The Career Author Summit Recap
After a fantastic weekend (and week-long) at The Career Author Summit, the guys are here to share a recap of the event as well as the most pertinent takeaways from all of the presentations.
J. and Zach also share some details about the forced pivot to a virtual event and how they’re thinking about the future of live events.
The Career Author Podcast is a podcast where co-authors J. Thorn and Zach Bohannon share their struggles and successes as full-time authors, advice for improving your writing craft, and honest discussions of what it takes to build a successful career as an author.
In this episode:
- Making (More) Money as a Writer! with Honorée Corder
- Career Author Alternatives: Unique Ways to Live as a Full Time Creative
- The Future of Publishing: An Industry Panel
- Myths & Legends of Amazon Advertising with Bryan Cohen
- Mastering Amazon’s A9 Algorithm and Your Book’s Rankings in the Market with Dave Chesson
- How Many P’s Are There in Publishing Success? with Mark Leslie Lefebvre
- You Are Not Broken with J. Thorn
- Audio for Authors: Audiobooks, Podcasting and Voice Technologies with Joanna Penn
- Find the Right Mentor to Fast Track Your Author Career with Tim Grahl
- Can I do this? Revision Made Easy (Okay, Easier) with Rachael Herron
- How to Write a Series That Keeps Readers Buying with Lindsay Buroker
Also in this episode, a preliminary look at 2021 events.
Send us your ways and hacks – https://thecareerauthor.com/waysandhacks/
Leave us a comment: Which takeaway most resonated with you?
Thanks to our Patrons.
Podcast sponsored by Kobo Writing Life – https://writinglife.kobobooks.com
Get exclusive bonus content by supporting The Career Author Podcast on Patreon at www.patreon.com/thecareerauthor
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Links:
Supercharge Your Scene 5-Day Writing Challenge (free) – http://superchargeyourscene.com
Honorée Corder – http://honoreecorder.com/
Bryan Cohen – http://bryancohen.com/
Dave Chesson – https://kindlepreneur.com/
Mark Leslie Lefebvre – http://markleslie.ca/
Joanna Penn – https://www.thecreativepenn.com/
Tim Grahl – https://booklaunch.com/
Rachael Herron – https://rachaelherron.com/
Lindsay Buroker – https://lindsayburoker.com/
The Career Author YouTube Channel – https://www.youtube.com/thecareerauthor
Three Story Method – https://books2read.com/threestorymethod
Three Story Method Workbook – https://amzn.to/37SAR1a
Molten Universe Media – http://www.moltenuniversemedia.com
Events – https://thecareerauthor.com/events/
Comments
21 responses to “The Career Author Podcast: Episode 127 – The Career Author Summit Recap”
Morning guys. You put on a great show with some excellent speakers and I enjoyed it.
I would not be a fan of chat during a live presentation. Either one listens to the presentation or one leaves the room as far as I’m concerned; but maybe I’m an old fuddy duddy.
Maybe you could set up a Slack channel for each presentation and encourage participants to react and ask questions, after each session is completed.
Some excellent events planned for this year, next year and “to infinity and beyond…” Interested in your 3 Story Method weekend and Authors on a Train 2022. Love to come to Career Authors Summit and Salem but I can’t do them all unless I write that bestseller…
The presentation that most resonated with me was Dave Chesson’s. He crammed a lot of valuable stuff into a short time and I’ve checked out his website and imho it looks essential to an Indie. Dave’s will be one of the presentations I listen to again.
You both did good and deserve your rest; but don’t forget the writing.
I’m an old fuddy duddy too but quite a few people mentioned a live chat. We’ll see.
Thanks!
Dave really is a wealth of knowledge. I will be listening to his talk a few more times myself.
Thank you again for the wonderful summit! You two definitely deserve a break from the podcast after all the “pivoting” you had to do. (Honestly, I’m happy for a break too, as I’ve been behind on my podcasts all year!)
All the sessions provided so much value, but I particularly enjoy Honoree’s talks about becoming a more prosperous and productive writer. I purchased The Miracle Morning For Writers and am working through it now.
Like Christopher said, I don’t like the idea of a live chat during future live summits. We can fit the chatting in between sessions and at the bar in the evening. 🙂
Can’t wait for more information about next year’s events!
Thanks, Kate! Glad you found so much value in the Summit 😉
Thanks for attending! And The Miracle Morning for Writers is such a great book. Honoree is amazing.
I really enjoyed the Summit as well!
