Marla Miller
Hooking Readers
Editorial read & critique and social media strategies and discussion
Monday - Friday
1:00-3:30 PM
Terrace I
Aimed at all levels, fiction & non-fiction, this workshop cross-pollinates editorial work with marketing and social media strategies, to expand author platforms. Both are needed in the 21st century publishing reality. In all sessions, leader and participants will listen for reader hook-ability and social media rooted platform building ideas and strategies. Workshop attendees are to bring openings, 5–7 pages (fiction or narrative nonfiction) and book proposals – overview, introduction and sample chapter. Query letters for critiquing also welcomed.
Message to Students
Bring Passion for your work and ability to hear constructively delivered critiques. If it’s your first time at SBWC, my advice is: Enjoy!
Bio
MARLA MILLER, RN, MSN, is an author, freelance writer/editor & writing workshop leader. For years, she had a byline at O.C. Register’s lifestyle magazine before becoming founding editor-in-chief of an O.C. coastal lifestyle magazine. Her first book, All American Girls, the only authorized biography of World Cup/Gold Medal winning U.S Women’s National Soccer Team, was published by Simon & Schuster in 1999, second edition, 2000. Marla's publishing industry-oriented workshops, launched in 2003, were motivated by her recognition that most traditionally published authors receive little help from their publishers' marketing departments.
Two novels, both debuted in 2025:
SweetSpot: Now and Then, a fantasy/romance published by Austin Macauley Publishers.
Deadly Little Secrets, medical suspense set in 1985, published by MarketingtheMuse Publications.
Both novels available in paperback and eBook on several bookstore shelves including Amazon and Waterstones Bookstores UK.
Marla brings her experiences with all publishing platforms, traditional, hybrid and indie/self-publishing, to workshops she delivers at writing conferences, on ZOOM, at the Newport Beach Senior Center, the N.B. Public Library and Saddleback College in Orange County Ca.
Marla loves interviewing authors and has done so for years. Her latest, Marla Miller Talks to Authors & Content Creators (in the beta podcast stage) can found on her YouTube channel.
She is a developmental editor whose interests include fiction projects that lean into medical mystery, suspense and women's fiction. In nonfiction, she edits book proposals, sports, mental health and memoirs. For information, marketingthemuse@gmail.com.
Her association with SBWC began in 1990. In 2003, she began delivering workshops. In all these years, Marla has not missed one SBWC. See you all in June!
@writersmama
Writing Tip I Live By
Writing is rewriting.
Recommended Authors
Ray Carver, Anne Sexton, Suzanna Moore, Barnaby Conrad, James Ellroy, and Ann Lamott for inspiration.
