VIP Authors who want to write a book in 2010 will be off to a great start after our first VIP Author Talks of the year! Our guest is Stephanie Gunning, a publishing strategist and former senior editor at Bantam Doubleday Dell. She’s mastered the art of transforming powerful ideas into marketable books and her Get a Book Deal™ program is designed to help writers get started on the road to success in as little as 60 to 90 days.

During this class, you will learn:

• How to set a powerful intention for your book
• The stages to get from idea to bookstore shelf
• Why you absolutely must draft a book proposal
• Tools from brain science to support your creativity
• Spiritual techniques to support your creativity
• Where & how coaching can be an assistance

Have a question on a topic not listed? Write it down now for the live Q&A at the end of the call.

Mark your calendar right now to join us for the VIP Author Talks with Stephanie Gunning. Here are the details:

Class*: VIP Author Talks with Stephanie Gunning

Topic: How to Get a Book Deal

When: Wednesday, January 27 at 8:00pm Eastern Time (7pm Central, 6pm Mountain, 5pm Pacific).

To Receive the Teleclass Call-in Information, Register Below:

*The presentation is free to attend, but long distance charges may apply. Please note that anyone may call in and listen, but the audio recording will only be available to VIP Author Inner Circle members. If you are not yet a member and would like a recording of this call, find out more about all the benefits of VIP Author Inner Circle membership here>>

Speaker Bio:

Stephanie Gunning is one of the most sought-after nonfiction writers in the publishing industry and a well-regarded book proposal coach. She is the coauthor or ghostwriter of (at last count) 22 published books. Her essays have been featured in well-known anthologies compiled by Arielle Ford and Doreen Virtue.

She has worked with numerous bestselling authors, including Hale Dwoskin, Gregg Braden, Ruby Payne, Thomas Moore, Stephen Mitchell, Marlo Morgan, and Ruth Montgomery, to name a few.

Now is the best time to become a VIP Author! It’s our Holiday Bonus and we’re giving new members the chance to catch up on what they’ve missed so far this year! But don’t delay because this offer expires December 25!

**BONUS GIFTS for those subscribing on or before December 25**

The ENTIRE LIBRARY of audio recordings from the 2009 VIP Author Talk teleseries.
(A $395.00 value–FREE when you subscribe before December 25.)

Here’s how to receive your Bonus Gifts:
Become a VIP Author member!

#1 Reason to do this now:
To receive your bonus gift, you must subscribe on or before December 25.

#2 Reason to do this now:
The membership rate is discounted through December 31. The yearly fee increases on January 1, 2010.

Get your Holiday Bonus Gift Now>>

Kudos to Laurel Wilczek, Grand Prize Winner of the inaugural Feast of Flash Thanksgiving Contest on the Not from here, are you? blog  with her story, Thanksgiving Day Pies. Laurel has chosen The Salvation Army of East Stroudsburg, PA to receive a $100.00 donation in her name. Her story was published on the blog on Thursday, Thanksgiving Day, and you can read it here.

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, Laurel had this to say:

“I think this is a good example of how to pursue the community spirit that you  mentioned in [the Class to Ca$h] class. I’ve always liked the idea of giving back to the community, but your class helped me step out and actually do it. In taking your advice to heart, I’ve been able to help 14 teen writers in a six week prep/write for the National Novel Writing Month. And now, I’ve been able to help families right in my own backyard!

It’s a fantastic feeling. Thank you for pointing me in the right direction. –Laurel”

Congratulations, Laurel, and thank you for sharing your inspirational work with all VIP Authors!

A Message from Shelley Lieber, VIP Authors CEO & Founder

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope I’m among the first to wish you a happy, healthy holiday filled with joy.

Our family’s Thanksgiving tradition is to go around the table and let each person express gratitude. We started years ago when my
children were young. Thanksgiving came on the heels of my son’s and my niece’s birthdays, with Chanukah sometimes only a week or two
away. Because they were so young, the children started to associate the holidays with gift getting, culminating with my daughter blowing out the Chanukah candles, thinking it was a birthday party (she was only three).

So, we began our gratitude-giving tradition to help them understand that holidays are as much about giving as receiving. We continue it to this day, whether we are together or celebrating at tables spread across the country. We make sure we call each family member who is away so we can still connect and give thanks together.

