1. Things Happen at Writing Conferences
In the middle of my second day at the Book Passage Travel Writers and Photographers Conference, I went to get coffee. I shared the counter with a Bay Area literary agent. “What are you doing here?” the agent asked, and then he saw my faculty tag. “Oh, you’re teaching. What are you teaching?”
I told him about the class I was co-teaching and asked about his time at the conference. “Are you taking pitches?”
“Why, do you have one?”
“I do, but that’s not why I asked, I just wondered if people are taking the time to pitch you.”
“I’m not getting much,” the agent said. “And you know what… The industry is tough. Memoir is awfully hard to sell. Everyone thinks they’re on the hero’s journey. Take some advice from me? Don’t be on the hero’s journey.”
I shrugged. “I’m not that special,” I said, “plus, the thing I’m working on is only partly about me.”
“Do you want to sell it? If you want to sell it, there’s no reason for you to keep working on it. How far along are you? If you’re far enough along and it’s good, I can get you an advance to finish it.”
“I’ve got 25,000 words.” I told him about my project. “I’ve been working on it on and off for about three years, in 5000 word chunks.”
“You’re that far along? Send me your proposal. And I tell you what, don’t tell me there are no comps, that just means there’s no market for it and I’ll tell you no. Get me your proposal, I’ll get you a seven figure deal.”
I laughed and shook his hand. “Seven figures. I AM IN.”
“Seriously,” he said, and he handed me his business card. “Send me your proposal. The kind of thing you’re working on, typically it’s a 10,000 dollar advance. Maybe I can get you 13. Send it,” he said. “Really. I’d like to see it, it sounds good.”
Later in the day I told this story to another writer — one who has several published books — and she said, “Don’t blow this off. That is how good things happen, in this kind of low key way. Don’t let this sit, promise me you won’t let it sit.”
It is good to be in a place where these kinds of conversations can happen.
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2. Do. Not. Write. For. Free.
On the first night at dinner, I sat with a delightful woman who was very excited to share about the writing work she was doing. I didn’t have to ask the question, another attendee asked for me: Are you getting paid?
“No, she said, “but…”
I pounced. “We may not see each other again this weekend because you’re not in my class. But you are going to look up ‘Should I Work For Free‘ and you are going to learn to love it. You are going to print it out and put it next to your desk where you write.”
Many web businesses and publishers who prey on the aspirations and naivete of writers by “offering them the opportunity to get exposure for their work.” I have been that writer. But once I learned how the web works, I stopped writing for free and for very low pay. I won’t put guest posts on heavily monetized blogs. I won’t read the Huffington Post, and there are a bunch of other places that are persona non grata in my reading list for not paying their writers or for paying them very poorly while they live on Park Avenue.
If the publisher is making money, you should be getting paid too. Period.
Don’t listen to me, listen to Mavis. Respect yourself.
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3. How to Find a Writer’s Group: Build Your Own
More than once over the course of the weekend I was asked about writing groups. I didn’t have one until recently. I went to the Bay Area to read at Weekday Wanderlust, a monthly reading series run by some great writers there and I came back mad. Why didn’t I have my own writers scene in Seattle? This city is filthy with writers, why aren’t I hanging out with them?
I used to do a bunch of stuff with bloggers, but since the schism in online writing due to its popularity with marketers, I stopped making an effort to attend events. There may have been marketers at Weekday Wanderlust, I don’t know. That’s the key, right? I didn’t know if there were marketers there, whereas at the events in Seattle, I was surrounded by those blogging for SEO, to make money, to establish a brand; I had to sift to find people who were writers, first and foremost. That was making me really tired.
After that trip to San Francisco, I put together a writers group of my own. (You should read all these women, they’re sharp, funny, prolific, kind, and understand the value of excellent snacks. My kind of people: The Gastrognome, The Hamazon, and The Everywhereist.) I put together a writers group not because I wanted to workshop my writing (that’s what editors are for) or because I wanted to have my ego boosted (that’s what friends are for, plus, I’m already a little megalomaniacal) or because I needed snacks (I really do like snacks). I gathered the tribe because I wanted to sit down with a handful of wicked smart people who were already great writers to talk about the challenges of writing: selling work, dealing with self-promotion, maintaining momentum, both the tactical and the fuzzier parts of being a working writer. And if I wanted to workshop something, I knew that these people wouldn’t sugar coat their feedback because it’s not at all what they’d want in return.
I rarely feel qualified to give advice on anything, certainly not to people I don’t know well. But knowing what you want from a writers group will help you know when you’re in the right one — and when you’re not. And hell, if you’re lucky enough to already know some hard-working kickass writers you respect, you should make peanut butter cookie waffles and invite them over.
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4. Lightning Round
- Aspiring writers are hungry for tactical information and for the truth. It’s so tempting to bathe everything in golden light, but I’m still thinking about the young woman who threw up her hands and cheered when I said, “Can I hold it down for boring work?” That was awesome.
- Karaoke is just not my thing, sorry. I was up until 1am also, but I was out on the patio talking with new friends.
- The industry is tiny and you need to know people to make things happen. There are just not that many travel editors anymore, so don’t let yours down.
- Instagram is five years old. Twitter is nearly ten years old. Facebook is 11. Blogger is 16, it’s probably out back smoking. I think social media is mainstream by now, but I’m wrong about that, this stuff is still really new to a whole lot of people.
- People still really want to be travel writers. I guess I do too, still.
Send. the . proposal. do it!
I’m already signed up for next year. And I’ll be flying in from Thailand. 🙂
“…I won’t read the Huffington Post and a bunch of other places…for not paying their writers” <– There is it in black and white…something I'm always saying…and that even goes back to my days in print. If folks can't respect my work, or the work of others, enough not to go trolling for freebies, then I can't respect them. I had a local editor for HuffPo who saw something I did (for pay) and approached me about writing for them for free 4 or 5 years ago. She used the same old "exposure" argument by telling me "you can get so much exposure for your other projects" by writing for HuffPo for free as they didn't pay "bloggers". I politely declined the "opportunity" and make it a point not to read them so I'm one less set of eyes seeing their ads. Annoys me when I accidentally click on something from HuffPo.
There are several other well-funded sites and publications that I feel this way about as well…places that have no shame about sending an intern or some other volunteer or low-paid person to flat out ask for free writing and images. Places that I used to think were legit, but places that I do not read or respect now.
The point about building your own writing group is also particularly interesting to me right now, too. I had a small writing group of folks I met when we all worked for a local newspaper (yup, it was that long ago). The group sort of fell apart in recent years because it became more of a support group for one of our members who was seriously ill. The past couple of years were particularly bad for her and she ended up in hospice and ultimately died (last month). Meanwhile changes happening in my own life and the lives of close family members means I have little time to or extra money buy a lot of org's memberships or travel to a lot of conferences. The last real conference trip I did was with a group in another state, and that conference died when organizers couldn't field enough folks who could go (let alone organize) the conference several years ago (didn't help that I had to bail on teaching a class I was to do for them because of a medical emergency situation with family).
As always, your work resonates on so many levels, but especially this one:
Don’t blow this off. Do it. Today. It is your time.