So. PPWC WAS AWESOME. I will try not to randomly glee all over the place but believe me, it is hard.
I kind of want to sign up for EVERY WRITERS’ CONFERENCE EVER now but I shall try to refrain.
First of all, everyone at PPWC was nice, friendly, and encouraging, from the people running the conference to the guest authors to the agents and the editors. The other attendees were easy to talk to and most of the workshops I attended I thought were useful (though I did learn that no one really understands what the cut-off between YA and MG is).
Things that were awesome:
1. Going with friends.
I am a shy cookie, and so it was nice to have friends with me. Sure, maybe if I had gone alone I would have made more new friends or been a little braver in general, but I have no guarantees. But the best part? Divide and conquer on the workshops. Then we could go over notes later and get information that it would have been impossible to gather on our own.
2. Interacting with Agents/Editors Face to Face
This is probably the best thing about the conference – being able to talk to agents/editors, some of whom represented my genres, talk to them about my novel, and get direct feedback from them. And the fact that they were all lovely, encouraging people helped. I feel more at ease with submitting in general now. Plus the feedback is invaluable and will help me in the future.
3. Workshops
Most – though not all – of the workshops I attended I found extremely helpful, and I’m looking forward to implementing what I learned in my projects. There were a few that were too basic that I would have avoided had I known, but overall I came out of things with a ridiculous amount of notes and a slightly heady feeling.
I will do some things different in the future. I will register earlier so I can get the pitch appointments I want. I will try to get the panel critique instead of the individual critique. I will remember earplugs and to bring shoes that are not boots in case I need to wander the halls in the middle of the night. I will remember to get business cards earlier than the day before.
Overall, PPWC was completely worth my time and money. I would do it again. I will do it again. I will probably talk annoyingly about it for months to come.
But, for now, I’ve got a couple of chapters to make sure are ready to go.
Eeeee, I’m so glad for you!
It was definitely a worthwhile conference. I look forward to the next one I can attend once I have accumulated more vacation time.
Need to work on my submission package first, tho…
Hoorah, I’m glad it was such a good experience! I have a question– now that you’ve gone to conference, has your opinion on the whole trad-publish/self-publish game changed? Are you more psyched/secure with the trad-pub route? 🙂
I wouldn’t say so, not if I’m understanding your question correctly.
Trad pub and self pub both have their strengths and uses. I still have no guarantee that I’ll ever write anything normal enough to get traditionally published (though I continue to hope), so it’s not like that’s changed at all.
Most of the workshops I went to involved being mean to my characters and adding suspense, things which I could be better on. I did do some pitch practicing ones, which were useful as well (and no one laughed in my face or told me my story was silly or made no sense, so hoorah there), but there was nothing that gave me any confidence that anything’s ever going to happen more than I had before.
But I shall keep at it!
I’m glad attending was a positive experience. It’s too bad WI is not closer to CO.