Does Anyone who went to DragonCon this year, have any low down on what transpired at the "NYT Bestseller's Tell All Panel"?
Apparently after the Book Cover panel, I went to lunch and then crashed in the room totally missing it.
I believe the panelist's were:
Kevin J. Anderson
Laurel K. Hamilton
Jim Butcher
Sherrilyn Kenyon
Jonathan Maberry
Anything?
It was greatness. No questions from the audience, all panel interviewer questions. Things like, how long were you writing before you were published, how long were you published before you made the NYT Bestseller list, how long until you made #1, how did you get your break, tell us an embarrassing story, advice for aspiring writers, etc. Interestingly, a lot of their answers were very similar. "Ten years" seemed like a standard, their breaks were lucky, they have HUNDREDS of rejection letters, etc. And they all pretty much said "Don't Quit" as their advice. Just keep writing.
Sherrilyn had been injured by then (I'm told she fell and had a brace on her arm that she had not had the afternoon before :-( ) Jonathan Maberry's embarrassing story (I think it was his?) was that he was at con and someone saw his badge, that it was a "Guest" badge and said, "You're a guest, but I don't recognize your name. You must be an author." Jim Butcher told the story about when his son walked through a telephone interview he was having with his wife and the interviewer asked their son what it was like to have two published authors for parents, was he amazed by what they'd accomplished, and his son answered, "If these two can do it, how hard can it be?"
Laurell K. Hamilton got a LOT of panel time, which was neat (Jim Butcher kind of hung back a bit, since he'd just finished his hour-long all-to-himself interview and had answered many of the questions already). She told a lot of stories about submitting her work over and over, about going to conventions, about finally getting accepted and being congratulated in an elevator by another publisher (or agent?) who said, "I wish I'd gotten a shot at publishing you!" She answered, "You did." (Apparently this was someone who'd previously rejected her!)
