Workshops

I'll be giving my entire three workshop series covering my writer's guide, Playing the Short Game, for the Markham Public Library in May.

Each workshop will be presented online via Zoom. Attendance is free, but you need to register ahead of time, and attendance is capped.

Here are the dates and registration links for the series:

Workshop #1 (May 4, 2023, 7:00-9:00pm): Topics covered include the benefits of writing short fiction, avoiding traps for the beginner, understanding rights and licensing for short fiction, finding short fiction markets, selecting the right market for your story, submitting short fiction to a market, what not to do when submitting, what to do after submitting

Workshop #2 (May 11, 2023, 7:00-9:00pm): Topics covered include understanding how editors and slush piles work, why editors choose or reject stories, what to look (and look out) for in short fiction contracts, and how to ask for changes, how to work with an editor during the editing process for your story, how to handle rejections and reviews, how much promotion is reasonable when you sell a story, cool things that might happen: Awards, “best of” anthologies…and even movies

Workshop #3 (May 25, 2023, 7:00-9:00pm): Topics covered include leveraging your backlist, selling reprints, selling in foreign languages, selling audio rights, publishing a collection, the indie option for short fiction, discoverability tools and promotion for established writers, career progression in short fiction

Hope to see you there!

I'll be giving a series of three workshops in early 2022 via Zoom covering my writer's guide, Playing the Short Game: How to Market & Sell Short Fiction. The workshops are free and sponsored by the Richmond Hill Public Library of York Region and will be offered the first Thursday evening of March, April, and May (Mar 3, Apr 7, and May 5) from 7:30-9:00pm.

Topics covered in workshop #1 (March 3, 2022) include:

• The benefits of writing short fiction
• Avoiding traps for the beginner
• Understanding rights and licensing for short fiction
• Finding short fiction markets
• Selecting the right market for your story
• Submitting short fiction to a market
• What not to do when submitting
• What to do after submitting

If you're interested, go here to register ahead of time. Note that you'll be registering for all the Jan-Mar workshops offered by the library. They're all free, and you don't need to attend any other workshop (but you're welcome to).

Registration links for workshops #2 and #3 are not yet available, but I'll post here when they are. I look forward to seeing you there.

Thanks to an invitation from the nice people at the Edmonton Public Library, I will be in Edmonton this weekend, May 28-29, to do a reading / workshop on Saturday May 28, and a reading on Sunday May 29. The Saturday workshop will be 1:30-4:00pm at the Strathcona Branch (8331 - 104 Street) and will be a joint effort by me and Diane Walton, Managing Editor of the most excellent Canadian speculative fiction magazine, On Spec.

The workshop structure (more of a lecture with Q&A, actually) will follow a finished story from marketing to sale to post-sale, from the perspective of both a writer (me) and editor (yes, you're right, Diane). Here's what Diane and I are planning:

• Did you know that you never actually "sell" a story?: Licensing rights to fiction, both from a writer's and an editor's perspective
• So you've written a story. Now what?: How to market short fiction. How to choose markets. How an editor chooses a story. Tips from a writer and an editor.
• So you've sold a story. What happens next?: Contracts, editing requests, copy edits, getting it noticed, etc.
• Your story's been published. Is that all there is?: Selling reprints and other rights. Awards. Best of Anthologies. Collections.
• Ebooks and self-publishing: What this means for the short fiction writer and for a short fiction print publisher.
• Question and Answer session
• Reading

On Sunday May 29, I will be doing a reading at the EPL's monthly Writers' Corner at the Stanley A. Milner Library (Downtown). Audrey's Bookstore will be on hand at both events if you'd like to pick up a signed copy of either of my collections, Chimerascope (now nominated for the 2011 Aurora Award) or Impossibilia (a 2009 Aurora Finalist). If you're in Edmonton, it would be great if you could drop by either (or both!) of these events. Hope to see you there. EPL's Writer-in-Residence, Marty Chan, also did an interview with me around the upcoming readings.