2013 San Francisco Writers Conference Posted on March 11, 2013November 3, 2014 by LJ So last month I hopped a five hour flight to San Francisco to attend the 2013 San Francisco Writers Conference. It was my second time attending the conference and I must say that the experience was well worth the time and money. The conference had great seminars, inspirational speakers, fantastic networking opportunities and, for those seeking publication, lots of access to agents and editors. One of the best features of the conference is that each attendee is allowed two short consultations with an independent editor as part of the conference fee. You could use that time to get feedback on your book pitch or a critique of the first few pages of your novel. You could even ask about the market for your book. I found the independent editor consultations at the San Francisco Writers Conference to be an invaluable resource. I asked one editor to read the first few pages of my suspense novel and provide me with feedback. She loved how I began the book and the storyline. She also let me know that there was definitely a market for the book and a real possibility that it would be made be made into a movie. Needless to say, I was on top of the world after that consultation and oh so inspired. My consultation with the second editor was not so positive or inspiring. I asked her to look at the first few pages of my legal thriller and she told me the same thing the agents who've been sending me rejection letters said: the book starts off too slow, in the wrong place and my opening scene tells the reader very little about the heroine (i.e. inadequate character development). At first she said that I need to rework the first chapter, but when I told her about the comments I've been receiving from agents, she said that I probably needed to rework the entire book to make it more character driven. That was the last thing I wanted to hear since I had already revised the book and thought I was done with it. The independent editor's advice to rework my legal thriller was reinforced by a seminar on characterization that I took the next morning. During the seminar, Ellen Sussman, the author of French Lessons, told us about how she once drafted an entire novel that was plot-driven instead of character-driven, and that her character development suffered as a result. I asked her what she did to fix the book. She said that she re-wrote the entire book from scratch and it came out ten times better than it was before. I was horrified. The idea of rewriting my 330 page suspense novel made me want to run out of the room screaming. I now understood why some writers prefer to scrap whole projects and start new ones rather than do extensive revisions. The lawyer in me kept looking for a shortcut or a loophole – anything to avoid completely rewriting the book. To tell the truth, I'm still looking for an easier way to fix the character development issue without having to rewrite the entire book. The task is so daunting to me that I haven't begun the rewrite. In fact, I've done no writing at all since the conference. But I will. I want to get this bad boy published and I want it to sell, so I will do whatever I have to do to get the job done right. The rest of the conference was both fruitful and fun. I read a couple of poems aloud at the open-mic session. I consulted with editors of large publishing houses regarding my suspense novel during the Ask-A-Pro session. They liked both my pitch and my story idea. One editor even agreed to review a portion of the manuscript and consider it for publication. I attended some great seminars about self-publishing and am seriously considering it for my Brooks Sisters' series. All in all, I'm glad that I attended the conference. I learned a great deal, re-connected with old friends, recharged my batteries and came back with some great marketing ideas. Maybe I'll see you at the conference next year. Peace Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Share this:ShareFacebookPocketLinkedInTumblrRedditPinterest
What Writers Can Learn From Rejection Posted on June 12, 2012November 3, 2014 by LJ I'm baaaack! I took a little hiatus to work on some non-writing goals, but I'm back baby and more fired up than ever. Okay, so I got kicked out of the Amazon.com Breakthrough Novel Award Contest during the pitch stage and two of the three e-publishers that requested to see excerpts of my legal thriller have rejected it. I could sink into a funk, throw in the towel, and stop writing, or I can pick myself up, dust myself off, and see whether I can learn something from this experience. As writers, we get a lot of rejection – whether it's a less than thrilling grade from a professor, a form rejection letter from an agent or editor, or a bad review of a published work. Chances are that if you submit your work to public scrutiny and/or try to get it published, you will withstand a fair amount of rejection along the way. They say that, to survive in this business, we must learn to be thick-skinned, to roll with the punches and to never give up. In his book “On Writing” Stephen King tells us that we should be ready to paper our walls with rejection letters until we get that one shot. In fact, he literally did that. I don't know . . . that would take up a lot of wall space and mess with my decor. The thing is that not all rejections are created equal and the reasons for rejection vary. Your work might be rejected because you didn't properly research an agent or editor and they might not represent the type of book you wrote. You might get rejected because the type of book you wrote is not hot in the market at this time or the agency or publishing house already