Receive advice from an award-winning, longtime author who has been there and done that!
For Author Coaching, choose between the award-winning authors below to select who you’d like to provide you with answers to your top 5 burning questions about the craft and/or business of writing and the writer’s life and anything else that comes up during your 15-minute conversation with them on Friday, May 1 between noon and 4:45 p.m. (scheduled around any other activities you’ve selected that day).
One of the best parts of attending a conference is the chance to meet those who are much further along the writing and publishing journey. With the author coaching session, you will have the opportunity to talk at length with an author who’s not at their first or even twenty-first rodeo: they have decade or more of experience, insights, and wisdom to share, and they are eager to help you.
After you register for this activity by selecting your author coach, the submission deadline is April 24, 2026 for your top 5 burning questions about the craft and/or business of writing and the writer’s life along with a one-page query letter and a one-page synopsis about the book project for which you’re seeking publication, if available, to give your coach some context. If you don’t have a book ready for publishing, then just submit your top 5 questions. Please note that multipart questions will take more time to answer, so if you ask 5 multipart questions, for example, your coach might not have time to answer them all.
What questions to ask? Here is just a sample of questions to consider:
· How did you secure a publisher, and did it require getting an agent first?
· What mistake did you make, in pursuit of your first publishing contract that, in hindsight, you would avoid now?
· How did you persist through rejections of your work?
· How do you balance writing and the business side of the author’s life (e.g., appearances, social media, promotion, etc.)?
· When should I realize it’s time to throw in the towel on a project that is not getting any interest from agents or publishers (or know if my project is even worth working on to begin with)?
· If I don’t like social media, but agents say it’s important, how should I best invest my time and energy in it?
· Here is what I have done so far to get an agent/publisher…What am I missing/doing right/doing wrong?
This will be a verbal exchange, and you’re not limited to those 5 questions. You’re welcome to continue to seek advice from your coach as long as time allows, so be sure to have more questions ready, to make the best use of your 15 minutes.
Author coaching sessions are available for in-person as well as virtual participants. If you participate virtually, you will be sent a Zoom link to access the virtual meeting room with your coach.
The cost of an author coaching session is $60. During the registration process, you will see which coach has spots remaining and can choose accordingly. If the individual(s) you want are full, you can add yourself to one of the waitlists. There is no charge for waitlist spots; if a spot opens for you due to another participant’s cancellation, you will be informed by e-mail and will pay for the activity at that time.
Author Coaches
Mickey Dubrow is the author of the urban fantasy The Magic Maker, the time travel novel Always Agnes, and the political satires American Judas and Bulletproof. For over thirty years, he wrote television promos, marketing presentations, and scripts for various clients including Cartoon Network, TNT Latin America, and HGTV. His short stories and essays have appeared in Prime Number Magazine, The Signal Mountain Review, and Full Grown People. His first novel, American Judas, won the 2024 American Legacy Book Award in the category of Science Fiction: Parallel Universe/Alternative History. He lives in Atlanta, Georgia with his wife, author Jessica Handler. For more details about Mickey and his work, visit https://www.mickeydubrow.com/.
Mickey will do coaching across the following fiction genres:
- Contemporary
- Graphic novel
- Humor
- LGBTQ+
- Literary
- Mystery/Crime
- Southern
- Speculative Fiction
- Suspense
- Thriller
- Time Travel
- Upmarket commercial/Book club
He will also do coaching about nonfiction Humor topics.
Mickey has open spots available.
Jessica Handler has written historical fiction, a memoir, and a writing craft guide and is a teacher of writing. She is the author of the novel The Magnetic Girl, winner of the 2020 Southern Book Prize and a nominee for the Townsend Prize for Fiction, a 2019 “Books All Georgians Should Read,” an Indie Next pick, Wall Street Journal Spring 2019 pick, Bitter Southerner Summer 2019 pick, and a Southern Independent Bookseller’s Association “Okra Pick.” Her memoir Invisible Sisters was also named one of the “Books All Georgians Should Read,” and her craft guide Braving the Fire: A Guide to Writing About Grief and Loss was praised by Vanity Fair magazine. Her writing has appeared on NPR, in Tin House, Drunken Boat, Full Grown People, Oldster, The Bitter Southerner, Electric Literature, Brevity, Creative Nonfiction, Newsweek, The Washington Post and elsewhere. Honors include the Ferrol Sams, Jr. Distinguished Writer in Residence at Mercer University in Macon, Georgia and the Kenyon Review Peter Taylor Fellowship. She is a visiting faculty member at West Virginia Wesleyan College’s low-residency MFA, and a member of the faculty at Etowah Valley MFA at Reinhardt College. Her novel, The World to See, is forthcoming from Regal House Press. Jessica lives in Atlanta with her husband, novelist Mickey Dubrow. For more details about Jessica and her work, visit www.jessicahandler.com.
She will do coaching across the following fiction genres:
- Coming-of-age
- Contemporary
- Family saga/drama
- Historical
- LGBTQ+
- Literary
- Short story collection
- Southern
- Upmarket commercial/Book club
- Women’s fiction
Jessica will also do coaching across the following nonfiction topics:
- Essay collection
- History/biography
- Memoir
- Narrative nonfiction/Journalism
- Pop culture
- Women’s issues
Jessica has open spots available.
Questions?
Please contact George Weinstein at awconference@gmail.com.
Ready to register?
View the Registration page for instructions.