Reality Writes
The Reality Writes Podcast stars bestselling mystery author Ellie Alexander and her Tech Guy husband as they reveal the ins and outs of writing. Ellie, who has written for big names like Macmillan and Simon & Schuster, and indie publishers like Storm, shares her journey from story ideas to publishing. Together, they dive into the highs, lows, and funny moments of creating captivating stories. With a blend of humor and honesty, Reality Writes offers a behind-the-scenes look at the writing world. So grab your coffee (or wine) and join Ellie and the Tech Guy for some story-spinning secrets.
Reality Writes
Conferences, Conventions & Festivals…Oh My!—A Mystery Insider’s Guide
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If you’ve ever wondered what actually happens at mystery conferences, conventions, and festivals, this episode is for you.Today on Reality Writes, I’m breaking down the differences between festivals, genre-specific mystery conventions like Malice and BoucherCon, general writing conferences like Willamette Writers, and even bookseller and library conferences. They may sound similar but they serve very different purposes depending on whether you’re a writer, a reader, or an industry professional.Whether you’re a Darling who loves attending events, or a writer thinking about your first conference, I hope this episode gives you a behind-the-scenes look at how it all works.
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Okay.
SPEAKER_01Hello, hello, and welcome to another episode of Reality Rights. I am author Ellie Alexander. This is the podcast where we talk about all things bookish, writer-ish, and whatever else is on our mind. And I am here with the tech guy.
SPEAKER_00Hello. How's it going today?
SPEAKER_01Pretty good. How are you?
SPEAKER_00Good. We're talking uh conferences, conventions, and festivals today.
SPEAKER_01I feel like that needs an oh my at the end of it.
SPEAKER_00Conferences, conventions, and festivals, oh my.
SPEAKER_01Oh my! Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_00Totally. Uh but first we gotta talk about um you've got a new book out.
SPEAKER_01I have a new book out and I have a copy in my hot little hands. For all the darlings that are listening, I'll do like AMSR, like, ooh, there you can hear the pages turning of the whisking hour book 22 in the bake shop mysteries, which is out at bookstores on shelves everywhere as we speak.
SPEAKER_00Book 22. Book 22. You would love to um you would love to be using a certain song right now to celebrate the book 22, but we can't do it.
SPEAKER_01I could sing it, but you really don't want me to do that.
SPEAKER_00I don't think so.
SPEAKER_01No.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Um, but book 22's out. You're already on writing right now book 24. Is that right?
SPEAKER_01Is that correct? Yep.
SPEAKER_00Bake shop is growing.
SPEAKER_01Bake shop is bacon.
SPEAKER_00Two dozen. Two dozen bake shops by the time that one comes out.
SPEAKER_01That's bonkers.
SPEAKER_00This time next year, I guess, right? Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00That's amazing. What else you got going on in uh your writing life that uh listeners might want to know about?
SPEAKER_01I mean, I think the Darlings um are gonna be intrigued in hearing about today's episode because we're gonna break down the difference between festivals, conferences, um, conventions, and I am in that zone right now with left coast crime that's happening in San Francisco. And we kind of like spring tends to kick off festival and conference season, especially in the mystery genre. So there's just like a lot going on in the world right now. So I'm excited to that's awesome.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Um, and one real quick mention uh, as always, for the patrons out there, head over to Patreon after this episode for the after party. Um and for those of you who don't know about Ellie's Patreon, uh, if you head to patreon.com, uh, you can sign up. And um, the after party is where more fun happens. Let's just put it that way. Uh we talk a little bit more candidly than we can uh out on the uh the public airwaves and um and just have a good time. Um give people a little bit more of a peek behind the curtain and uh and and listen to uh reader and writer feedback um and uh just growing a really great community over there. So that is the after party over on Patreon. Um but now let's get into it. Let's talk about uh conferences, conventions, and festivals. Oh my.
SPEAKER_01Oh my.
SPEAKER_00Where do you want to start?
