I had the pleasure of attending the Atlanta Self Publishing Conference this year.
This was my first writing conference, and I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. Was I wasting my money on stratch-off lottery tickets for a gamble of success?
I’ve learned a fair amount of writing craft online, from Youtube, and from practice. Would an in-person event really be that much different?
The answer (to the last question, not the first) was a resounding “YES!”
Arrival
I wanted to get an early start at the conference, as it was a one day conference (Saturday), so I arrived the night ahead. The hotel was mostly lovely. I’d never been to the Georgia Tech Hotel before. As I understand it, the place was built for the athletes who competed in the 1996 Olympics Games in Atlanta. The look and quality of the hotel seemed a step up, and I could imagine a nervous athlete enjoying look and feel of the space. With one exception.
It was noisy. I’m not a student of acoustics, but my hotel room door, which opened out to the interior hallway, had a crack about an inch wide underneath it. The net effect of this was an echo anytime someone in the hallway closed their own door. At 2 a.m., someone decided to do this three times in one minute. I’m usually a sound sleeper, but that woke me up. Couple that with the noise of Spring Street, which was outside my window, and apparently a major route for fire trucks, and it was surprisingly distracting. I suppose my first clue should have been the complimentary pair of earplugs included on the nightstand, provided by the hotel. Nonetheless, I did manage to drift back to sleep, and even woke early for the conference.
Heading to the Conference
I enjoyed the complimentary coffee (which was surprisingly good) in my room and a glorious shower. I dressed in my clothes, making a note that I need to buy a new Dockers because I like to eat and there’s more of me than there used to be, and checked out of my room. I dropped my overnight bag in the car, parked in the convenient garage attached to the hotel, and made my way into the warzone.
Social Hour
It’s been a while since I socialized with a large group of people. COVID lockdown, remote work, and other modern conveniences made me worry I might be a bit rusty. And there are times that I tend to wallflower for no reason at all. What would my reaction be to hundreds of voracious author-sharks, circling this newbie like a fresh meal.
I was mistaken. They weren’t author-sharks. They were more like cute, cuddly author-puppies. They loved you for exactly who you were.
I walked up and visited each of the vendor tables, chatting with people about what they had on display. They were nice, friendly, and social people themselves. They wanted to talk, they wanted to share, they wanted to connect with their folks. And so did I.
Being an author often involves locking yourself in a room, silently working on a particular piece of work, with no human interaction. I think that starves us on some level. So when we get a chance to emerge into the light of day, surrounded by others who know our journey, we form an instant connection with those like-minded souls. We’re ready to talk with others, to talk about the pain and pleasure of our journey. And as authors, we’re also happy to listen to other people’s stories.
The Vendors
There were probably a dozen or so, and they represented various parts of our industry. Some were publishers, some were editors, and some were speakers who brought along their book to share. Everybody was friendly and nobody was pushy or rude. I walked up to each table, asked them who they were, what they did, and what they had on their table. I even helped one person set up their area – those finely-honed skills of arranging books from my days working at Waldenbooks coming back to me as if they never left.
We were all waiting on the coffee to arrive, but when it did, I still had people at tables I wanted to talk to. I chose conversations with random strangers over coffee! I was enjoying socializing! This surprised me as much as anything. Fortunately there was still enough coffee for me to snag a cup before the MC told us to take our seats, as the show was about to begin.
The Morning Show
There were several presentations planned for the morning, and the MC, like a fuzzy Pitbull puppy, tolerated no delays. We started on time, and presenters were kept on the clock. Kudos to the person who did this with so many free spirits wanting to mingle.
The first presentation focused on blurbs. This is something I’m focused on now, trying to figure out the magic words that will help readers decide to buy my book when they see it on Amazon or in a bookstore. The presenter gave a formula use, like an alchemist handing down the recipe of a healing potion, that worked. I did discover that potion came in two flavors: fiction and non-fiction. You approach a blurb and structure it differently for each of those. We reviewed some good examples of blurbs, and I felt more confident when the presentation ended.
We had fifteen minutes before the next presentation, so I decided to do something risky and dangerous. I chatted with the other people at my table. I think I was still looking for that crocodile who would bite my hand off so I could say “people are bad, I wanna run back to my hidey-hole!”. Sadly, everyone at my table was wonderful, each with their own unique story, own idea for a book, and their own journey. We bonded in a way I loved. I was sad when I got shunted to another table for the afternoon (I was late getting back), as I felt I had lost some friends. Fortunately they were just a table away, so we continued our conversations between breaks.
The next presentation was about Novellas and Serials. You know, not Novels. I was convinced I had no interest in the topic, as I’m a “Novel Writer™”. I was completely wrong. I learned about something called Royal Road, a place where serial fiction is created and shared. I learned about people who write without fear. People who create a story a day at a time. The best analogy that the presenter gave was that it was the difference between writing Star Trek episodes (serial), and Star Trek movies (novel). And it sounded wonderful enough I just might give it a try.
The third and last presenter for the morning talked about “Building your own table”. The idea is, you can do so much with your books. Books are just the start. Once you have books, you can create merchandise. Paraphrasing Mel Brooks, “Merchandising, merchandising, where the real money from the novel is made.” It opened my eyes to the fact that, when people connect with your book, your characters, and such, people want more of that. They’ll buy coffee cups with your characters on it. They’ll buy posters, they’ll buy towels, they’ll buy recipes from characters in your book. And heck, they’ll even buy television shows you produce. I think the most important lesson I learned here is this. If you find joy in the work you produce, use that joy to create more joy. Don’t just go for a money-grab with additional products. Instead do products and add-ons that bring you joy, that you’re proud of. Being authentic is what sells, not being greedy. So approach it that way.
