Charmaine Hammond, author of a best selling book, "On Toby's Terms," taught the most strategic class for the business aspect of writing---"Books as a Business." I never thought about getting a sponsor to buy all the books for participants of my speaking engagements. Brilliant concept! She also embodied being helpful and providing a service for others. Her business approach to writing is the reason for her epic and sudden success with her first book which only took months to write---not years like most authors. She approached her book as a product and not a work of art.
The website guru, Jeremy Lee James, had an epiphany and changed his mindset this year about an author web site's main objective from Creating value, Awareness, Relationship, and Exchange to Creating art, Awareness, Relationship, and Exchange. He instructed, "People don't buy what you do. They buy why you do it." Greatness starts with "why" then reaches to "how" and extends to "what" and not the other way around.
During our time together in her "Hooks with a Heart" class and read and critique session, Sylvia Mendoza instilled in me to not use the word "everything!" Maralys Wills, who critiqued my advanced submission (the first 20 pages of your manuscript) and rightfully set my third editing of my second book back three months, taught us "Ten Ways to Upgrade Your Manuscript." Judy Reeves taught us "20 Ways to Make It Better." Justine Musk taught us about creating micro tension. Ken Kuhlken taught us "From Book Birth to Book Sales" where I learned a few new marketing strategies for my book.
I also learned that very few authors only write for a living. My peers have other careers to pay the bills. Bethany Lopez, the young adult author of "Ta Ta for Now!" is a staff sergeant in the Air Force. Leonard Szymczak, the author of "The Roadmap Home, Your GPS to Inner Peace," is not only a gifted author, but a psychotherapist and educator. Wes Albers, who directed the conference has worked in law enforcement in the tough sections of town for more than twenty years.We all were happy to see one aspiring, 14-year-old author attending the conference with her mother. They plan to do a mother/daughter blog which I think will be fabulous. The daughter's "leaving the nest syndrome" which hits around 16 will be interesting to observe when they do their blog!
Now I've left the conference with a commitment to making my second book worthy of this writing community with such high standards for our art. My books like all books will never be perfect; however, they will be written with more honed skills now---they won't stink so much! lol For me that's my major goal to achieve from attending a writers conference---to hone my craft, my art.
Isolde Ulrich
www.isoldeulrich.com
P.S. Here's my book, "The Romance of Kilimanjaro" with the other books of attending authors btw! :-)
Writing for a living is hard, but not impossible. The secret I've always heard is to have four books earning out royalties before quitting your day job. It may have changed now that the writing landscape has changed, but I think it's still a good rule of thumb. If you know you can get that next contract and count on the advance while the royalties bolster the middle, you'll do fine!
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