Simon Spanton is a commissioning editor for Angry Robot Books. He has worked as a commissioning editor, editorial director and associate publisher for more than thirty years (good grief), including twenty years at Gollancz. He has published both fiction and non-fiction but the great majority of his work has been in the SFF&H genres where he has worked with Sunday Times bestsellers and winners of the Arthur C. Clarke, Philip K. Dick, BSFA and British Fantasy Awards. He lives in Edinburgh and his taste in writing is probably more weird than makes strict commercial sense.

This talk will be livestreamed to Zoom.

Publishing is often a convoluted and opaque industry, and the roads to getting your book into the hands of readers are manifold. Join Justin Lee Anderson, Rhiannon A Grist and Annabel Campbell as they discuss their publishing journey, from indie publishing to the big five, from working with agents to using freelance editors and all in between.

Justin Lee Anderson was a professional writer and editor for 15 years before his debut novel, Carpet Diem, was published, going on to win the 2018 Audie Award for Humor. His second novel, The Lost War, won the 2020 SPFBO award, leading to a four-book deal with Orbit for The Eidyn Saga. Two short animations Justin scripted and produced were shortlisted for Scottish Creative awards, and he also writes TV and film scripts with his wife, Juliet. Their children’s audio story, The Great Bumpkin King, was produced by BBC Scotland in 2019. Justin and Juliet live with their family in East Lothian, near Justin’s hometown of Edinburgh.

Rhiannon A Grist is an award-winning Welsh writer of weird, dark and speculative fiction. Her Welsh folk horror, dark fantasy novella The Queen of the High Fields won Best Novella at the 2023 British Fantasy Awards. Her debut novel Home Sick is coming out with Solaris in 2026. She lives in Edinburgh with her partner and far too many plants.

Annabel Campbell writes fantasy with fierce female characters and disaster wizards. She believes everything is improved by dragons. Her debut novel, The Outcast Mage, is coming from Orbit in January 2025.

This panel will be livestreamed to Zoom.

Join author Lyndsey Croal for a workshop on writing within restricted and isolated settings, with top tips and tricks for building tension and suspense. We will look at published excerpts, including settings like spaceships, deep sea, or cave structures, or settings where the character may feel trapped for another reason, and explore how the writers have built this atmosphere. We will then look at lessons learned to build your own stories. During the workshop, attendees will be guided through exercises and prompts for introducing misdirection, creating unsettling scenes, building twists, and writing unreliable narrators, while keeping your readers hooked. This will primarily be focussed on horror, gothic, and sci fi texts, but should be helpful to anyone looking to build unease and atmosphere in their work.

Lyndsey is a Scottish author published in over eighty magazines and anthologies, including Apex, Analog, Weird Tales, Shoreline of Infinity, and Mslexia’s Best Women’s Short Fiction. She’s a Scottish Book Trust New Writers Awardee, British Fantasy Award Finalist, and former Hawthornden Fellow. Her longer works include Have You Decided on Your Question (Shortwave), Limelight and Other Stories (Shortwave ‘24) The Girl With Barnacles for Eyes (Split Scream Volume Five, Tenebrous Press ‘24), and Dark Crescent (Luna Press ‘25).

This workshop is in-person only.

Francesca Barbini of Luna Press hosts this informative workshop designed to help you develop the essential skills required to read, understand and negotiate a publishing contract.

Francesca T Barbini is an award-winning editor, and a translator, born and raised in Rome, Italy. After years of volunteer work around the world, she completed a MA Honour in Religious Studies at New College, Edinburgh, focusing on the Ancient Near East and the Dead Sea Scrolls, followed by a PGDE at Edinburgh University. She is currently completing a PhD in Publishing at Edinburgh Napier University. In 2011, she began self-publishing her YA SF series Tijaran Tales, subsequently receiving a publication contract by American Oloris Publishing. In January 2015 she officially started Luna Press Publishing, the award-winning home of speculative fiction in fiction and academia.

This talk is online only.

