THE WRITE OR WRONG CONFERENCE

 If you read any of the magazines that are geared toward the writing community you know that this is the time of the year when they announce the upcoming writer’s conferences.  These conferences are held in most large cities and many of them specialize in a certain type of writing.  You can find them for fiction writers, poets, non-fiction or magazine writers to name just a few.  Most have workshops and a guest speaker or two whom you may or may not have heard of depending on the size of the conference.

Your particular writing specialty is…FITB (fill in the blank).  You see a conference not far from you that has a workshop that interests you.  It’s a weekend, so you don’t have to take time off from your day job, it’s within your budget and you’re ready to sign up to go.  Before you do, ask yourself one question.  Is it the right conference for me?

Break the question down further.  What do I plan to get out of it?  What are the qualifications of the workshop leaders?  Does the brochure say, “Herbert T. Provanowitz has written seven novels” or does it say he has actually sold and had published seven novels?  If it’s door number one, he may not have any more qualifications than you, so what can you learn in that workshop?  If it’s an agent or editor you want to meet and pitch to, find out if they are actually looking for new talent.  Send them an email and ask how many clients or manuscripts they have acquired at conferences in the past?  I think you’ll be surprised at the answer.

I have had the pleasure of attending many writer’s conferences as both a participant and a speaker.  Several of the conferences have invited me back again after a few years.  In almost every case I have had people come up to me and tell me they saw me two, three or four years earlier and really liked my presentation.  I’m always flattered when that happens but I began to wonder.  Why are they coming back year after year?  What new information are they getting or what do they expect to get?  I had to know, so I asked that question of several of them.  Be careful what you ask, you may not like the answer.

Many said they left the conference fired up and ready to hit the keyboard or yellow legal pad bright and early Monday to really get serious about writing…this time.  But…Monday rolled around and work/school/chores/whatever had to be accomplished first.  By the time they finished them, it was late and Jeopardy was just coming on and…and…you see the pattern.  Or maybe they spent time with the editor or agent and actually followed up and sent them something.  One month. Two, then three and four passed with no response.  A polite email inquiry got them nothing either.

Bleak picture?  Unfortunately, it is, but some of it is a self-inflicted wound that can be avoided.  Do your research on the conference and the presenters.  Make sure they are selling something that you want to buy and can actually use. And then USE IT.

I think it was Mark Twain or somebody else who said, “Writing is 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration.”  Use some of that 90% for preparation as well.