How to Get Published ~ A mini-conference, Saturday, Nov 18, in Guelph

The Neighbours by guest speaker
Hannah Mary McKinnon, coming from
MIRA books, March 2018

How to Get Published ~ A mini-conference with 3 guest speakers:  a literary agent, an author, and an editor from HarperCollins

Saturday, November 18, 2017

10:00 a.m. – 3:30 / 4:00 p.m.

Harcourt United Church,  87 Dean Ave, Guelph, Ontario (Map here.)

If you've ever dreamed of becoming a published author, this mini-conference is for you. We’ll cover the whole process of getting published, giving you the inside track from an author, a literary agent, and an editor.

You'll get the best tips and in depth insight on everything from getting started to getting an agent, 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.

And be sure to bring your elevator pitch! Following the end of the formal workshop at 3:30, Brian Henry will be staying for at least half an hour to help interested attendees write query letters that will get a yes, while literary agent Martha Webb will be listening to your pitches and author Hannah McKinnon and editor Michelle Meade will be answering your questions. Remember, agents come to these events wanting to hear what you’ve got and hoping to find authors they want to represent.

Workshop leader Brian Henry has been a book editor and creative writing teacher 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, Ontario, to Saint John, New Brunswick.

But Brian’s proudest boast is that he’s helped many of his students get published and launch their careers as authors.

  

Guest speaker, Martha Webb, is a literary agent, director and full partner at the McDermid Agency.

The McDermid Agency represents literary novelists and upmarket commercial novelists and writers of nonfiction in the areas of memoir, popular science, investigative journalism, popular culture, lifestyle, biography, history and travel. The agency also represents children's and young adult (YA) writers and writers in the fields of science fiction and fantasy. Our writers have been nominees and winners of many literary prizes including the Man Booker Prize, the Scotiabank Giller Prize, the Governor General’s Literary Awards, the Writers Trust awards, the RBC Taylor Prize for narrative non-fiction, the (formerly named) Orange Prize, the Amazon First Novel Award, the Kobo Emerging Writers prize, the Danuta Gleed Award, and the Commonwealth Prize.

Martha has been with the agency since 2005. She represents a wide range of books, but her list focuses primarily on literary fiction, narrative nonfiction (including memoir and true crime) and ideas-driven nonfiction. She is especially drawn to approaches that are thought-provoking, controversial, change the conversation on a given subject or have a positive impact on people’s lives.

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); Deborah Campbell, winner of the 2016 Hilary Weston Writers Trust Prize; Pasha Malla (long-listed for the Giller, shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writer’s Prize, winner of the Danuta Gleed and the Trillium awards); Jessica Grant, (winner of the Amazon.ca First Novel and the Winterset awards);  Grace O'Connell; Andrew Westoll; and Karen Le Billon, whose first book French Kids Eat Everything sold into thirteen countries and translated into ten languages.

Guest speaker Michelle Meade is an assistant editor with MIRA Books, a HarperCollins imprint head-quartered in New York and Toronto. MIRA publishes novels for a broad audience. They’re eager to acquire breakout and established commercial fiction with a strong narrative drive and complex characters across a wide spectrum, from multi-layered relationship and family dramas that make for good book club picks to voicy contemporary reads, thrillers and psychological suspense, sweeping historicals, speculative novels and more.

Last year 53 MIRA titles placed on bestseller lists (New York Times, USA TODAY and Publishers Weekly) for a total of 225 weeks. MIRA publishes approximately 100 books per year in all formats.

Michelle lives for the thrill of discovering new voices in commercial fiction and helping authors produce the best books possible for their readers. She’s most interested in complex, emotional reads, especially those with high-tension, suspenseful plots and engaging, authentic characters. She’s particularly looking for emotional, character-driven novels and speculative fiction and would love to find the next Liane Moriarty and Audrey Niffenegger.

At the workshop, Michelle will speak about what she does as an editor, what catches her eye in a manuscript (and what makes her give a manuscript a pass), and will answer all your questions.

Guest speaker Hannah McKinnon is the author of Time After Time (published by HarperCollins in Britain), a novel about love, loss and second chances that’s full of humour. 

Her second and third books have been acquired by MIRA. The first of these, The Neighbors, a novel about the implosion of two families, is scheduled for March 2018, and her third book a year later. 

When she’s not writing novels for adults, Hannah’s three boys give her plenty of material for children’s books. You can read a review of Time After Time here. 

At the workshop, Hannah will be sharing what she’s learned about being a writer, finding an agent, getting published, and making a career as a novelist.

Fee: 48.67 + 13% hst = 55 paid in advance or 53.10 + 13% hst = 60 at the door

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

See Brian's full schedule here, including writing workshops and creative writing courses in Algonquin Park, 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, Kitchener-Waterloo, Muskoka, Peel, Simcoe, York, the GTA, Ontario and beyond.