Workshops & Training

Hélèna Katz offers a number of workshops and online courses.

Marketing Yourself as a Freelance Writer
Ever wonder why some people always seem to have work while others are perpetually sitting by the phone like a teenager waiting for a prom date? It’s all in the marketing. During this session, a reformed introvert will teach you how to market yourself and shape pitches for newspapers and magazines.

The Query Clinic
Do you have queries that need some major surgery or perhaps just a little tune-up? Are you still puzzled why your pitches lack the zing to get magazine and newspaper editors excited? Come to the Query Clinic for a virtual visit. During this program you will receive a primer on finding story ideas, learn how to write queries that sing, review the most common mistakes writers make and have three of your queries examined and diagnosed by a seasoned and award-winning journalist.

The Recycling Centre
Let’s face it. The most labour-intensive part of the writing process isn’t the writing? It’s the research. Learn how recycling can improve your bottom line. This workshop will teach participants how to create different angles from a single topic, mine their research to create multiple stories, and discuss different ways to recycle stories and research. Hélèna Katz regularly recycles because she hates seeing perfectly good research go to waste. She once sold the same story four times - until she got distracted by another idea.

The Story Market: Making Your Story Count
Journalists are inundated with news releases and invitations to participate in press trips. How do they decide what to cover and where to go? Editors increasingly want articles that tell a story. Learn how to make your story count by thinking like a journalist. This workshop will discuss how to find and develop story angles, ways to communicate them effectively, strategies to get tourism operators thinking in terms of stories instead of products and how to organize press trip itineraries that will inspire participation and coverage.

Building the Volunteer Village: Volunteer Recruitment and Retention
Why are some organizations crawling with volunteers while others are virtually deserted? Learn effective ways to recruit, train and— most importantly— retain volunteers.

• Editors’ Association of Canada, Montreal
• Media Club of Ottawa
• Periodical Writers’ Association of Canada,
  Montreal and New Brunswick chapters
• Quebec Writers Federation, Montreal
• Travel Media Association of Canada conference, St. John’s, NF
• Vanier College, Montreal
• YMCA, Montreal