. 2013 Backspace Writers Conference Registration Form PLEASE TYPE OR PRINT CLEARLY – this is especially important for your email address, since all conference correspondence is by email. QUESTIONS: feel free to email Backspace at chrisg@bksp.org or karendionne@bksp.org. you may also telephone Christopher Graham at 732-267-6449. First Name     _______________________________________________________________ Last Name     _______________________________________________________________ Address     _________________________________________________________________ City     ____________________________________________________________________ State/Prov.     ___________________________           Zip Code     ______________________ Email   ___________________________________________________________________ Phone      __________________________________________________________________ Genre (Choose One: Literary Fiction, Commercial Fiction, Historical Fiction, Women’s/Book Club Fiction, Mystery/Thriller, Young Adult, Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Nonfiction/Memoir) ________________________________________________ . Amount Enclosed (Check All that apply): . REGISTRATION FEE : . ________ Backspace Writers Conference & Agent-Author Day, May 23rd – 25th – $720 Includes: Thursday, May 23th Agent-Author Day: All literary agents, all day. Small-group workshops and panel discussions with over 25 top literary agents. Friday, May 24th Conference Program: A two-track conference program including literary agents, editors, authors and other publishing industry pros.

Step #1. TALK to fellow participants. A couple of months ago I whined about how tough it was to get a project that was really ready to go – a project with a great voice, great writing, great concept. Do you realize what a huge boon you have at these conferences, literally tripping over published authors and – possibly even more intriguing – other wannabe writers who could be an enormous asset to you – reading drafts of your manuscript, offering a different perspective on your work? I always feel that authors are so focused on the editor-agent thing that they forget about the people sitting right next to them, the other writers who could actually be of huge assistance to them. I honestly think that it’s not at all a bad idea to ignore the editors and agents prancing around and just sit down in the hotel lobby with

What to Bring Each registrant should bring 17 copies of their query letter and17 copies of their opening two pages to their assigned workshops EACH DAY. If you’re attending both days of the seminar, you’ll need to bring a total of 34 copies of your query letter, and 34 copies of your opening 2 pages. Past experience has shown it’s simply not possible to gather up Thursday’s copies and redistribute them to your workshop group on Friday. But don’t worry – we recycle! Also, while we realize this number might seem excessive if your group currently has less than 15 authors assigned to it, please be aware that we’re still accepting registrations, and your group’s size may well increase. QUERY LETTERS should be one page. For the purpose of this workshop, you may begin with the generic “Dear Agent.” OPENING PAGES should include your genre and a one-sentence logline/description of

  2005 Bob Kellogg Award – Lee Child The Bob Kellogg Good Citizen Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Internet Writing Community was presented to author Lee Child at the banquet following the 2005 Backspace Writers Conference on June 2. Across numerous web sites and message boards, Bob was known for his gracious, gentlemanly demeanor and informative and entertaining posts. He had both aspirations and humility, and was always willing to share with and encourage his fellow writers. Bob’s positive approach toward writing and publishing and his helpful nature embodied the “Writers Helping Writers” spirit that makes Backspace the resource it is, and Backspace is honored to name our main conference award after him. The following is the text version of presenter Jon Clinch’s remarks: Do you know what Bob Kellogg’s last post on Backspace was? It was three words long, and it was absolutely emblematic of everything we know

  Back in the mid-1990s, when the internet was dominated by listserv groups, a struggling novelist and former Manhattan marketing director named MJ Rose made news when she self-published her debut novel, Lip Service, as an e-book, selling more than 2000 copies online.   Nobody had done this before.   Like many of us in the room today, she’d spent years trying to break through into print. Publishers found her novels too risqué, too uncategorizable. Frustrated and fed up, but damned if she was going to give up, she took control and found a radical way to reach readers—the internet. Her bold move caught the eye of a publisher who subsequently bought her novel.   Lip Service became a Doubleday Book Club selection.   Nine novels and ten years later, MJ Rose has achieved international, bestselling status with her most recent novel, The Reincarnationist, going out as Mira’s lead title

