Last year, I made lots of friends at the Nebula Awards. This year too. Getting together to just hang around in a no pressure atmosphere, talk about our pets, our favorite drink (or food), and how the air quality in D.C. sucks (no offense, but it nearly killed me). Last year I talked to a lot of people about these things, handed out a lot of business cards, and met some of these same people this year.
I participated in the mass signing, made contact with two agents, both of whom where very engaging polite people. To be honest, I was so relaxed and having fun, I had no idea who I was talking to until someone else introduced us. DOH! But at least it made the encounter a low-pressure, fun type experience that didn’t come across as "gimmie, gimmie, gimmie" … Unfortunately, I did have an encounter with one person this morning that turned out very "Gimmie a job" because I made the mistake of introducing myself at the end of a conversation that had "interesting information" in it. (<- NOTE: If you’re at a con and someone mentions a project, don’t blurb details about it without permission. It will come back to haunt you, especially in the writing industry.)
But why does this networking work? Because not only did I walk away with two agents telling me I could query my novel, but I got one potential job offer and a separate "please send something to my anthology" request.
If I weren’t so exhausted, I’d be bouncing off the walls right now. This is proof how well networking can work if you don’t expect miracles the instant you make your contact. Relax. Have fun. Meet people because you can meet people. You never know where it will lead.