A Special Thanksgiving Offer

I’d like to include you this year in my gratitude giving. I thank you for being a VIP Author Inner Circle member or taking a class or consulting with me this year. You are source of inspiration for me and I appreciate your participation in our work together.

And so, in gratitude, I’m making this special Thanksgiving offer. You can join VIP Authors or renew your membership at the special low rate of only $97, a savings of $30. If you are renewing, the additional year will be added at the end of your current membership, so every member can take advantage of this offer.

Please take a moment to review the VIP Author Inner Circle member
benefits and take advantage of this special Thanksgiving offer>>

“Build your platform” was the advice most often given to writers by agents, editors and publishers in the past 10 years. The idea was to establish a waiting market for your work  by connecting to your audience via email, newsletters, speaking engagements, media appearances and so on.

Today the platform concept has been extended to incorporate a more personal connection between you and your audience, and the more appropriate description is to “build community.” The word community implies “interaction” and “communication” with others who have common interests or goals. Social media such as blogs, podcasts, videos and social networking sites can bring you in direct contact with your readers and enable two-way conversations.

Nancy Mills may have started the trend several years ago when she created The Spirited Woman, a woman’s empowerment community on the Internet, long before the term “build your community” was ever uttered. The Spirited Woman community that Nancy began with only a newsletter to a small list of women today includes a website, newsletter, blog, mastermind groups, events plus much more and serves thousands of women globally.

Don’t miss VIP Author Talks with guest Nancy Mills on Wednesday, October 28, when Nancy will share how she grew her list (& business) and reveal the strategies authors can use right now to build their own communities of loyal readers.

On this call you will learn:

• The tools Nancy Mills used to build The Spirited Woman
• Why authors must build communities and lead their “tribes”
• The best resources authors can use to build their communities
• Whether to go it alone or use a team to build your community
• What else authors must do to effectively communicate with their audiences
• What strategies authors can employ to stand out in a crowded genre or marketplace

Have a question on a topic not listed? Write it down now for the live Q&A at the end of the call.

Mark your calendar right now to join us for the VIP Author Member Event on Wednesday, October 28 at 8:00pm Eastern Time.

How To Register for This Event:

If you are not an VIP Authors Inner Circle member yet, find out more about  Membership Benefits here>>

If you are already a member, you can find the call-in number on your Members-Only  page. If you no longer have this information, please e-mail us at support@vipauthors.com.

Speaker Bio:
Nancy Mills is the founder of The Spirited Woman, a leading women’s empowerment community, the publisher of the international Spirited Woman Blogger Team. She is known for being a creative out-of-the-box marketing expert. She also mentors women in her “Nancy’s Inner Circle” program. On a more personal note, through her Tales of Downtown blog, she loves to write about her adventures living in a loft in downtown Los Angeles. That blog is gaining quite a local following.

Myths & Reality: Where’s the Money?

Every writer wants to know how to get paid for his or her work. If anyone knows where writers can find markets (and money) for their writing, it’s C. Hope Clark, founder and editor of FundsForWriters.com.

During this class, Hope will reveal how you can earn income from these “funding streams”:

• Grants: Arts commissions, Foundations/Nonprofits, Conferences
  Retreats, Fellowships
• Contests: Scams, Entry fees, Boosts to publication
• Freelance Markets: Queries and pitches, finding paying markets, what to avoid
• Jobs: Freelance, Fulltime, government positions, be a reporter
• Plus, tips on being a writer: pride and promotion!

Have a question on a topic not listed? Write it down now for the live Q&A at the end of the call.

Mark your calendar right now to join us for the VIP Author Member Event on Wednesday, September 23 at 8:00pm Eastern Time.

How To Register for This Event:

If you are not an VIP Authors Inner Circle member yet, find out more about  Membership Benefits here>>

If you are already a member, you can find the call-in number on your Members-Only  page. If you no longer have this information, please e-mail us at support@vipauthors.com.

Speaker Bio:

C. Hope Clark is founder of FundsforWriters.com, an online resource for writers seeking grants, contests, markets or jobs. The nine-year-old site has almost a million hits per month and has received the Writer’s Digest 101 Best Web Sites for Writers designation for each of its nine years of existence. Hope’s newsletters reach over 26,000 readers. She’s published nonfiction in commercial magazines and websites. She also writes mystery fiction, and her Carolina Slade series is in the hands of an agent, making the rounds of New York publishers. The highlight of her career will be publishing that series and proving how diligence and practice can pay for writers.