SPEAKER_01I know. What should we start with? I mean, I think I think we should start with kind of the difference in terms of a conference and a convention versus a festival. So I just alluded to Left Coast Crime, which is one of the big mystery conferences. Other things like that would be Malice Domestic, BoucherCon, there's Thriller Fest, there's Crime Fest, um, Sleuth Fest, there's a New England Crime Bake, I think is what it's called in New England. So these are all readers absolutely attend, but these are also very writer industry publishing focused. When I'm talking about a conference, this would be likely hundreds of authors who readers would get to meet, or hundreds of authors that as a writer you're going to get to engage and meet and talk with and do events and panels and that kind of thing, as well as industry professionals. So editors, agents, anyone in the field of publishing. So like that's oh, go ahead. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00I I was just gonna say you, well, you go ahead and finish the festival uh definition first, and then we'll go into it.
SPEAKER_01So a festival is more reader-focused, like the Ashland Mystery Festival. There are tons of festivals like this, especially all throughout Europe. I'm thinking of there are different like crime festivals. I guess the Christie-centric ones, uh, there are beautiful ones in Scotland. So these are more small, intimate. Maybe you have anywhere from a dozen to 25 authors, but a much smaller author number because they're designed to be much more engaging in terms of the access that readers get to authors. And when I say the reader-centric, it is about reader activities and events. So all of the events and panels are driven toward readers, less so on the craft of writing, publishing, that end of things.
SPEAKER_00Okay. No, that makes sense. Um, so as a writer, as an author, do you prepare differently for those things?
SPEAKER_01Oh, yeah, absolutely. For sure. Because for something less use, Ashle Mystery Fast, because it's the festival that I helped launch. So I know it intimately myself. The idea behind that is I want anyone who attends to feel like they are stepping into the pages of a cozy mystery. Not just my cozy, but a cozy in general. Uh, so, you know, it would be things like the first year we had authors pair up with groups of readers, and they had to like sleuth out suspects through town and try to chase a tale. Um, they did things like um putting on disguises, we're talking about a mystery that you have to solve that's interactive all throughout town. All of the panels are focused on that. So the kind of the kind of panel content that I'm brainstorming right now with the authors for the 2026 Author Mystery or Ashland Mystery Fest are very different in tone and style than things that I would experience when I'm attending, say, a Left Coast Crime, where a lot of that is going to be on the art of writing, the process of writing, a lot of the same questions about, you know, what is your daily writing process looks like versus trying to come up with things like author speed dating and how can I make sure that any reader who's coming feels like they are part of the festival. And I there is a caveat here that some of these bigger conferences have smaller versions of that. So for like left coast crime, for example, there are these author-reader connections. And so authors can sign up to do something with readers. Ellen Byron and I are gonna have a glass of wine and like a cozy treat with a few authors before the kickoff event. So there are things like that that happen. I don't want to, you know, make it sound like if you are a reader and you just want to go to one of these big conventions as a reader, absolutely. It's just it's a different vibe and focus.
SPEAKER_00Totally. Yeah, yeah. I mean, there's there's definitely a lot of differences between them, although there's a lot of overlap too, and in certain subjects. But if someone's brand new to um these things from both a writer and a reader perspective, which of the type, a conference, convention, or festival is would would you suggest that would be like less intimidating or or like a good place to start if if they were interested in going to one of these things?
