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| Bonnie Doran |
Have you attended a writers' conference this year? Plans to attend any in 2014? Hey everyone, Annette here. Conferences are a great place for networking and fellowshiping with other authors. Bonnie Doran is here to share advice for what to do with those contacts you make. Enjoy!
Cultivating Contacts from Conferences
by Bonnie Doran
You’re a
published or pre-published author and you’re headed to a writers' conference.
Here are some tips to cultivate the contacts you make:
Arm
yourself before you go. Print some business cards that introduce yourself. They
don’t need to be fancy. I suggest your name, head shot, email address,
and links to your website, blog, Twitter, and Facebook if the thing doesn’t get
so crowded you have to use an eight-point font. Your cell number is fine but
don’t put personal information like your street address or home number. Keep
the cards handy.
You’ll meet
a lot of fellow writers at meals and workshops. Exchange cards. When you get
home, hunt down those contacts. Send an email, “Nice to have met you.” Friend
them on Facebook. Follow them on Twitter. Comment on their blog.
Confession
here: I didn’t do this until September. The Colorado Christian Writers
Conference was in May. Don’t do that.
You’ll also
hopefully meet some editors and agents during appointments. Ask for their cards
and explain you want to send them a thank you. Send a handwritten note. These
professionals seldom get a thank you from writers, so make yourself stand out.
Enclose your business card—you know, the one with your photo on it.
If you have
a published book or one that already has a cover design, ask the publisher for
bookmarks. They may not print them for you, but they should provide the artwork
so you can print them yourself. Hand them out with your card.
If you’re
self-published, design the bookmarks yourself. It’s not hard with the templates
and options the printers provide.
Another
contact tool is to hand out writing pens with your name and website engraved on
them. These are a bit more pricey but well worth it. I’ve had people at
conferences ask me for another pen because the one I gave them sprouted legs
and ran away.
Be sure to
order your stuff early. My bookmarks shipped to another customer. The printer
rushed a new batch to me, but don’t put yourself through that anguish.
Building
relationships requires more than handing out contact info. Talk to the people
you meet. Listen to them rather than spouting off about your latest novel. Be
an encouragement to others and let them encourage you.
I met a new
friend at a conference because we didn’t just yak at lunch and go our separate
ways. We spent the afternoon talking and laughing.
Remember,
the purpose of connecting with people at conferences is to cultivate lasting relationships,
not to build your career by adding followers to your Twitter account.
Pray for
the people you’ll meet. You never know what divine appointment God has in
store.
Prepare,
connect, and follow up. It’s that simple.
~~~~~
Bonnie Doran’s heart is in science fiction. Besides
writing, she enjoys reading, cooking, and Sudoku puzzles. Her husband of thirty
years is a Mad Scientist who owns a 2,300-pound electromagnet. They share their
Denver home with two Siamese cats.
~~~~~
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| Dark Biology |
Dark Biology
Renowned
vaccinologist "Hildi" Hildebrandt has set her sights on beating her
brother to a Nobel Prize, and the opportunity to conduct experiments on the
International Space Station might just provide the means to obtain that goal.
Chet Hildebrandt should have had that opportunity. But now he'll teach a lesson
to them all: his hot-shot astronaut sister, his philandering hypocritical
father, and the CDC for not properly appreciating his work. One vial of a virus
purloined from the CDC labs and released at his father's marriage seminar
should do the trick, without hurting anybody. After all, it's only a mild
influenza strain... Or is it?
