If you write commercial fiction and are
looking for a great writing conference, I recommend you check out the
International Thriller Writers (ITW) [http://thrillerwriters.org/] annual
event, ThrillerFest [http://www.thrillerfest.com/]. It’s a four-day extravaganza held every year in early July in New York City,
close to the publishing industry to ensure participation by editors and agents
as well as lots of published authors. If you’re looking for a way to become
part of the mystery and thriller genre, you might find that this is the
conference you’ve been waiting for.
There are two things that most writers want
when they’re at the pre-publication stage: advice on how to make their stories
better, and opportunities to meet the editors and literary agents who will make
their dreams come true. Craftfest and Agentfest, part of Thrillerfest, are
designed to fill those needs.
At Craftfest [http://www.thrillerfest.com/craftfest/],
you’ll attend sessions on the craft of writing commercial fiction, taught by
bestselling authors and some of the top editors in the field. There aren’t many
conferences where you’ll learn about dramatic structure or characterization
from Lee Child [http://leechild.com/], John Sandford (http://www.johnsandford.org/),
Steve Berry [http://www.steveberry.org/] or acclaimed agent Donald Maass [http://www.maassagency.com/].
While the line-up of presenters changes from year to year at Craftfest, you’ll find that every
instructor at is of the same high caliber.
There are typically over 50 agents at
Agentfest [http://www.thrillerfest.com/agentfest/] to take your pitches. You
can see some of the agents who’ve attended in the past here [http://www.thrillerfest.com/agentfest/agents-previous/]:
if you’re looking to pitch to the top agents representing mystery, thriller and
suspense, this is where you’ll find them all in one place. And if you’ve never
pitched before, don’t worry, there’s a workshop beforehand to teach you the
ropes.
At Thrillerfest, you’ll get two days of
multiple tracks of panels and spotlight interviews with the biggest names in
the field, all designed to teach you about the business of writing commercial
fiction. You’ll find panels with some of the most respected editors from the
Big Six Publishers: Neil Nyren, senior vice-president and publisher of Putnam
and Mark Tavani, senior editor at Ballantine Books have been speakers in past
years. There are also workshops on related subjects-- everything from martial
arts to the espionage business—taught by experts.
One of the best things about Thrillerfest
is that you get the opportunity to network with authors of all levels of
experience—from long-time bestsellers to novices. At my first Thrillerfest,
imagine my surprise when I was joined at breakfast by Erica Spindler [http://www.ericaspindler.com/] and
Heather Graham [http://www.eheathergraham.com/]! That’s one of the most amazing
things about Thrillerfest: everyone is approachable and open.
And while the opportunity to meet big name
authors in your genre is a pretty compelling reason to attend, an even better
one is that at Thrillerfest you have the chance to meet writers just like you
who will likely go on to be your ally in the industry throughout your
career—and I can attest to that myself. I met legal thriller writer Allison Leotta
[http://allison.leotta.com] when we sat next to each other on stage for the
2011 Debut Author class and today we’re best buds, calling each other for
advice and appearing at events together.
As a matter of fact, that’s why I
volunteered to write this guest post for ITW: I’ve gotten a lot from
Thrillerfest over the years and I wanted to give something back by spreading
the word. If you’ve been looking for a writer’s conference that will open doors
for you, you might want to read about a few of Thrillerfest’s success stories:
·
Jennifer Hillier [http://www.thrillerfest.com/2012/06/confessions-of-a-thrillerfest-fangirl/],
author of CREEP and FREAK (Gallery Books)
· Boyd Morrison [http://www.thrillerfest.com/2012/05/five-short-years-ago/],
author of THE ROSWELL CONSPIRACY, THE CATALYST, ROGUE WAVE and THE VAULT
(Pocket Books)
· Jenny Milchman {http://www.thrillerfest.com/2012/07/why-im-going-to-thrillerfest/},
author of COVER OF SNOW (Ballantine)
Are you ready to find out more? Click on
the links above to go to the Thrillerfest website; you’ll find everything you
need. And if you come to Thrillerfest in July, make sure to look for me and say
hello!
Guest post by Alma
Katsu [http://www.almakatsu.com], the author of THE TAKER and THE RECKONING,
paranormal thrillers published by Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster. THE TAKER
was an ALA Top Ten Debut Novel of 2011 and has rights have been sold in 15
languages.
