Preparing Your Manuscript for Publication Workshop - 5th October, 2015

On 5^th October, our Vice-Chair, the best-selling children's author, Kate O'Hearn, took time out of her extremely busy writing schedule to help members to prepare their manuscripts for a literary agent. This was particularly useful and timely as this year our 3000-word stories for the annual Catherine Cookson Cup Competition will be judged by talent scout, Sarah O'Halloran, from the Madeleine Milburn Literary Agency. Kate gave us tips on selling our work by capturing an agent's attention in one minute, writing clear outlines and tantalising synopses and scouring the 'Artists' and Writers' Yearbook' to find the right agent. She also gave a fascinating and entertaining account of her own experiences with publishers and editors as well as useful, practical answers to our questions. We ended the evening on a creative note as we attempted to write a first paragraph that would ensure our manuscripts didn't end up on a bored editor's spike. Kate was positive and encouraging throughout, so we all left inspired to write and have our work published.

Again, we congratulate Marcia Woolf on having another of her stories shortlisted and were pleased to hear that Rachel Marsh has another article on the 'Daily News Service'.