What to Do When the Conference Is Over

A few days ago Annette’s Embrace the Wait column listed good strategies to prepare for a writers’ conference. Conferences are important investments in our writing career, so it makes sense to start well by preparing ahead of time.

It also makes sense to end well, which means thinking about what you do after the conference is over.

Here are seven post-conference strategies to get the most out of your investment

1. Send thank yous. Send a brief email to every professional you met with, thanking them for their time and their advice. You may also send thank yous to conference hosts and anyone else that seems appropriate.
2. Follow up on contacts. Dig out the business cards you collected and follow your new writing friends on social media. Even better, send them a brief personal message that will help them remember who you are. You never know which contacts will turn out to be important a few months or years from now.
3. Follow through on submissions. Right away. Do not procrastinate. (In fact, having your query/proposal/sample chapters polished and formatted should be part of your pre-conference checklist so you are ready to take advantage of these opportunities.) Sending your promised materials promptly shows busy agents and editors that you are professional, disciplined, and prompt. It also puts you in the front of the line, when they can still remember who you are and why they wanted to see your work.
4. Give yourself time to recover. Conferences can be exhausting, physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. Yes, you may be pumped to go home and try all the wonderful things you learned, but be patient. Practice good self-care by allowing your writer self to recover for a day or two before starting a blog or completely revamping your website.
5. Organize your notes. Go through all the materials you acquired during the conference. File course materials where you can find them for later reference. If you do not have a workable system for storing information so you can find it again, this is a good time to create one.
6. Choose One Thing to implement right away.  Conferences can fill us with motivation and inspire us to try new and wonderful techniques, but attempting too much too soon usually leads to frustration and a lack of focus. You will be more successful if you select one or two practical strategies or ideas to implement. Choose ones that particularly resonated with you or that apply to exactly where you happen to be in your current project. Once you get that going, you can return to your notes and apply something else.
7. Journal your thoughts. It may be helpful to spend some time pondering your experiences and journaling about them. Pay attention to what excited you the most, what struck fear into you, and what caused a pang of some other emotion. Think through the reasons for those emotions and ponder what to do if those emotions are holding you back. You may also find it helpful to list all the key takeaways you learned, or list the wonderful people you met and jot down a note or two about what you discussed with them. Whatever will help you put useful information into long-term memory.

May your next writers’ conference be the best one yet.

Award-winning writer Lisa E. Betz believes that everyone has a unique story to tell the world. She loves inspiring fellow writers to be more intentional about developing their craft and courageous in sharing their words. Lisa shares her words through speaking, leading Bible studies, writing historical mysteries, and blogging about living intentionally.

You can find her on Facebook  LisaEBetzWriter Twitter @LisaEBetz and Pinterest Lisa E Betz Intentional Living.