I’ve probably mentioned this before, but I am going to the World Fantasy Convention. After all, it’s not every day (or even every year) that something like the WFC comes to your local city.
I have to admit, I have BIG hopes for this convention. I want to meet several of the authors I admire, get in front of publishers to pitch my book and maybe even talk to an agent or two. Oh yeah, and I’m hoping to make some more friends in the writing industry.
That’s a lot for four days, don’t you think?
Still, I know to be successful, I need to know people. I need to be willing to stand up and pitch my wares, so to speak. If I can’t/won’t do so at something like this, why should a publisher or agent be willing to help me out? After all, if I’m not willing to sell and promote (and believe in) my stories why should anyone else?
It’s a challenge sometimes to walk over to a stranger and say “Hello”. I’d be the first to admit it. But I also would be the first to confirm just how great it is. Case in point, at ConVersion 2008 (in Calgary), I decided that I had to meet Brian Hades. For those of you who don’t who Brian is, he is the owner/publisher of Edge Books, Hades Publishing, Tesseract Books, etc. Why did I have to meet him? Cause he’s the owner/publisher of Edge Books, Hades… well you get the idea.
I like to know who I’m working with. It is vitally important to me that I have a face to put with a name and voice. It is also very important that they know who I am too. Oh yeah, and it doesn’t hurt to understand just what they are looking for and how they want to see it.
So, I went up to the Edge Publishing booth and started to meet some people. Who was the first person I met? None other than Anita, Brian’s wife. I mentioned to her that I had submitted to Edge in the past and been rejected. I also told her I was doing a major rewrite of the story but I didn’t know if it was OK to resubmit it to Edge. After all, I didn’t want to waste their time.
She quickly put me at my ease and assured me that it was perfectly fine to resubmit and that I should do so when the manuscript was ready. I just needed to tell them what I had done to rewrite it.
Score one for me!
By the time I left the Edge booth, I had been there for well over 90 minutes. 30 minutes of that time I spent sitting down and talking with Brian one-on-one. I learned a lot from that 30 minutes. I also met Adrian Bedford and had a nice chat with him.
When I left the con, I was almost floating I was so jazzed. Was it worth the effort, time and fear? Absolutely! Would I do it again? All I can say is “World Fantasy Convention”. I’ll be doing it several times a day if I’m very lucky. You never know when you will get that one key contact. Hopefully I’ll finish the con with a fistful of them!
Wish me luck.
Personal Update
Still working away on my fantasy novel rewrite. I’m almost finish Chapter 2 and I’ve signed up with Critters.org to begin getting it looked at. I also let my daughter read the first chapter and she loved it! Good feedback from her for sure.
I haven’t heard anything back from “Mik Murdoch” or “Summer Camp Secrets” yet. It’s been almost three months for “Mik” so I expect I’ll get something very soon. “Summer Camp Secrets” has only been gone for twelve days, so it could still be a while. I’m not worried though; something will happen very soon, I can feel it!
