We’re not in Kansas anymore, Toto. But they do have wireless.
I’m not going to belabor the details, but this is going to be just as great as I hoped. Not only are there many industry insiders, there is a particularly generous spirit here. The writers want to help each other. The editors want to listen. The agents want to share.
So each day (or so), I’m going to post
- who I meet
- what I learn
- the story of the day
WHO I MET
So far, I’ve met informally with Steve Laube and Nick Harrison. I’ve also had some wonderful chance encounters with folks like Dave McClellan. (Amy, check this site out. You’ll like it.)
Also, I met Becky and L.L. Fun! It was really good to meet Becky in person.
WHAT I LEARNED
Steve said it’s a great time to be selling fiction. That surprised me. He followed that up with a warning to sell 20,000 of your first book. (I didn’t get a chance to ask him how a writer does that, though…)
Nick edited the Legend of the Firefish series, featured on CSFF a few months ago. He also recommended Zenna Henderson’s People stories. I had never heard of that before, but her Ingathering collection has some astounding reviews!
STORY OF THE DAY
I overheard an industry professional talking about a writer he worked with. “I had to tell her to stop blogging!” he said. “It wasn’t good for her writing.”
That gave me pause. When does blogging become bad for your writing?
Come back tomorrow to see if I can keep this up…
11 comments ↓
Thanks for the update Marcus! I am looking forward to your daily updates and insights.
Don’t forget to sleep.
Thanks for sharing - I would love to be there, not because of the writing, but just to see you and LL interact with all the others - a secret fly on the wall!
Hey, say HI to Steve Laube and Nick Harrison for me! They’re both terrific guys!
Thanks so much for taking the time to post some updates. And be sure to drink an espresso from the coffee cart for me.
Brandon, thanks! That will encourage me to post them.
Papa Poet, what is sleep?
Susan, we would never let you be a fly on the wall. You’d be in the thick of it.
Mary, I’ll mention your name next time I run into them.
spaghettipie, I’m in the espressocart RIGHT NOW, waiting for her to open up and give us some coffee. Er, sell us some coffee, at least. There’s no such thing as free coffee.
Or maybe that’s free lunch?
I really need to get my proposal into Steve! Thanks for this day by day update!
I probably should clarify regarding 1st book sales in fiction. If an author can consistently sell between 15,000 and 20,000 copies of their books they will continue to have a career and be contracted. That is a generally acceptable level.
If your first novel sells 5,000 copies or less it will be VERY difficult to get that next project sold to a new publisher unless the writing and idea are absolutely fabulous.
Also. At some publishers, selling 15,000 is considered a failure. At other houses that is like hitting the game winning home run. So it all depends on the publisher and their expectations.
But this is all a theoretical discussion anyway and writers need to be careful when telling this info without the full story behind the anecdote. Numbers are a guideline, not a hard and fast rule. Marcus was wise to add the caveat above.
It was great meeting you!
Hope that helps!
Steve, thanks for dropping by! You are the man. Thanks also for the reminder that numbers are just a guideline. So many writers are looking for success formulas… including me more often than I’d like to admit.
As a Christian, I have to constantly check my definitions of success. First of all, love God through my work. Then, love my neighbors through my work. The real grace is God’s love, not book sales. It’s funny how hard is to remember that sometimes.
Mark,
I know I’m coming into this conversation late, but did you ever find out how blogging was bad for someone’s writing? I have a few guesses. One, the person wasn’t getting her writing assignments finished on time. Two, the style of writing on her blog was different than her professional writing. Three, this one is tough, she was talking about things on her blog that were supposed to be confidential.
Unfortunately, I probably just painted you into a corner. You might not be able to discuss this situation on your blog, since it’s a touchy subject.
But it could be good topic to discuss in an open forum, no pointing fingers sort of way.
Thanks for giving such a thorough over-view of the conference.
Merrie, that’s fair. I did post about it. I don’t know who the writer was, but I gathered that the person was spending too much creative energy in blogging rather than writing to a deadline.
It’s one of the big dangers of blogging. The instant feedback can be a real temptation.
In fact, I’ve thought of pulling out of blogging completely for just that reason. It can be very hard to set boundaries. And yet…. it really is one of the keys to the future of publishing I think. We just don’t know what it is going to unlock yet.
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