The Verulam Writers’ Circle Get Writing conference on Saturday was a fabulous immersion in the subject we’re all passionate about. Back for its third year and now so popular that it sold out by Christmas, the blend of workshops, guest speakers and Q&A sessions was slickly done and hugely informative, entertaining and inspiring.
This year’s major pull was the chance to pitch to three people closest to the business: two agents and a publisher. But not just any publisher, Barry Cunningham, the editor of Chicken House and former children’s editor at Bloomsbury who is widely acclaimed as the person who discovered J.K. Rowling. It doesn’t get better than that!
Barry was a great character and showman – few people can carry off a brown, double breasted pinstripe with such aplomb – and obviously loved his job and gave some great advice to all us budding authors.
John Jarrold, sci-fi publisher turned agent who has worked with a veritable Who’s who? of famous authors in his time just oozed experience and offered practical advice on how to get published. He’s probably one of the few agents in any genre who’s wangled a three book deal for a Finnish sci-fi writer on the basis of one chapter. There’s hope for us all!
Jonathan Pegg, agent to our very own Jenny Barden, walked us through what happens after an agent takes you on and how a book gets pitched to publishers.
The food was plentiful and fast (thankfully not in the ‘would you like fries with it?’ sense). The workshops I was in were interactive and interesting, and the ‘pitch and put’ your ideas to the agents/publisher went like a military operation thanks to Master Sergeant and all round good ‘Guy’ Jes.
I know the day ran so smoothly due to a lot of effort from a lot of people, so I say congratulations to everyone involved and thank you for making my and everyone else’s day so enjoyable.
Roll on next year!