Dirty secret: It wasn’t that long ago that I didn’t know what an “indie writer” was. That’s changed in the last year or so, in part thanks to IndieReCon, a free online conference that I first “attended” last year.
This three-day conference is back for a third year, and it’s just as great as I remember last year’s was. It’s a shame I didn’t blog about last year’s event, but I’ll try to make up for it.
What is IndieReCon?
IndieReCon is organized by and mostly for writers interested in, or actively involved with independent self-publishing. That said, there’s a ton of information and inspiration available to traditionally-published and as-yet-unpublished writers.
The conference delivers a variety of speakers in a variety of methods to accommodate the variety of writers (and Internet connection speeds). Consider what I watched on today’s schedule:
- A Welcome “keynote address” from the conference founders, S. R. Johannes and Ali Cross, in the form of a blog post.
- A recorded video interview with Mark Coker, the founder of Smashwords, on What Authors Need to Know Now
- A live Google Hangout on social marketing with Joy Capps of Bubblish
- Another live Hangout with Jane Friedman, former Writer’s Digest editor, on Content Marketing
- Separate Twitter chats with Victoria Strauss of WriterBeware.com and contract attorney Helen Sedwick.
Self-Promotion Discouraged
Most sessions last an hour, and several have giveaways associated with the speaker. Now some of you might think that each session is more about marketing the speaker and accompanying products and services. I’ve been through a few of those types of webinar series, and really appreciate that the organizers (this year led by the British-based Alliance for Independent Authors) put an emphasis on the value for the audience. The de-emphasis of self-promotion is so strong, you have to hunt for the sponsor’s website (down at the bottom of the About page, if you want to know)!
Coming Attractions, and Reviewing the Archives
Thursday offers a bunch of practical sessions on self-publishing and reviews of the state of the international self-publishing scene. Here are some of the sessions that I’ll be checking into:
- 13 reasons you’re not as successful as you should be
- Knowing Your Author Rights
- Online Bookstores
- Hybridization: Trad-to-Self and Self-to-Trad
- What’s Your Message?
Friday features more “state of the scene” sessions, using Pinterest and live coverage of the London Book Fair Fringe Fest.
Miss an event? It’s all recorded and available to you. You can even access past years’ content under All Events > Archive.
I’ll say it again: If you are considering self-publishing, you’ve got to check this out. If you expect to make a living as a writer, you’ll learn a lot of great stuff. See you over there!
