You can now see a preliminary list of speakers and the topics they’ll be teaching. We’ll have more than 50 classes for you to choose from; this list includes around 40 of them. You’ve been asking who will be speaking, so we wanted to put as much information up as we could as quickly as possible. Several panel discussions as well as more classes taught by literary agents are in the works and will be added to the lineup soon.

Take a look at the names on that list. Along with several notable names from the north Texas writing scene, you’ll see that this year’s conference has not one, not two, but three New York Times bestselling authors teaching classes: James Rollins, Jodi Thomas and Lori Wilde.

You may also notice something important about the subject matter. Book publishing is going through big changes, and we’ve made sure the selection of classes this year reflects that. The variety of routes to publication, the pros and cons of each, and techniques for being successful no matter which route you take will receive a lot of attention from this year’s speakers. They include literary agents, editors, independent authors, publicists, and a representative for a printing company.

But in the midst of all this business talk, we won’t be neglecting the craft of writing by any means. In fact, we’ve established a roughly 50-50 split between craft and business.

To see the list just go to the Classes tab in the top menu or click here. And stay tuned for updates. More is on the way!

Steve Manning
Education director

Becky Vinter began her career in publishing at the Feminist Press in 2006, before moving to NAL/Penguin, where she edited commercial women’s fiction. She joined FinePrint Literary Management in 2011 and is currently looking for a range of both fiction and nonfiction projects. Becky grew up in London and earned her BA in English Literature from the University of Leeds. She now lives in Brooklyn.

She is seeking: Becky likes the whole spectrum of women’s fiction, from literary to “bookclub” to romance of all sub-genres. She is also in the market for YA fiction with strong female protagonists. In nonfiction, she likes well-crafted narrative nonfiction, including memoir, current events, travel, pop culture, wellness, yoga and food.

Find her at:

QueryTracker

Twitter: @bvinter

How many of you came to the conference last year?
<waits for show of hands>

Wow! That’s a lot!  How many of you went to the Gong Show(s)?
<waits again>
Whoa! Even more!  That’s terrific.

The Gong Show, in case you didn’t attend, was where we had The Voice of The Gong Show read (anonymous!) query letters to a group of agents. When the agents were at a point in the query letter where they would stop reading, they bang the gong in front of them.

Once three agents bang out, The Voice stops reading and the host of the show asks the agents why they would stop at that point. Agents get to have fun listening to the letters, and we the viewing audience gets to have fun and we get to learn.  Who knew learning could be so much fun?!

Never let it be said we are one to rest on our laurels. (One? No, there’s a whole group of us!)

This year, we’re going to trick it up a little. On the first day, we’re going to have The Voice read query letters, just like last year.  However, on the second day, we’re going to have him read the first page of your submission. Yep. That first word, that first sentence, that first paragraph, (still anonymously, so the innocent can stay that way) all the way to the end (if the agents don’t start banging that gong).

We are doing this simply because, it’s the writing that matters most. You can have a great query that may elicit some reading of your first page, but if that first page doesn’t hook the agent (or editor) pretty darn quick, you’re wasting your time.

This should make for some pretty interesting feedback and we all will learn something about the thought processes that go into why a work grabs someone and why it fails.

You want to have your query or first page read at the conference (anonymously!) you can either let me know, or you can just bring it with you.  We’ll have a collection spot for them.  Will all of them get read? Probably not. We’ll be picking them in random order, so you may not hear yours—but who knows, maybe you will.

Don’t start freaking out just yet!

~Jason

Meredith Barnes is an associate agent at Lowenstein Associates. She is particularly interested in building her nonfiction list, especially blog-to-book projects and projects dealing with alternative lifestyles (such as micro-farming) and social issues. She is also extremely interested in health, fitness, and spirituality nonfiction with a strong author platform, including an online presence.

