There were hundreds of attendees at the conference. If I were to guess, I would say that the gray-haired set of attendees outnumbered the youngsters by two to one. It was a unique experience for me. All we writers are not in competition, at least not directly. We all have different ways of telling our tales, be they fiction or not. And dozens and dozens of people were doing memoirs. I have some memoir work done, but with my memory - might be a bit of embellishment in there too.
Everyone was friendly. With the craft of writing as the common denominator, we could sit down at any open seat at any table and become fast friends in ten minutes talking about our stories. We would go off and lunch together, find other particular threads of people we know in in the world and perhaps find spouses for our wayward children. Hey, can always hope.
Let's talk about expense. All tallied, it cost me a little change over a thousand bucks. That took in registration, parking, gas, bridge tolls, food, hotel stay and materials bought on site. Here is the big question? Was it worth it?
My immediate take away is no. However, there is a caveat. I did get to pitch to one agent that said to send him my book. Two others politely told me to go pound sand. But there were a dozen agents and acquisition editors there that might have been interested had I been able to talk to them. The lines were long and plentiful. The pitch block - too short. Frankly, the meat of the conference is the pitch blocks. At least for me. I didn't want to spend another three hundred dollars to tout my work to, what - maybe three to six more people. I know, I know, one sell and that would make it all worthwhile. Otherwise, I didn't hear anything said by the speakers that I hadn't already read in how-to books even though the telling of their methods of writing was mostly entertaining.
Where would the point break be for me on cost? I'd say half of what I spent.
Another positive aspect of attending was that two of my friends from my writer's group were there. They both had attended this PNWA get together multiple times. They took me under their wing or dragged me around by my ear, if you will, that made the whole of the conference much more fun for me than it would have been otherwise.
My friends have clued me in on some smaller venues and are less expensive and more personal. I think I might try some of those. PNWA, to my way of thinking, may have outgrown their space.
