The Book Academy

Last Thursday I had the opportunity to attend the Book Academy hosted at UVU. This is a conference for Authors, Aspiring Authors, and Readers. Basically, if you like books, you can go. My mom had found out about it and encouraged me to do it. It happened to fall on a day when my boss was going to be gone anyway, so I decided to just seize the chance, and do it.

It went from 8:30am to 4:30pm and included breakfast and lunch. We had two main speakers that everyone got to hear and then 3 workshops where different authors and publishers and editors taught smaller groups.

I enjoyed the first speaker, who talked about what you need to know before you write a book. Just inspiring stuff and learning to recognize what kind of writer you are.

I attended a class by the assistant editor of Deseret Book, Lisa Mangum, (who is also an author) which is probably where I would go to publish my book, and that was helpful to hear what she looks for in the manuscripts she gets every day.

The next class I attended was my Jeffrey Scott Savage, a mainly Fantasy author. He helped give us hints about specific things needed in a book that make it really good. He was a good presenter and I learned some really good things.

At lunch they had a publisher's panel which reviewed the things I learned from Lisa Mangum, and during that I got to sit by Anita Stansfield. So cool. We didn't get to talk much, but it was just cool to see her.

And my last class happened to be taught by her. I had taken two technical classes in the morning, so I decided I needed something uplifting and encouraging in the end, and I wanted to listen to her anyway. She taught about writing from the heart. You need to love what you do, and write what you love. She started writing at 16, but didn't get published until 32. She's published 44 books since then and does about 4 every year. It was just good to be encouraged to write what I love and not what the market necessarily is reading right now.

The closing speaker was alright, but not the best I've heard. She did explain though, that to become a master at anything, studies have shown that you need to put in 10,000 hours of practice. She then told us that in writing, you don't have to write for 10,000 hours, (though that doesn't hurt) but reading also counts toward that. And I am sure that I've read 10,000 hours or more throughout my life. :)

Overall, it was a good experience. It got me excited and pumped to write again. I'm trying to set some goals now and get going on my book(s). And I'm totally going again next year!