Leading things off was the Selling Your Story panel, which featured the group of Tanis MacDonald (Out of Line), Eden Robinson (Trickster Drift), Gail Bowen (A Darkness of the Heart) and Drew Hayden Taylor (Sir John A: Acts of a Gentrified Ojibway Rebellion) offering tips, tricks and stories on how to sell your book to publishers and finding your audience in a crowded market.
That includes knowing who to sell your book to, with MacDonald pointing to the idea of promoting a book to people who it’s written about – in her case smaller-town folks as opposed to city dwellers. Getting word out about your novel can also involve a lot of travelling, as Robinson did through communities in northern B.C. for her first book, Monkey Beach.
Bowen pointed out that far too much emphasis is being placed on marketing by publishers, cutting out interesting manuscripts just because they might be difficult to sell. Taylor offered a humerous take in that regard, where he was told his first novel had too much of one thing – in this case, his Native vampire protagonist fighting sentient racoons – while another wanted more of the same.
The second panel, Organizing Your Words, featured the trio of Sarah Selecky (Radiant Shimmering Light), Danny Ramadan (The Clothesline Swing) and Gwen Benaway (Holy Wing).
Of note, Ramadan says that you have to sit down and create an outline and know your characters before you even set out to write your story. Both he and Selecky added that they make a point of sitting down and writing 1,000 words a day. The panelists also discussed the challenges they face when writing.
Both panels were moderated by Jael Richardson, who worked with many authors in one-on-one interviews through the weekend.
The breakfast was sponsored by the Moose Jaw Express.
