Pitching your book isn’t just for landing agents, it’s a skill that carries you through every stage of your writing career. Whether you’re approaching an agent, publisher, bookseller, or reader, a confident, polished pitch can open doors.
In this practical session, author Angela Douglas will break down what pitching really is, why it matters, and how to craft a clear, compelling hook and logline that works whether you’re drafting your first novel or preparing for a major pitch event. You’ll learn the core elements of effective pitching, the different types of pitches you’ll encounter online and in person, and how to make the most of the elevator pitch and the typical three minutes you’ll get to sell yourself and your manuscript.
It is never too early or too late to learn how to pitch with confidence. Angela will walk you through the exact criteria she uses to prepare for agent or publisher pitch sessions, giving you tools you can use immediately to talk about your book with clarity and impact. You’ll leave this session with a deeper understanding of hooks, loglines, and short verbal pitches and practical strategies to reduce nerves.
Bring something to take notes with, and your questions. This is a session you won’t want to miss, no matter what stage of writing you’re at.
One-on-One with Literary Agent Cecilia "CeCe" Lyra
*NOTE: Zoom played tricks with CeCe's calendar, so we got the party started a little late. You can watch the first 10 minutes of Jeanne's impromptu AMA, or skip to the 10-minute mark when CeCe's genius starts.
If you're a listener to the podcast "The Shit No One Tells You About Writing," you already know the amazing literary agent CeCe Lyra. To say we're thrilled to have her on Symposium is the understatement of the year.
At Symposium we have one important rule: To tell people what they need to hear not necessarily what they want to hear. Hard truths will get you farther in your career than false hope, and CeCe politely puts her Grinch hat on to deliver the honest advice you need to improve your odds at publication.
We'll dive into the world of a lit agent, the advice writers need to improve, and you'll even get to ask questions, too!
Cecilia “CeCe” Lyra is a literary agent at Wendy Sherman Associates representing adult fiction and non-fiction. She is drawn to books with strong hooks and smooth writing, told with originality, nuance, and authenticity. A long-term strategic thinker, CeCe prioritizes the creative reach and sustainable longevity of her authors’ careers, and she is especially looking for clients with whom she can build fruitful, lasting relationships.
Both a storyteller and a storyseller, CeCe believes that stories are empathy-generating machines capable of healing, connecting, and enacting true change. As a mixed race Latinx immigrant, CeCe understands the power of seeing oneself reflected in books, hence her passion for championing under or misrepresented voices and narratives that contribute to a larger cultural conversation. CeCe is a member of the Association of American Literary Agents (AALA). The popular podcast The Shit No One Tells You About Writing, for which CeCe is a co-host, has over four million downloads. CeCe is also a recovering lawyer, but asks that you do not hold that against her.
“The Shit No One Tells You About Writing” Substack
10 Questions to Figure Out What Your Memoir is REALLY About
Memoir is a deeply challenging genre for any writer seeking to parlay real-life events into a story that connects with total strangers. As Mary Karr observes, “a fiction writer starts with meaning and then manufactures events to represent it; a memoirist starts with events, then derives meaning from them.” Deriving meaning is a lengthy, complex process and not at all obvious to any writer who attempts it.
One big challenge at the outset is figuring out the “container” for your book: Where to begin, where to end, what to include, what to exclude, and how to tell a compelling story about your transformational journey.
This is a tall order! This symposium explores a framework of 10 essential questions to help you make critical choices about your book’s structure and to see the big picture.
This presentation will cover:
A step-by-step overview of the 10 questions addressing a range of considerations, including your “why” for the book, its point, the archetype shaping your story, nailing your book’s concept, defining the ideal reader, and more.
Brief analysis of how well-written memoirs are put together.
A chance to work on one or two of the 10 questions and receive group feedback.
You will learn:
Strategies for putting your story into a deeper, broader context
To understand the strengths and weaknesses of your approach to your story
To recognize common pitfalls of the memoir genre
Factors to consider when deciding the scope of your story, including the beginning and ending.