Meredith is interested in a wide range of engaging fiction for all ages. For adults, she’s looking for literary fiction, women’s fiction and romance, thrillers, and crime fiction. She is open to science fiction and fantasy that has something new to offer the genres. For Middle Grade readers, she is looking for adventure stories that appeal to a male audience. She is not actively taking on Young Adult fiction, although something highly unusual (read: nontrendy) or literary will always catch her eye no matter the target audience. She does not represent early readers or children’s picture books.

For both nonfiction and fiction, Meredith considers more than just the print possibilities. Projects that lend themselves to apps, enhanced ebooks, and other fresh ways to tell stories are especially appealing.

Find her at:

Querytracker

Twitter: @mer_barnes

Blog

Jill Marsal is a partner at the Marsal Lyon Literary Agency. She has been in the publishing industry almost 15 years, previously working as a Literary Agent with the Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency and at Dorchester Publishing, editing women’s fiction, romance, and suspense/thrillers.

On the fiction front, Jill looks for all types of romance (contemporary, paranormal, romantic suspense, historical, and category), women’s fiction and family stories, cozy mysteries, and thrillers. She is also looking for general commercial fiction and welcomes a dramatic storyline and compelling characters in interesting situations or relationships. On the non-fiction side, Jill’s areas of interest include business, current events, health, self-help/advice, relationships, psychology, parenting, and narrative non-fiction.

Find her at:

Querytracker

Agentquery

Twitter: @jillmarsal

Hey everyone,

Finally got the hotel information ironed out for the conference. After working diligently with the hotels around the area, we wrangled one!

It’s the Hyatt Place, and we got a good discount. Click the ‘hotel’ link and get all the details.

The Hyatt is within walking distance of the conference center, so you won’t have to drive back and forth and the rooms are pretty nice too.

~Jason

We’re proud to announce that the following publishing industry professionals have accepted our invitation to attend the 2012 DFW Writers’ Conference. More will be announced as soon as we have confirmation.

Literary Agents

• Elizabeth Evans, Jean V. Naggar Literary
• Eddie Schneider, JaBerwocky Lit
• Sara Crowe, Harvey Klinger, Inc.
• Paul Levine, Paul S. Levine Literary Agency
• Lucienne Diver, Knight Agency
• Sarah Lapolla, Curtis Brown Ltd
• Sally Harding, Cooke Agency
• Meredith Barnes, Lowenstein Associates
• Laurie McLean, Larsen Pomada Literary Agents
• Becky Vinter, Fine Print Literary
• Jennie Goloboy, Red Sofa Literary
• Lauren Ruth, BookEnds, LLC
• Alec Shane, Writers’ House
• Marcy Posner, Folio Literary Agency
• Bob Mecoy, Bob Mecoy Literary Agency
• Jill Marsal, Marsal Lyon Literary Agency
• Ann Collette, Rees Literary Agency
• Marlene Stringer, Stringer Literary Agency

Editors

• Krista Marino, Random House
• Devi Pillai, Orbit Books

More details, including the genres they’re interested in and the classes they will be teaching, will be posted as it becomes available. Stay tuned!

Today I wanted to talk to you about your goals.
You do have goals, right? You may have them, but have never pinned them to the wall.

So stop right now, close your eyes and ask yourself what your writing/writer goals are.
I will wait.

<waiting>

<surfing the internet>

<mad dash to the restroom>

Okay. Did you do it? Good.

So, do you want to be a NY Times Bestseller? Do you want to just get your books into the hands of all those people out there you know will love them?

Please don’t come back with the worn out “I have to write. I can’t not write.”
That’s not a goal. That’s a declarative statement. Ask yourself why you write and what you want out of it. Sitting in front of a computer for hours and hours and hours typing away is not a normal activity, and if you’re not doing it for some purpose, you might want to Bing some mental help.

Yeah, writing can be, and is, therapeutic and cathartic but let’s not focus on that. Focus on your goals.

Now that you have them firmly planted in your mind, let’s ask, “How does a conference help me achieve my goals?”

A few things you’re going to get at a conference regardless of any sessions or classes you attend: face time with publishing professionals, face time with other writers at different levels than you, and fun. (Well you should have fun at a conference. If for some reason you don’t have some fun at our conference this year, by all means, come and talk to me.)

