Wednesday  April 26th, Hall and Wood House cafe, Bath

The Road to Publication

with children’s  and YA  writer, Tracy Darnton

10.30-12.30 pm.Cost £26. Sold Out

Are you an aspiring children’s writer? Do you have a manuscript ready to go, or an idea for a children’s or young adult book you want to get on to paper? Come to a talk followed by a Q & A session by debut YA author Tracy Darnton and hear explain the stages of her journey to a publishing deal. Discover what helped and what she would have done differently.

Tracy Darnton won the Stripes/The Bookseller YA short story prize and was short listed for The Times/Chicken House Children’s Fiction Competition in 2016. She recently graduated with Distinction from the Bath Spa University MA in Writing for Young People, but originally studied law and Cambridge and worked as a solicitor and law lecturer. Her debut YA novel will be published by Stripes in 2018

Prior to Tracy’s talk, which will begin after the coffee break, Jude and Alex will introduce exercises to help you focus your ideas about your YA or children’s book. What’s the essence of your plot? Which age-group is it for? Can you write a ‘book blurb’, that will hook in your readers, or an agent?

Monday 8th May, Hall and Woodhouse cafe Bath.

Meet an Agent

10.30-12.30 pm. Cost £26.

sold out. Please contact us  in case someone drops out.

Literary agent Juliet Pickering will talk about how best to prepare a manuscript before sending out to agents.  All the dos and don’ts of submitting your novels, short story collections and non-fiction works. Q & A session after talk.

Juliet Pickering worked for Waterstones as a bookseller and fiction buyer before starting at A P Watt in 2003, where she became an Associate Agent in 2007. Juliet joined Blake Friedmann in 2013, and her authors have been shortlisted for Booker, Costa, and Guardian First Book Awards, won the Whitbread and Green Carnation Prizes and, in 2015, the prestigious French literary award Prix Femina Etranger. Her interests range from literary, book club and well-written, feminist commercial fiction to crime writing. She also represents many non-fiction writers across the board, including memoir, pop culture, social history, feminist and political commentary, cookery and food writing, humour, and all sorts in-between. Juliet  is also a judge for the Bristol Short Story Prize 2017

Before Juliet arrives to begin her talk at 11.30,  Jude and Alex will introduce exercises to help you  write  a short pithy summary of your book. Come if you’ve a book ready to go or if you’ve never put pen to paper but want to find out more about the agent’s role and what they are looking for.

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