In the most recent issue of Poets and Writers, Kevin Nance writes about a growing number of cancelled or postponed writers conferences across the United States, as many literary organizations feel unable to mount their usual productions in the current economic climate. So it's perfectly reasonable to ask why I've spent the greater part of 2009 working with the Mercantile Library Center for Fiction to develop (with generous co-sponsorship from Fordham University's creative writing program) what I'm hoping will be the first annual Center for Fiction Writers' Conference, scheduled to take place in less than three weeks (Saturday, June 27, at Fordham's Lincoln Center campus, to be precise).
I understand the logic, as put forward by the head of the "on hiatus" Santa Barbara Writers Conference, that "writers are notoriously broke—we don't make a lot of money—and we just aren't sure it's wise to spend whatever we do have at the moment." That's why, as I worked out the conference agenda with the Center, we made sure that the event was competitively priced: $200 for eight hours of presentations by more than two dozen authors, editors, agents, and other publishing industry insiders, plus a free month's access to the writing studios in the Center's midtown Manhattan library building. We worked hard to make sure every one of those presentations was top-notch, from Dan Menaker's keynote address to the closing panel where Jon Karp will discuss the fate of authors in publishing's future with Peter Cameron, Sigrid Nunez, and Marlon James. I firmly believe that this conference—these experts at this price—is one of the best values a writer will find in terms of his or her professional development.
And I stress the term "professional" over "literary" or "artistic," for good reason. This conference won't teach you how to become a better writer; it won't tell you how to get an agent. (The solutions to those two problems are simple, anyway: Keep writing, and come up with an amazing story.) Instead, we're aiming to show you how to maintain a successful career as a writer. That doesn't mean that you'll be able to support yourself doing nothing but writing books; what it does mean is that we want to give you tools to publish a book well enough that people will want to see your next book, and the one after that.
When is self-publishing a valid option? How do I go about creating my own buzz? Do book reviews do any good anymore? Have economic pressures changed editorial acquisition strategies? Where can you find a supportive community of fellow writers? Those are the types of questions we want to answer on June 27—making that $200 registration fee a serious investment in your professional future. (And that holds true whether you're still looking for your first deal or you've already had a book published!)
As confident as I am that the Center for Fiction and Fordham have put together what could be one of the best writers conferences to come around in a long while—and one I'd love to stage outside New York as well—it won't work without an audience. People tell me writers often wait until nearly the last minute to register for events like this, waiting to see if they can afford to come. Well, as I said at the beginning, the conference is less than three weeks away, so now's a great time to make that decision. I hope, after looking at the entire conference agenda, you'll agree that this isn't just an opportunity you can afford, it's one you don't want to miss.
Ron Hogan is the editor of Beatrice, one of the oldest continuously running literary websites. He is also the senior editor at GalleyCat, a blog about the publishing industry, and has curated a reading series for the Merc since 2008.
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