The One Event Every Writer Should Attend

Learning the Craft etc.

I attend a LOT of writer's conferences. Initially, I went to learn about the craft of writing. How to write a great "hook," how to jack up the chemistry between characters, how to write sex scenes that don't sound like instruction manuals (although, the Kama Sutra seems to have done okay.)

As I got more confident in my novel-writing skills, I shifted my focus to sessions about the editing and publishing processes. I learned how to pitch my story (and myself) to literary agents. And how to build a house from my future rejection letters. (I’m kidding. It was a small cabin.) Young millennials preached to Gen X’ers about the need to put down our Blackberries and do the TikTok. I always walk away learning something new. 

Bookmarks Are for Quitters

A reader's convention is like Comic Con for book nerds. I heard about Romance Con and was curious to find out more. I wanted to know who attended and why. Was it to meet their favorite romance authors? Discover new ones? Talk tropes with other readers? (Yes, yes and yes!) These were the most avid romance readers I’d ever met. One of them told me she read over 350 novels last year. 350. Not greeting cards. Novels. Now, I wasn’t in the top three percent of my geometry class, but I’m pretty sure that’s almost one book per day. Yeah, really.

Run, Don’t Walk!

As a writer, having all those potential readers in one place is a dream come true! Even if you’re relatively unknown as an author (I’m trying to imagine what that would be like. Okay, I got it), you have hundreds of potential readers all around you. And they aren’t a random swath of society – they are self-identified fanatical readers of YOUR genre! Now’s your chance to market that TikTok account you’ve been working on.

To be clear, there were definitely authors that were better known and attracted more attention in the “signing room" than some of the newer authors. But you have a much better chance of finding your audience at a reader's convention for your genre than you do waiting for them to stumble over your novel on a physical or digital shelf somewhere. And if you get a chance to speak on a panel, the odds of selling your book go up exponentially. (I wasn’t in the top sixteen percent of my calculus class, but I'm sure that exponent is greater than the square root of negative one.)

The Reader Event for Writers

Whether you're a reader or a writer, this is one event you won't want to miss. So, write that book and I’ll see you at the next reader's convention!