Friday 14 March 2008

With editors Brigid Hughes, Fergus Barrowman and Jane Parkin

In support of Blake Morrison's adage, "a culture that doesn't care about editing is a culture that doesn't care about writing", three literary editors talk life between the pages as part of the New Zealand Post Writers & Readers Week in Wellington this March.

So, you want to be your own boss?

Then come and hear from people who've successfully made the transition from office drone to happy and high-flying entrepreneur.

The Wellington branch of the Local Publishers Forum is holding an informal session on freelancing in the book industry:

• Sarah Bennett will talk about getting started – the "boring old compliance stuff" that’s so important when you become your own boss.


• Another experienced freelancer will talk about all the pitfalls they've encountered and the all-important lessons learnt.


• Rebecca Lal will talk about what a publishing company expects from its freelancers and how best to get in touch.

All you ever wanted to know about bookselling but were afraid to ask

Come along for an evening with the stars of the bookselling world. We're lucky that John McIntyre from the Children's Bookshop, Tim Skinner from Capital Books and Marcus Greville from Unity Books have agreed to talk about what it's like in their part of the publishing universe, and they will also answer all those tricky questions – why won't you stock my book on road markings of the Far North? Diversification – is it a good thing? What's your store's point of difference? If I manage to get my book into your store, what can I do to help it fly back out again and into people's homes?

The Local Publishers' Forum Wellington is pleased to offer a rare opportunity to attend Anna Rogers' excellent one-day course for editors.

Anna will cover a wide range of topics such as the role of the editor, editing non-fiction (and a little on fiction), common errors and pitfalls, handling 'isms' (sexism, racism etc), treatment of the author, blurb-writing, etc.