All conferenced out
The advice given to writers aspiring to publication always includes attending writers' conferences and gleaning information from the 'experts'. And at an earlier stage in my development as a writer I did get useful things from conferences and workshops.
At the Writers' Festival in Winchester I heard John Berlyne talking about SF publishers not wanting anything too original. That was a lightbulb moment for me. It got me to see that the novel I'd finished wasn't just a derivative homage to my favourite CJ Cherryh and Elizabeth Moon works. 'Same, but different' was what publishers wanted, and my book fit that bill.
I have got some good snippets of information from agents who've run workshops at cons, but now I feel I'm not getting enough new from the events I'm attending to justify the cost of travelling there. Because one thing I've realised is that there are no absolute right answers to the question of 'How do I get published?'…
At the Writers' Festival in Winchester I heard John Berlyne talking about SF publishers not wanting anything too original. That was a lightbulb moment for me. It got me to see that the novel I'd finished wasn't just a derivative homage to my favourite CJ Cherryh and Elizabeth Moon works. 'Same, but different' was what publishers wanted, and my book fit that bill.
I have got some good snippets of information from agents who've run workshops at cons, but now I feel I'm not getting enough new from the events I'm attending to justify the cost of travelling there. Because one thing I've realised is that there are no absolute right answers to the question of 'How do I get published?'…