SCBWI in August

I know little of the conferences from personal experience, but I do know people who have gone and say it is very worthwhile. I mean SCBWI is a very reputable organisation, and they usually have amazing speakers and such.

I dunno, anyone else?

I think it could very well be worth your while. I am contemplating going, but I would need to include airfare and accomadations to my expenses.

I have some friends who have gone to it. They raved about the conference. I have not been myself.

I would love to go, but I can't this year due to a multitude of reasons.

Also, the manuscript critiques can be beneficial. They actually match people to who can help them the most based on what you submit.

Candie Moonshower is one who's manuscript was nominated by her critiquer and won an award at the conference that got her noticed by the pub companies (and eventually led to publication). She talks about it in her blog at http://c-moonshower.livejournal.com/.

I'm hoping that next year will be better. I want to attend either the LA or New York conference!

I've been to my regional SCBWI conference, but I don't think I'm going to be able to afford the big one in L.A. this year.

The regional conference I went to earlier this year was fantastic, though. I didn't pay for the formal critique session, though I did participate in informal critique sessions and got some very helpful advice. The speakers and workshops were top-notch. But what I love most about SCBWI conferences is the feeling of being around so many other writers, and being encouraged and expected to talk about what you write and how you write and about children's books you love. I got asked "what's your novel about?" so many times that I had a very nice two-sentence hook honed by the time the conference was over. Plus, the idea of the "conference high" definitely isn't overstated -- when I came home from the conference on Sunday, all I wanted to do was work on my novel. I attacked a tricky part of the second draft and haven't taken more than a few days away from my WIP since that afternoon in early March.

A lot of the advice at the conference was geared toward people who were newbies to the publishing business -- a lot of "how do I find a good agent?" and "how do I format my manuscript?" got tossed around in Q&A sessions. There was plenty of new info for people like me who are addicted to reading AW and Miss Snark and Galleycat, but I suspect that newbie writers had the most to gain from the workshops.

Anyway, if my small SCBWI event (300-ish people, I think?) was this great, I bet the big L.A. conference would be like that, times 10.

Nahotep said:

Well, I'm convinced. Thanks for the input, satori!

I signed up for the conference AND a formal critique, even though my pages aren't ready and the deadline is a month away. But that's just further incentive to keep writing and rewriting like crazy for the next few weeks so it'll be ready in time.

I love these forums.

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Congrats! I'm excited for you. I think it is a good idea to give yourself something to strive for in terms of what you send for critique.

Now I wish I could go too!

I'm going to hit up Hubby about the idea of me going. We'll see if Soccer Dad's eyes bug out when I tell him how much!

Soccer Mom said:

I'm going to hit up Hubby about the idea of me going. We'll see if Soccer Dad's eyes bug out when I tell him how much!

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Oh, take a picture! That will be one nice Kodak moment.