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San Francisco Writers' Conference - Summary

The conference is now in the books.

Here is a list of the seminars I attended (and my rating):

Pitchcraft: How to excite agents and editors in 25-50 words. (excellent!)
Branding Yourself: (waste of time)
Why There Has Never Been a Better Time for Writers Seeking Publication: (entertaining)
How to Get an Agent: (excellent)
Power Editing: (WOW! <-my highest rating) this was done by Robert Dugoni an author that writes thrillers
Meet the Fiction Agents: (useful)
Ask a pro: This was a series of round table pitches and discussions with editors (excellent)
Beating the odds: (so-so) This was put on by an editor that seemed to be saying 'hire me"
Plot and Pacing: (Outstanding) done by author Steve Berry
How to break the rules of writing: (good) There are taboos like - no prologue and such that I never knew about
Getting help between the lines: How to hire an independent editor (excellent) this is a cost many of us erroneously thought a publisher would pick up.
Opportunities in Publishing: (excellent) a talk about ebooks, self publishing etc.
Date an agent (WOW!) is was a speed dating session where there was a room full of agents and you met with those you liked for 3 minutes to pitch your book. They would say yes or no.

Overall, I give this conference 5 stars out of 5.

I came away with mixed feelings. First of all, I feel a little bit of a let down now that it is behind me. The excitement of anticipation and the event itself were really over the top. Now that it is all behind me, all that I have ahead is work.

There was a bit of a mixed message here. Message #1: Traditional publishing is dead. Everyone is losing their job and there is no more money for big advances. Your chances of making it are almost zero. Message #2: Let's pretend message #1 is wrong and push forward with getting an agent and an editor and make a pant-load of money. Message #3: Message #1 is right, however, self-publishing and e-books are the way to go. They are cheap and get you in front of readers fast. And - if you show that you have a following, maybe an agent will listen to you, get interested, sell your book to a publisher and you will make a pant-load.

There is a website called Smashwords.com. They will take your book and, for free, convert it to every digital format needed. They will then offer it for sale, much like Amazon is currently selling my digital collection of short stories. I am going to make a new collection of short stories today and post it through Smashwords to see what happens.

I had 4 agents ask to see my book. I am going to send them all thank you letters along with, "I will send it by summer." When I made my pitch to them, I neglected to tell them it is not yet complete and has not been professionally edited. When they get a manuscript, they expect it to be as good as you can make it. They are not going to say "This is great. Now let me hire a editor for you." That needs to be done ahead of time.

So, it was exciting and, at the same time, a little bit of a downer. No one is going to buy my book or represent me until I (1) finish it and (2) spend $2,000 to $7,000 to have it edited. Then, if a publisher agrees, maybe I will get a $10,000 advance and then maybe I will make 7% of the total sales. I had one editor that said, "Skip all of this agent stuff and self publish. If you are successful, then publishers and agents will come knocking at your door."

Finally, writers are a great bunch of people. Just like on WDC, they were open and friendly. The hardest part about the end of the conference was the realization that I would probably never see any of these attendees again.

J