Novel Writing on Edge - Development Notes From Algonkian Writer Conferences

Panel of Dubious Worth Below, we've assembled a list of the best writer conferences currently available. But before choosing one over the other, keep in mind your goals as a writer. Where do you want to be as a commercial author five years from now? And consider asking yourself these questions also:   Do I know how to properly pitch a project? Will I settle for self-publishing or no? Do I know precisely what genre I'm writing in, and is the genre found on the shelf, searchable as a category on Amazon?  Do I know my comparables and how to best choose them?  Have I immersed in my chosen genre well enough to know how it has evolved over the past few years? Will this writer conference be a networking opportunity that puts me in touch with business professionals who will also provide advice on my work? Will this conference be honest with me in terms of reaction and feedback? Will I learn things at this conference I can't learn in a writer magazine 1.  AWP ...

Agent Richard Curtis Traduttore, Traditore ("The translator is a traitor") - Italian proverb "My client thinks your editor is so incompetent, he couldn't spell "cat" if you spotted him the C and the T!" One of the critical roles literary agents play is that of translator. The writer who sells his first book to a publisher and reads his first contract is plunged into a sea of words that may be totally unfamiliar to him, or that are used in a totally unfamiliar way. "Force majeure," "net proceeds," "matching option," "warranty," "discount"—these need to be defined for the novice author. There are many difficult concepts to be grasped, such as "advance sale," "midlist," "fair use," "reserve against returns," "pass-through," and "hard-soft deals." The language has its own slang, too, and our initiate hears bewildering referen...