The Word Cloud

Why is networking important? Because you're not coming to the Festival of Writing just to attend the fabulous writing workshops and hear our super speakers. You're coming to meet people, both industry folks and... yes, this is very important, other writers. (No one else knows what it is like to be a writer apart from other writers).

So post here about what you're writing and who you think you'd like to meet. Maybe you'll meet online on this thread some other writers who it would be worth meeting for real at York. In terms of industry people, I'll give guidance where I can.

APPROACHING INDUSTRY PEOPLE. Business cards can be a good idea to share with other writers etc (saves writing down your contact details upteen times) but your superstar agent isn't going to be calling you. Your aim is probably just to say hello, ask them anything you need to ask them (e.g. do you actually represent the genre I am writing?) and then do the follow-up (i.e. sending them a submission) after the Festival where you'll be able to mention this is where you met. Industry bods don't want a book pitch either. Too much going on and they want to see your writing anyway. So just say hello, be yourself and send your work in to speak for itself later. Use any chance time you have with them (e.g. in the coffee queue) to ask them the burning questions.

I declare this thread open for business. Fire away...

I’m flummoxed by the invisible responses – Kate’s given us a perfect chance to figure out the best agents for one-to-ones.

I catapulted – no, rocketed – myself into the stratosphere of embarrassment at last year’s Authonomy Live: the only contestant to be ordered to slow down (my excuse? Everyone was too soused to understand me but miraculously sobered-up for the opposition!).

To business: travel memoir is on hold and, scything through the jungle of fiction on the market, I decided to try zapping the Mrs. Robinson myth with a third-person, present-tense tale: jaded by X-Factor-infatuated, narcissistic nymphs, a 21-year-old proofreader becomes entangled with his newspaper’s 46-year-old photographer, but discovers the liaison is torturously unbalanced.

Kate: thoughts on suitable agents will be rewarded with a triple Smirnoff-lemonade – or, if you’d prefer, Bacardi-Coke – on the Saturday (please note: reward only valid if agent requests full).

I don't recall seeing this topic - thank you for bumping it up again. I now need to go and have a bit of a think...

Captain Morgan - do you have a view on what genre your tale falls into? If it's a male point-of-view story I'd suggest trying male agents. Finding an agent to click with one's manuscript is such a personal thing so this is a mass generalisation and only my suggestion. :)

Kate: Thanks for your thoughts. It’s male POV and I’d call it general fiction – a literature-lecturer friend claims I’m aiming, ambitiously, to pen the offspring of a ménage à trois between The Graduate (story), The Rum Diary (setting), and The Catcher in the Rye (tone). My instincts say Zoe King, David Headley, or Simon Trewin (I suspect your thoughts on male agents are bang-on) but I’m also considering a book doctor, if only to enlighten me about genre...

Oh how I wish I could be there. My agony is compounded by the fact that York is only a half hour ride from here - sigh!

See, this is what happens when I stop spending time on the word cloud and dedicate myself to editing. If I had seen this thread earlier I would have asked for advice before choosing which agent and book doctor I want to see. Instead, I spent hours last night researching each one. I decided to see John Jarrod and Phillipa Pride since I'm writing a science fiction trilogy. Hopefully they are good people for me to see because I've already booked it :P

Right, well, I'll have a stab at a burning question! Unlike Cpt. Morgan I am still flogging the near-dead camel that is travel writing. Alas, my imagination is stretched to the limit just finding suitable metaphors for Ecuadorian taxi drivers, so fiction is a bit beyond me. So, if you were a person who had just happened to write a book about... I dunno, let's say a South American bear eating your underwear - who would you approach with it? Apart from the bear, I mean? (And you'd be surprised just how many pairs of pants can be saved by the well-timed application of a half finished manuscript to a small bear's bottom...)

A novelist/poet/manuscript editor advised me that the recession hasn’t pulverized travel writing the way it has other genres – lucky you, Tony (assuming she’s right, of course!). As for suggesting agents, I can't help...

On a side note, the one-to-one submissions deadline is 1st March: but I’m interested – does anyone plan to submit before February?

Hello Kate. I wish I'd noticed this thread before I booked my 1-2-1s. Just having a small panic from reading the above... There were a number of agents to choose from that were equally suitable for my genre of narrative non-fiction but I never considered their gender. My book is predominantly for women. Should I have picked two female agents to look at my work? Do male agents ever represent 'chick-lit' style writing? Sorry if this is a stupid question...

