Episode 77
WriterCon 2023 First Look (+ Discount Code!)
WriterCon 2023 in Oklahoma City is fast approaching--it’s the best writer’s conference in the Midwest!--and we have a first look at the location, who’s speaking, what you’ll learn, info about contests and pitching…and so much more! Join Chris, Gena, and Rene Gutteridge for an insider’s look at this wonderful conference.
LINKS:
- WriterCon (Use code WEAREWRITERS for $50 off) - https://www.writercon.org
- Liz Wilcox's Email Marketing Membership at https://writing.fyi/liz
- Get your FREE Move the Needle goal-setting for authors ebook at https://www.writingmomentum.com
- Write with us! Join Chris, Gena, and Rene each Wednesday at noon Central and let's get our writing DONE! https://www.writingmoments.com
Transcript
Hello and welcome to the Writing Momentum Podcast.
Speaker:I'm Christopher Maselli.
Speaker:I'm here with my wife Gena, and our good friend Rene Gutteridge.
Speaker:How are you doing Gena and Rene?
Speaker:Hey, we're doing good.
Speaker:I'm doing good.
Speaker:I won't speak for Rene.
Speaker:Well don't speak for me Gena, but yes, you've guessed right.
Speaker:I'm doing good.
Speaker:Hey, we have something exciting that we're gonna talk about today.
Speaker:That's because just recently the WriterCon writers conference website has been
Speaker:updated with the speakers and the sessions and a lot of information and we thought
Speaker:we'd take a first look because this conference is happening on September 1st
Speaker:through 4th in Oklahoma City, and it is one of our favorite writers conferences.
Speaker:We actually co-work on it, along with Red Sneakers and it's just
Speaker:a really good, strong conference.
Speaker:It is.
Speaker:And we thought that we would just look at a bit of all of it.
Speaker:And are y'all excited about it?
Speaker:We are.
Speaker:And I just wanna point out that September 1st through the 4th is over Labor
Speaker:Day weekend, so it's a long weekend.
Speaker:Which, hopefully that's a benefit to people, that they've got the
Speaker:time off from work and they've got time to come and just soak in all
Speaker:the writer-ness - is that a word?
Speaker:That's not a word.
Speaker:That's not a word.
Speaker:And it's in Oklahoma City, which is right in your neck of the woods, right Rene?
Speaker:Oh, very much in the middle of where I live.
Speaker:It's great town, easy to navigate very easy airport if you're flying in.
Speaker:And really pretty low traffic, so there's really nothing to
Speaker:complain about except the weather.
Speaker:So in advance, we are apologizing for whatever's going to happen that weekend.
Speaker:You just don't know.
Speaker:Probably a hundred degree weather, but the people are friendly
Speaker:enough that it makes up for that.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:I was just gonna say, we will be flying in.
Speaker:And that's one thing we like about this conference is it's not clear
Speaker:across the country cuz it's located right in the middle of the country.
Speaker:It's kinda no matter where you're coming from in the US it's pretty easy to get to.
Speaker:Although I know we've had people from all over the world
Speaker:before, attend this conference.
Speaker:We've had people from Canada and from Europe come.
Speaker:Yes, it's been a wonderful conference and I want to do a shout out to Oklahoma
Speaker:City because it's probably one, I think it's such a great city cuz it's
Speaker:a mid-sized city, so it's not huge.
Speaker:It's still got a small town, a little bit of a small town vibe.
Speaker:It's also a college town, so there's lots of fun eateries and places to go and
Speaker:just different places that you can visit.
Speaker:I just, I really have fun whenever we go to Oklahoma City.
Speaker:Gena had a lot of fun last time because she rented a Charger.
Speaker:I did.
Speaker:So you had a Dodge Charger and so the level of fun was just
Speaker:increased by the Dodge Charger.
Speaker:It was amped up.
Speaker:I went on to rent a car and all of a sudden I realized, it was the same
Speaker:amount to rent a regular four door sedan, Ford Taurus as it was to rent a
Speaker:pretty much a muscle car kind of thing.
Speaker:And so I talked to Chris, I'm like that sounds like fun.
Speaker:And it was like, it was, you could just feel the engine in this thing.
Speaker:It just, it was so much fun.
