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Western Reserve Writers Conference 2017

Introduction

I attended the 34^th annual Western Reserve Writers Conference on September 23, 2017. It was located at the South Euclid-Lyndhurst branch of the Cuyahoga County Public Library at the William N. Skirball writer’s center which is located at the branch. It was a one-day event with an introduction, a keynote speaker, three breakout sessions, and one first page critique panel.

Link to Cuyahoga County Library website

https://www.cuyahogalibrary.org/

Summary – Keynote Speaker

The day began in the large meeting room which had space for over 100 attendees and the tables for the presenter’s book sale. We were first welcomed by Laurie Kincer, the librarian for the writer’s center, and then by Deanna R. Adams, the conference coordinator. They detailed how the Western Reserve Writers Conference would proceed. The keynote speaker, Brian A. Klems, was introduced. He is a senior online editor for WritersDigest.com. Brian wrote the parenting guide for fathers called Oh Boy, You’re Having a Girl. He had ten suggestions for all aspiring writers from the experience of an editor.

1. Write a great typo-free story with a protagonist with well-defined goals, a believable setting, and use the active voice.
2. Get to know the editors and agents before you pitch them.
3. Follow specific submission guidelines for each submission completed.
4. Write a great query letter.
5. Have a well-established author’s platform with a website, a twitter account, and a Facebook account.
6. Network with others with the primary objective to be useful and helpful.
7. Embrace any feedback that you receive and don’t let criticism get to you.
8. Strive to be the easiest person to work with.
9. Have more than one idea going into a pitch. You never know which idea will be the one that is successful
10. Stay positive and be excited about your story.

He was humorous and engaging. He stalked the stage and had to hurry to finish his ten points because he was running out of time since there was too much to cover in the time allotted.

This is the Goodreads link to Oh Boy, You’re Having a Girl by Brian Klems.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16219954-oh-boy-you-re-having-a-girl

Summary – Public Speaking for Writers

The first session that I attended was given by Ray McNiece called Public Speaking for Writers. The presentation seeks to teach the attendees about simple techniques to improve reading your work to a live audience. He is a poet, performer, educator, speaker, actor, musician, singer, and writer. He first asked everyone in the audience why they choose to come to this talk and what they wanted to get out of the talk.

The first thing to do as a performer is to find a sweet spot for speaking where the audience is accessible and your voice can project throughout the area. Confidence is important because if you believe in yourself then the audience will believe you. Projecting your voice is important because you want the audience to hear and understand you. Take a full deep breath from your belly button to help in projecting your voice. Gestures are important because it helps the audience to understand what you are saying and what is important. This was an interactive presentation.

My contribution was to demonstrate gestures by repeating “howdy folks” and using gestures. Memorization of the material helps in engaging the audience. The whole group participated in memorizing and reciting a poem. We incorporated all the techniques described. The Poem was by Langston Hughes.

I loved my friend.

He went away from me.

There is nothing more to say.

The poem ends,

Soft as it began—

I loved my friend.

Ray McNiece is an engaging teacher and performer. I enjoyed his presentation and was glad that I was a participant.

This is the Goodreads link to Our Way of Life by Ray McNiece.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3205163-our-way-of-life

Summary – Agents

The second presentation I attended was Agents: When you need one When you don’t by Deanna R. Adams. To answer the question of do you need an agent, you should first ask what do you want to do with your book. Self-publishing authors do not need agents. Many publishers do not accept unsolicited submissions so if your goal is to be traditionally published then you need an agent to present your work to the publishers.

Agents bring credibility and are able to negotiate a better contract for rights and for more money. Agents must be pitched your work by using a great query letter. She gave examples from the Writer’s Market from 2013. The query letter has four parts. Start with stating your book title, your genre, and your word count. Next, give examples of similar books and why yours is different than any other book. Repeat your title. End with a simple closing.

She gave the audience ten minutes to write an example query letter and a few audience members read their efforts out loud.

It is important to define the genre of the book. It must be a specific story to be sold accordingly. The voice and tone of the query letter should match the novel pitched. The query letter sells the novel so only put in your biographical material if it is relevant. The main thing in writing a query letter is that the agents want to know what the book is about.

This is the Goodreads link to The Writer’s GPS by Deanna Adams.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27810622-the-writer-s-gps

Summary – First Page Critique

Next was a First Page Critique by panelists Brian A. Klems, Denna R. Adams, and Claire McMillan. At check-in, the conference attendees could submit the first page of their work in progress. The paper had a title and genre but no name attached. Pages were randomly chosen, read aloud, and the panelists raised their hand to stop the reading. They gave their reasons at that time. Twelve pages were read but only four of the pages were completely read. The comments were interesting for all the writes in the audience. The panelists ended with their dos and don’ts.

Do bring a strong hook, have the main character named, use the five senses, know the era of the story or setting, begin the story problem or conflict, and end the page with a moment of intrigue.

Don’t start with dialogue, don’t start with the setting before the character, don’t open without action, Don’t start with a prologue, and don’t use flashbacks.

Summary – Writing and the law

The third session that I attended was Don’t get fooled again with Steve Grant. Steve Grant is an intellectual property attorney. This talk was about how to deal with the traditional publishing world and how to safeguard yourself from unscrupulous companies in the self-publishing world. The copyright act of 1976 establishes that as soon as a work is fixed in a tangible medium then the work is copyrighted. Everything is owned by somebody. Your writing is owned by you unless it is a work for hire. A work for hire is when an employee writes something in the course of their work or when someone freelances a work. Remember that a contract is made to be broken so put language into the contract detailing consequences if the contract is broken.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I enjoyed all the presentations at the Western Reserve Writers Conference 2017. I thought that the first-page critique was a good concept and hope that it is used again at next year’s conference. I will be sure to attend next year.

Links

I attended the Indie Author Day on October 14, 2017, at the South Euclid-Lyndhurst branch of the Cuyahoga County Public Library in South Euclid, Ohio. This is the link to my recap.

Indie Author Day 2017