How to Make the Most of a Writer’s Conference

In this dynamic episode, hosts Chris and Gena dive into the world of writer’s conferences, sharing invaluable insights on how to make the most of these transformative events. Drawing from their own experiences and expertise, they discuss how to harness the power of writer’s conferences and take your craft to the next level. Tune in to this episode and unlock the secrets to making your writer’s conference experience truly impactful and rewarding.

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LINKS:

• WriterCon: https://www.writercon.com (Save $50 with coupon code WEAREWRITERS)
• WriterCon Prep Guide: https://writingmomentum.com
• Liz Wilcox’s Email Marketing Membership at http://wmdeal.com/liz
• Get your FREE Move the Needle goal-setting for authors ebook at https://www.writingmomentum.com
• Write with us! Join Chris, Gena, and Rene each Wednesday at noon Central and let’s get our writing DONE! https://www.writingmoments.com

episode 86 transcription:

[00:00:00] Gena: Hi, and welcome to the Writing Momentum Podcast. I'm Gena Maselli, and I'm here with my husband, Christopher Maselli. 

[00:00:14] Christopher: Hey, I'm Christopher Maselli and I'm here with my wife, Gena. 

[[00:00:17] Gena: We are feeling a little goofy right now because we are packing up and headed to Writer Con in Oklahoma City over Labor Day weekend.

[00:00:26] Christopher: That's right. 

[00:00:27] Gena: We're really excited about it. 

[00:00:28] Christopher: It's on September 1st through fourth. And we're gonna be there. We hope you're gonna be there too. If you're still looking, go to the writer con.com website and use the code wearewriters and you can get $50 off. But if you're planning to go to this conference or another one, you may think, how can I make the most of a writer's conference?

[00:00:46] Christopher: Because if you've not been to one before, you may be thinking, wow, this, this seems like a big deal. And it is a big deal because it can be a career changer. It is for a lot of people, and especially if you do multiple writers' conferences over time you'll find that it definitely changes the whole trajectory of [00:01:00] where you're going.

[00:01:00] Gena: Yeah. There's so many people who are there, there are writers there, there are editors there, there are agents there that are author help people who can help with marketing, with social media, with just all these different things with printing and cover design. There are just so many different people and while it's really, I think it's really fun to meet all these people from all these different backgrounds.

[[00:01:25] Christopher: Yes. 

[[00:01:25] Gena: Who come in. I always feel so energized when I get around that crowd. Would you agree? 

[00:01:31] Christopher: Absolutely, because everyone, as we get together, we're all writers. It's like we have this thing in common that you don't really find it anywhere else. And so yeah, just having that. Common ground knowing that you're all struggling with some of the same things, even though some are a lot further down the road and some are right at the very beginning. There's a comradery there that there isn't with anything else. 

[00:01:53] Gena: I think so, and because you're with people who can make such a difference in your career, but [00:02:00] also who understand so much about your career it's just a great time to just make the most of those connections that you make.

[00:02:07] Christopher: That's right. And In order to make the most, here's a few things that we recommend that you do to make the most of a writer's conference. The first thing is make the most of a writer's conference by attending all you can. If you're signing up for a conference you need to conserve your energy.

[00:02:23] Christopher: So if you need a rest, take a rest. But for the most part, try to attend all the sessions. Don't allow yourself to wake up mid-morning and, walk in a little late or to leave early just because you're just wanting to get away for a bit. If you can push through it, try to attend as much as you can, because you never know when those great connections are gonna happen.

[00:02:42] Gena: Yeah. That is, and I think because of those connections, it's always nice to have. Your business card ready. Even though I know there are digital cards and that kind of thing, but I still think that there's something nice about being able to hand someone a card. And then of course Chris and I are strong proponents of making sure that your [[00:03:00] picture is on it.

