Chantelle Aimée Osman, senior editor at Simon & Schuster's newest imprint, Simon Maverick, joins us for a new Symposium event.

Query letters and synopses are important steps in your publishing journey, but what really lands an agent, editor, or in the end, a reader, are the first 50 pages of your manuscript.

This workshop will not only give you the tools you need to perfect your query and synopsis, but will also discuss common pitfalls in the first 50 pages, and what to do to make them shine.

[Enjoy Chantelle as a guest on "The Story Will Save You" podcast.]

What attendees have said ...

Being Chantelle is part acquisitions editor, it was refreshing to hear that she exercises flexibility rather than following hard and fast rules. I also appreciated her empathy and ability to simultaneously see things from multiple perspectives; she clearly knows the industry, the angst of writers and reader expectations. I was stunned to learn that the Simon Maverick imprint accepts unagented submissions—all I can say is, BRAVO!

Chantelle was a fun and knowledgable presenter. I found her query letter guidance and 50 page polish tips helpful and different from other advice I've received.

I love Chantelle's conversational approach and level of detail in approaching the first 50 pages.  She also added the query process and two handouts, which are extremely helpful.  She also discussed some social media platforms that are useful for promoting books. Developing characters and crafting a thesis statement were also added benefits.

She was knowledgable, very engaging, and encouraging while still being realistic.