At our conference we try to cover a broad swath of topics for writers at all levels and stages.

We try to have some topics for those who want to be a bestseller, those who just want to write a book for their friends, those who are thinking of writing a non-fiction book about healthcare in America, and all the others.

But the question is, do we have what you in particular need?

This month we’ll be working on our education tracts for the conference. We’re breaking our items down into categories and sub-categories. It’s a lot of work, takes a lot of time, and there are usually quite a few disagreements and arguments during the process. Productive discussions, but we all are passionate about bringing the value to our attendees.

My recommendation to you is, once we get our education lined up and posted, and you’ve set your goals, peruse our offerings and see how many are beneficial to you.

You’ll find we have a lot of items that can help you achieve your goals.

 ~Jason

Value

It’s something we all consider when spending our hard-earned cash. Are we getting the value out of the money we’ve spent? The value of many things eludes me. (Diamonds, expensive shoes, parakeets) But I think most of us can agree in principal what constitutes a good value.

Why am I stuck on this topic? Because we think our conference delivers a great value to our attendees. We offer a bevy of educational classes that are aimed toward the beginner or the seasoned pro. We have sessions on the business of publishing, the growing trend of e-publishing, and how to understand the finances of the business. All set in a beautiful new state-of-the-art facility, Hurst Conference Center in Hurst, Texas.

We give our attendees some of the best exposure to the industry by inviting publishing professionals who are movers and shakers in the business. And  Our conferences allow you to get face-to-face time with individuals who actually have answers to your questions. We also go out of our way to have different professionals every year so you get some variety and value each year you attend.

We give all writers a venue to network and mix with other like-minded people. Writing is of course a lonely activity. We need to get together and visit!

We don’t charge for the extra things that other conferences do. Our Keynote Speech is free, our parking is free, our restrooms are free!  But free is not always a value is it? There are many things in this world that are free, and I wouldn’t look twice, because I don’t put any value into it. We can yell about our free stuff all day, but to me, that’s not where our value is. Our value is in the actual meat of the conference.  The part you actually attend.

If you price our conference against others out there, you’ll see we offer more than they do while having a lower price point.

We offer a better value.

~Jason

The publishing business is going through probably the most cataclysmic events it’s experienced since the Great Depression. (That’s when the first “sale by commission” started at all bookstores and has been ever since. This is also one of the reasons the publishing industry finds itself where it is now.)

Is publishing really in the place many pundits are claiming? Are we truly in the position of where the mid-list authors are going away and if your story doesn’t have the makings of a true best-seller, then you might as well just put it in the digital drawer and try the next story? Or is the market gearing up for more niche stories?

Is traditional publishing dead as so many are decrying? (Oddly enough it seems to be the aforementioned mid-list authors that are telling us this with the most vehemence.) Is the future of publishing truly in the hands of the writer?(And was it ever NOT in the hands of the writer?) Is self-publishing the wave of the future? Is that where we’re all going? Will we all be publishing our books on Smashwords or PubIt or Kindle KDP in the future, eschewing the normal path of the Big 6? Will the Big 6 crumble? Will it become the Big 4? The Big 3? What will be the role of the Literary Agent in the coming moments of change?

So many questions, so few answers.

We as a conference committee have to stay cognizant of publishing trends and stay abreast of changes. What this means to you, the attendee is every year we strive to come up with content that is relevant in the current market. And it’s not easy, especially now.

We typically break the education portion of our conference into two parts, a business side and a craft side. It just makes sense. The problem is, the publishing business is changing so fast, it’s hard for us to determine what the best possible classes and sessions would benefit you in regard to the business aspects of writing. We have our work cut out for us.

Fortunately, the craft part of the business doesn’t change so rapidly. Write a good story is still the chorus we hear everywhere. You write a good story and worry about everything else later. But even that is in jeopardy now. Writers must have an online presence, a facebook page, a blog, a twitter account, etc. We’re told industry professionals seek these locations out when looking at a writer’s overall portfolio. So the craft part of the business is more intimately tied into the craft than ever before.

