As sponsors of the Sunday Brunch, rather than just go up for the day, we used the weekend to get some of the team together, network with authors, publishers, editors, agents and our favourite–soon-to-be authors. The four days were full on, full fun, and fully loaded with story-teller’s education.
Our first workshop was the Insights from Insiders: Trade Publishing In Canada. As this is one of our most covered topics in our TSPA Power Hours, we thought we’d share a few highlights:
1. Publishers and agents are looking to have career relationships with writers. Therefore, if your first book sells 5k copies, and you’ve got a few others on the way – a trade publisher is keen to hear about it. Depending on the publisher, you can either approach them directly or approach an agent, who will connect you with a publisher.
2. Once signing with a trade publisher, the average length of time for the book to hit shelves is 1.5 – 2 years.
3. Award-winning, National Bestselling, trade-published authors, will self-publish some of their books because they know they can make more money.
T4. here are fresh and clever editors and agents in the trade industry who recognize many books have much better sales and readership if they self publish. And while book sales have merit, they may not fit a publisher’s business model. Therefore, encourage authors to get support publishing their book with a company (ahem) who can ensure their story is professionally published and can find its audience.
5. There are dinosaurs in trade publishing who still believe that “quality is compromised” when you self publish. These dinos also believe there is no chance of winning a literary prize, achieving trade-quality printing, and that it’s “almost impossible to get into bookstores” as an indie author. We were protective of our eye rolls, but our debrief afterwards was…how do you say…strong in opinion.
We’ll be sure to share more workshop highlights over the next few weeks. But in the meantime, we have some sincere thanks to give to those who made our stay more comfortable!
- Moguls Coffee for ensuring we were caffeinated and fed for the whole weekend.
(Pro Tip: Their smoothies and croissants sandwiches are must-haves.) - Paper Label Loungewear who gave us outfits that were cozy and classy.
(This is what we’re wearing!) - Fairmont Chateau Whistler for all of the goodies, vouchers and service.
- Stella Harvey the organizer of the Whistler Writers Festival – nothing but fantastic things to say!
