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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.