The Missouri Writers Guild Conference 2010

The Missouri Writers Guild Conference will be in Chesterfield, Mo this year on April 16-18, 2010. I'm hoping to attend if I can get the funds together this year. You can download the registration form and even pay by paypal.

Lots of interesting speakers, agents, and editors to check out, including Wash U creative writing teacher, Catherine Rankovic, who writes Mental Health for Writers. I could use some of that, God knows.

The following literary agents will also be at the conference:

Kristin Nelson, Nelson Literary Agency, Denver, Colorado (I love her blog, Pubrants)
Nelson Literary Agency represents fiction for adult, young adult and middle grade books. We work with literary and commercial fiction. For nonfiction, we are only interested in memoir.

We are currently seeking:

Literary (with a commercial bent)

Commercial mainstream

Women's fiction

Chick lit (all types including paranormal, mystery, young adult etc.)

Romance (all types for single title except inspirational)

Science Fiction

Fantasy

Young Adult

Middle Grade

Memoir
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Joanna Stampfel-Volpe, Agent. Nancy Coffey Literary and Media Representation.

Joanna is looking for children's chapter books to upper YA (non-fiction, contemporary, humor, historical and fantasy *fantasy/sci-fi needs to really stand out, unique), adult romance (historical, paranormal, contemporary), fantasy (urban fantasy, steampunk, unique), up-market fiction (women's, commercial, dark, literary, horror, speculative fic), narrative non-fiction (pop culture, environmental, foodie).

She is NOT interested in mysteries, legal thrillers, corporate thrillers, cookbooks, academic nonfiction, epic fantasy for adults, hi-science fiction, poetry, collections/short stories, screenplays

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Suzie Townsend, Junior Agent; Peter Rubie Agency

Suzie Townsend is a Junior Agent and Peter Rubie's assistant and is just starting to take on clients. She will be actively building her list in April 2010 during the conference. She's a former high school English teacher who likes character-driven YA and adult fantasy, science fiction, paranormal and romance. She gravitates toward strong female protagonists, complex plot lines with underlying political, moral, or philosophical issues, and stories which break out of the typical tropes of their genre, like Jacqueline Carey’s Kushiel series. For non-fiction, she is primarily interested in narrative non-fiction and true crime.

Reminder: Deadline for the Missouri Writers Guild Conference Contest

Don't forget all Missouri Writers Guild Conference Contest entries must be postmarked by today to qualify.

This is also the last day to get the early bird rate for the conference. If you're planning to attend, you can sign up with paypal. There are also new Sunday workshops to choose from.

Hope to see you there.

Writing Conference T-Shirts

I am prepping for writing conference season by purchasing some quirky and creative writing conference t-shirts created by children's author Angela Fox. My newly purchased t-shirts are not pictured here. You'll have to see them at the Missouri Writers Guild Conference 2009 to truly appreciate the depth of my crazy.

Never been to a conference? This newbie shirt is perfect for you.

And for the obsessed and psychotic (like me) there's the Do Not Stalk The Editor Tee.

T-shirts for Writers

Love to agent Janet Reid for posting these cringtastic links to conference t-shirts for writers. Shirt designer Angela L. Fox also has designs for your inner muse and the evil inner critic.

I must have this one. I will be sure to wrap all my manuscripts in aluminium foil so the aliens can't probe them.

Writers Conference and Contest for Literary Nonfiction

True by pittaya Creative Commons

If you're writing memoir, true crime, sports stories or other journalistic nonfiction, you may want to check out The Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference. This year's conference is July 18-20, 2008 in Grapevine, Texas and past conferences have already attracted a lot of attention and powerhouse speakers.

Some of this year's speakers include:
N. Scott Momaday-1969 Pulitzer Prize Winner
Bob Shacochis, National Book Award Winner
Candice Millard, River of Doubt
John Burnett, NPR correspondent
Stella Chavez, writer, The Dallas Morning News
Susannah Charleson, The Scent of the Missing
Pam Colloff, writer, Texas Monthly
Lee Hancock, enterprise reporter, The Dallas Morning News
Nick Heil, The Dark Summit
Tim Madigan, writer, The Star-Telegram
Cathleen Medwick, contributing editor at O, the Oprah Magazine
Paul Meyer, writer, The Dallas Morning News
Ben Montgomery, writer, St. Petersburg Times
David Patterson, senior editor, Henry Holt & Co.
Brian Sweany, articles editor, Texas Monthly
Wright Thompson, ESPN.com
Andy Van De Voorde, Village Voice Media
Ken Wells, senior editor, Portfolio magazine
Alexandra Wolfe, writer, Portfolio magazine

You can find out more in their description of the conference. Their contest includes a $3000 first place prize for best manuscript and $12,000 in prizes for essay contest prizes (there are entry fees). Submissions for the Writing Contest and Workshops are due by June 13, 2008.

