Taking Pitches at Writer's Conferences

Sorry I have been away so long folks!  Work (sales conference) followed by playtime (visiting family and celebrating my mom's 60th birthday with her) followed by more work (Willamette Writers Conference) kept me from blogging and sleeping!

The Willamette Writers Conference was exhausting but fun.  Friday, Saturday and half of Sunday I took pitches from writers...  I was pitched cozies, historical mysteries, thrillers and even a memoir.  Ooops... that guy signed up for the wrong editor!  To me, conferences are always energy draining simply because of the effort of giving each person I talk to my full attention.  Even if the book wasn't for me, I did offer the writer advice, either on the pitch (what to focus on, refining catch phrases, etc) or my opinion on the plot or who it should be pitched to.

At the same time, conferences invigorate me.  To be surrounded by fellow editors, writers and agents is amazing.  I flew in a day early and hit Powell's with my friend and author Lori Lake.  My buddy, editor and publisher Ben LeRoy and I made silly facebook videos when we had some down time.  I caught up on life with agent Christine Witthohn.  I met and got to know agent Miriam Kriss.  And of course the writers drive the whole thing.

One note to take away from this conference was that it really felt like a get down to work sort of conference.  They had sessions for improving your pitch, manuscript critiques, and all kinds of writing seminars.  The entire weekend felt professional and business like (which is why Ben and I had to create videos for our own amusement.)

Even though taking time away from the office is hard, and now I have even more submissions piled up, it was well worth the trip.  And when I saw this picture, I just had to laugh...  the telling of tales is indeed a beautiful thing...  All you writers - keep writing!  Keep telling stories and continue to improve on your craft.  One day you'll give a pitch or send in a submission and an agent or editor will fall in love with your story...  you just have to keep writing.  :)