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?'  

Oh, sure, there are some common themes.  Write the best book you can.  Edit, edit, edit.  Write what you want to write, in your individual voice.  This information is all good stuff, but it still doesn't guarantee publication.

Because the other thing that I've realised from listening to agents and editors talk is that their decisions on what to buy are personal.  They're made on the basis of their individual likes and dislikes.  And most of them still seem to want 'dark and gritty', or zombies, or some other such variation on darkness.

I sat on a table at Edge Lit next to the editors of a well-respected SF imprint.  Those editors were young and male.  And I have to say that the list of books they publish reflects that.  Dark. Gritty,  clockwork killer zombies.  Ho-hum.  What their list is very lacking in is real women.  By that I mean women who aren't assassins or prostitutes.

My voice, my vision, needs to be mine.  And the only way to keep it that way is to stop listening to others' advice.  It's time for a bit more isolation in my ivory tower - and a bit less con-going.