PPWC Round 2

Hair up during the day---pictured with Nathan Bransford. And hair down at night----pictured with author/friend Wendy Burt.

OK...I've much to do, so this post may be full of errors...please ignore those.

Fun things during my second day at the conference:

I went to a session titled SPOTLIGHT ON PUBLISHING. There were editors from publishers like Dial Books for Young Readers, St. Martin's, Poisoned Pen and Del Rey. A few tidbits from the session:

1. Most of these houses are having a very good year.

2. They all said to write the book you want to write and ignore trends, because they change anyway. BUT, they do get a lot of "surprise" baby books---father didn't know he had a baby---, bed and breakfast mysteries and vampires.

3. A good book is always going to sell.

4. Know who is going to read your book (as far as audience...who are they?).

5. New writers are at an advantage right now.

6. There was lots of individual info about what editors are looking for, but it's difficult to get into in a fast post. The point I'm trying to make is that it's good to attend a conference to learn about these things. Also, some of the editors were willing to look at work from attendees they'd met.

I went to a session titled WHAT AN AGENT CAN AND CAN'T DO FOR YOUR CAREER with Nathan Bransford and Ginger Clark of Curtis Brown. A few tidbits:

1. Agents can't make you rich or write your book for you. They are not your lawyer, financial advisor or therapist.

2. They can find you the best editor for your project (they are close friends with many of these people), and get you a fair contract (Nathan says he's seen a contract made without an agent that was so unfair he wanted to cry).

3. They can get you extra $ through audio and foreign rights.

4. I was surprised by their workday. They apparently have about 40 projects going at any time because of sub-rights work they do for themselves and colleagues in addition to their more recognized role of negotiating publishing contracts, checking in with clients, etc. They email all day and go home at night and read, handle queries.

In the evening, lots of people settled at the bar, and agents, editors, authors were completely available to go and chat with. The atmosphere was fun, festive, enlightening. The dinner speaker was Author Jeffrey Deaver. He was funny and inspiring and ended his speech with this nugget for aspiring authors: Rejection is a speed bump, not a brick wall.