Session Description

Landing an agent to represent your book is one of the most difficult and time-consuming processes for authors. In this session, I will break down the process into a few “easy” steps to make it more manageable, and perhaps, less stressful and heartbreaking. Topics will include writing the query letter and synopsis, developing an eye-catching biography, making a list of agents right for you, organizing and keeping track of the material, and most of all, maintaining a positive outlook and not losing hope. It’s not easy but authors connect with agents all the time.

Bill Walsh is an award-winning writer of nine books and has published more than 100 articles in some of the finest journals in the country. He has conducted writing workshops around the country—poetry, fiction, and memoir. Bill is a professor and the director of Reinhardt University’s undergrad creative writing program and M.F.A. program where he teaches creative writing and literature. He is also the editor of the James Dickey Review. He has been published in the AWP Chronicle, Five Points, Flannery O’Connor Review, The Georgia Review, The Kenyon Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, and Poets & Writers. His memoir article, “Pointing at Pat Conroy’s House” is included The Prince of Scribes (University of Georgia Press). Since his early 20s, he’s interviewed people such as Nobel Laureates Czeslaw Milosz and Joseph Brodsky, as well as other respected authors: A.R. Ammons, Doris Betts, Richard Blanco, Pat Conroy, Harry Crews, Eamon Grennan, Mary Hood, Donald Justice, Ursula Le Guin, and Lee Smith and more. Lakewood, his debut novel, took thirty-nine years to write and was published by Touch Point Press to rave reviews.