Using Conferences to Your Querying Advantage
Conferences can be great places to learn, but let’s face it, when you’re unagented and have a completed manuscript, your main agenda may not be the workshops. I’ve attended several conferences, both as a pre-published writer and a published one. The truth is, my main goal has remained the same: Networking.
Conferences can be great places to learn, but let’s face it, when you’re unagented and have a completed manuscript, your main agenda may not be the workshops. I’ve attended several conferences, both as a pre-published writer and a published one. The truth is, my main goal has remained the same: Networking.
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Don’t get me wrong, I love learning, and always come home from conferences with my writing-tools arsenal filled a little fuller. But I met my editor at a conference, and I can quite honestly say that she probably would not be my editor if I hadn’t. You see, my editor was a senior editor when she made an offer on my book (she’s recently been promoted to executive editor), and since my agent was the new girl on the block at the time, she had targeted my manuscript mainly to either junior editors or editors one of us had been in contact with. My agent likely would not have targeted a senior editor at Simon Pulse if I had not had prior contact with her.
So I’m a big believer in networking at writing conferences. I’ve compiled a list of helpful hints that may be useful at your next event.
Show up like you mean business. Get to the conference early enough to get the lay of the land. Dress appropriately and memorably, so when you meet someone in the morning, you won’t have to re-introduce yourself in the afternoon.
Meet as many people as possible.Whether you’re at lunch or in a long line up waiting for a pitch appointment, there’s almost always someone nearby to chat with. You never know who you will meet. I’ve met people in line who I’ve stayed friends with online for years, people who are supporting me now that I have a book coming out, people who have recommended me to their agents. I’ve met agents at lunch and editors in the hallways. Be nice and friendly wherever you go, and you’ll end up with a whole new list of friends and contacts and Tweeps that you’ll be thankful for in the future.
Know the schedule ahead of time. Figure out which agents and editors work with your genre and make it your goal to say hello to each one of them over the course of the conference. If your conference offers pitch appointments, do your best to book as many as possible—stop by the appointment desk and see if there have been cancelations. Each time you talk about your book, you’ll be a little better and more relaxed about it. But if you can’t get an appointment with one of your prospective agents or editors, don’t sigh and give up. Make a point of finding out what they look like and saying hello. You don’t have to come across as a stalker to do this. Be kind and polite. Tell them how much you wish you could have gotten an appointment with them, but unfortunately they were all booked up. Then ask if they’d mind if you just share a thirty-second pitch about your book to see if it interests them. Most will say yes. And if you actually keep it to thirty seconds, they will appreciate you for it, probably glance at your name badge, and remember you with a smile on their face. Pitch your manuscript to ALL of the appropriate agents and editors, but only give manuscript pages to the agents, and only if they ask.
Now that you have all of your new contacts, make notes about each one of them. If you have their business card, write everything you can remember about that person on the back, because believe me, by the time you get home, it will all start to blend together.
When you get home, follow all the new people you met—authors, agents, and editors—on Twitter. Become friends with all the authors you met on Facebook—write them a little personal note so they remember you. Prepare an appropriate submission (i.e. exactly what they asked for) for each agent who wanted to see your writing. Don’t send it out until two weeks after the conference, when conference submissions have hopefully slowed down. Now this part is important! Don’t send anything to interested editors. Yes, that’s exactly what I said. No matter how excited you are, no matter how excited the editors seemed, and no matter how big the publishing house, if it is your intention to get yourself an agent, focus on that first. In each of the cover letters and queries you’re preparing to send out to agents, add in a paragraph at the top that says something like this: “I just arrived home from such-and-such conference where I met several editors who are interested in NAME OF MANUSCRIPT.” Don’t leave it at that – give them some specific names, and if any editor specifically requested a partial or full of the manuscript, make sure to mention that too. At this point, use the editor interest as ammunition to get your book read quickly by agents. You can always send to the editors later if you decide to.
Where do I get all this advice from, you may ask? This is exactly what I did, first of all, to find an agent, and as I mentioned, this whole process also helped in eventually selling my book. So if you can swing it, attend at least one conference per year, be prepared, and get out there and meet some new people! I promise, you won’t regret it!
Denise Jaden's first two novels from Simon & Schuster (Losing Faith and Never Enough) are infused with grief and loss. Writing With A Heavy Heart: Using Grief and Loss to Stretch Your Fiction is her first nonfiction book and was born out of personal experience, as well as a series of workshops she has taught on the subject. Denise is from just outside Vancouver, Canada, where she writes and homeschools her young son. Find out more about her upcoming book events and writing at www.denisejaden.com or on Twitter @denisejaden.