[00:03:00] Gena: Because there's so many people at these conferences. I know at WriterCon there will be a couple hundred people there and you don't always remember who people are, right? And you see the name and you think I remember that name, but I cannot remember the person's face or whatever. And having a picture on the card just helps alleviate that. 

[00:03:20] Christopher: And when I receive a card from someone, if I have a moment after they leave, I'll take my pen and I'll write down what it is we talked about. So if they have a novel about a certain something, I'll write that down. 'cause that'll just help ingrain in my memory who it was that I met with.

[[00:03:35] Gena: Yeah. 

[[00:03:35] Christopher: So yeah, attend all you can and make connections. 

[00:03:38] Gena: And just be your friendly self, and people will You're gonna make those connections? Just sitting down at the tables if you're. 

[[00:03:46] Christopher: Eat with other people. 

[[00:03:47] Gena: Yeah. Invite people to go to dinner. And that kind of thing. 

[[00:03:50] Gena: Another way you can make the most of it is by if there are contests. Go ahead and submit for those contests. 

[00:03:57] Christopher: Anytime you can enter a contest, you should totally do it. If [00:04:00] you've been listening to this podcast for any length of time, you know that I am an award winning poet. And the reason I'm an award-winning poet is because I once entered a contest and I came in second.

[00:04:12] Christopher: I won second place, so I became an award-winning poet. And my claim to fame is that there were only two people who entered that contest, so had more people entered, someone else may have beat me to it. But I became an award-winning poet just 'cause I entered the contest. So please enter contests.

[[00:04:26] Christopher: They can go a long way. 

[00:04:28] Gena: Yeah. And also when there are pitching sessions, there's gonna be, a lot of times there are pitching sessions and you get to pitch to different editors or different agents and different publishers, that kind of thing. Go ahead and sign up for those. Sit down and talk to them.

[00:04:42] Gena: And if you're sitting there thinking I don't have anything to pitch. Pitch your ideas, talk to them about what they're looking for, what do they need? There's just so many different, it doesn't have to be like, I've got this book completely written. You can sit there and talk about I've got an idea for a book.

[00:04:58] Gena: Gimme your [00:05:00] feedback. What do you think? And do you think the market would allow this or welcome this. There's a lot of different ways you can go through that. 

[00:05:07] Christopher: We have a video on our website right now. If you go to the homepage of writing momentum.com, where Gena and myself and Renee Gutteridge all talk about how to prep for a writer's conference, and in that video, we talk about how to make a basic pitch to an editor or an agent and how to make it really easy on yourself. To where it's not difficult by creating what's called a one sheet and we walk you through the process of that. It's really helpful. I encourage you to go watch that video and then send us your email and we'll send you that download, you'll see the link right below the video for that. 

[00:05:40] Gena: And I love the one sheet, because it really takes, you don't have to be sitting there thinking I gotta make sure, and I've gotta remember this, and this. Because you're nervous. It's okay to be nervous. You're sitting there with someone that you feel like maybe maybe they're gonna buy your book or maybe they're gonna, be able to take your book and sell it to somebody else. It's okay to be nervous. It's very understandable.

[00:05:59] Gena: Having [00:06:00] that one sheet there really takes a lot of the nervousness away, I think, because you don't have to stress about, am I gonna remember everything? It's right there. 

[00:06:08] Christopher: Yes. So then after you've met with people and after you've taken classes from people, we really encourage you to follow up with people afterwards, right? Send a nice email. This is another reason you want to get cards. Send a nice email to the people whose classes you attended to, the students who you met, to maybe an agent or an editor that you sat down and did a pitch with, and just let them know that you appreciated getting to know them that will go so long. It's just a nice networking kind of thing to do. That's very selfless. You're not asking for them to do anything with that. You're just saying, Hey, I'm so glad we connected, and just always good to do that after a writer's conference. 

[00:06:49] Gena: And if I can say, a lot of people don't.

[00:06:51] Christopher: No, most people don't. 

