HippoCamp Minis: Publishing & Promotion – 5 CNF Topics in a Flash (2025)

In a world in which publications fold on the regular and social media platforms come and go (RIP Twitter), an email newsletter remains one of the best ways to reach readers. But do you REALLY need to bother with all that? And if you do, well… what should it even BE? What does one even put into a newsletter? How does one build a newsletter that serves their writing life on both a personal and a professional level?

In this flash session, you’ll learn:

• why producing a newsletter is totally worth your time
• what to write about in your newsletter
• best practices for building a readership
• …and whatever the heck else we can manage to fit into 10 minutes

About the speaker: Steph Auteri, our essays editor, has written for everyone from the Atlantic, Pacific Standard, and Rewire News Group to Poets & Writers, Creative Nonfiction, and Cutleaf Journal. But one of her favorite things to write is her email newsletter, Thunder Thighs, which has been going out to subscribers for god knows how long. She also launched a side newsletter, Guerrilla Sex Ed, and has written email campaigns for a number of clients. Learn more at stephauteri.com.

Getting the word out about a new book can be daunting, but leveraging local news outlets can help. There are still many community-focused journalists hungry for stories, and sending the right pitch at the right time can benefit both the author and the journalist.

In this flash session, focused on pitching books to journalists, Hippocampus Magazine Articles Editor Molly Bilinski shares strategies and tips for authors seeking local news coverage.

During this session, participants will learn how to:

• Identify the local news writers they can pitch their books to
• Capture the attention of local journalists through timing and positioning
• Draft a pitch email to local journalists

Attendees will leave the session with a better understanding of the local media landscape, as well as how to pitch their book to local journalists for coverage.

About the speaker: Molly Bilinski is an award-winning journalist and storyteller based in Monroe County, Pa. The environment and science reporter for LehighValleyNews.com, her bylines have also appeared in the Reading Eagle, The Press of Atlantic City and The Morning Call. She holds a masters of fine arts in creative nonfiction from Wilkes University’s Maslow Family Graduate Program in Creative Writing. A member of the Society of Environmental Journalists and Kutztown University’s English Advisory Board, she also serves as Hippocampus Magazine’s articles editor.

Some writers are introverts, some are not. Introverts and extroverts alike may crave the community and support of other writers, but don’t always know how to find their people.

This session will highlight

• the benefits of being part of a writing community
• the different kinds of writing communities
• how to find or create a writing community

About the speaker: Jamie Beth Cohen writes fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry. Her words have appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, Hippocampus Magazine, and many other outlets. Wasted Pretty, her debut novel, was published in 2019 and its sequel, Liminal Summer came out in 2021. Jamie enjoys coaching new writers and has been mentoring an award-winning incarcerated journalist for the past five years. In 2015, Jamie co-founded Write Now Lancaster, a monthly writing meet-up. She’s a proud extroverted writer who believes much of what she has accomplished with words is thanks to her community.

Speaker and session details coming soon.

Session details coming soon.

About the speaker: Donna Talarico is founder/publisher of Hippocampus Magazine. By day, she’s a content strategist in higher education.