A MAP TO THE MAGICAL REALM
A few weeks ago, I was waiting for the program to start at sparsely attended literary event sponsored by a university writing program, when I overheard a student loudly bemoaning her lack of publishing credentials and the difficulty of getting out of the slush piles. She needed some of her poetry and fiction published to support her PhD application. She felt her work wouldn’t read well without a personal connection.
Because I am incapable of holding back when someone needs edification (it’s a teacher thing), I interrupted to ask if she had ever attended a conference. She muttered that yes, she’d been to some academic conferences, but that had been no help.
I shook my head, “No, no. A writing conference, where editors, agents, and publishers are there to listen to participants’ pitches, and looking for work to sign.”
She stared at me like I had grown an extra head or two.
“Even poetry?” Her doubt was evident. “I need it for my PhD,” she added, as she looked me up and down, waiting for me to be impressed.
I have my own graduate degree, so I just carried on, “Yes, even poetry, if you find the right publisher, of course. Poetry, fiction, articles, and non-fiction books. Everything. At the conferences around here, with your registration you get one blue pencil session to have a professional critique your work and one pitch session to present your project to someone who is looking to buy. If you read through their bios, you can be sure to choose someone who is looking for what you are offering for both appointments.”
She wrinkled her nose as if I were selling stenchy snake oil. “That actually works?”
I shrugged. “I signed contracts with two publishers and a literary agency due to pitches at conferences.”
Suddenly she stood up straighter and studied me more closely. Apparently, my publishing credential halo was beginning to glow.
“They’re great for networking, too,” I continued. “You sit down for meals with multi-million selling authors whose work you love, and they ask you what you’re doing, and tell you about their experiences. There may be an agent from New York or Toronto at the table who asks everyone what they’re pitching and hands out his card and tells you to call him if he likes what he hears. You network with other authors who tell you about their social media tricks or the opportunites they’ve discovered. You develop a support network of authors who know you. You celebrate and promote them; they’ll read your first novels and write blurbs for their covers. It’s wonderful.”
She blinked blankly, plainly astonished at the existence of magical realms where publishers and authors mingled.
