How to get published with Madeleine Callway and Wordstock Sudbury 2015

I know I’m a little tardy with this report, but after spending the day at Wordstock on Saturday, I was exhausted, and returning to work on Tuesday, so forgive me, but I’m not going to apologize outright.

So first up is Madeleine Harris-Callway’s “How to get published” workshop which took place on June 18.

To Madeleine, there are three main components: confidence, commitment, and courage. Her presentation focused on the traditional publishing industry because that’s where she’s had her experience and her success.

After introducing the group to her experience and to the state of publishing today, we moved onto the three C’s of publishing success.

I’ll go over each component in a little more detail below:

Confidence

Perfect your writing skills.

1. Formal learning

• Creative writing courses at universities and colleges.
  Cambrian College: The Essentials of Writing Fiction
  Correspondence courses: e.g. Humber College, Toronto
• Writing workshops by established teachers.
  Brian Henry – Quick Brown Fox
• Workshops and panels by published authors.
  Literary festivals
  Authors associations
  Public libraries

2. Feedback on your work

• Critique groups are essential to success
  Join and existing group, or form your own.
  Consider manuscript evaluation services or freelance editors
  Find them through professional associations or writing conferences.
  Explore mentoring programs
  Find them through professional associations, universities or colleges, or make a private agreement with an established author.

3. Grow into a novel

• Write short fiction first for magazines or anthologies
  Start a blog

4. Writing awards and contests

• An excellent way to get recognition for your writing
  Short story competitions
  Unpublished novel contests

Commitment

1. Just write

• Every day
  Use the ten minute rule (even if you don’t feel like it, try writing for 10 minutes – if you still want to stop, then stop)
  Critique groups provide motivation

2. Network

• Join writing associations
  Stay in touch with writers you’ve met
  Attend book launches
  Local author readings
  Attend literary festivals and conferences

3. Social Media

• Join online literary groups
  Connect to other writers through Facebook and Twitter
  Subscribe to online writing publications
  Join literary sites (e.g. Goodreads)

Courage

1. Rejection is the norm
2. Take heart – even famous authors were rejected
3. Use strategy

• Contact publishers in your genre only
  Study their websites
  Follow their submission guidelines to the letter
• Edit your queries and proposals – eliminate typos and formatting mistakes
• Multiple submissions are fine
  Follow up
• Find an agent
  Study their websites
  Follow their submission guidelines to the letter
  Attend pitches at writing conferences
• Consider small publishers
• Consider epublishers

Then, Madeleine ended the evening with a Q&A session.

Having organized the session, I forgot to take pictures :(

Wordstock Sudbury 2015

This was only the second edition of the festival, but the organizers made a number of improvements.

Friday night began with a reception at the Speakeasy, followed by the announcement of the Youth Writing Contest winners and “An evening with Terry Fallis and Sandra Shamas.”

Saturday started early with book table set up and the organization of the two venues for the workshops and panels at Sudbury Secondary School. Over at the Greater Sudbury Public Library, Danielle Daniel held a children’s story time.

As of 10:30 am, the workshops and panels began and continued right through until 5:15 pm. I’ll let you read the program on their web site to get the details if you wish.

I participated in the author readings at noon, attended the genre fiction panel at 1 pm, volunteered at the indie book table until 4 pm, and then caught the graphic novel panel.

After we closed up the book table, the venue moved to the Motley Kitchen at 6 pm for a dinner and performance by Corin Raymond, back to Sudbury Secondary for Cheryl Cecchetto’s book launch, and finally back to the Motley Kitchen for Spoken Word After Dark.

It was a busy day. Hence the tired.

Wordstock Sudbury 2015 was a success, in my opinion, but it has room to develop and grow as a literary festival.

I’m looking forward to the next iteration.

Up next: I’m getting miscellaneous.