Lida Sideris & Melinda Palacio

Be Your Own Best Publicist

Publishing & Marketing Seminar

Monday 9-11:30 PM (pending)

Pacific Ballroom

Wisdom from the trenches from award-winning authors on how to promote your own books.

Learn to write a press release and get the attention of newspapers, magazines, radio shows, podcasts and more.

Become your own best editor

Discover the skills to put yourself out in the wild (blogging, podcasts, book signings (big and little stores, libraries, wineries etc.), blog tours, virtual and in-person

Find out what to expect after your book is published: reality vs. fantasy

Build courage - Be your own best cheerleader

Get great marketing advice: Ten things every writer should know.

Every author faces moments when it seems promoting their project has come to a halt. This workshop offers a toolbox for overcoming marketing paralysis. Bring your problems and questions and together we will share the solutions to marketing muddles. 

This workshop encourages interaction and movement and will wake you to what you need to do to move your project forward. We will cover the magic of ritual, concrete practices and a little of the spiritual to free up your writing and get it to the finish line.

Melinda Palacio is the Poet Laureate of Santa Barbara. She is the author of the novel, Ocotillo Dreams (ASU Bilingual Press 2011), for which she received the Mariposa Award for Best First Book at the 2012 International Latino Book Awards and a 2012 PEN Oakland-Josephine Miles Award for Excellence in Literature. Her first full-length poetry collection, How Fire Is a Story, Waiting, (Tia Chucha Press 2012) was a finalist for the Milt Kessler Award, the Paterson Prize, and received First Prize in Poetry at the 2013 International Latino Book Awards. In 2015, her work was featured on the Academy of American Poets, Poem-a-Day Program. Melinda's latest poetry collection is, Bird Forgiveness, 3: A Taos Press.

Lida Sideris writes soft-boiled mysteries and was one of two national winners of the Helen McCloy Mystery Writers of America scholarship award. The third installment in her Southern California Mystery series, Murder: Double or Nothing will be released on June 25th by Level Best Books. Lida is also the author of The Cookie Eating Fire Dog, a picture book for ages 4-8. She lives in the northern tip of SoCal with her family, rescue dogs and a flock of uppity chickens.  To learn more, please visit: www.LidaSideris.com