My Agent Appointment at the NEC conference

Yesterday I blogged about the highs and lows of the NEC conference on Friday night. Today I’m going to discuss the good, bad and ugly aka, my agent appointment.

I was super excited about the appointment because the agent received the query and first 10 pages prior to the meeting. This way she had time to decide if she wanted more. The appointments last 8 minutes, after the brief introductions here’s how mine went:

Good:

I love your writing

Your dialogue zips along nicely

The flow from one pov to the next is fantastic

I LOVE your heroine’s unique name.

Bad:

BUT, the concept of a woman vigilante has been done before and I don’t feel I can sell this.

What else do you have?

I explained another book that is complete, but needs revision.

Her interest piques.

I’m thinking score one for me.

I say, “Maybe I could send you a partial?”

“Sure, you can go through the normal submission process online,” she says.

Ugly:

“Do you have any questions for me?”

I hate this question because I’ve read a lot about what not to ask. I bumbled through some question and realized the more we talked we weren’t a match. She was super professional and nice, but of course as a writer I want someone who is passionate about my work like me.

She asked if I had any more questions and I said no. I stood, thanked her for her time and left.

Time spent with agent? 4 mins.

As a first timer, it was an awesome experience and I learned a lot about what to do and not do. I’m thinking of self-publishing these contemporaries anyway, but it’s always nice to see what an agent thinks. Overall I had a lot of positives coming out of the meeting. She only made 3 minor comments on my 10 pages, so I was happy.

Tomorrow I’ll talk about the guest speakers and give away a book over on my blog. :o)

Preparing for the NEC Conference

I wish I planned a post for today. I'm busy getting my promo stuff ready and packing for my trip to Salem MA this weekend where I'll be taking part in the NEC RWA Conference. I'll be signing books on Saturday at the Hawthorne Hotel with a group of fantastic authors.
I'm excited to meet our very own Julia, who will also be there signing. :o)

http://necrwa.org/blog1/conference/

Hopefully I'll have fun stories next week.

No Longer a Virgin

Conference Virgin that is. Yes, I attended my first writer’s conference this past weekend. The RWA-NEC conference. I’m a member of NEC and I must say there are a lot of EC authors! Friday my friend Donna and I arrived early. We met up with another friend for lunch. After we got settled in our rooms we registered.
The first workshop of the day was Brenda Novak. She spoke about emotion. This was a great two hour talk. The time flew by. During the Q&A someone asked if she was a plotter or pantser and her response struck a cord. She said she was a pantser. She said when she tries to write after plotting it feels forced because she feels in a lot of ways she’s already written the story. It was a light bulb moment for me.
I’m a self-proclaimed pantser, so this made sense to me. I like to let the characters explore and decide where they’re going. Looking back my rejected work has been plotted.
The food was to die for. At dinner my one friend H had the agent and editor sitting at our table laughing at her tales of drunken sluts in her books. This broke the ice for her agent appointment the next morning. She doesn’t really have drunken sluts in her books.
Dessert was a Q&A with Annette Blair. She is one of the sweetest women you’ll ever meet. I’ve known her for a little over three years and she continues to amaze me with her generosity and knowledge sharing.
The keynote speaker for breakfast was MaryJanice Davidson. OMFG, she is so funny. We laughed all through breakfast. Of course she received a standing ovation after her speech.
I attended a bunch of great workshops throughout the day including one given by fellow EC author Nina Pierce. She helped my friend H out with her workshop. H tends to write very long and Nina gave hints on how to write shorter.
There were free books and promo items galore. The conference ended with a book signing. I spent way too much, but that’s okay. That’s what it’s all about, right? Hopefully next year I’ll be sitting at one of the tables signing too.
I signed up for RomantiCon yesterday. Maybe I’ll have a print book for that conference. We’ll see.

Happy Tuesday.