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Last week I attended the Women in Publishing virtual writers’ conference. It was a blast!
For four days, I sat in on webinars about the writing craft, marketing, the business of authorship, and more. The highlight for me was the “Slush Fest” session, during which four agents gave feedback on several participant submissions (alas, I was not lucky enough to have my manuscript chosen in the draw). It was a great learning experience!
If you’re an author, I would definitely recommend this conference. Recordings of all the sessions are available for months afterwards, and the networking sessions are invaluable!
My biggest takeaway from the WIP Summit was all the creative ways an author can get funding that isn’t through book sales, particularly through grant applications. I realize that it is highly unlikely that I’ll be able to become a full-time author from book sales alone, so I’ll need to find other ways to supplement.
The most challenging part of the summit was getting myself to attend as many networking sessions as possible. Talking to new people is uncomfortable. Talking to new people via Zoom is super awkward. Taking a break with a cup of tea and some mindless scrolling would have definitely been the easy route, but it also would have been a huge waste of an opportunity.
So, while there were some awkward moments and I didn’t meet my business bestie online, I did connect with authors like me and get my name out there.
Now I have to get back to work - I have dozens of conference session replays to catch up on!
Interested in attending the 2024 conference? Click on this link!