The joy of festivals
This week I've been busy doing events for Portsmouth Bookfest. It's my local festival, and I've been involved with the publishing weekend programme for the last two years.
Last year I spoke there about pitching fiction. I covered the nuts and bolts of the submission process, but I also let people know how hard getting into mainstream publishing was. That resonated with a lot of people, who were pleased that I'd shared my failure stories with them, so this year I decided to do something a little different.
I titled my talk Weathering the Publication Storm, or How to Keep Writing when Nobody Wants to Read Your Work. I wanted to talk about the psychological and emotional cost of engaging with the publishing industry, I've seen a lot of discussion about this on-line this year, and I knew that many bestselling authors suffer constantly from self-doubt and the Imposter Syndrome. They also get massive attacks of jealousy when other authors' books are nominated for awards and theirs aren't.
At Winchester Writers' Conference I've had the opportunity to pitch to several agents over the years. I've also had the joy of hearing Terry Pratchett speak a few years before his untimely death. He was already suffering from Alzheimer's, and there were frequent pauses in his speech while he got his thoughts back on track, but he was there, talking about his career, and supporting other writers.
In my earlier years as a writer I and a group of friends used go to the Winchester conference for the whole weekend. Even dealing with the grubby halls of residence didn't put us off. Winchester was always a highlight of our year, a place to meet with other writer friends, learn new things, and party.
These days my festival attending has been replaced with attendance at science fiction conventions. So far I've been to two World Science Fiction Conventions, one in London, and one in Helsinki; and a couple of other cons in England. I'm now looking forward to going to the Worldcon in Dublin in August this year. SF cons are more welcoming and open than most writers' festivals, and actively ask the members what items they want to see on the panels and talks. They also give a chance to meet some of the biggest selling authors in the genre, often at publishers' parties with free wine.
Writing can be a lonely business, and festivals and cons get writers together. They remind us of why we do this difficult thing called writing, and why our writing matters. One good con can keep us going for months, and provide us with new critique partners and friends.
Comments
Post a Comment