Big Sur Writers' Conference

[Nicole Green]

Is anybody here going? Has anybody ever been? I really want to go, but I'm weighing the pros and cons at the moment. The major con=cost, but this seems like a phenomenal opportunity.

Link to the conference page.

[Georgia McBride]

You should DEF go. MAJOR reputation for building GREAT writers, great deals. GO.

[Nicole Green]

I'm thinking of March. Yes, those are the main reasons I'm looking at Big Sur, too. I think it'd be very beneficial to my writing. December might be more practical, but I'm not sure I can wait that long... I'm not sure. Either way, I'm going eventually. Too good to pass up!

[Nicole Green]

Sure! I'll definitely share with you if I go next month. If not, hopefully I'll see you there in December. :)

[Jessica Love]

I'm considering it for December.

[Nicole Green]

I signed up and I got my confirmation today. I can't wait!!! I'll be sure to blog about it and link to the post so you all can read about my experience should you wish to do so. :)

[Cassandra Ross]

I've never been, but I went to LA Writers conference and met one of the agents from Andrea Brown Agency who pretty much sponsors the Big Sur Conference. She recommended for me to go, but the cost was a little pricey. If you can afford it, it may be a good way to network.

[Nicole Green]

Yeah, I'm looking forward to the opportunity to do just that. AB is pretty much one of my dream agencies. There are several AB agents I'd love to have represent me one day. And even if that doesn't happen, I can't wait to pick their brains about craft and other such things.

[Cassandra Ross]

You made a good decision. After we went to LA conference and met Kelly, we changed the first three chapters and shortly after received a request for whole manuscript from a different agency. Even though it was a no in the end, she really helped us see the problems with the beginning of our book. GOOD LUCK. AB is one of the best.

[Karen Strong]

Nicole I'm so glad that you signed up for the conference. One of my writer friends went to this conference last year and is now represented by AB - a great agency. She landed a book deal as well. If anything, just to go and get the focused exposure to writers and agents is worth the experience.

I am definitely looking to go to this conference in December.

Can't wait to hear how it went for you. Best of luck!

[Heather Zenzen]

I don't know - I went a couple years ago to the December Big Sur workshop, and I wasn't that impressed. I got a lot more out of the SCBWI-LA conference last summer. That said, they're different things. Big Sur was meant to workshop your work, which is fine, but I just didn't think the critique sessions were run effectively. We had no exposure to our critique groups, their works, or our mentors beforehand. So, we just showed up at the critique sessions, manuscript in hand, and took turns reading out loud from our work for a few minutes. And then people went around, voiced their thoughts, and it was the next person's turn. For that amount of money, I really thought that you would get more critiquing than that.

I've attended other workshops where the groups were responsible for submitting their work to be critiqued beforehand via email, and each critique member and mentor were responsible for reading the work before the conference. We went in ready to give a critique on 20+ pages of work per person (there were four writers and one mentor per group). I thought it worked MUCH better than Big Sur's set up.

At SCBWI-LA, I paid extra to have the first 15 pp. of my manuscript critiqued by a pro. I think it was $100 extra, and we had a one-on-one meeting with the pro at the conference to discuss the critique. Now THAT was worth the money.

But, keep in mind, I'm just one person with one viewpoint. Many people love the Big Sur workshop, and AB is a GREAT agency with awesome agents.

[Nicole Green]

Thanks for your input, everybody. Glad to hear it, Heather M.! I'm even more excited now for it. Karen S., that's great news! I'll definitely blog all about it.

[Nicole Green]

For those interested, I blogged about my Big Sur Experience. I forgot about posting the link until now, but here it is: http://lisezvous.blogspot.com/2010/03/big-sur-workshop-experience.html