3 Tips for Introverts to Make the Most of Writing Conferences, Conventions, and Book Festivals
I love writing conferences—which might be a bit surprising, considering I’m generally an introvert who, most days, will do just about anything in my power to avoid being forced to socialize. That doesn’t mean I don’t like people, though. I just like being able to engage with them on my own terms, and to retreat into my little corner of solitude when my people-ing battery starts running low.
Which is actually why I love conventions, conferences, book fests, and the like. Panels and readings give you a place to listen to other folks talk about interesting things without feeling pressure to engage. When you’re talking one-on-one, there’s less need for empty small talk—you can jump right into subjects like writing, books, or other things you actually want to talk about. For me, at least, just having those easy potential conversation starters lowers my anxiety level about entering a room full of strangers.
I hate the idea of things like networking, marketing, and promotion—they just feel so corporate and transactional, but the truth is they don’t have to be. At its heart, networking just means connecting with other people who do what you do; marketing and promotion can be reframed as finding your community and audience. Writer and book events give me a chance to do all three, in a way that’s fun and educational instead of oogly and overwhelming.
Of course, going to a conference can feel a bit intimidating, too, especially if you haven’t done it before. I’ve been attending these events for years and I still sometimes get a bit nervous before going to a new one for the first time, when I’m not sure exactly what to expect. But I do think I’ve gotten better at curating my conference experiences over the years. Here are three things that I feel help me to do that.
Tip #1: Choose the right events for your goals and genre.
Having a great experience at a festival, conference, or what-have-you starts before you register. There are a huge variety of writing and book events out there. Size-wise, they can range from a few dozen attendees to over 100,000. They vary just as much in their focus—some aim to connect writers with readers, while others are more focused on the craft of writing, or helping writers connect with agents and publishers. Some are open to all kinds of writers (usually the larger ones) while others niche down to just poets, or just speculative writing, or writers from a specific region, or some other subset.
There are three main things to think about when you’re choosing writer and book events to go to:
1. If it aligns with your niche.
There are absolutely things that, say, fiction writers can learn from poets. But when you go to events, you’re usually trying to connect with publishers, agents, and readers who’d be interested in your work, even if you’re also hoping to learn from panels or hone your craft in workshops while you’re at it.
Some events give away what they’re all about right in the name, like StokerCon (for horror) or DragonCon (for SFF). Most times, though, you’ll need to dig around their website a bit to get a sense of what they’re all about. Check out the event program and what people or organizations are signed up as exhibitors, presenters, or book sellers (or participated in past years). This should give you an idea of the community you can connect with by attending.
2. If it can advance you toward your current writing goals.
If you’re in the beginning stages of a project, or relatively new to writing in general, conferences with lots of workshops and panels will probably be most valuable for you—things where you can get advice that improves your writing craft or helps you along through the process.
Once you have work ready to send out to publishers, a conference can be a great place to meet agents, presses, and journals. The exhibitor area and readings will likely be the most valuable things, in this case—places where you can learn about the type of work different presses publish, and maybe even talk to (or pitch to) editors and agents who might be a good fit for you.
After you’ve published a book, conventions and book festivals are a chance to sell it directly to readers, which can be both a more effective way to move copies and an inarguably cooler experience than only selling online. If that’s your goal, something like a book festival is going to be more your speed—an event that’s aimed at readers as much as (or more than) writers.
These groupings aren’t necessarily career-level tiers. You might still want to go to craft-oriented conferences even after you’ve finished and published projects. On the other side, an unpublished author might want to go to book fests to check out what’s on the market and do advanced research on things like comp titles or publishers they’ll send work to. But it’s important to think about what you want from the conference before deciding to go, because the activities on offer and overall experience will be very different depending on what focus the conference has.
3. If it has the right type and number of attendees.
Attending a massive conference like AWP can be a very cool, very inspiring, and very beneficial experience. There’s something magical about being surrounded by that many people who care about words. It also means just about everyone can find something useful or interesting to them—though finding it can be tricky since there’s so much going on.
A small conference is a different kind of cool and inspiring, though. The attendees quickly develop a sense of camaraderie when there are fewer of them—you see the same people over and over in panels, hear each other read, peruse each other’s book tables. In marketing terms, there are multiple touch points that build a relationship. In human terms, you have more space to get to know people, and it creates a friendlier, more welcoming atmosphere.
