463. LITOPIA: A Writers’ Group with a Difference – An Agent of One’s Own
Now, who are these lucky writers who have an Agent all to themselves? The Litopia Writers’ Group do.
I don’t know anyone else
in the publishing industry who does this, but Literary Agent Peter Cox spends
much of his free time, what little literary agents have, with his writers which
he calls the Litopia Colony. He literary devotes himself, as no other mentor I
know, to nurturing, caring, warning, cajoling, counselling, consoling,
soothing, encouraging his colony of writers; none of which, as far as I know,
are represented by him, and probably never will be.
So, if he doesn’t do it for money, which he obviously
doesn’t, what does he do it for? It may seem odd and an oversimplification, but
the reason is- he just loves writers- yes, we the unrepresented, unknown,
unassuming but hardworking and even dare-to-hope writers- are his passion.
The Litopia Writers’ Group is not unlike most writers’
groups. We get to know each other, air our problems and foibles, encourage and
at times inspire fellow Litopians… we also do some bitching. But there is a
policy, we all must adhere to, which is to neither give offence or take offence
from other members; there are guardians lurking about to remind us of this
should it happen.
One of the important features is the Writing Directory
and the backroom which is where we can post our work in all privacy as it is
not accessible to the public. To take part, you need to be a “Patron,” which is
a minimum contribution of less than a hundred dollars per year, you can always
give more should you want to. Oherwise, being a basic member is completely
free. However, since maintaining a web-site costs money, and we don’t want
Peter to close it down, most of us pay the Patron membership willingly.
This, nevertheless, is not all there is to it. Didn’t
I say Peter is unique, and does what no other agents/mentors do? He does two
things no one else in the industry does. The first is he has a U-Tube channel
called “Pop-Up Submissions” where he critiques submissions sent in by writers
for evaluation, which is completely free. As can be expected, he doesn’t do
this alone. He is aided by a “vintage” Litopian and a guest from the industry,
usually a published author, at times a publisher or agent. This panel is backed
up by an army of Litopians in the “chat room” who post their comments and
evaluations which are priceless since being impartial and spontaneous reactions
to the work in question, may be useful pointers to the author submitting the
work.
In short, this is what agents and publishers do with
their staff when evaluating submissions- the only difference is- Peter Cox does
it live on U-Tube, and any writer can submit. Pop-Up submission goes live every
Sunday at 5.00 pm UK time.
Again, this is not all. Even if at the moment it is
only a monthly event, in 2020 we hope it will become more frequent because this
does beat anything else offered on the web by the industry… Have you ever
wondered what it is like to meet up, face to face with all those peculiar
avatars, unmasked? This is exactly what Litopians do on a Saturday afternoon.
It is for this reason I entitled this article: An Agent of One’s Own, because
on these occasions this is what Peter is: an Agent all to ourselves. During
this video session we bring in our query letters, synopsis, opening pages or
anything we need advice on from an industry person. If you want, you can even
pitch Agent Pete direct. Peter discusses each of our expositions, and I need to
emphasize this, giving us advice, we would not get anywhere else, even at a
price… yes, it is all free. And because there are no strings attached, you can
bet it is the most impartial and vital advice you will ever get in your career,
especially if you are a non-published author… it is priceless.
If you are a writer and would like to join us- click
on this link
We look forwarding to seeing you.
