Meet Our Faculty

Connie Anderson has owned Words & Deeds, Inc., writing and editing for businesses since 1984. Her clients are small business owners for whom she immerses herself into their business so she can anticipate how they want to project the who, what and why of their business.

In the past several years, Connie has edited over 20 book manuscripts for self-published authors who wrote about their business hobby, work, special interests, passion, poetry, and even a couple novels.

She is also one of the lead interviews for Armchair Interviews. Launched in 2005, Armchair Interviews welcomes you to a fun, convenient way to access your favorite author or learn more about those who write in a specific genre.

Connie loves to read business, non-fiction, public affairs, how to, self-help, bios/autobiographies and general fiction. She also enjoys reading about the generational issues that affect everything we do, say and feel.

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Stacy Brice Stacy Brice is a professional business coach, and founder of AssistU--the premier organization committed to training, professionally coaching, supporting, and certifying Virtual Assistants, and providing referrals to those clients who want to work with them. As a pioneer of the Virtual Assistance profession, and the founder of the leading Virtual Assistance organization, Stacy loves her role as advocate, and works tirelessly to blaze a trail for all those interested in this new way of working.

An exceptionally talented partner to professionals, entrepreneurs and small business owners, Stacy is passionate about supporting others in the building of financially sound businesses and the creation of high quality lives. It's this passion that led her to create AssistU, a "virtual university" and the first members’ association/community for VAs.

She has created a strong and successful community at AssistU, helped foster community in America Online's Community Leader Association, and is a past member of the Board of Directors of Women's U, the first virtual educational community created by, for and about contemporary women. She carries her passion for community further today by teaching and consulting with women who want to build and foster their own successful online communities and continuity programs.

Additionally, Stacy is a widely recognized expert in the field of Virtual Officing, and Virtual Relationships, is the Virtual Office columnist for OfficePRO magazine, the official Guide to Virtual Assistance for SelfGrowth.com, the foundations and virtual work expert for the International Association of Solopreneurs, and was recently named one of the Top 50 Tweeple to Follow on Twitter.

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Joanna Brody has been in public relations since 1985, and had her own agency for over a decade. Known as an agency with a conscience, Brody Public Relations is a full service firm that specializes in the promotion of causes and issues. Ms. Brody has designed and promoted successful public relations campaigns for businesses, entrepreneurs and nonprofit organizations in the areas of public health, business management, public safety and emergency management, environmental education and crisis communications.

Her clients have included the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO), the National Foundation of Women Business Owners, the Forensic Expert Witness Association, the International Association of Professional Security Consultants, Korn/Ferry International, DDB Advertising, Nexell Therapeutics and Reno Air. In addition, Ms. Brody works with authors on book promotion including business and self-help books, biographies and fiction. She supplements the publicity departments of publishers and assists self-published authors with book tours and publicity.

Ms. Brody has been honored by the Publicity Club of Los Angeles, the Communicators Award for Excellence and the Small Business Administration, and serves on the board of KeyFinesse Magazine. She earned an M.A. in Communications Management from the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California, and a B.A. from U.C. Berkeley.

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Stephanie Chandler
www.BusinessInfoGuide.com
www.StephanieChandler.com

Stephanie Chandler is an author of several books including The Author’s Guide to Building an Online Platform: Leveraging the Internet to Sell More Books and From Entrepreneur to Infopreneur: Make Money with Books, eBooks and Information Products.Discover hundreds of resources for entrepreneurs, authors and speakers at www.BusinessInfoGuide.com. For author and speaker details visit www.StephanieChandler.com.

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Bobbie Christmas founded Zebra Communications, a firm that specializes in editing books and magazines in 1992 after spending more than 30 years as a professional writer and editor in the corporate world. Union Square Publishing released her textbook on creative writing, Write In Style, in 2004, and it won three awards. Because she diagnoses and cures ailing manuscripts, some people refer to her as a book doctor. Her syndicated "Ask the Book Doctor" column appears in almost two dozen periodicals and Web sites. She makes her living with words, something many people simply dream of doing.

