Why should an author, or aspiring author,
attend the 2008 Hanover Book Festival?

This year, Lisa Hagan, who is a well-known literary agent from New York City, will be at the festival. She will be holding one-on-one interviews all day with those who sign up in advance, and she will conduct a 2-hour workshop from 1:30 pm to 3:30 pm on how to write a book proposal.

Lisa is president of Paraview Literary Agency. Hailed as a "literary goddess," Lisa has sold more than 500 books with major publishers and many of her clients' books have made the New York Times bestseller list. In her workshop, you will learn what a publisher does, what a literary agent does, and how the process works; the different forms of publishing, be it non-fiction, fiction, magazine, literary journals, etc.; she’ll tell you more about the publishing industry and the different kinds of publishing, and she’ll be teaching what agents and publishers look for from the author and what a platform is and how to build one.

So many of you are writing a book, have written a book, are thinking about writing a book, or are looking for an agent or perhaps interested in finding a new one. Many times, agents are so very hard to connect with and this is a great opportunity to do so.

(Link to registration form is in box below.)

Publisher Karen Syed, president and owner of Echelon Press will be interviewing fiction writers. Karen came last year and everyone who attended her workshop raved about her presentation.

Karen has had eight full-length romance novels published, is a featured author in three anthologies and has five more books scheduled for release. Her stories run from straight contemporary to paranormal/ghost/time travels. Her latest title, Dark Shines My Love, was featured in the Mr. Romance Cover Model Pageant at the RT Booklover's Convention in Kansas City, MO in October 2003.

As an owner of an independent bookstore in Grand Prairie, Texas, she was nominated for the Publishers Weekly 2000 Bookseller of the Year. She has served as an Educational Workshop Coordinator for the Romantic Times National Convention, founded a Romance Writers of America Chapter, and spent fifteen years molding the minds of the future as a preschool teacher. In addition to everything else, Karen is the founding Director of the IP Directive (Independent Publishers Directive), a promising organization committed to increasing the success and productivity of independent publishers worldwide, and the chairperson for the EPIC (Electronically Published Internet Connection) Publishers Coalition. She is a member of the Horror Writers of America and a member of Sisters in Crime. She also serves as a Member at Large for the Maryland Writers Association.

(Link to registration form is in box below.)

David Smitherman is the owner and publisher of Palari Publishing, located in Richmond, Virginia. Palari is a traditional independent publisher that began in 1998 with their first book We’re Still Here: Virginia Indians Tell Their Stories. Since then Palari has produced a hardcover and trade paperback fiction and nonfiction books ranging from biographies to business and self-help titles. Palari also publishes the following regional magazines: WORKMAGAZINE, Creative Work Space, Urge, and SBQ: Sports Backers Quarterly.

David has been in the publishing business over 15 years, first working as an editor for other publishers before starting his own company, specializing in nonfiction. Upcoming titles include a biography by actress Marcia Strassman, a Virginia college handbook, and a legal suspense novel by attorney Cody Fowler Davis.

(Link to registration form is in box below.)

From Bahamas to Bookshelf: Building a Suspense Novel, 12 noon to 1:00 pm, by Kathleen Mix. Using specific examples from her latest romantic suspense novels, Secret Stranger and Deadly Paradise, Kathleen will discuss:

How a story idea is built into a plot, how characters are chosen to populate a novel, the techniques writers employ to build suspense, why the most exciting books have strong villains, and why, in our favorite books, good triumphs over evil.

This workshop is suitable for both writers and readers.

(Link to registration form is in box below.)

Robert Pruett, president of Brandylane Publishers, Inc., has published hundreds of books in diverse genres and subject matter for regional and national markets since founding Brandylane in 1985. Mr. Pruett is also founder, publisher and editor of Pleasant Living, a bi-monthly magazine for the river country, and co-publisher and associate editor of V Magazine for Women, a monthly complimentary publication for women in Richmond which he founded in 2004. Mr. Pruett is a published essayist and poet and holds a M.A. in English from Virginia Commonwealth University. He lives in Richmond.

(Link to registration form is in box below.)