SPEAKER_01I mean, if we're talking less intimidating, definitely a festival, because as I mentioned, they're going to be smaller. There are going to be a plethora of opportunities for you to meet all of the authors in attendance to make connections with other readers in attendance. As far as somebody who is working on their writing and thinking about their path to publication, you can garner a treasure trove of knowledge from some of the bigger conferences and conventions. For Ashland Mystery Fest, for example, we always make sure we have a couple panels that are focused on the craft of writing too, because I know there's crossover. And I also know as a reader, I always find it interesting and as a writer to hear other writers' process. So there's always an element of that. But if you are a new writer and let's say you're thinking you've finished a book or you're almost finished with a book and you're trying to figure out, like, okay, what do I do next? Going to something like a BoucherCon, a left coast crime, a malice is gonna be tremendously helpful because there will be so many panels and opportunities to connect with industry professionals.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Yeah. And and so panels are one thing that when I mentioned that there are cross like uh commonalities among these types of uh event, you know, writer-ish, reader-ish, uh bookish events. That's one of the things. Um so let's talk a little bit about mystery specific versus general uh writing conferences, um, because they're there's kind of both, right? Uh there's and and and other genres have their own conferences too. But since you you know a thing or two about mysteries, those are ones that you kind of uh focus on. But there are general ones too. And um so what are the like what are some of the big ones and what are the differences?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, there are, you know, so each genre has its own. Uh there are all kinds of romance conferences, obviously sci-fi fantasy. You know, you can you can whittle it down, mystery as well. If you're an author or a new writer who is publishing a mystery, let's say, I think the best bang for your buck in terms of actual money as well as your time would be to go to one of those that I just named off, like BoucherCon, Left Coast Crime, Malice. At all of these, you are gonna have an opportunity potentially to um meet agents, to pitch agents, editors. You know, you are gonna have those industry people in attendance. Now, there are also a lot of regional writing conferences that I think are highly valuable. And I went to when I was first um, you know, on my path to publication, Pacific Northwest Writers Association. Well, Lamet Writers is the first conference I went to where I did my first round of pitching. And that is not genre specific. So you're gonna get everything. Um, and you're gonna sign up for agent pitches. Usually with conferences like that, too, they'll do a pitch practice as one of the nights. So usually maybe the first night of the conference or even the day before it opens, where anyone gets to come in and just do their two-minute elevator pitch and get feedback from other people in the room, which is highly valuable just to have ears and eyes on what you're writing and working on and having people tweak that for you. And then you can sign up for one-on-one direct pitches with agents, or sometimes agents will do a table of pitches. And that was fascinating my first time around because I'm pitching this cozy mystery, but the woman next to me is pitching historical fiction, somebody else is pitching like sci-fi fantasy. So, you know, you learn a lot. It was also really fascinating to hear what other projects people were working on too.
SPEAKER_00That's that's really interesting. So, from a writer perspective, if you've got people next to you pitching other genres, like did you get anything out of that? Did you pick up any hints or tips that you could translate over into the mystery world in terms of pitching?
SPEAKER_01Absolutely, because pitching is an art in and of itself. And so I think a good pitch comes through regardless of what the content is. If you're somebody who's pitching, I mean, of course you're gonna be nervous because it's like auditioning for American Idol in the book world. You're sitting in front of an agent and you know, we're you're putting all your trust and faith into this one person who may or may not be a match for your project. Uh, as an aside, well, no, we'll we'll circle back to making sure you do your homework. But uh, I quickly learned how important it was to have a very refined, tight, short pitch, because in a in a situation like that, you maybe have five minutes total. So a minute or two to have a really quick, concise pitch, which also shows an agent or an editor that you have done your homework. You know where your book is supposed to land on shelves, you have a sense of the market, you're able to, in a quick amount of time, give them that like back cover pitch that makes them go, oh, okay, I want to read more. There were, you know, certainly writers who weren't as polished or were still working on their pitches, and you know, they spent the whole five minutes trying to find their way and fumbling through. And that's a great learning opportunity. But that's why, you know, when you're going and you have an opportunity like that, you really want to do your homework and be ready to pitch.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and that's interesting too, because it's it's um you that you mentioned being, you know, it's natural to be nervous. Um, and I imagine that just being in front of a potential agent and doing your pitch one-on-one would make you nervous. But now you're sitting at a table with your peers, essentially, like other writers who have have other their own projects that they're pitching. And you know, like literally all eyes in the room are on you when it's your turn to talk. So um so doing your homework probably includes giving that elevator pitch to a number of people prior to going to the conference, right?
SPEAKER_01I mean, I think I practiced it on you and Sky Guy a thousand times. I had it on note cards, I had my title. Like I felt really good about it. And um, I'm not somebody who gets terrified speaking in public. I I had a history of doing that. You know, I in my previous career did a lot of public speaking for my job. And I remember giving the first one, and I'm not, I'm not a sweater. Usually I just turn bright red and I sweat through my shirt. Like I felt pretty good about the pitch. And then I went out into the bathroom and I was like, okay, um, so it's totally terrifying. I'm not taking away the fact that it is an intimidating process. But I do think like what I understand now about the industry is you are really, as a writer, you're trying to find an agent who is a match for your project. You want somebody who's going to be excited and championing, championing? Why can I not say that word?
