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Our consultation days in April

At some point, the sun will come out. And once the spring-cleaning and the first picnic are done, there will be no more excuses to delay a new literary project! Dear freelancers, do you have any questions about this? For example, how to apply for funding, reach the publisher of your choice or register with the VG Wort? Then the “schreiben & leben” consultation programme in April offers everything you need.

The chances for a successful project increase if you have good contacts. That’s why we start April with a consultation day on networking for authors with Yvonne de Andrés. As a member of the advisory council of Bücherfrauen e.V., an association for women in the publishing industry, she has been engaged in voluntary work for her female colleagues for a long time. “As we know,” she said in an interview at future!publish “the industry is mostly female, but at the management level the percentage of women is getting thin.” Her solution strategies (empowerment and qualified measures) are of course not only relevant for female authors. On April 7th, she will show how networks and digital tools can help with professional career development in general.

Professional networks can indeed play an important role in finding an agency or a publisher for a beginning author. But many other factors also matter. On April 14th, you can pick up tips, tricks and a lot of industry knowledge from Valentin Tritschler. He has published a number of stories under the pseudonym Valentin Moritz with various publishing houses. His debut was released under the title “Kein Held” (No Hero) in May 2020.

Once you have decided on a publishing house or agency, you need a suitable approach to win the decision-makers. Our consultation day on April 27th and April 28th could help you with this. Rabea Edel is familiar with the rules that should be obeyed when writing an exposé, for example, because she became a celebrated young author at the age of 24 with her debut novel.  As a moderator, journalist and event organizer, she also knows all the details when it comes to public funding. Whether you are writing a proposal for a publishing house or the public sector: Rabea Edel can discuss it with you on a professional level.

In the independent scene, of course, financial support is not only needed by authors. Eva Profousová will be available on April 8th for translators who want to understand the funding opportunities eligible for them. As a literary translator from Czech, she not only renders literary works into German. She also conceives and organizes thematic evenings, reading series or cultural days. Such networking in the scene helps keep an eye on the funding opportunities. Eva Profousová knows all about grants, funds and competitions and can also assist you with the application process.

Is there anything missing? Yes, there is: in addition to scholarships and grants, the VG WORT is another source of financing you had better know. The Verwertungsgesellschaft WORT is an association that brings together authors and publishers for the joint administration of copyrights: royalties are collected and distributed to the authors according to fixed distribution keys. If you need individual consultation on registration, you can contact the journalist Henry Steinau on April 17th.

And this month, we are also taking the international literary community in Berlin into account with two non-German-speaking consultation days. On April 20th, Marwa Younes Almokbel will be offering advice to transnational artists from the Arabic-speaking world on their way into the Berlin scene, with a focus on grants and the Artists’ Social Insurance Fund (KSK). On April 29th we offer a consultation day with Jonathan Nieraad in Hebrew and English. He has been working as a freelance translator and editor for translations from German into Hebrew since 1998. His main focus is on working scholarships and competitions for freelance foreign authors and translators. Please feel free to spread the word!

The one-on-one consultations in April will still take place via Zoom or telephone and are free of charge!

Here is the overview again:

  • 07.04.2021, consultation day on digital tools with Yvonne de Andrés
  • 08.04.2021, consultation day on the topic of grants and applications
    for translators with Eva Profousová
  • 14.04.2021, consultation day on the topic of agency and publisher search
    with Valentin Tritschler
  • 17.04.2021, consultation day on the collective management organization
    VG Wort with Henry Steinhau
  • 20.04.2021, consultation day on the topic of grants and social insurance for
    artists (Künstlersozialkasse) with Marwa Younes Almokbel
  • 27./28.04.2021 (11-15 Uhr), consultation day on expose with Rabea Edel
  • 29.04.2021, consultation day with Jonathan Nieraad in Hebrew

Register here for our consultation programme!

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