2016 UPPAA Conference – Saturday, June 18th

Peter White Public Library

• 10:00-10:30 Registration
• 10:30-10:45 Opening Remarks by President Tyler Tichelaar
• 10:45-11:45 Keynote: Judith Briles – Creating Confidence as a Writer and Author
• 11:45-12:45 Sessions
  Community Room: Aimée Bisonette – Legal Rights and Responsibilities of Authors
  Shiras Room: Helen Haskell Remien – In Praise of the Handcrafted Life: Writing as Process
• 12:45-1:05 Activity with Gretchen Preston
• 1:05-1:45 Lunch
• 1:45-2:00 Business Meeting
• 2:00-3:00 Sessions
  Community Room: Judith Briles – Avoid the 7 Deadly Sins Authors Commit in Book Publishing Today
  Shiras Room: Debbie Frontiera – IRS Record Keeping 101 for Authors
• 3:00-4:00 Sessions
  Community Room: If Publishing Is in Your Midst…Which Option is for You and Your Book?
  Shiras Room: Book Selling Across the UP – Larry Buege, Lloyd Wescoat, and Aimée Bisonette
• 4:00-4:30 Networking and Clean Up

Session Descriptions – in order of presentation
Creating Confidence as an Author & Writer
Judith Briles
Based on the best-selling book, The Confidence Factor—Cosmic Gooses Lay Golden Eggs, writers and authors will learn that confidence is acquired, not inherited; and it usually comes from the pitfalls—the cosmic gooses—of the writing life. Woven around the 6 Steps to Building Confidence, this stimulating and humorous speech is guaranteed to motivate and inspire audiences. With confidence, anything is possible. This keynote/general session has consistently received outstanding evaluations.
Bio: Judith is an innovative and creative writing coach, book coach, and how to get published expert who can expertly assist you with your book and publishing project. She has mentored up and coming authors and publishers for years and dedicated untold hours to educating others to the pitfalls, and joys, of the publishing world. In 2009, she created AuthorU(niversity), a membership organization that is designed for serious authors who want to be seriously successful. Judith chaired the first Writers Conference for the National Speakers Association and started its Writing and Publishing PEG with over 700 members. The Author U group on LinkedIn alone has 10,000 members.
She is past president of several publishing associations and has chaired several publishing conferences including the AuthorU Extravaganza held annually. She writes The Book Shepherd segment for the BookMarketing.com newsletter and numerous columns, along with leading her popular Publishing Salons. Her latest book (#33) is The CrowdFunding Guide for Authors & Writers. It joins Snappy Sassy Salty … Wise Words for Authors and Writers. Author YOU: Creating and Building Your Author and Book Platforms was published in March of 2013 and has won multiple national awards including the Indie Excellence Award, International Book Award, Beverly Hills Book Award, IPPY Award in the Publishing/Writing category and was the Publishing writing Book of the Year in the IndieFab awards sponsored by Foreword Reviews. Her books are also #1 bestsellers on Amazon.
In Praise of the Handcrafted Life: Writing as Process
Helen Haskell Remien
Books don’t arrive fully formed, polished and bound—they spring up from our creative depths, perhaps at first as a seed of an idea or a not-quite-focused storyline or a piece of a poem or essay. And they take root, day by day, week by week, year by year as we devote time to our craft. Each one of us moves forward on our projects in our unique way, and each project we complete has a different story of its creation. I find this process fascinating and inspiring — it is where the juice is, not in the polished product but in the handcrafted practice that brought this product to fruition. This presentation is a celebration and examination of process, the process of well-known writers, my writing buddies, and my own process for the various projects that I have completed.
Bio information
Helen Haskell Remien lives in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula where she and her husband Cam raised their two sons. She received her MA in creative writing from Northern Michigan University and has published a chapbook of poems, Diving Down, a full-length manuscript of poetry, Wild Ground, a memoir, Ebb & Flow, a book on grandparenthood, Viren, and a hand-bound book of essays, Mystery Trip. A book of essays and poems, I’m Not Too Much For Me!!!, will be published this year. Presently, she teaches yoga and creativity workshops, and owns and operates Joy Center, a creative sanctuary for the community.
Legal Rights and Responsibilities of Authors
Aimée Bissonette
In this interactive session, attorney Aimée Bissonette will answer questions about the legal and practical issues confronting writers—particularly writers exploring self-publishing and small press publishing (e.g. collaboration agreements, key deal terms in small press and self-publishing contracts, vendor contract issues, copyright registration). Discussion is encouraged, so bring your questions!
BIO: Aimée has worked as a lawyer, teacher, and writer since 1987. She helps her clients make smart decisions about licensing their creative works. Her published picture books include “North Woods Girl” (Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2015) and “Miss Colfax’s Light” (Sleeping Bear Press, 2016). She is also the author of “Cyber Law: Maximizing Safety and Minimizing Risk in Classrooms” (Corwin Press 2009) and a contributing author to the 2015 Guide to Self-Publishing (Writer’s Digest Books, 2015).
Avoid the 7 Deadly Sins
Authors Commit in Book Publishing Today
Judith Briles
Authors (and Writers who publish books) routinely embrace the 7 Deadly Sins of Book Publishing. Learn what they are and how to avoid them. If a close encounter occurs, what steps can be taken to get out of publishing quicksand and survive.
IRS Record Keeping 101
Deborah Frontiera
How many cookies can you “snitch” from the cookie jar before somebody notices? It’s tricky knowing how much you can deduct for your writing business without sending “red flags” to the IRS. Deborah K. Frontiera’s daughter, a CPA and her “tax expert”, has taught her a lot over the years about what records to keep, what you can deduct and how much, when you need to fill out 1099s, etc. She’ll share these tips on how to keep all your ducks in a row with interested UPPAA members.
BIO: Deborah K. Frontiera has been a member of UPPAA for many years. While she does not live in the U.P. full time (she still lives in Houston, TX 9 months of the year) that’s where her heart is. Two of her books are entirely U.P. and her book of nature poems is “mostly” U.P. The rest all have at least a “hint” somewhere. She files sales tax in both Michigan and Texas. She’s been UPPAA’s newsletter editor for several years.
If Publishing Is in Your Midst…Which Option Is for You and Your Book?
Judith Briles
Amazon changed the publishing field—a great thing for so many newbie authors who didn’t think a New York publisher or an agent would ever give them a moment’s notice…and it’s also not so good a thing.
Does it make sense to seek a traditional publishing contract?
What are the differences between traditional, self, independent, paid-to-publishing, hybrid and vanity publishing?
This in-depth Master Workshop will identify a variety of options for today’s author.
Publishing continues to morph…