Speaker:You could hear her coming from the hotel.
Speaker:We could hear Gena two blocks away.
Speaker:Good time.
Speaker:So Rene, would you just for anyone who's not familiar with what a writer's
Speaker:conference is, cause I've written to a lot of writers who when I say, Hey,
Speaker:you should go to writer's conference cuz it'll really help your career.
Speaker:They're like, what is that?
Speaker:Can you give us like a just a brief overview of just what a
Speaker:conference is in general and why someone would wanna attend one.
Speaker:Sure.
Speaker:I remember when, I mean in my early twenties, I got a postcard for a
Speaker:writer's conference and I was like, what is a writer's conference?
Speaker:But I knew I wanted to be a writer, so it seemed like I should
Speaker:probably go whatever it was.
Speaker:And I went in very green not knowing at all what to expect.
Speaker:But it's basically, a whole weekend full of all the classes
Speaker:you could ever want on writing.
Speaker:It's like a, it's like a festival for writers and there's a whole
Speaker:bunch of classes on different topics and you look at the schedule and
Speaker:you pick what topics fit what kind of writing you would want to do?
Speaker:So we have fiction, we have nonfiction, we have articles.
Speaker:We even have sub genre types of classes.
Speaker:If you're into science fiction or horror or anything.
Speaker:We try to hit those sub genres as much as possible as well.
Speaker:It's just a lot of fun and you get to hang out with other writers, network,
Speaker:and you learn just as much at lunch as you do in a class sometimes.
Speaker:Highly recommended for writers.
Speaker:And in fact, a lot of people will ask me, should I go get a Master's in creative
Speaker:writing or something if I wanna do this?
Speaker:I'm like, please don't do that.
Speaker:Please don't go spend $10,000 when you could learn everything you need to know
Speaker:in a weekend at a writer's conference.
Speaker:It really is the way to educate yourself these days and in an affordable way.
Speaker:And it's whether you are a newbie to writing, if you've never written
Speaker:a book, you've just maybe written some short stories or something like
Speaker:that, and you're like, boy, I wanna learn how all this stuff works.
Speaker:Or if you are a published author and you're, you have a steady career.
Speaker:It can be beneficial no matter where you are in your journey, can't it?
Speaker:And I would say even whether you're traditionally or independently
Speaker:published we have authors at WriterCon who have done both.
Speaker:They have been freelancers, they've been contract workers, they've
Speaker:been traditionally published with and have agents, and we even have
Speaker:some agents coming to WriterCon.
Speaker:To also being independently published.
Speaker:And some of those independent authors are really hustling to market their books.
Speaker:So you can learn a lot of tips and tricks from them about how to be successful in
Speaker:marketing and selling your book as well.
Speaker:So there's just a lot.
Speaker:And in fact that's one thing that I wanna just give, a brag on WriterCon a
Speaker:little bit about is just how warm it is.
Speaker:I think everyone involved in the leadership level of this conference
Speaker:really wants it to be a place that is welcoming for writers no matter where they
Speaker:are on their journey, and I love that.
Speaker:I love that about WriterCon.
Speaker:You can walk up to any author and ask them questions, talk
Speaker:to 'em after their sessions.
Speaker:And then we even have round tables, which I'm sure we'll talk about that as well,
Speaker:but round tables at the end of the night.
Speaker:And yeah, I just, I love the atmosphere of WriterCon and I've been to other
Speaker:writers conferences and that feeling of kind of being, being alone in a crowd
Speaker:it's a horrible feeling and I don't think that, I think that WriterCon does a lot
Speaker:to alleviate that and to get rid of that.
Speaker:It's warm inside and outside.
Speaker:You're right.
Speaker:It is and I will say it's at the Renaissance Waterford,
Speaker:which is a beautiful location.
Speaker:So let's look at that because we have the website for those of you who are
Speaker:watching on YouTube, we're gonna pull the website up right here on our screens.
Speaker:And let's pull Rene in there too, there she is.
Speaker:And we're just gonna look a little bit at what they're offering and
Speaker:because this is, like I said, this is a first look this will be fun.
Speaker:If you're listening, we'll describe what we see here.
Speaker:So this is at WriterCon.com, so if you wanna follow along on your own,
Speaker:see if there's been any updates since we recorded this, you can.
