The Writers' League of Texas held its annual Agents and Editors Conference (WLTCon) last weekend. It was my first writing conference, so I didn't know what to expect. I had heard that WLT's is a good one, though, so I was optimistic.
Maybe not as optimistic as attendees who hoped to interest a literary agent in their book. When I registered for WLTCon, I was still querying BRIAR-BOUND (then JACK), and planned to pitch my novel at the conference. Then, in early December, I signed with Chris.
So... turns out... not being a nervous wreck is a great way to attend a writing conference! (I felt very lucky.)
WLTCon was held at the Austin Sheraton and began Friday evening with a reception. I wish I could regale you with sordid and hilarious tales of agents dancing on bar tables, but I didn't attend. Instead, I drove up Saturday morning for the meat of the conference: a full day of 90-minute discussion panels.
The morning began with welcome speeches and the announcement of this year's manuscript contest winners (congrats, everyone!). Then we broke off to the panels of our choice.
OverWWWebbed: What Writers Need to Know About Social Media
Panelists: Austin-area social media specialists Nettie Hartsock and Jennifer Hill Robenalt -- both of B Is For Blog.
They covered blogging, Facebook (thumbs up), Twitter (thumbs up), MySpace (thumbs down), book trailers, media tours, and blog radio shows. They advised it's never too early to grow a community online, because that community will be the people you want to engage when your book comes out. They suggested author check out current young adult (YA) authors online to see a great model for author communities.
So... engagement. Big buzz word in marketing -- folks want to be part of what's happening, so as artists (and sellers) we need to involve them. All in all, I found I'm already doing most of what the panelists discussed and am familiar with the rest. Still, they stressed to be wary of anyone who calls him/herself a "social media expert" because we're all social media learners; Hartsock and Robenalt are just a year ahead of the rest of us, that's all (their words).
Keynote Luncheon: Sitting in a Cardboard Box, Saying Vroom Vroom, and Pretending It's a Car: Book Publishing in 2009
Speaker: Michael Murphy, former VP at Random House and publisher for William Morrow, and now founder and director of Max & Co. literary agency.
Murphy's speech was a 30-minute rant about the current state and practices of the publishing industry. He gave a few shocking statistics (Joe the Plumber got $250,000 for his book, which then sold 388 copies before being remaindered), but I found his speech unsatisfying because Murphy offered no solutions. Instead, he suggested two possible futures for the industry: A) Amazon seizes total control of the market, or B) people harness the internet to create viral communities of readers. I don't find these mutually exclusive -- both are happening now.
Give the Kids a Chance: Writing for Children
They started by saying the children's market is doing better than other markets, in that sales are flat (as opposed to declining, like adult book sales). Laughran advised writers to keep working hard, take constructive criticism, and not chase trends ("Do what you do so well you start your own trend!").
In response to the question: "How do you know whether a project is middle grade [MG] or YA?", Wheeler said MG protagonists are still connected to home, and that's where the conflict is; YA protags are leaving the nest, and their conflict lies outside it. Laughran added that market is determined by many factors, including the protag's age and voice, the story's pace (faster for MG), and whether it involves more action (MG) or introspection (YA). She said there tend to be more boy readers at the MG level. Ziegler says she doesn't think about her market (age or gender) when writing, but leaves it to her agent and editor to figure out.
Final pieces of advice were: write your book! (Wheeler); read, then read some more, then write your book (Laughran); and read a lot and live life, then write till you find your zone (Ziegler).
Beyond the Strip: Inside the World of Comics and Graphic Novels
The biggest thing I took away from this panel is: if you want to break into comics, network network network. Klaw considers it more of a media industry than a publishing industry. In fact, Salvaggio's CLOCKWERX began as a film script, and he still uses Final Draft to do his story scripts. Porter says he doesn't think of a comic book as 22 pages, but as 128 story beats (one per standard panel).
Klaw advised: if you want to write comics, watch a Hitchcock movie with no sound -- you should be able to follow the plot easily -- same with comics. He also pointed out that agents are less common in the comic business, with the exception of approaching mainstream publishers that also do comics (e.g. Del Rey). Apparently, non-fiction (Leika the Astro-dog) and promotional (Google Chrome) comics are big now. Someone pointed out that schools and libraries are becoming a larger market; the plus with those buyers is they do fewer returns and get smaller discounts. (Sweet.)
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Again, I skipped a reception/cocktail party Saturday evening, but went back Sunday for one more panel:
Publishing Insiders: How Books Are Bought and Published
Jerry Gross says an agent has to be passionate about a project to interest an editor. Brown added that even if an editor loves a book, she still has to sell it to her publishing house (bosses, marketing, sales, etc). Gross said sales/marketing pros used to be excluded from pitch meetings, but thinks they now give the thumbs-up or -down, like a Roman emperor. McLemore disagreed, saying it's more of a collaboration than a veto situation.
Brown said larger houses tend to be all about numbers, while smaller houses are more willing to take a chance on an unknown author. Gross said ANGELA'S ASHES had a first printing of just 7,500 copies because the pub thought it was too depressing to gain an audience. He said word of mouth and book clubs can be huge factors in book sales.
McLemore outlined the period after a pub buys a project. First, the author does revisions (with suggestions from editor). Then a copy editor checks for consistency, grammar, etc; these checks go to the author to be accepted or declined. The pub develops a marketing plan based on a presentation by the editor to the marketing team. That presentation leads to a sales conference, where the pub pitches the book to sales reps (who sell books to chain stores and buyers). Meanwhile, the editor seeks blurbs for the book from published authors. Sometimes authors and agents have a say on cover copy and design, sometimes not. O'Neill said that if Barnes & Nobles doesn't like the cover, though, a publisher may change it.
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Overall, I'm glad I went to WLTCon. Not because I learned a lot -- more because I liked being surrounded by people who love books. In fact, since I wasn't going to pitch my book, I decided to find a way to make my attendance at WLTCon useful for other writers who couldn't be there. Solution: I tweeted every panel through Twitter.
And that's tomorrow's social media post! Stay tuned...
UPDATE: Here's Jeff Salamon's highlights-of-WLTCon article for Statesman.com, and Rick Klaw's report of the Comics panel. Full disclosure: they both mention me, but are worth reading anyway :)
[image via Writers' League of Texas]
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1 ate pie:
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