Are Writing Conferences and Organizations Sending The Wrong Message?

I was talking to one of my writers recently about her latest book. The conversation shifted to the Romance Writers of America which she has been a part of since she started writing romance. She then dropped a bomb on me. She was dropping her membership. For some out there, you might be saying, you fully know why because you did. In this case, you may be surprised.

Her comment was the organization wasn't offering anything useful. 

She went on to explain that the organization has spent all of its time addressing the needs of these small groups of people who have done nothing but complain but also did nothing to fix the problems. Communication between the organization and the writers has only focused on these political issues for people who have already left the organization. Along the same lines, there has been no emphasis on writers who want to write.

As she talked, I started to think more about what she was saying and it was true, but I think the RWA is not the only organization doing this. I also noticed that I think the problem runs much deeper with the entire message a lot of these organizations send out. 

I get that conferences (virtual or in person) follow what those who answered the survey want. (NOTE: If you get 25% responding to the survey this is considered good). But, the problem here is that the sessions they teach, the articles they publish, and the speakers they bring in are sending messages that are often leading authors to a career with little success. 

I recently saw the agenda for a conference I had attended and saw course offerings that were not going to really lead to success for the authors. Topics and ideas focused on things such as:

• You can quit your day job and only self-publish.
• Software that eliminates developmental editing.
• Write anything you want and it will get published
• Skip using standard publishers and create your own company
• How to force publishers to buy your book

No, these were not actual titles, but these were the messages.

You then look at the guest speakers and those writing articles, and the organizations are doing the same thing of sending messages from people who may not know a lot. I have seen speakers who have never been able to publish a book talk about their professional writing career. People being keynote speakers proclaiming their successes, and yet had been asked to leave other organizations for not being professional... I think you see where I am heading.

One conference I worked with has moved to only bringing in speakers who live within 50 miles of the conference. OK, I get that saves some money when it comes to hotel expenses and food, but their speakers were only people who self-published, wrote articles for magazines or wrote for VERY small presses. And yet, they talked about how to write for big presses and go global. Let me also add a financial bit to this. While this move might look like it saved money, speakers were receiving $1500-$2500 honorariums. 

We have to remember that people who attend conferences are here to learn about their craft. They want to learn to write. They want to learn to be successful. They come from a wide variety of backgrounds and are not all focused on those political and social issues that a few are concerned with. 

I think it is important for organizations to go back and reflect on their approaches. Organizations such as the Romance Writers of America need to ask, are they focusing on Romance Writing or something else? Is Novelist Inc, focusing on their mission statement? Even if you are a small group, are you focusing on what your title and mission statement claims? 

Just something to consider.