Meet an Agent and Get a Critique at Steel Pen

2018 Steel Pen Guest Agent: Kaitlyn Johnson of the Corvisiero Agency

Here is one more great reason why you should join us at the Steel Pen Conference on October 27th at Fair Oaks Farms. In addition to the friendship, writing education, support, and great speakers traditionally found at our conference, 2018 will be the first year that we will offer critiques of manuscript pages by literary agent Kaitlyn Johnson. This exciting opportunity allows you to hear an industry expert's ideas how to write the perfect synopsis and meet one-on-one with her to receive feedback on your first two pages.

Who is Kaitlyn Johnson?

Ms. Johnson has a BA in Writing, Literature, and Publishing from Emerson College. She served as a copyeditor for codeMantra and the Accent Press as well as a conference assistant for GrubStreet, Boston. She now serves as a junior editor for the New York boutique Corvisiero Literary Agency and a freelance editor for her own company, K. Johnson Editorial. 

She is currently looking for upper middle grade, young adult, new adult, and adult books. She loves fantasy works, including urban fantasy, and time travel. She also will consider general romance, contemporary romance, and any historical fiction other than Henry the VIII, the American Civil War, or Greek gods and myths. In addition, she welcomes queries on LGBT stories in all of the above genres.

What Ms. Johnson does not accept are chapter and picture books, horror, thrillers, suspense, or mystery books, along with romantic suspense. She does not work with novellas, poetry, short story collections, or plots heavily dependent on religious themes or motive.

However, while at the conference, she will review any two-page material that you wish to submit.

Steel Pen's Manuscript Review Process

Attendees have the option of three different reviews of their work. Ms. Johnson will provide critiques of the first two pages of a manuscript while Ms. Harrison and Ms. Suson are offering five-page reviews of manuscripts and poetry collections. All pages must be submitted to the Steel Pen committee by October 1st with "Manuscript for Review" in the subject line. Pages should be formatted according to industry standards, including double-spacing, 12-point Courier or Times New Roman font, and headers with author/title and a page number. Appointments will be set up the day of the conference and scheduled on a first come, first serve basis.

Ms. Johnson will meet with the authors for ten minutes each during the conference to offer advice on improvement. Although neither IWC nor Ms. Johnson guarantees any further review after the conference, she has the option to request more pages from you if she is interested in your work. The cost of this conference extra is $25 and the opportunities are limited to ten participants. You can find out more about her at www.corvisieroagency.com/kaitlyn-johnson.html.

Ms. Suson will review five fiction pages per attendee along with a one-page synopsis of the larger work. She will provide a one-page feedback and offers ten-minute review sessions with each author. If for some reason you can't attend the conference, she will send the feedback to you, either via email or physical mail. Opportunities with Ms. Suson are limited to the first ten applications and the cost is $15. She is a traditionally published author in the thriller genre and a professional editor. Although she will be glad to read anything but poetry or picture books, her expertise includes science fiction, fantasy (all forms), thrillers, mysteries, and historical works (fiction and nonfiction) at all age levels. You can find out more about her at https://carlaleesuson.com/meet-the-author/.

Ms. Harrison will review five pages of poetry or creative nonfiction (e.g., memoir, essay) with a one-page synopsis for larger works or five pages of individual poems or short creative nonfiction prose. She offers a one-page critique and a ten-minute review session per submission. If for some reason you cannot attend the conference, she will email or physically mail the feedback to you. Opportunities with Ms. Harrison are limited to the first five applicants and the cost is $15. Ms. Harrison is a published poet, creative nonfictionist, and fiction writer and was also selected to serve as the 2017 Highland (IN) Poet Laureate. She has over a decade of college creative writing teaching experience and currently instructs creative and freelance writing at American Public University. You can find out more about her at www.janineharrison.com. 

So make sure you are on the right path for success. Spaces are limited so go to the Steel Pen website and sign up today for your manuscript review. Either way, we look forward to seeing you on October 27th at the Fair Oaks Farm Conference Center!

How to Market Yourself Before, During, and After a Writer's Conference

By

Nicole Amsler

There are only a few short months until the 2018 Steel Pen Conference but most attendees won’t start planning for the conference until a few weeks beforehand. As your resident marketing expert and fellow attendee, I encourage you to start planning your marketing strategies now.

For only a few minutes time, pre-planning will enhance your conference-going experience and make it more effective for you.

First, go to www.steelpenconference.org for more information about and to register for the conference.

Before the Conference

·       If you have a book to sell or to pitch, start prepping your pitch. Keep it short and catchy. Practice your pitch often leading up to the conference, so it sounds natural. The more you practice, the easier it is to recite your pitch even if you’re nervous.

·       Even if you don’t yet have a book, create a USP (unique selling proposition) for yourself. Who are you as a writer? You need to be able to succinctly define what type of writing you do and what makes you different.

·       Let your readers know where you live. If you have a webpage, you should have links to your social media profiles. Make sure you are stocked up on business cards and that you are active on your social media platforms.

Give yourself a social media makeover

Spruce up your social media footprint by taking steps to make all your social media avenues functional and professional.

·       Take a new headshot. Consider updating your headshot at least once a year. Make sure you are well represented, recognizable, and professional looking.

·       Open all your social media channels (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc.) and see if they are cohesive and a true representation of you and your brand. Update anything out of date and consider posting more often leading up to the conference.

·       Challenge yourself to add a new avenue or strategy to your social media footprint. Try Instagram or Snapchat. Post on Medium or Tumblr. Explore new hashtags or try out the “Stories” function on several platforms. Marketing tools are constantly evolving. Experiment often to find the best tools for you.