represents or has books by competing authors in your genre. You might get rejected because you didn't do a good job of pitching or describing the story or your target market or because your prose or your storyline or your writing is not up to the standards of a particular agent or editor. You might be a fine writer and/or storyteller but your storyline might not excite or inspire an agent or editor to want to sign you up or publish your work. The types of rejections you get vary as well. Sometimes you get a form e-mail or letter simply stating that your work is not a good fit for that agency or publishing house, sometimes you get very detailed editorial comments, and sometimes you just get radio silence. I seemed to have progressed from getting form rejections letters to getting very detailed comments on my excerpts from editors and agents alike. That tells me that I'm close to finding the one (agent and/or editor) according to the tales told by successful novelists concerning their breakthroughs. Sometimes, we can actually learn something from rejection. In my last rejection letter, the editor told me some of the same things I had heard from my beta readers – that my book has too much legalese in it which threw her out of the story and that it started too slowly after the action- packed prologue. So what did I learn from that? I learned that I should listen to my beta readers and edit the beginning of the book to move it along. The legalese and a couple of unnecessary scenes are slowing the book down. Apparently, it takes flight after page 50 where the only legal scenes take place in the courtroom (as opposed to in the law firm) and are more dramatic. Sometimes, you have to take some of the editorial advice you get with a grain of salt. One editor, in her rejection letter, told me that she didn't like the fact that my hero was suing for the death of his wife and child and yet was attracted to his very sexy attorney. All of my beta readers (with one notable exception) had no problem with that whatsoever. They felt that almost two years was enough time for him to be ready to move on even though he was in the process of seeking revenge against the company that caused the death of his family. If it was a romantic suspense novel (as opposed to being a legal thriller with strong romantic elements), I might have to rethink that storyline since romance readers might be more sensitive to that issue. But I seem to be making more progress now that I've stopped trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. I do not write romance novels. Period. 🙂 What did I learn from being kicked out of the Amazon.com Breakthrough Novel Award Contest at the pitch stage? That I probably shouldn't have put a line as asinine as: “This book is a legal thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat” in my pitch. Oh well, I'll do better next year. In the meantime, I have a legal thriller to edit and send out to more agents and editors, another thriller to rework, and a political suspense novel to edit and get ready to pitch at Thrillerfest next month. Giving up is not in my DNA. I bet it's not in yours either. Peace. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Share this:ShareFacebookPocketLinkedInTumblrRedditPinterest
Thrillerfest VI Posted on August 12, 2011 by LJ Last month, I attended Thrillerfest – an annual conference put on by International Thriller Writers – for the very first time. The conference was held in New York City at the Grand Central Hyatt Hotel, July 6-9, 2011. Thrillerfest is an event devoted to thriller writers and thriller enthusiasts. Every year, bestselling authors such as R.L. Stine, Ken Follett, Jon Land, John Lescroart, Diana Gabaldon, Steve Berry, and more participate in the conference along with some of the top agents and editors in the industry. The conference is divided into three parts: Craftfest, Agentfest and Thrillerfest. I attended Craftfest and Agentfest but did not stay for Thrillerfest. Next year, I will be sure to rectify that. Craftfest is a day and a half of writing seminars given by bestselling thriller writers on such interesting topics as forensics in fiction, writing suspense, how to keep relationships alive without killing the pace of your novel, point of view, psychic distance and passive voice., ways to make your thriller ring with emotion and how to write compelling and believable villains. The seminars were interesting and informative and I learned new things in each of them. The event that gave me the most bang for my money was Agentfest, which was held on Thursday, July 7, 2011. Because the conference is held in New York, which is publishing Mecca, Agentfest offers unprecedented access to the most top-notch agents I have ever seen in a single setting. More than fifty agents participated this year. Agentfest is a version of speed dating with agents held over a two and a half hour period with a short break after the first hour (to allow the agents an opportunity to breathe). Agents looking to sign up the next bestselling novelist are seated in alphabetical order in three large rooms. Writers hoping to find an agent to represent them line up and then head into one of the three rooms to pitch their novels to the agents of their choice. Since there are a lot of writers participating in the event and some agents are more popular than others, it helps to have a game plan. Being the maniac that I am, I researched the agents participating in Agentfest beforehand. By the time the event began, I had a chart in hand listing the agents I wanted to pitch and the book best suited to pitch to each particular agent. I had to do that because not all agents would be interested in hearing about a