Last year's manuscript contest winner ended up with a six-figure advance from Houghton-Mifflin.

Platform for Fiction Writers?

Diving platform by gva_pix Creative Commons

I've returned from the OWFI conference in Oklahoma with major bags under my eyes and updated info on the world of publishing.

One of the surprising things I heard is that some agents are starting to look more at platform for fiction writers in query letters. With the tougher economy, fewer books get published, so they need a way to weed out the less experienced.

Platform has generally been a non-fiction requirement. It's basically your marketability as an author and includes several categories:

Previous Publishing History (shows someone else thought you could write)
magazines
newspaper
journals
ad copy
anything else someone paid you to write
awards/contests (List only the most important - and not everything since 3rd grade)

Groups You Can Market To:
memberships in large organizations were you can market your book
frequent speaking engagements where you can sell your book
a website or blog where you can sell your book to readers
The Walton family are your best buds and will put it in Wally-World
Anywhere else you can sell your book

Level of Education/Fame:
College degree
Master's
PhD
Celebrity
Sudden Media Darling/Hero
Expert in your field

Your Activities:
Writing Group Memberships/Positions
Critique Group Participation
How mediagenic you are (How well you can talk on radio or television - so if you have examples, mention them).
Subscribing to Media info sources like Publisher's Weekly and Mediabistro

Basically it's anything that proves your writing was worthy of publication previously and/or you can market your book and yourself to lots of people. Don't forget to make your willingness to market clear.

Example:
I've published with the Travel Channel, Babble.com, and various food and lifestyle magazines. As a college English teacher, I'm an experienced speaker and frequently address local writing groups. As a Missouri Writers' Guild member, I attend yearly conferences. I have contacts with Rotary groups, I write reviews for MotherTalk.com (marketing website), I host the Coffee and Critique blog, and I serve as publicity chair for Saturday Writers.

If you haven't published anywhere yet, don't panic. Good writing can still trump lack of resume - but if you're up against other good writers, it may give you an advantage to build a platform that raises you above the madding crowd.

Has anyone else heard this mentioned at conferences? Is it a widespread trend to consider platform for fiction?

Writing Conference Split-Personality Disorder: I Am Legion

Creative Commons Split Personality by Alcino

I'm back from the Missouri Writers' Guild Conference 2008, energized, inspired, and infected with half a dozen personalities.

Memoir personality wants to write a book about our childhood.

• Magazine-article personality wants to pitch several ideas to American Profiles.


• Non-fiction author personality wants to send off requested materials to the editor we met.


• Fiction-author personality wants to get our novel's query letter right and send it out to agents.

The conference did what it was supposed to do. Conferencing is for learning, networking, support, and rejuvenation. And it keeps me away from the kitchen knives.

So what do I say to all these new personalities? Lots of people will say, reintegrate! Banish all the voices that compete with your main project! I say, embrace the crazies - just prioritize.

So listening to all my personalities, the most important thing is to get my non-fiction book proposal to the editor who requested it. Then while it's marinating on the darkling plane of editorial purgatory, I can listen to the next most important personality and get out some magazine query letters to prime the pump before I polish the fiction query.

What I don't want to do is forget any of the personalities, or they'll fade away along with their potential. So I'm makin' a list and checkin' it twice. . . sorry, Christmas personality took over for a minute.

So listen to the voices - they have some pretty good ideas. Moohoohahaha

Sneak Peak at Missouri Writers' Guild Conference Contests

The annual Missouri Writers' Guild Conference always hosts a contest for published works from the previous year for members of the Guild. I'll be posting the categories over the next few weeks.

The big news this year is that different chapters/sponsors are also holding contests open to anyone who has registered and paid for the conference, not just members of the Guild. Entries for these contests can be published or unpublished works.

