Scattered Jules

I have to just say I love Manhattan. I know it’s a little dirty. I know it’s crowded. I know it’s loud. And I love it! Some people say they are small town girls or big city girls; well, I am an *any* city girl. I am thrilled to go anywhere and experience it for what it is. This is why I can find contentment living at the brink of nowhere, and still love going to a place where one subway can hold more people than live in my town.

Central Park is simply beautiful and I spent five romantic hours walking the park with my cute husband. We lost ourselves in the park and still didn’t see everything. Ah well . . . just an excuse to return sometime. We went to see the play, Wicked, and enjoyed it very much. I still feel a little guilty since that whole day centered around what Julie wanted to do. I dragged my parents and husband all over the place and it was all about me. Selfish, aren’t I? Yeah, but we had fun anyway, so it was okay.

And I know . . . no one really cares about my travelogue; you all want to know how the writer’s conference thing went. So here goes. Rutger’s one on one conference was interesting. It’s a different format than I have ever seen in a conference in that there really weren’t workshops or “writing classes.”  It started with breakfast. All the authors and writers met in one room and all the editors and agents met in another (likely to gear up for dealing with desperate writers).

Next we had an author speak to us.

Then we went into our one on one assignments. Every author was paired up with either an agent or an editor. My editor was from Harper Collins. I was excited to be paired up with her and liked her very much, but am I going to be submitting to her? No. Here’s why: She went through her previous projects with me while we were taking a moment to get to know each other and I don’t think my writing fits with her clientele. Since I write what I want to write and what pleases me, I can’t change that in order to please one editor (not that she asked me to; she was very polite and lots of fun to chat with).

First lesson learned: I do not necessarily write what will be wanted by everyone. This means when an agent or editor writes back to a query saying, “We don’t think you’re the right fit for our company.” I can now believe them and understand what they mean instead of taking it personally and thrashing and gnashing over it. Sometimes it really is all about the fit.

Next I went to lunch and found myself in between two agents who knew eachother and were good friends. In order for them to converse, they had to talk through me. I carefully joined their conversation (carefully means I wasn’t obnoxious and shoving my manuscripts over their salads, and means I made sure I made comments that were pertinent to THIER conversations). They were polite and included me in the conversation. They were fabulous lunch companions. Their names were Jessica and Nadia . . .  charming–both of them. I loved hanging out with them and will be submitting to them this week.

Second lesson learned: Never nibble at your lunch when there are friends to be made.

From there we had five on fives which is five authors sitting at a round table with five agents/editors (a nice mix of both) This was an opportunity to ask questions and find out all the things you ever wanted to know about submitting, writing, whatever. Crickets were heard at my table at the beginning. No one said anything and I have to be honest no matter how arrogant it sounds, I didn’t have any questions. This is not to say I know it all, but that I am not a new writer. I have four published books. I do have some idea about how it all works. The only questions I had were, “Will you be my agent?” and “Will you publish my book?” Naturally these are the two questions I cannot ask without looking as stupid as such questions deserve. Just to initiate actual communication at our table, I went ahead and asked a few of the more competent questions we get over at Writing on the Wall. One of the questions (though not competent, but one I am intersted in) was what is the difference between YA and middle grade. The answer: There is no answer. HA! They all had different ideas and changing opinions of what the differences were. I chuckled at that. Several of the agents and one of the editors at my table will be receiving a submission from me this week. I enjoyed talking to them and listening to them. I was surprised that no one else asked any questions until our time was nearly up.

Lesson number three: If you have an opportunity to speak to people who could impact your career, have something prepared to say before you get there.

The most fascinating aspect of this conference was watching the interaction between the agents and editors. I never really considered how important their networking was until I watched them exchange cards and phone numbers. Their entire existences depend on their ability to work together and it truly interested me to observe that mutualism.

The bottom line was that I am glad I went. It wasn’t as I’d anticipated and I can’t say if I would go again or not, but for this one experience, I believe it was worth it. If nothing else I got a wicked cool vacation and some really needed face time with my husband. Getting away together is tough because I love having the kids with us and feel bad when they don’t get to experience fun things with us. But I firmly believe every couple needs time away to be adults.

Oh and as an interesting aside, a few weeks ago my website was taken over (which is why some comments are missing from the last post . . . they got lost in the transfer from web hosting servers). During this time I had been querying agents I’d researched and felt pretty excited about. One of them went to my site while it was in the control of an errant acupuncturist. Temporary mayhem followed. The agent and I worked everything out and she requested a full manuscript.

As luck would have it, she was also at the one on one conference. I made sure to say hello. It was nice to put a face to the name behind the email exchanges. She is defintiely someone I could work with if given the chance.

No, I didn’t come home with a four book deal (rats) OR an obscenely huge advance (double rats) but I regret nothing.

PS. I hit 21,000 words on my work in progress!