There are amazing conferences that DO offer Authors and Illustrators a LOT and then there are... the others, that seem little more then a money maker for the person/s hosting them.
As I'm involved in children's lit, SCBWI hosts 1 and 2 day conferences that are always worth the cost of admission and the Agents, Editors are among the best in the industry, there to actually help! The manuscript and portfolio critique's cost extra, attendee's choice but are just that, critiques. The Agents and Editors get the manuscripts sent to them ahead of the conferences and have often typed out their critique or made notes on the manuscript copy or first chapter for novels and you have that to take back with you to go through in depth their suggestions, their praise and their concerns about what they have read. (along with a brief 10-15 min face to face time) What they rarely do is request. When they do, they are actually interested, they don't raise hopes just because the attendees have paid. This often affords an opportunity, when you do get a request, to sub to an other wise Agent only publishing house. That said, there is never a guarantee you will always hear back but most times you do get at least an email rejection and occasionally acceptance.
But, there is another one day writers workshop/agent day I've heard about from disgruntled attendee's. The organizer runs them sometimes twice a month almost all year long and all over the states and into Canada. Observations from these writers (the kid lit ones) that have contacted me are, everyone coming away gets a request to sub more and of those reporting, no one hears back. It appears to be done to keep paid attendee's happy during the event and not a comment on the quality of their work.
For those working in the Adult genre, are there similar Author organizations to SCBWI that offer good workshops and conferences?
