Three… Maybe Four… Worth Thinking About
But only on one does the entire focus stay on the upper levels of Indie writing only. That is the Master Business Class WMG Publishing puts on every October in Las Vegas. Details below.
What are the others?
First off, SuperStars Writing Seminar in Colorado Springs just finished and it is great. Hosted by WordFire Press and Kevin J. Anderson and Rebecca Moesta, it is a great place to go and network with other writers and learn about all basic sides of the business. Did I say networking. They are great at that.
But Superstars spends about half its time on traditional publishing. But if you can make a Superstars conference, it is worth it even if the traditional side doesn’t interest you. They have great guests every year.
Second, the NINC (Novelist INC) National Conference. You can’t get into the organization unless if you have published two novels and have a certain level of sales. Great business, but leaning toward the traditional side, of course.
Third, the 20to50 Conferences. These are aimed at lower level indie beginners for the most part. Focused completely on the indie side and on sales. Really basic stuff with a fewer more advanced panels tossed in. A lot of promotion focus, actually. Because it is here in Vegas, Kris and I talk at it because we support the idea behind what they are doing. If you are just starting out, this one will be a good one for you.
Other genre conferences like Romance Writers national conference and a little bit at World SF convention and at the major comic conventions deal with some writing business. But very scattered these days. Expensive to dig out nuggets of information.
Master Business Class
So over the last years, our Master Business Class has been intended to fill that area above the basic stuff for indie writers. Yes, the networking is great. And yes it is fun. But it also a firehose of information, some of it you won’t use because you just won’t get there yet. But you will know it is there and that is critical.
We deal with things that advanced indie writers need like time management, web site use, promotion that works, cash streams, gaming, movies, and a ton more.
For example, this last year Kris and Dave Farland spent an afternoon with David Vandigriff from the Passive Voice talking on movies and what happens when you are approached and how that part of the industry even works.
Loren L. Coleman of Catalyst Game Labs talked about gaming and how gaming is now POD that any of us can do.
And so on and so on. Five full days.
So if interested, the next one is this coming October 25th through the 30th in Las Vegas, Nevada. We limit the number attending to around 50, so everyone can take part. There are still spots open.
Seconding Superstars. I just came back from it. Not only is it an incredible amount of information about the business side, but there’s a sense of community that doesn’t exist in any other function I’ve been at. I’d been attending a book marketing conference in Philadelphia for the last two years, and Superstars surpassed with good information, even without being all about marketing. My head is still buzzing for information.