SPEAKER_00Championing.
SPEAKER_01Yes. Um, I wanted to add an extra ING there. Uh your work and hopefully a long-term partner. And so I think the the beauty of pitching is it kind of forces you to get really narrow and tight, which you're going to need to do along every step of the way. And I think that's true, even if you're going indie, because you want that nice, tight, concise back cover copy and that pitch to be on your website and on the book listing and all of those sorts of things. Uh, it's also just an incredible opportunity to get some feedback from an industry professional and hopefully somebody is then gonna be willing to maybe read the first three chapters or 50 pages of your work. The one thing is these are uh sign up-based events, right? So if you attend one of these conferences, then you're gonna see a list of all the agents in attendance and you sign up for a slot. You want to do your due diligence in your homework. You don't want to be pitching a children's author if you're writing adult sci-fi, right? And those are the only opportunities you have to pitch a professional at these conferences. So the same rules that we've talked about in previous podcasts apply. That means if you're not signed up for a pitch session with an agent, you can't follow them to the bathroom or try to like squeeze into a table at lunch and do your pitch there. Like they're there, they're working as well, and they have designated times where they're hearing pitches from authors. So you also have to be thoughtful and respectful and professional.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and not following those rules is a guaranteed way to get you blacklisted. Like you'll you'll be like word will spread fast among the agent and editor community that you know this potential author is uh one to potentially stay away from. So interesting. Um so uh and these are all paid, right? The the like these so so this is this is um uh I I guess the I would put it in perspective of like a gym membership, right? If you're paying for it, you should be using it, you should prepare for it. You don't just pay a gym membership and then just walk in without knowing anything about a gym and just standing there and looking at the equipment, going, what do I do? Right? Yeah. So you're gonna want if you're if you're paying for this, like it's an investment in your career, um or or a hobby. It doesn't need like writing can be a hobby. It's totally, but if you're paying for something, you you you the the takeaway here is you need to be prepared um when you're going into it. Uh sounds obvious, but um you'd be surprised. Um so did you have any like breakthrough moments at any of these conferences early on in your career? Any anything that stands out that like you know, you you prepared and you you you know, something just kind of clicked or happened that like really kind of changed things for you?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I mean quite a few things. For starters, I made other connections with writers, writers who I am still friends with today. So that was great. I would take copious notes at any of the workshops. I went to a few conferences early on as I was starting to write. This was for my memoir before I segued into writing mysteries, and uh I learned how to um pitch magazines and like build a portfolio of clips when I was trying to, you know, have kind of a baseline to start with, especially in nonfiction, you need that piece before you publish. Uh so I made a lot of connections that way. I was a student of anything that I could attend or any kind of bonus workshop in a narrow focus. I didn't go to stuff on writing sci-fi or, you know, like if we're talking about some of the bigger, more broad conferences. When I had a completed manuscript and I was ready to pitch, I did my research. There were six agents in attendance at Willamette Writers that year who were actively acquiring mysteries. And I had already started a list of my dream agents, but I hadn't sent any queries out because I wanted to test the waters first with these in-person pitches. And I got six yeses. And uh then I was off to the races. And then I was like, well, okay, it seems like my pitch is there. So now it might be time to query. And then um, that really snowballed. But I think the reason I was successful is because I had done so much legwork and practice going in. And so even though I was sweating through my shirt, I had done that pitch a thousand times and I felt really confident. And the book was done and ready, and it had gone through beta readers and all of those things that happened with the first book.
SPEAKER_00And your elevator pitch was clean. Tight, tight, clean. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Uh-huh. Give them less. Let them ask more questions. Like so much better to have a shorter pitch than one that drowns on forever.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Yeah. Um, okay. So that's from uh those are um conferences from a writer perspective. But uh let's talk a little bit about um what readers get out of like uh let's just use mystery um conventions uh if you know as an example. Um uh like what what makes a mystery convention um fun or magical for readers?
