This last May of 2024 I had the honor to present a breakout session on “Self-Publishing on a Shoe String” at the Lakefly Writers Conference in Oshkosh, WI. This is my local writing conference, and I love the community and all the cool things you can learn. And I have to say, I LOVE doing presentations.
I am that weirdest of creatures: a writer with excellent small talk skills and a FONDNESS for public speaking), so conferences are really fun and my topic in particular was a BLAST.
I’d say that it ended up less about the most affordable ways to self-publish and more of a primer on what self-publishing is and how to start doing it. I can’t claim to do it WELL (all the success of A Monster by Any Other Name is due it Laura’s focus on being the BEST, and I think that my Kindle Vella Starbound probably has five regular readers) but I am VERY good at breaking hard concepts down into digestible sections.
The Lakefly Book Fair was also a good draw. At the Book Fair (which was open to the community without requiring that someone be a registered conference attendee), authors were able to sell their good and chat with readers. I didn’t have the time or focus to man a booth full time this year, but I was out for a little chunk of time Saturday afternoon and had a couple lovely conversations and sold one book (thank you to the friend who came out SPECIFICALLY to support me. You may never read this post but you are the best).
And last but not least, I also won Second Place in the Poetry category for the 2024 Lakefly Writing Contest! I write approximately one angry poem per year, and “Don’t Text Hey Beautiful” is from a few years ago when I was trying (and failing) at online dating. You can read all the winning entries here (Heads up: my poem is on page 25 but the FIRST STORY in the PDF starts with a word for male gentalia …I just don’t want you to be surprised).
At the end of the day, the Lakefly Conference was once again a WONDERFUL experience, and I absolutely will go back again. Next year, I might be at the book fair all day instead of attending the events, but we shall see!
