Yesterday was a blustery day but on the agenda was Write Here, a panel on writing resources in the Capital Region hosted at the Arts Center of the Capital Region and co-hosted by the Hudson Valley Writers Guild and the New York State Writers Institute. It was a chance to get together with folks and start the long process of creating buzz for Unikirja, and also to promote Albacon as well as to sell a few other books as things turned out.We hadn't been to the Art Center before -- conveniently located across the street from Market Block Books, an independent bookseller -- but it's a great space. Of course it made it much more pleasant to immediately run into Robyn Ringler, proprietor of East Line Books and hardest-working bookseller/writing promoter in the Hudson Valley. Robyn is such a joy to be around.
The panel itself seemed to be aimed more at beginning writers, while a large part of the audience really got involved once the topics turned to promoting your writing and networking with others. I was kind of staggered by one panelist mentioning that she had been working on her novel for fifteen years (but hey, she has an agent and I don't so what should we conclude from this?). The panelists seemed to be less oriented toward the practical side of writing, but I was among a number of people from the audience who shared tips about promoting and networking using the internet (it all comes back to karma! help other people and they will help you, too. Focus only on me-me-me and no one will care).
Thanks to Megha Godambe for the invite!
2 comments:
Some agents seem to think that they are editors. A lot are or have been editors, but they aren't usually the ones who think that they should be the First Editor for their putative client.
Not the job. Really. Fifteen years for one novel probably isn't a good sign.
Nor likely to suggest it will ever become a good novel -- but I suppose sometimes quality takes time...
Not the kind of time I have!
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