Parisian Phoenix Publishing

I have a “Networking for Writers” talk which I presented at the Greater Lehigh Valley Writers Group a few weeks ago to help prepare members for the conference that happened March 13-15. (You can see the slides as a paid subscriber to my Substack.)

In that talk, I assume that everyone listening is an introvert (because if you’re not, you wouldn’t need advice on how to network). And the point of the whole talk is to develop strategies to break the ice and make the connections you need.

Here’s one of the most important strategies I use every time I attend an event or present to a group:

Know what you need before you arrive and set a quantifiable goal.

Before registering for the Greater Lehigh Valley Writers Group Write Stuff Conference, I had to balance the expense with my goal. Despite my role as president of this particular group and a member of the conference planning committee, I did not automatically shell out the almost $400 in fees and an additional $150 per night in the hotel. And this year’s hotel was twenty minutes farther from my home than our venue last year.

I treated this event like I would any opportunity. While it is technically a business expense for me and we would have a table to sell books at the event book fair on Saturday, the price tag did not fit in any of my business budgets for the year and I did just travel to Massachusetts the week prior. I opted not to drive back-and-forth all three days and instead prioritize which days were best for me to attend.

And I picked attending Parisian Phoenix author Dianna Sinovic’s Friday night talk and the social reception that followed (because hors d’oeuvres and Mark Twain was scheduled to attend and I had snazzy pink sequined pants) and the Saturday main event, specifically because I wanted to see Tiffany Yates Martin, the keynote, and one of my favorite local writers and smart people, Katherine Ramsland.

Tiffany also provided an all-day intensive workshop on Friday, but her focus on backstory did not meet my current needs. Another presenter, Christian author Michelle Chenowyth presented a workshop on self-editing on Thursday morning and another on “path to publishing” for the afternoon.

I studied every presenters’ bio carefully, reading between the lines as needed, and also analyzed the session offerings for Saturday to make sure I spent my time and my money wisely. For instance, when I see phrases like “published by a large New York publisher” instead of a name for the publisher, I do the research. Because if I were “published by a large New York publisher” I would be shouting the name.

What I gained at this year’s GLVWG Write Stuff

I may share more lessons learned from the conference as I get a chance to digest and write them— but I was glad to finally have the chance to attend Suzanne Mattaboni’s presentation on researching and applying for book awards. Suzanne is the author of Once in a Lifetime and a public relations professional. Her book presents homage to the 1980s and to one of our nearby destination towns, New Hope.

And I found Katherine Ramsland’s psychology lecture on observational quotient for writers riveting— and I am still left pondering where I fall on the “need for closure” scale (and why). She also recommended the television program High Potential to give observe how perspective and observation worked together. That almost made me LOL because something about that program kept drawing me in, but I hadn’t watched it yet. (So I watched two episodes last night when I got home from the conference.)

My goals for this conference are not the same as many of the other attendees. I want to see what my peers are doing, make connections with like-minded professionals, and find nuggets of how I might grow my business and compete on the larger scale.

Meanwhile, I received a very special bonus.

You see, Tiffany Yates Martin has curly hair. And her haircut is on point. Eventually, I had to apologize for staring weirdly and we had a conversation about hair. And I went out and got her haircut.