How to Survive Writing/Book Conferences

I love writing and book conferences. These are good ways for authors to network with readers, writers, fans, bloggers, and others in the publishing industry. I learn so much at each one. Here are some hints that I've picked up along the way that can help you navigate events and networking.

1. Wear comfortable shoes. My Fitbit always gets a workout.
2. Keep emails about events (with the contact information) that you're scheduled to attend. I always keep a folder with emails and receipts. It makes it easier if you have to remember a name or a time.
3. Plan out your day of panels, workshops, and activities. Know where the rooms are. I went to one conference where the events were in two different hotels.
4. Wear layered clothes. Conference centers are often too hot or too cold.
5. You're going to get a lot of books and swag. Make sure you have room to get it all back home. Many conferences have mailing centers to ship items.
6. Carry bookmarks and business cards with you. You'll network everywhere, and it's a good idea to have items to share.
7. When you do panels, workshops, or signings, bring a copy of your latest book. It creates a visual for the audience. I bought some portable book stands, and they work great to showcase the latest novel.
8. Have your supplies handy (e.g. bookmarks, give-aways, business cards, pens, etc.) I have an emergency box with extra pens, scissors, and tape.
9. Take lots of pictures for social media posts. I learned years ago from a social media guru to post regularly during conferences. Use the event hashtags and tag people that you network with.
10. Bring a notebook or paper. Even if I'm on a panel, someone says something that I want to jot down. These events are a great exchange of ideas.
11. If you're doing an event, make sure you have give-aways. Candy is always good (especially chocolate)! Many conferences have hospitality rooms where authors can leave bookmarks or postcards.

These are photos of my adventures at Malice Domestic 2017.

L-R: Rick Ollerman, Robert Downs, Elena Hartwell, Mary Ellis, and Me

L-R: Barb Goffman, Alan Orloff, Me, Maggie King, and Teresa Inge

Me with Edith Maxwell at the Malice Banquet

Me with the Wonderful Charlaine Harris

What I Learned from Author Jenny Milchman

L-R: Heather Weidner, Rosemary Shomaker, Jenny Milchman, Mary Burton, Kelly Justice

Suspense author, Jenny Milchman, spoke to our Sisters in Crime chapter at Fountain Bookstore in downtown Richmond, Virginia. She talked about her writing journey and what happens after the contract. Here's what I learned.

1. Her path to publication was a thirteen year process. Don't give up!
2. Face-to-face contact is vital in our virtual world. Make sure you attend events and conferences to network with readers. You never know who will be there.
3. Persistance is key for those who want to be published writers.
4. Your first published novel may not be the first one you wrote.
5. There are two kinds of writers: one that thinks everything he/she has written is terrible and the other is the kind that thinks every word he/she has written is golden. Where do you fall?
6. Signing with an agent doesn't mean that the agent will be able to sell your book.
7. There are a lot more choices these days for new authors to publish and build a readership.
8. Don't forget the people who helped you along your publishing journey.
9. Sometimes, it's all about being with the right book at the right time and place.
10. Find a writers' group that is supportive. You're not alone in this.
11. Just becauseyou have a book contract doesn't mean that that publisher will want every book you write.
12. Make sure that your newsletter has good content. Don't always make the focus your book. Include anecdotes, your pets, recipes, etc. You need to connect with people.
13. If you're going to use a publicist, ask around to make sure they are known in the business. Your local booksellers are a good resource for this.
14. Target your book publicity about events to people who live near the event.
15. Social media posts with pictures do better than those without.

What Do You Do When You Don't Feel Like Writing?

Sometimes, life gets in the way, or I just don't feel like writing. I know I should write every day. I also know that the longer I stay away from my work in progress (WIP), the longer it takes to get back into the groove. But there are days I don't feel like it. Here are a few ideas to get recharged and back on track.

1. Write a blog post. Usually, the act of writing something gets me moving, and then I can return to my WIP.
2. Go on a walk or exercise. When the endorphins kick in, the energy level goes up.
3. If you sit for long periods of time, It may be time to take a break for a meal or snack. I'm a caffeine junkie, so a recharge may be in order. I have two Jack Russell Terriers, and they let me know when we've been in the office too long.
4. Sometimes, I need a day off. Grab your camera and go somewhere for an adventure.
5. Take a quick break and do a chore or two. The physical activity changes moods.
6. Try a creative project other than writing.
7. Find a new place to write. Go somewhere or go outside. A change of scenery is often nice.
8. I keep notes for each novel and a character list. Sometimes, I go back and revise these and after a little while, I'm ready to get back to the WIP.

You may need a break, and it's good to get away from your writing project every once in a while. Just don't stay away too long. I'm a binge writer. I work full-time and have an active volunteer life. I try to make time to write every day, but it doesn't always happen. Don't beat yourself up. Take a break when you need it.

What do you do when you need to get away from your writing?

