Blogger: Rachel Kent
Location: Books & Such main office, Santa Rosa, Calif.
My last word of conference advice for this week is:
Make the most of the connections you make during a conference.
You are going to meet writers who are on the same level as you. You are going to meet writers from the same area you live in. You are going to meet industry professionals, and some might request your project.
Think of what you could leave the conference with! You might find a prayer group, a critique group, an agent or a publishing house. You just need to be sure to follow up with those connections. If an agent or editor requests your project, please send it! If you form a friendship at a conference, don’t let that friendship end when the conference ends.
There are so many other tips for conferences I’d like to open up the comments section for you former conferees to share what you have learned through your experiences.
Thanks so much for reading and participating this week! Please check out the Books & Such agency schedule to see where we will be this year! As new conferences are added to our schedules we will update the calendar.
Review your conference materials once you get home. There’s really great stuff in there–handouts, notes you forgot you made, information about editors/publishers/agents. You’re so exhausted mentally and physically when you get home, it’s easy to just shove all that stuff in a drawer. Get it back out after you’ve recovered a bit and you’ll discover gold you missed the first time through.
Thanks for all the great advise this week. You have made me less afraid to go to a conference now. My only concern is that so many relationships between agents and clients seem to form during these conferences and they are so far away and so expensive that getting to one seems really out of reach for me for awhile. I am hoping to get relationships built through blog sites and ACFW until I can afford to go to a larger conference.
I’ve only been to one conference, but it was very productive. My advice, before you go, make notes on the agents and editors you might meet: What books of theirs have you read? Who are their authors that you enjoy? This helps a lot with small talk and shows you know the industry. You can keep that list to refresh your memory before appointments or dinners.
While there, take notes on the conversations you have. Who did you sit with at lunch? What were the topics discussed? What authors did you meet who work in your genre? Did this editor or agent mention they were looking for a certain genre? Even if it’s not something you’re interested in you can compare notes when you get home. Someone else may have heard of the perfect opportunity for you.
I received so many business cards from other writers. Many didn’t have pictures on them, so I leave this tip: Flip it over and write a brief description of who that person was to jog your memory when you get home. It helped me connect names and faces, which is important to me!
I found it helpful to spend 15 minutes each evening organizing my thoughts. I’d comb my memory for who I’d met, find their business card if they gave me one, and jot down a few notes on it. If they didn’t give me a card, I wrote what I remembered on notepaper. A few days after I returned home, I e-mailed about a dozen writers who I felt I connected with the most.
It’s funny, one of the ladies I met ended up being one of my favorite blogger friend’s critique partner! You just never know who you’ll meet!
Great tips on here so far.
Another that I’d add is to have your pitch memorized ahead of time to the point that you’re comfortable giving it without sounding like you’re reading it off of a card. For me (since I’m shy and have a hard time speaking to strangers anyway!), this helped me to feel more relaxed when seated at an editor’s table or having one-on-one meetings. Advance preparation can calm some nerves.
Not sure if I have any tips, but I find writing conferences are like a long drink of ice cold water during the parch times of writing. Every time I go, I come back feeling refreshed and energized to write again.
Great tips, everyone. As someone who writes and also works in online book promotion, I find conferences are a great way to inspire me to market my work. Many conferences–online and in person–discuss social media, websites, blogs, etc. It’s important to create an online presence prior to the release of your first book. I blogged for 5 years before my book came out, which allowed me to meet many people who supported me and helped me promote my book when it came out last year.
While craft is important, using a conference to motivate you to think over your marketing plan is also helpful.
Thanks for a week of superb articles.
I met one of my online crit partners at a conference last year – what a treat! We are great friends now. Having a friend who is tackling the same mountain at the same time is a great treasure as well as a sanity saver!
Some of the best writing conferences I’ve attended have been in my own home state. You don’t have to fly across the country to meet great editors and agents. They come to you! Plus you’re more likely to connect with writers who live near you, making it easier to form a critique group with them, thus extending the conference experience.
Also, I’ve found that my whole writing experience has been enriched by becoming involved in the planning and execution of our local writing conferences.
Thank you so much for all of the wonderful tips, everyone! As I am planning on attending my first writer’s conference soon, your comments are incredibly helpful.