Last Saturday I attended the Red Clay Writers Conference in Kennesaw, Georgia. For those of you who have never attended a writers conference, it’s generally a mixture of booths and seminars of some type. The Red Clay was a general writing conference, meaning that workshops ran the gamut from how to write poetry to how to publicize your own book. So why did I attend?

Let’s pretend I don’t attend graduate school at the university where the conference was held. I went because I wanted to meet other people in my field and network with them. I met two other freelance writers, a book publicist, a poet, an online connection I’d never met in person, and a potential client who ask about my ghostwriting services. Truthfully, meeting the potential client was an added bonus. I really got (relatively) dressed up and spent my lovely Saturday afternoon in doors to network with others in my industry.

While at the conference, I was able to sit in on four really amazing seminars. I was very impressed with all the speakers, and so I thought I would give each one of them props throughout the week.

First up, freelance writer Karen Denovich.

I’ve never seen anyone illustrate the freelance writer’s double life quite like Karen Denovich. I won’t give away her joke, but I will recommend that you attend her next seminar for a laugh. Ah, there’s nothing like freelance writing humor.

Denovich presented a basic overview of the freelance writing life. As an experienced freelancer, I did not learn anything that was totally new and foreign to me, but I did learn about a few things in more depth. For instance, did you know you can comfortably say about 75 words in 90 seconds in a television commercial? On the other hand, I attended this seminar with a friend who is interested in becoming a freelance writer, and she took copious notes and learned a ton of basics. Denovich is definitely your woman if you need a funny and credible overview of the freelancing life.

As Denovich described some of her most interesting projects, I realized that she’s a marketer as much as a freelance writer, and that reinforced something that I’ve noticed lately: the most successful people in our profession do more than just put fingers to keyboard all day. In fact, much of what she said reminded of the latest SpecialtyBuzz interview on this site. Like Denovich, Jennifer Mattern is an experienced copywriter, and both give similar advice.

Denovich’s most important advice to freelancers was to get out of the house and meet as many people as possible. As the president of the Marietta Business Association (for you non-locals, Marietta is one of Atlanta’s largest suburbs), Denovich has found a great way to network and meet all kinds of contacts to further her business. While she didn’t specifically say to go out and run for a Presidency of join a Board of Directors, it sure sounded like the connections had aided her in her business. I’m going to follow her advice and attend a Networking in Atlanta event ASAP because I really, really, really need a few good web designers and graphic designers to call on when my clients need extras.

Come back tomorrow for my review of J. Steve Miller’s seminar on effective yet non-obnoxious ways to publicize your book.