Do you have an idea for a book? A manuscript you’re trying to publish? This is your chance to put your creativity to the test! Come give a one-minute elevator pitch to a panel of experienced editors and agents for real-time Shark Tank-style feedback, or come to watch how it’s done. Book pitching has never been this fun!
$25 or FREE for Paragraph Members*
Our judges:
KEVIN O’CONNOR (literary agent) Since his first job out of college at Sesame Workshop, Kevin has always worked at the intersection of business and creative. Kevin takes on serious adult nonfiction (Brian McCullough’s How the Internet Happened, Claude Andrew Clegg’s The Black President). On the adult fiction side, he represents Afghan and Iraq War Vet Adam Kovac (The Surge) and the acclaimed Colin Winnette (Users). For middlegrade readers, he’s the agent behind the Russell Ginns’s Samantha Spinner series; Cas Hyman’s Mango Delight; and Steven B. Frank’s Armstrong and Charlie. He reps the picturebooks Papa, Daddy & Riley by Seamus Kirst; Honeysmoke by Monique Fields; and A Is for Audra by John Robert Allman, illustrated by Peter Emmerich. He is a Columbia College grad and the founding director of The Center for Nonfiction, a Columbia University Community Scholars Project dedicated to helping journalists and scholars understand the formal needs of trade publishers.
BRENDA COPELAND (editor) is an editor with more than twenty years’ experience at the big five publishers and over ten years’ experience as an adjunct professor in the graduate publishing program at NYU. She has published a robust list of fiction and non-fiction, quality books with strong commercial appeal, including The Good House by Ann Leary, Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend by Matthew Dicks, and A Big Little Life, Dean Koontz’s first non-fiction book. Now an independent editor, she works closely with authors through all stages of the writing and publication process, helping them reach their creative potential.
DANA ISAACSON (editor) works with major publishers, literary agents, published writers and debut writers. In addition to conceptual editing and line-by-line edits, he has book-doctored numerous projects and ghost-written novels. Most recently at Penguin Random House, Dana has also worked at Pocket Books/Simon and Schuster and ReganBooks/HarperCollins. His experience in New York City book publishing includes editing both fiction and non-fiction. He has abridged books and worked as a literary agent. Dana’s writing has appeared in The New York Observer, the New York Times (syndicated in Palm Beach Post, Seattle Times and Fort Worth Star-Telegram), and the Racine Journal Times. Dana also blogs on the website CareerAuthors.com—named by Writer’s Digest in 2020 as the #2 “Best Writing Advice Website.” He has a BA from the University of Wisconsin and lives in New York City’s East Village.
*Paragraph Members: look for Zoom link in your inbox (check spam/promotions) a few days ahead of this event.