romantic suspense novel. So, I pitched my mainstream suspense novel to those agents and my romantic suspense novel to the agents who represented romance authors. My plan of attack was to first pitch those agents on my list who had either no line or only a short line of writers waiting for them. After I picked off the low hanging fruit, I got in line to see the agents I thought would be the perfect fit for me and my novels to the extent I hadn't already pitched to them. I had time left over after that, so I pitched two agents who were not on my list but who were available. One very kind agent was even willing to hear my pitch after the event had officially ended. It proved to be a wildly successful afternoon. I was able to pitch to a total of fourteen agents and every single one of them asked me to send them anything from the first 25 pages and a synopsis to a full manuscript. Many of my colleagues did not enjoy the same measure of success. Apparently, all of the preparation I had done for Agentfest paid off. That preparation included evading the persistent advances of a fellow writer the night before Agentfest and returning to my hotel room alone to hone and practice my pitches. Speaking of fellow writers, Thrillerfest offered great networking opportunities. The night before Agentfest, I met a group of writers at a cocktail reception who invited me to have dinner with them afterwards. That group included one of my personal idols, Jon Land. He is the writer of amazing thriller novels featuring a hero named Blaine McCracken. I followed that series avidly during my spy novel craze in the late 1980's and 1990's and devoured every single one of those books I could find. He now writes great novels featuring a heroine named Caitlin Strong who is a female Texas ranger. It was amazing to be able to meet him and tell him how much I enjoyed his work. He turned out to be a very nice man who offered to help me with my pitch for Agentfest. I missed the Thrillerfest part of the event which, according to the program, offers additional seminars on writing and publishing topics, including a bonus session given by the C.IA. on how to make your spy novels more realistic. It also offers even more networking opportunities. All in all, I had a great time, met some great people and had a very productive conference. I will definitely attend Thrillerfest next year and stay for the entire event. Maybe I'll see some of you there. Peace Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Share this:ShareFacebookPocketLinkedInTumblrRedditPinterest
What I learned at the San Francisco Writers Conference: Be True to Thine Self Posted on March 21, 2011 by LJ The 2011 San Francisco Writers Conference was held February 18 – 20, 2011 at the Mark Hopkins Hotel in San Francisco. This was my second time attending the event. Although it was cold and rainy the first two days, the conference itself was, once again, fantastic. It was sold out. Writers from all over the country attended to network with fellow writers, find an agent or a publisher, learn from the many seminars given and/or have independent editors give them feedback and guidance on their work. I myself attended the conference for all of those reasons. My biggest reason, though, was to find an agent. Mindful of the lessons I learned last year about knowing the market for my work, I prepared for the conference by researching the agents scheduled to participate in the conference's famed “Speed Dating With Agents” event, and by searching for other books similar to the ones I have written (preferably bestsellers) and being able to describe who buys such books. Since my romance novel has morphed in the editing/rewriting process from being a plain romantic suspense novel to being a romantic legal thriller, I searched Amazon.com for similar novels. To my delight, I found several other romance novels featuring lawyers and judges as heroes and heroines. I even discovered a great series of novels involving an African-American woman attorney as the heroine written by Pamela Samuels-Young. I checked a number of books out of the library for the sake of research and, being the queen of procrastination, found myself reading them when I should have been writing. But I digress. It was a lot harder for me to find books comparable to my second novel. This is the same book that gave me angst last year when I attended the conference. This novel is about a young African-American woman who is released from prison and is determined to turn her life around – not just for herself, but also for her son. She never told the baby's father that she was pregnant when she went to prison and she kept her mouth shut when they wanted her to testify against him for a deal. But when the state files a petition against him for child support and he retaliates by seeking full custody of their son, she's left with no other choice. To save her son, she'll have to gather evidence that he was the ringleader of the conspiracy of which she was convicted and testify against him. The question is will she live long enough to do that? One of the great things about the San Francisco Writers Conference is the multitude of opportunities you get to interact with agents and editors alike. One of those opportunities is an activity I participated in last year called “Meet the Pros.” Basically editors from various publishing houses sit at tables of ten with nine writers at a time. Each writer gets an opportunity to pitch their book and then get feedback from the editor. You get to listen to each author's pitch and the feedback they receive. The last time I did this, I pitched my second novel and was told by an editor that I was writing gritty urban street fiction. I