Writers can pitch book ideas at weekend conference

Local writers can pitch their book ideas or have their manuscripts critiqued by literary agents from New York City at the All Write Now! Writers Conference on Saturday at the Southeast Missouri State University Center.

Janet L. Cannon will be in charge of the pitch sessions for about 30 writers. Authors will have five minutes or less to describe their book and captivate an agent who could get their work published. Cannon said the author should know his or her audience.

Tiffany Schofield works Five Star/Cengage, a company that will publish only frontier westerns based before 1920.

The other two agents work for companies specializing in young adult fiction and nonfiction.

Cannon said it’s best to keep book descriptions to about three tweets in length to allow agents to ask questions. Authors need to know their characters and plot and write down what they are going to say but not speak straight off a script.

“I have pitched several times, and it’s a nerve-wracking experience,” Cannon said. “I have four times as many rejections as publication credentials.”

The third-annual All Write Now! Conference will feature a mix of speakers and events for advanced and beginning writers. Organizer Donna Essner said 102 people have registered for the conference.

On the advanced side, a few of those writers have submitted manuscripts that have been read by literary agents and will be given a 10-minute interactive critique. Essner said this is the first year literary agents from New York have attended the conference. John Randolph will speak about publishing contracts.

“Young writers have a chance to connect with people who know a lot about the industry,” conference organizer Sharon Hopkins said.

Susan Swartwout, David Armand and Jill Marr will speak about writing concepts in poetry, memoirs and building suspense in any format, respectively. Hopkins, one of the publishers of Deadly Writes Publishing based in Marble Hill, Missouri, said aspects of each type of writing can apply to any genre. Deadly Writes specializes in mystery novels.

“Writers should always strive to have the tightest story. A lot of writers tend to be way too wordy,” Hopkins said. “I think all writing, all good writing, shares certain traits. Every word has to mean something on the page.”

Cannon said the conference gives an opportunity for writers to network with other writers and publishers. Cannon is working on a book that turns fairy tales upside down — the Big Bad Wolf is trying to save the world as one example — but she won’t have much time to try to make connections.

Attendance at the conference has more than doubled since its first year in 2013, when there were 45 attendees at the Cape Girardeau library, Essner said.

Essner, through the Heartland Writers Group and Southeast Missouri Writer’s Guild, organized the All Write Now! Conference to give opportunities to talented regional writers to make connections. Her goal for that first conference was to attract small-press publishers from in and around St. Louis.

One of the attendees won a publishing contract from High Hill for a children’s book. A publishing company also accepted a manuscript from a local author, Essner said. Cannon said the literary agents and the attendees signed up to pitch books are good signs local authors will continue to get noticed.

bkleine@semissourian.com

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