Pitch Me! (@pitchmeworkshop) is a six-week workshop led by author and literary agent Sheri Williams. Workshops are held online in a fun and progressive forum where writers interact, engage in one-on-one instruction with Ms. Williams, conduct discussion peer reviews of manuscript samples, and work to both understand and meet the contemporary demands of the publishing industry.
How is the workshop structured?
There are two workshops (fiction and nonfiction), independently held in their respective forums. Each workshop lasts 6 weeks and is limited to 15 writers. Each writer submits a chapter or excerpt up to 20 pages for the group to critique.
An added benefit of this workshop is that writers also submit a query letter for peer and agent critique.
Sessions are held one day each week for 6 weeks and last about 2 hours. However, writers are welcome to continue interacting as often as they wish during the 6-week session. At each meeting, writers will submit specific works or revisions as requested/discussed the previous week.
Each writer will receive personalized attention and a critique of the chapter or excerpt as well as an in-depth critique of the query letter from Ms. Williams. At the end of the sixth week, each writer will have a greater understanding of what will make their writing stronger and more appealing to agents and editors and will have drafted a winning query.
What do you get out of the workshop?
The benefits of the workshop are endless. Writers gain valuable knowledge based on the industry’s current needs, editing and writing advice and critiques in a comfortable and relaxed atmosphere, and the chance to create a query that impress agents and editors in today’s competitive publishing industry.
The first contact most writers have with agents or editors is through the query, which is the “first impression”.
If your first impression is good and you make it to the “I’d like to see more” stage, is your manuscript ready? Will an agent/editor read through your first chapter with enthusiam?
The workshop focuses on a myriad of issues that hinder making a good first impression and on steps that are vitial to making it to the next step! Through the workshop, writers have six full weeks of Q&A access to a literary agent.
All writers will receive free books and other exciting gifts, PLUS surprise guests ranging from authors to editors and publishers. Each workshop gives writers a unique opportunity to learn top tips from successful authors, agents and editors.
Ms. Williams will select one most-improved work from each workshop. The writer will be interviewed and his or her work will be reviewed for inclusion on the RWHI blog and other social media.
While there is no guarantee and it should not be an expected outcome of the workshops, Ms. Williams will consider exceptional works for representation.
About Sheri Williams
Sheri Williams is a literary agent with Red Writing Hood Ink (@rwhi). Prior to launching her own agency in 1997, Ms. Williams worked as a literary assistant for an Oregon agency.
Her education and credentials include Creative Writing (Charter Oak College, 1992), Journalism and Novel Writing (McGraw-Hill, 1994), Small Business Administration (Southwestern, 2003), and Criminal Justice (UOP, 2009; Everest, 2011).
Ms. Williams has been instrumental in securing impressive deals for her clients, including the upcoming release of Mafia Cop: The Two Families of Michael Palermo (@richardscagan) through Skyhorse Publishing (January 2013). She actively works with fiction and nonfiction writers and screenwriters.
Still have questions?
Email pitchmeworkshops@gmail.com or contact Ms. Williams at redwritinghoodink@gmail.com
Red Writing Hood Ink on Facebook
Schedules
Fiction workshop: TBA
Nonfiction workshop: TBA
The cost for each six-week workshop is $95. Institutional discounts available on request.
Register online at http://pitchmeworkshops.wordpress.com/register
*If you have prior approval for academic credit through a college/university, be sure to let us know when you register.
