When thinking of going to any conference, most authors need to consider expenses. A question friends and family might ask is, “Are you making money by going?”
I wish I had a firm answer, but the fact is, you may never know.
Granted, you might go to a conference, meet an agent and then sign with the agent. Then the agent presents your work to an editor. Soon you receive a contract worth much more than the conference cost to attend. You might even be able to calculate your earnings to the penny and say, “I cleared $40,986.12 by going to the conference.”
Sometimes the events progress in such a linear fashion. More often, they do not.
As an author, you could make the following discoveries at a conference:
- Craftwise, my book is nowhere near ready to submit to editors or agents.
- I missed my targeted market.
- The book is too long/too short for the market.
- I don’t know the market well enough to present my work yet.
- My platform isn’t nearly as strong as I believed it to be.
- The book’s slant is wrong for the market.
- My chosen topic has too much competition.
- I wrote too much “Christianese” for the market.
- The Christian world view isn’t strong enough in my work.
- I’m not ready to make a decision about an agent.
- The editors weren’t as enthusiastic about my work as I thought they would be.
- I don’t want to write for this market after all.
- I don’t want to be a professional writer.
If the above turns out to be your experience, don’t despair. The conference has proven to be a learning experience for you. If you make any one of the above discoveries, you have learned more in several days than you might have learned during several years of referring to lists of agents and editors and submitting cold by trial and error. That alone could be considered money in the bank.
Your turn:
What did you discover during your last conference?
Did your last conference encourage you to improve your work? How?
Books are Sold with Proposals
The connections made at a conference are invaluable. I talked with one publisher that is looking at and interested in my work. He has also written one endorsement for me and was willing to be a reference for a speaking event application. I received amazing advice and encouragement and brilliant ideas for marketing, PR and social media. A marketing consultant has fielded random questions for me via email since leaving the conference and has graciously responded to every one of them with genuine interest in my success. I received a free, brief but effective, website consultation and I am so excited about the changes I have made. And, one author invited me to write a devotion book with him so the two of us are pursuing that as well.
All the energy generated from the conference (Colorado Christian Writers Conference) was well-worth the nearly $1,000 it cost to attend the event (airfare, lodging, registration etc.).
Before the conference I would sometimes think, “I just need one person to believe in me, to give me a chance.” I found that there, an more than I ever could have imagined.