Writers and Authors

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The Writer’s Digest Annual Conference #WDC17

Writers and Authors has partnered with The Writer’s Digest Annual Conference this year. In today's post I'll fill you in on all the important details.

About the event:

Write better. Get published. Build your network.

The Writer’s Digest Annual Conference is the premier destination of writers across the world who want to elevate their skills with personalized advice from some of today’s most accomplished authors, editors and mentors.

Writer’s Digest has earned its reputation as the industry’s most trusted source for writing advice and insight over the past 90+ years. With more than 50 Agents and Editors expected to participate in the Pitch Slam and dozens of insightful sessions led by industry experts and successful writers, the Writer’s Digest Annual Conference is an unprecedented opportunity to advance your career and improve your writing practice.

WHO ATTENDS WRITER’S DIGEST CONFERENCE?

The Writer’s Digest Annual Conference is for writers of all genres, forms and levels of experience. No matter how long you’ve been writing, you’ll find content of great value for you. Writer’s Digest’s reputation attracts a dedicated group of writers! The vast majority of attendees shared that they have been writing for years. Last year, more than 1,000 were in attendance, with even more expected in 2017.

LEARN FROM EXPERTS

Connect with many of publishing’s most respected and knowledgeable writers, agents and editors—including bestselling authors and Pulitzer Prize winner Richard Russo! Pick the program track that’s right for you. Mix and match sessions from the five core program areas: Getting Published, Platform & Promotion, Craft, Genre Studies and The Business of Being an Author.

PITCH YOUR WORK

Bypass the waiting game! Instead of sending out query after query and hoping to hear back, at the Pitch Slam you’ll pitch your work one-on-one to agents and editors searching for new talent and great books. This opportunity is a pulse-pounding ride!

You’ll pitch to each agent for 90 seconds and then receive 90 seconds of instant,

invaluable feedback—and maybe a request to hear more.

MEET THE RIGHT PEOPLE

The Conference is a true writers’ summit. You’ll be rubbing elbows with agents and editors, sure, but you’ll also have the chance to connect with your peers, people who truly understand the writing life and who want to see you succeed. Find a writing partner, join a critique group or just enjoy meeting new friends.

FIND WRITER’S DIGEST ANNUAL CONFERENCE ONLINE

Visit us: http://bit.ly/WDC17

Twitter: http://bit.ly/WDCTW17

Facebook: http://bit.ly/WDCFB17

Writer’s Digest: http://bit.ly/WriterDigest

F+W Media: http://bit.ly/FWMedia

On Saturday 30th May the annual Promo Day event took place at www.PromoDay.info. This free event was a whole day packed full of webinars, pitch sessions, panel discussions, and more.

Loads of topics were discussed during the event but here's a few takeaways of some of the main points raised during the event:

1) There is a big divide within self publishing.

Self publishing has become a more main stream method of publication in recent years but this market growth has also been accompanied by a wide variety of quality. The main reason why self publishing still has a certain stigma attached to it. Whilst some self publishers realise the importance of putting out a quality product, others are in a hurry to get their books out there and so skip some of the important steps of the process. Poor editing (or even lack of), poor formatting, and "template" book covers are common. When a self published book is done well readers shouldn't be able to tell how it was published. Having a quality product matters... both for the individual book, and the self publishing industry as a whole.

2) "Buy my book" doesn't work.

In fact, it can damage your reputation. There was a lot of discussion about the importance of building a strong author brand, and the fact that networking is really just making friends. You need to find a common passion, offer value of some kind, and build trust. When you do that, you don't need to hard sell.

When people see or hear "buy my book" they translate it into "spam". Marketing needs to be about finding a connection and offering benefits.

3) Book reviews are a marketing tool and for potential customers NOT the authors.

Whilst it's nice to get 5 star reviews singing your praises what you really want are balanced reviews that tell potential customers what the reader liked, and DIDN'T like about the book. Yep, that's right. Comments about how the book could have been better are a good thing. It shows they actually read the book and that they are giving their honest opinion of it. Those little negatives then add even more value to the positive comments made as potential customer know they can trust that it's an honest review.

4) Keywords matter.

