Are you a writer looking to develop your craft? Do you want to understand more about the publishing process from the people who know it best, such as editors and literary agents?
We’re delighted to be partnering with Literature Works to offer this full day conference packed with practical presentations and panel discussions from authors and publishing industry professionals. Our programme has been purpose-built to provide a range of guidance on the writing craft as well as insight into the world of publishing, while our networking lunch gives you a unique opportunity to connect with writing peers and build your own community.
In our first two sessions we will hear from established writers as they share essential advice on developing your craft as a writer and working towards publication. In the afternoon we will hear from a selection of agents who will demystify the submission process, and also a selection of publishers and editors who will talk you through a range of possible routes to publication as well as answering your questions.
Agenda:
10.00-10.30: Registration
10.30-11.40: Session 1 - Fiction with Amanda Prowse
11.40-11.50: Short comfort break
11.50-13.00: Session 2 - Fiction & Non-Fiction with Nathan Filer
13.00-14.00: Networking lunch
14.00-15.00: Agent Panel
15.00-15.30: Break
15.30-16.30: Publishing Panel
All attendees will be able to purchase books by our session leaders, as well as writing guide from Writers & Artists, at a discounted rate.
I’m a writer, university lecturer and broadcaster with a special interest in mental health, having previously worked as a mental health nurse. I will now list my professional achievements (because there isn’t enough room for my personal failings).
My debut novel, The Shock of the Fall (2013), tells the story of a young man trying to navigate psychiatric services following the death of his brother. It was a Sunday Times bestseller and translated into thirty languages. It won the Costa Book of the Year, the Betty Trask Prize, the National Book Award for Popular Fiction and the Writers’ Guild Award for Best First Novel.
I’ve written essays and articles for the Guardian, New York Times, HuffPost and Asylum Magazine. My BBC Radio documentary The Mind in the Media (2017), which explored portrayals of mental illness in fiction and journalism, was shortlisted for a Mind Media Award. My poetry has been broadcast on radio and TV, and I’m a previous winner of the BBC Best New Filmmaker Award.
My book of non-fiction, The Heartland: Finding and Losing Schizophrenia, also published as This Book Will Change Your Mind About Mental Health (2019), was a Sunday Times Book of the Year and was longlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize, awarded for the finest work of literature, regardless of form, to be published in the English language. The charity Rethink Mental Illness named it as one of their best books of the decade.
Why Do I Feel? (2021) is my podcast series exploring human emotions through stories and expert testimony. It was a Financial Times Top 10 Podcast of 2021 and won a Silver Medal at the 2022 Radio Academy ARIAS awards in the ‘Best Independent Podcast’ category.
I have talked about books, mental health, or some combination of both on the BBC Radio 2 Book Club, BBC Radio 3’s Free Thinking and BBC Radio 4’s Open Book, Front Row, All in the Mind, Word of Mouth, A Good Read and the Today Programme.
I’m a recipient of The Big Anxiety Prize, awarded in association with the University of New South Wales for ‘a creative thinker advancing the discussion of mental health’. I also hold an Honorary Doctorate in Liberal Arts from Abertay University, conferred in recognition of my role in raising awareness of mental health issues through literature.
Since 2014 I’ve taught Creative Writing at Bath Spa University, where I’m a Reader and Senior Lecturer.
My hobbies include pacing around feeling nervous about stuff, and having arguments with people in my head. Before I know it, it’s time to pick the kids up from school.
Amanda Prowse is an International Bestselling author whose twenty-seven novels, two non-fiction books and nine short stories, have been published worldwide in dozens of languages. Her chart topping No.1 titles ‘What Have I Done?’, ‘Perfect Daughter’, ‘My Husband’s Wife’, 'The Girl in the Corner' and 'The Things I Know' have sold millions of copies around the world.
In total, as of December 2022, Amanda has had thirty books published including the collection of seven novellas entitled 'Something Quite Beautiful'. She has written several more manuscripts that have not yet been released across a different range of genres including Historical Fiction, Comedies, Thrillers and more Contemporary Dramas.
I am proud to represent a list of intriguing, conversation-starting writers, across both fiction and non-fiction. Most of my authors write contemporary stories, often led by themes of love, identity, and coming-of-age; for me, vital qualities to a great story include emotional depth, authenticity, a warm, engaging voice and irrepressible energy. I want to be surprised, and to read everyday experiences and relationships told with nuance and colour. Our lives are rich, complicated and varied, and I like my books to reflect that too.
Favourite authors include Kate Atkinson, Claire Keegan, Curtis Sittenfeld, Elizabeth Strout, Shirley Jackson, Zora Neale Hurston, and Nora Ephron. I’m drawn to rich and multi-layered stories of women, families, friendships and relationships, and love small communities with a strong setting and lots going on beneath the surface; I prefer the small and intimate to the epic and world-affecting.
I want to bring under-represented experiences to both editors and readers, and to broaden the books we’re publishing to include everyone. I’m a proud feminist and celebrate books that empower us, or that make us feel recognised and heard.
Alongside literary, book club and commercial fiction, I represent non-fiction writers including memoir, pop culture, social history, cookery and food.
In case it’s helpful to know what I don’t represent, I do not work with the following genres: poetry, Young Adult or children’s, fantasy, supernatural, dystopian, sci-fi, thriller, horror or crime fiction, business, diet or health books. I tend to enjoy historical fiction only if it’s set after 1900!
