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Editors working for the most prominent publishing houses in Poland will join us for the new series of meetings organised by the Krakow – UNESCO City of Literature, with aspiring writers in mind. The first meeting, which will take place on the 29th of March at De Revolutionibus, will be devoted to fiction, and Maria Kula – the host of the meeting – will be joined by Agata Pieniążek representing Znak Literanova, responsible for selecting works to be published. The meeting will start at 6:00 p.m. sharp!
The communication between the writers and publishing houses tends to be complicated, as the aspiring writers often do not understand the expectations of the publishers. They often submit their works blindly, which results in receiving no answers at all – this results in increasing frustration. On the other hand, every day, publishers are swamped with dozens of book proposals that are totally not in line with their expectations. Their frustration also grows at a pace that is proportional to the ever-diminishing chance of finding a promising debut among thousands of e-mails.
It’s time to cooperate! In the new series of meetings initiated by Krakow – UNESCO City of Literature, both sides will meet and start working together. After all, they are bound by common goal – they want to publish books that will win over the hearts of thousands of readers.
Do you want to write and publish your books? Do not miss these meetings! The knowledge you will find there will help you to better plan your career, give you some new ideas for the texts which might be interesting for the publishers and save you from disappointment connected with rejecting your creation.
You will:
- learn what kind of books are the publishers looking for,
- take a peek behind the scenes of the publishing world and learn what you should know as an author,
- see what happens to the manuscript after being received by a publishing house,
- learn what is the best way to present the text you are submitting to a publisher,
- get to know the job of an editor and see how the author and editor work together.
Agata Pieniążek currently works for Znak Literanova publishing house, where she deals with acquiring and working with Polish authors, publishing both novels, as well as non-fiction books. She initiated the Proza.PL series, which featured Nike Award-nominated books by Magdalena Tulli, Sylwia Chutnik and Zośka Papużanka, as well as the Conrad Award-winning Dom z witrażem (The House with the Stained-Glass Window) by Żanna Słoniowska. She also had her hand in publishing the famous novel Najgorszy człowiek na świecie by Małgorzata Halber, Idealna – a best-selling thriller and the first book of Magda Stachula and Ptaki drapieżne – a bold interview with Lucjan “Sęp” Wiśniewski, the last liquidator of the Home Army counterintelligence.
Maria Kula is an editor who works individually with the authors. Since 2014 she has been conducting workshops and creative writing courses, as well as running the Novel Writing School based on her own programme. Recently, she also started the On-Line Writing Club. She promotes reading and writing thanks to a series of articles on writing, as well as numerous creative events.