was annoyed at this characterization of my work until I did some research and discovered that, while I was not writing gritty urban street fiction, the book did fall into the category of urban fiction which is really just a euphemism for Black fiction. When I attended the Romance Writers of America conference last year, an agent told me that my second novel would be a lot easier to sell if it was a romance novel. She's right. The problem is that the book is just not a romance novel. Although there is romance (and certainly sex) in the book, it doesn't follow the conventions of a romance novel. And when I try to force it into being a romance novel, it just doesn't work. Knowing that I wanted to pitch this novel again this year, I searched diligently for comparable novels. The closest thing I could find was gritty urban street fiction, although my novel is not really set in the streets and my characters don't really use the street vernacular you find in such books. I did, however, find romance novels featuring heroes and heroines who had just served prison sentences and were trying to turn their lives around. I decided to pitch the novel as a romance novel and try to force a square peg into a round hole. I pitched the novel to an editor of a publishing house known for publishing a varied and eclectic mix of novels. She turned to me and said: “Honey, unfortunately, the only people who want to read about Black people getting out of jail are other Black people.” In other words, she was saying that the book would not have mass appeal and that I should target agents and publishing houses that target the African-American reader. At first, I was demoralized. How could I sell this book to agents and editors at the conference if I couldn't make them believe it would have mass appeal? Knowing that I was participating in Speed Dating for Agents the next day and competing in a pitch contest that night, I went back to my hotel room and got to work on my pitch and in pinpointing the market for my book. With the editor's words ringing in my ears, I finally figured it out. Although I didn't find books exactly like mine, I did find a fiction book on Amazon.com featuring four African-American woman who were the wives, daughters, mothers, etc. of men serving time in prison. The book wasn't set in the streets and was written in English (not slang). According to the site, the people who bought that book also bought books from such bestselling African-American authors as Walter Moseley, Eric Jerome Dickey, and Brenda Jackson. The lightbulb went off. That's how I needed to package my book to the agents I was going to pitch the next day. The African-American market is a large market that is probably hungry for more books featuring African-American characters that don't fall into the realm of gritty urban street fiction. I know I am. I wrote up a pitch for the book that stayed true to its theme and didn't cast it as a romance novel. That night, I competed in a pitch contest. I beat at least thirty other authors and came in second place. Since the contest was judged by three agents, that bolstered my confidence in my ability to successfully pitch the book to agents the next day. The next morning, however, after waiting in a very long line to get into the room to meet the agents, I panicked and tried to pitch the book as a romance novel to the first agent I approached. She was not interested at all. In retrospect, I can understand why. Because I wasn't true to myself or the book by trying to depict it as a romance novel, neither my passion nor the concept of the book shined through and I was unable to capture the agent's interest. As I got up to get in line for the next agent I wanted to see, I cursed myself for being a fool. My original pitch had won over more than thirty other authors' pitches the night before. If it wasn't broke then why the heck was I trying to fix it? I pitched the book to five other agents that morning, each of whom gave me their cards and asked to see the first 50 pages of the book and a synopsis. If they like what they read, then they'll ask to see the rest of the novel. If they like that, then they will offer to represent me. So, what did I learn from this? The same things I keep learning over and over again. I relate to people best when I am true to myself (as opposed to trying to be someone else). My passion shines through when I am my authentic self. And, as for my second novel, what it is, is what it is, is what it is. And that's just as it should be. Peace. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Share this:ShareFacebookPocketLinkedInTumblrRedditPinterest
A Woman in Search of a Genre Posted on March 17, 2010 by LJ I recently attended the San Francisco Writers Conference and one of the things I learned was that, in order to effectively pitch a novel to an agent or an editor, a writer must be able to specifically identify the genre of the book as well as the demographics of the audience who will want to purchase it. It is not enough to say: “I'm writing fiction and the book will appeal to everyone.” It's not even enough to say: “I'm writing womens' fiction and my target audience is all women.” You've got to be able to say something like: “I'm writing a romantic suspense novel that is similar in nature to those written by Nora Roberts and I am going after the women who buy her books.” While identifying the genre and the market for my romantic suspense novel was relatively easy, I struggled with identifying the genre and the market for my second book. I thought it was enough to say that I was writing womens' fiction and then to describe the storyline. I was wrong. At the conference, I attended a “Talk to the