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FaithWriters Down Under

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11/01/2010 / Writing

It was my first ever FaithWriters conference - and I was looking forward to not just presenting a session, but also learning from and networking with other Aussie Christian writers!

My daughter Julia and I flew down to Sydney on Friday, in time to join about 20 others for a pre-conference dinner at a local steakhouse.

Before the conference I knew of one other person who was travelling from Brisbane (Rochelle Manners from Wombat Books, who was also presenting) and thought that the rest of the attendees would be from Sydney. So you can imagine my surprise at the pre-conference dinner to find I was sitting with a couple of ladies from the Gold Coast! Purely by coincidence, it was the Queensland table!

As the weekend progressed I discovered that in fact many had travelled from as far afield as Canberra, Ballarat, and even Perth! I soon realised why. This is a top-notch event!

Saturday morning bright and early, I gave my presentation on "Getting in their Good Books: how you can be the answer to your editor's prayers". Once you factored in Daylight Saving, it was actually 7.45am when I took the podium. Did I mention that I'm NOT a morning person? And that I hadn't had my regular bowl of cereal? (The hotel charged $15 for breakfast so we ventured into McDonalds instead. I had hotcakes and syrup but it's just not the same for this cereal junkie!).

I shared about my first ever submission to a magazine (at the ripe old age of 12!), and why it was a dismal failure but at the same time, encouraged the group to think of what I had done right. They all deserved gold stars for realising that the fact I had actually written and submitted something was to my credit!

After giving some of my background in writing and publishing, I talked about my ten pet peeves as an editor. I assured the group that I did this in love, because I wanted to give them the best chance of success at having their work published, and not because I'm a grumpy old cow!

Not wanting to leave things on a negative, I concluded with ten ways to win brownie points with your editor.

I must confess that the title of the next session "Nuts and Bolts for Better Writing: if you've ever written 'alot', this session is for you" didn't really appeal to me, but I was pleasantly surprised. Popular FaithWriters author, Jan Ackerson from Michigan in the USA, presented this session which proved to be a tremendous help. From now on there are no excuses I will be confident (and correct!) in my use of tricky words such as affect/effect, who/whom, it's/ its thanks to the handy little cards Jan distributed!

Although I've heard Rochelle Manners from Wombat Books speak several times before, once again I was entranced by her enthusiasm, vitality, and dedication to the cause of promoting Australian authors and their work. (Rochelle reminds me of the Energiser Bunny she just never gives up!)

After lunch, Debbie Roome, a Zimbabwean now living in New Zealand, shared from her experiences as a successful freelance writer. I always find it fascinating to hear about others' writing, and this was no exception, even though most of her material was not new to me as I have been a successful freelancer myself! I was delighted to hear that one of my old employers, Suite101, had survived the burst of the dot com bubble several years ago. They are still paying and encouraging writers online, although in a slightly different format to what I remember

Chrissy Siggee reminded us in her session that "Writing the Book is the Easy Part the real work is yet to come!", based on her experiences in self-publishing two books. Again, much of this information I already knew, having self-published two books myself, but I still picked it up some new ideas for promotion. (I've since read one of Chrissy's books, "Out of the Shadows: Jenna's Secret" about a young girl with an eating disorder, and enjoyed it very much).

The final session was with Deb Porter, an editor at FaithWriters, and the organiser of the conference. Deb spoke on "Trends in Publishing: What's Hot, What's Not, and What's Turning the World Upside Down". This is the first time I have heard the digital revolution presented as a fantastic opportunity for writers, instead of certain death to books, magazines, and authors. There is no doubt that digital publishing is turning the literary world upside down, and Deb had the statistics to prove it. Just consider this:

- In 2009, In 2009, 97% of all book sales worldwide were DTBs* (Dead Tree Books ie printed), only 3% were in digital format
- In just the first half of 2010, that 3% more than doubled to 7%!

Much as I cling to the idea of books and magazines in print format, I have come to see that there are benefits to embracing the electronic future who knows what Footprints will look like in ten years time, or what format it will be available in?

I have always thought that meeting people, and the networking that occurs between sessions is often most valuable part of a writing event. This time, I would have to say the balance was about equal the fellowship was just brilliant, but so were all the presentations.

I came home a bit lighter in the purse, but with an armload of great books that I devoured before the month was out! As a result I didn't have time for a post-conference let down - I had too much great reading to do, plus I was kept busy catching up with other conference attendees on Facebook and emails!

What can I say to sum up such an uplifting, enjoyable, informative and inspirational day except that I'll be back next year.

And maybe one day, I'll be able to attend the conference in the US!

JANET CAMILLERI is the editor of "Footprints" magazine for Australian Christian women, and author of "Clues to your Calling".

Article Source: http://www.faithwriters.com-CHRISTIAN WRITERS

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