Re: membership value

**"* M* <B*@verizon.net>**

I am not sure how my career would have turned out without the Garden Writers 
Association, which I joined 26 years ago. Back then a writer needed a 
sponsor and had to submit samples of his or her work. I was pleased to be 
accepted. At that time my garden writing consisted of freelance pieces for 
the Orlando Sentinel newspaper. I remember the first conference I attended 
that fall in Florida -- I overheard an editor repeatedly begging Tovah 
Martin to write a book. "What about me! Over here!" I thought. But my time 
eventually came.

Here are just a few of the things I gained over the years:
-Friends in all regions of the country and in varied aspects of the garden 
communications world.
-A stronger connection with gardening trends
-Photography tips from masters of this art
-Exposure to legal and contract information as it relates to publishing
-Well organized trips to see great public and private gardens in the USA, 
Canada, and England including early morning photo shoots
-Opportunities to learn more about the technology behind book, magazine, 
photo, powerpoint, and video production
-Opportunities to get assignments
-Opportunities to publicize books I publish
-Sample plants and seeds
-Opportunities to write for the Quill and Trowel newsletter and speak to GWA 
members about publishing

I came back from the Indianapolis GWA Symposium with a few hundred new 
photos, excellent networking and a possible new book, ideas from Stephen Orr 
on embedding video into ebooks and capturing background sound for this 
purpose, ideas and solutions from Kathy Jentz on ebook publishing, samples 
of new plants and products, seminars on exciting or useful plants, and lots 
of good times.

I am (almost) a workaholic so the idea of getting in some fun, social life, 
travel, education, photography, dancing, and exercise and having it count as 
work is irresistible.

Next year's symposium will be in Tucson and in 2013 it will be in Quebec 
City.

-- Betty Mackey
Publisher, B. B. Mackey Books
www.mackeybooks.com

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