This post from the BookEnds Literary Agency blog was shared around last week: Why Authors Need to Dump the Elevator Pitch. The dreaded "elevator pitch" is suggested in most conference preparation materials as essential—what if you happen to be walking down a hotel hallway with an agent, or standing in the buffet line, or in an elevator together? Surely you'd want to have a few sentence pitch for your book so you wouldn't waste the golden opportunity?
Well, I couldn't agree with the post above more. If you're feeling exhausted after a few days of the conference, imagine how it must be for the faculty. You might want a few-sentence pitch for the new friends you're going to meet at the conference, but definitely not for agents. If they want to hear about your book, they'll ask—and if you've gotten to that point, trust me, you'll have more than a few sentences to get their attention.

It basically comes down to the reminder that agents are people too. If you wouldn't like to be accosted by endless streams of people stammering out elevator pitches while you're on the way to the bathroom, or to your hotel room to lie down for ten minutes before the next round of pitches and classes, then why would you do it to someone else?

If you're planning to attend a writer's conference this summer, we have a series of conference survival tips here on the blog that can help you put your best foot forward!

If you've been part of the online kidlit writing community for a while, you may remember WriteOnCon, an amazing, completely online writer's conference that ran from 2010-2013. Putting on the conference was a TON of work, including boatloads of planning, setting up and monitoring forums for sharing work, and hosting live agent chats and keynote presentations. The organizers (understandably) decided to take a break after the 2013 conference, and it wasn't certain whether it would be held again.

I learned so much from the conference back in 2013, and I even got a couple of ninja agent requests after sharing my query and pages in the forums. So I was delighted to see that there's a shiny new WriteOnCon for 2017! It begins tomorrow, February 2, and runs through the end of the day on Saturday, February 4.

One of the big changes this year is that there's a nominal $1 fee to attend the conference. This gets you access to the blogs and vlogs. If you want to attend the live events with industry professionals, the cost is $5. This money helps defray the cost of web hosting and the time of the organizers and industry professionals.

And guys, it is TOTALLY WORTH IT. You'll pay a minimum of several hundred dollars to attend even a very small conference in person—and this one you can enjoy from the comfort of your own home! If you've been reading this blog for a while, you'll know that all of us here at Thinking to Inking are huge fans of writing conferences (in fact, that's how we all met!). WriteOnCon is an awesome way to mingle with like-minded people and benefit from the wisdom and experience of industry professionals, even if you don't have the time and/or money to go to an in-person conference.

Interested in checking it out? The main WriteOnCon page is here. There you'll find links to register, FAQs, schedules, and more.

(Psst: you can post your query and pages in the WOC forums for other writers to read and critique for free, even if you don't want to attend other parts of the conference. I have it on good authority that there will be secretive ninja agents and editors prowling around, so you may even get a request to see more pages if they like what they see!)

I was talking to an acquaintance at a party recently who mentioned that she also wrote books. She said she was pursuing traditional publication so she could "just concentrate on the writing, not all that marketing stuff."

I said something polite, but internally I was thinking about all the traditionally published authors I know who are constantly working on their marketing. Some of it, like doing market research or coming up with a synopsis to sell the book to a publisher, isn't visible to people on the outside. But most authors I see are also hard at work on improving their social media presence, doing blog tours, and in person appearances like school visits and book signings.

(Agent Jessica Faust has an excellent blog post on this topic here.)

The writer's conferences I've attended have been eye-opening, too. Many authors sign up as faculty for these conferences, not because they get paid extremely well (they don't, trust me on this), but at least in part because it raises their visibility and gives them a chance to network with other industry professionals and aspiring writers.

The bottom line is that anyone who thinks they can just write a book and forget about it immediately in this day and age is probably in for a very rude awakening. Publishers and authors form a marketing team, and an author who's willing and eager to pull his or her weight is going to look far more attractive than the alternative.

Hello out there! After a short hiatus in January, we're back with our regular twice-a-week posting schedule. Check back regularly for tips, interviews, resources, and other tidbits we hope will be of interest to YA writers.

If you've been following this blog for a while, you know I'm a big proponent of writing conferences (in fact, that's where I met co-bloggers Stacy, Jenn, and Lauren!). Most of the conferences I've attended are a pretty even mix of writing advice and publishing information, including agent/editor pitch sessions, query writing seminars, etc.

But what if you want to attend a workshop, retreat, or conference primarily to focus on your craft? Here are some popular craft-focused conferences happening in 2016.

Wordsmith Retreat
March 30—April 3, 2016
Warrenton, VA

This YA-focused workshop includes critique sessions, plenty of quiet writing time, and craft seminars. YA writers Beth Revis, Cristin Terrill, and Jennifer Armentrout lead sessions and provide expert feedback. You'll stay in a fully-equipped farmhouse and enjoy meals made by a private chef.

Highlights Whole Novel Workshop
August 7—13, 2016
near Honesdale, PA

Do you have a whole YA or MG novel that needs polishing? Many people swear by the Highlights Foundation's Whole Novel Workshops. You get the chance to get feedback on your whole novel (a nice change if you've only ever had your first few chapters critiqued) and to attend craft seminars and group discussions. You'll submit your novel far in advance to give the professional writers on the faculty time to read and critique it before the workshop begins.

Out of Excuses Writing Workshop
September 17—24, 2016
Oasis of the Seas, sailing from Ft. Lauderdale, FL

Want to really get away from it all? You can't get much farther than a writing workshop on a cruise ship. Authors Brandon Sanderson, Mary Robinette Kowal, Howard Tayler, and Dan Wells (who also host the brilliant Writing Excuses podcast) offer workshops and one-on-one critique sessions. There's also an impressive list of guest hosts this year (check out the full list at the link above).

Do you have a favorite craft-focused writing retreat or workshop? Let us know in the comments!

I attended one of my favorite writers' conferences last week, the Midwest Writers Workshop. It was a blast, as usual—tons of great writing advice, valuable networking with industry professionals, and fun times with writer friends I don't get to see often enough.

I pitched to two agents, had a one-on-one query critique with the Query Shark herself (which was amazing!), and did more socializing than I normally do in a period of several months. On the way home, I was thinking about how comfortable and relaxed I felt the whole time—a complete 180 from the way I felt before attending my first conference back in 2012. I remember sitting in my car in the parking lot, literally shaking as I psyched myself up to go inside the hotel where the conference was being held.

sex-trafficking), they told about how same producer who produced Schindler's List produced this because "what if that movie had been made during the holocaust? Would things turn out differently?" so he made one on this atrocity. Will it turn out differently? How powerful is the power of story?