BackMyBook.com

Returning Sunday from the SoCal Writer's conference in Newport Beach, CA, where we were privileged to give one of the workshops, there is a palpable buzz of excitement amongst the BackMyBook team. We met with crowds of authors, agents, and publishers - each with a unique experience or pearl of wisdom to share about the business and art of writing and publishing. Our session, "There is No Such Thing as a Good Book, Only a Good Brand" was fun, engaging and spurred conversations with authors that often ended with "boy, I need to completely rethink my strategy". Many were seeing all the possibilities in front of them to take more control over their writing career and not be entirely at the mercy of the traditional publishing industry. There was some highly focused attention in the room as we discussed the sea change occurring in the publishing industry. We covered the concept of branding for authors, and explained the power of community based marketing. We heard many murmurs as light bulbs were switching on. We had people say to us... "...so, building a community might give me greater bargaining power with publishers?" "...you mean I might be able to get my work out there and let readers decide whether it is ready to be enjoyed?" As we shared our experiences and presented our vision for the 21st century author, it was great to see writers feeling empowered to find readership for themselves and excited to leverage that into better publishing deals or to support their self-publishing goals. Everyone at the conference was extremely open and friendly, inviting us into conversations easily, and eager to share their insights and experiences with publishing. It was great that people felt completely comfortable to ask us any and all of the questions they had about social media, web sites, or strategies for online community building and marketing. We invite anyone to keep the questions coming, and are looking forward to the next SoCal conference here in our home town of San Diego. Thanks to everyone, but most especially Michael and Wess for asking us to be there. - BackMyBook