You want to meet editors and agents. But how? Where?
Writing Excuses recently held a great podcast listing the types of events aspiring authors might want to attend–conventions, conferences, workshops, expos, etc. But knowing the types still doesn’t tell you which events to go to.
If you’re looking to meet editors and agents, here’s a way to figure out precisely which events you should attend.
1. Instead of taking a random scatter-shot approach, get some laser precision. Do this by first identifying the specific editors and agents you’re interested in. Then find out which events they’re going to attend. Forget all the other events–these are the ones you want to go to.
These folks will often post their schedule on their websites. The workshops, conferences, and conventions will also often post guest lists. You can also query the agency or publisher itself and ask which cons so-and-so will attend (just contact the receptionist, you don’t need or want to contact the editor or agent specifically).
Now even if you don’t know exactly who you’re interested in, you can still narrow down your focus. Event X might at least have some agents or editors attending (even if they’re not in your genre) while event Y does not. So go and see if you can’t get tips from those agents or editors
2. Research each of the events. Some provide meetings with editors, some provide pitch sessions, some will require you to track the person down. Select the events that look the most promising to you.
3. If you feel a bit nervous or shy, develop a short script for what you’ll say and how you’ll approach these folks. Or make a list of potential talking points. Run it by some friends and other writers to make sure you don’t sound robotic, dweebish, pushy, or pleading.
You have to remember that agents and editors are looking for new talent constantly. If they don’t find new talent, their income stream soon dies. They want and expect people to find them. They WANT to talk to YOU. They just want to be approached in a friendly and business like way.
So you have your script, talking points, and plans and will probably end up deviating from them. However, just having that in your head when you go to the con and approach the person you want to talk to (even if it’s only two sentences) can go a long way to calming your nerves.
4. Attend the con and make adjustments to your plan as necessary.
5. Don’t miss unplanned opportunities. Writing is sometimes a lonely business. When I go to cons I have folks I want to meet and catch up on. But I also make sure I engage other con goers. I smile, I say hello, I ask things like “so are you here as a writer or a fanboy?” or “what did you think about panel?” or “Your Klingon ridge is looking mighty today.” We chat.
I do it because I learn a lot from others and its just plain interesting. And sometimes you make an acquaintance that can develop into a working relationship. For example, I met Larry Correia (new author with Baen) at a local con I just attended. He had a fascinating story about his breaking in. We chatted for a while. There was no ulterior business/network motive. Just a great conversation. A month or so later a business opportunity arose and I thought of Larry. He’s now going on tour with me and Dave Farland this fall.
Be flexible. I’ve been invited and have invited others to go do lunch or dinner. And those have always been great chats. And sometimes business ops have arisen later because of them. But even if they hadn’t, it just makes the experience so much better. Good conversation is its own reward.
6. If all of this is too scary, bring back up. Get a friend or family member to go with you. 🙂
And if you stumble a bit, maybe stutter, maybe even feel like you’ve made a fool of yourself, do not stress. It’s to be expected the first few times. No big deal. Most poeple are shy and will either give you a break or be so worried themselves they won’t notice. With a few tries you’ll learn. If yo do make a fool of yourself, the good thing is that editors and agents meet so many people that your face will soon be forgotten, and you’ll be able to reboot and approach them next year with a clean slate (just remember to not wear the same belly dancing costume).
Of course, this doesn’t tell you what to do and not to do when approaching these folks. But as far as deciding where to go, this is one method that works.
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Added 7/31/09
SFWA has some great articles on conventions and networking by Diana Rowland.
How to Network at a Convention
Networking 201: How to Work a Room
Speaking of networking, missed yah on Wednesday night at Sam Weller’s. Hoping 2011 has good things in store for you. Will you be at LTUE?
Yeah, I wish I could have come. It was just not in the cards with everything we had going on. I will be at LTUE and look forward to catching up. Was it well attended?
