… an agents and publishers seminar – Lyn Tranter of ALM and Annette Barlow of Allen & Unwin talking about what they do and how their parts of the industry work. T’is most interesting.
Lesson highlights to this point:
- learn your market;
- learn how all parts of the writing and publishing industry work;
- be polite to everyone you ever meet;
- be especially polite to everyone who is part of the writing and publishing foodchain;
- listen to the advice you are given, even when (perhaps especially when) it’s from someone rejecting your manuscript because just maybe they are right;
- target the right agent (just because one agent says ‘no’ doesn’t mean no agent will ever want to represent you);
- target the right publisher for your genre (just because one publisher says ‘no’ doesn’t mean no publisher will ever want your manuscript);
- if you’re creating a platform for yourself on the web, remember that someone is always watching/reading, so be careful what you put out there – it can come back to haunt you;
- did I mention be polite to everyone?
The entire seminar will be available from Queensland Writers Centre at some time in the near future – keep an eye out at www.qwc.asn.au.