An Exciting Week

This is a pretty exciting week guys. Not only did Pitch Wars open for submissions but I also get to attend the very first Snake River Writer’s Conference tomorrow AND it is being held right here in Idaho Falls, Idaho. Usually to attend a conference I have to drive no less than 3 hours to get to it. So this is pretty monumental.

Not only that but there are some pretty amazing people coming to teach at our conference. And let’s not forget to mention that the incredible Mr. Jim McCarthy, a very well known agent, will be doing consults and also teaching a class of his own. This conference is going to be EPIC!

So let’s talk writing conferences? Why go? They’re somewhat expensive and usually last for 2 or 3 days. As I mentioned before, most of us have quite the travel time getting to them. So why go?

Well, let me tell you a story. When I was a teenager, I had just finished my very first story, a children’s book. Of course, I was over the moon and wanted to get it published so I asked my uncle, who is a published author, “How can I get published?”

He volunteered to read it and help me edit. After all of that was done, I asked, “Now what?”

“Now you need to find an agent,” he said.

“How do I do that?”

“Go to a writing conference,” he replied simply, like it was the easiest thing in the world.

At the time I was so overwhelmed and I remember thinking, how on earth am I going to do that? I’m a kid. You have to have money to go to one of those things. And so I never even explored the possibility.

Many, many years later I made a friend in a book store. She was promoting her new book and when we got to talking and when she found out I was an author, she invited me to go to a writing conference with her.

It was the scariest and also the single most important thing I have ever done in my writing career.

But let me tell you this. Not only did I learn some very valuable information. So much that I felt like my brain might explode. Lol! But I also make connections and friends. And in the writing world, connections and friends can make all the difference.

There are obvious advantages to meeting other authors and rubbing shoulders with agents at these conferences, especially as we are trying to get published. But the friendships we make are just as valuable. We have all had those moments as authors where we feel like we might be going as little crazy, am I right? Or how about those moments when self-doubt sinks in and you just want to burn your book because you just know it isn’t any good. Those friendships we have made tend to be our lifelines during those times. Because we know that we are not alone in this crazy journey we are taking as authors. Our friends boost us and give us just enough drive to push through those moments and keep going.

So, if you ever get the chance to attend a writing conference, big or small, I hope you’ll take it because there is nothing like it in the world.