South Carolina Writers Conference

Several weeks ago, I attended the South Carolina Writers Conference (SCWW) in Myrtle Beach, SC. The conference promised advice on how to market your book. The photo above is one I took from my hotel room balcony, and in hindsight, I believe the view of the ocean may have been one of the better parts of the conference.

The conference was well-run, and I give major props to the people who put it together. The food was good and the conference ran smoothly. Anyone has organized anything as minor as a bridal shower knows that organizing an event that flows smoothly is no easy task. This event ran without any hitches. I was impressed.

Saturday was the main day for classes. I was signed up for four of them. The first was called 'How to Get Your Book Noticed'. I'm not going to throw anyone under the bus by announcing who was leading this class. I'm only going to say that the presentation and advice were not wonderful. Ms. X came into the class on time asking what she was supposed to be speaking on. I suppose I should have grabbed my schedule and found another class to attend at that moment, but I hoped for the best. After all, this woman was outgoing and vivacious, the type of person people enjoying being around.. When she found out the topic was getting your book noticed, she proceeded to discuss how to get your book noticed once you have it published. Although interesting, I'm not sure this was the advice the thirty unpublished writers in the room were hoping to receive. I thought the class would be about those of us who have an unpublished novel sitting on our computer at home, one that cannot be noticed by the general public until a literary agent and publisher takes notice of us.

The advice about bookmarks, postcards, selling yourself in gas station bathrooms (not literally yourself...we're still getting to that part) was handy and interesting, but then Ms. X started talking about wearing low-cut tops and flirting with men to sell books (before mentioning that her religion doesn't allow this, and she doesn't do it anymore). Since I didn't come to the conference to learn how to be a book whore, and since there were both men and (old) women in the class, I found this inapplicable and, yes, slightly offensive. I cut out of the class early because I wanted to get in line for a 'slush fest' in which literary agent Jenny Bent would be reading and analyzing the first pages of manuscripts. I wanted to be sure mine was one of the pages chosen.

I'm mentioning Jenny Bent because I have no reason to throw her under the bus. She was sweet, kind, and helpful, and the slush fest was one of my favorite parts of the conference. Not only did I enjoy seeing what she had to say about mine, I was interested in what she had to say about the others as well. I also found it telling when she mentioned she was reading a page on which another agent had marked several things. "I disagree with everything this other agent wrote," she said. This was both discouraging and encouraging, proving the subjectivity of the publishing industry. One agent could hate your work, but it certainly doesn't mean another won't love it.

The third class I attended was more about grammar than I had hoped, since grammar and editing are some of my strong suits, and the fourth was equally disappointing. The fourth class was on memoir writing.

Mr. X, who taught the memoir writing class, was incredibly sweet and gave me enough information about his life that I could write his memoir. However, I left completely unenlightened about how to write my own memoir. I was disappointed.

Janet Reid's talk about query letters and synoses on Sunday morning was fantastic, and I took a lot of notes on it. Unfortunately, I learned I have no idea how to write a query letter, even after spending several weekends reading the entire Miss Snark blog. I am now reading Janet's blog, Query Shark, hoping to learn more about writing queries.

Overall, the conference wasn't a complete disappointment, but I'm not sure I learned enough to warrant going again.