Romance and mystery writer Judi McCoy sat at eye level with Carolina Writers Conference attendees as she spoke about the business side of the writing industry.
About 150 aspiring writers and volunteers attended the day-long event on Saturday, April 4, at South Piedmont Community College's (SPCC) Lockhart-Taylor Center, which featured talks by well-known authors Robert Inman, Judi McCoy, Robert Macomber and Glenis Redmond, among others.
"We got some really good feedback from the attending writers," said Elbert Marshall, president of the Anson County Writers' Club and one of the organizers of the event. "The general consensus was that it was very well organized and well run."
Inman, author of "Home Fires Burning," "Old Dogs and Children," "Dairy Queen Days" and "Captain Saturday," started off the 9-to-5 conference, with a 45-minute discussion on Southern fiction. Inman said that as a novelist, screenwriter and essayist, he and all the other writers in the room "have already admitted to the world that we've taken leave of our senses."
His novels focus on life in the South, and Inman proved he's well in touch with the culture, by his discussion on "who are your people?" He called "who are your people" something of a competitive game for many Southerners, who will spend great lengths of time trying to find a common thread with a stranger by finding out who they are kin to and where they're from.
"The important thing is not what [your book] is about," he told the aspiring writers. "It's who it's about. Who are your people?"
Inman called writing "lonely, painful work," describing it as "giving birth to an elephant." "You hope that no one notices that it has long, floppy ears and is kind of homely looking," he said.
After individual sessions on "Romance A-Z" by Leigh Greenwood, "E-book Publishing" by Kim Hunter, "Writing the Historical Book" by Prudy T. Board, "Developing Your Characters" by Cindy Holby and "Publish for Profit Online" by Lena Claxton, Judi McCoy, author of "Hounding the Pavement," was scheduled to speak to the entire conference on the topic of humor in writing but said at the last minute, she had changed her mind.
Instead, McCoy told the writers about the business side of the industry, giving specifics on exactly what editors and agents want in a manuscript and how much writers really make— on average, just 8 percent of their total royalties. McCoy, whose "Hounding the Pavement" will be turned into a TV series next year, said that even with her success, she could not pay her mortgage without the help of her husband.
After a lunch break, poet Glenis Redmond wowed the audience with her recitation of original, deeply personal poems about her mother, father and brother. Redmond's style of reading her poetry was more like a performance, although she admitted that she did not like the term, "performance poetry."
The afternoon sessions included "How to Find a Literary Agent" with Mary Branson, "Put a Little Romance in Your Mystery" by Joyce and Jim Lavene, "Writing Fantasy" by K. Gail McAbee, "The Graphic Novel" with Lillie Templeton, a session on publishing with Nancy Knight and "Fantasy Adventure" with Gail Martin. There was also a panel with several romance authors on "The Importance of the Romance Genre," as well as a poetry session with Conor O'Callaghan, "FBI & Private Eye Procedures" with Jack Branson, and "Plotting the Hero's Journey" by Suzanne Adair.
The conference culminated with a talk by Robert Macomber on historical thrillers and research, and an author panel on "How to Get Published."
All of the authors who spoke throughout the conference were available for one-on-one questions, as well as Q&A sessions throughout the day.
"My observation, which surprised me somewhat at the beginning," Marshall said, "was that our attending authors were actually down-home folks who did not mind talking to an aspiring writer or a fan one-on-one and discussing some questions in detail."
The Anson County Writers' Club provided the seed money for the conference, which was sponsored by SPCC and Carolina Romance Writers. The writers conference oversight committee planned to meet today to discuss plans for the next writers conference and recap this year's event.
For more information, visit www.ansoncountywritersclub.org.
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