The Weekend Writer: An Agent Virtual Appearance And A Podcast

Are any of you Weekend Writers thinking about submitting to agents? Here are a couple of resources.

I used to be quite the fan of podcasts, listening to them while I binge cooked on weekends. After a while, I found it harder and harder to find podcasts that interested me, and I have the binge cooking thing under control now. Also, I found it difficult to get everything I should out of the podcasts while I was moving from baking center to stove to sink. And just sitting and listening to one? I need a compelling reason.

Well, while doing agent research last week, I discovered that this weekend is WriteonCon, an on-line childlit conference that offers, among other things, speakers doing video presentations. I "attended" WriteonCon in 2012 a few weeks after it was over. This year, by the way, there is a modest fee for attendance, which will allow you access to content either until the beginning of March or March 22, depending on what you pay.

There is also a little free content in the form of showcase events, which were available early. I sat and watched Working With Your Agent with Natascha Morris, who has been with the Bookends Agency nearly three years. There is a little sound problem with the first few minutes of this video, but stick with it. She has a number of interesting things to say, particularly if you are at the working with agent stage. Early on she talks about receiving editing letters from agents and how writers can deal with them. What she describes is exactly how I dealt with editing letters from editors.

Then I stumbled upon a Write the Book: Conversations on Craft podcast with Emily Forland of the Brandt &  Hochman Agency. This is an interview marked by the quality of the interviewer's questions. I realized when I'd nearly finished listening to this thing that I recognized Write the Book. It's a podcast out of Vermont (the Burlington area, I think) that I've listened to a few times back when I listened to podcasts. During this podcast an author was mentioned who I looked up and whose work I want to read, but now I can't remember his name! I don't have time to listen to this again.

Which is one of my problems with podcasts.

However, if you have time to listen to one, Write the Book is very good. And if you have time for an agent video, Natascha Morris's is very worthwhile.