Speaker:But yeah, it's gonna be at the Renaissance Waterford.
Speaker:This is our first year at that hotel, isn't it?
Speaker:This is the second year.
Speaker:Is this the second year?
Speaker:This is where we were last year as well.
Speaker:Oh, okay.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Yeah I'm already thinking a couple years in the past, I guess.
Speaker:And it's from September 1st through 4th.
Speaker:It is, and it's a very much I think it's an easy layout.
Speaker:Everything happens, pretty there are some rooms around the corner,
Speaker:down one of the hallways that I think it's an easy one to navigate.
Speaker:And I say that because we have been in years past that I have
Speaker:been at writer's conferences where there, the location makes a big
Speaker:difference to the feel of the place.
Speaker:And I think this one Renaissance Waterford just really has a warm feel to it.
Speaker:And it's a beautiful hotel.
Speaker:So if you go to the website here, you'll see that it's over Labor Day.
Speaker:Normally it's just a three day conference, and then we have a bonus
Speaker:day that's another training day.
Speaker:This year that bonus day is actually a reader's conference.
Speaker:Rene, what's that?
Speaker:It's the first time we've done it and the hope is to be able to bring
Speaker:readers in that day to celebrate with authors, get books signed, go
Speaker:to panels and different classes and interact with some of our writers.
Speaker:I think that's gonna be a lot of fun.
Speaker:It's something new that we're doing.
Speaker:And we'll get more information about it as it gets closer.
Speaker:But I think it's a really fun and great idea to, I don't know, showcase
Speaker:our writers and meet our readers.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And I think that day is free.
Speaker:I think they're allowing with people to come in for free to get
Speaker:autographs on their books and that sort of thing and learn a little
Speaker:bit about the industry, huh?
Speaker:I think so, I think it's a way and really that is fun to meet your
Speaker:readers or to, for an author to meet their readers is really fun.
Speaker:But it's also really fun as a reader to meet the author who's maybe
Speaker:written the series that you love so much that's really a lot of fun too.
Speaker:So about halfway down the page here, it has why you should join WriterCon.
Speaker:And I love this.
Speaker:These are like the four pillars of WriterCon here, right?
Speaker:The first thing they're saying is because of the conference
Speaker:and workshops, because the whole conference, you will learn so much.
Speaker:We're gonna look at the topics here in just a moment that it looks
Speaker:like might be featured this year.
Speaker:And you'll see that no matter what kind of writing you wanna do, no
Speaker:matter how in depth you wanna get, there's probably a session for you.
Speaker:It's got a lot of speakers.
Speaker:There's over 60 authors, agents, publishers, marketing
Speaker:experts, all in this one place.
Speaker:And they're all focused on writing.
Speaker:This isn't just people coming in and trying to pitch you stuff.
Speaker:These are people who are just there to train you.
Speaker:They're not selling anything.
Speaker:They're just there to train you.
Speaker:And then we've got the contest, which if you wanna enter a contest,
Speaker:you might be able to get your material noticed and become, an
Speaker:award-winning author through there.
Speaker:And then of course, there's the pitch time.
Speaker:Rene, what's the pitch time all about?
Speaker:Pitching is one of the best parts of a writer's conference in my opinion.
Speaker:It's not for everybody.
Speaker:If you're beginning it might seem terrifying and you
Speaker:may not be ready for it.
Speaker:Or you might just jump in with both feet.
Speaker:But both of those things are fine.
Speaker:But pitching is where you get a chance to get in front of an editor
Speaker:and an agent, and you have about 10 minutes to pitch your project.
Speaker:And the more you do this, the better you get at it.
Speaker:We actually offer classes on how to do this and to do it well.
Speaker:But it can be a lot of fun.
Speaker:I have seen some folks who are white as a sheet.
Speaker:Going into this, but this is not life or death.
Speaker:This is pitching in front of an editor and agent.
Speaker:And it does seem terrifying and I do realize that, but I try to have fun with
Speaker:writers and help them to realize that the person sitting across from them is
Speaker:just a human being and the worst they can do is tell you your story is terrible
Speaker:and then you can go cry and eat carbs.
Speaker:That's what I used to do.
Speaker:And then you get over it.