How to Do a Quality Review for Your Writing

I am an IT Quality Assurance and Governance Manager by day, and that means I read, review, and write a lot of policies and procedures. My team is also responsible for reporting on progress and enforcing policy. I spent most of last week conducting quality reviews on a variety of IT documents. There are certain standards that need to be followed before the work is accepted. Self-editing is a lot like a quality review. Here are some items that you need to check as you review your work and prepare it for publication.

1. Start off with your basic spell check to catch obvious typos. Just be careful, some of the grammar suggestions are not correct.
2. Check the spelling of any brand names you use. Make sure they are spelled and capitalized correctly. (e.g. Post-it Notes, BAND-AID, etc.) Also make sure that you're not using a brand name to refer to a generic item.
3. Make sure that your word use is consistent with capitalization and hyphenation (e.g. database or data base; tshirt, Tshirt, or T-shirt).
4. Check your headers and footers. Is all of your contact information correct?
5. If you manually typed the chapter numbers, go through each and make sure you didn't skip or duplicate any.
6. Check all of your names and place names - especially if you made changes during editing. My friend renamed a character, but when it went through critique group, she found that she hadn't changed all of the instances. We were all wondering who this new character was who just appeared out of nowhere.
7. Be consistent with your use of numbers. Do you write them out or use digits? If you're using digits, you shouldn't start a sentence with it; write out the word.
8. Look for overused words. I have a bunch that I tend to repeat (and repeat). I have a list, and I add to it when I find more culprits. Use your search/replace to locate and eradicate them. My big offenders are "just" and "that."
9. Change the view on your word processer to a small percentage (e.g. 25%) so that you can see a lot of pages at once. Look at the lengths of your chapters. Are they balanced? Sometimes, I find I have a bunch of short chapters and then a series of really long ones. If possible, try to even these out.
10. If you don't have a writing partner, critique group, or beta readers, you should invest the time and find one that works for you. Real peer reviews are invaluable. I am part of a mystery critique group, and the advice and support are wonderful.

Hosting a Facebook Hop to Promote Your Book

Recently, I organized a Facebook Hop for our anthology's prelaunch. I'd participated in several and found it was a great way for authors to share connections and to find new fans and readers. A Facebook Hop is an online event that starts at your book page and connects a group of authors by linked posts. Guests start at the first site and hop through each, registering for the give-away.

Here's what I learned from putting the event together.

1. Before you begin to plan your event, check Facebook's terms and conditions about contests. They do change, and you want to make sure that you're following all the rules.
2. Recruit authors about 3-4 weeks before your event.  Have a recruitment email ready with all the pertinent information. Decide up front if you want all authors from a specific genre or not.
3. When the authors sign up, create a spreadsheet and collect names, emails, phone numbers, links to the author Facebook pages,  the prize, and an estimated prize value. I didn't put the individual prize values on any of the materials. I just used it to total the amount for all the sites (e.g. Over 25 authors and over $750 in prizes).
4. Arrange the order of the hop, starting with your page. You will want to mix up the prizes. We had a lot of ebook and book give-aways. I mixed these in with the gift cards, jewelry, and other things.  Make sure to put at least a couple of valuable items at the end to keep people interested in all the stops.
5. Make sure that all of your participants have an AUTHOR page.
6. Have a cut off date for recruiting and stick to it. Avoid adding authors. If you do, you have to go back and redo links.
7. Send an email to each author with the verbiage for the post, the artwork for the event, and a link to the next person. It took a little time to compose all of the emails, but it made the process easier for the participants.
8. Instruct the authors to schedule their post for the designated time and pin it to the top of their newsfeed. (I had to include instructions for both of these tasks in the author email.)
9. Specify the time for the hop to your authors and fans in the time zone you're in. We had folks from all over the world participate (e.g. 6:00 AM EST April 1 - 12:00 AM EST April 3).
10. We let each author pick his/her winner and post the name when the hop was over.
11. If you have rules or procedures, let everyone know them up front (e.g. like authors with hop stops shouldn't participate).
12. Get all of your participants to help advertise the event. It's a great way to share fans and readers.
13. Do not plan to do anything the morning that the hop goes live. You'll need to check all of the links. We got almost to the end before we hit a broken link. I spent several hours that morning helping a couple of authors get their posts updated.

What I Learned from Hosting an Author Facebook Party

As part of our recent launch for our mystery anthology, 50 Shades of Cabernet, we scheduled a Facebook party. It was a great way to interact with fans and friends. And we created some buzz about the book. Here's what I learned from our virtual party experience.