Honorée’s talk really inspired me to start a morning routine. I’ve been getting up early every day this week so far and getting an hour of writing in before starting my day job, and it’s really working for me! Plus it puts me in a better mood when dealing with the day job. Haha.
I also really got a lot out of Bryan’s talk, and I’ve been trying out some Amazon Ads this week. I had never adjusted my bids before to make them lower than the suggested amount so the few times I tried in the past, I spent a lot of money and didn’t see many sales, but just adjusting to lower bids has given me more sales and page reads this week, and I really haven’t spent much at all. So that’s been great!
And of course Rachael’s revision process was SUPER helpful. As a plantser (a person who tries to be a plotter but just ends up pantsing EVERY TIME), I think her process is really going to help me get through revision quicker!
I wasn’t as social as I probably would have been in person (weirdly because I’m an introvert) and I wasn’t able to attend much of the pre-summit stuff live, but it’s so nice that the re-plays are all there. You guys really did put out so much great content for this!
Thanks for such a great event!
Awesome! And thanks for becoming a patron 🙂 We’ll do a proper thanks for you when we get back to regular episodes.
I’m so glad for you guys the event went off well. I wasn’t able to attend, myself, but I’m so excited about the amount of virtual cons and conferences. It makes these things so much more accessible for those for whom getting to the location would otherwise be a challenge, be that financial, due to physical or mental disability, or just plain impractical locations (that’s me lol). I attended a con last weekend where they had a discord server set up with a chat channel for each stream, and I found it enhanced the presentation rather than distracting from it. Each had a facilitator dropping mentioned links in the channel and collecting questions from the audience during the panel or presentation so it wouldn’t distract the speaker. It definitely has its upsides as well, provided that the audience is respectful and attentive.
Enjoy the time off, you both deserve it!
Thanks, Jasmine!
What doesn’t kill you makes you stranger, right?
Really glad you guys persevered. I feel like there’s going to be some real opportunities for people with experience in running virtual conferences.
That’s what they say 😉
Thanks, dude! It was a weird time, but I feel like we delivered an awesome conference and our attendees and sponsors were behind us the whole time. Big thanks to them.
I am already looking forward to next year. It is going to be a harder sell since my wife isn’t going to be going to a PA conference the same weekend, but I will try to swing it.
I think I need to watch Dave Chesson’s Talk. I skipped it cause I don’t have any books out. But I will definitely bookmark it for later in the year when I do have a book out.
I liked the live chat functionality. I think it let you assimulate the data with other people at the same time. If not live chat then some kind of conference holding room that you can go to between chats. I.e. there is no mingling time where after a talk I can hit up Joanna Penn on her walk to the next one or stalk Mark Leslie Levbararekjfklhawef (sp?) on his way to get lunch.
You guys did a great job. I am looking forward to an in person event next year. Also authors on a train. Hopefully my books will be selling enough that I can go on book profit.
I am already in on an accountability group that was created from the Summit. Looking forward to keeping it going.
Thanks, man! You nailed the spelling of Mark’s last name.
I feel half the letters are silent anyway. 🙂
Definitely watch Dave’s talk. It doesn’t matter if you have books out. A lot of what he talks about will help you in the planning process to think about how you’re going to market your books before you even write them.
I was surprised I got so much out of Tim Grahl’s talk. I took the most notes during his session. I’ve heard about the importance of mentors over the years both in my professional life and in my author (not-yet-professional) life, but I still haven’t seriously pursued it. But now I have all the tools and information to do so.
And yes! The onion cutting during J.’s talk!! I feel like I’ve gotten a therapy sesh from J. both years I’ve attended now.
I loved the pre-conference sessions too, which I think were a little smaller. We got to interact a lot and ask questions, and I even got feedback on both my website and my Amazon product page, which I’ve already incorporated.
As I mentioned in Slack, my dad, in his retirement, has decided to start writing fantasy short stories, but he doesn’t know where to start. In addition to gifting him the Three Story Method workbook, I also planted a seed about him attending one of your gatherings to get him started. Although he’s an introvert, he talks way more than I do. (He’s a pastor.) You’ve been warned.
So cool about your dad!
I am so saddened that I couldn’t attend this. It will forever be a spot on my soul.
OK, what of the events you mentioned would I be interested in? All. Plain and simple. And, I think most will agree, it’s more about you guys than just the events. Yes – NOLA and writing about vampires is way cool. Writing on a train is way cool. But it’s because it’s J and Z, that’s why you get the ravenous fans wanting to be at all of them.
Thanks, man. So kind of you to say 🙂