Writers’ Conferences
| A Writer's Life
More on Writers’ Conferences
I know a lot of you will be attending writers’ conferences, so I wanted to mention a few more things here. First, I can’t overstress the importance of having a verbal pitch ready. There are numerous opportunities at conferences to give a brief pitch of your book, sixty seconds. This can be at a meal…
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| A Writer's Life
Hot Tips for Conferences
We’re in prime writers’ conference season and lots of people are giving their advice (some of it different from mine). So I thought I’d drop a few hints your way just to increase your chance of conference-success. • First up, everyone says “don’t be nervous.” Agents and editors are just people, right? Sure we are.…
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| A Writer's Life
The Introvert’s Guide to Conferences
Okay, so you notice there’s no shortage of advice out there about how to make the most of a conference. But what about those of us who are introverts? It can be even more difficult for us to navigate these social situations. Oh, how we envy our extrovert friends! Are there any special tips for…
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Pitching Your Projects
I’ve posted on this topic numerous times, but since I’m going to a conference this week and will be hearing dozens of pitches, I wanted to go over (once again) some tips for pitching to agents and editors. We can probably all agree on the “don’ts” of pitching your project. Don’t pitch in the bathroom.…
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| Publishing
Why I Go To Writers’ Conferences
Most people think agents go to writers’ conferences strictly to find new clients to represent. For some agents this might be the case, but it’s not true for me, nor is it true for most of the agents and editors I know. There are five main reasons most of us go to conferences: 1. To…
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Secrets of a Great Pitch
Next week I’m headed out to the ACFW conference (American Christian Fiction Writers) and I’m sure I’ll see some of you there! Rachel’s post yesterday on the Books & Such blog gave some great advice about talking to agents and editors at conferences: It’s Not All About the Pitch. But I know many of you…
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Advice for Agents (Including Me)
I’m teaching at two writers’ conferences this month, and that means I’ll have quite a few one-on-one meetings with writers. There are plenty of blog posts giving advice to authors for how to behave at conferences… but for some reason, we never see advice for agents! I guess we’re just supposed to know this stuff by osmosis or something.…
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| Submitting
What Should I Bring to a Conference?
Hi Rachelle, I have a question about attending a fiction conference. Lots of posts are flying around the Internet about bringing one sheets and the first 1-2 chapters of each novel to give to editors when meeting with them. I’m going to design a really nice one-sheet with 1-paragraph synopses of my two novels. Should…
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When You Just Want to Disappear
Right now I’m at the American Christian Fiction Writers conference in Indianapolis. This is one of my favorite events every year because it’s like a huge gathering of my friends. I’m sure there are a lot of writers here who are nervous, and there will be more than a few awkward moments. So today let’s…
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Should Pubbed Authors Go to Conferences?
If you’re an unpubbed/unagented writer, then you probably know that writers’ conferences are a great place to meet agents and editors. But today I want to make clear: There are plenty of other good reasons to attend a conference – even if you already have an agent and/or a publisher. First, the workshops can be…
Read More | A Writer's Life, Submitting
The Value of the Verbal Pitch
Last week in Secrets of a Great Pitch I gave you some tips about talking to agents and editors at writers’ conferences. A few people raised a good question: Why pitch verbally at all, when it’s the writing that matters? Yes, the writing matters most. But that doesn’t mean there’s nothing to be gained from…
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ACFW Conference Debriefing
I just came from ACFW, the annual conference of American Christian Fiction Writers. It’s a large and terrific writers conference, with top notch writing courses and plenty of opportunity for networking. This year there were something like 540 writers attending, and 60 faculty and staff. Donald Maass gave an all-day seminar on opening day, and…
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Should You Go to a Writers’ Conference?
People frequently ask me whether they should invest the time and money to go to a writers’ conference. In my opinion, it can be a valuable experience whether you’re agented or not, published or not. But especially if you’re neither. I could write pages and pages about the value of a conference, but in the…
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Recovering from a Writers Conference
I just returned from four days at a writers conference. I had something like 30 one-on-one meetings with writers, taught four 1-hour workshops, ran two late-night critique groups, had a few lunches/dinners/coffees with editors, and still managed to get out each morning for a 2-mile jog to and from Starbucks. Phew! I really enjoyed this…
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