Louis
Place
Traditional literary publishing for artists and iconoclasts
with Erika Stevens
Saturday, March 22 - 3:30pm ET
What you’ll learn
In this session, literary agent and former editor Erika Stevens provides a comprehensive introduction to traditional publishing for nontraditional artists. Here’s what we’ll cover:
- An introduction to the structure of the traditional publishing industry—including the Big Five publishing houses, independent presses, and academic presses.
- Assessing your goals and finding the right home for your project: aiming for the publishing experience that's the best fit.
- A more detailed discussion of how publishers acquire new projects.
- Need an agent, or querying directly? Erika will share her querying tips.
- What happens once you sign on the dotted line? Erika will briefly review the lifecycle of a traditionally published book, from manuscript to marketing.
Bring your questions: we’ve set aside 15 minutes for Q&A.
About Erika Stevens
Image description: A pale woman in her mid-forties with wavy hair, wearing glasses and a necklace over a black top, smiles at the camera.
Erika Stevens (she/hers) has acquired, edited, and developed the work of a wide range of authors over the course of two decades in publishing. She began her career at academic presses, including Duke, UNC, and UGA Presses, before spending twelve years at independent publisher Coffee House Press, where she finished as Editorial Director. Authors whose work she has shepherded include Eloisa Amezcua, Allison Adelle Hedge Coke, Kyle Dargan, Latasha N. Nevada Diggs, Saeed Jones, Eugene Lim, Dawn Lundy Martin, Bao Phi, Justin Phillip Reed, Natasha Trethewey, Anne Waldman, Karen Tei Yamashita, and many others. Her authors have been awarded or named finalists for the National Book Award, the Hurston Wright Award, the Kingsley and Kate Tufts Award, the PEN/Osterweil Award, the Whiting Award, the Pulitzer Prize, the Kate Tufts Award, the NBCC Award, the Lambda Awards, and others. Erika is currently an agent with Salky Literary Management.