Tricks of the Trade from National Magazine Day

This past weekend I attended the first ever National Magazine Day at a local San Francisco bookstore called, “BookSmith.” Although I missed the first 5 hours of food, drink, and fun of skimming through hundreds of magazines, I did get there in time for what may have been the best part. Hearing what’s hot in the magazine industry from a group of writers/magazine publishers (Local writer Kevin Smokler, Derek Powazek (Fray),  Jen Angel (formerly of Clamor), Jeremy Smith (of the digital Shareble.net), and Andrew Leland (managing editor of The Believer).

For 5 clams, you got a cup of Jo and a hard, but close seat into the writing world by people who were walking the walk, writing-wise.  Not too shabby!

I’ll admit that I was one of the roamers, sticking my head and leaning my ears in between perusing books*, but what I got was pure gold. Here are a few snippets of their sometimes provocative and always apropos talk on being a writer:

“I often worry that I’m on a treadmill.  Running without doing anything meaningful.”

I love this for the simple fact that all writers feel this way.  We write to work and work to write. But sometimes it seems like we can’t ever catch up. If, for example, we’re ahead financially, we may feel we’re not living up to our writing dreams. Perhaps, the worst fear is that life will pass us by and we’ll still be an unpublished writer or author.

“What a great time it is to be a writer.”

This hopeful statement made me want to stand up and cheer! It is a great time to be a writer because there are more opportunities than ever. But then check out what they said next:

In response, someone from the audience made this comment, “There is less opportunity so my writer friends are making writing more of a hobby.”

“But was there ever a good time?”

Like the age old statement that “Life was much better when I was younger,” this topic got everyone split 50-50. Some felt that the economy and the internet has made competition crazy and pay insanely low. While a few on the panel felt that it has always been hard to be a writer regardless of circumstances. One of the writers said it’s all about working through it and writing no matter what. What do you think? You think it’s easier now or was it better “back in the good old days?”

“Blogging makes you a better writer.”

You can imagine how thrilled I was to hear this. Especially since I have three blogs! The arguments were that blogging gives you practice, makes you more vigilant because others will read it, and you have the option to go back and edit it.

“The good news is that now you are responsible for everything. The bad news is you kind of have to be.”

This couldn’t be more true. While we can now self-publish, self-market and essentially design our own publishing careers, we also can’t rely on or blame anyone else for our failures. The torch is really in our own hands. It’s just good or bad depending on how you perceive it.

“Words don’t lose its value once it’s online.”

Another gem for me since a lot of what I do is online. While the panel agreed that e-readers like Kindle and Nook will in no ways take away from print publications, they also debunked the myth that putting words on the internet didn’t necessarily take away its value.

All in all this talk made me 1. wish I brought a tape recorder (so I didn’t have to type everything on my cell phone) 2. want to attend more writing events. What a wealth of information the panel presented in an hour’s time!

How about you? Any presentations/talks you’ve attended lately that you can share here? I’d love to hear about it.

*That’s how I found this (I wish someone got me this as a gift) book, “You Know You’re a Writer When.” As in, “you know you’re a writer when writing is the only thing you do that doesn’t make you feel as if you should be doing something else.”