Observations from a wannabe

It would be really awesome to be a professional author, right? How does one go about doing that?

I’m still recovering from a whirlwind weekend at the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers Gold Conference. This is the second conference I have attended since my writing career began a year ago. Now that I’m a conference veteran, my main observation is that writers, editors, and agents are all really, really nice people. Everyone is open to questions and seems genuinely interested in what conference attendees have written.

Another impression is that published authors tend to warm up more after they have read my writing (or they are sauced). I can totally relate, having spent years talking to drunk guitar players who want to come up on stage and jam. Ninety percent of the time, these guys can only play Smoke on the Water or Sweet Home Alabama (but not both). I have learned to be nice, but not get too invested when I’m approached in a music situation. I think authors feel the same way. You see, there are two types of writers who attend writing conferences. There are writers who write (surprise!) and writers who say they write, but never finish anything. I don’t want to come across as a hack wannabe or fanboy so I try to be guarded and not appear too eager around the authors at conferences. It’s part of my plan to trick them all into thinking I’m cool.

I keep coming across a lot of the same people at conferences and online. This is good to know since the publishing industry is just like every other industry. It’s about cultivating relationships and meeting the right people. I don’t know how many times I heard an author say, “I met my agent at a conference.”

I had two requests from editors to see my final manuscript. This is particularly exciting because these people look at writing samples from people all day–every day–for a living. Of course, this really means nothing if my entire book doesn’t deliver. Making fifty pages pop is easier than making 300-400 pages work. As excited as I am, I will not fall into the trap of submitting work that isn’t ready.

I am genuinely excited to have met some cool authors who I hope to grow with over the years. It seems the the authors at conferences tend to hang out with other authors who they cut their teeth with. I’m hoping I’m part of the next generation of successful writers.

I wanted to take a minute to give a shout-out to some awesome writers I had the pleasure to meet and hang out with. Check out their sites and  buy their books! In no particular order: Rebecca Taylor, Mario Acevedo (bartender extraordinaire),Carol Berg, Bree Ervin (one of those parents), Catherine Winters, J.A. Kazimer (author of Curses! A F***ed Up Fairy Tale), Linda Joffe Hull, Susan Spann (who was once attacked by ninjas), Lynda Hilburn, Neale Orinick, T.L. McCallan, Kevin Fury, Betsy Dornbusch, and  Veronica Roland.

I hope I didn’t miss anyone!