Julie Silver, MD

Michael Sinha, MD, JD, MPH

Julie Silver, MD

Receptivity to a book or a business idea often hinges on a minute or two in front of the right people. Oral book pitches and elevator pitches can be defining moments for your work. This workshop helps you make the most of that pivotal moment.

At this workshop, participants get expert advice to develop and refine their pitch. Further practice is offered during breaks on Friday, and then, on Friday afternoon, participants are given 70 seconds to verbally pitch their book (or other idea) to a panel of editors, literary agents, and publishing professionals. At the conclusion, the panelists provide instant, constructive, written feedback designed to help you hone your pitch.

Please note:

♦ You may attend this workshop and develop your pitch, but opt not to deliver your pitch to an audience on Friday.
♦ No on-site registrations will be accepted for this workshop.
♦ This workshop is limited to the first 85 registrants.
♦ Some past participants of this course have had editors and agents sign deals on ideas they pitched during this session.

Course Faculty

Boost the impact of your writing by having it critiqued by a publishing professional who is an expert in healthcare publishing.

Workshop instructors will review a sample of your writing that you are invited to submit (this is optional) approximately one month prior to the course. During the workshop, the instructors lead small-group discussions—with no more than 10 attendees—about the strengths and opportunities for improvement in each participant's writing sample.

Not only will you receive valuable feedback on your own writing, but you will gain crucial insights from the discussion of your peers' writing. You are invited to participate even if you don't have a writing sample—the tips you get from the critiques of others' work make it well worth attending.

Note: While not required, most attendees participate in both Writers Workshops A & B. When enrolling for both of these evening workshops, you will be placed with different instructors to afford you access to different perspectives, skills development, and support to meet your writing and publishing goals.

Susan Aiello, DVM, ELS

(for attendees of Thursday's optional Pitches Workshop)

Elizabeth Rider, MD, MSW

(All course participants may attend)
Julie Silver, MD

Course Faculty

Boost the impact of your writing by having it critiqued by a healthcare publishing expert.

Workshop instructors will review a sample of your writing that you are invited to submit (this is optional) approximately one month prior to the course. During the workshop, the instructors lead small-group discussions—with no more than 10 attendees—about the strengths and opportunities for improvement in each participant's writing sample.

Not only will you receive valuable feedback on your own writing, but you will gain crucial insights from the discussion of your peers' writing. You are invited to participate even if you don't have a writing sample—the tips you get from the critiques of others' work make it well worth attending.

Note: While not required, most attendees participate in both Writers Workshops A & B. When enrolling for both of these evening workshops, you will be placed with different instructors to afford you access to different perspectives, skills development, and support to meet your writing and publishing goals.

Rusty Shelton

Julie Silver, MD

Advanced Workshops are optional 3-hour small group sessions focusing on higher-level publishing skills. You can customize your learning experience, choosing a workshop from among the following that aligns with your writing or publishing goals.
 

Social Media Bootcamp
Rusty Shelton

A special 3-hour immersive workshop for healthcare professionals who want a current understanding of the uses, career-building attributes, infrastructure, time requirements, benefits, and risks of social media. The velocity of communication is also examined—how you can garner attention in as little as one week. Take home resources to start or refine your social media infrastructure, including your website, blog, Twitter account, Facebook page, LinkedIn profile, Instagram, and Pinterest presence.

Writing a Winning Book Proposal
Martha Murphy or Lisa Tener, MS 

Led by award-winning authors and writing coaches, this 3-hour workshop will help you to start or develop your book proposal. Capture an editor's attention in the first few lines and develop each section in a sophisticated manner. Optimize the content, length, and approach of your book proposal while conveying your passion and staying true to your unique voice. 

Techniques to Maximize Creativity 
Shelley Carson, PhD

This special 3-hour workshop focuses on the writer's creative process and how this process can be enhanced to improve your work. The workshop leader, an expert in behavioral/neurocognitive approaches to creativity, will educate you about the specific brain activation states associated with creativity and how they engage when you are writing. Participants leave this workshop with specific techniques to enable them to maximize their creative efforts in their limited writing time and to avoid “writer’s block.”

Memoir Writing
John Hanc

This interactive 3-hour workshop delves into techniques of memoir writing and will help you to make your personal narrative stand out. The topics covered include, but are not limited to: the construction and value of narrative voice; the five essential ingredients of the first-person essay; how to read your own work as an editor would; and how research can bolster your writing.

Transforming Your Writing from Good to Great
Susan Aiello, DVM, ELS

This 3-hour skills development workshop helps you take your writing skills to the next level. Explore how word choice affects the precision and clarity of your writing and how misused words can compromise its credibility. Get professional advice on commonly cited rules of sentence structure that can be overlooked versus those that cannot. Leave this workshop with concrete ideas to improve your writing by identifying and correcting jargon, obfuscation, and verbosity.

How to Develop a Medical Podcast
Jeremy Samuel Faust, MD, MS and Lauren Westafer, DO, MPH

Podcasts have become an extremely popular medium for health care providers to educate their students, trainees, colleagues, and even their patients. In this 3-hour workshop, you will receive a step-by-step introduction in how to start your own successful podcast. You will learn what equipment you need, how to set up a basic website, and how to get your podcast to the listener's earbuds. You will also learn innovative and effective approaches to content creation and editing. By the conclusion of the workshop, you will be prepared to start your own podcast.

Advanced Social Media Skills to Build Your Professional Reputation
Dana Corriel, MD

This 3-hour advanced workshop is for participants who are already using social media and want to learn more about how to use it effectively and efficiently. Beyond the basics there are many opportunities to disseminate important health information and build your professional reputation. This workshop will focus on tools and strategies that can be used with various online communication platforms to bring your work to the right audience at the right time. Structured and interactive exercises will help you to focus on goals and create content. You will leave armed with a more sophisticated and dynamic social media tool box that you can use to support your work.