Writers and Authors

Showing posts with label event for writers. Show all posts

The Writer’s Digest Annual Conference #WDC17

Writers and Authors has partnered with The Writer’s Digest Annual Conference this year. In today's post I'll fill you in on all the important details.

About the event:

Write better. Get published. Build your network.

The Writer’s Digest Annual Conference is the premier destination of writers across the world who want to elevate their skills with personalized advice from some of today’s most accomplished authors, editors and mentors.

Writer’s Digest has earned its reputation as the industry’s most trusted source for writing advice and insight over the past 90+ years. With more than 50 Agents and Editors expected to participate in the Pitch Slam and dozens of insightful sessions led by industry experts and successful writers, the Writer’s Digest Annual Conference is an unprecedented opportunity to advance your career and improve your writing practice.

WHO ATTENDS WRITER’S DIGEST CONFERENCE?

The Writer’s Digest Annual Conference is for writers of all genres, forms and levels of experience. No matter how long you’ve been writing, you’ll find content of great value for you. Writer’s Digest’s reputation attracts a dedicated group of writers! The vast majority of attendees shared that they have been writing for years. Last year, more than 1,000 were in attendance, with even more expected in 2017.

LEARN FROM EXPERTS

Connect with many of publishing’s most respected and knowledgeable writers, agents and editors—including bestselling authors and Pulitzer Prize winner Richard Russo! Pick the program track that’s right for you. Mix and match sessions from the five core program areas: Getting Published, Platform & Promotion, Craft, Genre Studies and The Business of Being an Author.

PITCH YOUR WORK

Bypass the waiting game! Instead of sending out query after query and hoping to hear back, at the Pitch Slam you’ll pitch your work one-on-one to agents and editors searching for new talent and great books. This opportunity is a pulse-pounding ride!

You’ll pitch to each agent for 90 seconds and then receive 90 seconds of instant,

invaluable feedback—and maybe a request to hear more.

MEET THE RIGHT PEOPLE

The Conference is a true writers’ summit. You’ll be rubbing elbows with agents and editors, sure, but you’ll also have the chance to connect with your peers, people who truly understand the writing life and who want to see you succeed. Find a writing partner, join a critique group or just enjoy meeting new friends.

FIND WRITER’S DIGEST ANNUAL CONFERENCE ONLINE

Visit us: http://bit.ly/WDC17

Twitter: http://bit.ly/WDCTW17

Facebook: http://bit.ly/WDCFB17

Writer’s Digest: http://bit.ly/WriterDigest

F+W Media: http://bit.ly/FWMedia

On Saturday 30th May the annual Promo Day event took place at www.PromoDay.info. This free event was a whole day packed full of webinars, pitch sessions, panel discussions, and more.

Loads of topics were discussed during the event but here's a few takeaways of some of the main points raised during the event:

1) There is a big divide within self publishing.

Self publishing has become a more main stream method of publication in recent years but this market growth has also been accompanied by a wide variety of quality. The main reason why self publishing still has a certain stigma attached to it. Whilst some self publishers realise the importance of putting out a quality product, others are in a hurry to get their books out there and so skip some of the important steps of the process. Poor editing (or even lack of), poor formatting, and "template" book covers are common. When a self published book is done well readers shouldn't be able to tell how it was published. Having a quality product matters... both for the individual book, and the self publishing industry as a whole.

2) "Buy my book" doesn't work.

In fact, it can damage your reputation. There was a lot of discussion about the importance of building a strong author brand, and the fact that networking is really just making friends. You need to find a common passion, offer value of some kind, and build trust. When you do that, you don't need to hard sell.

When people see or hear "buy my book" they translate it into "spam". Marketing needs to be about finding a connection and offering benefits.

3) Book reviews are a marketing tool and for potential customers NOT the authors.

Whilst it's nice to get 5 star reviews singing your praises what you really want are balanced reviews that tell potential customers what the reader liked, and DIDN'T like about the book. Yep, that's right. Comments about how the book could have been better are a good thing. It shows they actually read the book and that they are giving their honest opinion of it. Those little negatives then add even more value to the positive comments made as potential customer know they can trust that it's an honest review.

4) Keywords matter.

Whether it's on Amazon, or in social media posts, keywords make a big difference. Just as you think about keywords in order to rank on Google, you need to do the same in order to get the algorithms of other sites working for you so that you get better visibility and reach the right audience.

If you missed the live panel discussions you can watch the replays here:

There were also live Twitter chats and Facebook wall chats, as well as all the action that happened over in the event forums.

A truly international event with attendees from all around the world! Already looking forward to next year!

There are numerous benefits to attending online events. To name a few:

Learn new skills
Network
Promote your products and services
Find new opportunities and clients
Establish yourself as an expert in your industry and strengthen your author brand.

But how do you get the most out of online events?

1) Plan ahead. What presentations are you most interested in? Are there specific features or activities happening during the event that you particularly want to be part of? Having a vague game plan in place before hand means you won't get overwhelmed by all the action taking place. It also means you'll achieve your main goals for the day first and then be able to relax and fully enjoy the rest of it.

It's a good idea to have information and links about your books and services ready in a file. This way when opportunities come up during the event you can quickly share without having to search for them. It also makes you come across as more professional and on the ball.

2) Network with other attendees. Connecting with others is one of the best things about attending events. Strengthen existing relationships and reach out to new contacts. Striking up conversation is easy even for the most shy as you already have something in common (the event) and therefore plenty of things to comment on and discuss.

Take your networking off the event site and onto social media channels to increase impact, using the event hashtag to connect with other attendees. Not only will you become part of the action and be able to strike up contact easily with others but you'll also be getting publicity for your profile at the same time. People often RT and share comments related to events they are attending. You'll also show up in the newsfeed for people searching for posts about the event.

3) Tag your posts and content. The event will most likely have a hashtag you can attach to any posts or tweets you send out. If you're sharing a photo or screenshot from the event remember to tag yourself and the event page in the pic when you upload.

4) Write a blog post about the event. Give an overall snapshot of the event or hone in on certain features or presenters.You could even set up a blogging team to cover the event where each person picks a part of the event to cover. You can then either group comments into one post or schedule a series of posts to cover the event.

5) Get involved. If there are opportunities to get involved in activities like Google hangouts or Twitter discussions step up and join in. The content can be used in posts on your website, blog or social media profiles. Activities that involved multiple people are great as each participant is likely to share the content and therefore will be sharing about you at the same time.

6) Take photo's and screenshots. If you were at an in person event you'd most likely take your camera along so you could take photo's throughout the day. You'd want to get snapshots of you with other attendees so you can show people who you've been rubbing shoulders with. Well an online event is the same... the method just changes slightly. You can take screenshots that feature some of your best discussions with other attendees. If you take part in a hangout you can even take photo's during your chat using the capture app.

Want to put these tips into action? Take part in Promo Day tomorrow at www.PromoDay.info. It's a free online event for people in the writing industry and is full of opportunities to promote, network, and learn.

The London Book Fair took place 15-17 April 2013 at Earls Court in London, UK. I really wish I could have been there myself but sadly it didn't happen this year. I did follow it virtually though and there was some great information and advice shared. From what I saw it was also quite the social setting with loads of networking taking place.

You can find out more about the event at the website http://www.londonbookfair.co.uk/Home/ but I thought it would be nice to give an overview of what happened at this years event.

Photo's from London Book Fair 2013:

Some tweets from this years event:

"The KDP stand reported this year’s No. 1 question was, 'Why isn’t my book selling?'" @byrozmorris ow.ly/kgC7F #LBF13
— Porter Anderson (@Porter_Anderson) April 21, 2013

"Online is crucial for generating publicity as a large proportion of the audience are now online"@bloomsburybooks #lbf13

— The London Book Fair (@LondonBookFair) April 16, 2013

Have a plan, keep talking, provide awesome stuff / exclusive content, use every point of contact. HC dos for successful #communities #lbf13

— Imola Unger (@ImolaUnger) April 16, 2013

@pressfuturist #lbf2013 publishing career is as much about what you do in your spare time as what you do in the job. Explore.

— PWA (@Profwriting) April 15, 2013

In this video Joanna Penn chats with Amazon's Thom Kephart, Kobo's Mark Lefebvre, BookBaby's Brian Felsen, Smashwords' Mark Coker and Gareth Howard from Authoright PR at the London Book Fair

Some blog posts about the event that you might want to check out:

Defining the New Role for Literary Agents

Young Debut Authors Fetch Big Advances

Empowered Authors and Digital Revolution

The London Book Fair 2013 – An Aspiring Author’s Guide: The Brilliant Authors’ Lounge and the Terrifying LitFactor Pitch

The London Book Fair 2013

For a look at what happened in the Author Lounge check out http://www.authoright.com/authorlounge-whats-on/lounge

Did you attend this years event? What was the highlight for you? Got any tips for others wanted to attend this event? Anyone thinking about going to next years event?

If you write commercial fiction and are looking for a great writing conference, I recommend you check out the International Thriller Writers (ITW) [http://thrillerwriters.org/] annual event, ThrillerFest [http://www.thrillerfest.com/]. It’s a four-day extravaganza held every year in early July in New York City, close to the publishing industry to ensure participation by editors and agents as well as lots of published authors. If you’re looking for a way to become part of the mystery and thriller genre, you might find that this is the conference you’ve been waiting for.

There are two things that most writers want when they’re at the pre-publication stage: advice on how to make their stories better, and opportunities to meet the editors and literary agents who will make their dreams come true. Craftfest and Agentfest, part of Thrillerfest, are designed to fill those needs.

