TO WRITER’S CONFERENCE OR NOT TO WRITER’S CONFERENCE
There is an inevitable event that every aspiring author will face on their journey to publication. To writer’s conference or not to writer’s conference? At some point, you will stumble across knowledge, be it by email or Twitter feed, that a writer’s workshop or conference will be coming to a town near you. The thought of agents and editors spewing all their inner trade secrets to a room full of bestseller-hopefuls might be a no-brainer for some. But let’s face it, we are writers. We can literally anguish over a single sentence of our manuscript for hours. And for a lot of writers, the feelings invoked at the thought of large crowds is vomit inducing. Will I have to talk to people? Actually communicate with my mouth hole? But to this I say…it’s worth it. Here’s why.
AGENTS & EDITORS The very people that you’ve been stalking online will be there. Not only will they be present in the flesh, but the majority of them will be there to speak. To you. Writer’s conferences and workshops are designed to educate, inform, and provide writers with helpful tools to use in their craft. It’s like Steven Spielberg teaching a room full of film students various ways to create cinema magic. It’s like Neil deGrasse Tyson teaching a room full of physics students the fundamentals of quantum mechanics. It’s like Hugh Heffner teaching a room full of...wait. No. Literary Agents and Acquisitions Editors voluntarily sign up to attend conferences in hopes of offering writer’s the best advice possible. They want you to succeed. They want to help you write and query decent books. They need you to do this so they can sell them. The advice they have to offer is invaluable, and a conference is a smorgasbord of people in the know, ready to guide you.
WRITER FRIENDS Stop rolling your eyes. Trust me, you need them! While writing is a solitary job, I can honestly say I don’t know where I would be without my writer friends. Some of them I even met at a writer’s workshop. What better place to find other human beings with over active imaginations who spend their days doing the exact same thing as you…writing. Need a beta reader? Bet you can find one at a writer’s conference. Need a critique partner? Writer’s Conference. Need someone to vent about the query trenches or the onslaught of rejection letters in your inbox? You guessed it, writer’s conference. Everyone there is going through the exact same thing that you are. And if they are just starting out, they need people like you in the room to tell them what to expect. Networking within the writing community is major and a key ingredient to becoming a successful author.
PITCHING YOUR BOOK Many of the agents and editors attending the conference will be there listening to pitches. What is a pitch? It’s your opportunity to tell an agent or editor, face to face, about your book. Kinda makes you feel all giddy inside, doesn’t it? It also probably makes you wanna toss your cookies too. I get it. Before the conference date, you will have the opportunity to sign up to pitch your book to any editor or agent of your choosing. You can pitch your novel to as many as you like, so long as they are accepting books in your genre. And why not? If your pitch does its job and intrigues them, they will start to ask you questions. And if they like what they hear, they request pages from your manuscript. I could write an entire blog post on how to pitch your story, or from my experience how not to pitch your story. I’m not kidding y’all, it was bad. I still cringe when I think about it. But am I happy I still went? Absolutely.
So when the time comes, and you are pondering whether or not a writer’s conference is worth it, just know the answer is yes. Go and listen to the agents and editors speak their all mighty wisdom. Go network, make friends, and build a community of support around you. Go and pitch your novel, and for God’s sake don’t suck at it like I did. Just GO. It’ll be worth it, I promise.
Break the Line
by Allison Mullinax
Contemporary Romance
Fiery Seas Everlasting
Coming February 13, 2018
As a pro-fisherman, Benson Howell’s days are spent on murky lake water, reeling in largemouth bass and winning first place trophies. At twenty-nine, life is easy and carefree. His only job is to stay in the top rankings during the fishing circuit, and keep the sponsors happy. That is, until he meets hot tempered, fiery haired Danni-Rose in small-town Alabama. He has never backed down from anything too big to reel in.
Danni-Rose has spent the past six years of her life burying her past. When Benson Howell literally plows his boat right into her life, armed with simmering anger, she fights the current pulling her closer to him. With a past she can’t let go of, and the sexy fisherman breaking down all her walls, Danni-Rose does everything she can to break the line connecting her to Benson.
Will Danni-Rose be able to let go of the past? Can Benson change her mind about him? Or will they both miss the catch of a lifetime?
About the Author:
North Alabama native, Allison Mullinax, grew up in the small lake town of Guntersville, AL. She discovered the escapism and addiction of writing at an early age. Today she remains a lover of reading, all things outdoors, and spending time with her husband and three daughters.
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