This is part two in the Countdown to Conference blog series.  In the last blog we talked about what to wear to the conference.  This entry is about how to schedule your time and what else you should bring, besides clothes.

Try to have a game plan before you arrive.  I go through the conference schedule, read about all the workshops, note when the spotlights and signings are and then create a FLEXIBLE schedule for each day.  Then I schedule a meeting/lunch/coffee/dinner whatever with agent/editor/pr person/pals, etc… so I can see how my days have filled out.  Then, taking note of publisher and agent parties, I look to see when the chapter parties are and if I have time to hit a couple.

• Spotlights:  Most of the publishers will have a spotlight.  (See conference schedule).  During this time, the editors will usually talk about what’s hot, what they’re looking for, and how to submit to them.  It’s very handy.  They’ll also sometimes highlight what releases they have coming up…so you can see what’s hot.  They take questions…and I’ve seen people line up to do a quick pitch when the presentation is finished.  Also…look around the room.  AGENTS attend these spotlights.  The one you want to pitch to might be sitting next to you.
•  Book signings:  Besides the literacy signing the night before the conference actually starts, the individual publishers also have signings.  Translation:  FREE signed books.  (Though you end up with tons of free books even if you don’t make it to the signings.)  NOW…I will be participating in Kensington’s book signing on Friday from 12:00-1:30, so I hope to see you there!
• Workshops:  I love workshops.  Just love them.  So I create a schedule with my first choice, second, and so on…and often end up going to my third choice because it may be about craft, and the ones I’d attended already were about PR. 
• PRO Retreat:  If you’re a member of PRO – definitely go to some this.  They have cool workshops.  (See guidelines for PRO).
• PAN Retreat/workshops:  There’s a list up now of the workshops for PAN members – looks awesome!  (See guidelines for PAN).
• Goody Room:  Don’t forget to check out the goody room for pens, books, notebooks, candy…
• Free Time:  Give yourself some.  Trust me.

So, there’s a breakdown of the conference and how to schedule your time.  Now…what should you bring besides clothes? I always bring:

• Granola bars.   You will be unexpectedly hungry and running from workshop to workshop…and who wants their stomach to growl in the middle of the presentation?
• Emergen-C .   Some people bring that Airborne instead.  You’re in a place with a lot of people, maybe not eating right, and probably not getting enough sleep.  I drink one of these every day of the conference and haven’t come down with that ‘conference cold’ so many people go home with.
• Comfortable shoes.  By day three, your feet are freakin sore.  Yeah, bring the pretty shoes for night and even the first day.  By day three, you won’t care how your feet look.  You’ll wear the flip flops.  Trust me.
• Safety pins.  You’ll be a hero.  There are always wardrobe malfunctions…and safety pins are necessary.
• Sunglasses.  You may end up venturing outside with Cynthia Eden because she wants to check out the ducks in the middle of a pond.  You don’t want to go blind.
• Pen and notebook.  You’ll be surprised how many notes you’ll take at the workshops…you can even blog about them later.  And you’ll be getting email addresses for new friends.
• Laptop…if you want.  I bring mine.  Many people will tell you they don’t write while attending conferences.  I do.  I’m usually inspired by something and will need to type something…but you could always just write it in your notebook.  J
• Prepaid USPS (or Fed Ex) labels.  You’re going to get a lot of stuff.  Books, postcards, pens…so many!  They’ll have boxes and labels at the conference, but if you have your own, you can pack the boxes in your room and drop them at the mailing place WITHOUT waiting forever in line.
• Ones.  If you’re going to the cocktail parties, you’ll want to tip the bartenders.  Bring ones—you can usually fit those with your cell phone in your conference badge so you don’t have to carry a purse.
• Your book on a flashdrive.  If you’re pitching (see later posts), bring this.  Don’t bring a hard copy. We’ve all heard the urban legend of the author who pitched and the editor asked for a digital copy to read on her kindle during the plane ride home—loved it and bought it.  Have the flashdrive…just in case.

Okay, that list is by no means exhaustive.  But it’ll get you started.  Next time (on Friday) I’ll blog about pitching…

So…my book is in and I have no deadlines hanging over my head…for now.  Let’s have a fun blog.  So many editors are on twitter, I thought it’d be fun to discuss:  

WHAT NOT TO TWEET IF YOUR BOOK IS LATE

1.  I just can’t get past level 70 on Cake Mania 3.

2. I know I should be doing something right now…what was it?

3. Ohhhh.  A Buffy the Vampire Slayer marathon just started.  Have to watch!

4. I think maybe I’ll switch jobs now.

5. I know I have a book due, but I just can’t stop writing this other genre.  Maybe I’ll get back to the other book soon.

6.  I should’ve been writing today…but Macys had an awesome sale!

7.  I just had my third coffee with Rumplemintz in it.  Is it 10am yet?

8.  Man…I’ve been drunk for almost a week.  Not long enough.

9.  Involuntary committment isn’t so bad.  I like crazy people.

10.  Darn it.  My boyfriend refused to bail me out.  I’m here in jail for another 48 hours.   HAHA

(For the record, I’ve never tweeted any of the above and my book was on time.)  🙂

Hell yes, it’s stealing.  Seriously. 