SPEAKER_01At the first time that I went to BoucherCon, I mean, first of all, like if you go to any of the big conferences, and BoucherCon is the biggest of them all in the mystery world, it's huge. Like they're every big name author you can imagine. So you can like niche down within subgenres, which is what Ashland Mystery Fest is. It's just, it's all, it's only cozy authors, right? We don't invite anyone other than Cozy. Ashland is quintessentially cozy, so that's our focus. BoucherCon is everything. True crime, noir, cozy, like anything that falls under the mystery umbrella. I've got my little tote bag. I'm starstruck, I'm looking around everywhere, I'm in line for coffee. And who's in line in front of me? Sue Grafton. Sue Grafton. Whoa, who I had read and adored her Kinsey Milhone alphabet series, my entire adulthood. Life is standing in front of me at coffee and turns around and is just chatting. So that uh getting to hear authors who you have admired. There are always signings as part of these bigger events. So, you know, I think I I think if you are someone who loves the mystery genre, it is absolutely worth attending something like this. And I think there are so many great opportunities just to meet other readers and to be in a space where you have a shared love of something. So you're gonna meet a lot of like-minded people probably.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. Well, and and so from a from a reader perspective, because you were a reader long before you were a writer, and uh, as you just said, you had authors that you were definitely a fan of and everything. What did anything surprise you as a reader? Uh it did you see any interactions kind of like behind the scenes between mystery authors that surprised you?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I think early on it was interesting to hear how much collaboration there was on the panels with authors because I had come into writing with that pervasive myth that writers were really competitive. Um, and I I quickly learned that wasn't true from attending some of these conferences. But there were just so many opportunities to really get a peek behind the curtain in terms of people's writing process and new things that were coming out. There are always really interesting workshops like the police came one of the first years at one of the big conferences that I went to and did a whole panel about, you know, like, no, you're never gonna do that. Uh, last year there was a training at um Author Nation that I went to in Vegas, which is a big indie author conference, um, a stunt woman who taught you like physically how to write scenes where somebody's fighting or getting out of a fight. You know, so there's just there's so much rich content. There, um, a crime scene dog came uh with uh their handler one year to talk about how an animal is gonna handle a crime scene. So you can get really specific in terms of the content you can learn there.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. Uh that uh actually, while you were talking, just made me think um of the first Ashland Mystery Festival. Um the uh panel that Chief Omira uh sat in on. And for the darlings out there, nicest, nicest guy in the world, but so serious. Like if you looked at him, he looks kind of angry, you know, when when he's just standing there. I mean, he looks like a police chief, right? That you would expect. Like, okay, you know, he's in charge of everything. Ashland's a tiny town. He he came from a larger city into Ashland and everything. But seeing him sit on a panel with cozy with like three or four other cozy mystery authors was hilarious because everything that happens in cozy mysteries, he was like, no.
SPEAKER_01Nope.
SPEAKER_00No, no, no, not bad.
SPEAKER_01No, it's just it was it was amazing, so great.
SPEAKER_00And then he got some digs in on uh on the fire department, which was super funny too. So yeah, you get um you get you get a lot of uh a lot of fun interactions um with authors and you know community members too. Uh sometimes law enforcement.