We took a break for lunch. I was hungry now as the presenter had just talked about food several times in their presentation. I found a place down the street that was a Mom-and-Pop version of Panda Express, and got a good meal for a great price.
The Afternoon Show
I arrived back a bit early and nobody else was back. I decided to take a walk and burn off some of the fried rice I ate at lunch. By the time I made it back, the room was full again, and my previous seat at my table of besties was taken by someone else. I tried to mingle into a table nearby, but the folks there said the seats were taken.
I stood in the back for a few minutes, waiting for the final lunch crowds to settle in so I could find a spot to sit. One of the people at the table I approached got up, walked over to me, and invited me back since the person who was there from the morning session didn’t return. I felt loved by a new family, and shuffled over five minutes into the presentation.
This post-lunch presentation was a round-table discussion, asking authors what they did to find success. The questions were wide and varied, and the responses were too. Each person found different ways to succeed as a writer. Some folks danced in TikTok videos to promote their books. Some found success by putting their books at barbecue restaurants to sell. Some found success at craft festivals.
The important takeaway here is that different things work for different genres. And you have to be adaptable. Realize that when you sell one book, you’re selling more than one book. If your book is good, when one person buys your book, they will tell others about the book and they’ll (hopefully) buy it, and now you’ve sold two books instead of one. Word-of-mouth is a powerful effect when it comes to selling books. Don’t underestimate it.
They also talked about some of their mistakes, or times things went badly. One guy had produced a really good non-fiction book about the difficult lives of police officers. It came out the day that George Floyd died in Minneapolis while in police custody. Timing is everything. And that was the wrong time for that book.
Another shared they discovered, the hard way, that sweet romance books plus raunchy jokes doesn’t mix. Another expressed that selling books at a sci-fi convention doesn’t work with books that aren’t sci-fi or fantasy.
The most important thing is to experiment. And monitor what happens when you do. Learn from your mistakes and learn what works, and what doesn’t.
One common thread here was that everyone mentioned Facebook as a good platform for books. It seems to be the best online place that can be used by a wide variety of genres and age groups for promoting books. While TikTok and Instagram may work better for younger groups, Facebook is still strong (at least currently).
The next presentation (the last one for me) was about author brand. The presentation was given by a publicist. Her best advice: Don’t get a publicist until you yourself know your own brand!
Knowing your brand takes work. You need to decide who you are, what you want to do, what message you want to convey. These are authentic things about yourself, and require soul-searching to determine those things that are inside yourself that don’t change. Only by doing that first can you figure out what your brand is.
The audience had some interesting questions here. One person was a well-established business author who wrote business mindset books. But she was yearning to write steamy romances. How could she combine those two? Short answer, it’s a real challenge. But it can be done. You have to determine the authentic parts of yourself you want to share, and understand some of that comes with risk. Stacy Abrams, a well-known politician in Georgia, writes romance under the pen name Selena Montgomery. While some might argue that romance and politics mix, it’s hardly a publicly acknowledge truth. But if she can do it, others can too.
And there are times when it makes sense to use different pen names. If one name is known for producing children/middle-grade books, don’t publish romances under that same pen name. You can take the lessons learned with one name, and create a different persona, who is still you, and build your second pen name. Typically you want to avoid personal photos for such things, and instead use logos to establish your brand here.
In short though, your brand should reflect who you are and be influenced by your own personal story.
Wrap Up
There was another presentation (focused around Instagram), but I had scheduled a short session to talk with an editor at that time, so I went to that instead.
I found out developmental editing is EXPENSIVE. Like, five cents a word expensive. So for an 80k word book, that’s $4k. I just bought a new roof for my house. I believe developmental editing is important, but I can’t justify it with my debut novel, at least not yet. Also the timing is wrong currently for me – I’m in my second draft, and need to polish things a bit before I present it for editing.
I’ll take a look at it after my second draft is complete, and decide if I can afford it then. I know cheaper prices are out there, but sometimes you get what you pay for, and I’ve never heard of anyone being disappointed with having developmental editing done.
I decided I wanted to head home. I had a 3 hour drive ahead of me, and I wanted to be home before sunset. Glad I did that too, as there was a major backup on I-75 that I just barely avoided. A short stop at Buc-ee’s put me back in a good mood though, so I arrived home happy but tired.
Was It Worth It?
Totally! I went into the weekend questioning if I would get anything useful out of the conference. I left realizing how much I can learn from in-person connections compared to online learning. I really enjoyed it and felt it was worth my time and money.
More than that, I made friends. I had one person volunteer to be a beta reader for me too, so that’s awesome. She’s a bit ahead of me on her journey, working on her second book, and she loves the idea I have for my book Murder at the Bathhouse. I’m looking forward to working with her!
In closing, it’s the morning after, and I can’t wait for my next writing conference, which may be Killer Nashville. But again, I just put a new roof on my house, and an author’s gotta have a dry head to work. Still, if there’s a way, I look forward to attending.
Anyone got any scratch-offs?