Consult an Expert

The experts on the panel during the "Consult an expert" session at the Bendigo Writers Festival included Kate Larson (director at Writers Victoria), David M. Henley (Seizure, Xourn Publishing, online producer and writer), Malcolm Neil(publishing and retailing consultant, now with digital company Kobo). This session was facilitated by Sue Gillett (Creative Writing Department La Trobe University).  Featured in this session was the importance for contemporary authors to develop a digital profile which creates the potential for critical appreciation of the author's work.

The panel contributed a wealth of information about the publishing industry as it stands today, the obstacles, the opportunities for engagement in the industry and protocols in which emerging authors need to know to get their work into the interested hands of a publishing director. Two key points were advised, firstly make your authorial work appeal to the zeitgeist,(or write for yourself disregarding the zeitgeist), second, have the ability to summarise your project in thirty seconds.

Opportunities for engagement were given through the Wheelers Centre, volunteering or working your way into an internship through the volunteer route. Utilising Arts Hub, creating a visual medium show wheel, in other words,  developing a website. This lead into a discussion about self-publishing in which The Australian Advisory of Authors is a good point in call to engage with. Self publishing companies sub-contract manuscript assessors, and print editors as well as print on demand services are companies like Blurb or Lulu.

Overall whether an author decides to follow the traditional route to attain publication, or self-publish, being a digital age,  getting published means travelling through  a digital maze.