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Donna Cutting is the author of The Celebrity Experience: Insider Secrets to Delivering Red-Carpet Customer Service (Wiley, 2008). The CEO of Donna Cutting Presents, she is a full time keynote speaker on the topics of red-carpet customer service and employee engagement. Donna and her team also provide training programs, train the trainer, training tools, and a variety of products and services related to red-carpet customer service.

Cutting and The Celebrity Experience have been seen on ABC's America This Morning, Chicago Channel 7, and a variety of television and radio media. She has been quoted and/or published in Investor's Business Daily, CNN Money.com, and numerous national, regional, and trade presentations.

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Candace Davenport is the Co-Founder and current Publishing Consultant at Our Little Books, a company that specializes in publishing little 4"x5.5" books for authors either as a personal book or as a marketing tool for their business. Our Little Books takes an author from idea to end product, helping them throughout the process and providing them with all the services need to develop their little book.

Candace is the author of The Little Book of Identity Theft, a little book which actually started the Our Little Books company. After continually being told that she couldn't publish her book in the form and look she wanted, Candace, with her Co-founder Julia Lindsey, decided that they would just do it themselves. Thus, Our Little Books was formed! Knowing the frustration of being told no, Candace now works to get authors the look and feel of what they want in a little book. She has also written The 30 Day Companion Journal, and is a frequent blogger.

Prior to Our Little Books, Candace spent 33 years as an attorney, with writing being her specialty. She frequently lectures on identity theft protection to individuals and companies. In her spare time during migration season, she traps and bands raptors as her passion.

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Angela Dion is the owner of Dion Communications, LLC. She is a successful author, motivational speaker, writing coach and teacher. Angela published her first nonfiction magazine article in 1999. Since then she’s published more than 200 articles in over 75 different magazines, online publications, newspapers and newsletters.

Her first book Dear Son: Letters from a Birth Mother is a collection of letters she wrote to the son she placed for adoption in 1980. Her latest book is entitled Let’s Talk about Race. Additionally she has written three workbooks with audio CDs for writers: Nine Steps to Successful Nonfiction Magazine Writing, Nonfiction Christian Writing, and Write, Publish, Market and Sell Your Nonfiction Book.

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Kevin Eikenberry, is an expert on team and leadership development and the Chief Potential Officer of The Kevin Eikenberry Group.

He has spent the last 16 years helping organizations all across North America on leadership, learning, teams and teamwork, creativity, and more. His client list includes: Aramark, the American Red Cross, Chevron, Chevron Phillips Chemical Company, John Deere, Purdue University, Sears Canada, Southwest Airlines, TriHealth, the U.S. Marine Corps, the U.S. Mint, Verizon, and many more.

He is a frequent presenter at professional conferences and a sought after keynote speaker. He currently serves on two Boards of Directors in order to contribute, hone his leadership skills and add an additional dimension to his experiences.

He is the author of the bestselling books Remarkable Leadership and Vantagepoints on Learning and Life, and a contributing author to over 20 other books. He publishes three electronic newsletters, a magazine, and two popular blogs collectively read by over 40,000 people worldwide.

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Christine Frank shepherds books for micropublishers, university presses, entrepreneurs, and associations, on topics as diverse as local sports history, defense industry, surgical specialties, and materials engineering. This represents clients in Sweden, Ireland, Brazil, China, Nigeria, and more.

While shepherding includes a bundle of services—and associates—aimed at getting a book to press and in the hands of readers, the firm began as Editing & Indexing in 1997. Editing and indexing remains the mainstay and delight of the organization.

Indexing topics so far includes travel, IT, medicine, geology, history, biography, and spiritual, and Christine and associates have edited those topics along with environmental engineering, business, self-help, and fiction. She is particularly interested in scholarly, scientific, and social history topics.

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What she thought would just be a sideline, teaching the writing intensive course, Writing Essentials Program, became the foundation of Write Well U and entire company birthed around the beauty of writing and words. With two other classes she's developed on creativity and a strong writing voice, along with her writing coaching practice, she helps authors tap into their passion and convey their message to the world - with power and authenticity.

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Author, writer, blogger, independent editor, writing process coach, and marketing communications consultant, Meredith Gould has trade nonfiction titles published by both a major (Doubleday) house and independents (Storey Books, Hazelden, Morehouse). Her self-published title (Plowshares Publishing) was an IPPY Award finalist for excellence in independent publishing.

