WRITING ... Conferences and Workshops
THERE IS NOTHING LIKE BEING IN THE ROOM - FACE TO FACE
MONDAY
This weeks some of the post are going to be shorter as I also have some Western Speaking Gigs to finish out Black History Month. If you have any interest in Multicultural Western History please check out my other substack wildwestdiversity.substack.com and subscribe.
Online learning is a wonderful thing and offers so many opportunities and knowledge, but there is nothing like being in the room with people face to face. Sharing your stories with each other.
CONFERENCES
Do a google search for events in you geographic location (or somewhere you always wanted to go). Since I also write about Black Cowboys, two years ago, I spoke at the National Social Studies Conference about “The Economic Impact of Black Cowboys: Yesterday & Today,” because it was in South Carolina somewhere I always wanted to visit. So I was able to take my niece and great nieces and write off the trip as a business expense.
Find an event near your favorite location (New York, Savannah, Hawaii, Denver, San Diego, Canada, Europe, etc.) but know that professional conferences plan a year, two or three years out. So plan ahead.
Search for conferences, events or associations related to you topic if non-fiction that might be a little easier as most professions have associations or meetings of some kind (technology, health/medical, legal, financial, social media, relationships, career).
If you are writing fiction you can look for genre-based events like romance, sci-fi, comics, mystery, religion/spiritual (church denominations Catholic or Presbyterian and Christian booksellers might also be an option).
If your audience is new moms look for meet-ups or community events that cater to that audience. If your audience is men consider sporting events (charity golf), car or motorcycle shows, fishing or other, and become a sponsor or vendor if they offer that option.
We have talked about schools and libraries as a distribution opportunity but they also have associations (librarians, principals, curriculum directors, language arts, social studies (like mentioned above), math and science, special needs, and other workshops and professional development opportunities and most of them have national, regional, and state-wide events.
There are any number of Holiday Shows or Book Festivals (Art and Music Festivals that might include Books), even if they don’t usually have Authors who cares if you are the only Booth selling books. If they cater to your audience maybe you should ask or try it and see what happens. They might tell you NO but what if they say yes?!
Start thinking outside of the box.
WRITING WORKSHOPS
There are also hundreds of writing workshops across the United States and the world. Almost every state has one, colleges and universities sometimes offer programs, some are targeted to writers, some to literary agents, some to publishers and some include all of the those opportunities to meet and great one-on-one.
Look for ones in your area or again a place you always wanted to go or somewhere you want to go back to again. Ask other authors what conferences, events, festivals, or other that they attend. You can do this. Take a break from writing and find 5 opportunities this week where you can promote or sell your book and writing in your Publishing journal or notebook.
Cheers to your writing success, Liz