LinkedIn for Authors
Thursday, March 26 at 12 pm PDT
A FREE Virtual Event
Unable to attend? No worries. Register anyway and receive the replay!
On March 26, join the Women’s National Book Association – San Francisco Chapter for a LinkedIn for Authors Lunch N Learn — a strategic conversation about using LinkedIn to grow your visibility, authority, and publishing opportunities.
Featuring Debra Eckerling, Jim Lauria, and Randy Peyser, this session will explore how LinkedIn can help you:
- Demonstrate expertise in your subject area
- Grow a professional audience aligned with your book
- Create momentum that supports proposals, pitches, and platform
- Build credibility before your book launches
- Attract agents, editors, podcasters, and collaborators
LinkedIn is one of the most powerful visibility tools available to nonfiction authors and thought leaders. When used intentionally, it becomes a relationship-building engine that supports your long-term publishing goals.
No matter what your stage in the publishing process, you’ll leave with practical strategies you can implement immediately.
Debra Eckerling is a goal strategist, author, and book proposal expert who helps writers transform their ideas into sellable book proposals. The founder of The DEB Method for goal-setting simplified, Debra specializes in guiding clients from concept to proposal with clarity, confidence, and direction. Debra is the author of Your Goal Guide: A Roadmap for Setting, Planning and Achieving Your Goals and 52 Secrets for Goal-Setting and Goal-Getting, and hosts The Book Proposal Podcast and Book Proposals Simplified on Substack. She is also a regular contributor to and speaker for WritersDigest.com. Learn more at TheBookProposalExpert.com a
Jim Lauria is an international business executive, author, and water industry thought leader who has been an active LinkedIn member since 2004, building a community of over 12,000 followers and 4,500 subscribers to his LinkedIn newsletter To Know Water Is to Love Water. A chemical engineer by training, Jim has leveraged LinkedIn to establish himself as a leading voice in the water space publishing feature and cover articles for top industry publications, co-hosting the podcast Water We Talking About?, reviewing 75+ water books, and posting a daily water quote for over 500 consecutive days. He is also the author of How to Get Your Money Back From Big Companies and has used LinkedIn strategically to attract consulting clients, speaking engagements, and collaborations across the global water sector. Jim lives in Napa, California, and looks forward to sharing the practical LinkedIn strategies that have fueled his publishing and professional journey. Connect with him at linkedin.com/in/jimlauria.
Randy Peyser edits and ghostwrites books and gets authors book deals with literary agents and publishers. Her clients have been featured on Hallmark TV and Daily Mail TV, in Oprah, Cosmo and TIME Magazines, on the Wall Street Journal and USA Today Bestseller Lists, in airport bookstores and FedEx/Office and Office Max stores. She is the author of Crappy to Happy as featured in the movie, “Eat Pray Love”; The Power of Miracle Thinking; and The Write-a-Book Program. www.AuthorOneStop.com
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Brenda Knight, author of Women of the Beat Generation, began her publishing career at HarperCollins working with luminaries including Paolo Coehlo, Marianne Williamson, Mark Nepo, and His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Knight was awarded IndieFab’s Publisher of the Year at the American Library Association in 2014. She is the author of Random Acts of Kindness, Be a Good in the World, and Women of the Beat Generation which won the American Book Award. She is President of WNBA-SF Chapter.
Kate Farrell, author, storyteller, and educator founded the Word Weaving Storytelling Project and published numerous educational materials on storytelling. She has contributed to and edited award-winning anthologies of personal narrative. Her award-winning new book is a how-to guide on the art of storytelling for adults, Story Power: Secrets to Creating, Crafting, and Telling Memorable Stories. She offers workshops on storytelling and the heroine’s journey for libraries and writing groups 
Debra Eckerling is The Book Proposal Expert, a book proposal specialist who helps authors clarify their message, develop their content, and craft proposals that get noticed. She is the author of Your Goal Guide and 52 Secrets for Goal-Setting and Goal-Getting, host of GoalChat and the Book Proposal Podcast, and the creator of The DEB Method for goal-setting simplified. Debra has spent years helping writers, entrepreneurs, and experts turn their ideas into compelling book plans that get noticed by agents and publishers. Learn more at 
Judy M. Baker is the creator of the Buzzworthy Book Experience. She has coached hundreds of authors, guiding them from “where do I start” to “how do I make money from my books?” since 2011. “Marketing is a conversation and everyone is in sales” are lessons she learned when working with wine pioneer Robert Mondavi. Presentations to the Bay Area Independent Publishers Association, Redwood Writers, Napa Valley Writers, Women’s National Book Association, and the Bay Area Consultants Networks have earned praise. Judy wrote and self-published her first book at 16. Her stories and poetry appear in anthologies from CWC Press, Redwood Writers Press, and Napa Valley Writers. Judy is Immediate Past President of Redwood Writers, the largest chapter of the California Writers Clubs. She also served as president of the Bay Area Independent Publishers Association.
Paul S. Levine “wears two hats:” he is a lawyer (www.paulslevine.com) and a literary agent (www.paulslevinelit.com). Mr. Levine has practiced entertainment law for more than 40 years and established his first solo practice in 1992. Seeing an underserved niche on the West Coast, he decided early on to focus on serving book authors. Seeking to expand the range of services he could offer his clients to include the representation of books, Levine opened The Paul S. Levine Literary Agency in 1996, which he has recently expanded. With a preference for politically and socially important works, he represents more than 200 book authors, the vast majority of whom are new, unpublished, or self-published writers. For Levine, the most rewarding moment is holding his client’s published book in his hands at a well-attended book signing and seeing the smile on his client’s face. Enjoying public speaking and teaching, Levine presents extensively at writers’ conferences throughout the country and at entertainment law-related classes and seminars.
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Chef Rossi is the director, owner, and executive chef of “The Raging Skillet,” a cutting-edge catering company known for breaking any and all rules. She penned the memoirs, The Raging Skillet and The Punk Rock Queen of the Jews, and has also written two full-length plays, a number of one-act comedies, and a one-woman stage adaptation of The Punk Rock Queen of the Jews. She hosts the Raging and Eating podcast. 
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