I just went to my first writing conference yesterday. After a year of sitting quietly at home trying to figure things out by myself, it was like drinking from a fire hose of information. I attended two talks from a keynote speaker, three breakout sessions and had about twenty chats with random authors. I am going to need a couple of weeks to process all those words poured into my ears. 

First impressions: it was about a 80/20 split of women and men, and most were older than me, so fifty plus. It was a Christian conference, so it might have been a different vibe than a general one. My favorite question to ask was, “What do you write about?” A woman about the age and size of my mother-in-law wrote about her father who was a doctor attending to the survivors of Dachau. So despite the chill vibe, these ladies are bringing the heat to paper. 

I was woefully under prepared for displaying my books. The brochure said there was “room on a table” to sell my books so I brought a dozen books. Everyone else brought table cloths, signs, display racks and candy bowls. I didn’t sell any copies, but the copy I donated for the raffle got chosen right away, so at least one might get read. 

I went to a demonstration on audio book production, and learned what a marketing magnet was. The rest is scribbled in a notebook and on the edges of handouts for me to pick through in the weeks to come. 

Happy writing!