Why does going to conferences matter? Because you go to learn things from your fellow authors that's why.
​This past weekend I went to the Authors for Authors conference in Melbourne FL 
​I attended a couple workshops that were very interesting and informative. The first was given by Jaimie Engle. The title of the workshop was "How an Indie got into Barnes and Noble". Jaimie had written two great books for the middle school range. She created a fantasy story that dealt with bullying. A hot topic in schools these days. The schools bought hundreds of her books. 
​She had approached Barnes and Noble with her book in 2012 and been turned down flat.   After the schools and parents started requesting her book from Barnes and Noble the book store went to Jaimie and begged to buy her books. We all wish for that to happen to our books. It's finding the right niche and exploiting it.
​The other workshop that impressed me was given by J.R. Sharp. He is a retired Navel Officer and his book dealt with WW 11. His audience is the over 50 set. His workshop was "The Dos and Don'ts of advertising your book. He had some great suggestions on where to advertise your book. One was to  find a magazine that fits your genre or theme of your book was one he mentioned. That gave me an idea for my book Bottle Alley. It's set in my home town of Newton Ma. It's a fictional story about how the "Lake language" came about. It's mostly used by the Italians in the neighborhood but everyone knows it. I'm going to try and get an ad in an Italian magazine for the book. I might have to redo the blurb on the cover to make it more relevant but I can do that.
Writers conferences do matter if you want to improve your writing, learn about marketing tips and network with other authors trying to make a go of being an author.
​Please leave me a comment, or ask a question. I'd love to hear from you.

meWhy should you publish on multiple platforms? You want to reach as many readers as possible.
​In the good old days there was only one way to get the word out about your book. The long and often frustrating job of finding an agent and having the agent find a publisher. Now with a computer and some technical knowledge any one can publish their own book. 
​Then along came EBooks. Technology was changing faster and faster. In the age of millennials there has been more electronic inventions than any other time in our history. Baby boomers are struggling to keep up in this changing world. More and more people are using their I pads for reading. 
​The strange thing is real books, ones you can hold in your hand are holding strong in the statistics and eBooks as showing a decline.
​Along comes the audiobook and a new technology is on the rise. You can't hold back the changes but you can embrace them and use them to your advantage.
​I recently released my first audio book, Broken Branches, on Audible. I'm thrilled that I have had some success with this. Book two in the Green Lady Series, Whispers in time, is in production now.
​I'm proud to say that I'm a baby boomer and learning all I can about my craft. I don't always get it right but I sure do try hard.
​This weekend I have my novel, Honey Tree Farm - for the Love of the Beekeeper's Daughter free on Kindle. Every couple hours I go to my KDP dashboard and look at how many downloads there have been. It's not doing too well and I'm to blame. I just have not spent the time I should have promoting it.
​But I had another download on my audio book. Yeah!
I find the writing of my books hard. I can't seem to find the time to devote to them. What I do love is the technology. Creating the files. Uploading to be published and always learning new things. Do I mess up? You better believe it.
​For Hayden's Adventures on the Farm, a collections of four of my children's books, it took me 23 times before the files met the specifications to be published. It can be very frustrating.
​I recently met with a fellow author for lunch. He's 87 years old and still learning how to publish his books on Create Space. He's having problems. He's getting frustrated with Create Space. "Why won't they accept my files?". He will figure it out but he has more learning to do. It's probably something very simple that he is overlooking. He will get there in the end.
​Ask me a question or leave a comment. I'd love to hear from you.