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Ghostwriters Anonymous: Sharing Profitable Secrets
Saturday, March. 18
2-4 PM ET
open to all mentees, all mentors, program alum, and woman-identifying, trans*, and gender-expansive members of the public.
Did you know that it took over a dozen writers to write all sixty-four Nancy Drew books? Have you ever wondered how iconic movie characters are made into books? Ghostwriters play an integral role in creating various content, including books, blogs, articles, scripts, and even songs. These unsung “heroes” all serve the function of writing content someone else will be credited for, but not all ghostwriters choose the same haunts; some prefer to work for individuals, while others prefer to work with corporations.
Join us as Margery Hannah and Kat Jagai share their ghostwriting knowledge. Margery will discuss how to launch a career in ghostwriting, the differences between ghostwriting fiction and nonfiction, ghostwriting for individuals versus agents, editors and publishers, managing clients, and how to avoid potential horror through carefully crafted contracts. Kat will break down the complexities of writing for hire and creating IP (intellectual property). Attendees will learn about the IP process from beginning to end—including pitching, plotting, and writing—from both the editorial and the writing perspective. Whether you’ve always wanted to write a Star Wars tie-in novel or you think you’ve got the next Big Idea and want to know how to become an IP editor, join in to discover the secrets to ghostwriting!
Meet the Teaching Artists
Margery Hannah
Margery Hannah excitedly joins Girls Write Now after several years in program development and management within the nonprofit sector. An ardent supporter of education, Margery has experience teaching K-12 English throughout NYC. She holds a bachelor’s degree in English, Literature, and Ethnic Studies from Wichita State University, where she received multiple scholarships and English departmental honors; an MFA in Creative Writing and Literature from Stony Brook University; and an MA in Aging Studies from Wichita State University. She is a McNair Scholar alumna whose scholarly research helped propel financial literacy course requirements for Kansas high school graduates. Passionate about writing, Margery worked as a ghostwriter for many years; currently she keeps a multi-genre blog called The Literary Purveyor.
Kat Jagai
K. A. Jagai is a writer, artist, and editor from Brooklyn, New York. They work in IP for Alloy Entertainment, a creative think tank and full-service editorial partner that develops and produces original books, television series, and feature films. Jagai’s own writing has appeared in Frontier Poetry, Electric Literature, Publishers Weekly, and elsewhere. They were awarded Summer Literary Seminars’ 2018 Poetry Fellowship and have taken classes at Cave Canem. They received their B.A. from Bennington College in 2016, where they studied literature, printmaking, and critical race theory. In both art and writing, they are seeking that light within themselves and others that can only be seen when one is forced into the dark.
This event is open to:
all mentees, all mentors, program alum, woman-identifying and trans* and gender-expansive members of the public