1. If you're planning on having a give-away or contest, make sure you read Facebook's Terms and Conditions on contests before you start your planning. These change from time to time, so you need to make sure you have the latest information, so you don't violate any agreements. (In Facebook, click on Settings and select Terms.)
2. Schedule your event in advance. Think about the time for the party. You don't want to limit it to just your time zone, but you don't want to commit to a large time block either. Ours lasted three hours.
3. Recruit author friends to stop by for a specific time. We had a group of authors, so we divided up the time slots. You want people who will chat, ask questions, respond to questions, and keep the conversation going.
4. Divide your party into 30- or 60-minute blocks for the authors to staff. Ask them to sign up for a slot. We also invited them to stay as long as they wanted, and many stayed longer than their hour.
5. Plan your give-aways. We offered some each hour, so we asked the authors to sign up for these too and let us know what the prize was. We spread these out throughout the evening. And many of the guests stayed to see what the next prize was.
6. Decide if you want your party to have a theme. We decided that our book launch was the focus. We talked about the book, our stories, wine (the theme of the anthology), and all things writing. Each author had some questions to throw in to keep the conversations going. Make it fun! Many of the authors posted a picture of the wine they were drinking and where they were at the time of the party.
7. We were going to have different threads or Facebook posts for different topics and give-aways, but some of the guests got confused, so we kept all of the conversation in one thread. You'll want to decide the logistics before you start the party.
8. Remind your guests and authors to refresh their pages frequently.
9. Publicize your event about two weeks in advance. Create a Facebook event and invite guests. Have all of the authors share the event and talk it up on their social media sites.
10. Make sure you specify the time zone for your party, so folks in other areas don't miss your event.

Amazon

8 Writerly Things I Learned at Mysterypalooza

Sisters in Crime - Central Virginia hosted Mysterypalooza last weekend. It was our chapter's 30th Anniversary Celebration for Sisters in Crime, and we had such a fun event. Mary Burton, Mary Behre, Tracey Livesay, LynDee Walker, and Mollie Cox Bryan were our panelists, and here are the eight writerly things I learned from their discussion.

1. There are so many different pathways to publication. Every author had a different journey. Several began their careers writing in another genres. And most of the panel had traditionally published. They also had books published independently or with smaller presses. Authors today are often a hybrid. You have to find what works for you and your books.

2. I enjoyed the ladies' talk about their writing lives. Most are full-time authors; though, one does have a part-time job. They described their writing spaces at home, and they ranged from full-fledged offices to a desk in a bedroom and a desk on an unheated sunporch.

3. We had a long discussion of plotters (outliners and planners) and pantsers (write by the seat of your pants). One in the group was a true plotter. Several were pantsers, but there were hyprids or combinations of the two. Some call them hybrids or plotsers. I heard a new term. Some called the hybrids "panty liners." It just proves that not every style works for every writer. Find your style.

4. The Mysterypalooza authors came from different backgrounds, and they often used their past experiences in their work. We had two former reporters and a former lawyer in the group. It's important to be able to call on what you know for your writing.

5. Author professionalism came up several times in the conversations. The panel stressed the importance of acting and looking the part when you pitch to agents, editors, or publishers. Sage advice: Follow all submission guidelines. Do not be disqualified because you didn't follow instructions.

6. Know your strengths when you are pitching to an agent, editor, or publisher. Look for smaller conferences where there are opportunities to pitch your project. If public speaking or selling yourself terrifies you, look for pitch opportunities that you can do via email or Twitter.

7. Work out your elevator speech for your book or series. Write it down. Rehearse it, and know it. Don't introduce yourself as a writer. Describe what you write in one to three sentences.

8. Find a group of writers or a writing organization that you can network with and learn from others. Many have great programs and opportunities.

I treasure my writing groups. I have learned so much from other authors. And these groups have afforded me lots of opportunities for book signings, presentations, field trips -- in addition to the commaraderie of being able to network with writers who are at different stages of their careers.

Pet Peeves - What Drives You Nuts?

I started making a list of pet peeves and it grew. Originally, I was brainstorming ideas for why someone would commit a murder or a crime, but it was cathartic to write them all down. Some are humorous, and others make me go, "Grrrr!"

1. People who leave grocery carts in parking places instead of returning them to the corral 
2. People who leave two squares of toilet paper for the next person
3. People who leave an empty box or container on the pantry shelf
4. People who talk on the phone in a public restroom
5. People who see that the copier or printer is out of paper and walk away
6. Telemarketers, especially those who call me at work on my cell phone
7. Those little ribbons for hanging in women's shirts and sweaters
8. Tags in clothing
9. People who don't hold the elevator doors for others
10. Sales people who don't listen
11. The fact that there are fewer hot dog buns in a package than the number of hot dogs in a package
12. People who talk on the phone or text during a movie in the theatre
13. Blogs that require me to login before I can comment or share
14. Companies that bombard me with surveys - In most cases, I paid for the service; I don't need homework.
15. People who dump things they don't want at the grocery store on other aisles or at the check out counter
16. People who are always preoccupied with their phones and don't talk to the people around them -- especially their children
17. Companies that use way too much packing material -- Thank goodness, I don't get those Styrofoam peanuts anymore. They used to stick to everything.
18. People who drip or spill and don't clean up their mess
19. People who talk during theatre performances or concerts
20. Dog-eared corners in books

Who knows, some of these may end up in a future book or story. What would you add to the list?