Highlights from the Catholic Writers Conference Live 2025

A fun three days hanging out with writers!

Last week, I attended the Catholic Writers Conference Live in Naperville, IL. This was my fourth time attending, and my second time coordinating pitch sessions.

Here are my highlights from the conference:

• The people: it’s always wonderful to gather with writers!

• The schedule: plenty of time in-between talks to have meaningful conversations.

• Opportunities to pray together.

• Meals with Mentors: at my table we discussed strategies and tips for planning our next books.

• The talks: every speaker I heard was excellent, well prepared with insightful topics.

I wasn’t able to attend all of the talks, but the ones I heard were great!

• Antony Kolenc shared tips on how to write a fiction series.

• Karina Fabian gave the keynote on persevering in your writing.

• Allison Gringas shared insights on how to optimize your reach on social media.

• Lorelei Savaryn spoke on her experience with traditional publishing.

Coordinating the pitch sessions was one of my favorite parts of the week. Pitch sessions at conferences are opportunities for writers to pitch their books to literary agents or acquisitions editors face to face. At this conference:

• Everyone who signed up to pitch received instructions on how to prepare their pitch before the conference.

• Writers practiced giving their pitches and received constructive feedback at the pitch practice session.

• 5 small Catholic presses heard 38 pitches.

• 22 writers pitched their books.

• 95% of the pitches resulted in requests.

A “yes” at a pitch meeting like this means the publisher requests that the writer send more information so they can consider whether they want to offer a book contract. I’m so happy for all these writers who are one step closer to finding a publisher for their books!

I will definitely be attending and coordinating the pitch sessions again next year. 😊

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Thank you for reading! If you’re new here, I’m Katelin Cummins, a Catholic writer, book coach, gamer, and fantasy fan. If you would like to know more about what I write, check out this post. If you want help planning, writing, or revising your novel or nonfiction book, check out my services on my website.