Invite Me to Speak!
It belated occurred to me during the COVID-19 pandemic that if I had a page that documented what I could contribute to an event, I might get invited to speak at more conferences, author clubs, book festivals, and cons.
Here’s the quick version: I can be a panelist on a variety of topics ranging from marketing to the state of the publishing industry, and I can lead workshops on technical subjects. And yes, I do have experience both as a public speaker and as a panelist.
If that sounds good, click the button below to contact me. If not, read on.
Panelist
I have been blogging about the book publishing industry for over a decade now. This has given me a unique outside perspective on the industry that can’t be matched. At the same time, since my audience consists of indie authors, I have had to stay on top of everything they might need to know.
This has equipped me to participate or moderate panels about a wide range of topics, including:
- Marketing
- Writing tools
- Business planning for writers
- Assembling a press kit
- Social media best practices for writers
- Getting press attention.
Speaker
My strength is technical subjects. (Many of these are really more workshop topics than anything.) I can talk about how to:
- Refresh an author site
- Write marketing copy that sells
- Be a better blogger
- Sell from an author site
- Design a home page
- Write a social media bio
- Respond to piracy
- Get started with newsletters
- Avoid getting scammed by vanity presses
My experience as a blogger has taught me how to research a topic and teach myself new tech skills so I could share what I have learned. If you need a technical subject explained to authors, there’s a good chance I already know a lot about it (unless Macs are involved, which I don’t have). And what I don’t know, I can learn.
Past Experience
In addition to giving five- and ten-minute talks at networking events, I have also spoken at:
- DisCon III (2021, panelist)
- Chicagoland EFA chapter (2021, panelist)
- RWA Annual Conference (2021, speaker)
- MWA Brain to Bookshelf Conference (2021, speaker)
- RWA Annual Conference (2020, speaker)
- ACES Annual Conference (2020, speaker)
- Virginia Writers Club Symposium (2020, speaker)
- Bookbaby’s Indie Author Conference (2018, panelist)
- Rappahannock Writers Conference (2019, speaker)
- Northern Virginia Writers Club (2018, 2019, and 2020, speaker)
- Hanover Writers Club (2019, speaker)
- The Career Author Summit (2020, speaker)
- Chesapeake Writers Conference (2019, speaker)
- Jame River Writers Conference (2020, Shoptalk presenter)
- Chessiecon (2020, panelist)
- IBPA webinar (March 2021, speaker)
I have been a guest on a number of podcasts and livestreams, including:
- D2D Spotlight (May 2020, guest)
- Write Hot podcast (2018, guest)
- SF&F Marketing podcast (2017, guest)
- LeanPub’s Frontmatter podcast (2018, guest)
As a matter of fact, this list should be at least 3 times as long, but I am still combing through my records to find all my guest spots. (I didn’t have the foresight to keep better records, alas.)