Five Reasons Why Authors Should Attend Live Conferences and Seminars
During the Covid lockdowns, the things that I missed most were hugging my children and granddaughter, visiting my home country of Finland, and attending live conferences and seminars.
Authors spend most of their time at a desk be it in a coffee house, an office (oh, the luxury!) or at home. It's quite a solitary profession, something which I've had real difficulty coming to terms with since I turned full-time author five years ago. Attending author events has helped me a lot with the sense of seclusion, but there are other reasons authors should attend live seminars and conferences on subjects other than writing.
These are just some fo the cards I carry with me at all times
1. Networking
Networking is an obvious benefit of 'getting out there'. Whenever I attend an event, I see a small hike in my book sales that same night or the next day. I always carry lots of business cards of different sizes (with my book covers plus a QR code for speedy shopping), and I usually tell everyone I am an author and what kinds of books I write.
Networking is also useful for my coaching business: many of my clients have come directly, or indirectly, out of events I've attended.
2. Learning
Seminars and conferences are great places to learn about a subject on which you need more training. Events such as Self Publishing Formula Live Show which was organised in 2020 just before the pandemic hit London. During seminars such as this, you learn new ways to market books, be inspired by the speakers, and network with other authors.
Of course, during the pandemic, many organisations have upped their game in organizing live Zoom seminars. I’ve attended many, including those organized by Amazon, IngramSpark, MeetEdgar, MailChimp, but to name a few.
Although the Zoom seminars and conferences are useful and informative, nothing beats a real-life event.
3. Collaboration
Real-life networking is useful in finding like-minded authors or marketing and other professionals to collaborate with. During my time as an indie author, I have made solid business connections at events with various people, some of whom I now consider my friends.
For example, I met Yen Ooi of CreateThinkDo at an event at Foyles Bookstore in London. A few years later, she contacted me to ask me if I'd like to become CTD Fellow. Having known about the effectiveness of this marketing analysis and strategy builder for creatives, I said, after careful consideration and training, 'Yes'. (To find out more about CreateThinkDo, go here.)
I met Adrienne Lecter at a 20Booksto50K event and we’ve become firm writing friends since. Adrienne kindly contributed to my nonfiction title, Write in Another Language, together with three other non-native English speakers who write in a second or third language.
4. Inspiration
I cannot emphasize enough how much inspiration for writing and marketing getting out of the house (office/coffee shop), gives me. Especially if it's at an event that has this mission statement at its core:
Driven Woman is a network for women with ideas and ambition who want to achieve their goals.
I've been a member of the DrivenWoman Network for years now, and the help and support that this group of women has given me is really immeasurable. Their annual conference, The Festival of Doers, is just an amazing day, where you get inspired to live the life you want and reach the goals you've set for yourself. Or, find what it is you want or the goals you have but didn't even realise.
The most inspiring conference I’ve ever attended as an author, is the 20Booksto50K event organized a few years ago in London. As it happens, this is the first face-to-face event I am going to attend this year. I’ve literally just signed up for their main live conference in Las Vegas in November 2021. I cannot tell you how excited I am. (It’s Vegas, baby!) Fingers crossed all goes to plan.
I’ve written a post on my other site with tips on how to prepare for a 20booksto50K conference. You can read it here.
5. Support
Going to seminars and conferences can give you that much-needed support, or validation that what you are doing is the right thing for you. Or confirmation that, even if the journey sometimes feels very hard indeed, you're going in the right direction and that it'll be worth it in the end!
Before I even became a self-published author, I joined a very special organisation ALLi, the inauguration of which I witnessed at the London Book Fair in 2011. Had I not attended this annual Fair, I'm convinced it would have taken me much longer to get where I am today.
Over the years, The Alliance of Independent Authors has given me a huge amount of support, informed me about the book industry, provided discounts for services, given me numerous friends and introduced me to various colleagues amongst the indie community. I really, truly, don't think that could be a published author and a successful mentor if it wasn't for ALLi.
If you're thinking about becoming a published author, or if you already have some books out there, join ALLi now. You will not regret it!
Over to You
Have you attended live author or other networking events? If so, have you missed them during the past eighteen months? Comment below and start the conversation.
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