What NOT to bring?
We briefly touched on this in the original post about what to bring to conference HERE but this really needs it’s own post!
Remember when we pointed out that many editors and agents are going paperless and even those that aren’t… might not want to drag home reams and reams of paper. That is still very true.
Even if you have an agent who has been looking over your work, they may not want to lug 300 pages home with them.
And it’s just possible that YOU don’t want to lug it around either… so don’t go running over to Kinkos and run off three copies of the MS to bring with you. Most hotels have a copy center…and if they don’t, the conference is in a Hyatt and they do have a copy center.
I learned the hard way for the last conference I attended…
DO NOT BRING BOOKMARKS unless you have a book to go with them. If you have a contract or you are already in the process of self-publishing, bring bookmarks…scads of them, buckets of them and hand them out like crazy.
But if you don’t have a book that is in the process of being published, a bookmark is just a long business card and it’s not worth the extra money you will have to spend when you have to order a second run with all of the info about who and when… and the name may change… and the cover may change…
So be safe and thrifty and wait for the bookmarks.
I know the post says we’re talking about what NOT to bring but while I’m here…
I PLAN to bring a few favorite books that I want signed. Don’t go crazy and bring your whole library with you but a few favorites would not be a bad idea…
You never know who you might sit next to at breakfast or lunch or bump into on your way to a session. And if you happen to have their book with you… well you get the drift.
I have not yet discovered a way to find out exactly who IS attending but I’m betting you can figure out most of them by watching Facebook, Twitter and Websites. A lot of authors talk about events coming up and ACFW is a big one for most of us.
I still say it’s still a good idea to at least bring your laptop with you. It’s no big deal to leave it in your hotel room. And they have so many great rolling bags now that you can use if you don’t want to carry a bag or a briefcase or a backpack.
You never know when someone will ask you to e-mail your first three chapter or a proposal or even the whole book to them.
OK. SO we’ve already talked about what to wear. Now we’ve talked a bit about what to bring…and what NOT to bring.
And while we are talking about what to bring… YES! You still have time to order business cards! GO find some you like and order them. They’ll usually get to you within a week or ten days. Vistaprint still has some REALLY great deals going on!
Good Day and GOD Bless!
~ Rachel
Inspirational Authors 