A literary publishing event hosted by the Writers Open Forum on Feb. 20 in Sheldon Hall featured a presentation and discussion with Inkitt representative Lauren Burns.

However, Burns never showed up, and the night came to an early close for attendees and club members. 

Burns reached out to Writer’s Open Forum through Facebook Messenger on Dec. 8, 2017, in the interest of speaking, stating that she is “currently touring U.S. universities speaking about online writing communities.”

Inkitt, the company she represents, is an online publishing group that takes manuscript submissions and publishes the most popular for a profit. As stated in her messages to the club, Burns’ intention had been to speak to the “way we consume books” due to “the publishing industry changing and evolving.”

The Writer’s Open Forum is a club interested in helping writers improve their craft and bringing information about the literary industry to the students of Oswego State. This event was one of three they had planned for the spring semester.

Attended by 30 non-members, including about 18 students from Laura Donnelly’s literary publishing class, this program had a large turnout, according to its president, John Thompson. The event was slated to begin at 6 p.m. Ten minutes past the start time, a representative of the club informed the crowd that they were in search of Burns but were free to leave if she did not turn up in the next few minutes.

Those that stayed waited hopefully until about 6:30 p.m. before filing out. One attendee, Zariah Aldrich-Banks, having looked into the company beforehand, conveyed her disappointment.

Secretary Tiffany Baez said she expected Burns to discuss her experiences with an indie publisher and getting into the industry.

As the flyer for the program declares, they hoped to “learn the inside scoop” about independent publishers.

An email was received from an Inkitt representative by Thompson on Feb. 13 in confirmation to the assigned event date and time. Both Baez and Thompson notified their correspondents of the change in location, though neither Burns nor the representative responded. 

The last correspondence with Burns was on Feb. 7 confirming that the Feb. 20 works for her and asking for “the specific details” of the event. A reply was sent the same day with no response. The next attempt to reach Burns, on Feb. 16, this time to inform her of a change in location, was also met with silence. There is no indication as to whether she ever made it to campus, and it is currently unclear if she has plans to reschedule.

The club members felt a sense of responsibility and offered apologies to all attendees as they made their way out of the auditorium.

“I just feel bad that we wasted people’s time,” Thompson said.

Although this evening was disheartening for the club members, they joked about Burns having shown up as a ghost and writing a mystery novel about it. Writers Open Forum usually hosts two to three speaker-based events every semester, and although this one fell through, the club intends to host two more before the semester is over.

Photo: Taylor Woods | The Oswegonian