Speaker:But it is part of this industry, this is a industry of total subjectiveness.
Speaker:It's, they, it's not run on data.
Speaker:It's a run on somebody's opinion.
Speaker:So you've gotta learn about that, and it is part of learning about the
Speaker:industry, but people have sold books here at our conference, and that's
Speaker:what we want for people to make great connections with editors and agents and
Speaker:move their professional career forward.
Speaker:I should add that at the same time that there are workshops on just about
Speaker:every genre and that sort of thing.
Speaker:There's also contests on about every genre and people that you can pitch
Speaker:to from just about every genre.
Speaker:So it's kinda like whatever you've got, whatever you work on you've probably
Speaker:got a place that you can find to fit in.
Speaker:And I think that's one thing that you've mentioned, before we turned on today,
Speaker:was just that there, this is a conference that is for the inspirational market.
Speaker:We've got people who are speaking from the inspirational market, the
Speaker:Christian inspirational market, as well as the mainstream market.
Speaker:So that's another thing that makes WriterCon a unique one.
Speaker:Sometimes you have conferences that are strictly for inspirational
Speaker:or strictly for mainstream, or strictly for one particular genre.
Speaker:And this is a little more generalized.
Speaker:One other thing that I wanted to mention real quick, that not all
Speaker:conferences offer our consultations.
Speaker:These are all part of packages that you can purchase, but
Speaker:consultations are pretty invaluable.
Speaker:They're a chance to meet with a professional writer or editor.
Speaker:It just depends on the year and who's offering them.
Speaker:And you get about 30 minutes to ask any question you want to have that writer
Speaker:or editor or agent review your work.
Speaker:It's really invaluable.
Speaker:So that's something if you don't think you're quite ready to pitch or even
Speaker:if you're pitching that, that probably helped me years ago more than anything,
Speaker:is just to get somebody in a corner and ask every question I've ever had.
Speaker:So take a look at that too, when you're on the site.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Very good.
Speaker:Let's go ahead and go to the guest page just to see who's speaking.
Speaker:As we said, we know there's over 60 speakers.
Speaker:We have some keynotes here.
Speaker:Gena, why don't you bring us to these keynotes?
Speaker:Who do we have?
Speaker:We have Lisa Gardner, a New York Times bestselling author, and Susan
Speaker:Meisner U S A today Bestselling novelist and Toska Lee, a New York
Speaker:Times bestselling author as well.
Speaker:Hey, these are big names, aren't they?
Speaker:They are, and I believe these are all fiction authors.
Speaker:This is gonna be a lot of fun to hear them.
Speaker:And I think they've had some interesting journeys along their
Speaker:writing careers that I'm hoping that we get to hear more about as well.
Speaker:The keynotes are always really good because they can be they're super
Speaker:insightful usually, and you go out, you're just so inspired by what they have to say.
Speaker:Were you gonna add something, Rene?
Speaker:No, I don't think so.
Speaker:I think that having three ladies is exciting, so we just wanna point that out
Speaker:and always fun to hear from the women.
Speaker:So three strong really wonderful people who are coming.
Speaker:So I think you'll enjoy them.
Speaker:List here.
Speaker:I don't wanna read through all them, but as I'm scrolling down you can
Speaker:see Bob Saenz is gonna be there.
Speaker:Barry Friedman, Callie Hutton, David Holland, Frank Ball, Chrissy Johnson, Gena
Speaker:Lynnes, Henry McLaughlin, John Wooley, Julia Thomas, Kat Lewis, Laura Bernhardt.
Speaker:Laurel Thomas.
Speaker:Did I say Laurel Thomas?
Speaker:Melanie Hemry.
Speaker:Rene Gutteridge.
Speaker:We know her too.
Speaker:Rick Ludwig and I'm skipping a bunch of names too.
Speaker:There's just, I can't go through them all, but we'll do our best here.
Speaker:Shel Harrington, RJ Johnson, Tamara Grantham, Todd Fuller,
Speaker:William Bernhardt, of course.
Speaker:And Will Thomas.
Speaker:Then we've got multiple agents.
Speaker:It looks like there's going to be at least eight agents.
Speaker:We have regular agents foreign agents and a TV agent, which is pretty exciting.