Writing credits include articles and business-to-consumer pieces in print and electronic media. An expert in and survivor of the publishing process, Meredith is committed to helping clients define success and then telling the truth about how to succeed. She’s known for her lively good humor and steady sense of the absurd, especially when it comes to writing and publishing.

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Tanya Hall is a seasoned media veteran, recognized in the fields of business development, distribution and publishing. In her current role, Tanya drives Greenleaf’s business development efforts, working with authors to develop their publishing programs and developing strategic partnerships to grow Greenleaf’s reputation as a leading independent publisher. Prior to her current role, she built Greenleaf's distribution organization, working directly with retailers and wholesalers to develop one of the fastest growing distribution businesses in the industry.

Before joining the publishing industry, Tanya worked as a television producer for Extra! and E! Cable Networks.  Tanya regularly speaks at various events, including the Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA) Publishing University, AuthorSmart, and the Publishing Business Expo.

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Deltina Hay is the founder of Social Media Power, a Web 2.0 development and consulting firm and Dalton Publishing, a literary press based in Austin, Texas. She has been programming and doing Web development in one form or another for 25 years. Her love of media and publishing, coupled with her passion for open source programming led her naturally to social media and Web 2.0 consulting. Ms. Hay created Social Media Power to offer ways for entrepreneurs, small businesses, authors, and publishers to greatly improve their own Web presence using social media and Web 2.0 tools and technologies.

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Jennifer Heinly is the President of J&J Consulting, a firm which has been in the book publicity arena for over ten years and implemented programs for several dozen authors and publishers. She has over 25 years of public relations experience as well as being one of only a handful of public relations practitioners with an MBA.J&J Consulting’s book clients have received media attention in the following print and broadcast media outlets: USA Today, Money Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, CNN, CNBC. Fox News Channel, and many others. Heinly was recently selected to teach for the University of California, Irvine's online PR certificate program.

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Andrea Hurst is the President of Andrea Hurst Literary Management, and her client list includes emerging new voices and NY Times best-selling authors such as Dr. Bernie Siegel, Jean Michel Cousteau, and Maureen Murdock. The agency represents high profile adult nonfiction and well crafted fiction. In addition to working in the publishing field for over 20 years, Andrea is a published author, skilled acquisition and development editor, speaker, and literary judge for writers' conferences.

She earned a BA degree in Expressive Arts with a focus in creative writing, and currently teaches for the Whidbey Writers Workshop MFA Program and various venues throughout the US. Her areas of expertise include sales, promotion, packaging and production in the publishing and entertainment fields.

Andrea offers professional insight into the business and works with motivated authors to edit, polish, and perfect their proposal and manuscript. She enjoys working with authors who have something worthwhile to share and are driven by their enthusiasm and desire to create books that touch lives and make a difference.

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Annie Jennings of the National PR firm, Annie Jennings PR, is a National Publicist specializing in promoting authors and experts to the media. Annie’s vision and insight has revolutionized the publicity industry, as many of the publicity techniques, tools and strategies in widespread use throughout the industry today have been developed by Annie Jennings PR.

Annie Jennings has been an invited guest lecturer for NYU’s Publishing Program and for the American Society Of Journalists & Authors. Annie Jennings PR has provided over 500 smash-hit publicity teleseminars for consistent standing-room audiences, reaching hundreds of thousands of author and experts. Annie Jennings is the premier publicity expert in the country with her knowledge sought out by professionals and organizations everywhere.

Annie Jennings PR has over 25,000 authors experts signed up with her company, and every morning Annie and her staff has but one thing to say: “Let’s Kick It Up A Notch Today!”

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Wayne Kelly is the founder of On-Air Publicity, teaching Authors, Speakers and Coaches to create spectacular radio publicity campaigns. His clients from around the world no longer fear the media, but use it to share messages with millions of listeners. Wayne started his radio career while still in high school. He spent the early 90s as a producer and host for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

In 1997 he moved into Top 40 radio, taking his entertaining personality and natural enthusiasm to an entirely new level. He has been recognized locally and nationally with many top radio awards including a BCAB for the pick as the "big radio star" of tomorrow, and a Canadian Association of Broadcasters award for Community service. Wayne still dominates the airwaves with his popular radio morning show The Wayne and Jayne Show on KBS Radio in BC, Canada.

