I know how you feel. I’ve been Left Behind, too. It sucks. Everyone is at the Romance Writers of America conference but MEEEEEEEE!! I feel your pain.
In 1992, I was a brand new writer. I didn’t even know that there was a conference until I finally got up the nerve, after writing my third manuscript, to join RWA. I went to my first RWA chapter meeting. Everyone asked me, “Are you entering the Golden Heart?” WHAT? What was that? A contest, they told me. An important one. You could sell if you won!! But, but, but. I was so baffled. Why would you enter a contest to sell? Wasn’t mailing a manuscript to a publishing house a more direct approach? No, no, no, you must enter the Golden Heart! Well, I didn’t. That didn’t make much sense to me. What if I didn’t final? And winning was no guarantee. I mean, you got a necklace, for sure. But everything else was up in the air. If I wanted a necklace, I’d buy one. I knew my way to the post office. I knew how to buy stamps. Golden Heart, Schmolden Heart. Then the next wave of excitement at these baffling chapter meetings was–pitch!!! We must prepare the pitch!!! What pitch? I asked, baffled again. “You have to go to the conference and pitch your book so you can sell!!!” I was told. Wasn’t mailing a manuscript to a publishing house a more direct approach? No, no, no, you must go to the conference and pitch!! Oh, well. I wasn’t going to that conference any more than I was entering the Golden Heart. I didn’t have all that money to burn and I had a baby hanging onto my mammaries. I knew where the post office was and how to buy stamps.
And yet the fever caught me. That summer of 1992, I began to bemoan the fact that I hadn’t entered this magic Golden Heart of which they spoke and that I couldn’t attend this fabulous conference and pitch my books. Woe was me. I lived in hot, steamy Texas and I remember that July as if it were yesterday. I had to walk a quarter mile to our mailbox. I walked that long quarter mile every day hoping for news of my submissions. (Hey, I didn’t know they called you with good news, LOL!) I had recently received a revision letter from a publisher on one of my books and I was working non-stop, or as non-stop as you can work with a child attached to your mammaries, on a revised manuscript. I schlepped to the mailbox every day thinking, woe is me, there are people at that bejeweled conference pitching their books!! I’ll never sell!! But I was home and I was writing. I wrote hard that week to make up for not being at that damned conference because unlike everyone else that week, I was not:
*Getting my hair done
*Shopping for new clothes
*Practicing a pitch
*Planning and replanning my schedule
*Packing and repacking
*Painting my nails
*Arranging childcare
*Rushing to a plane and spending a day traveling
*Standing in line at registration
*Sitting around in workshops
*Eating really bad food at the luncheons
*Hurting my feet in high heel shoes
*Waiting endlessly for the elevator
*Fighting about the hotel bill
*Flying back home and recovering
Instead, that week I revised my book and a few months later, it sold. Without ever being Golden Hearted or pitched.
So for those of you who are staying home, I salute you. You are writing this week, and I am not. Yeah, I’m going to go to some really cool parties and see all my friends. I’m going to laugh a lot and be stressed out a lot. I’m going to have more fun with writers than should be legal.
But you. You!! You are going to be writing.
Related posts:
Oh Suzanne, thank you! Now I know I’m going to be writing my arse off this week.
I know my way to the post office. I know how to buy stamps.
Excellent.
It’s a good thing I’m going to be there in Reno with you, Suzanne. Otherwise, I’d have to hurt you.
Suzanne … I wanted SOOOOO badly to go to RWA last year. I had just sold. I was thrilled. My new publisher and agent were having parties. Yet . . . I, too, had a baby attached to my mammaries (I’m never going to forget the image your inspired with that comment
)
But I didn’t go.
I joined RWA in 2003 when the conference was in NY and I was broke with (then) four kids and there was no way I’d be able to attend. I, too, didn’t know what the Golden Heart was or how to pitch. I wanted so much to be there with my newfound writing friends and meet agents and editors and have fun!
So I’m going to be making up for it this year!
