Last weekend was the 27th annual UW-Madison Writers Institute — my first “real” conference as a serious author. I’ve been to conferences before as a professional journalist. But even though many journalists are writers, the atmosphere could not have been more different.
First of all, about 90 percent of the attendees of this conference were there to pitch their book ideas to literary agents. Turns out, that was kind of the whole point. So there was definitely a nervous energy in the air — not so much one of competition, which surprised me. But sort of a “this is the scariest, ballsiest thing I’m ever going to do as an aspiring author. You’re petrified, too? OK, great!”
I only stayed for a day and a half of the presentations — mostly because Friday was my daughter’s 7th birthday, and I would be a serious schmuck if I skipped her party to socialize with Wisconsin’s literary crowd. So the 1.5-day deal was a bit of a compromise. But oh, what I learned in that short time!
My biggest takeaway was this — the publishing industry is not in business to serve the writers. It is about serving the readers. I guess, as an avid reader, I can appreciate this fact — it certainly puts a different twist on how I approach book publication. I guess I never, truly thought about who I wanted to buy and read my book
I also learned that literary agents are real people who love reading books and who appreciate good writing — just like the rest of us. I was blessed to make a connection with an Midwestern literary agent who started her own business when she found out the agencies in Chicago weren’t hiring. I liked her immediately. We quickly discovered that our oldest children (both boys) are both freshmen in college. I could sympathize with the fact that her son chose to go to college in Arizona while my stepson is only 30 minutes away. I also told her that I was sad to miss the second half of the conference, but that my presence was needed at home for my daughter’s birthday. As a mom, I think she appreciated my dilemma.
Fortunately, she really liked my pitch and asked to read the entire manuscript of “Finding Seth.” It was one of the proudest and most fulfilling moments of my professional career — ranking right up there with landing my internship in Virginia and accepting my first job at a Pennsylvania newspaper. This was personal — my novel was my own craft, and someone was genuinely interested in helping me get it published. I admit to shedding a few happy tears in the ladies’ room before composing myself and driving home to celebrate with my family. Best. Weekend. EVER!
Now I am looking for beta readers (test readers, if you will) to review and critique my manuscript. So in the event that this particular agent passes on my work, I’ll have some ideas on how to make revisions before I go querying again. Exciting times, truly!