Writers Don’t Just Write …

… they go to writer conferences. If you’ve never been or even if you have before, imagine this:

A writer’s conference where you don’t have to travel to get there; where it offers preconference workshops designed specifically to improve your novel’s pitch and to make your first page, first paragraph, first line, sparkle. Now imagine the opportunity to submit that revised first page as well as a graphic one-sheet of your manuscript ahead of time, allowing editors and/or agents to view them before you go to your appointments.

But wait. Dig deep into your creative mind and picture an extra session where you get to practice your pitch BEFORE the conference.

Now you can stop imagining, because it already exists in the virtual version of the Greater Philly Christian Writers Conference. It’s coming up on June 24 through 26, 2021 and registration is open.

When I initially registered, I had no idea how many preconference perks existed. I learned about them in the welcome email I received from the conference Registrar/Appointment Coordinator, Barb Haley. She has been an absolute delight and has patiently and joyfully answered all my questions. I’m not even at the conference yet and I already feel like I belong.

The preconference webinars on the pitch and first page occurred during my work hours, but they were recorded so I could check them out on my time. Both webinars were run by a personable and entertaining literary agent, Linda Glaz, and filled with good advice and helpful examples on what works and what doesn’t.

It makes sense that if you want your pitch to stand out, you have to boil down your story to its essence and do it in under 30 words. A 300+ page novel is short by most standards, but to reduce it to one sentence can feel like a colossal task. Especially if you love every scene and every character. It’s a necessary exercise if you want an agent or editor to even think about glancing your way, but it’s HARD.

Even though I was fired up from the webinars, I still needed support from my husband; not to help me write a pitch, but to assure me that I could do it.

Whining and complaining that there was no earthly way I could write a good pitch is, according to him, my process. This was too important to trust to a grumbly process, though. I wanted to get this right. That’s when it got Biblical, with the gnashing of teeth and the rending of garments. Okay, I didn’t rend anything, but I did tug on my T-shirt collar and everybody knows a misshapen T-shirt collar is worse than a tear. Somehow, through all that agony, I birthed a pitch. Only time will tell if it was worth ruining a good T-shirt.

I will have to give an update on how the conference went in a future post, but for now, it’s not too late to sign up. You’ll be glad you did. I know I am and it hasn’t even happened yet.

This awesomely cool virtual conference is coming up in just a few weeks. It might seem like a last-minute idea, but I recommend you go for it. It’ll be well worth it. Here’s the link to register.

Hope to see you there!

PS- I just found out that a comment I submitted about this conference got posted to their Facebook page: