[DIGEST] 20books

This was one of the biggest weeks of the year in the self-publishing world, where close to 2,000 authors gather in Vegas for what will be the last 20books before it gets rebranded next year as Author Nation.

I’ve met with the organizers of the new conference and the stuff they have planned is very, very exciting.

WriterMBA has leveled up a lot since last year. I’ve been coming to 20books since 2021 and the difference between that first year and this year has been nothing short of incredible.

In 2021, I had to literally beg the organizers for a talk on Kickstarter. This year, I had 2 talks on crowdfunding and was part of a panel on Kickstarter, plus I had a talk on Substack as well. On top of that, this is the first year that we really made serious inroads with vendors. We’ve always done pretty well with attendees, but vendors have been a tough nut to crack.

Having our own conference now really helps, but so does being a vendor at other events. We now speak the language of vendors and author service providers. I’ve never had so many meetings at a conference, either. It seems like everyone wants to meet with me, or is asking for a bit of my time.

That is not a complaint. It is great. This is what we wanted. Part of my busyness is clearly because Monica wasn’t here to lighten the load a bit, but it’s also just we’ve done so much in the past year.

It also helped that they distributed an issue of Indie Author Magazine at registration that was guest-edited by us and had both our Author Ecosystems methodology and our Future of Publishing inside of it, so that clearly boosted our credibility.

Also, I’ve been able to build such strong friendships in the past couple of years. I went to see Ka with Oriana from Kickstarter, had meals with the publishers of Indie Author Magazine and the founders of Ream, had dinner with the Booksweps team, and so much more. They have all become dear friends over the years, and it’s been so gratifying to have them grow and blossom as we all grow together.

I am always nervous about this show because it’s so big, but I had an incredible time and can’t wait until next year.

If you want to share how you are doing this week, then there are two ways to interact with this post.

1 - If you don’t want to say anything, or bristle at identifying yourself, then you can reply with this nifty poll.

2 - If you’re feeling very brave, then reply below and tell us how you are doing right now on a scale from 1-5.

20books was fun, but I’m ready to die now. I used all my energy and more to make it through 20books, and I am going to crawl into a hole and die for the next week. I’m not even sure I’m on the chart right now, but it was so worth it.

WHAT I WROTE ON SUBSTACK: This week, I wrote an article about the two different success paths for subscriptions that I’ve seen work for authors and writers.

A new chapter of Magic also dropped this week.

All chapters of The Godsverse Chronicles are now free for all subscribers. You can read the whole series from the beginning right here.

You still only get access to a bunch of free books and stories from my back catalog by becoming a paid member. You can start your membership with a 7-day free trial.

WHERE YOU CAN FIND ME THIS WEEK: In my effort to be everywhere all the time at the expense of my sanity, here’s where you can catch me this week.

THE WRITE-LIFE BALANCE - interviewed me about the Author Ecosystems, and how they can help writers find balance in their life. It is wild when people email me out of the blue because they resonate with the system we created, and I love digging deep on all of it. READ THE ARTICLE

MILLENNIAL LETTERS - interviewed me about being a millennial, being a creator, and the ingrained beliefs that have helped (and hurt) me in getting to where I am right now. READ THE ARTICLE

UPCOMING ARTICLE: Next week, I’m releasing an article about PLG, SaaS, and how the nonsense terms from tech can help supercharge your author career. When I was at NINC somebody requested I break down some of these tech terms for people, and this was a fun one to write.

ROUNDUP: Here are some of my favorite articles of the week.

Business-y:

• eulogizes the death of stock photography, builds a great remote team, and guides us through 2023 SaaS benchmarks.

• explains why tech is going to get a lot bigger, envisions OpenAI’s vision, and breaks down Hellboy’s cinematography.

• lands at a fast-paced startup, explores how social media shapes the economy, and gives a better alternative to micropayments

Publishing-like:

• writes a great issue #1 of a comic, boils, mashes, and stirs a story stew, andboth overcomes their pernicious beliefs about money & gives 12 reasons why authors should try direct sales.

• wins the italics war, writes characters mindfully, builds their writing business to 500 subscribers, and lists the seven habits of highly effective Substackers.

• takes a writing journey to Wonderland, delivers a 2e writer’s perspective, forgot how to write a book, and talks about the state of subscriptions.

Culture-ish:

• explores what it means to survive, hates something but can’t stop doing it, feels most themselves while bleeding.

• learns five lessons about money while writing an anti-capitalist personal finance book, introduces us to their inner overachiever, and suffers through the friendship dip.

• speaks to the woman they used to be, lists their 20 desert must-haves, and explores the tools of our destruction. 

• has the capacity to create their life, is still about a high school art teacher who cut up their final project, and radically changes their life.

Find anything you loved enough to swoon over or hated enough to make your blood boil? Let me know.

JUST LAUNCHED: If you care about direct sales at all, you must have this two-volume guidebook to mastering direct sales for authors.

and I have been working on this book for basically our whole careers. This book contains a combined 25 years of hard-won practical experience from building our own direct sales empires and helping hundreds of authors build them, too.

If Author Ecosystems is the lens by which you look at direct sales, then Direct Sales Mastery for authors is the guidebook. Whether you are just thinking about direct sales or you want to take your business to the next level, this is a must-read book, and it’s available exclusively to Kickstarter backers. It won’t be on retailers for several months after we deliver it to Kickstarter. If you want to get ahead of the curve and hit 2024 running, then we hope to see you behind the backer wall.

If you like what I’m doing around here and want to check out the archives, you can do that with a 7-day free trial, or simply go straight to being a paid subscriber. You also get access to all five books in my Dragon Strife saga.

Gilda will die today.

She has lived her whole life for one purpose—to be sacrificed to the great dragon lord, Ewig. And now, when the sun falls over the horizon, the time will come to fulfill her duty and walk to her death.

It was a fine life, but a lonely one.

As payment for her service, the City Council lauded her with riches, allowed her to live in the lap of luxury, and fed her the finest food. She never knew hunger, or strife, even when others worked themselves to the bone and suffered starvation.

The others always resented her for that, but they never knew her pain. Theirs was a hard life, but at least they got to live it. Gilda never had that choice. She would not live to see adulthood. She would never be married or have children.

All that remained of her brief existence was to walk up the lonely volcano to the dragon’s keep with honor, even though nobody treated her with any during her life. 

Paid subscribers can access the entire archive of this series from the beginning, along with other series and every article I’ve ever written. If you aren’t a paid subscriber, you can access the archive for free with a 7-day trial.