Well, the first sessions were generally very good, although I felt bad for the gentleman that passed out and fell down. I understand he's OK, which is of course very good news.
At the very beginning, day one at the conference felt a little like that first day of high school when you walk into the lunch room and aren't sure where to sit, and you stand there with your tray in your hands, and your brow and milk carton start to sweat as you try to figure out where to sit...
And, in fact, I started off with a poor choice. I sat by myself off to the far side of the ballroom. I realized my mistake almost immediately, but because I'm a little dim, I sat there alone trying to look interesting while everyone else was talking and networking.
So, after a few minutes, I called a do-over and left the room, re-entering and heading left instead of right, eyed a table of people who looked interesting, and asked to join them. As it turns out, it was a great selection. Soon we were playing business card poker and chatting away. Linda, Carol, Fifi, BJ, and Lloyd were a neat group and I look forward to seeing them in the morning. It seemed as though we all shared the same level of quirk, and got along very well.
The first session, led by Richard Curtis was very informative. He talked a great deal about the digital influence on publishing and about the soon to be everywhere "publishing on demand" phase of the industry. I took it to mean essentially there will be a "Red Box" for books as there is for movies these days. He illustrated some aspects of self-publishing that I hadn't thought of before. He made me think of self-publishing as of course, a mixed bag, but also somewhat akin to the "Napster Revolution." I think with time, energy, and resources, self-pub could be an interesting option for people in the dynamic world of books these days.
Chuck Sambuchino, who writes at http://www.guidetoliteraryagents.com/index.asp was tremendous. He broke down the process that most of us will go through tomorrow during the "Pitch Slam" and really, for me at least, demystified it. I've got a decent amount of work to do to feel like I'm ready to nail it, but he was beyond helpful and encouraging. Two brave souls got up and tried their pitch in front of the entire conference, and he was really very cool. I hope I get a chance to speak with him tomorrow, but regardless, I feel like I've got even more of a road map towards representing myself well tomorrow.
Off to dinner with Pelf! More to come. Thanks as always for supporting me!
1 comment:
Is Inbal living in NYC now? Tell her I said hi!!
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