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As for other Talkbackers, there was no sign of a secret handshake, a Webbo hat or the likes because no-one mentioned Talkback to me. Oh well, maybe another day!!
Been MIA for a while as have been away at the conference. Jay, saw your books and thought they were very well done. Writeman, I must have seen you but I can't remember!
There were so many people and so much to do.
I promised I would give some feedback on the conference, so here goes:
I went there with two aims in mind:
1. Can anyone read and enjoy my writing?
2. Tips, advice and anecdotes on how to make my best pitch to an agent or a publisher.
I have to say, I managed to get everything I needed from the conference! Well, not everything ... would have been nice to walk away with a contract with an agent :)
There were mini-courses, workshops, lectures and one-to-one meetings with agents, publishers, editors and writers. The majority of the stuff was aimed at mainstream fiction, though there were a few events aimed at specific genres like romance, crime, etc. Saying that, there were a lot of events for children fiction.
To give you an example of what you can do there, I'll give you a run down of what I did:
1. Friday Mini Course: Is there a book in you? by Alison Baverstock, former publisher and now author of books about the publishing industry and marketing. She has just published a book by the same title of the course and basically went through the major points. There were ten of them and we had a lot of lively discussion. (Groups can range from 5 people to 25, ours was 8)
2. Friday evening/Sunday morning Workshop: How to get published, by Laura Longrigg, former editor and now one of the directors of the MBA literary agency in London, and Cathy Woodman, former vet and now author. We had to submit work in advance for this (synopsis, first chapter). The workshop concentrated on writing a good synopsis (for e.g, our first task was to summarise our book in one paragraph, make it interesting and read it out to the 30 people in the workshop) and also writing a good submission letter. Our submitted work and workshop exercises were then individually critiqued. Being a non fantasy reader, Woodman said she really enjoyed my stuff. Longrigg gave me lots of tips for my letter and also the name of the agent in her agency that deals with fantasy work.
3. Saturday Lecture: Synopsis the dreaded word, by Jeannie Johnson, author. Useful tips about writing synopses and query letter; she also showed us one of her own to give us an idea.
4. Saturday Lecture: Give yourself the best chance to get published, by Angela Arney, author. Was mainly about structuring your novel, character, plot, synopsis and lots of useful tips.
5. Saturday Lecture: How to appeal to a literary agent, by Lucie Whitehouse, agent for Darley Anderson Agency. Giving in bullet points were useful advice on how to best pitch yourself and what tools to use to achieve this.
6. One-to-one (15 mins chat) with Alison Baverstock, former publisher and writer. You send work in advance for all the one-to-ones. In this case, I sent in first three chapters and a cover letter. Again, like Woodman, she was not into fantasy but enjoyed reading it. She said my work stood out clearly from the other works that had been submitted and she thought I can get places with it. Also said I would be easily promotable. Gave useful tips on my manuscript and said to submit.
7. One-to-one with Heather Holden-Brown, former editor and now agent. Sent in first chapter, synopsis and pitch letter. Again, not a fantasy reader but enjoyed it and said it was well written and witty. Advice on synopsis and also names of publishers I could approach. She even rang me at home today as she had remembered someone else I could send my work to and said to persevere as she thought I had something good there!
8. One-to-one with Lorella Belli, former editor and now agent for LBLA, her own agency in London. Sent in first chapter, synopsis and CV. She started by saying that she knew nothing about fantasy and therefore to take her advice with a pinch of salt. She thought the structure needed improvement and she could not follow the story. She found my time sequence confusing (Well, it couldn't all be good!)
So, as you can see, there were lots to do. By Sunday evening, brain was spinning!
The only negative comments I had to make were:
1. The accommodation (halls of residence) were clean but not nice enough to charge us what they did. We had one loo and one shower between 7 people.
2. Thought I got a lot out of it, I felt I missed out as I did not receive certain relevant information which would have made me select the right people for my one-to-ones. I never received the booklet that had the details of the backgrounds of the people giving the lectures, workshops, etc, even though I booked in April. Most others did. The info appeared on the website but only at the beginning of June. Though there were only 2 or 3 fantasy writers/editors, it would have been more relevant for me to speak to them. By the time I realised, when I got there, everyone was booked!
And a few people never received their conference packs.
Other positive comments:
1. Nice food.
2. Plenary lecture by Maureen Lipman, actress, writer, columnist for the Guardian: what a delight!
3. Met some very nice people and will be hopefully keeping in touch!
So, I came away thoughful, delighted and inspired. I have brought my own personal deadline for finishing the book forward and will start submitting hopefully in the next two-three weeks!
Hope that was helpful! Would I go again? Yes, for any workshops or one-to-ones where I could get my work criticised and also any relevant lectures that would meet my needs.
Your fee from the organisers, will be in post then?
More seriously, thank you. It is interesting to read a participant's account of the event. Most helpful to those who who did not go or have questioned relevance of such programmes.
Well done on the responses you got from agents et al - you must be chuffed to bits, I know I would be...
I would definitely recommend the conference. Just make sure you book way in advance to guarantee your sessions,especially the one-to-ones; they went like hot cakes! And ask for the booklet that gives you the background info on the people participating in it.
The last thing to add, which I omitted from the feedback, was that I came away with plenty of good advice but there was a strong element of subjectivity in the advice given. For example, some agents/publishers like a 2 page synopsis, double spaced. Some like 1 page, single spaced. Some want even longer synopses. Some like the synopsis not to give away the ending, most like to know all the main plot points and the ending.
I came away thinking that the best thing to do is to make sure you check the Writer's/Writers' and Artists' Yearbook carefully for submission guidelines, also check the agency's website and finally email them or phone up if you have any doubts. Though a lot of agencies say not to phone or email, if you go on their websites, they don't mind a simple query. they just don't want to spend hours discussing unsolicited stuff.
I emailed 2 agencies yesterday and got prompt replies telling me exactly what to send in and who to send it to. I phoned up a few more today and got the same response.
By the way, the agencies' websites and the Writers'/Writers' & Artists' Yearbook are not always accurate, or, more exactly, things change. Two of the agencies I phoned up are no longer taking fantasy manuscripts.
Always find out who to send your stuff in to.
And, even though most agencies and publishers say they don't like you to send in stuff to them and others simultaneously, the truth is, life is too short to do that! Several of the agents/editors/publishers at the conference said so themselves. They just advised that it should not be advertised openly but you should provide that information if requested by someone who is considering taking you on.