What's the Point of a Writers' Conference? ? My Thoughts After ...

I was extremely fortunate to attend the 40th annual SCBWI (Society of Children?s Book Writers and Illustrators) Summer Conference in Los Angeles over the past three days (August 5-7).?? The star-studded lineup of presenters included Judy Blume, Gary Paulsen, Robert Peck and Norton Juster, along with a huge contingent of top agents, editors, illustrators and publishers.

With over 1300 conference attendees (only 150 of them men?) rushing around the Grand Hyatt hotel, many of them eager to break into the children?s market in either illustrating or writing, the conference was electric, if hectic.? At times, I felt buoyed up by the enthusiasm of the audience and the advice of successful writers, some of whom had been in the business for forty years or more; at other times, it was hard avoid feeling like I was sinking in a sea of desperate unpublished writers trying to make ?contacts.?

But, overall, it was a great learning experience.? Here are five things that (I think) I learned something about?

1) Public Speaking ? while I learned a lot from what the presenters said this weekend, I probably learned even more from how they said it.? There were so many funny, eloquent and well-structured presentations which truly illustrated the importance of delivery, composure and planning when speaking to an audience.

2) Which Sessions To Attend ? while the big names are hard to resist and undoubtedly very inspiring, the most useful talks for me were probably what most people would consider most boring.? The workshops on marketing, subsidiary rights, school/library markets in the US, agents, digital landscapes and Scholastic publishing?s lists were most valuable in terms of getting a wider picture of the industry (especially the US publishing industry).

3) The Importance of ?Networking? ? Overrated? - I don?t know if it was because it was in LA or because it?s a big conference or what, but the swarms of people around agents/editors/publishers/famous writers all weekend were pretty hard to believe!? I actually ended up speaking to a married couple, two of the speakers at the conference, who run a big literary agency in the Eastern US (they were sitting next to me at the bar).?? After discovering that I live in Japan and asking me about the March tsunami/earthquake, the woman told me that they?d actually lived in Manhattan during 9/11 after which they shared some very interesting stories about that terrifying and confusing day.

When the conversation eventually swung around to writing, the man told me something quite interesting about agents and conferences.? I asked how he put up with all the ?swarms? of desperation, and he told me that he was planning to hide at the party that night.? One of the most interesting things he said was that he finds pitches to be quite useless anyway.? Until he has time to sit down and really look at the writing, he has no idea if a book has a chance or not.? So, as expected, all you can do is submit your work.? There are no shortcuts.

It?s like what I tell my students when they?re waffling on how to start an essay: just write it.? I can?t help you sculpt the clay if there is no clay to sculpt.

4) The Point ? with all this Twittering, Facebooking, blogging, texting and all those other thousand digital things we?re ?supposed? to be doing, I?m surprised writers still have the time to write!? As usual, I always feel like I should be doing more of this kind of stuff (as no doubt I should be) but at least I?m doing a bit more than I was at this point last year.

It was interesting to hear Judy Blume say that writing a first draft is much harder these days because of all the distractions a computer offers.? Typewriters are pretty uni-functional, it?s true?but I wonder if it was a bit easier to focus back then!? Probably not.? I?m sure writers still found plenty of ways not to write.

5) Being Funny ? Many of the writers who spoke were very, very funny, particularly MC and SCBWI founder Lin Oliver and the hilarious Jon Scieszka.? There is a temptation, I think, to tumble into a chasm of solemnity, suicide and angst when writing YA fiction.? Funny is good too.

Overall, all weekend I kept hearkening back to what talented Japanese author/illustrator Naomi Kojima told me about conferences when we spoke at the 2011 AFCC in Singapore in May: you go, you meet a few people (some of whom you might even like), you take away a few little tidbits of inspiration and advice from the session, you have a beer (or six)?and then you just go home, get on with the job and see what happens.

Source: http://trevorkew.wordpress.com/2011/08/08/whats-the-point-of-a-writers-conference-my-thoughts-after-attending-the-40th-annual-summer-conference-of-the-scbwi-society-of-childrens-book-writers-and-illustrators-in-los-angeles/

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