Because I’m on the mailing list of the Society of Children’s Books Writers And Illustrators -SCWBI, late last week I received an email from them inviting me to attend a self-publishing workshop.
I’ve been to quite a few similar workshops and for the first time I was completely blown away. Instead of the usual sole facilitator format – with just one person discussing production, distribution and marketing- New Voices Publishers had arranged a number of presenters presenting in their chosen fields of expertise.
Crucial topics such as-
- Why and how to find a good editor,
- Indexing and bliography
- Costings,
- Print on demand and;
- Marketing- were all covered within the 4 hour workshop.
The cherry on th top was listening to a 13 year old attendees story on how she sold cakes to raise enough finance so to self publish her book.The message of the story was that if you have a dream then nothing is impossible, as well as self publishing is no longer that expensive.
It seems that self publishing has really become a viable option and I think that the 200 self published or wannabee Self published attendees feel the same way. The pertinent questions were flying from all over the room and volleyed back with professional ease.
It seems that New Voices Publishers have definitley set the benchmark for what is on offer when it comes helping writers to realise their dreams. For someone to arrange speakers from Write to the Point, Professional Editors Group, Flowfinders -to name a few – is really insightful.The attendees were buzzing by the end of it all.
This post might seem like a punt for all of the names mentioned but that’s not the aim. As someone mentioned on Saturday, we’re moving on from the idea of competing to the that of co-operation and even though self publishing can be quite thorny, if the dream is big enough, and one has enough passion then there are people who are willing to make the journey less bumpy.
The more that reach their dreams the more will want to reach their dreams.