In this session, William Bernhardt, the author of more than fifty books and founder of the Red Sneaker Writers Center reveals the secrets he has learned over more than thirty years of writing and publishing. Today's publishers, large and small, are buying series books in greater quantities than ever before. Why are series characters so popular now? How can you create a character whose popularity leads you to not simply publishing a single book but building a writing career?

Recent history shows you are more likely to find an agent and publishers if you can offer them a potential series, that is, multiple connected books that could generate sales over a long period of time. But that requires creating a protagonist and a world with enough interest and appeal to sustain many stories. In this session, Bernhardt will discuss:

• How to give your series character multiple layers of interest;
• How to create a "reliable meddler;"
• How to balance quirk with convention;
• How to employ both character and characterization; and
• How to create the character in your heart but also build in appeal for your readers.

Speaker Bio

William Bernhardt is the bestselling author of more than forty books, including the blockbuster Ben Kincaid series of novels, the historical novel Nemesis: The Final Case of Eliot Ness, currently being adapted into an NBC miniseries, a book of poetry (The White Bird), and a series of books on fiction writing. In addition, Bernhardt founded the Red Sneaker Writing Center, hosting writing workshops and small-group seminars and becoming one of the most in-demand writing instructors in the nation. His monthly eBlast, The Red Sneaker Writers Newsletter, reaches over twenty thousand people.

Bernhardt is the only writer to have received the Southern Writers Guild's Gold Medal Award, the Royden B. Davis Distinguished Author Award (University of Pennsylvania) and the H. Louise Cobb Distinguished Author Award (Oklahoma State), which is given "in recognition of an outstanding body of work that has profoundly influenced the way in which we understand ourselves and American society at large." In addition to his novels, he has written plays, a musical (book and music), humor, nonfiction, children books, biography, poetry, and puzzles.

A former trial attorney, Bernhardt has received several awards for his pro bono work and public service. In 1994, Barrister Magazine named him one of the top 25 young lawyers in America.

In his spare time, he has enjoyed surfing, digging for dinosaurs, trekking through the Himalayas, paragliding, scuba diving, caving, zip-lining over the canopy of the Costa Rican rain forest, jumping out of an airplane at 10,000 feet, and in 2013, becoming a Jeopardy champion. OSU named him "Oklahoma's Renaissance Man".

He lives in Oklahoma with his wife Lara and their children.