Your Ultimate Guide to: Live Events
When we posted our guide to accessing all events, we brushed over live events. But for those of you eager to know more, we’ve put together this useful guide to give you an in-depth look!
Overview
Live events are accessed through our Live Events page. Only Full and Extended Admission attendees will be able to access the events on this page (though everyone can see a preview of the posts). All events will be embedded into the Live Events page for easy organization and access.
You will need to be logged into your WriteOnCon account to see the full post and leave a comment. These comments will be pulled by the moderator for Q&As, pitch sessions, and workshop critiques.
If you missed an event while it was live, don’t panic! All live events — both video and text — will be archived for you to be able to catch up on later (you just won’t have the opportunity to interact with our live speaker).
Q&A Events
Our vastly talented moderators will start setting up about twenty minutes before the event goes live. This means that the events should start promptly at their assigned time!
The post for the event will go up 5 minutes before the event itself goes live. That way, you can open the post, get comfortable, and see it start right on time. Viola!
Leave comments on the blog post to ask your questions. The moderator for the event will be watching, ready pass them to the speaker (or delete, should the comment be inappropriate). This means the speaker doesn’t have to try to read and talk at the same time!
At the end of the session (about 50 minutes after the start), your speaker will end the video. They may circle around to answer more questions in the comments, or they may vanish like a puff of wind. They are quite mysterious, these speaker-types.
The video will remain up after the event is live, and you can watch it at any time like you would any sort of video. Comments left after the event obviously won’t be answered by the speaker, though you’re welcome to leave them anyway.
Pitch Events
This year, we’re hosting six live pitching events. Here are the details you need to know about each one:
Note: Some edits have been made Sunday morning to reflect changed methods to help everything run more smoothly!
General Pitch Session: Kaitlyn Johnson
Who she is: Literary Agent at Corvisiero Literary Agency
What she likes: Kaitlyn is actively accepting upper MG, YA, NA, and Adult in fantasy, contemporary, historical fiction, and romance.
Rules for this session:
Type of pitch: Manuscript concept (blurb from query letter)
Max length: Two-to-three paragraphs
Genres/Age categories: Upper MG, YA, and Adult; fantasy, contemporary, urban fantasy, historical fiction, light sci fi, & romance
Special instructions: Focus on the hook of your story, much like what you would put in a query letter; give me the concept and the stakes and the main character and/or villain
Pitch Submission: Post to appropriate thread on the forums (here)
Other rules: Please no erotica, mystery, thriller, or horror
General Pitch Session: Alyssa Eisner Henkin
Who she is: Literary Agent at Trident Media Group
What she likes: Alyssa represents all forms of literature for young people from board books through young adult. She is currently seeking more middle grade fiction and is perpetually drawn to humor, heart, and heroes and heroines who seek to make the world a better place. A lifelong history buff, Alyssa wants to represent more nonfiction from mold-breaking picture book biographies (if they are illustrated, all the better!) to YA memoirs that cross over to adult readers.
Rules for this session:
Type of pitch: Query blurb
Max length (if applicable): 250-300 words
Genres/Age categories: All genres, but with the heaviest focus currently being MG fiction and narrative nonfiction
Pitch Submission: The post for this session will go live 45 minutes before the session begins. Please leave your pitches in the comments during that window.
First Impressions on Queries: Natalie Lakosil and Patricia Nelson
Natalie Lakosil
Who she is: Literary Agent at Bradford Literary Agency
What she likes: Natalie is drawn to talented, hard-working new authors with a fresh, unique voice and hook. Her specialties are children’s literature (from picture book through teen and New Adult), romance (contemporary and historical), cozy mystery/crime, upmarket women’s/general fiction and select children’s nonfiction. Her interests include historical, multi-cultural, magical realism, sci-fi/fantasy, gritty, thrilling and darker contemporary novels, middle grade with heart, and short, quirky or character-driven picture books. She is always drawn to an open and positive attitude in an author, professionalism, good grammar, and fantastical, beautifully written, engaging and sexy plots.
Patricia Nelson
Who she is: Literary Agent at Marsal Lyon Literary Agency
What she likes: Patricia is always excited to find beautifully written, page-turning YA and MG across genres, with particular interest in contemporary/realistic, magical realism, science fiction and fantasy.
Rules for this session:
Type of pitch: Query
Max length: Around 300 words (one page)
Genres/Age categories: Any
Pitch Submission: Post to appropriate thread on the forums (here)
Other rules: Please keep questions until the end
General Pitch Session: Emily S. Keyes
Who she is: Literary Agent at Fuse Literary
What she likes: Emily is a particular lover of all types of young adult and middle grade books. She wants to represent the kind of stories that will resonate with kids for the rest of their lives. She loves strong voices and unique characters, not knock-offs or trend chasers. Some of her favorite authors include Deb Caletti, Laurie Halse Anderson, Gary D. Schmidt, and Megan Whalen Turner. She thinks books are best when they make you laugh but have a lot of heart.
Rules for this session:
Type of pitch: Query blurb
Max length (if applicable): 250-300 words
Genres/Age categories: YA, MG, SFF, WF
Pitch Submission: The post for this session will go live 45 minutes before the session begins. Please leave your pitches in the comments during that window.
First Impressions: Kelly Van Sant
Who she is: Literary Agent at D4EO Literary
What she likes: I am seeking Middle Grade, Young Adult, and women’s fiction across all genres, including fantasy, science fiction, adventure, historical, and contemporary. I love character-driven stories with intricate plots, and am always drawn to explorations of friendship and found family. I am especially interested in #ownvoices and inclusive narratives. I blog more extensively about what I’m seeking and my manuscript wish list at www.penandparsley.com and you can also find me on twitter @bookishchick.
Rules for this session:
Type of pitch: First Page
Max length: 350 words
Genres/Age categories: MG/YA, all fiction genres
Pitch Submission: The post for this session will go live 45 minutes before the session begins. Please leave your pitches in the appropriate forum thread during that window.
General Pitch Session: Caitie Flum
Who she is: Literary Agent at Liza Dawson Associates
What she likes: She’s looking for Middle Grade and Young Adult projects, particularly romance, historical fiction, mysteries and thrillers, science fiction and fantasy, and contemporary books with diverse characters.
Rules for this session:
Type of pitch: Elevator pitch
Max length: 150 words
Genres/Age categories: MG & YA genres: Any. Adult genres: Women’s fiction
Pitch Submission: The post for this session will go live 45 minutes before the session begins. Please leave your pitches in the appropriate forum thread during that window.
Workshop Events
We’re introducing something new for WriteOnCon 2018: Workshops!
These live videos will be short lectures with interactive elements. For instance, the speaker might present a tutorial on an aspect of writing, then give the attendees a few minutes to work on something themselves. Attendees can then leave their work in the comments section for feedback, and the speaker may respond to it live. Then the speaker will continue expounding on the tutorial, with some more hands-on application and feedback sprinkled in.
Specific instructions for specific events will be featured on the events’ individual posts. These will go live 45 minutes before the session begins, so you have plenty of time to collect yourself.
So, that’s it! Simple enough?
Let us know if you have any questions.
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