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Last year we started doing networking dinners with some of our editors and agents.  Everyone who attended enjoyed themselves and wanted them to continue.  Each dinner is $140 to attend.  

The price includes dinner, drink and dessert with the following people on the following dates. (Note: Anna Olswanger, agent from Liza Dawson Associates was added to Aug. 4th).
 
These dinners have limited space.  Only two people can sign up to attend for each editor or agent invited.  (Example: Four editors would allow 8 people to sign up.)  Please e-mail me if you would like to secure a spot.
 
June 29th – NYC 
Rebecca Frazer – Editor, Sourcebooks, Jabberwocky
Marissa Walsh – Agent, Fine Print Literary Agency
Michelle Poploff – VP Editorial Director, Random House
Catherine Onder – Editor, HarperCollins
Shauna Fay – Assistant Editor, Putnam
 
June 30th – NYC
Stephen Barbara – Agent, Foundry Literary + Media
Alison Wortche – Assistant editor, Knopf Crown
Karen Chaplin – Editor, Puffin
Erica Sussman – Editor, HarperCollins
 
July 15th  – Princeton, NJ
Magery Cuyler – Publisher, Marshall Cavendish
Marietta Zacker - Agent, Nancy Gallt Agency
Carolyn Yoder – Editor, Calkins Creek; Sr. Editor, History, HIGHLIGHTS
Teresa Kietlinski – Agent, Prospect Agency
 
July 27th – NYC 
Holly McGhee - President, Agent of Pippin Properties
Tamra Tuller – Editor, Philomel
Lisa Yoskowitz – Assistant Editor, Dutton
Eve Adler – Associate Editor, Henry Holt
 
July 28th – NYC
Kelly Smith – Editor, Sterling Publishing
Emilly Van Beek – Agent, Folio Literary Management
Steve Meltzer - Associate Pub/ Exe. Managing Ed., Dial, Dutton, & Celebra
Sarah Barley – Assistant Editor, Henry Holt
 
August 3rd – NYC
Mary Kole – Agent, Andrea Brown
Connie Hsu – Assistant Editor, Little, Brown & Co.
Kate Sullivan – Assistant Editor, Little, Brown & Co.
 
August 4th – NYC 
Sean McCarthy – Agent, Sheldon Fogelman Agency
Heather Alexander – Assistant Edition, Dial BFYR
Regina Griffin – Sr. Editor, EgmontUSA
Anna Olswanger – Agent, Liza Dawson Associates

First, I want to apologize to my visitors who are not attending the conference I’m running in June for not keeping up my usual posts.  I just can’t find the extra time to do the research I need to provide a decent post on improving your writing, right now.  Of course, everyone can jot down the names of the editors and agents we’re working with and maybe pick up some underlying information about them.  In a little over two weeks, it will all be over and things will get back to normal. 

Yesterday, I said I was working on summer dinners in NYC with editors and agents for the Silent Auction.  That isn’t exactly right.  Last year, we did put them in the Silent Auction, but there were some problems.  I had gotten so many editors and agents that after the conference I realized that there weren’t enough weeks in the summer to do them all.  To get around this, I made each dinner have four editors/agents.  I never thought anyone who bid would complain that there were too many editors/agents and were upset.  The other thing I didn’t realize was that some of the dinners would not get high enough bids to pay for the cost of the dinner.  So, for all my effort and work, I had some members who weren’t happy and we lost money. 

Feeling unappreciated, my first thought was to not do them again this summer.  It takes hours and hours of work to make them happen.  I spent all summer working on them.  But many members did appreciate the effort and found them to be a great networking opportunity.  They were fun, even the editors and agents enjoyed themselves, so I sat back and tried to think of a way to do them without killing myself and not having members complain.  This is what we are going to try this year:

I am shooting to get four editor/agents for each dinner.  Here are the dates that I am working on, right now.

June 29th and June 30th  NYC

July 14th Princeton, NJ

July 27th and 28th NYC

Aug. 3rd & 4th NYC

Maybe another date with Artist reps, Art Directors and PB editors – Four total.  I haven’t started to work on that, yet.

On Friday June 4th at the conference, I will put out a sheet of paper for each dinner with the date, the editors/agents, restaurant, cost of the dinner and the amount of people who can attend.  I will ask for a certain dollar amount that will cover the members dinner and part of the editors/agents dinners and a few dollars for the Scholarship Fund.  I will also put this out to the attendees before the conference, so everyone will have time to consider if they want to grab a limited spot. 

Some people do not like the idea of paying for a portion of the editors/agents dinner, if you are one of these people, then these dinners are not for you.  I wouldn’t expect our guests to come out and pay for their own food and drink.

Here is what I have so far:

June 29th -

Rebecca Frazer – Editor, Sourcebooks, Jabberwocky
Marissa Walsh – Agent, Fine Print Literary Agency
Michelle Poploff – VP Editorial Director, Random House

June 30th

Stephen Barbara – Agent, Foundry Literary + Media
Alison Wortche – Assistant editor, Knopf Crown