The South Florida Writer’s Conference

"The writer who sells writes very lean prose."

Paul Lazarus

Former V.P., HBO Feature Film Productions

A Special Report

The South Florida Writer's Conference

By Nancy Ess

Authorlink South Florida Correspondent

One of the great draws of the South Florida Writers conference is its Miami location, where the literary community flourishes like native bromiliads. This year's South Florida Writer's Conference drew about 150 particpants, and was held in conjunction with the University of Miami creative writing department.

The conference lineup included a surprising number of choice speakers and a wide range of appropriate seminars on writing and publishing(See Highlights from Sessions below)

Speakers included Lester Goran, novelist, translator, and creative writing Professor at the University of Miami, whose newest short story collection, Tales from the Irish has garnered high honors and praise; Barbara Parker, a hot-selling dynamo, who turns out a successful legal thriller each year; Barbara Bottner, author of more than twenty children's books and writer of numerous animated films, and Robert Antoni, Professor in the University of Miami English Department, whose novel Divine Trace reaped the Canada and Carribean First Book Award.

Also presenting were Paul Lazarus, faculty member of University of Miami's School of Comunications, and former Vice President of HBO feature film Division; John Balaban, Director of the Creative Writing Division of the University of Miami English Department, and a poet of major import, whose After Our War won the Lamont Selection of the Academy of American Poets and a nomination for the National Book Award; Fred D'Aguiar, faculty in the University of Miami Creative Writing Department, and poet, novelist, and film writer and winner of the Whitebread First Novel Award; Evelyn Wilde Mayerson, faculty in the University of Miami Creative Writing Department, and writer of six novels and two juvenile books, whose novel Well and Truly has been optioned for film.

Other speakers were Campbell McGrath, winner of the Kingsley Tufts Prize of $50,000 for the best book of poetry in 1996; Peter Schmitt, faculty in the University of Miami Creative Writing Department, and a young upcoming poet who has already received an award from the Academy of American Poets, and the effervescent Arky Gonzalez, travel writer and the President of the large and prestigious Society of American Writers.

Several agents joined the speaker and panelist lineup, including Janell Walden Agyeman, now associated with Marie Brown and Associates and former editor at Doubleday; Edwina Berkman, of Dana Reed Author's Services Agency; and Mark Ryan of New Brand Agency Group. Other speakers included self-publishing guru, Dr. Tom Williams; theatrical producer, Mandy Greenfield; publisher, Charity Johnson; and intellectual property attorney, Harold Greene. Highlights from Conference Sessions

Panel Discussion: Finding Your Audience

Moderator, Michael Thorton, pulled out an orange. (Yes, the kind you eat!) On it he had affixed a formidable dollar sign with a dark black magic marker. "From concept to tale you have a seed . . . then you take it to the marketplace." The art of literature bears some resemblance to the Florida orange industry, according to Professor Thornton, who detailed the key processes as "seeding, pruning, packing, to market."

The panelists readily agreed that the marketplace often presents a prime example of the "tail wagging the dog." When asked, "what causes inspiration or ignites your creativity within your specific craft," two of the panelists quipped, "Deadlines," and one writer agreed that if he waits for inspiration "there will be a hole in the paper." According to Arky Gonzalez, "Professional writers write when they don't feel like writing."

Although the panelists agreed that the market dictates their writing choices to some extent, there was less consensus on the subject of rewrites. Travel writer, Arky Gonzalez strongly disapproved of constantly revising during the initial writing process. He suggested that money making non-fiction writers should knock-out an outline proposal every day. He also suggested that articles that have been rejected by one publisher should be sent out to the next publisher the same day that the rejections are received. On the other hand, several authors confessed that rewrites account for between 50-95 percent of their work.

All in all, the panelists agreed that the publishing industry is rough, tough, and very commercial . . . but a writer still plies his or her trade with inspiration.

Getting an Agent's Attention

Janell Walden Agyeman

Literary Agent

Marie Brown Associates, Literary Services

With a long career in the literary business, Janell Agyeman started as an editor with Doubleday Books, and currently conducts her Miami-based literary agency in association with Marie Brown and Associates, located in New York.

According to Ms. Agyeman, while "everybody wants a sure thing," the literary business is "a genteel crap shoot!" Sales are down for all categories of books. Publishers are more conservative than they have been in the last twenty years. "The media synergy has to be right." Every agent assesses prospective clients, with questions like "What kind of media connection do they have going?" "Are they already a celebrity?"

Big publishers have become conservative because of the cost of doing business. Small publishers and independents may be free enough to be mavericks, but even they are constrained by shelf space. Editors no longer want to edit. They are marketers, known for their taste in literature. Pressed by the time constraints of their job, editors do not have time for the traditional work of editing manuscripts. Inundated by mountains of manuscripts, editors have to be so "high" on a particular work that they can sell the book to the rest of the house. Before a publisher will touch a work, everybody in the publishing company must be "up" on the book.