Hey, we'll see you there!
Buy me a chai and you get a free hour of consultation or editing! But you must present it in person...
The recent Wordsmith Writing Coaches update lacked details about some important things happening in 2025, so here are important things to know.
First, I have moved to Tacoma, not Mars! We’ll have opportunities to meet in person again, at events and informally too, even if you won’t visit Grit City anytime in the foreseeable future. Buy me a drink and you have my full attention for at least twice as long as it takes me to finish it. That’s usually 45 minutes to an hour, or $56 to $75 worth of consulting, editing, or AMA. My favorite chai runs about $5. Hint, hint.
I will be speaking or exhibiting at several big in-person events in 2025:
Life, the Universe, and Everything (LTUE.net) in Salt Lake City, February 13-16. I will arrive Wednesday, February 12, and leave Monday, February 17; that gives me some time on Thursday the 13th and all day Sunday the 16th to schedule one-on-one and small group meetings with people! If other Wordsmith associates will join me there, I’ll let you know. (At least one is considering it!)
Writer MBA (WriterMBA.com) in New Orleans, March 16-22. Again, I’ll arrive a day early and leave a day late, allowing time to get together with you in person. For many of the meals that week, my wife Kathryn and I would love to have you join us! (Well, maybe not for more than one meal that week, but you will have lots of choices— and the food of New Orleans is a great reason to meet me there!)
the LA Times Festival of Books in Los Angeles, taking over the entire USC campus April 26 and 27! This is the biggest book festival in the Americas, with over 140,000 book lovers swirling around our booth in just two very busy days. Yes, Wordsmith Writing Coaches will be there. This will be our tenth year as exhibitors! I will be at the booth ten hours straight each day, so no breaks to go get a chai with you (though if you bring me one, you’re my hero). However, I plan to arrive in Los Angeles on Tuesday, April 22, and depart Friday, May 2. That gives me most of a week before and after LATFoB to meet with you if you’re in the LA area and want to buy me a chai. Other Wordsmith activities will be scheduled during that time of course. I’ll share more about them as the time draws near.
There may be other events as well (like the Pacific Northwest Writers Conference, perhaps?). We’ll let you know as those plans coalesce. These three are the really big ones to add to your calendar right now.
Another big thing we are doing for authors in 2025 is the New Author Plunge! This is an eight-week intensive workshop for a small cohort of aspiring writers who want to dive straight into the deep end of their writing careers, without drowning in the attempt. It will begin soon after the Festival of Books (running through May and into June 2025), it will be expensive, and it will be worth at least three times what you pay for it.* 1
We cannot guarantee that it will make you a bestselling author or anything like that, but we can guarantee that it will pack countless priceless pearls of wisdom into mere weeks that otherwise would take decades of trial and error to collect.
More importantly, you will have one-on-one coaching for two solid months—in writing craft, in writing habits, in writing business, marketing, and strategies for long-term endurance and success in a vocation with a very high burnout rate (rivaling the music world and the film industry).
Don’t postpone your writing dreams.
Don’t flounder.
Don’t drown.
Take the New Author Plunge instead.
Email me immediately if you are interested.
Stay tuned for details!2
I’ll show you the math in a future email.
If you missed the New Author Plunge last year, or you already know you want to do this, reply to this email and say so. We’ll put you on the list of early responders. Space is extremely limited and the opportunity to participate will be offered in the order of response. The sooner the better! (You can always say “no” when it’s time to commit, and let the next person in line have a shot at it.)