Speaker:And then we've got, let's see, how many publishers do we have?
Speaker:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 publishers.
Speaker:From Babylon Books, Quill Hawk, Admission Press, Scrivenings,
Speaker:Roadrunner, Paperback Press, Young Dragons, Wild Rose, and others.
Speaker:Then there's some author assistance for things like book writing and
Speaker:apps like for instance Cameron Sutter from Plottr is gonna be there.
Speaker:Desiree Duffy, Kevin Tumlinson from Draft2Digital.
Speaker:Chris Jennings, he's an illustrator, he's gonna be there.
Speaker:Nikki Hanna, she's a writing coach.
Speaker:So you can find author assistants, you can find publicists.
Speaker:Kind of whatever you're looking for.
Speaker:There's a lot of people here.
Speaker:And then of course, you've got your host.
Speaker:And I think that's it for that page.
Speaker:Wow, that's a lot of people!
Speaker:I wanna go back to the speakers and just instead of, if you're not
Speaker:familiar with the names, maybe.
Speaker:I think it's interesting to show that we've got screenplays, we've
Speaker:got paranormal thrillers, we've got historical fiction, we've got
Speaker:children's, inspirational nonfiction.
Speaker:So there's a lot, as we mentioned before, there's a lot of different
Speaker:genres and subgenres that we've got here that are gonna be represented here.
Speaker:So that's fun to, to learn from, especially if you are somebody who
Speaker:is, you've got a specific genre, sometimes those genre, there's
Speaker:different things that you need to tackle when you're within that genre.
Speaker:So I think it's really good to hear from those people who
Speaker:are working in that field.
Speaker:For sure.
Speaker:Now, I want to also jump to the let's see, where is it at?
Speaker:The schedule here.
Speaker:Now we know that this schedule is not finalized, it's still tentative.
Speaker:But just to give you an idea of the kinds of trainings that will
Speaker:be at this conference, we thought we'd just read from a few of these.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So for instance, we have how to plot your novel from start to finish.
Speaker:That seems like a pretty, that seems like that would be a long session, but
Speaker:I think that's just a one hour session.
Speaker:Cuz that's what's cool that they do at this conference is that for every time
Speaker:period, which is about an hour long, there's four sessions happening at once.
Speaker:So even though you may say, ah, I'm not interested in writing fiction,
Speaker:I want to do nonfiction, you could just find the person who's teaching
Speaker:non-fiction during that time.
Speaker:So for instance, during this time here at 9:30 on Monday, we've got how to
Speaker:plot your novel from start to finish.
Speaker:There's an inspirational market talk as well as getting the most out of WriterCon.
Speaker:So there's a little bit of everything at that time.
Speaker:And we'll also be recording these this year.
Speaker:So if you miss one and you want to make sure and go back
Speaker:and get it you'll be able to.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Good point.
Speaker:Here's writing productivity hacks, tips and secrets that work.
Speaker:How to defend your prose in fight scenes and how to write them.
Speaker:That's fun.
Speaker:Writing book descriptions, writing proposals, blending non-fiction
Speaker:and fictional approaches.
Speaker:That sounds interesting.
Speaker:Let's see we've got, ABCs of publishing which I think the different kinds
Speaker:of publishing that there are.
Speaker:Then we have an opportunity where you can get a reservation
Speaker:and have lunch with agents.
Speaker:That's pretty cool.
Speaker:Here's a panel where it looks like you're moderating this Rene, where
Speaker:they're going to have people who submit the first pages of their novels
Speaker:and then have it read by agents and editors and get their feedback on that.
Speaker:That's always a little scary, but also very insightful.
Speaker:Here's one on mysteries, another one on pitching.
Speaker:More nonfiction, some about characters.
Speaker:How to distribute your books through a place like draft to digital.
Speaker:We've got some more marketing sessions.
Speaker:A lot of marketing sessions.
Speaker:That's great.
Speaker:And then we have the keynote.
Speaker:That's just day one, y'all.
Speaker:And then there's round tables where you can get together based on a
Speaker:genre like thrillers, mysteries, women's fiction, science fiction.
Speaker:Screenplays, nonfiction, children's, or inspirational.
Speaker:You can get at a table, talk about those things with other people,
Speaker:and it's just really like a great place to have one-on-one talk.
