The Power of Attending Writing Conferences

Attending a literary or writing conference can have a profound impact on your writing, your career, your self esteem, and your over all personal spiritual health.

That's why I'm such a fan of attending them as often as time and money allow.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I attended the 11th LDS Storymakers Conferences this past weekend in Salt Lake City. I mentioned in that post that it was one of my favorite all time conferences. Here's why.

1. The Power of Networking
A. I'll post more extensively about this tomorrow in a post about rethinking my e-Publishing plan. But suffice it to say that through this conference I connected with 3 literary agents, several editors, and several New York Times bestselling author friends that I see mostly at conferences. Their advice changed the landscape for me.

B. I felt rejuvenated talking with so many writing friends. The more conferences I attend, especially locally, the better friendships I develop. Now I consider some of them good friends, and chatting with them always boosts my energy and ego.

But it does more than that, and this is one reason conferences are awesome: I felt really connected with the writing world. I felt part of that bigger community that we are all trying to break into professionally. And I surprised myself at how excited I was at how successful so many other people were doing. I honestly want them to succeed. Actually, that means you, too, my writing friends and associates.

You'd think I'd come away from this feeling jealous because extremely talented authors like Tyler Whitesides are making great strides. Just the opposite happened. I made a good friend in Tyler, and I'm really excited for him. And the better he does, the more excited I'll be. That's a great feeling to have.

C. I also learned about how to network with each other in a way that will increase our global reach together. The interesting thing about blogging and social networking is that it works even better when we promote each other. I have been spending too much time spinning my wheels alone when I now realize I can be so much more effective working with others and building each other.


D. I pitched to several agents, and one requested a full manuscript review and the other a 30-page partial review. Folks, that is HUGE! I am so excited! And I made such connections by being at the most laid back environment I've ever experienced at a conference. Way better than World Fantasy last fall. People here, even the national agents, were truly interested in chatting with us and offering advice and hearing what we had to say.

2. Learning
I already mentioned this in 'C' above, but I learned a great deal at this conference about marketing. In fact, I mostly attended marketing classes on the power of effective Twitter usage (I'm converted, finally, even though I still don't know how), blogging, and a horde of other things. Excellent.

3. Teaching
I taught two classes at this conference: writing for the Church magazines, and how to write back cover copy, or the secret to pitches and queries. Both classes went very well. In fact, I already have plans for improving the back cover copy class and make it more interactive, enhanced, and more my own baby. For this presentation I relied heavily on others' ideas. Now they are becoming more and more my own.

4. Love of the Game
Well, that about says it all. The writing game is extraordinary, and this conference brought that to full fruition. I talked to a number of people about their personal plans, learned much, much more about e-Pubbing and legacy publishing, and even presented at the Whitney Awards. Great times, great times.

So, more later about individual authors and about my new plans.

Preparing for Literary Conference Thoughts Take 2: the Pitch Is Everything

A couple of more quick thoughts on this topic before we call it close tonight. There are tons, I mean TONS, of resources out there on getting ready for a conference. Authors Incognito had a couple of great posts on pitches and queries. For example, Danyelle Ferguson talked about "The Essentials on How to Prepare for a Pitch Session," and Jenn Johansson talked about "The Perfect Elevator Pitch." By the way, great photos, ladies!

Here's another great resource: Kristin Nelson, literary agent, has a great blog worth following. Go to her blog and search for "pitch" or "query." You'll find sample pitch letters and a query workshop with 11 entries, as well as a lot of detail on agents.

I suggest looking at blogs by agents you like, or by agents your friends like, and see what they have to offer about this. Many of them, like Kristin, have samples or suggestions.

I just Googled "elevator pitch" and got over a million hits. Yeah--way too many to wade through in one setting, but you'll find plenty of good things out there.

I think more than anything, you want to have something simple and concrete to talk about regarding your book or project. If I could only give one piece of advice, it would be to hone over and over your pitch until you have it concrete, simple, and engaging. Have the 6 word version, the 25 word version, and the 100 word version. And know them by heart. But always bring them with you--written down. If you know what your story is about, then you know what you want to do at the conference and who you want to meet.

But don't worry if you don't have something worth pitching. Find your genre and talk about that with people.

And don't eat too much. This may sound silly, but bring a toothbrush and some dental floss. The last thing you want is to feel embarrassed or simply uncomfortable because of something you ate. You can always sneak off to the restroom to assess the situation. But you can't take the discomfort back if you later find you've had spinach in your teeth all day!