For all you lucky London people, Simon Trewin is doing this:

I am taking part, with author Courttia Newland, in an event called HOW TO GET YOUR DEBUT BOOK PUBLISHED organised by those energetic people at FREEDOM THROUGH LEARNING. It is being held at 6-8 St Johns Square, Farringdon, London, EC1M 4NH on:Tuesday, 17th June 2008 at 6:30 pm

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Ooh, I wish I could go. Anyone willing to update us on what he says?
Susiex

It sounds good Susie - but did you see that's it's £99? I think it's a great chance for people to try and meet with and get some face to face advice from the handsome Mr Trewin...but not cheap.

Sarah

No, I didn't know that - I was just on his website and copied the announcement. That's a bit steep! Glad you pointed it out. I guess not that many will be going then...
Susiex

Well, I don't know - he's always been spoken highly of on this site as being a great agent and when you think of all the effort and time and unpaid work put into writing, maybe just under £100 could be well worth the investment to get one's subbing skills honed and to demystify the whole thing. If you follow the link on his site, then you get more details from the company organising the event.

If you did want to go Susie, you're welcome to our spare room.

Sarah

He is a very good agent - represents our own Jess, for one thing - but I would say that no one agent is going to provide The Answer for everything, because in lots of matters they'll say what they want, but that might not be what other agents want. And they usually haven't the faintest idea what other agents are saying on this front. I'm sure that whatever he says will be excellent sense, but it's not worth getting too hung up on the small details. When you compare what different agents say - about the synopsis, for instance - they quite often contradict each other, leaving the poor aspiring writer baffled and horribly anxious that whatever they do they'll get it wrong for someone. And agents should never open their mouths at all without saying whether they're talking about literary fiction, commercial fiction, or non-fiction, because they're all different, specially the latter.

Mind you, don't forget that £99 would be a legitimate business expense...

Emma

Good points Emma - and of course, the business expense, travel to get there too I guess.

I think for many aspiring authors, these events are worth a lot in the sense of camaradare and feeling that they are not working in a hopeless vacuum. You might come away thinking it was a waste, but you might make some useful contacts, support and new friends. I'm a fine one to talk as I've never been to one, but it does look tempting... and it's not just Simon Trewin. His site give the lead to all info on the event - it's quite general and varied.

Thanks for posting that Susie.

I had a good look and am tempted. But, it does look like a very commercial event and I wonder if the "energetic people" are just trying to cash in on the fact that everyone in the world want to be a writer today.

A step by step breakdown of the process to getting your book published. Key factors to writing fast - a step-by-step plan for book writing. Proven tips and techniques on managing your time, and tackling writer's block. Practical advice on landing a top agent including essential facts on presenting your synopsis. Secrets to negotiating a good book deal. A guide to self-publishing. Advice on handling press interviews and fans! A checklist of places you can go to develop your novel.

This looks like a hell of a lot to cover in two hours. And some of it is irrelevant to the advertised title (How to get your debut book published).

I find myself constantly torn between spending time on the whole business side (writing synopses, covering letters, researching agents, etc) and actually revising and improving the bloody novel.

Rod.

Only two hours and all that! Actually, it really depends on how many writers are going to be clamouring for a bit of individual advice in that time frame. For £50 per hour, I think many might expect some 'private' time, even if only ten minutes, but I wonder how it pans out.

As a social event it might be fun, as a way of improving your work and getting on with being published, I tend to agree with Rainstop and suggest we all keep slogging on with own own work , because at the end of the day, that's the only thing that's going to give any chance of publication.

Sarah

I think £100's a lot for two hours in a group - unless it's very small, more seminar-like. If it isn't there's not going to be much chance for personal contact to collar Simon T. or whoever, and pitch to him, if they're also trying to cover that much material.

The networking aspect of these things can be fun and even useful. But then again, we do have WW!

Emma

I think £100's a lot for two hours in a group - unless it's very small, more seminar-like.

Good point. I'm going to ask how many they are expecting.

Thanks, Sarah, for the offer - how lovely of you but I think twelve hours travel is too much for two hours - even of S.Trewin!
I hadn't thought to look at the details: I'd imagine that it will be vast event, held in some conference room in a hotel and there'll be at least 100 people there. As everyone says, they're trying to pack in a hell of a lot in a short time, and if there were any opportunity for private time with ST, it would have been right up there in the advert.
I'm sure it will be very interesting, and, as you say, a good opportunity to network/connect - but I agree with Rainstop et al - the very best thing we can do is work to make our novels the very best they can be.
Susiex

Trewin used to comment on this site some years ago. He speciaslised in posting tantalising but gnomic comments like: Some of your writing is good. You know which bits I mean.
Used to make me laugh, but made the author want to slap his head I'm sure. For a hundred quid I do hope his lecture was more constructive.

Best
Sion

Yeah, he did that on my work and when I asked if he could clarify his response was just as cryptic.

Did anyone actually go to this thing?

I received a mail from Emily who can't access the forums at the moment but she asked me to pass this on for anyone who might be interested.

"The evening class with Simon & Courttia Newland was a really useful event, there were only 15 attendees & it was a Q&A format. I too suspected there would be hundreds of people but phoned to fact check & reserve a ticket the day before. It seemed so unlikely to be for real that I half expected a room full of pissed off/ripped off writers, but in fact it did exactly what it said on the tin.

The organisers weren't what you would call organised & the event was in their offices. That aside, the opportunity for some insight into the writing & agenting process was fascinating. Top tip of the evening was that, if you catch him at the right time, Simon would always rather take a pitch over the phone & respects writers with the balls to take this approach. Also that he reads chapters before he looks at your synopsis & takes a great deal from your cover letter so it must have 'your voice'. On that note the sample chapters need to be as strong as you can make them because he will always pick up the phone & request more if you hook him to read on!"

Thanks for passing that on, Geoff - and do pass thanks back to Emily for reporting. Sounds as if it was genuinely useful (though I still think it's quite expensive!).

Emma