A round up of SYP North’s summer!

Posted on September 11, 2012 in Uncategorized

First of all a huge thank you to the fabulous speakers who graced the stage at The Adelphi in Leeds on 30 August, you were all brilliantly entertaining and engaging, high five!

Also a big thank you to everyone who came along to watch and join in – we had a fabulous turn out of over 30 people, including students, editors, proofreaders, publishers, authors and just general lovely literature enthusiasts.

We kicked off the evening with a lively, contentious debate about digital and print publishing. Wes Brown, director of Dead Ink Books, opened up with his take on why the e-book is the best thing since sliced bread, and how it wipes the floor with those dusty old paperbacks that we have come to cherish in a somewhat unhealthy manner….Wes’s words, not mine! Jamie McGarry, founder of Valley Press, gave as good as he got with his persuasive points on the merits of print books, the places they hold in our lives, the value of a well designed piece of cover art and the importance of taking time out to read. Thrown into the mix were a lot of challenging and well posed questions from the audience, and it all came together to provide an exciting, informative debate.

Following this, we welcomed Esme Carpenter, author and one of the founders of IFWG Publishing, to do a reading from her novel Against The Elements. Esme really brought the characters to live with her reading, and showed us how engaging a piece of well crafted speculative fiction can be. Esme also chatted about her experiences with trying to get published, and the process of founding her own publishing company with several other authors. She also championed the idea of new and emerging authors supporting each other and providing great feedback to help increase your chances of publication and create a community around the writing process.

Following all of this, we had some lovely locally sourced food put on by The Adelphi, and even managed to squeeze in a few well deserved cocktails in a bar around the corner!

The next event will be at the end of October, and promises to be just as varied, interesting, friendly and fun, so watch this space!

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Megan Beech
Chair of the Northern Society of Young Publishers
mbeech@emeraldinsight.com
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