Writers Meet Agents
League of Vermont Writers will be presenting
The IN-PERSON Event: "Writers Meet Agents." --> CLICK HERE FOR TICKETS <--
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At the Delta Hotel in S. Burlington; 1117 Williston Road,South Burlington, VT
175.00 for members; 235.00 non-members; Agent Pitches are 25.00 each.
Writers Meet Agents Schedule of Events
8:30 Hall opens for registration, meet and greet and continental breakfast
9:00 Call to order; welcome remarks by President Caryn Connolly
9:15 Panel Discussion begins:
- Katherine Sands, Sarah Jane Freymann Literary
- Sorche Fairbank, Fairbank Literary
- Sheree Bykofsky, Sheree Bykofsky Associates
- Rita Rosenkranz, Rita Rosenkranz Literary
- Amy Thrall Flynn, Aevitas Creative Management
10:30 Break: Mingle; look at others’ books; agents take places in Pitch Hall, etc.
10:45 Sheree Bykofsky presentation: “Why You Need an Agent: How to Find One, How to Work with One, How to Help Them Work with You, and How to Proceed Without Them.” Taking you from query letters to contracts to many of your other questions,
Pitch sessions begin
11:45 Break for all – Mingle; buy raffle tickets; buy other members’ books, etc.
12:00 Lunch
1:00 Rita Rosenkranz presentation: “How to Write an Irresistible Non-fiction Book Proposal” What are the key components that define a winning book proposal? What research should an author do to help make sure the project has merit? How can an author leapfrog over the competition in the category? In this especially competitive climate, authors need to be savvy to manage the marketplace.
Pitch sessions resume
2:00 Katharine Sands presentation: "MasterPitch Theatre" Your pitch is a performance, whether you deliver it in person or on the printed page. Katharine Sands shows you how to hone the pitch, including how to boil down your entire book into 1-2 paragraphs; how to understand the differences between pitching fiction/memoir (where the story is key) vs. pitching nonfiction; how to avoid vagueness that will sink your submission. You'll learn how to avoid "Querial Killers," and so much more, on the way to making sure your pitch entices an agent/editor to request your full manuscript!
Pitch sessions continue
3:00 Break for all
3:15 Jennifer Wilkov presentation: "Marketing Success." In this presentation, Jennifer, founder of Your Book Is Your Hook, LLC, will show you how to master the art of determining what belongs in your marketing platform – and what doesn’t – before, during, and after your book has been published.
Pitch sessions resume
4:00 Quick Break for all, Pitches end.
4:15 Final Remarks, Door Prizes, Raffle Tickets
4:30 Clean up – All help welcome
5:00 LVW “Leaves the Building”
Bios and Preferred Genres of the Agents who will be coming:
Katharine Sands is a literary agent with the Sarah Jane Freymann Literary Agency.
- She has worked with a varied list of authors who publish a diverse array of books. She is the agent provocateur of Making the Perfect Pitch: How to Catch a Literary Agent’s Eye, a collection of pitching wisdom from leading literary agents. Recently contributed “Grey is the New Black” to Fifty Writers on Fifty Shades of Grey, a nonfiction look at the cultural phenom of the bestselling novel.
- Actively building her client list, she likes non-fiction books that have a clear benefit for readers’ lives in categories of food, travel, lifestyle, home arts, beauty, wisdom, relationships, parenting, and fresh looks, which might be at issues, life challenges or popular culture. When reading fiction she wants to be compelled and propelled by urgent storytelling, and hooked by characters. For memoir and femoir and himoir, she likes to be transported to a world rarely or newly observed.
Sorche Fairbank from Fairbank Literary Representation
- It is a small, selective agency and member of AAR, the Author's Guild, the Agents Round Table, PEN, and Grub Street's Literary Advisory Council. It is happily entering its nineteenth year. Clients range from first-time authors to international best-sellers, prize winning-journalists to professionals at the top of their fields. They can be found with all the major publishers, as well as in the New York Times, The Boston Globe, Harper’s, The Atlantic, The New Yorker, Granta, Best American Short Stories, McSweeney's, Tin House, Glimmertrain, and more.
- Our tastes tend toward literary and international fiction; voice-y novels with a strong sense of place; big memoir that goes beyond the me-moir; topical or narrative nonfiction with a strong interest in women’s voices, global perspectives, and class and race issues; children's picture books & middle grade from illustrator/artists only; quality lifestyle books (food, wine, and design); pop culture; craft; and gift and humor books. We are most likely to pick up works that are of social or cultural significance, newsworthy, or that cause us to take great delight in the words, images, or ideas on the page.
- Lately we have been doing extremely well in the humor/gift/pop culture category, international fiction, and children's picture books by illustrator artists, and we’d love to take on more projects in those categories. Above all, we look for a fresh voice, approach, story, or idea.
Carrie Howland from Howland Literary - is not able to be with us. There has been a death in her family.
Sheree Bykofsky from Sheree Bykofsky Associates
- in 1991. A long-standing member of the Association of American Literary Agents and the first agent to have a web page.
- Sheree has represented over a thousand authors in all areas of adult non-fiction as well as literary and commercial fiction, although currently Sheree is only representing non-fiction. Her non-fiction specialties include popular reference, business, health, psychology, poker, spirituality, self-help, humor, cookbooks, pop culture, biography, women’s issues, decorating; crafts, music, and much more.
- Among the agency’s non-fiction clients are Leslie Rule, Howard Kaylan, Taro Gold, Cy Tymony, Jennifer Basye Sander, Paul Mladjenovic, Mark Ryan, Jane Eldershaw, John Carpenter (first millionaire on “Who Wants to Be A Millionaire?”), and many more. Sheree has been an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Publishing at New York University and an Adjunct Professor at Rosemont College, and she teaches at conferences around the country.
Rita Rosenkranz from Rosenkranz Literary Agency
- A well-established agent, who began her career as an editor at major publishing houses, Rita Rosenkranz represents almost exclusively adult non-fiction titles. Her wide-ranging list includes health, history, parenting, music, how-to, popular science, business, biography, sports, popular reference, cooking, writing, humor, spirituality, illustrated books and general interest titles.
- She represents first-time as well as seasoned authors, and looks for projects that present familiar subjects freshly or lesser-known subjects presented commercially. Rita works with major publishing houses, as well as regional publishers that handle niche markets.
Amy Thrall Flynn from Aevitas Creative Management
- has 20 years of experience in children’s book publishing. She started her career as an editor at the former Houghton Mifflin Books for Children in Boston, where she trained under industry legends Walter Lorraine and Anita Silvey. Among the dozens of talented creators whom she had the honor and pleasure of working with are Sy Montgomery and Nic Bishop, whose The Snake Scientist launched the long-running acclaimed “Scientists in the Field'' series; award-winning nonfiction picture book author-illustrator Don Brown; artist James Rumford; storyteller Alice McGill; and Olivier Dunrea and his beloved “Gossie & Friends'' series.
- As an agent, she represents writers and illustrators of fiction and nonfiction for children, from picture books to young adult novels. She is thrilled to work with a growing list of clients including Julien Chung, Ellen Surrey, Federico Gastaldi, Carter Higgins, Wendell Minor, Heather Montgomery, and many more.
- A cum laude graduate of Middlebury College with a major in American Literature and a minor in Spanish, Amy studied in Madrid and at Oxford. She holds an M.A. in English and an additional Master of Arts degree in Children’s Literature from Simmons University. She has a passion for the collaborative editorial process and is drawn to beautifully written and compelling stories and topics, with an underlying guiding belief in the power of books to connect, inspire, and affirm the lives of young people.