The second official day of Nationals was as busy as the first! (Busier, actually.)

For me, the day began with my agent and editor pitches, which I wrote practiced in the car on the way over. (If you want to see how those went, click here.)

The rest of the day was much more relaxed, including a fabulous workshop by Michael Hague that in and of itself might have been worth the entire price of the four-day conference!

Lunch was gorgeous as always — served in the enormous Marquis Ballroom with keynote address by Robin Carr. They had books on our chairs when we arrived — for book lovers like us, that’s better than the dessert on the table! (…er … well … the dessert did look quite delectable, though…) And this is where I realized I didn’t have the SD card in my camera as I tried to take pics of my fellow Firebirds at lunch. After we ate, we chatted. And then, for me, it was off to another pitch.

Later that afternoon, we met for (another!) dessert (I think I ate more desserts in these four days than I ever have in my life) and some champagne at a nice certificate ceremony for all the Golden Heart and RITA finalists. I was a little fangirl to be in the same room as the RITA finalists (Nalini Singh! Darynda Jones!) and it was also nice to get another chance to chat it up with my fellow GH finalists. Continue reading →

So I had my first two face-to-face pitches with editors and agents at Nationals this year. Like ever.

Writers are supposed to have a 30-second pitch, a way to sum up their book in a sentence — an elevator pitch, if you will, that the writer could conceivably give during a short elevator ride. The pitch should have a great “hook,” and the conflict should be implied in the sentence.

Authors write, practice, agonize over, and memorize their pitches. There are even entire workshops on how to write them. The authors then bring their pitch to these national writing events, where they get a chance to meet agents and editors and deliver the pitch face to face. It sounds so terrifying — why do it at all, right? I mean, why not just mail the query in and avoid all the awkwardness?

The answer is that there are advantages to doing the pitch live: One is that, when meeting face to face, the agents and editors almost always ask for something, either a partial or a full, so you’re almost guaranteed to climb to the top of the slush pile with the agent/editor of your choice. The other is that you can make a much faster connection than on email. Continue reading →

My badge! The sunglasses pin is from The Golden Network Retreat, the next heart down is from membership in The Golden Network, the next pin is for finaling in the Golden Heart, the next is this year's Anaheim pin (they should have done something Disney looking, no???), and the last pin is our Firebirds pin we had made for us. Some people had TONS of pins all over their badges! They were really fun to look at!

Whew! Thursday was our first day of workshops.

I hustled from one to the other, taking notes and soaking it all in.

We had a nice lunch in the middle of the day, with Stephanie Laurens as the keynote speaker, who spoke about the fact that even though the publishing industry is in a huge state of flux right now, we — as storytellers — have the same job, the same goal, and the same process: writing the best books we can and getting them to the readers who love them.

Despite the “Wild West” feeling of the industry right now, it’s actually the best time ever to be storytellers, she said.

(Hear, hear, Stephanie Laurens!)

I came home a little early today. It’s my one “early day.”

Tomorrow is agent and editor appointments, attending some book signings to collect new books, more workshops, another keynote speaker, a Firebirds pool party, and more! … (I’d better get to bed.) 🙂