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What we’re about

As a Literary Agent with over 40 years of experience working for 10 major NYC book publishers, I wish to share my experience and knowledge to help writers get published.
The purpose is to read the first 10 pages of your manuscript to the group (print out copies for everyone) and then we make honest comments to help writers.

 Jan L. Kardys’ diverse book publishing career includes executive positions at ten of the major book publishers – Doubleday, St. Martin’s Press, Scholastic, Macmillan, Charles Scribner’s, Little, Brown & Company, Warner Books, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Lippincott & Crowell, Publishers, Simon & Schuster/Prentice Hall and Condé Nast Publications.  Her experience and know-how are in editorial, art/production, subsidiary rights, contracts, copyrights, permissions, book agenting, editing, writer’s conferences, publishing consulting, and freelance editing.  Jan worked for Google for three years where she added Internet sales and marketing to her already extensive expertise. See her websites: JanKardys.com, http://www unicornforwriters.com, and http://www.unicornwritersconference.com. 

This group offers a forum for writers to learn and exchange practical information they need to get published. Members gather to ask questions and give advice about every stage of the publishing process, from writing a manuscript to querying an agent to negotiating a contract. While there are many groups for writers out there, most focus exclusively on the craft of writing, while failing to address the practical information that publishers really care about and that can make or break a book deal. Writers seeking to empower themselves with this information should join this group. Whether you are an aspiring writer looking for concrete instructions on how to launch your career, or a published author trying to sell more of your books, this is the group for you!  We cover the various departments within a publishing company, and class description for future MEETUP sessions:on such topics as developing a concept, writing and formatting a manuscript, editing, finding a good literary agent, query letters, submission guidelines, all the departments within a publishing company, subsidiary rights, foreign rights sales, special sales, marketing, details on self publishing vs traditional publishing, utilizing the most cutting-edge technologies as social media services to increase visibility to literary agents, publishers and readers alike. A Powerpoint Presentation is presented. The workshop also includes printed Handouts for each attendee (22 pages each) : How to Research Your Competition, How To Write A Query Letter, How to Find the Right Literary Agent,  How to Write a Nonfiction Book Proposal. The Story Plan Checklist, Editing Tips, Permissions & Releases, Sample Permissions License, Checklist for Submission Black Hawk Literary Agency, Deal Memo/Working Checklist, 45 words, Components of a Novel, and Market Share of Top Trade Publishers.  

As a Literary Agent with over 40 years of experience working for 10 major NYC book publishers, I wish to share my experience and knowledge to help writers get published.