Writers’ Conference Thoughts

I had the good fortune to attend the Pike’s Peak Writers’ Conference the weekend of April 28th through May 1st.

I’ve never been to one before, but Ian expressed interest in attending one, and as he picked one that happened to be in my home state, I tagged along.

 

Writers’ conferences, in my head, had always been these elusive things, where authors and agents and editors frolicked and were exciting and the rest of us kind of hung about the fringes, looking in at that world and being jealous.

I was pleasantly surprised, however.  First of all, everyone was super-nice.  Second of all, you could go to a panel run by an author or an agent and then have them follow you to the next, as eager to learn as the unpublished masses.

The panels were well-done and interesting, teaching you new things or reinforcing things you already knew (though perhaps only instinctively).  The instructors were approachable.

But perhaps the most important thing that I, at least, got out of the conference, was learning that agents and editors are people too.  That they probably aren’t sitting in New York laughing with each rejection, that they’re human, and that they worry about making mistakes.  I feel much more at ease with the traditional publishing world now.

That probably sounds weird for someone so involved with indie publishing, but the way I see it is that both traditional and indie publishing have their reasons and their places.  We formed TDP to fill a niche that we didn’t see being covered in traditional publishing, but to ignore trad. pub. just because we don’t directly work with it would be folly.

Anyway, if you are a writer and you have the chance, I would highly recommend attending a writers’ conference.  You’re likely to meet awesome people and learn things you didn’t even know you didn’t know, and, hey, what could it hurt?

One Comment:

  1. Of the whole TWO writing conferences I’ve attended, PPWC was the most accessible. And getting a request from an editor was pretty spiffy too. 🙂

    But I think the best part of this conference was the people I met and some of the connections I made. There were a lot of sharp and interesting people at this conference, and I got to learn from them as well as now following along with some via twitter and the like.

    I’m not sure all the editors and agents are human, though. There was at least one who was definitely an android. I’ll be bringing a metal detector with me to the next conference (and oh yes, there will be a next conference – I aim to attend at least one a year).

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