Calling All Catholic Writers: Mark Your Calendars!

Would you like to learn how to translate your "free"lance writing on blogs, online sites, and other non-paying endeavors into cash (if only occasionally)? Would you like to learn more about Catholic publishing, or learn how to put together a winning proposal for a book, or winning query for a magazine? Would you like five minutes with a real, live editor to pitch a book or article idea you just know would sell?

You would? Great! Mark your calendars, and plan to join us in Chicago May 29-30, 2008 for what I hope will be the First Annual RBTE Catholic Writers Conference, to be held in conjunction with the Religious Book Trade Exhibition (RBTE) the week following Memorial Day at the Pheasant Run Resort in Chicago, Illinois!

This conference is going to be hosted by myself (representing Canticle magazine), the Catholic Writer's Guild (Karina Fabian and others), and CatholicMom.com (Lisa Hendey). We also want to acknowledge Bob Byrns, who met with me a few days ago and is going out of his way to help us make this conference a pleasurable experience for everyone!

We are hoping to keep the costs extremely low (around $100, plus one night's accommodation), so even those with limited means can attend. Bring your whole family -- the resort has everything from golf to an indoor/outdoor pool your family can enjoy while you're at each session. Most rooms have a refrigerator and microwave, and the room rate is the same whether one or three adults stay in the room (kids are free). It is a Pepsi place (:-(), but cans of Diet Coke are for sale in the little gift shop. So grab a couple of writer friends and make a road trip!

Please e-mail me (hsaxton@christianword.com) if ...

* You are planning to attend (and would like to help)
* You have a particular topic you'd like us to cover, or a particular editor to recommend
* You have any general feedback about our first conference (and would like to help)

Based on my experiences at the 2007 RBTE conference this week, I think a Thursday afternoon through Friday (May 29-30) would give us the biggest benefit in terms of the numbers of editors we could draw, and floor time we'd have available to us. However, the conference floor opens on Wednesday, and you can stay through the weekend, exploring Chicago with your family if you like!

Stay tuned for more information, which we will develop into a website (any volunteers?) as we have more information available. Thanks in advance to everyone who is going to help (please?), so that we can make this first conference a success!