I worked for Waterstones before joining the agency A P Watt in 2003. I moved to Blake Friedmann in 2013, becoming Vice Head of the Book Department and a Bookseller ‘Rising Star’ in 2017, and a Director in 2020. In 2021, I was delighted to win the Romantic Novelists’ Association Agent of the Year Award. I regularly visit literary festivals, courses and events, and enjoy giving talks and holding workshops for writers. I have been a judge for the Bristol Short Story Prize and Manchester Fiction Prize, and I’m on the board of the Working Class Writers’ Festival.
I joined Greene & Heaton in 2018. As well as handling the agency’s contracts, I’m actively building a list of fiction and non-fiction authors.
In non-fiction, I’m looking for proposals about food, nature, the environment, politics, history, identity, and the climate emergency, usually with a strong narrative or personal element, from academics and journalists who are writing their specialist subject for trade publication. I also represent cookery writers.
In fiction, I’m looking for book club, accessible literary fiction, historical fiction, and crime and thriller. Most of all, I’m interested in a strong voice or a vivid main character that catches your attention from the very first page. I love books that spark conversations, are totally immersive, socially or politically engaged, or offer a fresh take on a genre.
Some of my favourite novels are SUCH A FUN AGE by Kiley Reid, FINGERSMITH by Sarah Waters, THE CONFESSIONS OF FRANNIE LANGTON by Sara Collins, HOW TO KILL YOUR FAMILY by Bella Mackie, DETRANSITION, BABY by Torrey Peters, THE OTHER BLACK GIRL by Zakiya Dalila Harris, DOUBLE BOOKED by Lily Lindon, IN AT THE DEEP END by Kate Davies, PORTRAIT OF A THIEF by Grace D. Li, MY SISTER, THE SERIAL KILLER by Oyinkan Braithwaite and THE FLATSHARE by Beth O’Leary.
You can follow me on Twitter: @imogen_morrell
Formerly a Waterstones bookseller, Ella Gordon joined Wildfire Books (part of Hachette UK) at its inception in 2016, working her way up to her current position of Editorial Director. Her list comprises a mix of literary fiction and narrative non-fiction from a diverse range of voices. Her authors have been nominated for and/or won a number of prestigious prizes including the Orwell, National Book Award, Hawthornden and Women’s Prize, as well as repeatedly hitting Sunday Times bestseller lists. She is a Future Bookshelf, Grow Your Story and All About Trans mentor, and recently moved to Hachette’s Bristol office to focus on finding and amplifying literary talent outside the London bubble.
Olli began Blue Poppy Publishing to give an air of respectability to his own first novel. After jumping through several hoops in the process, he realised that other self-publishing authors might appreciate being under the Blue Poppy umbrella. It turns out many did. Over twenty authors have self-published under the Blue Poppy logo with many more being assisted to self-publish independently. The first batch of 100 ISBNs ran out last year and Blue Poppy purchased a further 1,000. This year Blue Poppy published the first of a growing number of traditionally published books i.e. where Olli paid the author, and for all production costs in exchange for exclusive publishing rights over three years.
While there is some stigma attached to assisted self-publishing and to hybrid publishers, Blue Poppy has always worked towards making money from selling books rather than from producing them. There isn't much money at this end of the publishing business, which makes it all the more important to keep costs down while maintaining quality. It's no easy balancing act but the growing back catalogue as Blue Poppy enters its seventh year shows that Olli is doing something right.
Literature Works are the literature development agency for the South West region.
We support writers at all stages of their careers, connecting them with opportunity and helping them help themselves. We are committed to diversity and to the socially engaged use of literature to develop communities and support wellbeing.
We do this by running workshops, writing courses, talent development programmes, providing seed funding and commissioning writing professionals to work in communities.
We work in partnership with a broad range of cultural organisations, encouraging relationships between writers and communities by running residencies in all sorts of settings – visitor centres, schools, museums, libraries, care homes – at inner city, rural and in between locations, supporting the varying demographics in the South West region.
Our region is large, encapsulating a varied demographic of both major cities and rural areas, from Gloucestershire down to Land’s End and across to Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. We believe that literature is for everyone and strive to ensure the best of South West talent is given a foundation to thrive.
The workshop fee of £95 (incl. VAT) is payable in full online. Members of Literature Works can buy tickets at a discounted rate. Please contact the Literature Works team to get your discount code!
If this event is Sold Out, please look out for more How to Get Published conferences by visiting our Events homepage. If you would like to be added to the waiting list for this particular event, please email events@writersandartists.co.uk and we'll get back to you as soon as we can.
To view our event refund and cancellation policy, please click here.
This is an in-person event. Joining instructions and full guidance will be provided by the W&A Team a week before the event start-date. All event times noted on this page are UK time.
Please note that payment instalment plans are available for all W&A events, writing courses and editing services. Contact W&A Admin on events@writersandartists.co.uk so that we can find a payment schedule that works for you.
Accessible to All
It’s of real importance to Writers & Artists that our events and courses remain accessible to all.
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There are a limited number of bursary places available for this event. For more information on bursary support, please contact Literature Works via email at info@literatureworks.org.uk
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There are five Blue Badge spaces outside the main entrance and four / five at the bottom of the slope (on Musgrave Row). These are all general public Blue Badge parking spaces however and not dedicated to the library.
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This event will include written text and visuals, both during and in the form of handouts from the sessions. Please contact us in advance so that we can make arrangements to be sure all documents appear in a format that works for you.
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If you’d like to attend but have any questions or concerns regarding accessibility, then please email AccessWA@bloomsbury.com
