While Ron was gallivanting around the halls of San Diego Comic Con, his fellow GalleyCat was part of a high-powered group of writers, agents, editors in the midst of education, advice and of course, schmoozing. The 2nd annual Backspace Writers Conference had taken up residency last Friday and Saturday at the Algonquin hotel, and for those travelling out of town, it was a chance to catch up on old New York glamor, expensive prices and narrow staircases – as well as learn a bit more about the business than perhaps was expected. (One story told to me thirdhand concerned an attendee crying in the bathroom because she was “more depressed after one day than she had been going in.”)
Because I didn’t hit the Algonquin till a little after noon (unlike photographer Mary Reagan, who chronicled the conference in pictures) I missed out most of the morning’s events – including two panels of agents talking about the biz. Evidently the first – featuring Jeff Kleinman, Laura Rennert, Kristin Nelson and Randi Murray – were gung-ho about publicity and marketing initiatives while the second – featuring Paul Cirone, Joe Veltre and Noah Lukeman – didn’t stress such things as much. Instead, I focused my early afternoon attention on the mock editorial board run by Kleinman and Nelson which gave attendees a great deal to talk about afterwards…
The idea was to give aspiring writers a clue as to what happens when a book is submitted to editors and must go through an editorial board meeting in order to approve an offer and clarify the terms. Writers were asked to pitch their work as if they were the editors who had fallen in love and were desperate to convince their superiors that this was worth buying. The board was made up of the publisher (played by Nelson) with others playing the roles of marketing director, subsidiary rights executive, publicity director, and the specially created position of chain representative, which I volunteered for mostly because I thought it would be fun to be the so-called villainess (occasionally I’d be addressed by the name of a certain high-powered fiction buyer for a major chain.) And off we went, picking apart book pitches for marketability, what the author could do, and most importantly, the presence (or absence) of a hook.
After a short break, it was my turn to take the moderating floor, leading debut crime writer Cornelia Read and her agent, Rolph Blythe of Dunow, Carlson & Lerner, in a discussion on how Read found her agent, the role that Lee Child (in attendance with his manager, Maggie Griffin) played, the editorial process prior to submission, and the submission game. Read told a story of how Soho Press turned down her book (A FIELD OF DARKNESS) because its setting, Syracuse, “wasn’t exotic enough.” Comments to me after the panel seemed to indicate that those in attendance learned a great deal more about the author/agent relationship than they had before. Taking place at the same time was a panel on “Navigating the publishing process without going insane” featuring editors Mark Tavani, Sally Kim, Shana Drehs and Kristen Weber. But for the vagaries of scheduling conflicts, I would have been there as I would have loved to know myself…
Cocktails and dinner followed, with the Bob Kellogg Award for contributions to the Internet Writing Community given to J.A. Konrath (who toastmastered the event along with Keith Cronin.) After accepting congratulations from tablemates including Barry Eisler, Reed Farrel Coleman, and M.J. Rose (and then enduring a light roast from good friend Eisler) Konrath spoke of “paying it forward” – and how writers should be committing to helping those who haven’t progressed as far in the process.
Much more took place on day two, which I didn’t attend, but one more story worth noting is that of Jon Clinch. At the first conference a little more than a year ago, he was another unpublished writer whose fifth manuscript had not elicited much in the way of publishing bites. Afterward, he went home and came up with the idea to tell the story of “the dark, secret history of Huckleberry Finn’s father.” The result – FINN – will be out next fall as Random House‘s lead title. Because in the end, it’s all about the right project, as other Backspacers kept finding out.