The Real Value of Writing Conferences (And Why I Keep Going Back)
Hello my name is Rhone Atleshen, and I'm addicted to Writing Conferences. Okay...maybe addicted is a leap, but I do love them and believe in them and make it my goal to attend at LEAST two a year. I consider them a sort of professional development investment into the education of me! Now, that said, I've done several over the past few years and I can firmly attest that;
Not All Writer Conferences Are Built the Same
One of the biggest misconceptions I had early on was thinking a “writing conference” was a single, uniform experience. I envisioned them all like big industry expo's and while YES there are some of those out there, truth is there are many more far more accessible variations that sometimes just hit different.
They serve different purposes depending on how they’re structured—and understanding that was what really turned me into a conference junky! For example:
🖥️ Virtual Conferences have a low barrier of entry. meaning LESS costly and LESS restrictive on your timeline! -- you can hit it and quit it with the video replays on your own schedule which makes them ideal for emerging writers, working adults who are writing on the side, or anyone not ready to get down with the networking in person. One of my most favorite Virtual's was the Women In Publishing virtual conference. It was a flood of valuable information AND the place I met my fabulous Dev Editor turned writing coach, Laura,
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👩💼 Targeted, Multi-Day Conferences which tend to be broad but shallow dives into a wide bevy of skills. Be that publishing pathways, writer craft, or even business strategies. You can attend in person sessions where you are immersed in your track of choice. This builds diverse exposure to many topics and gifts you the chance to bug out on a day or time you wish to skip if you need to pop in or come and go. You can even skip networking altogether (I don't recommend that....I'll explain why in a bit). I'm attending one this fall called Author Nation in Vegas and I'm psyched to soak it all in!
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🎯 Subject-Focused Events when tend to be multi-day drill downs into one specific topic like...pitching. Where you might spend days TEARING apart your query or pitch or even full manuscript in front of industry gatekeepers who then compress months (or years) of information into a fully immersive, brain melting download of goodness. They are exhausting and exhaustive and SO phenomenal. Terrifying...but phenomenal. One of my absolute faves was the New York Write to Pitch! Talk about a intense, immersive, TORRENT of actionable feedback. I walkedy away from mine with not only industry insight, but a deep and abiding respect for the workable query and pitch formula.
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✍️ Single-Day Craft Workshops are excellent for dipping your toe into the in-person element. They tend to be efficient, and often are underrated for what they offer. It's a great chance to meet your pipeline (agents, editors, developers, even peers) and tighten specific skills. I'm a fan as they also are less time-intensive and can be great motivational refreshers! I went to a Writing Day Workshop just recently and LOVED every second of it...and since they hold these suckers all over the country, there was one close enough near me that it didn't require any travel costs!
BUT Here's The Part No One Talks About Enough
There’s a moment that happens at every writing conference I’ve attended—somewhere between the panels, the pitches, and the coffee-fueled conversations—where it clicks: Oh. These are my people.
Not in the abstract, “we all like books” way. In the very real, we are doing the same hard, weird, obsessive thing way. And that matters more than most writers realize. That's the real ROI:
👉 The room
Not the keynote. Not the panel. Not even the pitch. But sitting in a space filled with people who are:
drafting
revising
querying
publishing
failing
trying again
JUST LIKE YOU!!!!
There’s something grounding about that and it strips away the illusion that everyone else has it figured out. And what's even better, if you do conferences right, they lead to something even more valuable:
👉 A writing circle that doesn’t suck
Where real people show up and care, non-perfomatively, about the work itself. IRON SHARPENS IRON. That kind of community is rare and conferences are one of the fastest ways to find it.
So… Are Writing Conferences Worth It?
Well....that depends. They are not:
magic bullets
guaranteed breakthroughs or
instant career changers
But they CAN be:
accelerators
clarity builders and
connection points
And over time, those things compound.
Final Thought
Every conference I’ve attended has given me something different:
a skill I didn’t have
a perspective I needed
or a connection that mattered
So GO TO A CONFERENCE, check out the one's above, or not...your call. Either way - thanks for stopping by. Hope you come back around soon. You never now what shenanigans I'll get up to next.
⭐ Craft the story.
Face the consequences.
— Rhone
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