I'll be doing a series of posts profiling each chapter/sponsor contest, as well as the members-only Guild contest.

There are seventeen different contests open to anyone attending the conference. Entries must be postmarked between January 1 and March 1, 2008, so get them ready but don't send them off until the new year.

The first contest I'll cover is for my chapter of the Missouri Writers' Guild, Saturday Writers:

Saturday Writers presents the Flash Fiction Contest: Send us your fiction from 99-500 words. No excessive gore or violence. The entry fee is $5. I will post further details on where to send entry fees later.

Send entries to: Saturday Writers Flash Fiction Contest (Don't start submitting until January 1, 2008)

c/o Tricia Sanders
90 Westwood Trails
Foristell, MO 63348

Me Write Funny Someday- Erma Bombeck Workshop Audio Available for Preorder

The Erma Bombeck Writers Workshop is extremely popular and sells out fast each year. So if you didn't get your shoe leather in the door or couldn't afford the trek to Ohio, preorder the audio versions of the 2008 workshop and get the 2006 recordings absolutely free! (Why do I suddenly feel like one of those home furniture commercials?) They come as MP3 files on a CD rom.

It costs $89 dollars, which is not a pittance, but if you consider the price of going to two conferences to hear these, it's reasonable. The special that includes the 2006 recordings expires on April 2, 2008 and the price increases to $99 and you only receive the 2008 workshops starting April 3rd.

Writing Topics include:
HUMOR WRITING
HUMAN INTEREST WRITING
BOOK PUBLISHING
NEWSPAPERS
MAGAZINES
OTHER MARKETS
MARKETING & PROMOTION

Contests, Conferences, and Submission Calls from Novel and Short Story Writers' Market

The Novel and Short Story Writers' Market has a page with free announcements about contests, writing conferences, and calls for submissions from various publications. Some I've already posted info on, such as the Amazon novel contest and the Next Great Crime Writer competition from Court TV and Gather.


There is a new announcement calling for submissions from mental health workers - basically anyone who works with emotional or mental health issues. The deadline for the anthology called, Tales from the Couch, is August 1, 2008.

Sisters in Crime's Forensic University of St. Louis: 50 Ways to Catch a Killer

Sisters in Crime is hosting a writing workshop called the Forensic University of St. Louis at the Hilton St. Louis Airport November 1-4, 2007.

The postmark deadline is September 15, 2007.
Fee: $250 for Sisters in Crime member
$290 for non-members (includes a year membership in Sisters in Crime)

After September 15 (subject to space)
Fee: $300 Walk-in Sisters in Crime member
$340 Walk-in non-members (includes a year membership in Sisters in Crime)

Examples of Workshops:
The ABC's of Forensic Science
Poisons: Basics of Toxicology
DNA 101
Forensic Anthropology: Finding and Recovering Remains
The CSI Effect: Forensic Science and the Courts
Interviews and Interrogation
Firearms

And many more.... So learn how to kill them softly in your books - or at least using correct forensic science techniques.

Me Write Funny Someday - Erma Bombeck Writers' Workshop

Want to be a humor writer? Online registration for the Erma Bombeck Writers' Workshop will open starting September 10, 2007 at noon EST. Last year's workshop sold out in only 12 days, so get your septic tanks in a row. The workshop will be April 3-5, 2008 in Dayton, Ohio.

The 2008 workshop fee is $350 - all sessions and meals included. Keynote speakers include Garrison Keillor, Martha Bolton, Mike Peters, Connie Schultz, Aaron Yonda and Matt Sloan. Read the speaker bios and see a list of workshops on the website.

Classes include:
HUMOR WRITING
* How to develop and use humorous anecdotes
* Raising your humor writing IQ
* How to take your humor writing from amusing to amazing
* Humor writing: What works and what doesn't
* Are you SURE you want to be a humor columnist?
* How to write humorous greeting cards

HUMAN INTEREST WRITING
* Shaping your life experience for the page
* How to touch readers' hearts with your words

MOTIVATION
* How to survive and thrive throughout the creative process
* Networking for writers

FREELANCE WRITING
* Freelance writing for the greeting card industry
* The renegade writer's guide to breaking into magazines

MARKETING
* Podcasting for writers
* Using online video to market your books and yourself
* How to create an Amazon.com bestseller

BOOK PUBLISHING
* Book proposals and literary agents
* How to choose the right self-publishing company