Ghostwriters Unite! Conference Features Dan Gerstein

Next weekend, ghostwriters from across the country will descend on Long Beach, CA for Ghostwriters Unite!, the first-ever conference of its kind, and Gotham President Dan Gerstein will be among the esteemed faculty.

The conference brings together ghostwriters and industry professionals to cover a wide range of creative and business topics, including client management, ethics, and much more. Panel sessions like "The Trust Issue," "Ghostwriting vs. Collaborating," and "Dealing with 'Crazy'" will prepare ghosts for just about anything they might encounter in the collaborative writing world.

Dan will be on hand to share insights from his years of experience running a successful ghostwriting firm. He'll also be a part of the "All-Star State of the Industry Panel" that wraps up the conference. Gotham writers John Kador and Sally Collings will be among the weekend's presenters as well.

This is a great opportunity for ghostwriters to talk shop, pick up tips from the top practitioners of the craft, and kibbitz with their fellow ghosts. Head over to Ghostwriters Unite! to learn more about the conference and register to go.

GG's Oriana Leckert Featured on Publishing Trends

We're proud to share a recent article from Publishing Trends, a site that examines the rapidly changing industry, which features advice from GG's Director of Operations, Oriana Leckert.

"How to Get Your Second Job in Publishing" surveys a variety of publishing professionals, discussing ways to move upward and onward as you navigate the early stages of your career. Oriana shared experiences from her own early days, describing a promotion as a result of her department's reorganization, which allowed her to show that she was capable and up to the challenge.

In addition to the feature article, sister site Publishing Trendsetters, the industry's gathering spot for young publishing pros, has excerpted and elaborated on quotes from the piece in "Your Next Job in Publishing: Sage Advice from Across the Industry."

"You may not realize the ways a job will help your career until later," Oriana says. "Think about ways to craft your narrative: how to tell the story of the work you've done and why. That way, even if it feels like you're taking a detour at the time, you can convince people later that you did it on purpose."

Around the Word

Spring Is Here! As the weather finally warms up after the seemingly endless winter, thoughts turn to sunny days in the park or at the beach with a good book. If you need help picking out your next read, Publishers Weekly has rounded up the most anticipated books of the season, including fiction, non-fiction, travel, and more. Book Riot also shares five new April releases that could make for the perfect outdoor read. Looking for a hilarious book to match that sunny good mood? The Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize nominees for the funniest book in Britain were announced this week. Or if you're stuck inside at work, perhaps these delightful pictures of outdoor libraries can tide you over until the weekend. Happy spring!

April Is for Poetry. National Poetry Month is in full swing, and there are so many ways to get inspired and participate. This year the Academy of American Poets is focusing on the role of letter writing in the lives of poets: their website is filled with examples of poets' love letters and poems read as letters. Flavorwire is celebrating with images of incredible handwritten poems by famous authors like F. Scott Fitzgerald and Emily Dickinson. For a more interactive experience, the Poetry Foundation has a Record-a-Poem feature on their site, which allows people to upload recordings of poems they love. Even the New York Times is getting in on the fun: a software architect at the paper created an algorithm that finds accidental haikus in articles! Still want more? The LA Times' Jacket Copy blog has compiled a number of fun projects, blogs, and events.

Oh, Big Brother. "Teacher Knows If You've Done the E-Reading" is a headline no procrastination-prone student wants to read, but there it was in the New York Times this week. A new startup, CourseSmart, allows professors to track students' reading in their digital textbooks. The major publishers have been tracking data from e-textbooks for years, but CourseSmart puts that data right in professors' hands, allowing them to see not only whether students are reading, but also if they skip pages, how often they open the book, and what they highlight. Is this a little too invasive? Although the professors interviewed were thrilled with the idea, students themselves jokingly bemoaned the "Big Brother" aspect of it. But as the article points out, people are growing accustomed to their data being mined at every turn. Just last summer we did a post on how companies like Barnes & Noble are harvesting data on reading habits from their e-readers. What do you think? Is this an invasion of privacy or just a smart new tool for the digital age? Tell us in the comments.

Congrats to the 2013 Cicero Speechwriting Awards Winners!

GG would like to wish a hearty congratulations to all the winners of this year's Cicero Speechwriting Awards. The annual ceremony—presented by Vital Speeches of the Day and the Executive Speaker—honored nearly 30 speechwriters for their work in many different categories, including public policy, energy, non-profit, economics and media.

Sarah Gray was the Grand Winner for "Lord, Please Let Me Provide for My Family: A Wounded Veteran's Story," a speech she wrote for veteran Neil Colomac. (Read the speech here.)

In addition, GG friends Hal Gordon, Nate Osburn, Paul Nuti, and John Barnes were honored at the event.

Gordon won in the technology category for "Getting to the Future Faster." Osburn's speech for the U.S. Commerce Secretary, "Make It in America," won in the economics category, and he also received an honorable mention for "A Path Forward for American Cars." Other honorable mentions included Nuti's "Convocation Keynote" and two energy sector speeches by Barnes, "The Energy Challenge" and "A Safer, Stronger BP: Our Quest to Earn Back America's Trust."

Click here (PDF) to see a full list of all the winners and to read their winning speeches.