        

At the Conference

Conferences can be hard for writers to attend because so many authors are introverted. Since we spend so much time alone with the page, it can be hard to break out and suddenly become social. But keep in mind that most of the other attendees feel the same apprehension as you do.

·       Reach out and make new friends. It’s easy to open up a conversation with “Is this your first time at the Steel Pen conference?” or “So what are you writing?”

·       Ask for your new friend’s name or a business card. (Bonus tip: tuck some business cards behind your name badge for easy access.)

·       Don’t forget to befriend and chat with the keynote speaker, seminar presenters, conference organizers, and volunteers.

·       Discover if the conference is using a hashtag, such as #SteelPen2018. Before, during, and after the conference use the hashtag to live Tweet a helpful seminar, mention your new author friends, or post small snippets of wisdom from the conference.

Following the conference hashtag is also a great way to find fellow attendees and other writers.

Even If You Don’t Have Anything to Sell Yet

Don’t worry! Selling a book only takes a moment but creating an audience for your books is a long game. Follow the steps in this article in order to start and continue growing your audience.

·       Concentrate on gathering names and friends. Keep in touch after the conference via social media, private groups, or through an email newsletter.

After the Conference

Keep the momentum going by cultivating the relationships and connections you just made.

·       Friend or Follow all your new friends right away. On Facebook, make sure you look for a fan or author page along with the personal page. On LinkedIn, remind your new connection how and where you met. LinkedIn is more professionally based, while other social media avenues are usually personal.

·       Consider creating a private group on Facebook for some of your closest new friends. Several of my critique groups or social groups were born from local writing conferences. Keep the conversation going.

·       Take a moment to promote some of your new author friends. Retweet other author’s new releases. Read and review the books you bought. Send an encouraging note to a fellow author.

·       Sign up to for your next conference and keep working on your writing career.

I look forward to meeting you all at the Steel Pen Conference. I’ll be teaching Guidelines for Creating an Effective Marketing Strategy where we will be discussing time-saving tips and strategies for creating a well-balanced marketing plan, no matter where you are on your writing journey. See you at #SteelPen2018 in October!

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Nicole Amsler has 30 years of marketing experience and a lifetime love of writing. Currently the Director of Marketing for a tech firm, she has been involved in a wide variety of industries, including marketing authors and professional speakers. She lives in Noblesville with her family and enjoys writing fiction, illustrating children’s books in felt and fiber art, traveling, cooking, and learning German.

Laughing at Steel Pen

Do you want a good dose of laughter? Join us at the 2018 Steel Pen Creative Writers’ Conference, which will be held on October 27 at the conference center at Fair Oaks Farms. It is located north of Rensselaer, Indiana just off I-65.

Yes, I realize the title of this post could have a double meaning, but in this case the “at” refers to the place where the laughter occurs, not the object of the laughter. Still, we don’t mind being laughed at if it is all in fun.

Opportunities for laughter will be sprinkled throughout the conference, but one of the breakout sessions focuses on it. Here is the description of “Bury Me Next to a Straight Man: Writing Humor in Poetry.”

Groucho Marx once said, “I hope they bury me near a straight man.” Why is that funny? In this workshop we’ll look at the linguistic structure of humor and how to incorporate it in poetry. We’ll also consider humor potholes, humor dumpster fires, and humor lemons. All experience levels welcome. (I’m serious!)

This session is presented by Karen Schubert, and her credentials are impressive. When she submitted her proposal, she provided ten pages of writing credits and teaching experience. Here is the short version.

Karen Schubert is the author of five poetry chapbooks, most recently Dear Youngstown (forthcoming, Night Ballet Press), Black Sand Beach (Kattywompus Press) and I Left My Wings on a Chair (Kent State Press), selected by Kathleen Flenniken for a Wick Poetry Center Chapbook Prize. Her poems and creative nonfiction appear or are forthcoming in the Cleveland Humanities Festival, The Strand Project, Winning Writers, Aeolian Harp, and The National Poetry Review. She was a 2017 artist-in-residence at the Vermont Studio Center and is Director of Lit Youngstown and Coordinator for Power of the Arts, in Youngstown, Ohio.

Karen has her own way of looking at things. When I asked her for a blog post, she gave me this Twitter-sized one.

I’ve heard it said that writing humor is hard, but there is actually a structure to humor. We’ll look at some examples of good and bad humor writing and different kinds of humor. Spoiler: you’ll never laugh at a joke again. Just kidding.

With that kind of humor, how can you resist her session?

Early registration pricing ends on July 14. You can register at www.steelpenconference.org. That’s also the place to find more information on the keynote speaker and the other break-out sessions.

So join us in laughing at Steel Pen.

Happy Halloween from Steel Pen

Happy Halloween.

Oops, wrong holiday. Or is it?

The 2018 Steel Pen Creative Writers’ Conference will be held on October 27 at the conference center at Fair Oaks Farms, which is located north of Rensselaer, Indiana just off I-65. Since that’s the Saturday before Halloween and we have a keynote speaker with the devil as a protagonist, it’s the perfect opportunity for a literary costume contest.

While costumes are optional, we encourage attendees to come dressed as their favorite literary character or writer. (Well, any writer except Edgar Allen Poe. He’s already taken, and you don’t want to anger the conference chairperson, do you?)

The venue caters to children, so keep it clean. Other than that (and not coming as Poe), anything goes.

But you can’t participate if you don’t register for the conference. Although registration runs through October 15, early registration prices end on July 14. You can register at www.steelpenconference.org. That’s also the place to find more information on the keynote speaker and the break-out sessions.

So sign up now and spend your Fourth of July planning for Halloween.

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The photo is © 2018 by Kathryn Page Camp.