Three workshops with literary agents as guest speakers coming soon: How to Get Published, in Kitchener & Brampton, and Writing for Children & for Young Adults in Burlington

How to Get Published

An editor & an agent tell all

Offered in two locales:

Saturday, February 20, 2016

10 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Forest Heights Public Library, 251 Fischer-Hallman Road, Kitchener (Map here)

And

Saturday, February 27, 2016

10:30 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.

Cyril Clark Branch, Brampton Library, 

20 Loafer’s Lake Lane, Brampton, Ontario (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, three copies could be helpful.

On February 20 in Kitchener, our guest speaker will be Olga Filina. Olga is an associate literary agent with The Rights Factory, a boutique literary agency that deals in intellectual property rights for entertainment products, including books, comics & graphic novels, film, television, and video games. TRF works directly with publishers, producers, studios, game developers and other rights-buyers in all territories, occasionally in conjunction with local representatives. 

The Rights Factory has an esteemed roster of both fiction and non-fiction writers including Jennifer Close, debut author of the must-read short story collection, Girls In White Dresses; Margot Berwin, author of Hot House Flower and the Nine Plants of Desire (optioned by Julia Roberts in conjunction with Columbia Pictures for film rights), and the forthcoming paranormal romance, Aromata.

Before joining TRF, Olga spent over a decade as a sales manager and book buyer for both national and book store chains and two years as a literary assistant at The Cooke Agency. While Olga will read anything that may set her book clubs on fire, she gravitates towards commercial and historical fiction, great genre fiction in the area of romance and mystery, nonfiction in the field of business, wellness, lifestyle and memoir and young adult and middle grade novels with memorable characters. In her spare time, Olga sits on library boards, organizes literary festivals and runs more book clubs than she can count. For more on The Rights Factory, see here.

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

On February 27 in Brampton, our guest speaker will be Martha Magor Webb, a literary agent, director and full partner at the McDermid Agency, which represents literary novelists and commercial novelists of high quality and writers of nonfiction in the areas of memoir, biography, history, literary travel, popular science, investigative journalism and true crime. 

The agency also represents a certain number of children's and YA writers and writers in the fields of science fiction and fantasy.

Martha represents a growing list of writers, focusing on literary fiction, narrative nonfiction (including memoir and true crime) and ideas-driven nonfiction.

Her clients include Michael Crummey (multiple award-winning author of Sweetland), Alison Pick (long-listed for the Booker Prize), Robyn Doolittle (Bestselling author of Crazy Town: The Rob Ford Story) Pasha Malla (long-listed for the Giller, shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writer’s Prize, winner of the Danuta Gleed and the Trillium awards), Damian Tarnopolsky (shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers Prize and the Amazon.ca award), Russell Smith, Jessica Grant, (winner of the Amazon.ca First Novel and the Winterset awards), Grace O'Connell, Matt Lennox, Andrew Westoll, and Karen Le Billon, whose first book French Kids Eat Everything sold into thirteen countries and translated into ten languages.

For more about the McDermid Agency, see here.

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 doorTo reserve a spot now, email: brianhenry@sympatico.ca

The Awakening by Kelley Armstrong,
a New York Times #1 bestselling author
and one of Brian's students

Writing for Children & for Young Adults ~ the world’s hottest market

With guest speakers Monica Pacheco, literary agent at the McDermid Agency and Jennifer Mook-Sang, author of Speechless

Saturday, March 5, 2016

10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.

Burlington Central Library, Centennial Room, 2331 New Street, Burlington, Ontario (Map here.)

If you want to write the next best-selling children’s books or just want to create stories for your own kids, this workshop is for you. Learn how to write stories kids and young adults will love and find out what you need to know to sell your book.
Special option: You may, but don't have to, bring 3 copies of the opening couple pages (first 500 words) of your children’s book or young adult novel (or 1,000 words if that will get you to the end of your picture book or to the end of your first chapter.) If you’re not currently working on a children’s story, don’t worry, we’ll get you started on the spot!

Guest speaker Monica Pacheco is a literary agent with The McDermid Agency. The McDermid Agency represnts literary novelists and commercial novelists of high quality and writers of non-fiction in the areas of memoir, biography, history, literary travel, narrative science, investigative journalism and true crime. 

The agency also represents a certain number of children's and YA writers and also writers in the fields of science fiction and fantasy.
The McDermid Agency's clients include distinguished literary authors such as Michael Crummey, Greg Hollingshead, Andrew Pyper, Nino Ricci, David Adams Richards and Michael Winter. The agency also represents writers of narrative non-fiction, such as Charles Montgomery and James MacKinnon, both of whom won the Charles Taylor prize for literary non-fiction in their years of publication.
Monica Pacheco represents a growing list of writers. Her clients include: Actres/writer/director Sarah Polley, Yves Meynard, Madeline Ashby, Marty Chan, Irina Kovalyova, Sarah Henstra, Eli K. P. William,TV food stylist Janice Poon and Bram Stoker Award-winning horror writer David Nickle.
Monica is actively seeking clients in the areas of literary and commercial fiction, Young Adult, Middle Grade, high concept picture books, fantasy and science fiction.

For more about the McDermid Agency, see here.

We will also have author Jennifer Mook-Sang as a guest speaker. Jennifer lives and writes in Burlington. She’s as amazed as anyone to find she’s a published author. Her humorous middle grade novel Speechless was started in one of Brian Henry’s classes and was released by Scholastic in September. 

Speechless is already a hit. The CBC has named it one of the 75 best books published in 2015 (see here), and it’s a finalist for the  Ontario Library Association’s Silver Birch Award. 

Jennifer was also a finalist in the Writing for Children Competition 2014 sponsored by CANSCAIP and The Writer’s Union of Canada. Jennifer will speak about how she got her first book published. 

In the meanwhile, Speechless is available online here and be sure to check out Jennifer’s website here.

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

Note: “Writing for Children and for Young Adults” is also being offered Saturday, April 2, in Barrie, with literary agent Rachel Letofsky (see here), on Saturday, April 30, in Guelph, with Yasemin Uçar, senior editor, Kids Can Press and authors Jennifer Mook-Sang and Kira Vermond (see here), and Sunday, May 29, in Ottawa with acclaimed author Alan Cumyn (see here).

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 Saint John, and he is the author of a children’s version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Tribute Publishing Inc). But his proudest boast is that he’s has helped many of his students get published. 

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. Also, if you’re not yet on my newsletter, send me an email, including your locale, to: brianhenry@sympatico.ca ~ Brian

See Brian’s full schedule here, including writing workshops and creative writing courses in Algonquin Park, Alton, Barrie, Bracebridge, Brampton, Burlington, Caledon, Collingwood, Georgetown, Guelph, Hamilton, Ingersoll, Kingston, Kitchener, London, Midland, Mississauga, Newmarket, Orillia, Oakville, Ottawa, Peterborough, St. Catharines, St. John, NB, Sudbury, Thessalon, Toronto, Windsor, Halton, Ingersoll, Kitchener-Waterloo, Muskoka, Peel, Simcoe, York, the GTA, Ontario and beyond.