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Conventions, Dinners, Hanging Out© by Holly Lisle
All Rights Reserved
Here we have yet another series of opportunities to either have
a great time or wake up the next morning wishing you were dead.
We'll deal with conventions, writers' conferences, and so on first.
You go to them hoping to meet editors, and maybe you'll be lucky
and get the chance. If you do find yourself talking to an editor
who publishes books in your field, DO NOT whip out your manuscript
and offer to let her read it. Do not lurk outside the restroom stall
and shove it under the door at her, either. (One editor told the
story about this happening to her. I shuddered.) Do not corner her
and start telling her the plot of the book. Do not, in fact, say
anything more about you book than, at the end of your conversation---which
will NOT be exclusively about how you are a writer, please---"I've
finished a novel that I'd really like to submit to you. May I?"
If she isn't backlogged for the next two years (and some editors
are, so take her word for it if she says she can't accept anything
right at the moment), and if you were pleasant and interesting to
talk to, she'll probably say yes. When you get home, write a little
letter to cover your manuscript reminding her where she met you
and under what circumstances---"I loved your story about the publisher
and the conch soup!" for example---and ship out the manuscript,
following all the rules for correct submission.
The exception to this, of course, is if you have already sold
something to the editor, and have set aside a meeting time strictly
to discuss your work. Then, of course, you talk shop. Otherwise,
you'll still be talking shop (because when writers and editors get
together, we always fall back on talking about writing sooner or
later), but it will be generic shop talk. Pay attention to subjects---I
fell into doing a story for an L. Sprague de Camp anthology because
in general conversation with my editor at breakfast I enthused about
The Compleat Enchanter, noting that it was the first fantasy
that I read that made me want to write fantasy. Turns out she was
putting together some Compleat Enchanter stories by other writers,
edited by de Camp, and asked me if I thought I'd like to do one.
Talk about moments of magic.
Which segues us neatly into dinners, lunches, brunches, and breakfasts.
Just a few rules here.
- Listen more than you talk.
- Don't be a bore or a boor.
- Don't get drunk.
- Don't order the most expensive thing on the menu just
because she's paying.
- Don't make a pass at her no matter how cute she is and
how studly you are (or any variation on the gender thing).
- Listen more than you talk. (Yeah, I know I already said
that, but I wanted to be sure you remembered it. It's the most
important rule.)
Finally, hanging out. A few more rules.
- Don't hog access to the editor; you won't be the only
writer at the party (or fair, or whatever) and others will want
to hang out with her, too.
- Don't get drunk. This one comes up a lot, really. Where
there are editors, there tends to be free booze in almost unlimited
amounts. You would be wise to go very, very light on it; I have
seen otherwise cool writers do incredibly stupid things when they
got drunk. And anything you do not only can be held against you,
but tends to show up on film, and in conversation between other
editors and writers forever after.
- Don't talk business. Business time is for business.
It's why you get to deduct your phone calls to New York. Hanging
out is for fun, and editors like to have fun, too. And you still
get to deduct hanging out, because you are Networking and developing
Meaningful Relationships with Colleagues. I got to deduct the
balloon fight at the SFWA party, as well as the rest of that glorious
trip. Granted I sold three books that weekend, but even if I hadn't,
I met some wonderful people, and still work with many of them.
That's my take on how it's done. Now go, write, submit. Brace
yourself; your editor awaits.
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