Sara-Jade Virtue
Workshop: Nailing your pitch and synopsis
An interactive workshop aimed at unpublished/debut authors looking to understand what should be on your To-Do List once you’ve typed The End. Join Sara-Jade for a deep dive into the two most important steps – nailing your pitch and synopsis.
Sara-Jade Virtue has worked in the book industry for 23 years. She spent 18 years at Simon & Schuster – firstly as Special Sales Director before moving into Editorial in 2019 as Brand Development Director, identifying new talent and developing growth strategies for brand and emerging authors. She’s co-founder and co-director of the #LoveStoriesEtc… literary festival, which returns to Manchester Central Library in July 2026, and she also volunteers at her local Community Library.
Francesca Riccardi
Francesca explains what it means to work with a literary agent
A workshop that will cover signing up with an agent, what agents do, the submissions process, and the next steps.
Francesca Riccardi is a literary agent at Kate Nash Literary Agency. She has previously worked in publishing sales roles at HarperCollins, Constable & Robinson, Atlantic Books (where she was recognised as a 2017 Bookseller Rising Star), and Canelo. She represents commercial and upmarket fiction and reads widely across all genres, with particular interests in books with a strong voice and sense of place, high concept hooks, and novels that showcase lesser-known experiences and/or female and diverse narratives.