[00:06:52] Gena: Most people do not do that. And so it's a way that you think, oh, I'm gonna send this email. If this is your thought process I'm gonna [00:07:00] send that email and that person's gonna get flooded with emails and nobody's gonna remember. And, you go down that self-sabotaging path.

[[00:07:08] Gena: I can tell you very few people actually follow up. 

[[00:07:11] Christopher: Yeah. 

[[00:07:11] Gena: Very few. 

[00:07:12] Christopher: It just doesn't happen. 

[00:07:12] Gena: You'll stand out by just sending a kind email, and letting people know how much you appreciate their time. 

[00:07:19] Christopher: On the flip side of that, you wanna make sure you can make the most of a writer's conference by preparing ahead of time. So before you go, make sure you've got all your ducks in a row. Make sure you've selected what classes you want to go to, that you've got your one sheets ready for those pitches, that if there's anything you wanna bring, you've got it ready to go, that you've got the clothes ready that you need, so that when you get there, you're not feeling nervous. You wanna get all that stuff out of the way so that it's as smooth as an experience as possible. 

[00:07:46] Gena: Definitely, Go ahead and prepare ahead of time, and like Chris said, we've got the webinar that we recorded on this very topic. How to prepare for a writer's conference on our website, writing momentum.com. Go ahead and you can watch [00:08:00] that webinar, but also there's some freebies there as well you said.

[[00:08:03] Christopher: Lots of freebies. 

[00:08:04] Gena: That's lots of freebies. 

[00:08:05] Christopher: If you've enjoyed this talk and I did, I think it's interesting to learn how to make the most of something like this because this really can be a game changer for you.

[[00:08:13] Gena: Yes, you and I have both shared experiences where we have met people that really were pretty big breaks for our career. 

[[00:08:21] Christopher: Oh, absolutely. 

[00:08:21] Gena: When we went to a writer's conference.

[[00:08:23] Christopher: It happens almost every time.

[[00:08:25] Gena: I think for me, if you can prepare ahead of time, then you can take some of those butterflies out and some of that nervousness out, and you can go in with a plan and again, I think even going in with a plan puts you ahead of the game.

[00:08:39] Gena: I think a lot of people don't really know what they're gonna do until they show up and then they're scrambling and putting this together. If you can think through it. And plan ahead. I think it'll take you far.

[00:08:51] Christopher: And that's why I think we are such proponents of writer's conferences, because I don't know that there's any writer's conferences that I've been to that I just leave and think, wow, that was a waste of time, [[00:09:00] right?

[00:09:00] Christopher: There's always something there that helps me move forward in my writing, whether it's in my career because someone noticed something I wrote, or it's in my connections because we've networked with people and gotten to know other people, or whether it's in my craft where I just become a better writer because now I'm looking at things differently.

[00:09:17] Christopher: And sometimes it's even just like a spiritual or psychological thing where you think differently than you did before because you attended the conference. So yeah, definitely man, go to writer's conferences. We love 'em. 

[00:09:29] Gena: Yeah, definitely. We hope you've enjoyed this episode of the Writing Momentum podcast.

[00:09:34] Gena: If you would help us out, please rate, review, subscribe, and share this with other people. We really want this to be something that helps other people on their journey. So many people have helped Chris and I on our journey as writers, and if we can do that for someone else, that's just, we get very excited about that.

[00:09:54] Gena: We get excited about hearing about your successes and the successes of [00:10:00] other writers, 'cause there's room in the market for all of us. 

[00:10:03] Christopher: Absolutely. And post those in the comments and let us know what do you do to make the most of a writer's conference. Is there something that we haven't mentioned that you're like, oh, that's something I always do. We'd love to hear it. 

[[00:10:11] Gena: Yes. And until next time, Chris, we are not in this alone because together. 

[[00:10:18] Christopher: We have writing momentum. 

[[00:10:19] Gena: Bye-bye. 

[[00:10:20] Christopher: Bye-bye.