It has been over forty years since I wrote a novel in which the widow of a man who took his life writes to him every night. She waits until their two young children are in bed. Then she writes.

Her name is Jenny Weaver. She is so lonely it hurts. She impulsively moves from the Northeast to California a year after his death, and she has made only one friend. She doesn’t belong to a support group. She’s finding it difficult being a single mother. And she doesn’t want anyone to know how her husband died.

My Way of Coping

The novel was my way of coping with the death of a young man who took his life. He had so much promise. And then he was gone. I was in graduate school at the time, and my major was poetry. I wrote the first line of what I thought would be a poem, “My children are gambling.”

The poem grew, as did a character who took up residence in my head. Every day when I started to write, I could hear Jenny Weaver’s voice. I could see her working through her grief and anger. It was as if I had no alternative. I had to tell her story.

What Happened Next

It took me three years to write Jenny Weaver’s story. When it was finished, I experienced a feeling of relief. And healing. Now, I wondered, what would I do with this book that had started out as a poem?

I told a friend about the book, and she offered to take it to an agent she knew. The agent read the novel and called to tell me that she would like to represent me. Two months later the book was accepted by a publisher.

Unexpected Letters

I began receiving letters from people who were survivors of suicide loss after the book was published. This was before the internet. Some letters were typed; others were handwritten. I still have the letters, which were deeply moving. A woman who had lost her son said, “Soon after his death I wrote him a letter which I carry in my handbag—a last thread of contact with him.”

The Connection Between Reading, Writing, and Suicide Loss

I didn’t fully understand the connection between reading, writing, and suicide loss until years later, when I talked to a woman who headed a large suicide support group in Northern Virginia. She mentioned that my novel was in the library of her support group. I was surprised. “But it is fiction,” I said. I hadn’t told her about the young man whose suicide I had coped with by writing the book.

She explained that even though Jenny Weaver’s circumstances weren’t the same as theirs, survivors in the group could identify with her struggles and with the path she took that lead to healing after suicide loss.

Healing Through Reading

In her article,  “Reading to Wellness,” Francesca Baker discusses bibliography, which is healing through reading. She states, “Books can help to provide different perspectives and the suggestion of an alternative course of action.”

Beyond Blue suggests that suicide survivors keep a journal to record their thoughts, which is what Debbie Baird did. When her 29-year-old son, Matthew, took his life in 2009, she didn’t think she would ever recover from her grief. She began a journal as a way of connecting with him and continued writing for years. “If you had told me in the early days that I would feel better again, I would never have believed you,” she said.

Elizabeth Gilbert observed that “Grief is a force of energy that cannot be controlled or predicted.” The path to healing after suicide loss isn’t a straight line. There are twists and turns, as Jenny Weaver discovered. But the path was there and she found it.

If you would like to know more about Jenny and the path she took, click on the link below.

Marian D. Schwartz

“The author endows Jenny and her circle with attributes that make them linger in one’s memory.”
– PUBLISHERS WEEKLY 



The post Widow Writes to Cope with Grief After Suicide appeared first on Marian D Schwartz Books.

If Harper Lee had written “To Kill a Mockingbird” within the past fifteen years, she would be in the same position that thousands of aspiring writers are in now. They are finding it increasingly difficult to get literary agents to represent them.

As the number of authors seeking agents continues to grow, more of them are attending writers’ conferences that have pitching sessions. They hope they’ll win an agent by describing their unpublished manuscripts face-to-face because the query letters they’ve been sending have failed. Most writers’ conferences require a separate registration for pitching sessions, which are often filled long before the conferences holding them are fully enrolled.

Advice Given to Harper Lee

If in desperation after multiple agent rejections, Harper Lee had decided to attend a writers’ conference, she would have been told that the first sentence of her novel must have a compelling hook to catch the reader’s attention. The first sentence of “To Kill a Mocking Bird” is interesting—When he was thirteen my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow. —but it’s a stretch to call it compelling. She would have also been told that her novel had to get off to fast start, that the first ten pages were crucial. But one of the strengths of “To Kill a Mockingbird” is that it builds slowly, moving in its own unique rhythm.

She would have been given instructions for the pitching session she would be attending. She would have been told that the best pitches are brief and that she should aim for an elevator pitch of 25 words or less. Most important, her pitch, like her first sentence, must be (here is that word again) compelling. How could she make her novel, a story told by an eight-year-old girl about courage and race and bigotry that takes place in a small Southern town in the nineteen thirties sound as compelling as the manuscripts that are thrillers or mysteries other writers attending the conference would be pitching?

How Her Pitch Might Have Looked

Harper Lee was one of the most reclusive writers in the history of American letters. It is difficult to imagine this soft-spoken woman in a large room where nervous writers stand in long lines anxiously waiting to pitch to the agents of their choice.

