This month’s 2016 flagship Writer’s Digest event, relocated to the Hilton at Sixth Avenue and West 53rd in New York City to accommodate its growing popularity, was attended by 845 writers. Add in more than ninety-two speakers and a bevy of sponsoring exhibitors, and the event topped 1,000 people.
Pragmatism was the key: lots of nuts-and-bolts sessions and more agents (sixty) than in past years for the Saturday Pitch Slam, which was so popular this year that Writer’s Digest opened up a fourth ninety-minute session, and the slam still sold out some two months ahead of the conference. For the first time, one-on-one sessions with selected agents were added for those who didn’t get a spot in the pitching rounds.
With so much focused on practicality, it fell to the three keynote speakers to reflect how business realities play out in strong careers. A kind of magical thinking has supported author Kwame Alexander, he said, taking the form of positivism: “The nos are a part of the way the world works,” he said, “but you’ve got to say yes to yourself.” Bestseller David Baldacci did the star turn of the event, grounding the crowd in tales of being mistaken for John Grisham and carefully working in messages on the importance of listening, “the best research you can do” for fiction.
The capper was Emily St. John Mandel, a National Book Award finalist with Station Eleven. Mandel revealed that it took her agent two years to place her first book with a small independent press. She told the audience, “Don’t assume that the publishing world is closed to you. It’s not true that you have to know somebody” to be published.
Writer’s Digest publisher Phil Sexton gave his “Dirty Little Secrets” session on how to handle a publisher’s stereotypical reticence to share information with authors. “Ask whether your book was presented in a meeting” with a Barnes & Noble buyer, he said. “Ask ‘Where does my book rank on your list?’ … Ask ‘How much space is my book getting in the publisher’s catalog? Full page? One-half page?’ … Ask to see your catalog copy, your book jacket copy … Ask ‘Is there a marketing plan for my book?’”
Bottom line: WDC’s programming indicated a new investment and interest in trade publishing but with the energy and self-directed context of the independent-author movement. There was a sense of empowerment that at times sounded more indie than trade. This reflects what’s coming from small presses in the UK, where the Society of Young Publishers is discussing the need for practical, hands-on skills. Watch for more of this: we’re likely to begin seeing a newly enabled author whose goals may lie in traditional publishing but whose approaches are as can-do and self-sufficient as an indie’s. As Sexton said it: “You have the power to change the answers you get” in publishing. Programming note: Writer’s Digest’s Novel Writing Conference, a craft-specific event, is set now for October 28–30 in Los Angeles.
Jane Friedman has spent her entire career working in the publishing industry, with a focus on business reporting and author education. Established in 2015, her newsletter The Bottom Line provides nuanced market intelligence to thousands of authors and industry professionals; in 2023, she was named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World.
Jane’s expertise regularly features in major media outlets such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, NPR, The Today Show, Wired, The Guardian, Fox News, and BBC. Her book, The Business of Being a Writer, Second Edition (The University of Chicago Press), is used as a classroom text by many writing and publishing degree programs. She reaches thousands through speaking engagements and workshops at diverse venues worldwide, including NYU’s Advanced Publishing Institute, Frankfurt Book Fair, and numerous MFA programs.
