Video: Terry Brooks & Robin Hobb Talk Writing & Publishing

Last weekend, I attended the Jet City Comic Show.

It is a small but growing convention in Tacoma, WA featuring an avid group of book readers, comic book enthusiasts, and collectors of all things geek. Terry Brooks, Brian Herbert, Robin Hobb, Bruce B. Taylor, and more than a dozen 47 North authors were with me. It was wonderful to see so many writers gathered in one place and, better, so many interested readers.

On Sunday, I moderated Terry Brooks and Robin Hobb in a panel titled The Evolving Landscape of Being a Novelist. We talked about the evolution of publishing from 1977 to now as well as took some great questions from the audience. The video of the panel is above courtesy of SciFiMonkeys.com.

I hope you enjoy it!

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Shawn Speakman

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3 responses to “Video: Terry Brooks & Robin Hobb Talk Writing & Publishing”

  2. I would like to see another How-To Book by Terry Brooks! Several years ago he released Sometimes the Magic Works… but I found it very limited and more autobiography of his writing experience. I have taken several Writing Workshops … from Long Ridge Writer’s Group, Writer’s Digest, etc. And would like more information on Agents and getting a Del Rey contract???

    • As Terry says, he no longer knows how to get an agent or get a Del Rey contract. He’s been out of that part of the business for too long.

      But I haven’t. When it comes to agents, it’s pretty simple. Take a good look at what you’ve written and see which author your work most emulates. Then write a great query letter and send it to that author’s agent. Fingers crossed, right?! It may take reaching out to several agents to find the right one to champion your work. In my opinion, the hardest part of that journey is writing a great query letter. It is arguably the most important thing you will write other than your novel.

      About Del Rey, they are a part of Random House. And they don’t accept unsolicited manuscripts. That means you need an agent. When you get an agent, it should be easy for them to reach out to Del Rey’s editors and get your a book a read.