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Mark Levine co-founded Click Industries in 2000 and developed the concepts for all of the company’s web sites. Mark is a 1989 graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he doubled majored in political science and journalism. He graduated from Georgetown University Law Center in 1992 and practiced corporate, entertainment, and intellectual property law for nine years.

His recent book, The Fine Print of Self-Publishing, has been lauded by many experts as the Consumer Reports of the self-publishing industry. This book has helped thousands of authors choose the right self-publishing company and avoid the ones with unfair contracts or low-quality services. The Fine Print of Self-Publishing analyzes and critiques the contracts and services of the top 48 self-publishing companies. Additionally, the book educates authors on how to decipher the legalese in self-publishing contracts. As a result, many authors have been able to intelligently negotiate their own book contracts without having to hire a lawyer.

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Laurel Marshfield has been a professional writer and editor for over twenty-five years, and she is the owner of Blue Horizon Communications, an editorial services company specializing exclusively in book manuscripts and proposals.

Laurel works with authors of nonfiction, fiction, memoir, and biography to prepare their manuscripts for publication -- by offering a complete range of editorial services: coaching, manuscript evaluation, substantive and developmental editing, co-authorship, ghostwriting, and author website copywriting.

Her blog for authors and writers --Your Book Your Self -- offers inspiration and information about the journey of authorship.

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Gail Z. Martin an author, entrepreneur and educator.  She owns DreamSpinner Communications and is your "Get Results Resource" for marketing strategies that work. 

Gail specializes in helping coaches, consultants, authors and solopreneurs get marketing results. Her teleseminars share powerful marketing techniques for growing businesses and her nonfiction articles have been featured in over 40 regional and national magazines.  She is also the host of the Shared Dreams Marketing Podcast and the Ghost in the Machine Author Podcast.   

Her newest non-fiction books are The Thrifty Author's Guide to Launching Your Book (Without Losing Your Mind), from Comfort Publishing and Social Media Means Business: The 30 Day Results Guide to Making the Most of Twitter, Blogging, LinkedIn and Facebook from Career Press. Gail is also the author of the Solopreneur Survival Guide home study course and resource kits online.  She also offers three e-books (154 Power-Packed PR and Marketing Tips, Webinar Marketing and Passion, Profit and Partnership: Entrepreneur Success Strategies). In addition to her marketing career, Gail is the author of the bestselling Chronicles of the Necromancer fantasy adventure series (The Summoner, The Blood King, Dark Haven, and Dark Lady's Chosen published by Solaris Books and distributed by Simon & Schuster, and The Fallen Kings Cycle (Book One: The Sworn—coming in 2011) from Orbit Books. Her short stories have been featured in two anthologies: Rum and Runestones from Dragon Moon Press and The Bitten Word, from New Con Press. (England).

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Barbara McNichol knows how to add power to the pen! She specializes in editing nonfiction books, one-sheets, and articles for authors and speakers. She is the creator of Word Trippers: The Ultimate Source for Using the Perfect Word When It Really Matters. Barbara also offers an ezine called Word Tripper of the Week complete with bonuses and techniques for better writing.

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Rosemary O'Brien is a novelist and owner of A Word or Two, LLC, a writing services business that caters to businesses and individuals. AWT provides manuscript consultation, website copy, public relations services and copy for a variety of industries. She has been a writer for over 15 years and her first novel, First Saturday, was published in 2002 to a great response. Her goal is to write novels that provide her readers with a good read. She wants to keep them up at night because they simply cannot put the book down.

Her articles have appeared in Military Spouse Magazine, Log Home Design Ideas, and is one of the authors featured in Dare To Be Published! 50 Authors Help You Write, Market & Publish in the New Century. Her out-of-the-box marketing and publicity ideas have helped her develop her writing business through many moves during her time as a military spouse. She continues to enjoy teaching other writers how to make an excellent living doing what they love - writing. "Quite simply, I make a living doing what I love."

