Friday 1 April 2016

WORKSHOP ON THE NOVEL WRITING BIZ



LEARNING FROM A CANADIAN BEST-SELLER AUTHOR

Author, Kelley Armstrong
 On March 30th, three of our Killer Authors’ group, Gloria Ferris, D L. Houghton, and myself, attended a two-hour no-holds-barred discussion by New York Times #1 bestselling author, Kelley Armstrong, entitled, Everything You Ever Wanted To Know about the Novel-Writing Biz at the Kitchener Central Library.  Kelley is this year’s Edna Staebler Writer-in-Residence. See the Library’s web site: http://www.kpl.org/ednastaebler for details on her upcoming workshops.

Armstrong is a Canadian author of several immensely popular series, including Women of the Otherworld, The Darkest Power, the Cainsville series, The Blackwell Pages trilogy, and more, as well as several stand-alone novels. She writes both fantasy and crime novels, and writes for adults, middle-grade, and young adult readers. Her newest book, City of the Lost, is now available. 

This is the second  workshop for writers that I’ve attended of Kelley’s, and I recommend anyone flirting with the idea of writing as a career or those currently in the business to register for future workshops.  

Kelley’s informative and entertaining discussion touched on many aspects of traditional publishing:
·         Getting started
·         Writing credentials
·         Editing
·         Research
·         Trunk novels
·         Literary Agents
·         Names of the five big publishing houses
·         How to get published
·         Royalty payments
·         Best seller author rankings
·         Money management
·         Book cover art
·         Television and movie book contract options.
 
So, if you’re sitting on the fence about exploring the business of being a published author – roll the dice.  It might be a gamble worth taking.
Mystery Novelist, Donna Warner

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