The signing was at Sam Weller’s, and we had decent traffic. Not a big crowd, but decent traffic. For Laurie Tom and I, the real action was at the seminar itself. People kept asking for copies of WOTF 26, so I brought my box from home and sold all of them. Plus some copies of Analog too. That was fun. And of course the seminar itself was very, very good. Top notch content from some top notch professional writers.
Dang it, I wish I could have gone. What were your big 3-5 ideas or takeaways?
Regarding the commentary about networking, that’s a rather slippery fish. I think the big key to remember is that if you’re dealing with someone in the industry and you’d like something from them, you need to think about it in a reciprocal fashion. If the person might be able to help you, how might you be able to help them? Even if it means simply offering to buy them lunch or dinner, in exchange for some of their time or whatever else it is of theirs that you need?
The other side of that is learning how to be relaxed and not “vibe” people. I’ve seen aspirants do this, and am probably guilty of it myself at times. You meet someone way farther up the food chain, you get this urgently excited tension, and it often translates badly. Especially if the person you’re talking to already has bruises from the numerous bombardments (s)he gets all the time anyway.
Regarding the Superstars seminar, the most eye-opening things for me, were Eric Flint’s comments. Not because the other panelists didn’t have tons to offer. They did. It’s just that having done WOTF and being local to Utah, I’d already been exposed to a lot of what Dave, Kevin, Rebecca and Brandon had to say. Eric was the self-styled “grinch” who brought graphs and numbers and disected novel contracts, royalties, self-promotion, and so forth.
If I had to boil it out, I’d say the things I picked up on most were:
1) Self-promotion can be a very time-consuming, financially-problematic exercise that may or may NOT result in increased sales. Eric Flint seemed to feel that self-promotion, beyond occasional book signings or some simple items like customized bookmarks to hand out to fans on occasion, was a project of diminishing returns. He felt writing the next book was way more valuable — in terms of time investment — than doing a lot of self promo.
2) Novel contracts. Eric took us all the way through one of his from Baen, and explained all the clauses. This was interesting on several levels, especially when compared to my Dell Magazines contracts. Lots more to worry about in the novel contract, but the Baen one was fairly straightforward. Eric warned that other publishers can have nightmarish contracts twice as long. I’d have liked to have seen what one of those looked like.
3) Royalties and the realities of publishing economics. Eric had pie charts and bar graphs for this part — eye-opening material I’d never seen before. Holy smokes, it’s almost like the author gets nothing for paperback sales. And the publishers doesn’t expect to make money on the first book either, or so Eric said. He’s right, he’s the “grinch” of the seminar. But it was nice real-world material, and leavened the rest of the program.
4) No replacement for writing, writing, writing. Kevin and Rebecca jumped on this a lot. It never hurts to be reminded that the #1 job of the writer is to keep his or her butt in the chair, and write. I’ve been too often guilty of FAIL in this regard, the past six months. I am trying to develop better discipline, but the number of good and not-so-good excuses to get out of writing are legion, as you well know.
5) Also no replacement for persistence in the face of long odds and adversity. That one is also basic, but again it never hurts to be reminded. Eric talked about how it took him four years to sell his first book after he won Writers of the Future. Wow, I’d have gone nuts if it had taken me that long to sell after winning. So I count myself lucky with the Analog sales. And of course there is Brandon writing 13 books before he sells his first. Humbling data, that.
That’s really good stuff. #4 and #5 resonate with me. #1 does as well. Some of the promotion I’ve done has cost me very little, but it’s been well worth the time. In fact, the things I spent a lot of money on, well, I don’t know that any were worth the dollars. I do think that it might have been better off to save the few thousand I did spend and take unpaid time off to FINISH MORE PRODUCT.
I love talking to people. As an author I love answering questions from folks wanting to know more. When I want something from someone higher up on the food chain, I will simply ask. The thing that feels icky to me is not being genuine. And I say this more from my perspective having done this, not from folks approaching me. When I shake hands and talk, not because I’m interested at all, but because I want something, I just can’t stand it.
I love what Robison has to say about networking. And reading these comments here were pretty useful too!