At Craftfest [http://www.thrillerfest.com/craftfest/], you’ll attend sessions on the craft of writing commercial fiction, taught by bestselling authors and some of the top editors in the field. There aren’t many conferences where you’ll learn about dramatic structure or characterization from Lee Child [http://leechild.com/], John Sandford (http://www.johnsandford.org/), Steve Berry [http://www.steveberry.org/] or acclaimed agent Donald Maass [http://www.maassagency.com/]. While the line-up of presenters changes from year to year at Craftfest, you’ll find that every instructor at is of the same high caliber.

There are typically over 50 agents at Agentfest [http://www.thrillerfest.com/agentfest/] to take your pitches. You can see some of the agents who’ve attended in the past here [http://www.thrillerfest.com/agentfest/agents-previous/]: if you’re looking to pitch to the top agents representing mystery, thriller and suspense, this is where you’ll find them all in one place. And if you’ve never pitched before, don’t worry, there’s a workshop beforehand to teach you the ropes.

At Thrillerfest, you’ll get two days of multiple tracks of panels and spotlight interviews with the biggest names in the field, all designed to teach you about the business of writing commercial fiction. You’ll find panels with some of the most respected editors from the Big Six Publishers: Neil Nyren, senior vice-president and publisher of Putnam and Mark Tavani, senior editor at Ballantine Books have been speakers in past years. There are also workshops on related subjects-- everything from martial arts to the espionage business—taught by experts.

One of the best things about Thrillerfest is that you get the opportunity to network with authors of all levels of experience—from long-time bestsellers to novices. At my first Thrillerfest, imagine my surprise when I was joined at breakfast by Erica Spindler [http://www.ericaspindler.com/] and Heather Graham [http://www.eheathergraham.com/]! That’s one of the most amazing things about Thrillerfest: everyone is approachable and open.

And while the opportunity to meet big name authors in your genre is a pretty compelling reason to attend, an even better one is that at Thrillerfest you have the chance to meet writers just like you who will likely go on to be your ally in the industry throughout your career—and I can attest to that myself. I met legal thriller writer Allison Leotta [http://allison.leotta.com] when we sat next to each other on stage for the 2011 Debut Author class and today we’re best buds, calling each other for advice and appearing at events together.

As a matter of fact, that’s why I volunteered to write this guest post for ITW: I’ve gotten a lot from Thrillerfest over the years and I wanted to give something back by spreading the word. If you’ve been looking for a writer’s conference that will open doors for you, you might want to read about a few of Thrillerfest’s success stories:

Jennifer Hillier [http://www.thrillerfest.com/2012/06/confessions-of-a-thrillerfest-fangirl/], author of CREEP and FREAK (Gallery Books)

· Boyd Morrison [http://www.thrillerfest.com/2012/05/five-short-years-ago/], author of THE ROSWELL CONSPIRACY, THE CATALYST, ROGUE WAVE and THE VAULT (Pocket Books)

· Jenny Milchman {http://www.thrillerfest.com/2012/07/why-im-going-to-thrillerfest/}, author of COVER OF SNOW (Ballantine)

Are you ready to find out more? Click on the links above to go to the Thrillerfest website; you’ll find everything you need. And if you come to Thrillerfest in July, make sure to look for me and say hello!

Guest post by Alma Katsu [http://www.almakatsu.com], the author of THE TAKER and THE RECKONING, paranormal thrillers published by Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster. THE TAKER was an ALA Top Ten Debut Novel of 2011 and has rights have been sold in 15 languages.

I’ve been asked many times how I’ve managed to organize the annual Book ‘Em North Carolina Writer’s Conference and Book Fair. The event takes place on the last Saturday of each February in sunny Lumberton, North Carolina. The last event brought in more than 2,000 attendees and more than 75 featured authors and publishers. The success of the event isn’t by accident. It’s the result of hundreds of hours of work by dozens of volunteers.

Laying the Groundwork: I began lining up community support several years ago for Book ‘Em North Carolina, an event to raise funds for literacy programs in Robeson County. We gathered support from the City of Lumberton (always important to get local leaders involved), the Lumberton Area Visitors Bureau (instrumental for publicity efforts), area businesses (sponsorships), civic groups (volunteers), schools (school-age attendance and volunteers with boundless energy), non-profits (to whom the literacy funds will go), among others. When we were offered Robeson Community College for the location, we were ready to get started.

Lining Up the Authors: We begin accepting author registrations in March—a full year before the big event. Press releases are sent to major author groups over the summer and a team concentrates on getting the headliners—authors at the top of their game whose participation helps us attract high quality authors as well as more attendees. Our last event headlined two New York Times best-selling authors: Carla Neggers and Michael Palmer. Our upcoming event will headline New York Times best-selling author Mary Alice Monroe as well as acclaimed Hollywood producer Chuck Williams, who will speak about turning books into movies. I developed our website, posting every author’s picture, bio and links as they registered. Over time, I added dozens of informational pages.

