How To Get Published – Fiction & Poetry

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 the Open University to offer this online conference which runs across two evenings. You will get the chance to hear from poets and fiction authors who will share their top writing tips, to help you develop your own craft and ensure your work is ready for publication, as well as their own publishing journeys.  Our line-up, which includes acclaimed writers Sarah Crossan, Joelle Taylor and Anthony Anaxagorou, has been purpose-built to provide a range of guidance on the writing craft across both fiction and poetry, as well as insight into the world of publishing. Our speakers will be sharing advice gained from across their careers, and delving into their writing processes to help you hone yours.

A panel of literary agents and publishers will end the conference by shedding light on the process of getting your work published, and answering your questions. A particular focus of this event is voice and image, and how to use both to your advantage when writing fiction and poetry. We hope that the inspiration, information and writing advice on offer will encourage you to return to your work-in-progress with renewed optimism.

Agenda:

Wednesday 29th November

6.00pm - 7.00pm: Seminar - Fiction and Poetry with Sarah Crossan

Prep: Please consider the following questions ahead of this session: How does one develop voice? What makes an effective image? Why are you on this writing journey and what is your ultimate goal?

7.00pm: Comfort break 7:15pm - 8:15pm:

Seminar - Poetry with Joelle Taylor  

Thursday 30th November

6.00pm - 7.00pm: Seminar - Fiction and Poetry with Anthony Anaxagorou

7.00pm: Comfort break 7:15pm - 8:15pm: Literary Agents and Publishers Panel with Aaron Kent (Broken Sleep Books)  

Joining Links:

Wednesday’s Link: https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_MGZhZjEzZDgtNTRjZC00OGYzLWJjYTItOGE4N2ZhYjUyZTRm%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%2230141112-9deb-40f3-be1c-af76b07d7a06%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%22ec52b752-c032-4c17-9cc9-a0d83b2d82ae%22%7d 

Thursday’s Link: https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_OThlY2U3MGEtNzczMC00ODEyLTg0ZDEtMTNiNDc2YWFlODQ2%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%2230141112-9deb-40f3-be1c-af76b07d7a06%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%22ec52b752-c032-4c17-9cc9-a0d83b2d82ae%22%7d 

You can download Teams free on your computer, or join via the web: https://www.microsoft.com/en-ww/microsoft-teams/download-app 

We’ll also be recording the sessions, which we’ll make available to you to watch for two weeks after the event itself. 

SLACK

We will be using Slack during the course, which is a free, easy-to-use platform that enables everything related to the course to be stored in one place. Please click on the below link to gain access to the Slack workspace that we’ve created for this course:

https://join.slack.com/t/howtogetpubli-zdh6831/shared_invite/zt-26ibk1mfm-TbzaUbA3IiAeTQG1I09sbQ 

When you arrive in Slack you’ll see the workspace is called ‘How to Get Published (Nov23)’, with several channels within that workspace. A quick bit of guidance on how these different channels will work:

• Event Etiquette: We’ve put together some event etiquette guidelines. Please have a read and comment to confirm that you’ve seen them.
• General: This is a general discussion board. It’s mainly a space for you guys to chat amongst yourselves, discuss, share advice and book recommendations! A great way to start would be to introduce yourselves, share info about your writing journies so far and let the rest of the group know what you’re working on and why you’re here.
• Day One & Day Two: We’ll share resources and the recordings for each day in these channels. They’ll be monitored during the events if you have any questions on the day.
• The Open University: This channel is a space for OU students to connect with each other and with the OU team.
• Writers & Artists: This channel is a space where you can find out more about Writers & Artists, and make the most of some exclusive discounts on our writing guides!

Everyone involved in the event will have access to all channels by default. It’s therefore important to make Slack work for you, so please take a bit of time to manage your notifications. You can do this by right-clicking on the channel and then selecting ‘Change notifications’.

If you have any questions about Slack, or the event in general, please do drop us a line! We look forward to seeing you soon.