Welcome to Legal Musings…where I try to find a blog niche and talk about the law.  Yes, I’m a lawyer.  Yes, I hope to include a lot of legal analysis dealing with being an author.  But I might digress into other legal areas…because there’s some weird stuff going on in the law.

So, what is Senate Bill 3804, the Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act…and where is it today?  Well, it’s a Bill that was introduced into the Senate by Sen. Leahy from Vermont that allows the government to go after pirates.  By pirates, I don’t mean Captain Hook.  I mean the blood sucking, evil, narcissistic people thumbing their noses at karma and stealing books on the internet.  Dante has a brand new, special level of hell for those folks.

But, I digress.  About the current status of the law…The Bill spent some time in committee, and needs to be re-introduced. 

On February 16, 2011, the Senate Judiciary Committee held hearings and Scott Turow, one of my favorite authors and the president of the Author’s Guild, gave testimony. 

First, Senator Leahy testified, “I am confident that we will pass legislation to target rogue websites this year. I want to hear from all sides as we move forward, but I refuse to accept that addressing the problem is too difficult because people who want to steal will always find a way. That is like saying that we should not prosecute drug crimes or child pornography because bad people will find a way to do bad things anyway. I am a former prosecutor, and that line of argument is unacceptable.”  See Judiciary transcript for full text.

Scott Turow testified and gave some amazing examples of online piracy.  “One is tempted to call it a vast underground economy, but there’s nothing underground about it: it operates in plain sight…Money clearly suffuses the system, paying for countless servers, vast amounts of online bandwidth, and specialized services that speed and cloak the transmission of stolen creative work.” 

Turow then gave specific examples of the most prolific of pirates, stating that it was time to make piracy not so secret, calling for online providers to register an agent for service of process (just like any business in the US has to do).  He had several recommendations…read the full text here.

Is anyone besides the pirates against the Bill?  YES.  There are groups up in arms about the former text of the Bill, claiming it would allow the U.S. Government to shut down every site from YouTube to Yahoo. So the text may have been over-broad.  I think that’s why it went back to committee and they’re holding hearings now.  To clarify the text.

Finally, Nora Roberts, the Queen of Romance, submitted a letter to the Judiciary Committee in support of the Act.  She asked, “If piracy continues to devastate a writer’s income, to erode the ability of the publishers to make the profit necessary to bring those books to the public, where will the next generation of storytellers come from?”  The woman can write!  The full text of her letter is up on the RWA website. 

So…the current status of the law is that they’re working on the law.  I’ll try to keep you updated.

I kill people in books.  It’s true.  The lady who cuts me off for a parking spot, the bat-sh*t crazy chick who yells at me in a bar…even the lady at the post office who growls at my many packages.  They die.  And hard.

One of the most cathartic things to do is work out your demons via writing.  Of course, you often end up passing emails to your critique partner titled, “Best place to bury a dead body,” or “Do you think I could snap a neck with a stapler?”  In the name of research, of course.  Other fun notes we pass back and forth: 

• Does the human body really bend that way?
• I don’t think a man would really call that “Tonto.”
• Your heroine already fell off the bed – there’s no way he can reach her now.
• I think the grave should be deeper.
• I’m not sure they’d eat his liver first.

So, one of the many fun things about being a writer is that you can talk pretty much about anything.  In one of my works in progress, my heroine stumbles upon a marijuana growing farm.  Well, my husband was using my laptop and went to ‘favorites’ for our bank’s URL.

He finished banking and asked, “Why do you have the ‘hydroponic marijuana guide’ listed as a favorite?”  My answer:  “So I wouldn’t forget the name.”  What’s cool is that he nodded, because that made perfect sense to him.  He lives with a writer.

“We should not see print and electronic literature as in competition, but rather in conversation. The more voices that join in, the richer the dialogue is likely to be.”
–N. Katherine Hayles

Today Fated is now available in electronic format…Kindle, Nook, Sony and the rest.   I am so excited about this…having not found out until last month that e-book was a possibility.  There seems to be a great debate going on whether or not e-books will completely replace print books.

I don’t think so.

Keep in mind, this is just my opinion.  But I like the feel, smell, idea of a print book as well as being able to browse in a book store.  Yeah, Borders just filed for bankruptcy protection.  But that’s to reorganize (like GM) not disappear.  And Barnes and Noble seems to be doing well.  I do think that the e-book market will continue to build.  In fact, a couple of my favorite authors are in e-format only.  You can bet I buy their books.

I like a book on a plane…especially during take-off.  To escape the idea of take-off actually.  And I can’t turn on my Kindle until we level off.  So yeah, I’m happy to have a print book.

My print book collection will continue to grow.  As will my e-book collection.  And I don’t think I’m alone here.

BTW – N. Katherine Hayles is a literary critic and professor at Duke.