Ahhh! It’s here, it’s here! August 14 couldn’t come fast enough for us. Or maybe it came a little too fast… Either way, we’re off and running! We’ve had a fabulous day in the forum yesterday, with many a Ninja peeking in. Today, we have posts, forum events, vlogs, and live chats filling up nearly every hour of the day.
Hey, we told you to take a vacation day…
Up first: Joanna Stampfel-Volpe, Kathleen Ortiz and Suzie Townsend of New Leaf Literary welcome you to WriteOnCon 2012 “Back2Basics!”
Kathleen Ortiz is the Director of Subsidiary Rights and an agent for New Leaf Literary & Media, Inc. She sells audio, translation and digital rights for the agency, and has an intimate list of clients, including Jaime Reed (THE CAMBION CHRONICLES / KTeen), Sarah Fine (SANCTUM / Marshall Cavendish, Oct ’12 and FACTORY GHOST / McElderry Books, S&S, Winter ’14) who also writes as S.E. Fine (SCAN / Putnam for Young Readers, Fall ’13), and animator, Dan Haring (Blue Sky Studios, TANGLED). She is an active member of AAR.
Kathleen is interested in all genres of YA but is especially interested in a story set within another culture (think YA version of MEMOIR OF A GEISHA or BLOOD DIAMOND) or a psychological thriller. She is not interested in picture books, chapter books or younger middle grade stories.
When she’s not reading or selling rights, she’s usually found in her apartment, trying her best not to burn food while experimenting with client Bree’s list of delectable recipes (BakedBree.com). You can find her on Twitter @KOrtizzle, on her blog, kortizzle.blogspot.com or on Publisher’s Marketplace (http://www.publishersmarketplace.com/members/KathleenOrtiz/)
After teaching high school English for several years, Suzie Townsend started publishing at FinePrint Literary Management in January 2009 and worked her way up from intern to agent. Now an agent at New Leaf Literary & Media, she represents adult and children’s fiction. She is actively looking to build her list. In adult, she’s specifically looking for romance (historical and paranormal), and fantasy (urban fantasy, science fiction, steampunk, epic fantasy). In Childrens’ she loves YA (all subgenres) and is dying to find great Middle Grade projects (especially something akin to the recent movie SUPER 8). She’s an active member of AAR, RWA, and SCBWI.
She’s interested in strong characters and voice driven stories: she’s particularly keen on strong female protagonists, complex plot lines with underlying political, moral, or philosophical issues, and stories which break out of the typical tropes of their genre. Some of her favorite novels (that she doesn’t represent) are Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card, When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead, How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff, Jellicoe Road and Finnikin of the Rock by Melina Marchetta, The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger, Jeaniene Frost’s Vampire Huntress series, Anne Bishop’s Black Jewels series, and Jacqueline Carey’s Kushiel series.
She drinks too much diet orange soda, has a Starbucks problem (those soy chai lattes are addictive), and lives in New York with two dogs who know that chewing on shoes is okay but chewing on books is not.
More information on Suzie can be found on publisher’s marketplace. She also keeps a blog at http://confessionsofawanderingheart.blogspot.com and tweets @sztownsend81.
Joanna Volpe has been a bookseller at Barnes & Noble, an editorial assistant with independent publisher Blue Martin Publications, an assistant and junior agent at FinePrint Literary Management and a full-time agent with Nancy Coffey Literary & Media Representation, all before starting her own company: New Leaf Literary & Media, Inc. She has worked on a number of exciting projects, including Kody Keplinger’s The DUFF, Leigh Bardugo’s Shadow & Bone, Veronica Roth’s Divergent trilogy, Sandy Williams’ Shadow Reader series, Susan Dennard’s Something Strange & Deadly and Sarah Frances Hardy’s picture book, Puzzled by Pink. For a full list of the New Leaf projects, go here. What she is most excited for right now is working with her amazing team at New Leaf. The company is off to a strong start, and they are looking to sign on more wonderful talent!
Thank you so much for this wonderful and uplifting vlog! You give writers like myself so much hope!
Awesome video. I’m up super early trying to catch all these great editors and agents…Yikes, central time stinks.
