A Writer's Dream World

For years I've wondered about those writer's conferences held around the country. After attending the well-known Willamette conference in Portland recently I have a better understanding.

Perhaps it is the familiar journalist's suspicion that gave me pause beforehand. Politicians and personalities always had something to sell a newspaper person and it can be difficult to cut through the fluff. There's a growing cottage industry that feeds on writers like me - anxious to get published and willing to invest time and money to support our egos.

Most of us feel we a have life of interest to the world - usually in an autobiography. I once worked for Michael Gartner, a brilliant Iowan, former president of NBC News and Pulitzer Prize editorial writer. He said he could write a solid page of newspaper copy and I'd read every word: "The story of Denny Waller." He didn't write it, but I take a shot with a childhood memoir ("Walkin' Joe and The Midnight Marauders").

The question for would-be writers boils down to this: is this conference - or editorial service, consultation or how-to book - worth it?  Hundreds were drawn to the Portland gathering because of its good reputation. Besides educational opportunities from a series of lectures and workshops, the real goal for attendees is to get the attention of a legitimate agent for your play, movie script, novel or memoir. Writers sign up and pay for a limited number of interviews with registered agents.

There are two options to meet such a person.  You can make your pitch to a single agent in a ten-minute speech or join four or five other writers at a table, taking turns giving a two or three minute pitch to one agent. The problem with this is that a very talented writer might get wound tight over such a timed presentation and make a bad impression. All the writers I talked to were worried about the consultations - even though agents insist they look for content rather than personality. My feeling is that it helps to have both.

It is said that writing something is much easier than selling it. Today, self-publishing is easy with print-on-demand (POD) facilities, but it is not cheap. That's how I published my memoir. Still, I'd prefer to work with an agent who can push it into a wider market, hoping the message might have universal appeal. 

At Willamette I had consultations with five agents who review memoirs and now, like others, I twist in the wind to see if a professional actually reads and likes it. Although working with an agent would be exciting, my life does not hang in the balance, nor do I need a best-seller to be comfortable. Still, the challenge is dangling out there. I'm just not going to melt the charge card to build my ego. Oprah could do that for me...