Well, I’m back.
And guess what? I survived the conference in the Big Apple 🙂
Thanks to Batman who actually understands how to read a map (not kidding on my part) we managed to arrive unscathed but pretty sweaty to the Roosevelt Hotel, the marvelous and grandeur host of the 2015 Annual Writer’s Digest Conference.
Pause for effect:
Expensive. Glorious and expensive.
Batman and I overlooking the common folk for once.
Yeah, pretty sure they could smell the poor on us.
This has been a year of stepping out of my comfort zone. I like my comfort zone–who doesn’t? It’s super comfy (obviously), you know everything and everybody and really, it’s the safest place to be. But you don’t learn anything. You don’t grow. You don’t advance. And you also don’t do awesome things like surround yourself with a stadium of other writers who, just like you, are there for the same dream. And wow, what a thing to be surrounded by like minded people. Writers everywhere… could it get any better?
Important people talking about important stuff.
I’VE MADE IT.
One of the COOLEST things was the diversity. Age, ethnicity, gender… all walks of life showed up, all passionate and eager to learn about the same thing. I chatted with a few 20-somethings and in one seminar, sat next to an 80-something old man scribbling notes on his yellow lined paper. Incredible, all of it. Especially the Pitch Slam session which turned out to be absolutely NOT terrifying at all.
For an extra $100, this opportunity allows you to pitch your idea to as many agents as possible in a one-hour session. It’s kind of like ultimate speed dating with agent-writers. Basically, you walk into a huge room where agents sit at tables that line the walls. A line forms behind each agent and you stand in it, waiting for your turn. When it comes up, it’s your time to shine and you and the agent get a TOTAL of three minutes to discuss your project. BELIEVE me it sounds scarier than it is. Honestly, it really is like speed dating–you’re just figuring out if the possible partnership has any merit. And, I’m happy to report that out of the 6 agents I pitched, 5 asked for material. 🙂 🙂 Does that mean I actually landed an agent? Of course not. But they have an (absolutely breathtakingly gorgeous) face to associate with a query, so it’s not as ‘blind’ and may survive being immediately thrown to the slush pile. Hey, any slight advantage helps, right?
Because I’m awesome, I snuck some pics:
Everybody rushing around to find the agent they want to pitch!
Waiting to pitch!
Even if nothing solid comes like an agent requesting the full manuscript or hell, even an agent itself–this was still an incredible experience and I HOPE HOPE HOPE you all attend at least one writing conference if you haven’t yet. You realize how realistic your dreams are because they are. And you can do it.
You can do it.
You can do it.
So go and do it.
***Interested in hearing what I pitched? I’m updating chapters every week on Wattpad here.
Happy IWSG to everyone 🙂 If you want to participate in this writing blog hop, check out the sign up list here. Thanks to Alex Cavanaugh for making this possible!
