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Making Hay at
Conferences
by Fern Reiss, CEO, PublishingGame.com
Last week, I was happy to be the keynote speaker for
the Small Publishers Association of North America (SPAN)
Conference. After spending three days meeting authors
and publishers, and giving them publicity suggestions,
I realized that while a lot of you are attending writing
and publishing conferences, some of you aren’t
maximizing the benefits. So here are a few easy tips
on getting the most from upcoming conferences.
Do your research. Before you arrive, make a list of
both your goals in attending the conference, and any
questions you have. (Try to group these questions by
category, so that when you find an appropriate person,
you can roll through your whole list.) Check out both
the list of speakers and their areas of expertise, and
the list of vendors, in compiling your list of questions,
and try to find the most appropriate person. For example,
I was dispensing information on publicity, finding literary
agents, self-publishing, selling more books, and Expertizing,
but if you had wanted details on lay-flat binding, you
would have been better off speaking to one of the many
printers in attendance.
Make appointments. Keep in mind that conferences are
a wonderful opportunity to have face-to-face time with
people who might otherwise be inaccessible to you—so
maximize that! Email the most interesting speakers and
vendors before the conference, and introduce yourself.
Explain that you know that they’ll be very busy
at the conference but that you’d love the opportunity
to buy them a coffee or a drink or a dinner. Keep your
email short and to the point (no speaker is going to
voluntarily subject themselves to an optional meal with
a stranger who sends a rambling six-page letter) and
offer them a choice of a few different times, and a way
to contact you. Most speakers won’t be able to
commit to a time in advance (there are always things
that come up that need their attention) but if you’ve
given them a choice of times and your cellphone number,
you might be able to spend a private hour with the speaker
everyone else is enamored of. (Be sure to leave those
time slots free—if your favorite speaker does contact
you and agree to a meeting, you don’t want to have
to say you’re already committed for that time.
And if you invite a speaker out, be sure to pick up the
tab.)
Evaluate your needs and their motives. Any conference
which includes vendors invites a potential conflict of
interests. On the one hand, the conference organizers
want you to get as much as possible out of the conference.
On the other hand, they want to keep their (paying) vendors
happy. This can sometimes mean that conference participants
do not get accurate information, if industry standards
are in conflict with what particular vendors are hawking.
So always keep motives in mind. Amazon may be pushing
their Search-Inside-The-Book program (as they were at
the SPAN conference) which might result in more book
sales for you—or it might result in a loss of your
intellectual property. Print-on-Demand publishers may
be offering bundled services such as editing, design,
and publicity, which sounds like an attractive package—but
the pricetag may be higher than what you might pay to
buy those services separately, or the quality of those
individual components may not be great. Marketers may
encourage you to participate in a create-a-bestseller
program where you urge your email list to buy a particular
book on a particular day—but you may not be comfortable
using your customer list in this way. Part of the allure
of being your own publishers is the freedom to make decisions
your way—so don’t be swayed by what everyone
else is doing. Evaluate what’s being offered or
sold, and determine your comfort level with it.
Harvest customer names. You’ll be doing a fair
bit of schmoozing about your book and project. Whenever
someone expresses interest, ask for their business card.
Then, when your next book comes out, you have a way to
get in touch with a potential customer. And don’t
forget to bring your own business cards, so that people
can contact you afterwards if they think of a good idea,
potential customer, or a great contact on your topic.
Keep a list. A lot of people take notes
at conferences. But in addition to taking notes, keep
a master ‘To
Do’ list for when you get home. I put my list in
the front of the conference binder, and try to prioritize
as I go, writing the ‘To Do’ items down as
I think of them, putting them either higher or lower
on the page depending on how important they are. Then,
when I get home, in addition to dozens of pages of scrawled
notes, I also have a list of prioritized items to follow.
Follow up. When you get home, do your
follow up promptly. Put your ‘To Do’ list
on the top of your desk, and knock those items off one
by one. Send quick
emails of thanks to anyone at the conference who was
particularly helpful. (Don’t forget to send a great
thank you blurb to the conference organizers and key
speakers—hearing you made a difference is always
appreciated. I also use such thank you’s as testimonials
on my website and marketing materials, and always include
the name and book title, which is free publicity for
whoever wrote it.) Sign up for those newsletters and
ezines that people told you about, and buy the books
or register for the workshops of the speakers who most
moved you. And keep the spirit and enthusiasm of the
conference alive by staying in touch with the handful
of people with whom you really connected. That way, you’ll
reap the benefits of your conference for a long time
to come.
So go out and enjoy some conferences! And if you’re
going to the NYC Small Press Bookfair, Ice Escape, Media
Relations Conference, ASJA, PMA University, or BEA, let
me know—maybe
I’ll have
time for dinner :*)
Fern Reiss is CEO of PublishingGame.com (www.PublishingGame.com) and Expertizing.com (www.Expertizing.com) and the author of the books, The Publishing Game: Find an Agent in 30 Days, The Publishing Game: Bestseller in 30 Days, and The Publishing Game: Publish a Book in 30 Days as well as several other award-winning books. She is also the Director of the International Association of Writers (www.AssociationofWriters.com) providing publicity vehicles to writers worldwide. She also runs The Expertizing® Publicity Forum where you can pitch your book or business directly to journalists; more information at www.Expertizing.com/forum.htm. Sign up for her complimentary newsletter at www.PublishingGame.com/signup.htm.
Copyright © 2011 Fern Reiss
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