I Left Las Vegas
The spur of the moment decision that may be one of the most impactful decisions of my life.
Leaving Las Vegas wasn’t the big decision. Choosing to spend about $1000 on a solo trip to Las Vegas to attend another writers conference was the big decision. Attending writers conference is a fabulous thing to do solo because most every writer goes solo, so we look out for each other and make new friends. And attending these conferences is what I do for fun - it’s my brithday present to myself. But what made this conference different and so much better? Everything.
20Books Vegas 2023 - the Self-Published Writers Conference
20BooksTo50K is a Facebook Group I have followed since quite early in its inception in 2016. Michael Anderle self-published a few fantasy books and learned he could make good money as a self-published author. He looked at his daily amounts per book at that time and theorized that if he had 50 books out, he could make $50,000 per year. Not only that, he wanted to share all is mistakes and success for other authors to benefit. So he created the Facebook page.
Here’s the thing: he achieved $50,000 with just five books. A few years later a Superfan of his books, Craig Martelle, had an idea: create a writers conference where all the successful indie authors could share their expertise and help as many authors as possible be successful.
This is the conference I attended, specifically for self-published authors, which I am not YET, but will be by June 2024. So here are my biggest takeaways from this amazing conference.
A business plan is essential - my writing is my business. I need to plan my books (don’t publish my first one without another one ready to release within two months), plan my marketing, and plan my finances (register for an EIN and keep by writer expenses separate from my person with a different credit card. Authors stress tracking three costs: time, money, and stress. How much an author MAKES is not important; it’s how much she KEEPS.
Marketing is essential. A good marketer with mediocre books will earn more than a good writer with no marketing. Go at your own pace, but ALWAYS write the next book. The best marketing for your current book is writing your next book.
Free marketing is essential for the first two books. Everyone - attendees and presenters - all had the same message. Don’t invest (MONEY) in advertising until the third book.
Free advertising has a lot of different looks. Newsletters (see Newsletter Ninja), subscribers, TikTok videos, promos on BookFunnel, attending events in your community, setup reader magnet to encourage readers of your book to read the next, setup a lead magnet to find new readers (both of which can be done on BookFunnel),
Once third book is ready for the world, advertising makes sense. Facebook, Amazon, BookBub, TikTok, Instagram, Google… there are many options.
The big indie author decision: KU or Wide. In real life, you can do both. Kindle Unlimited is for ebooks only, so you go wide with print books. Another note on print books: several presenters wished they focused more on print books earlier on.
Direct Sells is the next great frontier - many (most) presenters said their next goal in their career is direct sells. Selling books directly to their readers through their websites (subscriptions and BookFunnel, too?) TikTok has a shop! And authors do well selling their paperbacks from TikTok. Must self-fulfill orders.
Game Lit - there’s a game lit genre? Anthea Sharp has a game lit book where the character enters the fan stay realm through a video game portal.
YA or MG? Answer: neither! Indie authors don’t have to follow the traditional publishing standards by categorizing their books as YA (young adult) or MG (Middle Grade). Parents don’t know these terms. They care about age and grade level appropriateness. So instead of worrying about YA or MG, I can state for middle school grades, ages 10-14. This is huge for my current realistic trilogy written for middle school aged kids.
For the rapid release writers, I give you: Dictation. While there is so much more I can add as my learning curve was steep at this first self-published authors conference, I will stop with one last tip: Dictation. My dad has told me this for awhile now. He reads writers who published books practically monthly, and they are able to do this because they dictate their books (and probably pay someone else to clean them up). The dictated first draft will mosts likely be a ROUGH first draft with three editing options: 1. Pay someone, 2. Edit yourself, 3. Use AI(ish). It’s important to have an outline before dictating, scene by scene - can be simple - is essential.
In conclusion, I have attended three Writers Digest Novel Writing Conferences in Pasadena, one WD Annual Conference (for all writers) in New York, and one SF Writers Conference in San Francisco. In the past I focused mainly on craft and networking. This time in Las Vegas, marketing and learning all about self-publishing were my main focuses and why my learning curve was so huge. I know about craft - I have an MFA in Writing. But I knew next to zero about marketing and having a business plan.
The Number One Essential to Success as a Writer: Writer Friends. Talking and exchanging contacts and learning from other writers was massively important. Most of the writers I met have multiple books published, anywhere from three to forty-four. We are a motivated bunch and we will hold each other accountable in our respective writing businesses. I can’t wait to learn more from them and share in our writing journeys.
One final takeaway: have someone to hold you accountable to your writing goals and pursuits. Or in our case, have a whole group!