News and what I’m doing at Conflux

At Conflux, I will be like this Willie Wagtail: all over the place!

There is still time to register for my workshop Writing to Sell. In this workshop, I will cover a wide range of things related to taking the next step in your writing. There will be a lot about self-publishing, but also about submitting traditionally, and a lot about what things you can do before you get to the publishing stage. This workshop will run on the 25th of April. Book on the Conflux website. Every participant will get some freebies!

Directly after the workshop, I will take part in the self-publishing panel at 3pm.

After the official opening, I will be on the panel How essential is an editor, particularly for self-published authors? This will be at 10pm. I have some opinions on that which people may find odd.

On Friday the 26th, I’ll be on the Kissing in Space panel, which runs at 9pm. I’ve also bought a ticket for the banquet which runs at the same time, so if anyone wants to see me turn up to a panel in my gothic (very tight) dress, come to this one.

On Saturday the 27th, I have a table at the one-day market, where I’ll have copies of most of my books.

NEWSFLASH!! I will be reading from my fiction on Sunday the 28th at 9.30am. I’ve selected two pieces for this.

NEWSFLASH!! Copies of Trader’s Honour are starting to make their way through the system. I’ll advertise more when they have shown up in all the main stores. Currently on Smashwords, Amazon and Kobo. Click the image to the right to see the links and read a sample chapter.

Writing to Sell – workshop at Conflux

Here is another reason to go to Conflux in April: I’ll be giving a pre-con workshop entitled Writing to Sell.

This will be an afternoon workshop geared towards novice writers who want to take their writing seriously and who may have sold a story or two to a small anthology or magazine and are looking to step up to the next level. The scope of the material will be very broad.

– I will include some technical writing advice gleaned from years in crit groups and thousands of submissions critiqued in these groups and as slush reader at ASIM.
– I will cover critique groups and how you may use them to your advantage. Do you need them? Can you go without?
– What education could make you a better writer? Is it necessary?
– Where should you submit your stories and how do you find out about these venues?
– What about rejection?
– What about your mental resilience and the days you feel like giving up?
– Writing novels and when or how you should submit
– What about self-publishing?

As you can see, this is a workshop that takes a broad approach to writing fiction and your fiction career. This is going to be about how you can persist with the journey, sustain the motivation to keep on going, help yourself and your friends through the low points and start selling your work. It will cover short stories as well as longer work, and I will cover traditional publishing as well as self-publishing, including some warning signs to watch out for in contracts, especially those likely to take on novice writers: semipro and start-up venues.

The formal part of the workshop will be three hours. There will be a fee. Details on the Conflux website.

Since the workshop is held on the opening day, and the night-time schedule is busy, we will have to move the dinner to Saturday night, but we will arrange this on the day.