• Do you know what your options are?
• Have you created your Author’s Platform?
• What about a Book Platform?
• Do you know how to avoid the publishing predators?
• Do you know who they are?
• Do you know the dollars and sense of publishing?
• Do you know that a book, the right book, can accelerate your career and skyrocket revenues?
• Do you know which publishing option is the right fit for you and your book?

Book Marketing Across the U.P.
Author Panel: Larry Buege, Lloyd Wescoat, Aimée Bissonette
Getting a book to press is hard work, but placing it in the hands of readers can be a staggering experience. Lloyd Wescoat will provide some rules of the road when approaching bookstore owners and will offer suggestions to leverage connections in your local community.
Larry Buege will discuss the advantages of a U.P. bookstore and craft shop database. (See http://Larrybuege.com/bookstores.html). The database will contain contact information as well as comments from authors who have used these bookstores. The database will have embedded code to thwart search engines and protect listed e-mail addresses and individuals from excessive spam. The web site is non-searchable. Access will be by word-of-mouth and shared with all who need to know.
Aimée will be speaking as an author who worked with a number of “partners,” each with their own areas of expertise, to increase her book’s visibility and sales. These partners include the publicity and sales reps at her publisher, a creative and hard working independent bookseller, and Winding Oak—a literary services entity that builds websites, designs and produces book related marketing materials, and uses unique approaches (like “buzz breakfasts”) to get books into the hands of strong advocates.
Click here to register!