We are the After Hour Authors
November 25, 2011 Meeting AHA
Writer in residence, Kimmy Beach was invited to the Rocky Public Library in February and a couple members of AHA participated in having 15 pages of their manuscripts critiqued. Kimmy offered many encouraging words and shared some great advice. One particular recommendation was to join the Alberta Writer's Guild. The guild offers a manuscript consultation service to their members for a moderate fee depending on the word count. Furthermore, the guild will endeavour to have your work reviewed by a published author in your genre.
If you have any ideas for other workshops or guest speakers you think would be interesting please call Alison from the Rocky Public Library at 403-845-2042.
Another topic of discussion at our last meeting was submitting to publishing houses that don't accept unsolicited material. It was recommended if you want to be published by one of these houses, you might try submitting a query letter. There are no guarantees it will be read, but it will have a greater chance than if you send in the entire manuscript. It was also agreed that if you have the endorsement of a known writer you should reference the author's comments (if you have their consent) in the query letter.
There was discussion concerning the different type of people who edit, those who edit to improve the story and those who edit to improve their self image. You always need to follow your instincts. Take into consideration what your editor has recommended, but make sure you agree. Don't change your work solely on their say-so.
We also discussed a new development with ebooks. Libraries are having trouble ordering ebooks. The publishers are trying to put restrictions on them, such as how many times they can be read. The Alberta government meanwhile is taking steps to ensure ebooks are made available to the entire province.
In honor of St. Patrick's Day our assignment for March is green. Feel free to submit anything green brings to mind in any genre or form.
The next meeting will take place on March 23 at 6 p.m. and will be hosted by The Home Vintner at the bottom of Main Street.
