conference preparations
Five weeks until the San Francisco Writers Conference, and I have a lot to do to get ready. A list:
Get manuscript ready. It's not strictly necessary to be finished before the conference, but if I can interest an agent and get a request to send chapters or the whole novel, it would be wonderful to be able to do that right away. I am so very close to the end of the first giant rewrite, and after that I want to do one quick edit focusing on the beginning before showing it to any agents.
Prepare pitch. I'm going to get to make pitches in person at the Speed Dating for Agents session, so I need to know what I'm going to say and how I'm going to say it. I have a lot of ideas but nothing written down yet, so I need to write, refine, and rehearse. Everyone I talk to in the next month is going to get pitched.
Research the agents. The list of agents and editors who will be attending the conference has been announced, so I can figure out in advance who is most likely to be interested in my novel and what I can say to each person that might make them more interested.
Buy new clothes. Not only does nothing in my wardrobe qualify as business casual, but most of it has holes or stains. Happily, after a very successful and hardly painful at all shopping trip yesterday, I now have several attractive and appropriate outfits. (Thanks, loop! Thanks, J. Jill!) I still need to buy shoes to match my new clothes, and maybe even (gasp!) makeup.
Get business cards. As much as I admire the MOO MiniCards, I'm worried that a smaller business card will be more easily lost and therefore annoying to the recipient. So I'm going to go with a standard sized card. Maybe not an entirely boring one, but we'll see.
Work on web site. I procured my name as a domain, but I don't have anything there yet. There's no way I'm going to have time to make my site what I want it to be in the next month, but I'd like to put something up so that I can use the domain on my business cards.
Study schedule. Once this year's schedule has been announced, I should do some planning and research on presenters to figure out which sessions I'm most interested in attending.
Prepare reading. If there are open mic sessions like last year, I should have an excerpt prepared so that I can participate.
If you have ideas and feedback on any of these items, I'd be delighted to receive it. Also, I've reserved a hotel room for the conference and am looking for a roommate. Any of you going, or know someone who is?
Get manuscript ready. It's not strictly necessary to be finished before the conference, but if I can interest an agent and get a request to send chapters or the whole novel, it would be wonderful to be able to do that right away. I am so very close to the end of the first giant rewrite, and after that I want to do one quick edit focusing on the beginning before showing it to any agents.
Prepare pitch. I'm going to get to make pitches in person at the Speed Dating for Agents session, so I need to know what I'm going to say and how I'm going to say it. I have a lot of ideas but nothing written down yet, so I need to write, refine, and rehearse. Everyone I talk to in the next month is going to get pitched.
Research the agents. The list of agents and editors who will be attending the conference has been announced, so I can figure out in advance who is most likely to be interested in my novel and what I can say to each person that might make them more interested.
Buy new clothes. Not only does nothing in my wardrobe qualify as business casual, but most of it has holes or stains. Happily, after a very successful and hardly painful at all shopping trip yesterday, I now have several attractive and appropriate outfits. (Thanks, loop! Thanks, J. Jill!) I still need to buy shoes to match my new clothes, and maybe even (gasp!) makeup.
Get business cards. As much as I admire the MOO MiniCards, I'm worried that a smaller business card will be more easily lost and therefore annoying to the recipient. So I'm going to go with a standard sized card. Maybe not an entirely boring one, but we'll see.
Work on web site. I procured my name as a domain, but I don't have anything there yet. There's no way I'm going to have time to make my site what I want it to be in the next month, but I'd like to put something up so that I can use the domain on my business cards.
Study schedule. Once this year's schedule has been announced, I should do some planning and research on presenters to figure out which sessions I'm most interested in attending.
Prepare reading. If there are open mic sessions like last year, I should have an excerpt prepared so that I can participate.
If you have ideas and feedback on any of these items, I'd be delighted to receive it. Also, I've reserved a hotel room for the conference and am looking for a roommate. Any of you going, or know someone who is?