Recently I blogged about whether or not authors make money by attending conferences. While that’s not always easy to determine through cold, hard math, what you can calculate, though in a more fuzzy way, are intangible benefits:
- Connecting with Internet friends in person.
- Meeting authors previously unknown to you.
- Sharing time with others who understand your victories and struggles.
- Shaking hands with authors whose work you have admired for years.
- Interviewing agents to see which one may be a good fit for you.
- Seeing several editors representing your dream publishing houses.
- Receiving advice from publishing professionals.
- Hearing speeches from top speakers.
- Worshipping with others.
- Attending book signings.
- Learning in many varied classes.
- Forging new relationships.
- Strengthening established relationships.
While none of these may result in cash at the moment, all are part of your writing journey and personal growth. These might be the most important benefits of all.
Your turn:
What intangible benefits did I miss?
Do you have a conference story to share?
Someone Stole My Book Idea!
Thank you for these posts. The information, and most of all the encouragement, means a lot. I’ll be more confident in attending my first writing conference in September. ACFW, here I come!
Hope to see you there!
I have attended a conference and a writing workshop. Both events were very, very helpful to me. I enjoyed meeting everyone and gaining wisdom from authors and readers. 🙂 Looking forward to attending many more conferences and workshops.
I’ve only attended one conference so far, but I plan to go to ACFW this year as well.
Mt most memorable conference experience was getting to spend my first night with an amazing group of authors who “took me in” after flight delays combined with a registration mix-up left me with no room when I finally arrived. Sometimes the sweetest friendships come about by accident (not accidental in God’s eyes, merely our own).
The most valuable part of my experience was the opportunity to connect with other writers. It sounds cliché to say that it was the family I never knew I was missing, but I guess that best describes it. I’ve never been a homesick sort of person, but I was seriously homesick for my “people” when I got back home.
Tamela, I read this particular blog post about a month and a half ago as I was contemplating going to my first writer’s conference, and I wanted to come back to say thank you.
After reading what you wrote, I went ahead and bought my plane ticket from Washington, DC for the Taylor University Professional Writing Conference in Indiana. I’m so glad I made that decision!
Not only did I hear amazing keynotes concerning faith and serving the Lord, I learned a great deal about the craft and business of writing. I also got a chance to link up with other like-minded believers who are on the same journey. That kind of connection is priceless. It was an investment that I will never regret!
Thanks for sitting down to type this because it helped someone like me get over the fence, and experience something meaningful as a result.