It used to be that writers’ conferences were primarily for writers who wanted help fleshing out their characters, needed advice for writing more meaningful dialog, wanted to know more about writing good poetry or needed assistance formulating nonfiction articles or memoirs. Now, many writers’ conferences have strong elements for authors who are writing and/or promoting books.
If you are or hope to be an author and you’ve never been to a writers’ conference, you really must allow yourself the experience. What can you learn at a conference? How to use social media to enhance your book sales; writing for the inspirational (pet, humor, history, young adult, childrens, etc.) market; how to use webcasting, podcasting, etc. to sell more books; should you produce ebooks; how to build promotion into your book before it’s a book; how to write the right book for the right audience; writing press releases and other promotional material; how to conduct a more effective interview; how to expand your writing horizons; testimonials for your book—what are they, how can they help and where can you get them; ghostwriting tips; how to set up and maintain an effective blog; how to choose the right editor; self-editing techniques; mystery-writing techniques; tips for promoting your book; writing a book proposal; how to establish your platform and so on.
While most conference leaders try to offer wide varieties of topics, some of them might lean more heavily toward book promotion, how to pitch your book to agents/editors, book-writing techniques, media exposure for authors or some other specific aspect of authorship.
When you come home from a conference (as I just did last week), you will typically carry with you a tote bag full of information, notes, presenter handouts, business cards, brochures and so forth. Here’s my advice with regard to this material:
• Note on business cards why you might want to follow-up with this person or company. Perhaps they mentioned knowing a good editor, they recommend their agent or they want you to submit something to their publication. It is easy to forget the particulars of an encounter when you return home with a pocket full of extraneous business cards and notes.
• Create clear notes while in sessions. This can be difficult when the information is coming at you like rapid gunfire. But do your best to keep up and clarify your chicken scratches so you’ll remember what the presenter intended when he talked about the author’s platform or when he mentioned how to use social media to promote your book.
• Take time after each session to flesh out your notes so that they will make sense to you when you return home and begin to act on some of the suggestions.
• When you return home, follow-up with the contacts you made, send thank you notes to the presenters who offered you the most value and ask any questions you might have at that time.
Writers’ or authors’ conferences are held each year throughout the United States. Most of them seem to occur in the spring, summer and fall. Locate conferences near you by doing an Internet search using “writers conference” + your city name. Or study the conferences listed at these sites:
http://www.allconferences.com
http://www.newpages.com/writing-conferences
http://www.writing.shawguides.com
I’d like to hear from those of you who have attended writers’ conferences—what did you like/dislike about them? Do you have questions about conferences? Leave your comment/question here.
And be sure to visit my websites to see what I offer:
http://www.patriciafry.com
http://www.matilijapress.com
I’ve attended 2 on-line conferences this year, and both were very useful in terms of contacts and information gathered. I know they don’t have that ‘in the flesh’ feel of ones that have bodies everywhere, but neither was there a crowd around the presenters orinebriated patrons trolling the hotel corridors!
They (the conferences, not the trolls) are incredibly useful for those of us who don’t have the wherewithal or the physical ability to get to a conference… they’re not to replace, but to offer an alternative to a traditional conference.
http://coyotecon.com
and
http://themuseonlinewritersconference.com