I hobnobbed with Best Selling Author LA Banks (who spoke on 'How to make a living as a best selling author', President of the Mid-Atlantic Book Publishers Association and many awesome writers.
I also worked the conference and recruited these awesome publishing professionals to pitch it up with us at the conference.
Lit Agents:
Jason Ashlock
Literary Agent, Movable Type Literary Group
Lauren Hammond
Literary Agent, ADA Management Group
Emmanuelle Morgen
Literary Agent, Judith Ehrlich Lite
rary Management
Jessica Sinsheimer
Associate Agent, Sarah Jane Freymann Literary Agency
EDITORS:
Georgia McBride
Freelance Editor and Manager, YALITCHAT.ORG
Roseanne Wells
Literary Agent, Strong Literary Agency
Harrison Demchick
Editor and Marketing Associate, Bancroft Press
Daniel Ehrenhaft
Editorial Director, Soho Teen at Soho Press
Catherine Hiller
President, Executive Editor
John David Kudrick
Editor, JohnDavidKudrick.com
Brittney Ross
Editor, Penguin Group
Fun Picture of Georgia McBride, Founder of Yalitchat.org and Lauren Hammond, Lit Agent
Fun Picture of Georgia McBride, Founder of Yalitchat.org and Little Ole' me, LM Preston
PITCHES:
Picture of the Pitch Sessions: One-on-One
I totally screwed up mine. Yep, you are hearing it from me first. I screwed it up with nervous jitters, but the editors I spoke to were so awesome about it that I didn't feel horrible when I left. I learned a lot and they helped me a lot.
The great thing about Maryland Writer's Conference Pitch sessions is that the Agents and Editors read my Query Letter and First Five pages in advance. When I met with them for my 10 min (for $30) they listened to my pitch then reviewed my query letter and first five pages.
HOW TO DO IT BETTER THAN ME:
Start with a hook, Practice it first with someone else - even video tape yourself doing it, but have it memorized cold before you go.
MY MARKETING TALK
It went very well, I shared all my secrets of uber energy for promotion and scared the be-juju out of most of the writers, lol! I didn't mean to, but I was just giving them an idea of what marketing is and shucks, I told them to start at least 8 months before a book comes out. But the information was well received and I also got to sit in on some pretty amazing speakers.
THE WINNER IS
Bandits contest winner is Tracey Goodwin!!!!! Wowsa!!! She's getting books, she's getting books!
8 comments:
LM, I'm so jealous. You met my agent! It looks like you had an amazing time. I'm heading to my regional SCBWI conference this Friday. I can't wait!
Awesome Kelly! She's wonderful, my fingers are crossed for you :-D
Congratulations on making the conference a fabulous experience for you. I'm really happy for you!
Sounds like a fabulous time!! Almost like a mini-YALitChat conference. ;)
Wow, we should take lessons from you on how to scmooze! Sounds like you recruited an army of experts.
OMG you are so brave. I love the pics too. Thanks for the tips. I really, really want to go to one. If only I wasn't so chicken. This helps!
Sounds like it was an awesome conference. I pitched to an agent once - through chat. It was @ the online writers conference by "Muse" and it sucked. Not the experience, just me. I'll be ready next time though. Great post!!!
Sounds like a really great time! I got so nervous about pitching at the last conference I went to (the agents didn't review pages prior, so it was really all about the pitch) but luckily I met a great group of writers and we rehearsed each other's pitches and helped improve them.
Aside from the opportunity to meet with agents and editors, I think that meeting other writers is what I enjoy most about conferences. It's hard to find people in our daily lives who understand what we're going through, and at a conference there's a huge room full of them!
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