Autumn - you can still meet the female agents, but getting a male perspective could be good too, and if they cater for that market than thats a double ++

Autumn - not a stupid question. I think that non-fiction is far less gendered than fiction actually, and any agent who is suitable for your genre will have a valid view on the marketplace - which is the main thing you want from a one to one from an agent, so I wouldn't worry too much. If you wanted to change your 1 to 1s though, you could give the WW office a call.
Don't forget though that there are something like 25 agents and a dozen publishers attending York and you can always query them afterwards and mention the fact that you met them/heard about them at York in your cover letter.

Hi Kate...just seen this thread too...after booking my one-to-ones!
I have chosen 2 women..an agent and book doctor. My story is a historical romance which which moves up to the present day...so I chose female agents/doctor as I kinda thought it would be more their bag...but I guess that's not always the case!
My chosen agent is looking to expand her client list though and wants debut authors...and her current list seems to have some similar writers in it...'cept that they are published and successful!
The doctor said on the blurb that wanted to see books especially dealing with romance and history...so...I plumped for her too!
I suppose the 'networking' (hate that word!) aspect of the festival is just as important though....so will try to have everything to hand and not drop it all on the floor in panic if someone shows an interest!
Mac

Thanks for the reply Kate. Am very glad to hear you say non-fic is less gendered. My subject matter is very female though.

I am sure your advice is correct regarding the agent's market knowledge and I particularly liked this agent's write up in the W&A yearbook, so am going to stick with my choice. Good advice thanks - now I know to make a list of the other agents that deal with non-fic, so I can try to make contact with them at the festival and hopefully send a synopsis to them later.

I'm looking for conversations with people who like character-driven fiction in distinctive voices. I'm also a storyteller, and so the music and rhythm of the words matter to me.

Ro - John is a really nice guy. He'll tell you what he thinks. You have limited time at these one-to-ones so take questions with you and write the answers down.

Duly noted Ancient Woodland, thanks for the advice. I've been wondering whether to bring a pen and notepad or to just absorb what he is saying- I'll probably do both and jot down what he said the moment I leave!

I kept a pen and notebook with me at all times last year, Ro. Even scribbling someone's name can jog a memory, and there's a lot of people to meet. The key for me was to try and look back at my notes on the same day, and remember why I scribbled THAT silly picture just THEN.

Yes, well worth jotting things down to remind yourself of what was said. I always think I'll remember, and I never do. Specially if you go straight from your one-to-one into a workshop or something, and what's just been said gets buried under the next stuff.

I write contemporary YA (for now). I'm thinking about Women's fic in the future.

I deliberately didn't sign up for a one on one with Julia Churchill, because she only does children's lit. I'm not sure I want to stay there. I'm happy to meet anyone in children's lit though. And women's fic. Especially the authors. I'll be specifically glad to meet all you UK types. I'm from Barbados, so I want to go through the UK industry, rather than the US. But all my online contacts are in the US.

My one-to-ones are David Llewelyn (reader for Conville and Walsh) and Nicola Morgan (just won the Coventry award! YAY!)

I'm reresearching the workshop faculty now.

I'm seeing David Llewelyn too (on Saturday) and Debi Alper on the Sunday.

I was reading the posts earlier in the thread about gender pov and gender of agents/book doctors. My story is written from three povs (two male, one female) and is a romantic thriller.

I'd love to 'network' (hate that term!) with other writers who are writing, thinking about writing, or have written in the same sort of genre (romantic thriller, romantic suspense) as well as, of course, any agents interested in that type of book.

Oooh, Stephy. Watch out for that Debi Alper woman! She reckons she's a pro and is able to work unencumbered by her own gender, age, genre etc ...

Really looking forward to meeting you and hope the session will prove helpful. I tend to mark up submissions when I first read them and give them to people to take away after our slot. That way, we can just talk (well, me mostly) without you panicking about making notes or missing something crucial. And of course, I'll be round the whole w/e if we don't cover everything in our 10 mins.

But people should definitely bring pad and pen (or techy equivalent) to the Festie. There is so much going on and so many gems being thrown around, it's a good idea to make quick notes either during or straight after a particular workshop or talk. It's heady stuff - intense and too much to be able to hold in one brain.

Stephy, that Debi Alper woman does a mean markup. I was able to apply stuff she picked out in my first chapter at the Getting Published Day to all sorts of other places in the book. And I don't recall her being encumbered by anything.

Bless you, John. Though I haven't forgotten I'm cross with you for calling yourself a loser. You don't get off the hook that easily ....

Really looking forward to meeting you at the Festival, Debi. You had a look at an earlier version of my first chapter at the Getting Published event and made really helpful comments (and the marked-up pages were really great). I've made quite a few changes to the synopsis and have a new first chapter now - so it will be great to get your feedback again. I've already got my pen and notebook ready!