are doing.

And sorry, the last two workshops next summer are only for Oregon Writers Network (OWN) writers. In other words, writers who have been here to the coast before next June and want to join the list.

So here are the workshops we are doing here on the coast this next year. They are also listed up under the “Workshop” tab along with a ton more information. Make sure you read the stuff there as well before writing me. Hotel, travel, information about the location of the workshops, and a ton more information is under that tab.

And remember, we are now doing online workshops under the Online Workshop tab that are very limited, but open to anyone with a willingness to learn.

2012 Coast Workshop Schedule

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SEPTEMBER 29-OCTOBER 6, 2012

POD Workshop. 

Everything you need to know about doing printed books in your indie press. We will teach you how to lay them out, design professional-level covers, do wrap-around covers, interior design, understand the use of fonts, and how to sell books into bookstores and other sales outlets. Everything.

Taught by Dean Wesley Smith and Allyson Longueira. Allyson has a masters degree in graphic design and has been an editor and publisher in the past. She is now the publisher of WMG Publishing Inc. and will have well over a hundred books laid out and designed before the workshop. Dean Wesley Smith is the former publisher of Pulphouse Publishing Inc, one of the largest publishers in science fiction and fantasy in the 1990s.

Workshop fee is $650.00 and room rate is $50.00 per night.

This workshop starts at 7PM on the first Saturday and goes late on the second Saturday, with check-out and travel home on Sunday.

(Update 8/1/12…One or two spots left open, then I will start a waiting list.) 

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November 10-17, 2012
Beyond the Page. Audio. 

Everything you need to know about how read your own work, how to do audio books with your own computer, and how to sell them as well through your indie press and other places, including selling them to the Audible.com/Amazon new program. Instructors are Kristine Kathryn Rusch and Daniel Sawyer, with help on the sales side by Dean Wesley Smith and Allyson Longueira.  Kris used to train new radio announcers how to read and speak and that’s what she will be doing for writers in this workshop. Reading your own work in an effective and entertaining way is a skill and Kris can teach you how to do it. Dan will teach you how to do the audio books in the WMG Publishing sound room.

Workshop fee is $650.00 and room rate is $40.00 per night.

This workshop starts at 7PM on the first Saturday and goes late on the second Saturday, with check-out and travel home on Sunday.

(Update 8/1/12…Four spots left open before I start a waiting list.) 

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Feb 23rd- Feb 26th, 2013 

THE BUSINESS AND CRAFT OF SHORT FICTION

Taught by Dean Wesley Smith and Kristine Kathryn Rusch. How to write short fiction, from triggers to structure. How to take ideas and turn them into stories. How to sell short fiction both traditional and indie. How to help your novels by writing a short story in the same universe. How to do stories in audio, including doing an audio file of a short story at the workshop. And so much more. 

Workshop fee is $350.00 and room rate is $40.00 per night.

This workshop starts at 7PM on Saturday the 23rd and goes until noon on Tuesday, the 26th, with check-out and travel home on Tuesday unless you are staying over for the next workshop.

(Update 8/1/12…ten spots left open.) 

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Feb 28th – March 3rd, 2013. 

ANTHOLOGY WORKSHOP

Editors are John Helfers, Kerrie Hughes, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, and Dean Wesley Smith. You will learn so much about editing and the writing of short fiction. We have been doing this for eight years now and it’s always wonderful fun. You will write one story ahead of the workshop to fit an anthology, one story at the workshop. And four editors will look at each story and talk about them and why they would or would not buy them.

Workshop fee is $500.00 and room rate is $40.00 per night.

This workshop starts at 7PM on Thursday the 28th and goes until noon on Sunday, the 3rd, with check-out and travel home on Sunday.

(Update 8/1/12…eight spots left open.) 

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April 6th- 13th, 2013

CHARACTER VOICE AND SETTING WORKSHOP  

Taught by Dean Wesley Smith. This workshop is something we offer every year and is an intense writing and craft workshop and one of the most important workshops we offer. If you want your fiction to come alive, for readers to tell your characters apart, and to even understand how to write characters that can’t be forgotten by readers, this is the workshop. Also, if you have problems with setting, it doesn’t mean you don’t know how to describe something, it means you are having troubles with characters. All setting is the opinion of a character and that takes some skills and methods to learn.

Workshop fee is $650.00 and room rate is $50.00 per night.

This workshop starts at 7PM on the first Saturday and goes late on the second Saturday, with check-out and travel home on Sunday.

(Update 8/1/12…Eight spots left open.) 

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May 4th – May 11th, 2013.  

POD WORKSHOP

Taught by Dean Wesley Smith and Allyson Longueira (the publisher of WMG Publishing who also has a masters degree in graphic design.) Everything there is to know about doing physical books yourself, from cover design to sales and so much more. There is more description on the October POD workshop listing. 

Workshop fee is $650.00 and room rate is $50.00 per night.

This workshop starts at 7PM on the first Saturday and goes late on the second Saturday, with check-out and travel home on Sunday.

(Update 8/1/12…Ten spots left open.) 

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June 15th – June 22nd, 2013

MYSTERY WORKSHOP

 Taught by Kristine Kathryn Rusch.  This will be an intensive writing workshop (as the short story workshop is) studying all aspects of writing mystery fiction in all the subgenres of mystery fiction. (Kris also writes novels in mystery under the Kris Nelscott name and has been nominated for every major award in mystery. Her stories appear regularly in both Queen and Hitchcocks magazines.) (Limited to around 15 writers)

OWN (Oregon Writer’s Network) members only.

Workshop fee is $650.00 and room rate is $50.00 per night.

This workshop starts at 7PM on the first Saturday and goes late on the second Saturday, with check-out and travel home on Sunday.

(Update 8/1/12… If You Are An OWN Member and are interested, write me.) 

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July 13th – July 20th, 2013

HOW TO SELL MORE BOOKS AND MAKE MORE MONEY:

THE ADVANCED MASTER CLASS.

Taught by Scott William Carter, Dean Wesley Smith, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, and a number of others to be named as we get them on board.

This will cover everything. Writers often don’t know what they need, so this workshop will cover it all in a very intense week of work. From advanced cover design to advanced sales copy writing. From advanced audio training to learning how to structure a story. And so much business. Everything a writer will need to know to sell more books and make more money with their fiction in this new world. You name it, we will cover it, and at an advanced level.  

You will also be doing a lot of writing in this workshop, with many exercises to improve craft to finishing a story or two.

OWN (Oregon Writer’s Network) members only.  Indie publishing experience is also required for this course. You will need to have already published electronically and either be working at having books in paper or already have them up.

Workshop fee is $650.00 and room rate is $60.00 per night.

This workshop starts at 7PM on the first Saturday and goes late on the second Saturday, with check-out and travel home on Sunday.

(Update 8/1/12…If you are an OWN Member and are interested, write me.) 

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THAT’S IT. Eight workshops covering seven weeks of the next full year.  (As always, we will announce the fall workshops for 2013 in Feb 2013.)

And don’t forget, we are now doing Online workshops. Check those out in the post below or under the Online Workshops tab at the top of the page.