This panel of distinguished agents, editors and authors will be aimed at those interested in breaking into the business with their first book, as well as seasoned journalists, reviewers, and book authors curious to learn the behind the scenes secrets of this process. We'll cover the most common mistakes new authors make, how many pages you need to approach an agent, if it ever makes sense to go directly to editors or self-publish, what determines the advance, buzz, and publicity campaign behind a book, and -- aside from praying, bribing or sleeping your way to the middle -- what exactly a writer can do to enhance their own chances, deals, book sales, good publicity and positive reviews.

Panelists will include:

--Dawn Davis, editorial director of HarperCollins' Amistad Press, formerly an editor at Vintage/Random House. Edited work includes Edward P. Jones Pulitzer prize winning novel The Known World and Chris Gardner's #1 NYTimes bestselling memoir The Pursuit of Happyness

--Henry Dunow, a partner at the Dunow, Carlson and Lerner Literary agency in Manhattan and the author of the memoir The Way Home: Scenes from a Season, Lessons from a Life

--Deborah Garrison, poetry editor at Alfred A. Knopf, fiction editor at Pantheon, a former editor of The New Yorker magazine and author of the poetry collections A Working Girl Can't Win and The Second Child

--Gail Hochman, a partner at Brandt & Hochman Literary Agency, former editor at G.P. Putnam, specializing in literary fiction, memoirs and children's books. Clients include Scott Turrow, Michael Cunningham, Julie Glass, and Beverly Donofrio

--Dan Menaker, former editor of Random House and the New Yorker, author of The Old Left, Friends and Relations and The Treatment, recently made into a movie starring Ian Holm and Famke Janssen

--Sam Tanenhaus, editor of The New York Times Book Review, formerly assistant editor of The New York Times Op-Ed pages, contributing editor at Vanity Fair. His book Whittaker Chambers: A Biography was a finalist for the National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize

--moderator Susan Shapiro, mediabistro instructor and author of five books including Five Men Who Broke My Heart and the upcoming Only As Good as Your Word: Writing Lessons From My Favorite Literary Gurus