I Attended My Second Writing Conference
—I Attended My Second Writing Conference—
On May the 4th (hooray for Star Wars), hosted in person by Writing Day Workshops at the LAX Embassy Suites in Los Angeles. I’ll opt for a shorthand Pros and Cons approach here:
Pros:
Able to meet agents live, in person. Got a better feel for personalities.
Scheduled pitch meetings with 6 agents; 1 cancelled.
Earned 4 partial manuscript requests of the 5 meetings. Huzzah!
Able to distinguish myself from others (kudos Reese Hopper who encouraged a more ‘make a statement’ wardrobe).
Every agent I pitched (except one) really enjoyed my pitch. (“You have a really great pitch.” was literally what at least 3 of them said.) This was super encouraging, as rarely do I ever receive any feedback. It’s nice to know I’m doing something right. I’m learning more and more that so much of this process is luck. Have a great product, yes, but also pitch the right agent at the right time who’s looking for the right manuscript at the right time who’s also having a good day and isn’t tired of reading query after query after query and actually reads your query and maybe even gets past your first page and isn’t feeling pressure from their editor to find a diversity book (which is never it seems like) and their editor still has space in their catalog for one more speculative fiction novel and the market is looking for one more speculative fiction novel and maybe just maybe the trends are moving in your favor and you don’t have to sell out and just write something easy and popular that the masses will buy at the airport or CVS because that’s where the big money is because at the end of the day everyone just wants to make money and if your book won’t (or can’t) sell, they won’t make money.
Cons:
Price. These conferences aren’t cheap. It would be awesome if you could just register for the pitch meetings, but alas, you cannot.
Parking. Was a nightmare. Super small hotel parking lot for guests plus conference attendees (about 300 of us). Also proximity to LAX meant no street parking. Had to park at a different hotel 3 blocks away and pay $50 despite arriving 30 minutes early.
Attendees. I was hoping for a more social / professional networking feel, but most everyone was in the zone preparing pitches (myself included). Also lots of older folks who seemed to be pursuing writing as more of a hobby, which came as a surprise to me.
Everyone pitched in the same room, so it was pretty noisy and difficult to focus.
One of the agents I pitched was super disinterested in my pitch (body language, resting disposition). At the end she indicated she doesn’t usually represent male authors. Could’ve included this in her bio. Also a bit discriminatory?
I’m attending one more conference (Pittsburgh Writing Workshop) virtually this weekend and pitching four more agents. I’m feeling solid about three of them. Hoping for some more requests. We’ll see. After this, I’ll probably give NIGHTLIGHTER a break while I wait to hear back from outstanding queries and work on my new project over the summer. About 43k words in and still feeling good about it.
That’s all for now.
-Taylor
TJH -- 05.29.2024
