How to Get Published workshop with literary agent Carolyn Forde, Saturday, September 27, in Oakville

Literary agent Carolyn Forde
of Westwood Creative Artists

“How to Get Published”

  With book editor Brian Henry
  & literary agent, Carolyn Forde

Saturday, September 27, 2014

10 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Oakville Central Library, 120 Navy Street, Oakville, Ontario

(Parking is around the back of the library and then up the hill a bit on Water Street, across from the Canoe Club. Map here.)

If you've ever dreamed of becoming a published author, this workshop is for you. We’ll cover everything from getting started to getting an agent, from getting your short pieces published to finding a book publisher, from writing a query letter to writing what the publishers want. Bring your questions. Come and get ready to be published!

Special Option: Participants are invited to bring a draft of a query letter you might use to interest an agent or publisher in your book. You don’t need to bring anything, but if you do, 3 copies could be helpful.

Workshop leader Brian Henry has been a book editor and creative writing instructor for more than 25 years. He publishes Quick Brown Fox, Canada’s most popular blog for writers, teaches creative writing at Ryerson University and has led workshops everywhere from Boston to Buffalo and from Sarnia to Charlottetown. But his proudest boast is that he has helped many of his students get their first book published and launch their careers as authors.

Guest speaker Carolyn Forde is a literary agent with Westwood Creative Artists, Canada’s largest literary agency, representing more than 420 writers, including some of the biggest names in Canadian literature. 

Life is About Losing Everything
by Lynn Crosbie, one of Carolyn's clients

Westwood represents literary fiction, quality commercial fiction including mysteries and thrillers, nonfiction in the areas of memoir, history, biography, science, journalism and current events, and a limited range of practical nonfiction. Agents look for authors with a mastery of language, a passionate, expert or original perspective on their subject, and a gift for storytelling.

Carolyn is a relatively new agent and is actively building her list of authors. At present, she represents some thirty authors including Karma Brown, Kristi Charish, Trevor Cole, Lynn Crosbie, Sylvia Fraser, Bill Gaston, Clifford Jackman, Vincent Marcone, Mark Richardson, Barb Stegemann and Manjushree Thapa. 

She also represents some authors jointly with Bruce Westwood, the Founder, President and CEO of the agency.

Carolyn travels to New York regularly to further the interests of Westwood authors and has attended both the London and the Frankfurt book fairs. She became a shareholder in the agency in 2010 and has a BA Honours in English Literature and History from Trent University, a Postgraduate Certificate in Publishing Sciences from Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen, Scotland, and has attended the Simon Fraser University Publishing Intensive course in Vancouver. 

She has lived and worked in Japan, Mexico and the Czech Republic and is a dual citizen of Canada and the U K. She is on Twitter here.

Carolyn is seeking upmarket commercial women's fiction, psychological thrillers like Gone Girl or The Silent Wife, upmarket historical fiction, urban fantasy, and edgy literary fiction like A Complicated Kindness or Lullabies for Little Criminals.

In nonfiction, Carolyn has wide-ranging tastes, from serious narrative nonfiction to pop culture, though she's generally not looking for straight memoir.

She welcomes new authors.

Fee: 40.71 + 13% hst = 46 paid in advance

or 43.36 + 13% hst = 49 if you wait to pay at the door.

To register, email brianhenry@sympatico.ca

Note: Don't ever miss a post on Quick Brown Fox. Fill in your email in the box to the right under my bio, and get each post delivered to your Inbox. ~ Brian

See Brian's full schedule here, including writing workshops and creative writing courses in Barrie, Brampton, Bolton, Burlington, Caledon, Cambridge, Collingwood, Georgetown, Guelph, Hamilton, Kingston, London, Midland, Mississauga, Newmarket, Niagara on the Lake, Oakville, Orillia, Ottawa, Peterborough, St. Catharines, Stouffville, Sudbury, Toronto, Halton, Kitchener-Waterloo, Muskoka, Peel, Simcoe, York, the GTA, Ontario and beyond.