10.00-10.45:

Marketing 101 Workshop: "You've Written your Book... Now What?

The Road to self-publishing a Bestseller"

• Know Your Audience

• Behind the Scenes Fundamentals

  • Title, Subtitle

  • Cover

  • Formatting

  • Keywords

  • The dreaded Sales Description!

• Creating BUZZ!

  • BETA Readers

  • ARCs

  • Teasers

• Building a Social Media Plan

  • Emails

    • Do you have reader subscribers? How canI build this?

  • Organic

    • Let's go viral!

  • Paid Advertising

    • Where to begin!

  • Grass Roots / In-Person Appearances

• Analyzing Results and Learning to make the next one even better!

Your presenter: A.G. Mock Internationally Bestselling Thriller Author

Voted Author of the Year in the 2025 Bookstagram Awards. He is an active professional member of both ITW (International Thriller Writers) and HWA (Horror Writers Association). You can follow him on all social media at @agmockauthor, and he invites you to visit him at www.AGMock.com.

 

11.00-11.45:

How to Generate a Buzz: Promoting Your Book Launch

Why publish a book if no one reads it? You have the power to generate a buzz surrounding your book launch! This session will walk you through 3 steps in getting people excited about buying 

and reading your book.

My Personal Path

What Doesn’t Work

What Works

What Works—Step 1: Lay the groundwork.

What Works—Step 2: Garner social and institutional proof.

What Works—Step 3: Let ’er rip!

Your presenter: Liza Achilles is the author of TWO NOVEMBERS: A Memoir of Love ’n’ Sex in Sonnets (Beltway Editions, 2024), which was selected by DCTRENDING Magazine for its Summer Booklist 2024. Her writing has appeared in Beltway Poetry Quarterly, Tofu Ink Arts Press, Brief Wilderness, The Big Windows Review, Exacting Clam, the Washington Independent Review of Books, and the Silent Book Club blog, among other publications. The Blog for the Discerning Reader at lizaachilles.com attracts thousands of readers each month. She works as a freelance writer, editor, web designer, graphic designer, and speaker and lives near Washington, DC.

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12.00-12.45:

An Author’s guide to Self-publishing 

1. What is Self-Publishing?

Most people at the workshop will have an idea of what self-publishing is, but I had a grammar teacher once say “Assume that someone doesn't know anything about what you are talking about.”

1. Pros of Self-Publishing

1. Control of the entire process

2. Freedom to release when you want, what you want 

3. You keep more of the profits.

III. Cons of Self-Publishing

1. You control the whole process

2. The expense of writing, editing, and producing the book

3. Expense of Marketing

4. Weak support structures

IV. Process of Self-Publishing 

1. Writing the Book

2. Editing the Book

3. Formatting the Book

4. Uploading the Book

5. Releasing the Book

V. Marketing as a Self-Publisher

1. Free Marketing Efforts

2. Publicity 

3. Bookstores

4. Libraries

5. Book Festivals

6. Reviews

7. Websites

VI. Tips and Thoughts

1. Save around $1000 before you start

2. Time = Money saved and Money = Time saved

3. Question Everybody and Everything 

4. Learning From Everyone and Everything

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Your presenter: David holds a degree in Political Science from the University of South Alabama and has spent his career navigating the intersecting worlds of politics, journalism, and business.

David Preston is a lifelong student of history, an avid reader, and a storyteller shaped by place, perseverance, and deep Southern roots.  Contact: https://davidlpreston.com/

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1.00-1.45

Editing your book-the Whys? Whats? When and Hows. 
Why the editing process is essential.

• What — What the different types of editing (developmental/substantive editing, copyediting, proofreading) are and how they differ.

• When — When a professional should be hired.

• Who — Who a writer should be hire, including tips for finding and hiring a professional and what to expect when you do.

• How — How to self-edit, including a self-editing checklist of what to check for, as well as resources to use, overused words, and common mistakes.

Your Presenter: Tama Forstner was an in-house editor for Thomas Nelson before transitioning to freelance editing and writing. As a freelancer, she currently edits and/or writes for HarperCollins, Penguin, Hachette, Tyndale, and David C. Cook.

 

2.00-2.45

The Bookseller’s Perspective: How Authors Can Get on (and Stay on) the Shelf

Attendees Will Leave:

•      With practical tips for approaching an indie bookstore — and ideas for what to say when they get there

•      With a bookseller’s honest perspective on what makes an author relationship work (and what gets in the way)

•      Equipped with strategies for navigating the most common challenges authors face with bookstores

•      Confident, inspired, and ready to take their next step toward getting their book into readers’ hands

Your presenter: Angela Redden has spent two careers doing one thing: getting books into the hands of readers. First as a reading teacher, literature teacher, and literacy coach, and now as owner of Reading Rock Books in Dickson, Tennessee, she has built more than a bookstore — she has cultivated a gathering place for readers, writers, and thinkers rooted in Dickson, Tennessee. Angela brings both passion and practical experience to her work with authors, and she’s ready to share what she’s learned from the other side of the shelf.