HE WROTE: National Coming Up and Conferences In General.

I’ve done a few conferences. I don’t think I could count how many but it’s probably over a hundred. My first was in 1995. As a presenter. I’ve never been to a conference as an attendee because I didn’t know they existed when I was first writing (I also lived overseas which kind of limited things). I’ve done small ones and big ones. I presented at Maui seven straight years up until this year. My first RWA National was in Dallas a few years ago. National tends to be a big business thing with lots of meetings for Jenny and I, her and I. Sometime in there next week, geez it’s next week, we have to talk about Agnes and Shane. Shane and Agnes. What’s nice about Atlanta is I can drive, although it’s the most boring drive in the world from Savannah to Atlanta along I-16. And then traffic in Atlanta—argghh.

Here are some of my opinions on do’s and don’ts of conference etiquette.

Treat volunteers well. Since pretty much everyone is a volunteer, treat everyone well.

You never know who you’re talking to, so be nice to everyone. Don’t just focus on editors and agents. You will make writing contacts and friends for life. Jenny and I met at a conference. We actually first met when we got off the same the plane to Maui (her in first class of course, me out of the cargo bay and got on the same shuttle bus to the hotel). Two years later we had a book published together. It was that easy. Really. Not. As you can tell from the last couple of posts. But the book is flowing now. Maybe we just needed to explode to clear a blockage or something. Shane and Joey had a nice fight, which was fun to write.

Go to sessions based more on the speaker than the topic. Does the speaker have something you want? Personally, I am not that big a fan of listening to editors and agents speak. Not that they don’t say great and wonderful things, yes, Meg. But many times they tend to say the same things over and over. I particularly am not thrilled if agents or editors do a panel and tell you what they DON’T want. Remember when you listen to editors and agents that you are a writer so factor that in. Their perspective on the business is a little different so you need to respect that and understand it. So when you go to their sessions, that’s the reason to do so. Remember, they’re trying to make a living in the publishing world in a different way than you are.

Also, when you listen to speakers, try to hear what they’re really saying, because, it you listen carefully, while the stories may sound very different, they are all essentially saying the same thing. Over and over again.

Don’t say anything bad about anybody. Especially me. Because, again, you don’t know who you are talking to and publishing really is a small world.

Network. Much of what you are doing is informal. Don’t hide in your room. Don’t hide in a corner. Everyone is pretty much accessible. I like Jenny’s story about meeting Susan Elizabeth Phillips on an elevator. Maybe she’ll tell it here. Maybe she won’t. Don’t stay up to three in the morning rewriting. Your time is better spent around people. You can rewrite at home.

I’ll write about my concept of pitching in a day or so because I know some people are interested in that. BTW, I just got rejected by Dell on a book. And Dell has sold over a million of my books under my Doherty pen name. And Dell also feels the Area 51 books have run their course and are pretty much done, even though if you walk in a B&N I still own a decent amount of shelf space in science fiction. Such is the reality of publishing. Who said it made sense?

I’m also a fan of focusing on learning the craft of writing at conferences. Sometimes there’s too much concern about selling and pitching. What else? Hmm. I don’t know. Shane and Joey the Gent and Simon Xavier and Agnes and are all clamoring in my head which is very good. Need to go kayak and think.