Our day of writing workshops for aspiring authors concludes with this seminar with three industry professionals. Jill Dawson, author of twelve novels and founder of Gold Dust Writer Mentoring will be joined Emma Shercliff, literary agent at Laxfield Literary Associates (in association with Blake Friedman Literary Agency) and Kate Sawyer, author of three novels, host of Novel Experience Podcast and programme curator of Bury St Edmunds Literary Festival for a conversation that seeks to lift the curtain on the mysteries of publication and offer practical advice on the options open to those who want to see their writing turned into a book. They will cover the pros and cons of writing specific training, go into the nuts and bolts of the submissions process and explain the differences between traditional and author-led routes to publication. The event will leave plenty of time for audience Q&A, so if you’ve ever had a burning question about how a book comes to being, this is your opportunity to ask!
 
Jill Dawson is the author of twelve novels, one poetry collection and the editor of six anthologies of poetry and stories.  She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and has been a Costa Judge, and taught creative writing in many different settings. Jill is the founder of Gold Dust Writer Mentoring.
 
Emma Shercliff founded Laxfield Literary in 2020. She has over 20 years of experience in the publishing industry. She has worked for publishing houses in Paris, Melbourne, Abuja and London, and for the British Council in Nigeria and Iran. Emma was formerly M.D. of Macmillan English Campus, and Head of Export Sales at Hodder Education. She was Sales & Rights Director of Cassava Republic Press UK, an award-winning independent African publishing company, until 2019. Emma was Publishing Director for Ankara Press, an African romance imprint launched in 2014, and conceived and coordinated the acclaimed Valentine’s Day Anthology (2015), which featured contributions in multiple languages from authors and translators across Africa. Emma sits on Advisory Boards for the Centre for Book Cultures and Publishing, University of Reading and the MA Publishing, University of Exeter. Emma has written for industry publications including The Bookseller, Publishing Perspectives, Wasafiri and LOGOS, and contributed a book chapter on Black British Publishing to The Edinburgh Companion to Women in Publishing (published March 2024). Publishing consultancy work includes a review of the publishing sector in Ukraine for the British Council (2020-2021), and the development of an author diversity report & toolkit for the UK Publishers Association (2021). Emma has spoken on industry panels and at publishing conferences including the Salon du Livre in Geneva, the London Book Fair, the Emirates Literary Festival and the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair. She regularly chairs literary events, including at the Primadonna Festival and the National Centre for Writing, and programmes the Low House Litfest.  Emma lives in Suffolk.
 
Kate Sawyer worked as an actor and producer before writing several short films then turning her hand to fiction. 
 
Her second novel This Family was a Waterstones Book Of The Month and Paperback of the Year. Her debut, The Stranding, was shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award, won the East Anglian Book Award for fiction, was adapted for BBC Radio 4 Book at Bedtime and is being developed for the screen. Her third novel Getting Away will be released in July 2025 and has already been selected as a Bookseller Pick of The Month for July. From 2022-20024 Kate produced and recorded 60+ episodes of her podcast Novel Experience, where she talks to other novelists about their writing practices and the experiences that led them to being published. She is a regular guest lecturer in creative writing at. various local educational institutions and is a mentor for Gold Dust Writer Mentoring. Kate is the programme curator and producer of the annual Bury St Edmunds Literature Festival, in the Suffolk town she grew up in and returned to after the birth of her daughter.