Sponsorships: We solicit businesses for sponsorships of $250 to $2,000 apiece, instrumental for promoting and marketing the event.

Publicity: We begin periodic press releases each spring, which are picked up by mainstream and Internet media. We obtain media sponsors and worked steadily with newspapers, television and radio stations. The big promotional push begins each January 2.

Logistics: The conference and book fair features more than 75 authors selling and signing their books, which means we must have tables and adequate space not only for the authors but for traffic flow. We’ve divided two buildings into fiction, non-fiction, young adult and a special Children’s Corner, meticulously measuring hallways and classrooms. Five sets of talks go on simultaneously – panel discussions and solo talks for every genre – plus readings for small children. Each talk requires a moderator; each hallway and conference room requires a Team Captain and host of volunteers. There’s an Author’s Lounge, volunteer greeters, music in the cafeteria, events in the Children’s Corner and centralized cash registers, each requiring a team of volunteers.

Afterward: When the event is over, our work is not: we clean up the space used, reconcile all the funds received, pay authors and publishers their portion of the book sales, award the non-profits funding for literacy efforts, and donate remaining books to literacy groups.

Then we start the whole process over.

Book ‘Em North Carolina is held on the last Saturday of each February in Lumberton, NC. The event is FREE and open to the public. A portion of every book sale is donated to the Dolly Parton Imagination Library of Robeson County, Communities In Schools, and Friends of the Robeson County Public Library for literacy campaigns for all ages. The Book ‘Em Foundation was founded by author p.m.terrell, who wrote this blog, and Police Officer Mark Kearney, to raise awareness of the link between high crime rates and high illiteracy rates. p.m.terrell remains the co-chair of the annual Book ‘Em North Carolina event.

Guest post by p.m.terrell, the award-winning, internationally acclaimed author of more than 16 books, including Vicki's Key, a 2012 International Book Awards finalist, and River Passage, 2010 Best Fiction & Drama winner. She is the co-founder of The Book 'Em Foundation whose slogan is "Buy a Book and Stop a Crook" and the co-chair of Book 'Em North Carolina Writers Conference & Book Fair. For more information, visit www.pmterrell.com.

LINKS:

www.pmterrell.com

www.pmterrell.blogspot.com

Twitter: @pmterrell

Facebook: Patricia M. Terrell

p.m. will be giving a $25 Amazon Gift Card to one randomly drawn commenter and so I encourage you to follow the tour and comment; the more you comment, the better your chances of winning. The tour dates can be found here: http://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2012/07/virtual-book-tour-secrets-of-dangerous.html.

What is World Book Day?

World Book Day is a celebration! It’s a celebration of authors, illustrators, books and (most importantly) it’s a celebration of reading. In fact, it’s the biggest celebration of its kind, designated by UNESCO as a worldwide celebration of books and reading, and marked in over 100 countries all over the world.

This is the 15th year there’s been a World Book Day, and on 1st March children of all ages will come together to appreciate reading. Very loudly and very happily. The main aim of World Book Day in the UK and Ireland is to encourage children to explore the pleasures of books and reading by providing them with the opportunity to have a book of their own. That’s why we will be sending schools (including those nurseries and secondary schools that have specially registered to participate), packs of Book Tokens and age-ranged World Book Day Resource Packs (age-ranged into Nursery/Pre-School, Primary and Secondary) full of ideas and activities, display material and more information about how to get involved in World Book Day.

What happens?

Thanks to the generosity of National Book Tokens Ltd, publishers and booksellers, we can send millions of book vouchers to children and young people (more than 14 million, in fact: that’s one for nearly every child aged under eighteen in the country).

Then…

They can take their voucher to a local bookseller and can use it to pick one of EIGHT (exclusive, new and completely free) books. Or, if they’d rather, they can use it to get £1 off any book or audio book costing over £2.99 at a participating bookshop or book club (terms and conditions apply).

How can you get involved?

You can download the new packs here (nursery, primary andsecondary). And please visit our Resources section which is full of exciting and fun new resources based on your favourite books, brands, characters and authors.

It’s all about getting kids closer to the books and authors they already love, and letting them discover more books and authors they’ll love every bit as much in the future.

Visit http://www.worldbookday.com/ for full details about the event or download the press kit here

About the event:

The London Book Fair 2013 – An Aspiring Author’s Guide: The Brilliant Authors’ Lounge and the Terrifying LitFactor Pitch

Then…

How can you get involved?

UPDATE

Search This Blog

Blog Archive

Featured Post

Sites To Promote Your Free Amazon Kindle Books

POPULAR POSTS