See you there … and to everyone staying home, I sympathize. Been there. Keep writing. That’s the most important thing you can do to sell–as Jennifer Crusie would say, “Write the good book.”
Can I just add a proviso? I’ll be writing my arse off AFTER I’ve sorted out my taxes, tidied up my office and scrubbed the cat poop off the utility room floor.
*sigh*
I’m staying home, too, and thinking “Maybe Atlanta.”
However, I’ll be busy. Along with writing my arse off on the WIP, I’ll be writing unit plans for the new school year and working in my classroom.
Plus, my CP is going and taking my tollfree number with her. I’m getting phone updates and will be able to live vicariously . . .
Great post, Suzanne! (I have one of those mega-treks to the mailbox, too. It’s the most neurotic quarter-mile of my day.)
Wait…can I still get my hair done this week even if I’m not going?
Hmmm, I, too, know my way to the post office and know how to buy stamps. Maybe I feel just a little better about not going to conference this year. No. I don’t. But I will be writing. And that’s a good thing.
Suzanne, thanks for this column! I decided months ago not to go to Reno, for a variety of very good reasons–money; I only have two manuscripts, one of which lives under the bed until I have time to rewrite it extensively while the other lacks at least 100 pages being done, so I have nothing complete to pitch; toddler no longer attached to mammaries but still young enough that I’d feel bad about making the husband play single parent for me to attend a conference where I don’t even have a book ready to sell, etc. But now that everyone on my writing loops is abuzz over the thing, I have major conference envy.
But I feel much better now. I’m going to write diligently. I’m coming up on a key crisis point in my work-in-progress, and I mean to be through it by the time everyone gets back. And in another two months or so, the manuscript will be done, and I’ll have something to pitch/enter the GH with/mail directly to editors and agents.
I was doing so well until I read this post. I can’t go this year because basically, my life has been turned upside down. I keep telling myself there’s always next year, and doing my b`est to believe it. One of my best friends is going for the first time and I even managed to write her a long email giving her advice and tips without feeling too bad. But after reading this, I just want to go crawl in the closet and have a good cry. Oh, I’ll spend a lot of time writing this week (hopefully), but I’ll probably have to go back and edit out a lot of “life sucks” comments that somehow made their way into the ms.
Thank you for this fabulous column, Suzanne!!! I’ve been feeling very sorry for myself at not being able to attend but now I can see I’ll just have to devote all my time this week to writing.
Good column, Suzanne! Writing is the best way to sell.
great column. I’ve sat at home during conference time. I’ve gone to a lot of them. Great networking opportunity, along with just a good time to hang out with friends. But you’re right…it all boils down to butt in chair and write. That’s how you sell.
Suzanne, lift your glass for me! I’ll be at home this year, and listening to everyone in the pre-conference whirlwind is starting to make me cranky.:twisted: It was my decision not to go: my books been out for a bit, RENO? What were they thinking? And we’re heading back to Texas to visit for an extended bit, so it made a lot of sense not to go. But… I still miss all the excitement, and yes, even though I’m half-heartedly pounding out revisions, I’ll still miss it.
(picture one sad face pressed against the airport glass)
Great column Suzanne! Absolutely true. No better time to write esp. since most of the boards/loops will be quiet with the conference going on. Less distractions
Definitely nice to hear. I was beginning to have second thoughts about my decision to stay home. (Especially since this one is closer than any of the other conferences have been.)I feel much better now.
I plan to get things accomplished on my manuscript while the lists are quiet. Have a good time.
Great post and great advice from a great writer!
Thanks Suzanne!
Thank you so much. I was kinda bummed-out about not going and feel much better!
Is everyone here but me a writer?!? I couldn’t produce anything “sellable” if my life depended on it. But I can proofread and edit. So maybe there’s a little bit of writer in me.
I love the write-up, Suzanne. It makes the conference seem closer. BTW, a week ago I met the children’s book writer for whom I do editing and proofreading. Very interesting to talk to him and the money helps.