On January 28th, I drove over the mountains to San Diego with my friends Lynne and Stacy to attend the San Diego State University Writers Conference. We stayed for the weekend, braving heavy fog, but making it safely thanks to Lynne’s and Stacy’s spot-on advice about how to navigate fog. We had a great time.
Although there are many more, these are my top ten reasons for love, love, loving this conference.
10. The distance. It’s only a five hour drive from Phoenix (when there’s no fog in the mountain that is).
9. High tech welcome. From twitter to digital publishing. If you wanted to know about it you could find it at SDSU. In today’s changing market this topic is becoming a must-have at valuable conferences.
8. The accommodations. San Diego never fails to be beautiful and the weather during our visit was perfect. The bad news during conferences is that you generally spend most of your time indoors and don’t get to enjoy the weather. We, however, had a room with a view – honestly. When we looked out the window, we didn’t see the backside of an office building or another hotel. We saw miles and miles of beautiful green San Diego, with waving palm trees and lush semi-tropical plants. What a great way to start each morning.
7. The workshops. SDSU is a multi-discipline and multi-genre conference. Fiction, from sweet romance and cozy mysteries to thrillers, horror, fantasy, sci-fi and literary works. Film and television. Nonfiction from self-help to how-to, memoirs and biographies, politics and business. At half a dozen or more per hour, workshop were presented on almost every topic of interest across the board. I attended specifically to find an agent and spent most of my time in the agents’ panels, but the writing specific workshops I was able to attend were terrific and I left them learning something new. At this conference there is something for everybody, no matter what level they’re at.
6. The attitude. These days cynicism runs wild in the publishing industry, bordering on despair. Sales are down. Bookstores are closing, publishers aren’t buying, only brand name author sell, and agents aren’t signing on new authors. This may all be true, but that pessimistic outlook sure wasn’t evident in San Diego. While not ignoring the real challenges in our profession, a hopeful attitude prevailed. The editors I talked to all loved their work, were excited about their upcoming releases. Agents were open to new writers, offering advice as well as requests. I felt noticed and valuable rather than one among many.
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| THE APPOINTMENT ROOM |
5. The appointments. I’ve attended a lot of writer’s conference and at most of them you’re lucky to get one appointment. In fact, unless you’re one of the very early birds it’s likely you’ll get none. At this conference, you get what you pay for. Yes, they charge for appointments and after giving it careful thought, I think that’s a good thing. If you think about it from the editor’s or agent’s perspective, this eliminates frivolous meetings. They know the writer is serious and probably has a solid manuscript to pitch. And at this conference if you’re looking for information and don’t yet have a solid manuscript, look at reasons three for the many other opportunities to talk with these professionals.
4. The appointment structures. There were two: an advanced reading, where the editor or agent looks at ten of your pages in advance and gives feedback at the meeting; consultations, where you discuss the progress of your work as well as doing just the classic pitch. Very refreshing.
3. Agents and editors are everywhere. At the tables in the banquet hall, in the lobby, hanging around the registration desks. Highly accessible at meals and holding court at evening mixers. Unless they were rushing to an appointment or a workshop, they were all open to impromptu conversations. What a friendly and hardworking crew.
2. The price. Every year Erin Quinn Grady sponsors an essay conference about why you want to attend the San Diego State University Conference. I had plenty of good reasons and they must have been good enough because I won. Thank you, thank you, Erin, for awarding me this incredible experience.
And my number one reason for love, love, loving the San Diego State University’s Writers Conference?
1. The requests! I received five requests to see my fantasy manuscript, and am currently putting the finishing touch on it so I can send it off. Which is also my number one excuse for being so tardy getting up this review.
If you want to see a little bit of what you might find if you attend next year, a post-conference page is now on Facebook. Here's the link
SDSU
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