The Manuscript Academy Event Calendar

Get your meetings scheduled before we open to the public. Enjoy early booking, members-only meeting types, and get top-choice agents before they sell out. Book your meeting here: https://manuscriptacademy.com/member-booking-systemNeed help choosing a faculty member? Ask our concierge for advice: http://manuscriptacademy.com/conciergeOr, for a near-instant faculty recommendations try out our new faculty search tool here: https://manuscriptacademy.com/faculty-membersPrefer a written critique? Schedule that here: https://manuscriptacademy.com/all-written-critiques/Gold member and want a written critique credit or to combine your gold codes toward a longer meeting? Put in your request here: http://manuscriptacademy.com/change-my-codeWant more information on using your gold codes? Here's a guide: https://manuscriptacademy.com/guide-to-your-gold-codes

Meet with top agents and editors to discuss your work (all chosen for their kindness, brilliance, and ability to come up with insightful feedback on the spot). This month's meetings are now open for booking! (Don't worry if you can't make it right on time--though many spots do sell out quickly.)Book here: https://manuscriptacademy.com/consultationsWant early booking, 60+ hours of classes, and tickets to ALL our agent events for $20 more than a meeting? Click here. Meetings will stay open all month--however, many faculty members sell out quickly. We recommend booking as soon as you can to improve your odds of getting a meeting with your top-choice agent or editor.

Members-only and included with membership. ***This class is on demand--watch at your convenience in the member classroom.***Have you ever wondered how character, stakes and pacing interact in your world? Change one, and you change all three. With examples from various TV shows and movies, including 'Only Murders in the Building,' 'Will Trent,' 'Mare of Easttown,' and 'Inglourious Basterds,' book-to-film producers Marilyn R. Atlas and Elizabeth Lopez discuss the importance of balancing character development and plot progression, the role of ensemble casts, and the integration of various genres in storytelling. The talk is filled with practical exercises for writers to improve pacing, such as charting emotional arcs and setting up emotional pivot points. The session is wrapped up with takeaway thoughts and a Q&A session that offers practical advice on visualizing scenes and the importance of surprises and twists in keeping an audience engaged.Marilyn R. Atlas is a talent & literary manager, award-winning producer, and co-author of Dating Your Character. Her clients have appeared in shows such as Star Trek, Fringe, Pretty Little Liars, How to Get Away with Murder, 90210, Revenge, Hart of Dixie, NCIS:LA, True Blood, Dexter, Chuck, Castle, and Criminal Minds. She was film producer on Real Women Have Curves for HBO, which won the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival; A Certain Desire, starring Sam Waterston; and Echoes, which won the Gold Award at the Texas International Film Festival.In addition to producing a variety of programming for the cable/ pay TV market. In live theater, Marilyn co-produced the West Coast premiere of the musical God Bless You Mr. Rosewater by Ashman and Menken (the writers of Enchanted and Tangled). Real Women Have Curves – The Musical is opening on Broadway April 2025. She also co-produced the award-winning play “To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday,” co-produced a play in San Antonio called “Detained in the Desert,” and produced a movie for Lifetime based on a book called “The Choking Game.”Marilyn herself has been in development on pilots for Showtime and ABC Family. In addition to Marilyn’s film/TV credits, she has sold (first time) novels Chasing the Jaguar to HarperCollinsto Hachette Book Ave Maria Bed & Breakfast to Grand Central Publishing, and the Hungry Woman in Paris, Group, and the Last Ride of Caleb O’Toole to Sourcebooks Her Lifetime movie The Choking Game based on the YA book by Diana Lopez aired in summer 2014. She is also featured in the book Write Now! from Penguin/Tarcher. She is the co-author of a relationship-based, screenwriting guide called Dating Your Character, about an organic approach to character creation for Stairway Press’s Summer 2016 catalog.

Exact date/time TBD. All member lounge events are members-only and included free with your membership. Look for a Zoom link two hours before the event! No need to RSVP--as a member, you're already on the list.In this morning writing series, join us with your laptop, your characters, and a word-count goal. Like working in a creative coffeeshop, we believe this will keep you motivated--and get writing time on your calendar, with the support of your peers.Learn more about the member lounge here: https://manuscriptacademy.com/member-loungeCameron Kelly Rosenblum is the author of The Stepping Off Place, named a Kirkus Best Book of 2020 and a Top 10 YA Dealing with Mental Health.  Her second novel, The Sharp Edge of Silence, releases 4/11/23 in the US and UK. Her books have been translated into Polish, Russian, Hebrew, and German. Cameron has been a teacher and a children's librarian. She lives on the Maine coast with her family.

NEW: Interact with your fellow members as if you're at the best in-person, yet still introvert-friendly, almost-3d cocktail party. Yes, there is something of a learning curve to use this new virtual "space" but your friends are here to help. Come ready to say hello, make friends, and find your new support system.

Do you have publishing questions you can't Google--or, if you do Google them, you get lots of conflicting advice?Or maybe you need help navigating our offerings, and want to make sure you understand how it all works?Join us to ask Jessica Sinsheimer, literary agent and Manuscript Academy co-founder, for thoughtful, personalized help.You can learn about: Finding your best faculty fitUsing your Gold codesJoining our eventsThe features you may have missedAnd more!The first ~20 minutes will be writer introductions (come prepared to talk about you, your work, and something you're enjoying--a book, a hobby, a new trick you've taught your pet--up to you!) and ManuscriptAcademy.com site tour.After that, we'll open up to questions.This event will not be recorded. Please RSVP to secure your spot. The tour will be via Zoom; however, you do not need to turn on your camera to attend. 

Camus wrote, "Fiction is the lie through which we tell the truth." The key to creating a believable fictional world is being consistent. By consistency, I mean everything the reader needs to feel "secure" in the fictional world being built and not distracted by flaws in the construction. I think of this on two levels. First, the level every good copyeditor will focus on: consistency of style, grammar, spelling, and clarity (with Chicago Manual of Style, a style sheet, and PerfectIt as tools). And second, consistency of character names, ages, physical descriptions, speech styles, timelines, locations, and how everyone is connected (with character bios, maps, family tree, and "world rules" as tools, plus Word's search function).Amy Paradysz is a book editor with 20 years of book publishing experience. After learning the ropes as an associate editor and managing editor at Globe Pequot Press, she continued as a freelance editor while, over the years, Globe Pequot was purchased by Rowman & Littlefield and then by Bloomsbury Publishing. Amy has edited for Quarto Publishing, Islandport Press, and Cider Mill Press, among other publishers. She is comfortable editing adult fiction, memoir, self-help, academic nonfiction, full-color gift books, and cookbooks. Historical fiction is her happy place. Amy works both directly with authors and through publishers on copy edits and proofreads. She is based in Southern Maine, where she is a weekly columnist for the Sunday Maine Telegram and a contributing editor of Green & Healthy Maine magazine. She edited the Maine Bicentennial Community Cookbook, which was the 2020 New England Cookbook of the Year Runner-Up, and the follow-up Maine Community Cookbook (2022), which together were the inspiration for a storytelling-and-potlucks nonprofit called Community Plate. Amy has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and studied literary journalism and history as a graduate student at the University of Arkansas. She is a member of ACES: The Society for Editing.