My 1st Writers' Conference

[mikeyboy_esq]

Yesterday, I attended my first writers' conference (called Indiepalooza 2017) and loved it! This conference was held @ Rice University (beautiful campus) and intended for indie authors. It was a long day, but I thoroughly enjoyed meeting local authors and learning useful tips from various speakers. I attended useful breakout sessions related to book tours, the new D2D audiobook program, how to run your indie book business, etc. Best part was attending it for free (I was a guest speaker) and also selling a few of my books (a local bookstore set up a booth and sold speaker's books during the event). This event was informative, a good opportunity to network, and I'm so glad I went. Have you attended any writers' conferences that were worth-while?

[deddmann_writing]

Glad to hear you got something out of it. They are popular and people keep paying to go so they must provide something for the money. I have not gone to any for writers because those I did go to for other subject areas were not worth the money to me. They are fun and they are inspiring, but as to lasting value I just never saw it, especially after the adrenaline had subsided and I reviewed all the handouts and notes that I got and evaluated it more objectively.

[ostarella]

I keep watching for any close to home but it's fairly bleak pickings. Around here they tend to have more small workshops than conferences, I guess, and travel time versus workshop time doesn't make them that attractive.

[deddmann_writing]

[quote="ostarella"]I keep watching for any close to home but it's fairly bleak pickings. Around here they tend to have more small workshops than conferences, I guess, and travel time versus workshop time doesn't make them that attractive.[/quote]
========

Are there any online that would be useful while eliminating travel and hotel expenses?

Do you think a conference would be better than textbooks and more current website information?

[ostarella]

[quote="deddmann_writing"]

Are there any online that would be useful while eliminating travel and hotel expenses?

Do you think a conference would be better than textbooks and more current website information?[/quote]

I don't think online would be the same as in person. Wonderful as I think the written word is, there's a spontaneity and give-and-take in face to face conversations that are lost in online "conversations". Not to mention the ability to actually hand your ms to someone who's genuinely interested in seeing what you've got.

As to textbooks - well, most of them are outdated within months of publication anyway, especially when one is talking about publishing nowadays. Even when I was in college, many teachers were getting rid of textbooks and going with copies of current articles or using journals instead.

[T.A.Rodgers]

Conferences are what you make out of them, but they can be expensive. I've enjoyed every conference I've been to and have used them more for networking than learning, although some conferences can have excellent instructors. You have to look at what you expect to gain versus the money spent to determine if it's worth attending. Me, personally, will continue to go to at least ThrillerFest in NY because that is the genre I write in, and the conference is by far the best thriller conference out there. I loved the Hawaii Writers Conference, but had a harder time concentrating because...well, it was Hawaii. Smaller area conferences are a great way to start because they are local, small, and less expensive than the big ones like ThrillerFest and Bouchercon.

There are differences though in the size of the conference. A small local conference may have one bestselling speaker and a couple of agents attending and a larger conference like ThrillerFest will have hundreds of bestselling authors, more than 50 agents, and dozens of editors.