Whether it's on Amazon, or in social media posts, keywords make a big difference. Just as you think about keywords in order to rank on Google, you need to do the same in order to get the algorithms of other sites working for you so that you get better visibility and reach the right audience.

If you missed the live panel discussions you can watch the replays here:

There were also live Twitter chats and Facebook wall chats, as well as all the action that happened over in the event forums.

A truly international event with attendees from all around the world! Already looking forward to next year!

This week the annual online conference for children's authors called Write On Con took place. This free event was packed full of useful information and advice on a variety of topics. For those of you that didn't attend the event, here's a summary of some of the favourite articles and presentations.

In her article "Does your picture book premise have power?" Jean Reidy covered 10 questions to ask yourself to test the strength of you picture book. Some good questions to help weigh in your idea and see if has what it takes to be turned into your next work in progress.

Agent Anita Mumm gave her answer to the question "should writers worry about trends and marketing?". She advise not to write for trends but to promote effectively when the time comes.

Loretta Nyhan in "we've all got it goin' on....writing realistic characters" said that everyone you've ever known is in your internal library. She also told us "don't fear the weirdness inside you".

Lindsay Ward gave a list of the top 5 things she wishes someone would have told her about making picture books. She included; "you're the talent", "be your books biggest advocate", "trust your instincts", "let the story guide you" and "be patient".

In her post about "a day in the life of a writer" Gretchen McNeil gave a humorous, yet pretty accurate, account of a typical writer day. The point of the article was underline that being a writer can involve; pain, tears, frustration, and no guarantee of success. It was about preparing us for what's in store. As she said "If you can choose any other career in the world other than this one that will make you happy, DO IT. This business is brutal." If you are a writer this will motivator you to write more.

Debbie Diesen gave a great explanation about rhythm and rhyme in her video webinar. She talked about beats and meter, staying true to the rhythm, and the importance of rhyming rhythmically.

C. Desir gave some excellent editing tips in her article "Cleaning up your manuscript: Quick and dirty edit tips". Deleting garbage words, dealing with autonomous body parts, impossible sentence structure, pronoun antecedent issues, redundant actions, unnecessary could, and point of view.

In "Killer last lines: How to end a chapter", Elsie Chapman talked about how to keep the reader engaged enough so they won't want to stop reading between chapters. It's about getting the correct ratio of question-to-answer and making the reader care enough to keep reading.

This is only a few pieces of advice I picked out from the event (it was jam packed with information). As you can see from this selection, the conference might be geared towards children's authors but there's advice for all genres.

There were also several LIVE Twitter pitches with literary agents and chats with editors throughout the two day event. If you've not taken part in this event before I highly recommend you drop by next year.

Visit the website www.writeoncon.com for full details.

The London Book Fair took place 15-17 April 2013 at Earls Court in London, UK. I really wish I could have been there myself but sadly it didn't happen this year. I did follow it virtually though and there was some great information and advice shared. From what I saw it was also quite the social setting with loads of networking taking place.

You can find out more about the event at the website http://www.londonbookfair.co.uk/Home/ but I thought it would be nice to give an overview of what happened at this years event.

Photo's from London Book Fair 2013:

Some tweets from this years event:

"The KDP stand reported this year’s No. 1 question was, 'Why isn’t my book selling?'" @byrozmorris ow.ly/kgC7F #LBF13
— Porter Anderson (@Porter_Anderson) April 21, 2013

"Online is crucial for generating publicity as a large proportion of the audience are now online"@bloomsburybooks #lbf13

— The London Book Fair (@LondonBookFair) April 16, 2013

Have a plan, keep talking, provide awesome stuff / exclusive content, use every point of contact. HC dos for successful #communities #lbf13

— Imola Unger (@ImolaUnger) April 16, 2013

@pressfuturist #lbf2013 publishing career is as much about what you do in your spare time as what you do in the job. Explore.

— PWA (@Profwriting) April 15, 2013

In this video Joanna Penn chats with Amazon's Thom Kephart, Kobo's Mark Lefebvre, BookBaby's Brian Felsen, Smashwords' Mark Coker and Gareth Howard from Authoright PR at the London Book Fair

Some blog posts about the event that you might want to check out:

Defining the New Role for Literary Agents

Young Debut Authors Fetch Big Advances

Empowered Authors and Digital Revolution

The London Book Fair 2013 – An Aspiring Author’s Guide: The Brilliant Authors’ Lounge and the Terrifying LitFactor Pitch

The London Book Fair 2013

For a look at what happened in the Author Lounge check out http://www.authoright.com/authorlounge-whats-on/lounge

Did you attend this years event? What was the highlight for you? Got any tips for others wanted to attend this event? Anyone thinking about going to next years event?

