Last weekend, I participated in the 23rd San Diego State University Writers Conference as a presenter. I taught three classes related to freelance magazine article writing. There were around 500 attendees and 67 leaders including self-publishing guru, Dan Poynter; award-winning poet and editor of ONTHEBUS, Jack Grapes; publicist, Milton Kahn; Jonathan Eskenas, president of Orly Adelson Productions (a leading television and film production company) as well as numerous literary agents and editors straight from New York publishing houses such as William Morrow, Viking Penguin, John Wiley and Random House. Yes, it was a big deal and it was a well-organized, smoothly-running, extremely rich conference.<\/p>\n
Not only were attendees offered choices from over 80 classes throughout the weekend and numerous opportunities to network, they could meet with agents and editors one-on-one and pitch their book manuscripts. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m sure there were some deals made as a result of these meetings. And there were many other opportunities as well\u00e2\u20ac\u201dsome that the attending writers and authors didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even notice. And this is true at any conference. Next time you attend a writers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 conference get full benefit of the offerings by considering the following:<\/p>\n
1: Participate, participate, participate. I am always surprised at the writers who pay the fee and then spend their mornings sleeping in and their evenings touring the city. Get the most out of your conference by showing up at all events. Take advantage of every opportunity because you just never know where, when or from whom that priceless gem of information will come.<\/p>\n
2: Purchase pertinent CDs. Some conference organizers arrange for every session to be recorded. This means that if there are eight sessions held every hour, you can receive benefit of five of them, if you wish. Attend one and purchase the other four on CDs. <\/p>\n
3: Purchase books by some of the leaders and learn volumes more about their topics. Most conferences run alongside book fairs. Some organizers commission bookstores to come in and sell writing\/publishing-related books\u00e2\u20ac\u201dincluding those produced by the lecturers and presenters. <\/p>\n
4: Take advantage of the free (or even fee-based) meetings with agents and editors and truly listen to what they say. If they don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t issue you a contract on the spot\u00e2\u20ac\u201dif they seem less than thrilled about your manuscript\u00e2\u20ac\u201ddon\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t rush off in a huff or go hide and lick your wounds. Listen carefully. If the editor or agent tells you that you have a good topic, but your manuscript needs professional editing, start looking for a good editor. If they say, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Your characters need more depth,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d take a class in character development and read books and articles on the subject. A criticism isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t necessarily a death sentence for your manuscript. But it could be if you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t heed good advice.<\/p>\n
5: Ask your burning questions. If your question isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t covered throughout the talk, take advantage of the Q and A session. If there isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t time or you are overlooked, stop the leader after the lecture and ask if this is a good time to discuss the issue. If not, ask when it would be. Sit at his or her table at lunch, if possible. Ask for his or her business card and, with permission, contact them via email after the conference. <\/p>\n
6: Network with attendees as well as leaders. Everyone has had experiences different from yours and some may know of resources that you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not aware of. Listen and learn. Likewise, share what you have experienced and what you know if you believe it will benefit a fellow writer.<\/p>\n
7: Even if you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t feel that you have \u00e2\u20ac\u0153arrived\u00e2\u20ac\u009d as a writer or an author, carry business cards and hand them out freely. If you have already been published, carry bookmarks or postcards (nothing larger) representing your book. Hand them out. Leave them in strategic places for others to discover\u00e2\u20ac\u201dthe restrooms, for example.<\/p>\n
8: Talk about your book or your book-in-progress every chance you get. This is not to suggest that you bore everyone at your table throughout the entire networking or lunch time talking about your story. Use common sense and etiquette while taking every opportunity to mention your project. And remember, others will more readily honor your promotional spiel if you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve paid attention to theirs.<\/p>\n
9: Welcome a challenge. If your topic is a little (or a lot) controversial, be prepared for an occasional debate. While at the conference, I observed a rather emotional debate between a Ph.D. with a book featuring how to discipline your children without spanking and a mother of eight who believes in spanking. The result: she stomped back to her seat and he got up and quickly left the room. How unfortunate that the author couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t discuss his book without emotion. This was actually a wonderful opportunity for him. This mom\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s viewpoint would make a great anecdote for his book. And he could have learned volumes about how to debate the issues. Certainly, he will need this skill when he starts pitching it to publishers and promoting it to readers.<\/p>\n
Writers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 conferences provide many lessons, enormous amounts of information and advice that you would normally pay dearly for. You might as well get the most out of those you attend by following these nine suggestions.<\/p>\n
To learn more about locating and attending writers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 conferences and to find out how to write the right book for the right audience, order The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book <\/em>now. http:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/rightway.html<\/a> <\/p>\n Do you know enough about the publishing industry? Are you aware of your publishing choices and the possible consequences of your decisions? Do you have a platform? Do you even know what that means? Are you familiar with the parts of a book proposal? Are you prepared to promote your book? If you answered \u00e2\u20ac\u0153no\u00e2\u20ac\u009d to even one of these questions, you aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t ready to even think about writing a book. In fact, I wrote my book for you. Read The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book <\/em>and you will experience greater success as a published author. http:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/rightway.html<\/a>. Contact me at plfry620@yahoo.com <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Last weekend, I participated in the 23rd San Diego State University Writers Conference as a presenter. I taught three classes related to freelance magazine article writing. There were around 500 attendees and 67 leaders including self-publishing guru, Dan Poynter; award-winning poet and editor of ONTHEBUS, Jack Grapes; publicist, Milton Kahn; Jonathan Eskenas, president of Orly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t