Polish Like a Pro: Self-Editing Strategies for Aspiring Authors
Are you ready to take your manuscript from rough draft to ready for an agent?
Join Sara Wigal, Director & Associate Professor of Publishing at Belmont University (a literary agent herself) for a hands-on, two-hour symposium designed specifically for aspiring professional writers who want to sharpen their self-editing skills.
This session will guide you through practical techniques to elevate your prose, tighten your narrative, and prepare your work for submission or publication. Learn how to spot common pitfalls, apply revision strategies used by editors, and develop a personalized editing workflow that empowers you to become your own best critic.
Join in a group editing session for immediate feedback. Whether you're working on fiction, nonfiction, or memoir, this workshop will help you transform your writing with clarity, precision, and confidence.
Finish Your Project This Year
How to reignite your passion for a long-term project and complete it by the end of the year.
Whether it’s a screenplay, novel, or memoir, it takes a long time to complete a longform project. And yet many projects stretch out longer than they need to, the finish line receding farther in the distance as we wonder if we’ll ever reach our goal: a complete manuscript. January can be a painful reality, leading us to lament all we did not achieve in the prior year, to doubt we’ll ever get there.
But this year will be different. This year you CAN finish your project. If you have a plan.
In this session, we will explore what it means to finish a project, how to create structures that create forward progress, common obstacles that slow writers down, creative solutions to the ever-present challenge of finding time and space in this busy world, and what relationships are essential to getting to the finish line.
In this session you will learn:
How to reinvigorate your creativity and enthusiasm for a project that has slowed down or is stuck
How to create a plan and schedule that will lead to you actually spending productive time on your project
How to leverage your family, friends, and fellow creatives to help you achieve your goal
How to quickly move through common obstacles that contribute to creative slowdowns
How to measure and celebrate progress, and what “finishing” really means.
You will walk away with renewed determination to tackle a project you really care about and a clear path toward achieving your creative goals. This year, you’ll finish it.
Demystifying Audiobooks: A Workshop for Authors
How to Bring Your Book from the Page to the Aural Stage
If you're an author who's ever thought, "Should my book be an audiobook?"—the answer is probably yes. Audiobooks are one of the fastest-growing segments in publishing, and if you’re not tapping into that market, you might be leaving money (and listeners) on the table.
In this live webinar, professional audiobook narrator and producer Megan Tusing of Little But Fierce Productions®, LLC—who brings nearly a decade of industry experience—will guide authors through the essentials of audiobook creation. Whether you're looking to hire a professional, understand the audiobook production process, or make informed decisions about your audio rights, this workshop will give you the clarity and confidence to move forward.
In this session, authors will learn:
Why audiobooks are an essential part of your book’s journey
How audiobooks are made—including the full production process
Key audiobook terms and lingo every author should know
DIY vs. hiring a pro vs. selling your audio rights: which path is right for you?
What “narrator approval” means, and why it matters
Tips for marketing your audiobook once it’s published
How to avoid common mistakes new authors make in audio
There will also be time for live Q&A, so come with your questions!
Whether you're just getting started or already exploring audiobook options, this seminar will help you move forward with confidence.
What Attendees Have Said ...
"Megan was very articulate in explaining the process and used specific examples. She shared the names of service providers and pricing as well as tips for researching narrators. Though i had an audio book included in my publishing package, I never knew how much was involved."
"I like that she shared so many details of creating an audiobook. I'm looking forward to watching it again."
Signing Smart! What Authors Should Know About Contracts
From publishing deals to agent agreements, film/TV deals, merchandise licenses, and even cover art commissions—contracts can shape your author career.
In this webinar, we’ll break down what rights and obligations you’re taking on, how to spot risks, what key terms really mean, and how to protect yourself when the other side doesn’t deliver.
Together we’ll demystify tricky topics like representation and warranties, indemnification, reserved rights, reversion, naked licensing and implied licenses.
Whether you’re signing your first deal or renegotiating, this session will help you approach contracts with clarity and confidence.
What Attendees Have Said ...