So what’s a writer like yourself supposed to do? Firstly, keep attending conferences (of course!) but make sure the conference is truly keeping up with the trends of today. It does you no good to attend a conference that is still operating like it’s 1999. We are in a completely different arena today. The game has changed and we must change too.

~Jason

Well we’re very lucky this year!

We have managed to wrangle James Rollins as our Keynote Speaker. He is proof that our conference just keeps getting better every year. Mr. Rollins is a NY Times best seller many times over, and brings to the conference a “thrilling” energy that can only come from a thriller writer.

I have been a fan of James Rollins for a very long time now, and when it came my time to be the director, I knew I wanted him. I started out on bended knee, but turns out that wasn’t necessary. Mr. Rollins graciously accepted our invitation and we look forward to having him come. It should be a fun time for everyone.

You can read about him on his website.

~Jason

Agents Louise Fury, Dawn Frederick and Adam Friedstein, all of whom were special guests at our 2011 conference, have written back to tell us what they thought.

Check it out!

Hey all,

Welcome to the 2012 DFW Writers’ Conference portal. We’re going to be updating it with more and more information in the coming months, so stay tuned.  We’ve already started our planning process and gathering pertinent info to make sure this year’s conference is even better than last years!

Yes, I agree. That will take some serious doing. But we’re a committed bunch.

So Watch This Space, more information is coming.

~Jason

Candace Isenhower attended her first writers’ conference in 2009: The DFW Writers’ Conference. And she walked away with agent representation by Uwe Stender.

Here’s how it happened.

The next DFW Writers’ Conference is April 10&11, 2010, at the City of Grapevine Convention Center. Details here.

Pitching your novel, or nonfiction book proposal to a literary agent can be the most exciting — and nerve-wracking — time in any author’s life. The key to a successful pitch session is preparation. Here are a few tips that will help you make the best of your experience:   

• Pitch sessions are up to 10 minutes long. No more time is allowed. Make certain you can present your idea within that timeframe.  
  • Suggestion: It’s a good strategy to keep your pitch to no more than 5 minutes. Use the remaining time for questions and wrap-up.
     
• You will be in the same room at the same time with other writers who are presenting their book ideas to other agents. Don’t be nervous. Speak in a normal, conversational tone.
   
• Do not bring a copy of your completed manuscript. Agents do not accept paper. If the agent is interested in your book idea, he or she will provide instructions on their agency’s preferred submission process.   
   
• Do bring a notepad and something with which to write.  The agents are a wealth of information on the publishing industry.  
   
• Here are a few websites that discuss how to pitch; however, this is not an all-inclusive list.  Surf the Internet for more.
   
• Here are some articles that discuss how to pitch your work to a literary agent, but please search for more. The Internet is a wealth of helpful information.
  ·          The Perfect Pitch: Pitching to Agents at a Writing Conference  A good article to help you prepare. http://www.writing-world.com/publish/pitch.shtml
  ·         “How to Pitch Your Book at a Writing Conference”.  Another great article from the same source can be found at http://www.writing-world.com/publish/pitch2.shtml  
   
• Rehearse your pitch, but pick a listener who will offer you honest feedback, not someone who loves you enough to overlook your flaws. 
  • Suggestion:  Try not to memorize your pitch word-for-word. Instead, strive for a conversational approach. If you memorize your pitch and stumble on a word, or the agent interrupts you to ask a question, it might throw you off. Be prepared, but just talk to the agent as you would any other new acquaintance.
     
• FREE ON-LINE CLASS:  Unlike other conferences, which charge extra for such classes, the DFW Writers’ Conference brings you “Agent Pitches 101″ from author Candace Havens’ Writers Workshop free of charge. The class will focus on the basics of perfecting your agent pitch. After you register for the conference, you will be given the full details.Good luck!  We look forward to seeing you at the 2010 DFW Writers’ Conference.