Writing Words - 5 reasons why #UKYA unpublished and published authors should attend YALC.

YALC is happening this week! If you have had your head buried under a mountain of books you might have missed the excitement brimming over on social media about this ever growing annual event. But if you don't know what it is, let me help you. 

YALC stands for Young Adult Literary Conference and will basically feature the biggest gathering of YA authors, publishers and agents in the UK. If you write YA, this is the place to be! Not convinced?

OK, well let me try a little harder by giving you five excellent reasons why you should attend YALC if you write YA. It doesn't matter if you are published or you are not, you need to be at YALC because:

1. You can pitch to agents. If you are seeking representation, this is an ideal opportunity that won't cost you anything, to sit and talk face to face with some of the UK's finest agents and pitch them your idea.  There will be a different agents doing talks every day. Julia Churchill will be there on Friday, followed by Danielle Zigner on the Saturday and Louise Lamont on the Sunday. 

   

   Agent Julia Churchill

2. There are three whole days jam packed with writing workshops taught by some of the best YA writers in the UK! It would cost you a fortune to have this many classes with so many brilliant writers, yet at YALC it all comes within the price of your ticket. You can learn to write using the Tarot with Anna McKerrow, which I loved last year. There are screen writing classes, as well as writing fandom. 
3. You get to breathe the same air and listen to some of YA's finest talk about their writing. UKYA writers like Carnegie winner Sarah Crossan, Holly Bourne, Malorie Blackman and many others. Children's Laureate, Chris Riddell will also be on hand to illustrate live, which is definitely something worth seeing. And on top of that you have some of America's finest such as New York Times Bestseller, VE Schwab, David Levithan and Maggie Steifvater. 

   

   New York Times Bestselling Author, VE Schwab

4. You can find out what's new in the UKYA publishing industry. There will be a couple of talks every day where you will find out what it's like to work in the publishing industry. You can also find out what you need to do to get published. 
5. It's an ideal opportunity to network. Not only will you get to meet authors, but you will also meet the people who work in publishing as well as many of the book blogging community. There will be a huge amount of people who will want to talk to you about your book!

   

   Super bloggers!

   There are lots more reasons why you should attend, in fact I could probably go on and on and on about it right up until the event, but I must stop now because I really need to pack ready for my three day stay in Olympia!!! If you do come, make sure you say hi if you see me! And good luck - YALC could be the start of your publishing career!