The Wood Beyond The World Forum Seriously, folks

Tomorrow Bill's attending the first day of the three-day Las Vegas Writers' Conference -- he's hoping to learn some stuff, but also to impress an agent sufficiently to get his manuscript (War On Error) a full reading, culminating in representation.

Please include him in your prayers, incantations, and well-wishes over the next three days.

My preparation for this conference has been intense.  I cannot thank Leah enough for all the help she has been to me in these past few months, whipping the book into shape, as well as making her mark in virtually every area of my presentation, and most importantly, in helping me to believe I can get this done.

 

Bill,

 

Of course you can...and will succeed.  I have confidence in you my friend.  My thoughts and prayers will go with you.   And if need me, I can break a few knee caps for you so you can have a captive audience.     It worked for Kathy Bates in Misery.

 

Nick.

Nick,

 

Until you mentioned Misery, I thought you were alluding to Tanya Harding.  Of course, I'll take all the help I can get.  Thanks.

Best wishes Bill! Sounds like a good opportunity for your book.

 

Hope it goes well.

Bill,

I am so excited for you!  Network, network, network!  And best of luck in promoting your manuscript.  Scary and exciting stuff.  Please let us all know how it goes.

Jeanie

Best of luck, Bill! We'll keep the positive energy directed in your way.

How could I have forgotten about Tanya Harding?   (Hangs head in disgrace.)

 

Nick,

With no catchy phrase...

Good luck Bill. Wish I had some sage advice: I did read recently that it looks very good on your bio to include the conferences you have attended. Oh, and have a little fun while there.

Hope you have fun and that some of your expectations did bare fruit.    Be glad to hear about it and any advice you may have for us novice conference goers.   When you unwind and feel up to putting the experience in perspective.

 

Nick.

Thank you all for your interest.

 

 

I'll be happy to answer questions you may pose about the Writers' Conference experience.

 

 

If you have a completed manuscript when you go, the single most important consideration is being prepared to pitch your book to agents.  I will tell you the single main lesson I learned in pitching.  I pitched five agents, and three of them permitted me to submit chapters of War On Error.  All three immediately sounded like "no," primarily because all five identified my work as science fiction (solely because the protagonist is an "alien"), and science fiction apparently is very out of vogue at this moment in American life.

 

 

The lesson I would share with you is that, had I shrugged my shoulders and gotten up, hearing these agents first notions that they probably would not be interested, I would have come home empty-handed.  But I kept pitching, demonstrating as best I could how my work might just as well be classified "paranormal," "literary," having a "strong narrative voice," "is new and different because it is based in Buddhist cosmology."  These were all items I had already identified the agents I was talking with as having an interest in.  Therefore, schedule your pitches for late in the conference, so that before pitching you can attend lectures by particular agents to gauge their interests.  Also, this will give you time to investigate the web sites of these agents.  Sit at the table for the pitch session with a note card listing all the points you can throw at the particular agent that will cause them reason to just take a look.

 

 

In a nutshell, the 5 Ps apply:  Prior Preparation Prevents Poor Performance.  AND, MOST IMPORTANTLY ONCE YOU ARE PREPARED:  DON'T ROLL OVER AND TAKE THE FIRST OR EVEN THE SECOND SKEPTICAL SOUND AS A DEFINITIVE "NO."  You will know when the "no" is definitive; you mustn't allow that finality to appear in your own mind, before it is a finality in the mind of the agent.

 

Bill,

 

Wonderful advice as always.   Sci-fi out of favor at this time?   Wow.  Did you get an impression on what is hot right now?  Part of the problem of being a selling writer, picking what will sell in the future?   Argggg.

 

Nick.

Nick,

 

More than anything else, there seemed to be lots of middle-aged women pitching memoires.  There was little saying what is popular, more of what isn't.

 

Mainly, good writing is popular.  And more than one speaker pointed out that none of us can know what will be popular two years out, which is about the minimum time it would take a writer just beginning a work to finish it and get it into the marketplace.  Universally, the advice was to write what you know and love, with truth, from the heart.  And when it is finished and as polished as can be, then hope that it will find readers who love it.

 

Guess we might as well just keep plugging, persevering.  We might always catch fish, so long as we keep a line in the water.

 Bill,

 

I love the advice about writing what you know and love...otherwise, why bother at all?    I still hope something come of this for you Bill.   Keep us updated when possible.

 

Nick.

Three out of five sounds fairly promising. You've got to get them reading it before they can love it.

Well done and fingers crossed for you. Let us know what happens next.

Gayna

Good advice indeed.

 

Well done Bill, keep us updated.