  It’s almost a cliche when a person presenting an award says, “It give me great pleasure to present this award to -” but tonight, I could say that and truly mean it. But before I tell you who has been selected as this year’s recipient of Backspace’s main conference award, the Bob Kellogg Good Citizen Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Internet Writing Community, I’d like to tell you a little about the award itself. Backspace was founded five years ago on the principle of “writers helping writers” and that’s been our mission statement ever since. Even in the best of times, publishing is a difficult business, and writers can use all the help they can get. Backspace began in 2004 with a core group of 110 talented, serious writers who were determined to let cooperation and not competition be the guiding factor in their association. The helpful spirit

  New York Times bestseller Gayle Lynds is the award-winning author of eight international espionage novels, including THE LAST SPYMASTER, THE COIL, MASQUERADE, and MESMERIZED, which are published in some 20 countries. Her books have won such awards as “Novel of the Year” (THE LAST SPYMASTER) given by the Military Writers Society of America, and have been People magazine “Page-Turner of the Week” and “Beach Read of the Week.” Publishers Weekly lists her work among the top ten spy novels of all time. BookPage concurs: “Gayle Lynds has joined the deified ranks of spy thriller authors like Robert Ludlum and John le Carre.” With Ludlum, she created the Covert-One series and wrote three of the novels. One of them, THE HADES FACTOR, was a CBS miniseries in April 2006. A member of the Association for Intelligence Operatives, she is co-founder and co-president (with David Morrell) of International Thriller Writers, Inc., and is

  Here’s what most people don’t know: As a result of a summer job at the Dairy Queen, I can make an ice cream cone with a curl on the top. I was vice-president of the Midwest chapter of the National Beatles Fan Club, and figured I would one day marry George. Or Paul. Or John. When I was ten, my career ambition was to be Nancy Drew. But that’s not how it turned out. Yet. Right now, I’m on the air at Boston’s NBC affiliate, where I’ve been working to break big stories for the past 22 years. So far, so good. Along with my 26 EMMYs, I’ve won dozens of other regional, national and international honors for what the news releases call my “hard-hitting investigations.” I’m also proud of my 10 or so Edward R. Murrow Awards for reporting and writing, my top award from the National Association

Jonathan Maberry  is a New York Times bestselling and multiple Bram Stoker Award-winning author, magazine feature writer, playwright, content creator and writing teacher/lecturer. Novels GHOST ROAD BLUES (winner of the Stoker Award for Best First Novel in 2006), DEAD MAN’S SONG (2007) BAD MOON RISING (2008) PATIENT ZERO (St Martins Press 2009) THE DRAGON FACTORY (St Martin’s Press March 3, 2010) For Universal Pictures, and Tor Books, the novelization of the re-envisioning of THE WOLFMAN (2010 Tor Books) Upcoming Novels THE KING OF PLAGUES (SMP 2011) ROT AND RUIN (Simon & Shuster, September 2010) DUST AND DECAY (Simon & Shuster, 2011) Nonfiction VAMPIRE UNIVERSE (Citadel Press, 2006) THE CRYPTOPEDIA (Citadel, 2007 winner of the Bram Stoker Award for Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction) ZOMBIE CSU: The Forensics of the Living Dead (Winning of the Heinzman and Black Quill Awards and nominated for a Stoker Award; 2008) THEY BITE! (2009) Upcoming Nonfiction

To achieve a deeper level of mastery of storytelling, many CEO’s, Fortune 100 companies and international law firms have recently started turning to veteran teacher, author and professional storyteller, Prof. Richard Krevolin. Over the past decade, several major international corporations have flown Prof. Krevolin around the world to teach the art of storytelling to their executives. Some of these companies include J. Walter Thompson, Tata Interactive Software, Pond’s Skin Care, Sunsilk Shampoo, Lux Soap, Nike Sports. He has also worked with various top-tier corporate in-house and outside counsel on strategic communication and trial themes for major litigation cases. A graduate of Yale University, Richard went on to earn a master’s degree in screenwriting at UCLA’s School of Cinema-Television, and a master’s degree in playwriting and fiction from USC. For 15 years, Richard has taught both undergraduate and graduate writing classes at USC Cinema/TV School as well as UCLA Film School,