26th Washington Writers Conference
Saturday, May 14, 2005
2005 Washington Writers Conference
Click here for detailed conference schedule
Click here for conference tapes order form
Agent Pitching, Author Q&As, How-To Sessions and More
By Patrick Rucker, WIW Member
Success as a writer can come suddenly or not at all. We all live by that truism but best-selling author John Gilstrap has tested it.
This literary unknown became the talk of New York’s publishing world once the manuscript for his thriller Nathan’s Run made the rounds. A handsome multi-book contract and Hollywood movie deal were inked within weeks. His novels have been hits and screenwriting work has followed.
“I am in a place that I have always dreamed of being,” Gilstrap told attendees of the 2005 WIW Washington Writers Conference, before confessing that the trip has been “eh, sometimes a little frustrating.”
Writers in attendance gained from face-to-face time with prominent agents and writing coaches while learning about the vagaries of publishing and where to find new markets. The conference was often a practical guide on how to avoid frustration and not lose sight of one’s dreams.
“I got exactly what I came here for,” Gene Smith, a conference attendee, said after pitching a book proposal to one of the literary agents on hand. “Now I know where to go with my idea.”
The event, held Friday and Saturday, May 13–14, at the George Washington University Cafritz Conference Center, left many writers with the same sense of satisfaction after they had met with a variety of the specialists on hand.
Professional speechwriters offered a primer on how to break into the field. Marketing experts gave tips on how to promote a work of nonfiction. And for the first time, instructors from the Johns Hopkins Masters of Arts in Writing Program led “craft sessions” on how to bring fresh ideas to one’s writing.
“Writing a good page of prose is simply not enough,” said Mary Collins, an award-winning journalist, author and instructor in the Johns Hopkins program, who spoke about turning an interesting topic into a strong story.
Likening her lesson to “a diagnostic test for your story idea,” Collins led writers through several exercises on how to hone a broad topic into a sharp story idea.
“If you’re a brilliant writer, it’s strictly talent,” she offered. “But if you’re going to be a good writer, it’s a trade. You can learn it.”
As well as giving tips on style and technique, Collins, a successful freelancer, gave practical tips on how to navigate the market for magazine work.
Many of the top editors at large, popular magazines like Outside and National Geographic Adventure graduated from smaller, specialty publications like Field and Stream and Trout, Collins pointed out.
“Don’t just shoot for the stars,” Collins advised, but pitch ideas to magazines where a new writer will get noticed. Want a tip for finding those more obscure titles? Thumb through the racks at Barnes & Noble or a large library, Collins suggested.
Many other experienced writers at the conference offered know-how in their field.
Pete Weissman, a speechwriter on the Hill, told participants that nothing spoke louder than past experience when it comes to a career in speech writing.
“Write for anyone, even yourself, to build up your writing samples,” he suggested. A good speechwriter knows when to write folksy or straightforward, screaming or subtle from paying close attention to their client, he said.
But having a sensitive ear is nothing without practice, practice, practice. Weissman and other panelists of the "Speechifying for Fun and Profit" session suggested that writers use toastmaster clubs and the like to sharpen their skills.
A successful writer is often a journeymen who uses his skills in many different mediums, said Kojo Nnamdi, the conference’s keynote speaker.
Before he became a well-known local radio interviewer, Nnamdi had a career as a speechwriter, essayist and newsman. “If you are a writer,” Nnamdi said, “you merely adjust your skills for the medium for which you are writing.”
And in a multi-media age where people are bombarded with information, even good writing is not always enough, Nnamdi said. The hundreds of interviews that he has conducted with writers over the years have taught him that writers “who want to market themselves often need to be good talkers.”
It is a skill that publishers now expect their writers to have, Nnamdi said.
For many participants, having a one-on-one session with a literary agent was the highlight of the event. Several successful literary agents were on hand for private, 10-minute sessions to hear from writers ready to pitch their book idea.
“The caliber of the writers is quite good,” said Tracy Brown, a New York agent who flew in early Saturday to meet several writers. “D.C. is a good book town. There is talent here.”
At the end of the day’s sessions, Brown said he heard several promising ideas but wished that the writers were more comfortable talking about themselves just as much as their proposal.
“It’s a relationship,” he said. “We want to get to know the writer.”
In a competitive publishing market, several agents said, the author’s “platform” or marketing “coat tails” are more important than ever. Whatever a writer can do to build an audience for his book, agents advised, do it! Everything from establishing a personal Web site to getting bylines in prominent newspapers and magazines will help convince a publisher that a writer has a “built-in audience” for his work.
But in a capricious publishing world, more than one conference participant was reminded, writing excellence is often its own reward. Staying grounded and persevering through the travails of the writing business is key, Gilstrap said.
Before he sold his first book, Gilstrap was a self-described “closet writer” with three thrillers at home that he never sought to have published. Each one was only slightly better than the last, he said and then joked, “I was calling that growth.”
Although he has seen dizzying heights of success, Gilstrap recently went back to his early professional training as an explosives expert and said he is glad to have “a real world” back in his life.
“If he had not enjoyed meteoric success he would have kept on writing,” said Joseph Barbato, president of WIW. “It had nothing to do with hitting the big jackpot.”
A writer’s life may be uncertain, WIW members who attended the conference were reminded, but the inspiration from and constant support of one’s peers is always appreciated.
