The reviews on the BEA/WDB conference are still trickling in … The latest is from an attendee who has excellent advice on how to approach a pitch slam. A snippet:

I think the most successful people were able to boil their book down to these three things:

Genre: I have a middle grade novel about eleven-year-old Billy
Cool factor:  who starts an "anti-bully" business with Smacker, the monster under his bed.
Closing: Smacker disappears and darker creatures arrive under Billy's bed, threatening to destroy the town, Billy's friends, and Smacker, unless Billy can give them what they want--a chance to be on American Idol.

Read the full entry at the blog Wits and Pieces.

Now that I'm back in the office, I have a few more things to share from last week's conference in Los Angeles.

FIRST, A FEW PHOTOS
These shots were taken primarily during the break after lunch, during the book signing.



Robert Brewer, editor of Writer's Market (the guy sitting behind the table), holds down the fort.




Attendees take a breather to study the agent bios, refine their afternoon pitches, make a few calls, send a few e-mails.




Here I am (on the right) answering questions at the bookstore.




A view of downtown Los Angeles from the convention center.


Thanks to attendee Dave Malone for sharing these. If anyone else has photos of the conference to share (and you'd like to see them posted here), please e-mail them to wdbooks@fwpubs.com.


WHAT OTHERS HAD TO SAY

"Oh, my God! This was incredible. As someone who teaches writing, it was both inspirational and affirming to be in the student's seat. Some of what these writers taught, I practice and, in turn, teach to my students and clients. (Yay for me.) And then there's the stuff I didn't know or hadn't thought of or hadn't been exposed to.  We're always learning, no matter what our craft."

—Dawn, an attendee, from her blog Write Well Me

"As the line in front of me got shorter, I kept repeating my pitch, but it kept changing. Should I approach it this way or that way? I had only decided to do this around 2:45pm. At about 3:12 it was my turn. I pitched. It came out lame (I thought), courtesy of my “deer in the headlights” brain freeze, but I brazened it out and went on through it to the end. The assistant and I talked over a couple of points and while I think I can guess why he liked it, I’m still not sure. He liked something about it though, because I was given contact information and told to send him the first 2 chapters."

—an attendee, from her blog My Very Own Blogetary

"The conference went very well. Nay, it went awesome. Attendance was good and the LA Convention Center was very nice. It was more hectic than last year, and I can recall three times during the day when I was in a flat sprint trying to do something."

—GLA editor Chuck Sambuchino, from his GLA blog

"The writers conference in Los Angeles went really well. I'm so glad to have met some of my blog readers there (thanks for introducing yourselves!). The event was successful again for all involved—with happy writers, editors, agents, and even the event organizers, who are notoriously hard to please."

—Writer's Market editor Robert Brewer, from his Poetic Asides blog

"An audience member said that she had read/been advised that her book proposal should include a mention of any personal finances the author planned to use to promote her book, but only if that dollar figure topped $10,000. Her question was: Is this true? The question caught me off guard—mainly because I've never heard this before. While it's definitely smart to provide any information about your self-promotional plans, it doesn't seem wise to place a dollar figure on what you're willing to spend of your own money to promote your work. And it certainly doesn't make sense (to me) to put it in writing."

—WD mag online managing editor, Brian Klems, from his blog Questions & Quandaries

"All I've gotten out of Brian so far is a link to this (admittedly hilarious, delightfully short) You Tube video, Book Launch 2.0. Check it out. And let's hope that Brian at least brings us back T-shirts."

—WD mag editor Maria Schneider, from her blog The Writer's Perspective

AND MY COMMENTS
I am unbelievably grateful to editors Chuck Sambuchino (Guide to Literary Agents), Robert Brewer (Writer's Market), and Lauren Mosko (Writer's Digest Books) for their invaluable contributions in organizing this event. And editor Brian Klems (Writer's Digest magazine) provided much-needed assistance throughout the day and during the pitch slam.

Instrumental F+W staff included Joanne Widmer (mistress of the bookstore), Laura Smith (registration savior), Suzanne Lucas and Kimberly Bolen (register goddesses), Justin Combs and Scott Francis (our muscle men), and last, but certainly not least, Greg Hatfield, my continuing partner in crime.

And of course the conference would not exist were it not for the enthusiastic support and industrious efforts of Mark Dressler, at Reed/BEA.

Finally, I appreciate the generous donation of time and energy from the agents and editors who participated in our pitch slam. Without them, such a successful event would not be possible.

If you attended the conference and would like to voice your compliments or criticisms, feel free to do so here, in the comments field, or send them privately to wdbooks@fwpubs.com

Mark your calendars for next year's conference in New York City, on May 27!