I’ve been off my blog posting schedule lately, but I’m going to squeeze one in here to chat about the author event I attended this past week. As some of you may know, I’m the co-host of a book marketing podcast called The Sell More Books Show with Jim Kukral. Jim is an author, marketer and a brilliant entrepreneur and his most recent brainchild was Author Marketing Live, an event for indie authors in Cleveland. Jim was kind enough to invite me to the event and to the fancy speaker dinner beforehand (see picture above).
You may not realize this about authors (sarcasm alert), but we lead pretty solitary lives. Sometimes I’ll go weeks without seeing anyone other than my wife and our cat. Generally, I’m a very social person and I love interacting with people, but getting the writing work finished often keeps me from tapping into my need for interaction. Author Marketing Live was the perfect event for connecting with others, because it allowed me to be with like-minded individuals. While there were authors of all levels on hand, nobody acted like they were above or below anybody else. From Sean Platt and Johnny B. Truant of the Self Publishing Podcast to fans of the Sell More Books Show, most of the folks I came into contact with acted like friends who just hadn’t met yet.
I loved how much the event allowed me to take down the walls of social media and email to actually interact with people directly. I had lunch with a guy I’d only previously interacted with on Facebook and via email. I got drinks with two women who I’d previously come in contact with through the veil of Twitter. Heck, I hadn’t even met my podcast co-host Jim in person and the first interaction we had was a big bear hug!
The “connected world” we live in has made real connection more difficult. I’m so glad that events like this exist so that authors like me don’t go crazy in their offices.
While I was learning the tactics (not tricks) of the trade in Cleveland, my cover designer James was putting together some magic for book #2 of the Ted Saves the World Series. I’d love to share the cover with you here. Check it out!
Mind Over Easy is scheduled for release on Wednesday, October 15. Start getting excited!
Let me know what you think of live events and the cover in the comments below. I hope everybody is having a great last couple of weeks of summer!
I think live events are brilliant for writers! Anyway, after a while, inspiration dries up unless we get out into the world beyond our inner circles (IMO).
I hope to be there next year/event, couldn’t make it this year due to other commitments.
Cover looks brilliant, as expected, great work! No doubting which series it belongs to … which brings me to a question: will you have a series name? You refer to it as “Ted Saves The World Book 2”, but I’m curious what you will use in Amazon’s series description field (and the keywords that have been discussed elsewhere). It bears thinking about, since when you have 8 books in the series, having a good series title could be invaluable! (I wish I’d thought about this more carefully myself, but then again, I was none the wiser at the time)
Thanks, Robert! I’m about to post the pre-order, so I’ll let you checkout what I do with it :).
Hi Bryan,
Can’t wait to read the second in the series just a few more pages left in Ted Saves The World an its an AWESOME read. I love how the characters come alive on the page and you fall in love with them all from the very start of the book. I’m a stay-at-home mom so I only get to read when I’m going to sleep at night or when all my housework is done otherwise I’d be finished long ago.
Daria
Thank you so much, Daria! Take all the time you need. Glad you’re enjoying it!