Q: What is the Writers’ League of Texas Agents and Editors Conference?

A: The conference offers writers – whether they are published or just starting out – the chance to meet with agents and editors who are looking for great books and new voices.

Q: Who should attend the conference?

A: Writers and aspiring writers, published and unpublished. This conference is not just for people who are already writing a book. If you’ve ever thought about writing a book and are interested in learning about the publishing industry, this is a good place to gather information.

Q: What are the benefits to attending?

A: We will have 13 agents, four editors, three experts in book publishing and film production, seven marketing/publicity professionals, and over a dozen distinguished authors on our faculty. You will have opportunities to hear them share their tips about writing and the industry, as well as chat with them informally. You will also have the opportunity to network with other writers and form alliances that will help you in your future writing endeavors.

Q: Who will be speaking at this year’s conference?

A: Our keynote speaker is Alan Rinzler, an editor who has worked with Hunter S. Thompson, Toni Morrison, Clive Cussler, Tom Robbins and Robert Ludlum, among others. His speech will be about “Why This is the Best Time Ever to be an Author.”

Q: Who are some of the agents and editors represented at this year’s conference?

A: We have 13 agents who specialize in a wide variety of markets. Some of the agencies represented are Full Circle Literary, Andrea Brown Literary Agency, Pippin Properties, Folio Literary Management, Wendy Sherman Associates, Dystel and Goderich Literary Management, and Serendipity Literary.

Q: What types of panels will be featured?

A: We have a range of panels for people at any stage of a writing career. Some sessions are craft workshops and are designed to help develop voice, write a memoir, or bring out the writer in you. Other sessions educate attendees on the business end of writing, with panels on how to impress an agent, how to market your projects, and the different avenues of self-publishing.

Q: As a writer, what should I prepare or bring to this year’s conference?

A: If you have a book project and would like to talk with an agent about it, have your “elevator” pitch ready. It’s not necessary to bring your manuscript. If an agent wants to see it, he/she will ask.

Q: How long has this conference been going on?

A: The first conference was held in 1994 and it has been hosted annually since then.

Q: Do writers ever receive book deals while at this conference?

A: Writers very often sign with agents because of the conference and those agents secure book deals. A number of success stories from previous conferences are posted on our website.

Q: How should attendees prepare for their agent one-on-one meeting?

A: If you have a book to pitch to an agent, be sure to have your “pitch” ready when you have your agent consultation. A two to three-minute speech about your project’s basic plot, its genre/market, and what makes it unique is all that is necessary. This is an opportunity to get feedback from an industry professional, so they should also come prepared with any burning questions about publishing or how to make their manuscript more salable. For a separate fee, we are offering a pre-conference workshop on how to perfect your pitch. It is scheduled the afternoon of Friday, June 22.

Q: What advice do you have for writers attending this year’s conference?

A: Come ready to learn about the ever-changing world of publishing and to network with other writers. Even if you don’t have a book that you are working on, you may have one in mind and the knowledge you gain and the connections you make at the conference will be very helpful when you sit down to write.

Q: What’s the difference between the agents conference general ticket and the agents conference YA A to Z ticket?

A: The conference offers two workshop tracks – the general track and the Young Adult track. Attendees who sign up for the general track will be able to attend workshops and panels on a broad range of topics relating to writing, publishing and marketing many book genres. The YA track is for writers who are writing young adult fiction. Registrants can also purchase a combined ticket and attend any of the sessions.

Q: What are the event dates?

A: June 22-24

Q: What is the cost to attend the conference?

A: If you are a member of the Writers’ League, the cost is $399. For nonmembers, the fee is $459. If you want to attend the Young Adult track only, the fee is $299 for members and $359 for nonmembers. Attendees wanting to attend both the general and Young Adult tracks will be charged $434, with nonmembers paying $494.