This might seem backwards, but for my particular flavor of introversion, it’s actually easier for me to feel comfortable at big conferences. You become anonymous when you’re in a crowd of that size. Vendor tables often have multiple potential customers at once, allowing for conversation-free browsing; panels and readings are well-attended, which makes it easy to blend in and not draw attention. I do appreciate the more intimate feel of smaller conferences, though. It feels like a safe space to push the boundaries of my comfort zone—to let myself enjoy an extended conversation with a stranger, or to be proactive and congratulate someone on an excellent reading, even if I’m feeling shy.
Think about your own feelings on being in a big crowd, and how you like to interact with people. For a lot of people, the 10,000+ attendees at AWP—or the 100,000+ at something like the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books—is overwhelming, but a regional conference with 100-200 attendees might feel more reasonable. Choosing a conference size that matches your personal preferences will set you up for a more positive experience.
Tip #2: Research what’s going on and who will be there in advance.
Some conferences require attendees to pre-register for workshops or panels so you’ll have no choice but to do some planning. Even if this isn’t the case, though, it’s smart to scroll through the schedule, program, and list of participating exhibitors and/or authors before you go to the event. Many conferences make this info available on their website a few weeks ahead of time.
Now, you don’t need to schedule out every minute of your conference experience—in fact, I recommend leaving yourself some flexibility to check out cool things you find out about while you’re wandering (or to go to a dark room and decompress if all the people-ing gets overwhelming). What I do is go through the list and highlight the things I’m interested in, starring the handful that are my “must see”s. This at least gives me a rough outline of my day to work from, and makes sure I don’t miss anything.
There are a couple of reasons for this. One is that it can help you with Tip #1. If there are so many good panels you can’t decide which ones you’ll go to, or you have a star next to half the presses in the exhibitor hall, that’s a good sign you’re going to get a lot of value from this conference. On the other hand, if nothing catches your eye when you’re perusing the program, this might be one you want to skip.
The other big reason is that it helps you prepare, not just for how you’ll schedule your days, but also how you’ll manage your energy levels. If there’s an agent mixer you want to charge up for, you can know to plan low-key things (or nothing at all) in the time before it. This gets back to your goals, too. When you know what you want to accomplish at the conference, you can use that as a guide for how you’ll spend your time. That increases the odds you’ll feel like it was time well spent.
If you’re going to conferences to land a publisher or agent, doing research in advance also lets you plan how you’ll pitch to them if you get the opportunity. Editors and agents meet a lot of people at these events. You’ll be more likely to stand out in their minds if you can talk to them about the books they’ve published or represented, and show that you understand what they do and why you think your stuff would be a perfect fit for them. Scope out the recent releases, check out their backlist, and see if they post any other info, like manuscript wishlists or a blog, to look for ways you can connect the project you’re pitching to what they’ve done in the past, or what they want right now.
Tip #3: Take advantage of opportunities to get involved.
My shyness and introversion are at their peak when I feel like I don’t belong or fit in a group. Having a defined purpose at the conference helps to overcome this. For me, this is often a table to promote After Happy Hour or Scribble House (or both, usually). This serves as a kind of home base that grounds me. It’s also a way I can be excited about word things without needing to promote myself. I’m a lot more comfortable talking up the journal than I am selling my own writing, but I’ve gotten a lot better at both thanks to the practice I’ve gotten working a conference table.
Many of the smaller conferences I’ve gone to around Pittsburgh offer the option to add an exhibition or book sale table onto a registration for a relatively low cost. You don’t need to run a journal or press to do this. Usually these are also open to self-published authors, or people who offer writing services like editors, people who sell workshop classes, or community organizations.
There are also other ways to get involved. Many festivals have open slots for workshops or panels, and accept applications for those a few months in advance of the event. If a journal that’s published your work will be there, ask if they’re doing a reading you could jump in on. Most conferences also need volunteers, and you might even get a discount on your registration if you help out.
However you go about it, making some kind of active contribution to the conference can help you feel more like you’re part of the “in crowd”, which for me helps to minimize the imposter syndrome and makes me more comfortable interacting with people. And, from the networking side of things, it also expands the number of people you’re likely to meet and talk to over the course of the event. The more people you talk to, the more connections you’re likely to make, and the more likely you are to get future opportunities out of them.
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