Writers Meet Agents 2022

The League of Vermont Writers presents…

WRITERS MEET AGENTS 2022

Registration is closed.  See you Saturday!

August 13, 2022 at Pierce Hall, 38 South Main Street in Rochester, VT 

Presentations, pitch sessions, panels, and more from 9:00 AM - 4:00 PM

(ALL WRITERS WELCOME! Published and agented writers will enjoy a full day of presentations and panels; you do not have to pitch.)

Location: Pierce Hall Community Center, 38 South Main Street, Rochester, VT 05767

Members: $165

Non-Members: $215

Individual Pitch Sessions: $55 for ONE 15 minute session

People should only sign up for ONE pitch session

Registration will close end-of-day Thursday, August 11th

WRITERS MEET AGENTS 2022 Agenda

9:00am - 9:30am - Arrivals & Breakfast

9:30am - 10:00am - Opening Remarks: Meet the Agents (All three agents present)

10:00am - 11:00am - Craft Presentation: Rewilding Fiction with author Robin MacArthur

Agents start taking pitches in separate area.

11:00 - 11:15am - Break

11:15am - 12:15 - First Writes to Last Rights with agent/author Katharine Sands

Agents continue taking pitches.

12:15pm - 1:15pm - Lunch from Sandy’s Bakery

1:15pm - 2:15pm - The Author/Agent Partnership with agent/author, Susan Nystoriak

Agents continue taking pitches.

2:15pm - 2:30pm - Break

2:30pm - 3:30pm - The Editorial Process for Querying with agent Leah Pierre

Agents conclude taking pitches.

3:30pm - 4:30pm - Closing Thoughts & Insights: Agent Panel

All three agents will be present for discussion.

Guest Author:

Robin MacArthur

“Rewilding Fiction: Practicing Kinship, Biophilia, and Mutuality on the Page”

What happens if we stop thinking of “nature” as an accessory to our fiction—an element of backdrop or atmosphere—and bring it to the center of the stage? In this talk we’ll look at the resurgence of natural elements (plants, land, water, animals) in contemporary fiction and examine what this brings both to the page and to our lives as readers. We’ll explore the concepts of rewilding, eco-poetics, de-centering, biophilia, and kinship via the work of Ocean Vuong, Daisy Fen, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Anna Tsing, Jesmyn Ward, Sam Cohen, and others. Please bring pen and paper for a short writing exercise.

Bio: Robin MacArthur is the author of the short story collection Half Wild (Ecco/HarperCollins, 2016) and the novel Heart Spring Mountain (Ecco/HarperCollins, 2018). Half Wild won the Pen New England for Fiction in 2016, was a finalist for the New England Book Award and the Vermont Book Award, and was a Barnes and Noble Discover New Writers and Indie Next selection in 2018.

Katharine Sands, Sarah Jane Freymann Literary Agency

Presentation: "First Writes to Last Rights"

Delve into trends in publishing, expanding digital markets, and the actual business of books—and its quirks and processes and challenges. Tour the submissions and acquisitions process of getting-an-agent/submitting-to-editors, focusing on fundamental guiding principles behind all successful authors and the author-agent-editor relationship, including how to identify and develop your selling points and sales engines.

Seeking to represent: Katharine represents novelists and nonfiction writers across most genres. Actively building her client list, she likes nonfiction books that have a clear benefit for readers’ lives. When reading fiction, she wants to be compelled and propelled by urgent storytelling, and hooked by characters. For memoir and femoir, she likes to be transported to a world rarely or newly observed.

Susan Nystoriak, Golden Wheat Literary Agency

Presentation: "The Author/Agent Partnership"

Susan’s presentation will highlight making your query sparkle in the slush pile, meeting agent and author expectations, what the revisions process looks like, and what happens after you land your contract. A question and answer session will follow Susan’s presentation.

Seeking to represent: Susan is fond of charismatic characters, twisty plots, and happy endings.

Right now, she is particularly interested in finding

Leah Pierre, Ladderbird Literary Agency

Presentation: "The Editorial Process for Querying"

Seeking to represent: Leah is looking for underrepresented and/or marginalized voices. Leah is also looking for mysteries and thrillers with unreliable narrators or dark academia. Also, she is looking for fantasy with elements of myth and legends.

For Picture Books, she is selectively searching for an author/illustrator who is writing diverse, heartfelt and emotionally resonant stories about family, heritage, and tough, complex topics (i.e loss, identity, divorce, disabilities, etc).

For Young Adult/Crossover/Adult, she is looking to acquire across the following genres:

Instructions for Pitch Sessions

We encourage anyone pitching to do their research before selecting an agent and buying a pitch. Also, as a reminder, pitches are typically for writers with completed manuscripts to pitch. Writers can purchase ONE pitch with an agent. If there are still available pitch slots at the time registration closes, we will make the remaining slots available for purchase. Pitches will be scheduled on a first-come, first-served basis with a priority to those who pay in full up front.

A pitch ticket will also be given to those pitching at check-in the morning of the event. This pitch ticket will have the pitchers exact pitch schedule. Pitches will no longer be refundable once registration closes.

On the day of the event, pitches are prohibited from being sold or the schedule being altered. Pitches are not transferable to any other attendee. In short, we will not tolerate the scalping of pitches between attendees. There will also be no new pitches sold on the day of event nor new slots created.

Each pitch session is limited to 15 minutes.