To access the talk at the conference venue, please bring your own device and headphones. Seating will be available in the Islay Room.

An invaluable opportunity for writers to talk directly to an agent from a literary agency or an editor from a SFFH publisher. Discuss your work, seek advice about any stage of the writing process, and receive direct feedback on pitches and ideas.

Stevie Finegan joined Zeno Literary Agency at the beginning of 2020 after time served working for science fiction and fantasy imprint Gollancz, adult non-fiction publisher Icon, and almost every Waterstones bookshop London has to offer. Stevie’s degree specialised in children’s literature, with a dissertation debating what Young Adult fiction actually is. All of the above strongly influenced the kind of books they get excited about, as well as broader narratives that explore stories connected with LGBTQIA+, BAME, disability,  mental health and other marginalised experiences.

Find out more about Stevie Finegan.

Writing is notoriously a solitary business, but a supportive community can make all the difference. But how do you find your people, and what do you do once you've found them? Join a panel of community organisers to learn about connecting with other writers, activities and events that help form community, and gain an insight into the vibrant landscape of Scottish speculative writing, both online and in-person.

Lyndsey Croal is a Scottish author published in over eighty magazines and anthologies, including Apex, Analog, Weird Tales, Shoreline of Infinity, and Mslexia’s Best Women’s Short Fiction. She’s a Scottish Book Trust New Writers Awardee, British Fantasy Award Finalist, and former Hawthornden Fellow. Her longer works include Have You Decided on Your Question (Shortwave), Limelight and Other Stories (Shortwave ‘24) The Girl With Barnacles for Eyes (Split Scream Volume Five, Tenebrous Press ‘24), and Dark Crescent (Luna Press ‘25).

Erin Hardee has been a community organiser and eager participant in a variety of creative spaces, including the Storium online community and Pitch Wars 2020-21 cohort. A keen proponent of collaboration, she co-writes with her partner Morag as MK Hardy. Their debut novel THE NEEDFIRE comes out in July 2025 from Solaris Books.

Neil Williamson has been an active member and organiser of the Glasgow SF Writers' Circle for thirty years. That his fiction has been shortlisted multiple times for British Fantasy, British Science Fiction Association and World Fantasy awards, he considers evidence of having a good critique group behind you. His latest books include: Charlie Says, an urban folk horror novella; Nova Scotia vol 2: New Speculative Fiction From Scotland; and GALLUS, an anthology of stories from the Glasgow SF Writers' Circle.

This panel will be livestreamed to Zoom.

You’ve got your first book contract. Yay!

The publisher wants you to promote it in bookshops and at festivals. Eeeeek!

In this session, Lee Randall will help three debut novelists experience the sensation of talking about their book in front of a live audience. Each interview will last approximately ten minutes, with five minutes given over for audience questions. Consider it a taster. Consider it a practice session. Consider it an opportunity to gather your thoughts ahead of time, and think about what you want to say about your book, and what you’re willing to discuss in public about your life and your writing practice.

There are two ways to join this session, as part of the audience or as the author being interviewed. If you’d like to be considered for one of the interviewee slots, please fill in this form. Interviewees will be selected to allow for a good spread of experience.

Lee Randall is a freelance book festival programmer, interviewer, editor and writer with more than 40 years experience in publishing and the media. She was the programmer for the 2024 Wigtown Book Festival, in Scotland’s National Book Town. She’s interviewed everyone from Serena Williams, Daniel Sloss and Andrew Lincoln, to Chris Brookmyre, Denise Mina and Barbara Kingsolver.

This event is in-person only.

In this workshop, we will look at what habits are and what makes them hard to establish. We'll also be looking at negative and exaggerated thoughts and how they can hold us back from taking important steps forward, and how we can turn those thoughts into more productive and realistic thoughts.

We'll look at what makes a good habit that works for us, and what makes a habit we find difficult to keep up with. Finally, we'll focus on what we can do (rather than what we can't achieve on day 1 of starting a new habit), and we'll end up with a takeaway action or three for our next habits.

