Next week I’ll be at the Oregon Christian Writer’s conference. I’ve been invited there before, good conference, beautiful country, good faculty and the caliber of the writers that attend is very good. It’s August 12-16th just outside of Portland Oregon.
Following that is the American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW) conference September 20-23 in Dallas. This is the premier conference for Christian fiction writers and will draw a large delegation of writers. The strength of the programming and the faculty at this conference is outstanding.
October 10-12th I’ll be at the Antelope Valley Christian Writers conference at Lake Hughes just outside of Los Angeles. This will be my first time at this conference but I’m looking forward to it.
October 26-27th will be the East Texas Christian Writers Conference at East Texas Baptist University in Marshall Texas. This is another conference I have attended a number of times, fast-paced, economical, with excellent programming and facilities on a beautiful college campus.
A quick turnaround on October 31st through November 4th will have me at the “Writing at the Ranch” Christian Writers Conference at the Ghost Ranch at Abique New Mexico. This is a beautiful retreat setting that helps recharge your batteries as well as providing terrific program content.
I don’t do conferences between Thanksgiving and New Year, that’s family time, so that will wrap it up for the year. I enjoy doing conferences and trying to work with and encourage writers. Most of the clients that I have came from a conference contact. It’s also a time to make contacts with editors and other industry professionals, seeking information that will help me better serve my clients.
My efforts are leveraged by clients attending conferences themselves and reporting back any information they can gather whether it might be useful to them or not. Gathering such information from any and all sources helps us keep track of an industry that always seems to be in a state of change. The writers? They are there to improve and develop their craft, and to make contacts much in the same manner that I’m trying to do. For writers who are often surrounded by people who don’t really ‘get it,’ it’s good to get off and interface with other writers. Even before I became an agent for years I attended 2-3 writing conferences a year and it has really paid off for me.
How about you? Hope I meet up with you at one of these events.
4 comments:
Looking forward to seeing you in east Texas. Praying safe travels for you. Enjoy the scenery. I lived in Portland for a time. Beautiful country.
Thank you for attending conferences and helping writers. I'm grateful for all I've gained from the faculty and conferees at conferences, including Oregon Christian Writers. I've attended OCW for a dozen years, and I'm sorry I can't attend this year. Although some say they can't afford to attend conferences, my experience shows you can't afford NOT to attend. God continues to use conferences to shape my writing career.
God has sure used them for me. It was at the Glorieta Conference (now Writing at the Ranch in Abique NM) where I was shown how to use my faith in my writing. You can see my writing testimony on that at www.terryburns.net/testimony.htm Every time I have needed to work through some writing related issue or problem I have found the answer at a conference including the decision to start working as an agent. Don't know how people function as writers without investing in themselves at a conference.
What fun.
I am such a conference junkie. I love hanging with writers. This year I'm trying something new and going to a speakers' conference--Christian Communicators Conference. Three weeks from now. At The Cove. Looking forward to that one.
Unfortunately, since I'm not rich, I can't go to all the conferences I want to go to. But I got to at least three a year.
Post a Comment