SPEAKER_01Sometimes law enforcement. There is another kind of bookish uh convention that also happens, and these would be the independent booksellers association conferences and library conferences. So for these, I don't know if you can I should I should know this actually, but I don't know if you can just purchase a ticket to them or not. Maybe you can. Um, I'll have to look into that. I I don't know off the cuff. But from a writer perspective, so if we're talking about reader festivals, those intimate Ashland Mystery Fest, tiny festivals like that, authors get invited to those by the organizers because it's a very small, finite number of authors in attendance. If we're talking about the big conferences, Willamette Writers, Pacific Northwest Writers Association, Malice, Left Coast Crime, BausherCon, those sort of things. Authors sign up and pay to attend just like writers do. So there's a ticket path for writers, and there's a ticket path for readers. The library association or bookseller conferences, authors get invited by their publisher. So uh one year I went to the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association conference, and my publishing house sent me. And so at these, there are giant, huge signing tables, just like you would have at any of the other conventions and conferences. But all of the books are free because the publisher sends the author and sends the books, and it's like a big convention hall. So independent booksellers are coming by, they're picking up copies of your book to read themselves to see if they want to buy extra to bring into the store and to see if you might be an author they want to invite into the store. And then the same thing happens with library conferences. Publishing houses send authors to those, or sometimes the library associations pay an author to come keynote and then do a signing after because they have budgets for bringing in authors from all over the country, or, you know, maybe again a specific genre or something they're focusing on at the library that year.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. And for me, uh, as just kind of uh, you know, um looking from the outside, it was really interesting going to the first one of these with you because I had been to several other types of conferences and festivals with you at you for you as an author. And this is like completely different. Um it it it was it was just interesting listening to the conversations because you're you you're you're not talking to readers, you're talking to booksellers, and you're you're essentially pitching, it's it's a you're pitching yourself all over again, essentially, you know, and and what booksellers are definitely readers.
SPEAKER_01No, we're not talking to readers. No, but yes, you it's a different and so really like, yeah, for any darlings out there who are writers, and you know, you're thinking about like, okay, now that my book is published, what are the options for me? There there really are kind of three ways that you're showing up, and they are very different to circle back to what you asked in the beginning. You know, the way you're gonna show up at a festival that's really focused on readers is gonna be to engage with readers and learn about them and make sure that they're having fun. At a conference, you're gonna be with other panelists and be talking industry and craft, and maybe that's an opportunity where you get to meet up with your agent and editor. I met my agent and editor in real life for the first time when I went out to Malice because they were there too. So we got to, we'd been emailing for many years, we finally got to meet in person. And then at something like an Indie Booksellers conference, a regional conference like that, yes, you're pitching like, okay, I'm somebody who would love to come do an event in store, or here are my ideas for an event in store, or here's the kind of keynote I might give. Yeah. So it is you're kind of showing up in three very different ways.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Well, and and we've talked a lot here on reality rights and and you just in social media and your email newsletter and stuff, uh, about the many facets of being an author. And this so it's not just one like you you so that's really that's kind of the key point is you're going to be attending these things in different ways and showing up in different ways. So you just need to again prepare and and be ready. And most importantly, have fun because Oh, totally.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, they're all fun. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Yeah. Definitely. Um, no, that that that's so great. Um uh well, uh anything else to add before we wrap it up here on uh conventions, conferences, and festivals. Oh my.
SPEAKER_01Oh my. I feel like we could have a part two on this because there's there are so many more like maybe gritty details we could get into about them. But I think hopefully this has given the darlings an overview of you know what it's like from a writer's perspective to attend, to put on um any of these events. Um, and maybe hopefully it's inspired somebody to sign up for one.
SPEAKER_00That's right. Well, okay. So speaking of conferences, conventions, and festivals, oh my, we've got the Ashland fourth annual Ashland Mystery Fest coming up in October.
SPEAKER_01Yep.
SPEAKER_00What other conferences, conventions, and festivals, oh my, are you, Ellie Alexander, going to be at this year?
SPEAKER_01Well, I'll be at Left Coast Crime in in San Francisco. And then I am keynoting the Pacific Northwest Library Association's conference in April. Um, I will likely be attending something overseas this summer that I can't talk about yet. I will be attending the California Booksellers Association conference in September and then Ashland Mystery Fest. So um, yeah, it's gonna be a busy year of conferences, conventions. Oh my, oh my.
SPEAKER_00That's great. All right. Well, that wraps up this episode of Reality Rights. Uh, we're now gonna head over to the after party on Patreon, where we're gonna talk about some of the fun interactions that have taken place at conferences, conventions, and festivals, oh my, over the years.
SPEAKER_01All right.
SPEAKER_00Well, there have been many, and at least one of them involves a cape.
SPEAKER_01All right, till next time.
SPEAKER_00Till next time.
