The Ramada Plaza Hotel St. Louis is located in the heart of St. Louis across from the America's Center and has easy access to area attractions and dining. Rooms for conference attendees will be available for a reasonably priced group rate. In addition, a special $5 parking rate for the hotel’s parking garage is included in the hotel rate or $5 for attendees all day.
Chuck Sambuchino of Writer's Digest Books will open the conference Saturday morning with his “Pitch Perfect” presentation that will help attendees with their pitches. He will spend 20-40 minutes talking about what a pitch is and what NOT to do when sitting down next to an agent. He'll also break down what needs to be in a pitch and what NOT to include. In addition, he will give the keynote address during the Show Me Awards Banquet on Saturday Night. Chuck edits the GUIDE TOLITERARY AGENTS and the CHILDREN'SWRITER'S & ILLUSTRATOR'S MARKET. His Guideto Literary Agents Blog is one of the largest blogs in publishing.
The theme of this year’s conference is “Fifty Shades of
Writing” and will feature an early arrival session Friday afternoon, a slush panel session Friday night and a great lineup of agents, publishers, and editors for
pitch sessions on Saturday, innovative workshops throughout the day on Saturday,
and some excellent, intensive master classes on Sunday.