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Welcome pack now available - click here to download and print
Introducing the Friday mini-course
There's so much on at the Festival, that it can be difficult to find room for everything that you want..
For that reason, we've developed four optional mini-courses to run during the afternoon of Friday 9th April. Those courses will aim to cover their material in as much depth as we can manage in the time - thereby freeing up your time at the Festival to concentrate on all those other goodies.
The mini-courses on offer are:
• Self-edit & Sell your Children's Book, Val Tyler & Julia Churchill
• How to get Published, with Harry Bingham & Helen Corner
• Self-Edit your Work for Market, with Debi Alper & Emma Darwin
We've chosen some of the most experienced and capable workshop tutors in the country to run these courses, so please don't leave it too late to book, as places are strictly limited.
When? How? How much?
The courses run from 14.30 on Friday through to 18.30.
To book a place, just make the appropriate selection when you come to book your Festival ticket. (The mini-course costs an additional £60 to the normal Festival price). Places are limited and, as always, it's first come first served. More info on each course follows below.
How To Self-edit & Sell your Children's Book, with Val Tyler & Julia Churchill
Val Tyler
Val is the author of two books for children, The Time Wreccas and The Time Apprentice, and has been shortlisted for Ottakar's children's book prize. Her work has been both critically and commercially successful. She now writes full time and lives deep in the Welsh countryside. She is also an experienced & successful book doctor for children's writers.
Julia Churchill
Julia runs the UK office of The Greenhouse Literary Agency, an agency exclusively dedicated to children's authors. Julia has discovered and represented a number of children's authors who have gone on to appear on a number of prestigious literary award shortlists.
How to Write for Children and Young Adults.
The course will be aimed at helping participants to ensure that their children's manuscript is strong enough to sell - at a time when the market for children's fiction is tougher than it has been for years. The afternoon course will cover:
• The target audience: getting the tone right for kids & young adults
• Who is telling the story? - the mysteries of points of view
• Plot structure - absolutely crucial! You can't afford to get this wrong.
• Building compelling characters
• Maintaining suspense - how to pace and develop your narrative
• The business side (with Julia Churchill): submitting to agents, etc
All you need to bring is writing materials if you want to take notes. There will be course materials available to all participants. The course will assume that most participants have completed, or got a fair way through writing their children's book. Absolute beginners are very welcome, however: you'll just need to work that little bit harder!
How To Get Published, with Harry Bingham and Helen Corner
Harry Bingham
Harry is the bestselling author of five novels with HarperCollins and is currently writing non-fiction for 4th Estate. He runs the Writers' Workshop & the Festival of Writing - and A&C Black (publishers of the Writers' & Artists' Yearbook) are about to launch his book on Getting Published. If you want to understand the mechanics of getting published, there is nobody better placed to advise you.
Helen Corner
Helen runs Cornerstones literary consultancy, established 1998. They provide editorial feedback, scout for agents and run self-edit workshops. To date they've helped launch over 50 writers. She's a leading UK consultants and has co-written a book, Teach Yourself: How to write a Blockbuster by Lee Weatherly and Helen Corner, Hodder.
How to get Published
The afternoon course will cover:
• Is your manuscript strong enough to send out?
• Preparing a strong submission package
• Agents or publishers? And which agents? Which publishers?
• Interpreting signals from Planet Agent
• Signing up with your agent
• How to get published the right way - and without losing your sanity.
All you need to bring is writing materials if you want to take notes. There will be course materials available to all participants. David Smith will be in attendance for approximately the last hour of this mini-course.
How to self-edit your work for market, with Emma Darwin & Debi Alper
Debi Alper
Debi is the author of the tough, funny, contemporary Nirvana thrillers, published by commercial powerhouse, Orion. She's also a hugely experienced editor and workshop leader for the Writers' Workshop.
Emma Darwin
Emma is the bestselling author of The Mathematics of Love and A Secret Alchemy (both Headline Review). She's also a winner of both Bridport and Fish Short Histories Prizes. She also works as editor & workshop leader for the Writers' Workshop.
How to self-edit your work for market
All first drafts need tough, dispassionate editing - that doesn't just mean cutting text; it also means addressing things like weaknesses in characterisation, plot niggles, pacing the narrative, and so on. Professional authors typically go through multiple drafts of their own work before they're satisfied. The afternoon course will cover:
Bring writing materials, if you want to take notes. There will be course handouts for all particpants. We will also ask attendees to submit some sample work to the class beforehand - further details about this closer to the time. If you don't have sample work to submit, please don't worry about it.
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Helen Corner