"Lauren Emerson is extremely knowledgeable, and she brought to light contract and IP considerations that I didn’t even realize I might have to think about! She presented information in a way that was very approachable (even to someone like me, who has no background in law) … and she packed A LOT of information into a 90-minute webinar. I’m so happy I had the chance to be part of this Symposium course."
"Amazing!"
"Super insightful in what to look for when looking over a contract!"
The First-Person Voice: Getting Past “I”
Writing a novel in first-person seems easy at first. After all, how hard can it be to get inside just one character’s head and stay there? As it turns out, quite hard. To be sure, the first-person perspective is an exciting opportunity to explore your protagonist’s deepest secrets and drives and develop a sympathetic bond with the reader as they get to know your character from the inside. I bet many of our favorite books are told in first-person.
But from a craft perspective, writing in first-person is a potential minefield. Building an interesting and dynamic world full of believable characters can be extra challenging when the reader can only see that world through one set of eyes. Common pitfalls involve an over-reliance on telling rather than showing; not using inner dialogue strategically to build conflict and tension; and accidentally switching out of first-person, which can confuse the reader.
By the end of this presentation, you’ll be armed with a variety of techniques to help you use first-person effectively in a variety of genres and to recognize several pitfalls before you get too far along.
This presentation will cover:
Determining if first-person is the right POV for your story and genre
An understanding of how first-person works differently from other POVs
Hallmarks of great first-person POV work
Techniques to vary your writing style within first-person
Real-time writing exercise based on a first-person prompt
What Attendees Have Said ...
"I was pleasantly surprised that Amy covered other POVs in addition to 1st Person. By doing that, she was able to compare and contrast the different POVs."
"Excellent presentation! Made the diverse POVs very understandable. The teacher was genial and terrific."
Marketing the Big 5 Way
So you’ve written the book of your heart, queried into the slush pile and successfully found an agent, who then sold your book to an editor at a Big 5! Ever wonder what happens behind the scenes once your book is acquired?
Leila Siddiqui has spent ten years working in marketing in two of the Big 5 publishers and will walk you through what to expect when the book has passed acquisitions and finds a publishing date. The publishing journey is often referred to as a “hurry up and wait” with moments of intense marketing activity and then maddening calm.
You’ll learn about what marketers do at acquisitions, after the book is acquired, how they partner with the sales team to position the book to retailers, and how they bring the book the audiences. Whether you’ve self-published, on the editor submission journey with your agent, or a seasoned traditional author, there’s always something to learn about the publishing process from an insider.
Privacy for Writers: Why Writers Should Care about Privacy in a Connected World and What They Can Do About It
Facebook. Twitter. Tiktok. Snapchat. You’re a writer and you thought writing books meant, well writing books. But now you have to be online, build a platform and be accessible. But in today’s hyper connected world, the risks to an author’s privacy are exponential.
But privacy is hard and its designed to be hard by the companies that profit from surveilling our lives. How do you protect your privacy so that you can both have an online platform and connect with readers while protecting yourself, your family, and your reputation?
As an author and a privacy professor, she understands that privacy often doesn’t matter to people - until it does.
By the end of this presentation, you will be better prepared to understand what you’re giving up when you sign click agree to the terms and conditions, why it matters for actors, and specifically what the minimum steps are to take to raise the bar on personal privacy without having to sell your firstborn to hire a personal security consultant. You’ll get actionable steps to take to start protecting your privacy, cleaning up your information from the internet, and giving yourself piece of mind that in the event you end up going viral for something you didn’t plan, you’ll be better able to keep the conversation online instead of showing up on your doorstep.
This presentation will cover:
Understanding the commercial surveillance economy
Real world examples
Risks of social media
Examples of data collected from common apps
Myths that prevent action
Best practices
Q&A
What Attendees Have Said ...
"The speaker was super informed, I only wish we had had more time for discussion around the specificities of writers sharing/virtual rooms, etc."
"Depth of information more than expected. I appreciate that we will get Jess’ slides as there is much to absorb."
"The speaker knows her subject matter; the content is excellent."
