As we’re all slouching towards the end of 2020, I decided I wanted to treat myself to something. I’ve been on the mailing list for the literary magazine Philadelphia Stories for years. It was one of the first journals to ever publish my work, so I was always curious to keep up with the goings on there. Each year they referenced a conference they hosted called Push to Publish. I thought it sounded fun, but I’m never in Philadelphia in October. This year, though, they opted to host the event digitally instead of canceling and I decided that I was going to take the plunge and sign up.
Speed Dates
The thing that really caught my eye was the opportunity to sign up to have ten-minute “speed dates” with agents and editors for a nominal fee ($5 for editors, $20 for agents, with caps on how many of each you could see). Once the date drew nearer, I started getting nervous. The staff gave tips for what and how to prepare, but I still had the jitters about meeting with a stranger and pitching my work for a full ten minutes. Ultimately, I think it went well. The technology issues of getting everyone into break-out rooms with the right agents and editors proved a good icebreaker. The first agent I met with was very posh and professional. She ultimately told me I could query her about the novel I pitched to her. She ended up rejecting it within a few hours when I submitted it a week later, but I still appreciate the opportunity to flex my somewhat rusty querying muscle and see if we could be a good fit.
The second meeting was with an editor. It was a little bumpier, in part because he was filling in for another editor from his organization that I’d signed up to meet with. We had a fine conversation, but it just didn’t have any kind of spark about my work.
The third meeting was great. The night before, as I was finalizing my pitch materials (essentially, summaries of my manuscript of varying lengths, from a two-sentence elevator pitch to a full page, as well as the first few chapters for screen sharing), I realized that my second book was likely a better fit for her interests. She took notes and asked questions about the manuscript the entire time and then sent me a link to submit, even though she was still closed to queries for another week. I’m trying not to get my hopes up, but if nothing else, I take it as a good sign that I’ve never submitted this second book to anyone, but the first person I did seemed genuinely interested. At the end of the day, even if I get another rejection, it’s good to know that I’ve got an idea compelling enough to get a read.
Panels
The conference had numerous panels throughout the day, many of which I found quite valuable. In particular, there was a young adult and middle grade writing panel that covered lots of important, timely topics such as Own Voices and writing productivity during the pandemic. The group was diverse and all of the panelists were engaging and thoughtful in their responses.
Q & A sessions continue be my least favorite part of panels, mostly due to mediocre white dudes who tend to use these as an opportunity to peddle their own writing, which never sounds as fabulous as they seem to think it does. I’ve always thought of Q & As as the equivalent of the comments section in a news article (though, arguably, those have gotten much worse in the past few years), so I generally avoid them. However, since I was shut up in my own bedroom for eight hours and could turn off my screen and make faces if I needed to during the really annoying questions, I decided to stick it out.
Overall Thoughts
In general, I found the conference to be worthwhile. There were some technological hiccups and a handful of annoying conference attendees that were harder to avoid in an online setting, but as a whole, I found it to be a fruitful, inspiring event. The keynote speaker was engaging and I enjoyed the prize-winning readings at the very end (aside from one of my cats deciding to throw up in the middle of it, sigh). I don’t know if online conferences are here to stay, but if I get a chance to do another one, I’d love to attend one that’s more craft-focused or even generative.
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