One-on-One with Literary Agent Cecilia "CeCe" Lyra
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!
Screenwriting Success: Start Your Year with a Plan
A new year brings with it new opportunities. By our estimation, and the estimation of the Script Pipeline staff fulfilling the requests of industry, it's critical to make a focused, dedicated push to start your screenwriting year with a strong strategy, building momentum as the year progresses.
Lee Jessup, a seasoned career coach and a Business of Screenwriting professor with the David Lynch Graduate School of Cinematic Art, will walk you through meaningful, actionable steps that you can take for your screenwriting career in the year ahead.
In this focused session, we'll explore how to best strategize for the screenwriting year, with the aim of creating and building meaningful opportunities and forward motion that every writer wants to see for themselves.
The 2-hour event will include:
- Assessing your body of work
- Developing supporting materials
- Exploring brand and your writer identity
- Unique strategy for every pilot and/or screenplay
- Your submission plans
- Query tips
- Literary representation
- Seeking producers
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.
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
One-on-One with Crosby Selander
Matt Misetich, Executive Director of Pipeline Media Group, talks with screenwriter Crosby Selander about the state of the screenwriting industry. Included in the discussion is a live Q&A with the attendees.
Crosby Selander is a Los Angeles based screenwriter and filmmaker. He received a double BA from New York University, and his MFA from Carnegie Mellon University where he was the recipient of a Shubert Fellowship. After placing as a finalist in the Script Pipeline Screenwriting Contest, his screenplay BRING ME BACK (currently set up at Legendary) went on to become the biggest spec sale of 2020, and one of the biggest all-time from an unproduced writer.
Crosby went on to develop the Hugo-winning novel THE FOREVER WAR for TV alongside director Francis Lawrence for Village Roadshow, and served in the feature writing room for the MATCHBOX movie for Skydance.
He has projects in active development at Lab Brew, 193, and Weed Road. His short films have played at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, Hollyshorts, and dozens of other film festivals around the world. He’s been featured in Variety, the Hollywood Reporter, Deadline, and China Daily, among others.
He's repped for film/tv at UTA and Kaplan Perrone Entertainment.
Book Marketing for People Who Hate Social Media
A real strategy for real writers—no algorithms, no follower count, no reels required.
Tired of being told you have to be on Instagram, TikTok, or Twitter to sell your book? You’re not alone—and you’re not wrong. In this refreshingly honest, high-impact session, bestselling author and book coach Rea Frey reveals a sustainable, soul-aligned approach to book marketing—without relying on social media at all.
Whether you’re a debut author or a burned-out veteran, this workshop gives you a new way to grow your audience and launch your book on your terms.
You’ll learn how to:
- Build your Quiet Visibility Strategy
- Launch using the Social-Free Book Launch Flow
- Pitch podcasts, essays, and aligned outlets without a publicist
- Create meaningful momentum through word-of-mouth and reader referrals
- Grow your first 100 true fans—no platform required
You’ll walk away with:
- Fill-in-the-blank pitch templates
- A weekly visibility map
- A 3-part launch email series
- A radically different (and freeing) way to think about marketing
This is for the writers who want to be seen without selling out.
Let’s get booked—without the ’gram.
What attendees have said ...
Rea is an amazing presenter and her content is ultra valuable to me, a debut memoirist preparing to query and who is horrified by the idea of social media engagement!
The seminar gave hope and encouragement to Indie publishers', especially to those getting on in years.
This was a really fantastic session. The presenter was incredibly well prepared and delivered the material in a really engaging, propulsive way.
All this was new to me. I was riveted! There was so much good information that I am grateful there will be a recording for us. I can picture myself doing—and liking 'most of these platform-building activities!
Beyond the Query: The First 50 Pages
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.
One-on-One with Producer Michael Peterson
Pipeline Executive Director Matthew Misetich talked with Michael Peterson, Vice President of Development for Phoenix Pictures, to discuss the art of screenwriting and filmmaking through the lens of a producer.
As always, our Symposium one-on-one conversations are a community event, welcoming the audience's questions, too.
Relevant Symposiums Sessions:
Creative Strategies for the Changing Screenwriting Landscape
Breaking into screenwriting is not only challenging, but it can also be a complete roller-coaster—especially over these past few years!
We’ve been through so much: Covid, Writer’s Strike, Peak TV, and its demise. And now … Coverfly going away and a dramatic change to The Nicholl—which for years had its place on many a writers' bucket lists—has completely upended many screenwriters.
However, at the same time, the feature market is gaining momentum we’ve not seen in years. Not only did Sinners do something in the box office that’s not happened in 16 years (or ever for a horror movie), but specs are also moving in the professional space with more momentum and excitement than we’ve seen in a long time.
To adjust to ongoing changes in industry dynamics, our symposium with Screenwriting Coach Lee Jessup will seek to help you define your most effective next steps in order to work smart and move your screenwriting career forward.
What attendees have said ...
Lee has abundant knowledge and a rapid fire delivery- it’s hard to keep up!
Great session! I am a new screenplay writer and this was so FULL of wonderful information. I have pages and pages of notes. Thank you again!
From Draft to Deal: What REALLY Happens After You Finish Your Book
You typed “The End”… now what?
Finishing your book is huge—but what comes next is what separates a finished manuscript from a published one. In this real-talk symposium, bestselling author and book coach Rea Frey takes you behind the curtain of what actually happens after you finish your draft—and why the real work (and magic) starts after the final page.
We’ll cover:
- Why the “now what?” feeling is totally normal—and what to do with it
- How to revise your book like a pro (hint: you’re not ready to query yet)
- What literary agents really do—and how to get their attention
- Realistic timelines from draft to deal to bookshelf (think years, not weeks)
- What happens when you do get the book deal: contracts, royalty math, and red flags to watch for
- How to ask the right questions up front about your publishing team—so you’re not caught off guard by what’s on you to handle
- Why marketing starts before your book comes out—and how to make a plan you’ll actually stick to
You’ll walk away with:
- A “Ready to Query?” checklist
- A sample query letter that sells
- A publishing timeline breakdown
- A 3-month book launch marketing plan to build early buzz and long-tail sales
Perfect for:
Writers with a finished (or almost finished) manuscript, querying authors, and anyone stuck in the “what now?” limbo after typing The End.
What attendees have said ...
I thoroughly enjoyed the insightful journey into the intricacies of navigating the publishing world post-manuscript. Rea Frey's expertise shone through as she demystified the process, offering practical advice and real-world examples that were both inspiring and invaluable.
What I loved most was Rea's ability to blend her personal experiences with concrete strategies, making complex topics accessible and engaging. It was refreshing to gain a deeper understanding of what truly happens behind the scenes once the manuscript is complete.
It was incredibly informative. This went above and beyond. She was Great!
it was well done, comprehensive. I can't think of anything that was left out.