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New Author Lessons that I Learned While Embarrassing Myself at the National Book Club Conference [Wow! It’s Wednesday]
Blogging over as ScriptShark today, check it out these “New Author Lessons” gleaned while at this year’s NBCC conference in Atlanta :
1. Come for the Whole Conference — Ostensibly, my going to the National Book Club Conference in Atlanta was about meeting and greeting with book clubs and speaking on a panel called the “The Future of Black Books,” so I flew in Friday evening and left Sunday morning. However, I learned so much from the more established authors on the one full day I was there, that I was soon kicking myself for not coming in earlier on Friday. I vowed never again to come to a conference late. Come to network, come to learn, come for the whole she-bang.
2. Research Everyone on Your Panel –Though I think I did a good job speaking on the panel for the most part, at one point I asked if anyone knew of any black YA authors, only to find out that one of my fellow panelists had written several. Total foot in mouth that could have been avoided with a little research.
3. Know What You’re Good At, and Work That Angle — Some of my fellow authors are really good in a room. I, unfortunately, am not as good. However, many authors complimented me on the blog that I run, FierceAndNerdy.com. It struck me that all of us are better at somethings than others. It’s important to evaluate your skill set and use your best ones to further your career — as opposed to developing the ones you don’t have. Being at an IRL conference made me realize that I should 1) put the majority of my efforts into my online platform, and 2) develop a 32 CANDLES play — I know, weird skill set, right? But my point is fully exploit the skills you have. Don’t try to acquire new ones.
Hmmm . . . to each her own, but I’m not with you on your advice that folks shouldn’t try to acquire new skills and, instead, rely principally/solely on skills already possessed. For example, when I began my career as an attorney, I was quite shy and uncomfortable speaking in front of groups. Being a lawyer is mostly about writing, so I could have made a career sitting at a computer. But I pushed myself to speak in front of groups at conferences and accepted assignments that entailed testifying in front of legislators and government agencies . . . and it’s really helped my career. Outside of my career, similarly, I bought a fixer-upper house with little experience in home renovation . . . and I’ve saved tens of thousands of dollars in the past year and a half learning new skills. I’m building a deck right now. I’ve never built one before, but it’s going well so far. In short, my approach to life is acquire/develop as many skills as possible while still taking time to smell the roses.
Paul, this has given me food for thought. I’ll admit that being forced to be social and speak publicly over the last year and a half has been a great boon for my career. However, I have such low desire to be in the spotlight myself, that I often beat myself up for not being a better speaker for not working a room better than I do. I think what I realized at the conference was that it was time to stop beating myself up for the skills I didn’t have/haven’t fully acquired and concentrate on exploiting the ones I’m good at. I’m excited to get back to the stage and also to connect even more with the reading community online.
However, I’m also aware that much like your fixer-upper, I am in need of a new hobby — especially since I’m in the process of rearranging my TBR list toward my business interests AND launching a Books section for the blog. In the case of my personal life, I’m really excited to acquire some new skills. Just trying to figure out what they’ll be…