We will accept walk-ins, but the registration fee will be higher. A full listing of costs is located on our website www.writersleague.org

Q: Where is this year’s conference?

A: Austin’s Hyatt Regency Hotel

Guest post by Sara Pence, Assistant Digital Publicist, Shelton Interactive.

This week is the Roman Writers Retreat organised by Carolyn Howard-Johnson and Eve Caram. The event takes place in Rome, Italy.

You can see all the details about this event at http://www.howtodoitfrugally.com/roman_retreat.htm including the lovely villa where most of the seminars will takes place.

"The Roman Writers' Retreat was imagined as a casual writers' conference where authors could follow their dreams by two UCLA Writers' Program instructors Eve LaSalle Caram and Carolyn Howard-Johnson on their cross-town foray to Eve's Novel I class on campus. (The drive in traffic is a long one!). Eve had just taken a Villa in Italy and it seemed as if doing something similar and sharing expenses with other writers would be a great way to explore and be inspired by Rome, the city of dreams".

Seminars will cover a variety of topics.

Your Instructors:

Eve LaSalle Caram, MA, is a longtime and popular instructor for UCLA Extension Writers' Progam where she won their Outstanding Eve La Salle Caram

The Blue Geography: A Romance by Eve La Salle Caram

Instructor Award in Creative Writing. She is a novelist, essayist, and poet whose latest novel, The Blue Geography, was a finalist in the Texas Review novel contest. Ms. Caram's other novels are Dear Corpus Christi; Wintershine; and Rena, A Late Journey. She edited Palm Readings, a multicultural anthology of fiction by Southern California women.

Carolyn Howard-Johnson has been an instructor for UCLA Extension Writers Program for several years. She is a multi-award winning author of This is the Place, and Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remember and her fiction, nonfiction and

poems have appeared in national magazines, anthologies and review journals both online and in print. She is a popular seminar leader at conferences like Dayton University's Erma Bombeck Writers Workshop, San Diego State's world renowned Writers' Conference and Call to Arts! EXPO. She also appears in national TV commercials. Her HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers have become staples in the libraries of many writers. You can learn more about her on about any page on this site. (-: Photo by Randy Detroit.

I'm also honoured to be presenting a seminar at this years event about online marketing options and social media.

There are plans for maybe making this an annual event so make sure you check the website for information in you'd like to join us next year.

The Kidlitosphere Conference is an annual gathering of the Society of Bloggers in Children’s and Young Adult Literature. The 2009 conference will take place in Washington, DC, on Saturday, October 17th. While sessions are not scheduled for Friday, a Library of Congress visit is currently in the planning stages. An informal outing in DC will be scheduled for Sunday as well.

The sessions go from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Saturday and will cover:

The Blog Within: An Interview With Your Inner Blogger
Building a Better Blog: Best Practices, Ideas, and Tips
Split Reviewer/Author Sessions:
It’s All About the Book: Better Book Reviews
It’s Not About Your Book: Writing Ideas for Blogging Authors
Split Reviewer/Author Sessions:
Social Networking for Fun (and Profit?)
Authors, Publishers, Reviewers (and ARCs): A Panel Conversation
Coming Together, Giving Back: Building Community, Literacy and the Reading Message (KidLitosphere Central/PBS/RIF/Literacy)
Meet the Authors

A pre-session meet-and-greet breakfast is offered from 7:00 to 8:00 a.m. A fun dinner to mix and mingle is scheduled for 7:00 to 10:00 p.m. The registration fee for the conference — including the breakfast and dinner — is $100. The fee for dinner only (for spouses or guests) is $50.

Rooms can be reserved at the Sheraton Crystal City Hotel for a special group rate of $109 per night. The group rate will be available until September 16th or until the block of rooms is filled. It should be noted that the hotel is a mile from National Airport and free shuttle service is available. A Metro Station is on the same block and allows travel to Washington in minutes. In fact, downtown DC is only two miles away. The hotel is right next to the Crystal City Shops and a few blocks from the upscale Fashion Center at Pentagon City.

For full details visit http://kidlitosphere.org

About the event:

The London Book Fair 2013 – An Aspiring Author’s Guide: The Brilliant Authors’ Lounge and the Terrifying LitFactor Pitch

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