Agents and Editors  Tony Burton (www.wolfmont.com) is an author, the editor of the Crime and Suspense ezine and the owner/chief editor of a small-press publishing house, Wolfmont Publishing, along with its sister imprint, Honey Locust Press. For several years he wrote non-fiction (training manuals, study guides and newspaper columns), while dabbling in fiction in secret. About five years ago he began writing fiction and poetry for more public consumption, and now has two novels published, with a couple more in the works. He has also contributed to three anthologies, several online and print venues and edited two anthologies. He lives with his lovely wife Lara and their champion napdog, Buddy, in the hills of North Georgia. Tony's Saturday presentation is Make the Editor Happy With Your Submission. (What to do and NOT to do when submitting work for publication.) When you submit your work to an editor, do you feel like you've just bought a lottery ticket, with the odds of being accepted perhaps worse than those of winning PowerBall? Here are some ways to increase your chances of a win, by submitting your (well-written!) work in a way that will please the editor. Learn how to pick the right numbers to have a fair chance of winning publication. (See the class handout.)  Before Nancy Love started the New York based Nancy Love Literary Agency in 1985, she was a magazine writer and editor, a magazine consultant, and the editor-in-chief of a book publishing imprint. She brings to the agency business her skills of editing, generating ideas and working well with writers. She is looking for adult nonfiction, particularly from writers who have credentials and/or a platform or an innovative idea. The agency represents many books in these categories: foreign affairs, health, medicine, how-to, politics, crime, history, entertainment, parenting, psychology, sociology, relationships, personal business, but is always looking for the next new thing.
 Literary agent Chip MacGregor (macgregorliterary.com) is hanging around and bothering people. He made his living as a writer for years, then became an editor (serving as Senior Editor for two different houses), before moving on to becoming a longtime literary agent. He spent two years as a publisher at Time-Warner...making us all wonder why he can't hold a job. These days he's keeping busy running MacGregor Literary and going on endlessly about his Scottish ancestry. If you see him in a kilt, you may want to shield your eyes.
Chip's sessions on Saturday will be Making a Living at Writing, focusing on creating a plan to begin writing regularly, sell your pieces, and move your career forward, and Working with an Agent, a workshop to help authors know what an agent does, how to go about finding one, and how to maximize the relationship. See Chip's blog at www.chipmacgregor.com for more of his wise words on writing.
 Author and free-lance editor Susan Mary Malone’s (www.maloneeditorial.com) works focus on women’s issues, touching the inner emotions of the feminine psyche. She is the author of the novel, By the Book, which delves deeply into the psychological issues of spousal abuse, and three co-authored nonfiction books. With many published short stories to her credit, Malone also contributed to the anthology Wild Women, which includes Margaret Atwood, Alice Walker, Clarissa Pinkola Estes, among others. Three of her new short stories are now up on Amazon Shorts as well--click here to see the latest. A freelance book editor, thirty-plus Malone-edited books have now sold to Traditional publishers. Her Saturday presentation will be The Perfect Manuscript: Getting that agent and editor to say, Yes!: What it takes to succeed in publishing today.
 Chris Roerden is an award-winning editor who has also written 75 published articles, a game, and 10 books, most recently Don't Murder Your Mystery, an Agatha Award Finalist for Best Nonfiction Book. Authors she's edited are published by St. Martin's, Berkley Prime Crime, Midnight Ink, Walker, Viking, and Rodale. In her 40+ years in publishing she was president of a regional trade association of publishers and a board member of S.E. Mystery Writers of America for 6 years. She holds an MA in English and a BA summa cum laude from the University of Maine, where she later taught writing. For her next book she invites submissions from all writers at www.tinyurl.com/yclawc. Her presentation on Saturday will be Don't Murder Your Mystery - or Any Other Fiction: Learn from an award-winning editor why most submissions go directly to the NO pile, and how you can get yours read.
 Brian Seidman is the managing editor, including acquisitions, for NewSouth Books (www.newsouthbooks.com) in Montgomery, Alabama. He is a former editor of the OxMag national literary magazine, and an alumnus of the New York University Journalism school and the Miami University Graduate Creative Writing program. In addition to editing, he has been at times a newspaper reporter, a bookseller, and an English and Creative Writing teacher. His short fiction appears in the Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Volume 10 fiction anthology from Pocket Books, a division of Simon & Schuster (summer 2007). Visit him at www.brianseidman.com.
The State of the (Small) Publishing Industry and You: on Saturday Brian Seidman talks about the unique challenges facing today's smaller book publishing companies, and how those challenges affect today's querying author. Brian's presentation is full of valuable tips to keep in mind when sending out your work, and features an "Ask the Editor" question and answer session.  Cherry Weiner is the head of the Cherry Weiner Literary Agency. Her Saturday presentation will be PICK AN AGENT'S BRAIN...: Ask anything and everything you want to know about Publishing.
|