Birgit Gaiser moved to Edinburgh from Germany to do a PhD in toxicology, and never left. Nowadays, they coach IT teams, which means they get to do their favourite things: working with people, designing and delivering plenty of workshops, helping teams improve and learning something new every day. Birgit writes mostly short fiction and flash and has published science fiction, fantasy, horror and lit fic. They are currently completely rearranging the first draft of their first novel.

This workshop is online only.

To access the talk at the conference venue, please bring your own device and headphones. Seating will be available in the Islay Room.

SOLD OUT! Caro Clarke is the founder and literary agent at Portobello Literary. They founded the agency in 2022 after twelve years working in publishing houses – Transworld (PRH) and Canongate Books as a Senior Rights Manager. They were named Rights Professional of the Year at the British Book Awards in 2021 and a Bookseller Rising Star in 2024.

In 2019, they co-founded the Nan Shepherd Prize for underrepresented nature writers, which kickstarted a passion to demystify the publishing industry and help emerging writers to develop their craft and build their writing careers. Portobello Literary was established in 2022 to build on that work. Find out more about Caro Clarke and Portobello Literary.

SOLD OUT! Lina Langlee is from Sweden but moved to Scotland to study for her undergraduate and Masters. After then working in publishing for a number of years, she realised that being a literary agent combined all her favourite bits of the book industry and made the switch. She was shortlisted for the RNA ‘Agent of the Year’ award in 2019 and 2020. She now works with The North Literary Agency. Find out more about Lina Langlee and The North Literary Agency.

Are you in need of an author headshot or picture? Chris Scott, literary paparazzo extraordinaire has you covered.

In a twenty minute session, Chris will work with you to find the best shot. The shoot will take place in the Central Hall and surrounds, which offers multiple options for attractive shooting locations.

For examples of Chris’ work, please check out his website.

A discussion and workshop exploring attention issues in our writing process. We will explore perfectionism, self-criticism, distractibility, the intersection of anxiety and attention, more balanced and realistic writing goals, emotional coping skills, practical techniques for managing distraction and time, and more!

Zebib K. Abraham is a writer and psychiatrist M.D. She is published in Clarkesworld, Podcastle, Fantasy Magazine, The Rumpus, Fractured Lit, JMWW, and more. She is a Reading Round Royal Literary Fund fellow for 2024-2025. She is represented by Carleen Geisler at ArtHouse Literary Agency.

This talk will be livestreamed to Zoom.

Tune in for this interview with Anissa de Gomery, the CEO and co-founder of FairyLoot!

Anissa de Gomery is the pioneering force behind FairyLoot, the leading fantasy book subscription service which has transformed the fate of fantasy publishing in the UK book trade.

She co-founded FairyLoot with her partner in 2016 at the age of 23 and FairyLoot continues to thrive under Anissa’s leadership. The company has grown tenfold since 2020 and now employs 35 members of staff. Anissa has spearheaded the launch of FairyLoot’s Romantasy box in April 2024, and in 2025, the company will introduce a new quarterly epic fantasy subscription line.

This talk will be shown on a screen at the venue and online in Zoom.

5pm - 5.30pm: ‘Ask Me Anything’ with Agent

What does a literary agent do? How does one go about finding and then signing with them?

Agents are often an integral part of the publishing journey, and their ways can seem mysterious. In this Ask Me Anything session, you have the opportunity to get your questions answered.

Caro Clarke is the founder and literary agent at Portobello Literary. They founded the agency in 2022 after twelve years working in publishing houses – Transworld (PRH) and Canongate Books as a Senior Rights Manager. They were named Rights Professional of the Year at the British Book Awards in 2021 and a Bookseller Rising Star in 2024.

In 2019, they co-founded the Nan Shepherd Prize for underrepresented nature writers, which kickstarted a passion to demystify the publishing industry and help emerging writers to develop their craft and build their writing careers. Portobello Literary was established in 2022 to build on that work. Find out more about Caro Clarke and Portobello Literary.

This session will be livestreamed to Zoom.