We’ve been there at least once. (Agents too!)
Fun Fridays – Sept. 14, 2012
We’ve been there at least once. (Agents too!)
The Steve Laube Agency
Helping to Change the World…Word by Word
The Steve Laube Agency
Helping to Change the World Word by Word
Helping to Change the World…Word by Word
The Steve Laube Agency
Helping to Change the World Word by Word
We’ve been there at least once. (Agents too!)
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And my 2nd writer’s conference and my 3rd and my 4th. . . and what I felt like on days 1, 2, and 3. It’s not only agents who feel that way. Take us (solitary writers) out of our controlled environment, pack us–like cattle–into rooms of strangers and then require us to perform on command to agents. At my first conference I was so stressed I had a nose bleed during a talk by the keynote speaker after I had spoken to an agent (you). At my last conference I could cope only by sucking down Ibuprofen for my headache and tossing down wine from my hotel’s plastic cups. (I’m normally a non-drinker). God alone pulled me through after I called my husband early on the morning I was to meet with an editor and begged him to pray that God would take away my nausea.
Really? I felt the opposite. I felt completely alone and isolated! I am not very good at approaching total strangers to talk about myself, my work, or ask questions. It is really difficult for me, but I do it!
And it’s worth facing your fears. Great things can come from conferences.
See you next week!
Now I know you’re not talking about ACFW :o). Of course, I felt like that was going to be the case last year in St. Louis, but God blessed me with an immediate connection I made on the ride to the airport who I now count as a dear friend. And as for meeting with agents, I had the great blessing of meeting with Tamela, who after rejecting my manuscript seemed genuinely concerned I’d taken it too hard when I turned beet red. Yes, I was disappointed, but my Irish (as my husband calls it) makes it look worse than it is. However, Tamela showed herself a true human being. Yes, I guess agents really are human, too :o). She was very encouraging and I have utilized her honesty about the weaknesses in my manuscript.
Grant it, I’ve never gone to a secular writer’s conference, so maybe it does look like that picture. But I can’t help but wonder if it might just be the agents who feel like the person in the car and writers circling to prey after them for an opportunity to pitch.
Except that the agents get lionized…
I’m really surprised I’m the first one to say that.
I don’t doubt that agents feel surrounded/cornered during much of the conference. It’s probably super hard to get any down time at all. Me, I’m a mouse, so it takes at least two days to somewhat settle in, and when I really get rolling it’s time to go home.
Steve, this is a great photo — and by the way, you were at my first writers conference. (That’s just a happy statement of fact — don’t read anything into it.)
You could change this caption, should the need arise, to “dinner with the in-laws who think you should get a REAL job”.
Yikes! My first glimpse at this photo sent my heart into my throat. Then, I read the caption. 🙂 I guess I’ll put the theory to the test when I attend ACFW for the first time this week. 🙂