Pros” roundtable session. That's where ten writers sit at a table with an editor (most likely from a major publishing house) and pitch their novels. The editor then provides feedback to each author in front of the others so that they can all benefit from it. When I pitched my second novel to one of the editors, she said that it sounded like a good story. She asked me to identify the genre that the novel fit into. I said that it was womens' fiction. She asked me to identify which category of womens' fiction. I didn't know. I didn't even know that womens' fiction was broken out into categories. She asked me what other writers had written similar books. I didn't know that either. You see, although I am an avid reader, I don't typically read what I had written (I read spy novels and romance novels). I also hadn't done my research prior to attending the conference. My second book is about a young African American woman who gets involved with the wrong guy (the head of a burglary crew) and ends up going to jail as a result. In fear for her life, she never gives him up to the authorities. She also keeps the fact that she is pregnant with their child a secret. She has the child while in prison, but doesn't tell him. When she gets out, she is determined to make a better life for herself and her son. However, that gets threatened when her ex-boyfriend sues for full custody of their son. In a desperate effort to keep her son, she decides to turn state's evidence against her ex-boyfriend. The question is: will he let her live long enough to do that? Upon hearing the storyline, the editor opined that I was writing gritty urban street fiction and suggested that I read books written by authors who write in that genre. One of the authors she named as an example was an author named Honey Bee. After the session, I went back to my hotel room, fired up my laptop and did some research. I looked up Honey Bee and other authors who were known for writing gritty urban street fiction. After reading snippets of their books on Amazon.com, I decided that the editor was wrong. While the storylines of those books were compelling, and some of them had done quite well in sales, they were written in street vernacular with lots of slang and “cuss” words and were set in the projects. My book was not. I figured that the editor had stereotyped the genre due to the storyline and the fact that the main characters were African American. When I got back from the conference, however, I did more research and discovered that she was right. I found two books in the urban fiction category whose main characters had recently been released from prison and were trying to turn over a new leaf when their pasts caught up with them. The books were written in plain English too (as opposed to street vernacular). While my book wouldn't be characterized as gritty urban street fiction, it could be characterized as urban fiction and be compared to those two books, among others. I am attending another writers conference soon and, armed with this new knowledge, I should be able to more effectively pitch my books to agents and editors. I can also search for and target agents wo have successfully represented authors who write urban fiction. Who knows, I may not have to search for an agent much longer. Peace. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Share this:ShareFacebookPocketLinkedInTumblrRedditPinterest
The Benefits of Attending a Writers Conference Posted on March 6, 2010 by LJ A couple of weeks ago, I attended the San Francisco Writers Conference. It was a great experience. I had been to the Maui Writers Conference several times before. I always came back from those trips refreshed and renewed and having learned a lot about the craft of writing. I didn't have high expectations for the San Francisco Writers Conference. I doubted that it would be able to compete with the wonderful experiences I had in Hawaii. Boy was I wrong. I don't know if its because I have now written three novels and I am at a different stage in my writing journey (the godforsaken land of editing), but I got so much out of the San Francisco Writers Conference that I came back fired up and with an action plan that I have already started to set in motion. I learned about the need to have a platform (an audience who would look forward to reading your work) and how to go about developing one. I learned how to best to pitch my work to agents and editors. I learned how to find the agents and editors who would be most receptive to the type of books I write. I even learned that my romance novel would be difficult to place because it is short (57,000 words) and that if I want it to have a greater chance of getting published, I need to expand it to at least 75,000 and preferably 90,000 words. I got very helpful feedback on the first few pages of my suspense novel – Dreams Deferred – from an independent editor and invitations from six well-known and respected agents to send them my manuscripts for consideration. Now if I could just finish editing the darn things and get them out the door . . . But that is a topic for another day. The point is, there are numerous benefits to attending a well run, well attended and very well put together writers conference – from the writing seminars to the ability to consult with independent editors to the ability to network with and pitch to top agents and editors, to the fellowship and inspiration one gets from mingling with other creative minds. I will definitely be back next year – not to find an agent, but to learn more from the seminars and to pitch my next book. Peace. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Share this:ShareFacebookPocketLinkedInTumblrRedditPinterest