Speakers
The industry of self-publishing is a delicate balance of both business and craft. As self-published authors, not only do we need to tell a captivating story, but we also need to know how to find and keep readers.
The ASPC brings to you authors and experts to help you unlock the secrets of success in both realms.
TENESHA CURTIS
INDIE AUTHOR, WRITING, EDITING, & PUBLISHING ENTREPRENEUR
Presenting: How to Publish a Book
Tenesha L. Curtis is the owner of GetBookHelp.com, where indie authors get professional assistance with planning, writing, editing, designing, promoting, and publishing their work. As an indie author herself, president of Sisters in Crime Atlanta, and chapter coordinator for the Editorial Freelancers Association, Tenesha has ample experience with the full indie publishing process and how to teach first-time authors about it in less-intimidating, newbie-friendly ways. Connect with her company on social media using the handle @GetBookHelp.
HER PRESENTATION:
How to Publish a Book
Putting your book on the market for sale can be done in minutes and without spending a dime. But is that all you need to reach your authorship goals? This session, Tenesha will cover the concrete steps for publishing independently and the preparation steps that go into developing a project that you'll be proud to sell to readers.
Audience Takeaways:
-
Learn where to find trustworthy, professional assistance that prepares your book for the world stage.
-
Get step-by-step guidance on how to upload your book cover and text files directly to platforms like Amazon, IngramSpark, and Kobo.
-
Understand the biggest mistakes that new indie authors make when publishing their first book so you can avoid them.
ERIC G. REID
PUBLISHER, GHOSTWRITER, BRAND STRATEGIST
Presenting: Author Branding & Why Good Books Go Unnoticed
Eric G. Reid is co-founder and Editor-in-Chief of Skinny Brown Dog Media, an independent publishing house with more than 200 titles, where he works as a publisher, ghostwriter, and brand strategist. He created the AuthorBrand™ methodology and wrote AuthorBrand: A 5-Step Framework for Authors Who Want to Be Read, Paid, and Remembered. His own books include Leadership Was Never My Calling, the four-book Whole Life Series, and the picture book Dad, Someone Took The Moon!, which started with something his son said one morning when the moon wasn't where it belonged.
ericgreid.com · skinnybrowndogmedia.com · @ericgreid
HIS PRESENTATION:
Author Branding & Why Good Books Go Unnoticed
You were told that if you wrote a good book, readers would find it. So you wrote a good book.
And when not much happened, you said what writers say — that you enjoyed writing it, that it was never about sales. Most of that is true. But there's usually a quieter thing underneath it, which is that you wanted somebody to notice. That's not vanity. A story written to be read and then not read is an unfinished transaction, and no amount of enjoying the process closes it.
The reason it happens is almost never the writing. It's that the book was finished before the author knew what it was for, who it was for, or what it was actually saying underneath what happened. Marketing can't supply any of that after the fact. It can only amplify something that already exists.
In this session, Eric G. Reid walks through the front end of the AuthorBrand™ method — the work he does with authors before he'll look at a page of manuscript. You'll find the belief underneath what you write, name the difference between your story and your message, and see where you actually stand. It applies whether the book is unwritten, sitting in a drawer, or published three years ago and quiet ever since. Every registrant receives the ebook AuthorBrand: A 5-Step Framework for Authors Who Want to Be Read, Paid, and Remembered and the 80-page workbook “Why Good Books Go Unnoticed” for free.
Audience Takeaways:
-
Why a good book goes unnoticed — and why it's usually not the writing. The most common reason has nothing to do with craft, which is why more revision hasn't fixed it.
-
The difference between your story and your message. A story is what happened. A message is what it means for the person reading it. The story is the proof. The message is the point — and it's the part most manuscripts leave out.
-
Your one sentence. The belief underneath what you write: the wound, the conviction, and the truth that isn't only yours. It's what makes a personal story someone else's, too.
JERRY WEINER
AUTHOR, ENTREPRENEUR, CONSULTANT, ACCOUNTANT
Presenting: Business Basics for Indie Authors
Jerry Weiner began his professional career as a staff accountant and earned his CPA certificate before starting a firm creating and selling accounting and planning software systems to banks. After retiring in 2001, he began work as a volunteer advisor and fundraiser for various organizations that support education, persons with developmental disabilities and persons with aging issues, among others. He subsequently co-founded and sold a photo lab that processed, printed and hosted digital images for professional photographers. Since retiring for the second time, Mr. Weiner has provided a range of consulting services to a number of small- and medium-sized businesses and their owners. These services include budgeting, forecasting, accounting and financial reporting. Since 2018, Mr. Weiner has been the treasurer of the Atlanta Writers Club. In his spare time, he is writing his second historical novel.
JerryWeiner.com · On Facebook · On Instagram
HIS PRESENTATION:
Business Basics for Indie Authors
Being an Indie author means business, and that comes with the certain decisions and responsibilities. For example, what is the best way to form your business, and what happens if you don't? What about sales tax? Income tax? AWC treasurer Jerry Weiner will answer your questions about business basics and guide you through the steps necessary to get started. Jerry has decades of experience helping others in this area and will provide the critical information you need to form your own small business – and keep it going.
Audience Takeaways:
1. Get ideas for how to set up your business.
2. Learn how to avoid penalties and interest because of late or incorrect tax filings.
3. Explore ways to understand whether you're making any money.
GEORGE WEINSTEIN
BESTSELLING, AWARD-WINNING INDIE AUTHOR, ATLANTA WRITERS CLUB EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Presenting: Build Your Audience & Sell More Books through Marketing, Advertising, & Doing Events
George Weinstein is the Executive Director of the historic Atlanta Writers Club (established in 1914) and has helped thousands of writers on their quest for publication through the Club, the twice-yearly Atlanta Writers Conference, which he has managed since 2008, the Atlanta Self-Publishing Conference, and a range of mentorship and educational programs. He also is the bestselling, award-winning author of a diverse range of self-published novels, including the beloved Southern historical novel Hardscrabble Road; its sequel, Return to Hardscrabble Road; the novel of forgotten U.S. history The Five Destinies of Carlos Moreno; the domestic drama of reinvention The Caretaker; the amateur-sleuth murder mystery Aftermath, the kidnapping thriller Watch What You Say, and even a satirical sci-fi romp titled Offlining.
GeorgeWeinstein.com · On Facebook · On Instagram
HIS PRESENTATION:
Build Your Audience & Sell More Books through Marketing, Advertising, & Doing Events
After you self-publish your book, you can’t sit back and hope readers will discover and buy it. Hope is not a strategy. Instead, building on the AuthorBrand™ you wrote down during Eric Reid’s session, you need to (a) consider the dozens of options available to market, advertise, and sell your book online and in-person, (b) decide which ones fit your budget, the time you have available, and your degree of commitment, and (c) focus on those.
In this presentation, George will guide you through a survey of the marketing, advertising, and selling activities available to you. He will help you evaluate each of them, from must-do to give-it-a-try to hard-pass, and prioritize your near-term and long-term steps. At the end, you’ll have a strategy you can start acting on immediately and a rubric for evaluating the results from each of them. And mere “hope” will not be an ingredient for any of it.
Audience Takeaways:
-
You will gain a better understanding of the seemingly endless options for marketing, advertising, and selling your books and be able to evaluate whether they align with your budget, your time, and your commitment.
-
You will develop an action plan that prioritizes what activities you want to pursue and when.
-
You will create an evaluation method to decide what activities are working, which ones need adjusting, and the poor performers to abandon in favor of more viable options.