Last day of Muse. Sigh. 

Sessions

Covid & Publishing.

The first session of the day is a serious challenge for this night owl. 

Regardless, this session on the effect of COVID-19 on publishing was surprisingly reassuring. I love hearing that people from more places are getting book deals, going to events, and meeting people. I missed my literary window in Minneapolis, but I’ll be damned if I let living in a small city get in my way.

A frank discussion about the pressures on authors to promote themselves showed me that it’s okay to advocate for myself — to promote myself and my book in ways that make sense to me. To say no to the things that don’t make sense.

Publishers are, yes, asking for free work when they want you to start a podcast, etc. But ultimately it’s my brand and my work that’s being supported. It’s up to me to find ways to do that without wanting to throw myself off a bridge.

Literary Idol

This session features an actor reading the first 250 words of a submitted novel, while agents listen. They raise their hands when they’d stop reading, then explain.

My selection wasn’t included, but it was fascinating nonetheless. This session helped me integrate some of the other revision lessons I learned, and taught me new ones.

Most crucially: I saw how the three agents rarely agreed. Sure, sometimes they did. But often, one of them wanted to keep going. It’s all about the right person reading the right manuscript on the right day.

Overview

I feel like I just poured rocket fuel on my writing career. 

I FINALLY TOOK MYSELF SERIOUSLY AS A WRITER. I SHOWED UP TO AN EVENT AS A SRS WRITER AND SAID THINGS TO OTHER HUMANS ABOUT WRITING.

I launched this site. I launched my twitter. So many things I’ve fretted over, endlessly, finally kicked off and ready to go. 

For my first writers’ conference, this was a huge success. I’ve been to lots and lots and lots of conferences in the tech world and a few in the dance world (and, let’s not forget, I used to run 100+ events a year for attorneys). Conferencing is in my blood at this point — maybe I should be more grateful to my early law conference days for showing me how to turn a conference, which is just some classes attached to a happy hour, into a career. 

I’m so impressed with the organization of the conference, from the excellent daily email communications to the adorable packages of fun and intrigue. I’ve never before attended a conference where I was able to move my own work forward and attend sessions and network. This one was great on all three fronts. 

After literal decades of wanting to write a novel so much that I couldn’t even look head-on at that desire, I feel like I’m finally starting to see all the pieces come together. Muse helped me with craft questions; it helped me with business questions.

Instead of massive amounts of overwhelming advice (submit to every journal! but read every journal first! but write more! but read more! But but but!), I found the next few steps on my path, in order:

1. WRITE THE DAMN BOOK. 
2. Read, mostly things relevant to this book. 
3. Submit poems for publication. 
4. Sign up as a slush reader. 
5. Share: Blogging, newsletter, twitter, Patreon. 

I’ll get there. One step at a time.