Notes on MFA Reading: Creating a meaningful and profitable writing career with Dan Conaway, Gabriel Fried, Sarah

Crichton 1. Dan Conaway - Literary agent at writers house, agent for 5 years - Executive editor - Book scout - WWNorton- 1st job publishing - Broad range of jobs in publishing, as an editor and an agent represented many different types of literature - His opinion on his career: the most Great/Confusing part is how everything work; how its syncretic and subjective it is - What interests him to this career choice, its chemistry for him. If you dont feel it, you dont want to work with it. You love it or you dont. - Quality - His mom told him that one day he was going to be an editor, back then he had no idea what an editor was 2. Gabriel Fried - Poetry editor, editor at percy small press - 1975 by Michael Mckarin Ziller (?) - Publishes about a dozen books a year, most of them being poetry - Started working while in graduate school in Columbia, felt the least corporate to him, which he loved. Began poetry series for them. Emphasized younger poets - Make relationship with writers beyond the book (this is what he looks for when he looks for pieces to publish) - Something he wanted to reiterate: that it only takes one editor to be responsive to a work in order it takes to lauch into the world. It doesnt matter how long it takes to publish it, that it doesnt define the success it will make 3. Sarah Crichton - Her own imprint line within a publishing house called Sarah Crichtons Books - Started as a writer, started working for 17 magazine; enjoyed editing and having an audience. She became the editor of 17 magazine - She loved it because you can feel the reader, had a dialogue going on, became one of the top editors of newsly - She had a fight with a boss and got fired - She became a co-writer and got a better job, her first book she published was Long way gone which became a #1 best seller - She had a feeling that there was a real audience for this book - Her point: she knew a brilliant writer, target audience, knew who the reader was, and what direction to take the book to - The audience is changing. If you ask a publisher, its all changing, but actually with kindle, nook, Ipad, more books are being sold. - The hunger out there is becoming bigger. The audience is still there, not traditional thought Ultimately, what writers are looking for are agents and editors that respond to your voice and vision so that the audience and potential reader can be seen. It shows that they can help you find the reader that will respond to it.

Traditional rules are disappearing, its all changing. The importance of finding people who can hear you will become a different (not bigger) challenge. What to write about: The jobs that they have and how they got there The importance of their careers in their views