This week YA Highway‘s Road Trip Wednesday asks, What book and/or writing conference would you love to go to? I’ve been lucky to attend tons of great writers conferences over the years (the majority of them RWA annual conferences when I was a member). And this year I’ve attended two already (LTUE & Spring Spirit) and have a couple more great conferences planned for the latter half of the year (the SCBWI annual summer conference and the 2012 Novelists, Inc conference).
There are a couple of conferences I dream of attending every year. The first one looks like I will only be able to attend in my imagination–the Maui Writer’s Conference. A quick search on Google tells me that after 17 years, Maui Writers has died. No new conferences since 2009.
But it always sounded like the coolest (albeit quite expensive) conference ever. First of all, who wouldn’t want to go to Maui? It was always over Labor Day weekend, so you already had that extra day off. And I know of one author (James Rollins) who told me he sold his first book thanks to the Maui Writer’s Conference writing competition.
Well, putting aside now imaginary writer’s/books conferences, on to reality. I’ve attended BEA once and that’s a conference I’d like to attend again. Also, ALA, which happens to be in Anaheim this year and I ought to attend since it’s reasonably close. (Note: Tip from a conference-attending pro. If the conference is a short drive or plane ride away, scrape your shekels together and attend).
In the farther away category, I’ve always thought it would be cool to attend one of the big foreign rights book fairs. London, Frankfurt, or Bologna would be great destinations for a combo author’s business trip and vacation. I’d love to see what one of those big international book fairs are like, even thought they’re not geared towards authors.
This wasn’t part of the original question, but of the conferences I’ve attended, I’d highly recommend the RWA conferences (expensive, but plenty of good general information), LTUE for speculative fiction, and the SCBWI conferences for children’s lit, of course (smaller local ones can be especially valuable). Wear comfortable shoes and layers for the over-air-conditioned rooms and you’ll have a great time.