Patricia Rockwell hosted the first In Real Life meeting of Author!Author! since 2017 on this past Saturday, September 7, and was delighted to welcome 14 interested authors! From never-published writers to authors with multiple books, the group represented a wide range. We discussed book distribution and how your publishing choice can affect distribution, as well as audio book publishing and other topics.
Originally founded by Juli Schatz in 2009, A!A! has met over the years in Downers Grove, Wheaton, Lombard -- wherever inexpensive space could be found. Frequent changes in our meeting location affected attendance, but membership also changed as people moved away or stopped pursuing their literary careers. By 2016, only a handful of folks were showing up for meetings and the group became virtual -- connected through Facebook, email and the website. Several interested members briefly "got the band back together" in 2017 which reminded us of how much we missed the physical meetings and Patricia stepped up to re-launch the group this year.
Publishing a book has never been easier than it is in today's digital world. But getting folks to buy that book is still very difficult. Just because someone might be good at writing certainly doesn't mean they are any good at marketing and whenever you go to a literary festival, "How do I get books sold?" is a common question. Author!Author! is a discussion group that continues to try answering that question.
We don't focus on your writing skills or your publishing choices -- although those topics have come up in the past and probably will again. Instead we talk about how to be better at marketing our books in order to drive sales. Strategies to follow, failures to avoid, successes to share, possibilities to weigh are all good topics. In addition to peer-to-peer support, we will also try to bring in experts on various marketing topics such as online marketing, press releases, pay-to-play advertising, public speaking and other subjects in which our members have an interest. If you have a topic suggestion, please be sure to share it!
Monthly meetings are being currently being held in Naperville in one of the private dining rooms at the HarborChase community who is graciously providing us this very elegant space. In odd-numbered months, Patricia will host a first-Saturday afternoon meeting from 2 until 4 and in the even-numbered months, Kate will host a first-Tuesday evening meeting from 7 until 9. Hopefully, this schedule will give the greatest number of authors opportunities to attend.
This website will continue to be updated and information can also be found on our Facebook page and our MeetUp page. We hope you will join us at our next meeting, but if need be, you are welcome to get in touch with us anytime through our contact page.