If she had pitched “To Kill a Mockingbird” to agents, they might have asked her a question or two about her characters. Would they have been interested in a novel about a lawyer who is a widower, his two young children, and a reclusive neighbor no one really knows? It’s doubtful. At best, they would mentally label it a midlist book.

What is a Midlist Book?

It is a well-written book for which publishing houses have low expectations. They doubt that it will become a bestseller. At best they hope it will garner good reviews, help build the author’s reputation, and sell enough copies to pay for its publication. Agents aren’t enthusiastic about representing midlist writers. They are looking for the next John Grisham.

What does Harper Lee’s Hypothetical Experience at a Pitching Session Mean for Us?

It means that if she wrote her novel today, chances are that she wouldn’t find an agent to represent her, and her manuscript wouldn’t be published by a traditional publishing house. She would either self-publish her book and it would be lost in a sea of self-published books, or it would be stowed away in a closet. In either case, we would have lost an American treasure.

Marian D. Schwartz

My aim in writing The Writers’ Conference: A Novel was to create a fast, entertaining read that would shed light on the closeted world of publishing. Stories can tell us what we need to know. To learn more, click here: https://mariandschwartzbooks.com/the-writers-conference

The post Imagine Harper Lee Pitching “To Kill a Mockingbird” appeared first on Marian D Schwartz Books.

Sara Barefield’s situation as a mother trapped in the welfare system is so real to the people who have read the novel that I have been asked questions I hope to answer here. I wasn’t a social worker; nor did I know a single mother like Sara. And I have been blessed in that I have never been on welfare or have had the need to apply for food stamps.

I got the idea for SARA BAREFIELD while working as a volunteer in a women’s center. A single woman in her mid-thirties came in for a counseling session; she wanted to go to college to study art history. When I told her that I didn’t know of any aid she could receive other than a Pell grant, she became quite upset. She wanted to know why welfare mothers could get help to go to college and she couldn’t. She’d seen articles about these women in the newspaper. Unfortunately, I had nothing more to offer her unless she took out large student loans that she couldn’t afford.

I started thinking about welfare after she left. If it was as wonderful as she seemed to believe it was, why wasn’t everyone on it? That’s when I started my research. I was curious, I wanted to know more. After I explained my reason for wanting to attend, women on welfare who were in a support group at a local community college allowed me to sit in on their meetings, but there were rules: I wasn’t allowed to talk or take notes. None of the women in the group were pregnant or Sara’s age.

I attended the weekly sessions for approximately two months when I decided to make an appointment with a caseworker to learn more about welfare. At that point I had the idea for Sara’s story—a forty-year-old pregnant woman who had meager savings and was utterly alone—but I wasn’t sure I wanted to write it. The subject didn’t seem compelling.

My appointment with the caseworker was for ten thirty in the morning at the county office building. I arrived ten minutes early and stood at a wide counter, waiting for two women who were talking to each other behind the counter to notice me. Minutes went by: five minutes, seven minutes. The women, who were only a paycheck or two from living on the street, knew I was there, but they ignored me. I was of no more significance to them than a dust mote floating by. Ten minutes passed when I’d had enough. “Excuse me!” I said in a voice that demanded attention. The women jumped.

I told them I had an appointment at ten thirty. One of the women called the caseworker, and he arrived soon after. “If you had been five minutes later, I wouldn’t have seen you,” he said after introducing himself. “I have rules that my clients must follow.”

“I was ten minutes early for our appointment,” I said. “The women behind the counter ignored me. Is this how you treat poor people?” The caseworker was visibly surprised, and I believe there were changes made as a result of my experience. There was also a change when I attended the next support group session. I asked for permission to speak, and I told the women how I had been ignored. When they heard the tone I used when I said, “Excuse me,” their faces lit up. They looked overjoyed.

Every woman in the group had been kept waiting, some of them for hours, holding babies and trying to keep toddlers occupied, and each one of them had been afraid to express even the slightest annoyance at having been ignored. That was the moment I knew I was going to write Sara Barefield’s story.

I have kept my life and my personal experiences out of my fiction with one exception: my experience being ignored in the social services office. Sara was ignored because I was ignored, but Sara wasn’t in the position that I was in. She couldn’t say “Excuse me,” in a tone that demanded attention.

The post I Was Ignored in the Welfare Office appeared first on Marian D Schwartz Books.

Questions You Should Ask

• Do you need and/or want help with a manuscript?
• How much one-to-one help do you expect?
• Do you hope to learn from writers whose work you respect?

• Are you self-published and seeking marketing advice?
• Are you looking for a literary agent to represent you?

A writers’ conference might have a lofty reputation, but if it doesn’t offer what you are looking for, it is likely that it won’t be worth the cost. If it meets your criteria, you’ll have a positive experience and feel that you made a good investment in your career.

