Writers Digest Conference 2017 — Fresh Ink Book Editing

Three weekends ago, I had the pleasure of manning a booth for the Editorial Freelancers Association at the Writers Digest Conference. The conference gathered writers from all across the country, in disparate genres, and gave them the chance to attend a number of talks with industry professionals. The topics ranged from those about technique to those about the business of being a writer, i.e. social media.

The conference was at the midtown Hilton, close to where I live and work. My booth time took place on Friday, between 11:30am and 2:30pm. There I am below with my co-volunteer Laura Newman, who does medical writing. You can see the candies. The Werther's in particular were very tempting.

Book editor Maya Rock at the Editorial Freelancers Association discussing manuscript editing, book editing, developmental editing, and agent submissions.

Authors milled about the hotel halls in between their workshop/class sessions. Occasionally, they would approach the booth and ask what the Editorial Freelancers Association does. I got to tell them about all the various services the members of the organization perform for book authors. It was a really good exercise in conveying useful information in a succinct and helpful manner.

I liked the opportunity to connect with authors one on one. Writing can be so solitary, and conferences help people feel less alone. Plus, it's always inspiring to be around people pursuing their passions.

When my shift was done, I lingered at the EFA booth before I set forth into the sponsor hall myself, a moment pictured below. There I am speaking with Christina Frey (to the right of me--I'm the one with the visible totebag) of Page One Editing and Sangeeta Mehta (left of me) of Mehta Book Editing, who do developmental editing, like me.

Book editor Maya Rock at Writers Digest conference discussing book editing.

Eventually, I left home base to check out the other sponsor organizations related to writing and editing, including some I knew, like Gotham Writer's Workshop and Lulu.com, and others I didn't, like the National Writers Union (Ursula LeGuin wrote a piece here about why to join them) .

There was also this interesting set-up, pictured below--I forgot to note the exhibitor. Writers were invited to share their vulnerable thoughts on a card, and then artists would rewrite them with a more artistic flair, on a three-part portable blackboard.

On Saturday, I still had my badge, so could get into the conference. After a brisk walk in Central Park, I headed over for one talk, it was Jane Friedman's on newsletters. The talk was aimed at authors, but I went in thinking about it more for Fresh Ink.

I've never met Jane before, though I wrote a blog post on her blog, so I introduced myself in the beginning, before the talk, then sat and listened. Her advice was extremely practical. Some tidbits I found particularly noteworthy: (1) Newsletter subscription rate shot up once she started including a pop-up to join her newsletter, (2) Newsletters should come frequently, at least monthly. (3) It takes Jane 30 minutes to write her weekly newsletter.

I do a newsletter for my book editing services twice a year. (And I fell off that last year.) I always thought of it as a huge deal to gather all the info and put it together. Just hearing from Jane that she spent less time on hers expanded my mind about possibilities.

To sum up, the conference was enjoyable When it comes to writing, probably the thing I caution writers about the most is getting caught up in the marketing-publicity-sales realm. I'm always of the mindset that focusing on craft is the best thing to do, so that you attract people. However, sometimes going to conferences like these reminds me that not all non-writing time means you're distracting yourself or focusing on something that doesn't matter. Marketing/sales is all part of the greater mission of connecting with other writers and readers.