Speaker:And you, last year, I remember you went to several of the, you went to both nights
Speaker:of the round tables and I think you came away, feeling like that was the best.
Speaker:It was one of the best things we did.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:One of the best things you did.
Speaker:What about it was so empowering to you?
Speaker:There's something about being in a small group like that because at each one of
Speaker:these tables only fit about 10 to 12 people at most, and so it was a small
Speaker:group and you could all get together and just talk about that one thing.
Speaker:And usually the people who were moderating had a few kickoff questions
Speaker:to talk about and just help each other.
Speaker:And it was really great because as people jumped in, everyone felt like they learned
Speaker:something, everyone had something to contribute, and it was just right on
Speaker:target with whatever question you might come to the writer's conference with,
Speaker:you can get help in a session like that.
Speaker:I think that was the thing that I noticed you came away with is you felt like
Speaker:everyone had a part to play that it was this even playing field where everyone
Speaker:who was there had something that they were contributing no matter where they were
Speaker:on their journey, that they had either questions that they brought to the table
Speaker:or questions that they could answer.
Speaker:So it seemed like you came away feeling like it was really collaborative.
Speaker:Yeah, it was good.
Speaker:Really good.
Speaker:Really good.
Speaker:What are you looking forward to the most, Rene?
Speaker:Oh goodness.
Speaker:I love writer's conferences.
Speaker:I've built my career off of writer's conferences and I'm so
Speaker:thrilled to be a part of bringing a writer's conference to folks.
Speaker:To me, I love the classes.
Speaker:I still attend them and always learn something new.
Speaker:I love getting to know the writers that come and seeing the writers that we know
Speaker:because we have writers return year after year, and they return because they're
Speaker:getting something of value, right?
Speaker:They're getting wonderful education on writing.
Speaker:They're getting to see their friends again.
Speaker:And they're networking.
Speaker:They're meeting new editors.
Speaker:They're meeting new agents.
Speaker:You really can't go wrong going to a writer's conference.
Speaker:I've attended large conferences.
Speaker:I've attended small conferences my whole career and I get
Speaker:something out of all of them.
Speaker:And so WriterCon really is the cream of the crop writer's conference, I think.
Speaker:We try to offer the best that we can and I think we achieve that.
Speaker:For me, I just look forward to getting to hear what everybody else
Speaker:gets from it and learning a few new things myself when I'm not running
Speaker:like a crazy person back and forth, trying to get some, put some fire out.
Speaker:But we don't have very many fires.
Speaker:We're pretty on top of things.
Speaker:I'll tell you what.
Speaker:If you want to learn more about WriterCon and everything that's going
Speaker:on there, we just barely touched on the schedule and everything going on,
Speaker:I encourage you to go to WriterCon.com.
Speaker:That's WriterCon.com and you can read all about where it's at.
Speaker:You can look at the entire schedule.
Speaker:You can see photos from last year.
Speaker:You can find out about the contests and more about the venue.
Speaker:As well as some other things we've got going on now, if you click on the register
Speaker:now, you're able to actually go ahead and get tickets today for WriterCon.
Speaker:They are available and we have a special treat for you if you use coupon
Speaker:WEAREWRITERS, W E A R E W R I T E R S.
Speaker:WEAREWRITERS, if you type that into the coupon field, you'll get $50
Speaker:off this conference immediately.
Speaker:Which is pretty cool.
Speaker:And then we also get to see you there and so if you decide to
Speaker:come, because you've heard this on the podcast, please let us know.
Speaker:We are gonna have more podcasts, I'm sure, on writer's conferences and on
Speaker:WriterCon coming forward, because we just love talking about this thing every year.
Speaker:But be sure to check that out.
Speaker:Go to WriterCon.com use the coupon code WEAREWRITERS, get $50 off, and then
Speaker:let us know if you're gonna be there.
Speaker:We'd love to hear it.
Speaker:All right, until next time.
Speaker:I feel like we, we put in a full podcast here.
Speaker:Looking at all that.
Speaker:That's good stuff.
Speaker:We appreciate y'all joining us.
Speaker:Rene, thank you so much for joining us here today too.
Speaker:And we are not in this alone because together what Gena?
Speaker:We have writing momentum.
