9/15/2008 STILL COMING DOWN FROM THE
MAUI WRITER’S CONFERENCE EXPERIENCE!
(Now held on Oahu)
The best part about the conference was the contacts I made and the deepened friendships. The level of the conference this year put a lot of emphasis on finishing “that book.” The speakers stressed: never give up.

For those of us, who have no problem finishing our books, we still discovered some jewel in each lecture.

This year editors and agents were hot for transformational books or message books with an inspirational message that will change lives. The theory: the reader isn’t the only one and they too can survive and come out on the other side whole.

When you give writing lectures, tie them to the book you are promoting (of course.)
Speakers highlighted how important endorsements from the famous are. For the most part, only the publishers who pay the big bucks can get up-front placement of their authors’ books in the stores.

Covers were discussed at length and the publisher speaking said in their house they went back and forth maybe 75 times to get them right. That sounds like a lot, so maybe it depends on the publisher.

Each night I went home from the conference and worked with Anastasia on my new cover for COWBOY LIES. We went back and forth some, maybe ten times. Maybe less.
Go look at Anastasia’s creation on Coming Releases at the Amira site. She did us proud.

After the conference, most of us went back to our offices, castles, ranches or whatever and sent out our queries and/or chapters to participating editors while we tried to come down from revved-up emotional highs. But that was just the beginning. Our dream is so big that we toss more balls in the air and start the research for our next book. Dream Big and Never Give up. Aloha, Lynde