Manuscripts

Conferences that offer individual manuscript critiques charge extra for them. They also set specific time limits—anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour—and require prior registration. The Jackson Hole Writers’ Conference, for example, has both short and long conferences. They accept 15 pages for the basic evaluation and up to 40 pages for longer critiques. There is an additional charge for re-sending revised pages. Applicants are advised to apply well in advance because individual manuscript critiques fill up quickly.

My Experience at a Conference

I’m not sure how helpful these critiques are. I have had only one experience with an individual manuscript critique at a writers’ conference, and the experience has made me wary of them. The writer who criticized the 50 pages of a manuscript I had given him was a brilliant writer and teacher, but the advice he gave me was wrong. He told me to change the story from the first person to the third person. Fortunately, my novel was accepted by a New York publisher less than a month later. The change he suggested would have ruined the book.

An Alternative Might Be More Helpful

If submitting a manuscript is your primary reason for attending a writers’ conference, an alternative might be hiring an experienced freelance editor to help you. Your entire manuscript will be read, and you will get one-on-one attention. A good editor will catch your mistakes from plot weaknesses to changing the color of a character’s eyes. If you’re wondering where you can find a good editor, a place to start would be Facebook, where you can join a private support group for authors. After you join, you can start a new thread asking writers in your genre to recommend editors they have used and been satisfied with. The writers on the forums are generous with their help.

Writing Staff

There are several things to look at here. First, are there writers on the faculty whom you respect who write in your genre? If you are unfamiliar with their work, it doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t attend the conference. You can read one or two of their books before making a decision.

Second, are the writers who are lecturing effective teachers? Being a skilled novelist doesn’t make a writer a skilled teacher. If you are going to the conference to learn as much as you can about the craft of writing, try to find feedback on members of the staff.

There is no magic formula for writing a best-selling book, but you can learn valuable writing tips from good teachers. I still remember an observation made by a staff writer at a conference I attended years ago: “The best villain is the one you treat kindly,” he said.

Self-Publishing

More and more conferences are offering courses on marketing for self-published authors. Trade published authors can learn from these courses as well. With the flood of books that are being published, informed marketing is crucial to success.

Unfortunately, some conferences that have marketing featured on their home pages have only one or two sessions devoted to marketing. The best way to find out the scope of marketing sessions offered is to check the schedule from the previous year as well as the proposed schedule for this year.

Literary Snobbery

There is one more thing to say about self-publishing: not all conferences look favorably upon self-published authors, who would probably not feel welcome at Bread Loaf and Sewanee. There are some less well-known conferences where self-published writers will encounter the same attitude. These conferences focus on writers who want to be trade published. If you are self-published or planning to be self-published, you need to do your homework to avoid putting yourself in a situation where you would feel uncomfortable.

Looking For a Literary Agent

Every year more conferences are offering pitching sessions in which conference attendees pay extra to pitch their books to agents. These sessions are tense. Are they worth it? Do they work?

In her article, “Are Writing Conferences Worth It?” J.H. Moncrieff wrote about her experiences pitching for agents at conferences she attended. After giving her reasons, she concluded that pitching sessions are a waste of time.

Agents tell everyone who pitches to them to send their manuscripts, which is easier than telling writers to their faces that they aren’t interested. Meanwhile, conferences are collecting money for sessions that are going nowhere.

Odds of Getting a Literary Agent

Occasionally writers get agents at writers’ conferences, but it doesn’t happen often. Although some conferences have the happy faces of writers who found agents on their homepages, they offer no statistics. If getting an agent is your primary purpose for attending a writers’ conference, you are setting yourself up for disappointment.

You can learn more about the odds of getting an agent at a writers’ conference by reading the blog post “Pitching for Agents at Writers’ Conferences: What are the Odds?” on my website https://www.mariandschwartzbooks.com

Reason to Attend a Conference

Elise Blackwell went from being skeptical about conferences to endorsing them, with some reservations. Like many other writers, she is enthusiastic about the friendships writers can make. It’s valuable to get to know people who are in the same place you’re in. These friendships can last a lifetime.

Writers on the faculty go to conferences for the same reason, to renew old friendships and make new ones. They write blurbs for each other’s books and share helpful information. It is also an opportunity for them to talk to agents and publishers.

Be a Smart Shopper

It doesn’t hurt to be wary when you are reading an article extolling the benefits of attending writing conferences. You might find a pitch to attend a specific conference toward the end of the article. As Elise Blackwell says, “Those considering attending a conference should investigate them well.”

Making Money Selling to Writers

In today’s publishing world new enterprises are started every day that try to make money by selling something to writers—promotional sites, courses on becoming a bestselling author, promises of effective marketing management, etc. The list is endless. Writers’ conferences are no exception; they are in business to make money. They are competing with each other, and they are charging for extras wherever they can. Compare the faculty, the schedule, the facilities, and the travel and housing expenses when you shop.