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Kim Pearson is an author, ghostwriter, editor and writing coach. She is the owner of Primary Sources, a writing service dedicated to helping other people become authors of polished, professional, and compelling books and articles.  Kim teaches workshops and teleclasses on writing, history, and ghostwriting, which have gathered high praise and recognition. 

Kim is the author of three books of fiction, two books of poetry, and two non-fiction works: Making History: How to Remember, Record, Interpret and Share the Events of Your Life, and You Can Be an Author, Even if You're Not a Writer.  In addition she has ghostwritten or edited over 40 books and numerous articles, telling the stories of a wide variety of people and covering a broad range of topics.

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Dawn Putney is co-owner and operator of Toolbox Creative, a marketing and communications firm founded on the belief that good design is good business.

With her first “real job” as an advertising typesetter, Dawn developed her passion for the printed word and attention to detail. Before moving to Colorado, Dawn worked with some of the largest advertising agencies in Minneapolis. But it was her experience with some of the smaller agencies in town that helped her focus her attentions on design as a marketing strategy. In 25 years as a graphic designer and marketing professional, Dawn has created award-winning designs and compelling, effective marketing campaigns.

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Karen Reddick MVA, MVAA, is the author of The A-Z Guide: The Best Ways To Work With A VA and Grammar Done Right! Karen has more than 30 years of administrative experience, the last nine as a successful virtual assistant and editor.

Karen is a Master Virtual Assistant, a designation given to VAs in the top of their industry was also the first VA to achieve the designation of Master Virtual Author’s Assistant. She is the only virtual assistant to be showcased on the NBC Today Show. Karen owns V-And-E-Services and The Red Pen Editor, providing author assistance and editorial services to authors, writers, and publishers. She offers a weekly Grammar Tips newsletter and podcast, which can be found on iTunes.

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Terry Roberts is the founder and CEO of Multiple Streams Marketing, Inc. which offers incentive marketing services for authors and publishers through www.AuthorsAnswer.com and www.IncentiveBooks.com.

Terry is a 30-year veteran entrepreneur and marketing executive, including positions as President, Sorensen Roberts & Hansen Advertising; VP, Marketing Services - Kelly-Nason Advertising in Los Angeles; and VP of Communities - Classmates Online Inc.

A small sampling of his client experience includes Procter & Gamble, Kimberly Clark, NASDAQ, Paramount Studios, Arm & Hammer and Microsoft.

Terry created AuthorsAnswer.com and IncentiveBooks.com after working for two years with Rosetta Solutions, a digital-publishing technology company. With Rosetta Solutions, he had the opportunity to observe authors struggling with the challenges of the traditional book publishing and marketing process. Having planned and supervised dozens of promotion and incentive programs for clients throughout his career, it became his passion to turn authors onto the possibilities of selling large quantities of books to organizations for incentive programs.

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Jeniffer Thompson brings more than ten years of publishing experience to her current position as President of Monkey C Media, a full-service design house offering web and print services. Monkey C Media is known for their innovative designs and unparalleled website creation and makeover programs. Her highly anticipated book: Website WOW: Turn Your Website Into Your Most Powerful Marketing Tool is now available.

As a specialist in website and marketing strategies, Mrs. Thompson is a regular contributor to Dan Poynter's and The Author Marketing Expert newsletter; she also offers the popular seminar series Website WOW and co-hosts Striking Internet Gold.

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As the owner of the independent small press Alexemi Publishing, Cheryl Wilder Krass works with self-publishing authors to help make their book dreams come true. Cheryl is passionate about publishing and guides authors through the self-publishing process every step of the way; from book development, to publishing, to the creation and the execution of their book marketing plan.

Cheryl has over 20-years experience in marketing, PR and print production (both traditional and digital). In addition to her Virtual Author's Assistant certification, Cheryl is also the self-published author of The Mommy Orphanage, a children's book about international adoption. Her new book Author by Chance: Self-Publishing Guide for the Accidental Author will be available in early 2010.

Alexemi Publishing provides a range of services for authors from Virtual Author's Assistance, Self-Publishing and Book-Marketing Consulting services, and complete Self-Publishing packages. At Alexemi, books get real!

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