Does anyone here go to the ACFW conference?

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cgreutman

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Hey Everyone,

Just wondering if any of you go the annual American Christian Fiction Writers conferences.
 
BruceJ

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I wouldn't mind, but $$$. I go to the smaller conferences at this time. Still some great representation from the publishing industry, but not so expensive. Good example was the Northwest Christian Writer's Renewal Conference last May in Seattle. Brandilyn Collins was the featured speaker (great seminars!), and editors from Bethany House, Harvest House, Revell were there, as well as agents from WordServe and Chip MacGregor's agency. Cost for Friday-Saturday was $149.
 

cgreutman

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BruceJ, that conference sounds nice, I wish it was closer.

Gravity, I was there in 2008 also! We may have sat next to each other in a workshop.
 
Gravity

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That very well could be! I'd gone to the Glorieta conference outside Santa Fe every October for several years, and was on staff there for three. The 2008 Minneapolis ACFW conference was my first. Had a great time re-connecting with old friends. Good memories.
 
Deb Kinnard

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I'll be in Indianapolis. You'll find me behind the Midwest Zone table -- I'm the short-round one with glasses.

John, if you can't make it that'll be a loss. I'd love to connect with AWers...Roger came last year in Denver and he was very interesting to get to know.
 
Jack Parker

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There was one in Minneapolis? Cheeseballs! I wish I'd decided to start writing sooner. I could have possibly gone to that one.

Never been to a writing conference. My dream vacation would be a writing conference that takes place on a cruise ship. I could handle that.
 
Deb Kinnard

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I went. As in other years, there were some really good aspects and some not so hot. Good stuff: the seminars and continuing education sessions I attended were quite good. Not so good: the booksigning. I've seen better organized riots.

I'll be going to next year's, which will be in St. Louis, probably the same dates or close to it (3rd week in September). It's only a 5 hour drive from Chicago.

John, who's your new publisher? I consider myself between houses right now, and I'd sure love to find a permanent "home."
 
Deb Kinnard

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2011 Conference Report (from your openly biased and probably jaded Roving Reporter)

1. Organization - not as good as previous years. A higher degree of chaos, as illustrated by the fact that I had to ask permission to put my freebies out on the freebie table. The person in charge later apologized, but I'm still trying to figure that one out.

2. Hotel - nice rooms, meh food. The staff couldn't seem to figure out that if they served soup, it'd be nice to have spoons with which to consume it...

3. Publisher panels - I wish they'd schedule 'em at varying times. Nobody can attend more than one, since they're all scheduled concurrently. I can report with confidence that Zondervan is not looking for new authors with whom to work, nor for Christian spec-fic, nor for non-US settings...I'll report on the others if I hear anything specific.

4. My Sheaf House book sold out of the bookshop! Which means John's (Gravity's) superb HEADING HOME sold out also. They didn't have a booksigning at all, but asked us all to come early and sign all our stock.

5. The editors I met with are okay (within reason) with projects set in the medieval centuries. Well, at least they asked for proposals. Sorry I can't report on other genres, since I had no dog in those hunts.

6. Jeff Gerke from Marcher Lord came to the banquet in a red tabard, a plastic sword, and chain mail. Gotta love it.

7. The usual suspects won the "Carol" awards for book of the year. No real surprises there, save for the fact that Jim Rubarts' ROOMS, which released last year to such hooplah, did not win in either of the categories in which it was entered.

That's about all I can think of right now, 'cause my brain is still fried. If you have questions, post 'em and I'll see if I know the answer.

Next year is in Dallas. We're booked into a huge hotel near the airport. Since this year we had over 650 conferees, a huge hotel seems like a smart idea.
 
Gravity

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Deb Kinnard said:
2011 Conference Report (from your openly biased and probably jaded Roving Reporter)

1. Organization - not as good as previous years. A higher degree of chaos, as illustrated by the fact that I had to ask permission to put my freebies out on the freebie table. The person in charge later apologized, but I'm still trying to figure that one out.

2. Hotel - nice rooms, meh food. The staff couldn't seem to figure out that if they served soup, it'd be nice to have spoons with which to consume it...

3. Publisher panels - I wish they'd schedule 'em at varying times. Nobody can attend more than one, since they're all scheduled concurrently. I can report with confidence that Zondervan is not looking for new authors with whom to work, nor for Christian spec-fic, nor for non-US settings...I'll report on the others if I hear anything specific.

4. My Sheaf House book sold out of the bookshop! Which means John's (Gravity's) superb HEADING HOME sold out also. They didn't have a booksigning at all, but asked us all to come early and sign all our stock.

5. The editors I met with are okay (within reason) with projects set in the medieval centuries. Well, at least they asked for proposals. Sorry I can't report on other genres, since I had no dog in those hunts.

6. Jeff Gerke from Marcher Lord came to the banquet in a red tabard, a plastic sword, and chain mail. Gotta love it.

7. The usual suspects won the "Carol" awards for book of the year. No real surprises there, save for the fact that Jim Rubarts' ROOMS, which released last year to such hooplah, did not win in either of the categories in which it was entered.

That's about all I can think of right now, 'cause my brain is still fried. If you have questions, post 'em and I'll see if I know the answer.

Next year is in Dallas. We're booked into a huge hotel near the airport. Since this year we had over 650 conferees, a huge hotel seems like a smart idea.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the kind words about HH, Deb! Since I'm no longer writing for the CBA (The Radiance, my latest, will be out with a secular science fiction house this coming February, and my hope-to-be-my-agent thinks Relentless would be a good fit for the general market), I probably won't go to AFCW again.

A shame, too. I'll miss the fellowship.
 
Calla Lily

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John, that's the only thing I miss about ACFW. Other conferences have gabs and get-togethers, and they're delightfully diverse. I love them. But I also loved the prayer sessions and the overall atmosphere at ACFW. (But not all the restrictions in the CBA. :))
 
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