Marian D. Schwartz

My aim in writing The Writers’ Conference: A Novel was to create a fast, entertaining read that would shed light on the closeted world of publishing. Stories can tell us what we need to know. To learn more, click here: https://mariandschwartz.com/the-writers-conference

“This is a really good book and reading experience, especially for those of us who are writers, for those of us who have attended this kind of conference or workshop… So true and accurate…Her writing is excellent…Very engaging.”
S. Rak

The post To Get the Most Out of a Writing Conference: A Guide appeared first on Marian D Schwartz Books.

Writers’ Conferences: A Growth Industry

Creative writing conferences are thriving from coast to coast, from the Yale Writers’ Conference in New Haven to the San Francisco Writers’ Conference. There are conferences for every genre from science fiction to romances to thrillers.

Many of the thousands of aspiring writers who are attending writers’ conferences are looking for more than creative writing workshops and advice on marketing. They are spending hundreds of dollars, in some cases thousands—Bread Loaf charges over $4,200 for ten days, which doesn’t include travel–in the desperate hope they will connect with a literary agent who will get them contracts with traditional publishers.

Any aspiring writer who has tried to get an agent knows how difficult it is. Some agents claim to get two thousand query letters a week from unpublished writers seeking representation. The odds against these writers are staggering, so it’s understandable that they keep writers’ conferences filled.

How Conferences Lure Agents

Hopeful writers are attracted to writing conferences by the promise of contact with agents and editors. Many conferences get well-known agents to attend by paying for their plane tickets, hotel rooms, and meals, but this doesn’t mean that the agents are interested in acquiring new clients. The Southern California Writers’ Conference is candid about this problem. On their website there is a note to agents telling them that they can contact the conference if they are accepting new clients. The note, which sums up the problem, states: “There are plenty of other conferences that provide reps who have no sincere intent of acquiring new clients with free weekends at nice hotels in desirable locations. The SCWC is not one of them.”

The SCWC’s candor is refreshing. The conference I attended years ago promised agents and editors, but they were very careful in how they phrased it and with good reason: it’s highly doubtful that more than a few writers out of thousands who attended got an agent there.

How Many Writers Get Agents at Conferences?

Some conference websites prominently display testimonials from writers who found agents and got book contracts, but for what percentage does this happen? One percent? Five percent? Ten percent? Not one of the conferences that I am aware of offers this statistic.

What Happened to Me

It is impossible to know how many success stories of writers getting agents are the direct result of attending a conference. What happened to me raises this question. I had gotten an agent a few months before I went to the writers’ conference I attended, and my novel Realities was accepted by a publisher a month later. Several months after it was accepted, I received a letter from the conference wanting to know if there was any news about my novel. I didn’t respond. The advice I had gotten at the conference—that I should change the novel from the first person to the third person—would have ruined the book. It didn’t seem right that I should let the conference take credit for the book’s acceptance.

Pitching to Agents

Pitching sessions at conferences have become a big draw. Some pitching sessions are called “agent consultations” and are sold out months in advance. Writers pay an extra fee for a chance to pitch their novels to agents for ten minutes or less (one conference limits pitches to ninety seconds). The writers are nervous and understandably so: imagine standing in a line of twenty people or more, waiting for your turn to tell an agent why he or she should want to represent you.

What Most Agents Say

Agents may tell the writers who pitched to them to send them their manuscripts, which is easier than telling someone face-to-face that they aren’t interested. The writers think they have an edge, but the truth is that their manuscripts end up in the slush pile with everyone else’s. Occasionally writers have successful pitches that get them agents, but it doesn’t happen often. Pitching seems to be more profitable for the conferences than it is for the writers who are paying to participate.

Cost

The price tags for most writers’ conferences are high. Traveling and living expenses can add up quickly, especially when paying for hotel rooms and meals. But if you attend a conference online, you miss what some consider the most valuable part of going to a conference: meeting other writers who may become lifelong friends.

There isn’t an easy answer as to whether creative writers’ conferences are an investment or a waste of money. I honestly don’t know. But if I were considering attending a writers’ conference, I would think hard about why I wanted to go and what I expected to get out of it. Then I would shop very, very carefully.

Marian D. Schwartz

My aim in writing The Writers’ Conference: A Novel was to create a fast, entertaining read that would shed light on the closeted world of publishing. Stories can tell us what we need to know. To learn more, click here: https://mariandschwartzbooks.com/-the-writers-conference

“It is a page-turner, and all the characters are very, very believable and there are no slow parts. I recommend it highly, for writers and those who just want a good read.”
Lynn Schneider, Author

The post WRITERS’ CONFERENCES: AN INVESTMENT OR WASTE OF MONEY appeared first on Marian D Schwartz Books.