Thanks. A great start to a great conference.
Wonderful! Really, thank you for a great opening to the conference and for reminding us of the basics, the reasons we write and the readers! (by the way I still hope to see the outtakes from this video
)
Excellent start, and thank you for your words of wisdom. With a wealth of information out there, it IS easy to lose oneself in hours of blog reading and emailing and everything writing-related, but thank you for reminding us of what brought us all here in the first place…writing. Just. Freaking. Write – I am posting that to my laptop screen. Thanks, ladies!
Thank you for opening the conference! Great way to start the day! While I may not be used to waking up this early, I get the feeling that this conference is going to be very worth it.
Thanks for starting out what I know is going to be a fantastic conference. Thanks for the great advice to focus on the basics and what we can control. So excited for your new agency and looking forward to seeing how you lead us into the new opportunities ahead.
Just.Freaking.Write – I LOVE IT!
Elodie – I’ve been told that the outtakes will be shared! We’re OK with that–it’s good to laugh at mistakes, no?
Everyone enjoy this wonderful conference!
Hee hee
Great video! Friendly and approachable – love it. And yes indeed – stories will always be wanted no matter what….
Thanks for the uplifting start. I love the reminder that it’s all about the writing.
Good luck with your new agency, Katheen, Suzie, and Joanna!
What a wonderful welcome! Thanks so much for all the hard work from everyone involved in making WriteOnCon so awesome.
Thanks for a great welcome! It was very motivating and I’ll remember this vlog every time the panicking sets in. Taking these first steps into writing and achieving that publishing dream has come with so many worries and a lack of self-confidence. It’s nice to hear something uplifting now and again!
Wonderful! Thank you so much for reminding us all to focus on what’s important: the writing!
Write. Just Write! I like it…it’s to be reminded to stay with the story. Thanks for the keynote–this is going to be a great conference!
p.s. LOL on the creativity app for .99
A great way to start a great conference. Thanks for calming some of our fears, and for giving us the advice we need to focus on what we do best. Write.
A great start! I’m excited too! Thank you ladies. =)
Just.Freaking.Write. I think I need to tattoo that on the back of both hands, so that each time my itchy fingers start to wander to the internet to just check that one blog about this or the latest tweets about that I’ll remember none of it matters if I don’t get my stories written.
Thanks for kicking us off to a great start, ladies!
Just. Freaking. Write, says it all!! Thank you ladies for a great opening to the conference and good luck with your new agency!
Yee ha, I’m excited about attending my first writeoncon event ever. Thanks for the warm welcome and the extra effort to make this flexible format (I live in two different time zones and flexibility means a lot to me!)
Thank you to New Leaf Literary for reminding us that stories still need to be told (and, ahem, written).
JUST. FREAKING. WRITE.
That should be our WOC slogan!
Go New Leaf – and thank you!
Thank you, ladies! Good luck with your new journey!
Great keynote! I’m so excited for WriteOnCon again this year!
It’s so calming to look at the publishing turmoil in that optimistic way, and know that I just need to freakin’ write. Thanks for kicking off the conference!
Lovely keynote, girls. Love the optimism and the down to earth advice. (I think I saw one of my books right behind Suzie’s head!)
xoxo
Shelley
Such a fantastic way to kick off this event. Thanks so much, you guys! Very, very excited for your new agency, as well!
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Thank you for the real view on our changing times in publishing and being there to help authors regardless.
“There’s no algorithm for a good story” = WORDS TO LIVE & WRITE BY.
Thank you!
By day I’m the IT Guy at a scholarly publishing house. We lack the resources of the big publishers, but we’re still trying to innovate and stay ahead of the curveballs the industry, the Apples/B&Ns/Sonys of the world, and the consumers decide to throw at us.
Here’s a secret: even publishers don’t entirely know what they’re doing. They’re watching trends and making their own best guesses. And they’re hoping for the best, too.
If publishers don’t know, there’s no way writers can know.
So, yeah, just freakin’ write.
Thanks for a fine opening to the day!
– Tom
Thanks for the uplifting words and for taking the time to help us writers!
What an amazing group of women! Thanks for the awesomeness.
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