2 Amazing workshops: 1 with a literary agent, marketing guru & children’s lit editor and 1 with NYT #1 bestselling author

From the Horse’s Mouth: Strategies for Getting Published

Saturday, November 29
1 – 4 p.m.
Victoria Building, Room 106
Ryerson University, 285 Victoria Street, Toronto (Map here.)

From the Horse’s Mouth is a round table discussion with three members of the publishing community, moderated by writing instructor and editor Brian Henry. Following the presenters' introductory remarks, discussion will be opened up to the floor to address the concerns and questions of those aspiring writers present, both of fiction and nonfiction, interested in improving their chances of getting published.

Our panel:

Rachel Letofsky is a literary agent with the Cooke Agency, which represents literary and commercial fiction (including science fiction, fantasy and crime), narrative-driven nonfiction, including popular culture, science, history, natural history, politics, personal reference and children’s books. 

Rachel is actively growing her own of clients. She is particularly drawn to new authors. In fiction she is looking for everything from literary fiction, to voice-oriented young adult and new adult fiction. In nonfiction, Rachel is looking for narrative-driven memoirs and anything with a high level of quirkiness.

Stephen Myers is the Marketing and Publicity Manager for Hamish Hamilton, Penguin Canada’s boutique literary fiction imprint. Hamish publishes some of Canada’s best known writers, including Joseph Boyden, Zsuzsi Gartner, Bill Gaston, Damian Tarnopolsky, and Jeffrey Moore. 

Stephen Myers also handles promotions for hockey books and a selection of distribution clients, including W.W. Norton. Outside of title management, he oversees the department's internship program.

Anne Shone, Senior Editor at Scholastic Canada, will be the third member of our panel. She has worked in book publishing for close to twenty years, concentrating on children’s books for the last fifteen. In that time, she has edited and acquired picture books and novels for young people and a myriad of nonfiction titles, and has worked with many of Canada’s top children’s book authors and illustrators.

Fee: 110.21

To reserve a spot now, email brianhenry@sympatico.ca

How to Write a Bestseller

With book editor Brian Henry & New York Times #1 bestselling author Kelley Armstrong 

Saturday, December 6
10 a.m. – 4 p.m.
London Central Library, Stevenson & Hunt Room A, 251 Dundas Street,London (Map here. )

This workshop will give you the inside scoop on what gives a novel best-selling potential. You’ll learn how to get readers emotionally involved in your story, how to raise tension, control your pacing and keep your readers turning the pages. But you won't just hear about some of the best secrets of the trade; you'll learn how to apply them to give your own writing a sharp new edge.

Workshop leader Brian Henry has been a book editor and creative writing teacher for more than 25 years. But his proudest boast is that he’s helped many of his students get published, including guest speaker Kelley Armstrong...

Kelley Armstrong lives in Aylmer, south of London, Ontario, with her husband and three children. She used to program computers and attend Brian Henry workshops. Now she writes international bestsellers. Kelley has hit the New York Time’s bestseller list with both her supernatural thrillers for adults and her urban fantasy for teens. Kelley's principal publishers are Random House Canada, Dutton and HarperCollins in the U.S. and Doubleday in Britain. To date, she's published more than two dozen books, most recently Sea of Shadows a fantasy novel for teens, Loki’s Wolves a fantasy novel for Middle Grade readers, Visions, a contemporary gothic novel for adults, and Otherworld Nights, a collection of short supernatural stories for adults.

Bitten, A TV series based on Kelley’s first 13 novels, started broadcasting in January 2014.

Fee: 40.71+ 13% hst = 46 paid in advance by mail or Interac
or 43.36 + 13% hst = 49 if you wait to pay at the door

To reserve a spot now, email brianhenry@sympatico.ca

Coming in the new year:

Secrets of Writing a Page-turner, Saturday, Jan 17, in Toronto. Details here.

How to write great dialogue, Saturday, Jan 24, in Georgetown. Details here.

Writing and Revising, Saturday, Jan 31, in Oakville. Details here.

Plus, six weekly courses for everyone from beginners to advanced writers. Details here.

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, Orillia, Oakville, Ottawa, Peterborough, St. Catharines, Stouffville, Sudbury, Toronto, Halton, Kitchener-Waterloo, Muskoka, Peel, Simcoe, York, the GTA, Ontario and beyond.