I had a chance to attend Indie Book Fest this past weekend at Buena Vista Palace. The event is organized by author, Peggy Martinez.
Highlights from the conference:
1. Learning the definition of a hybrid author.
A hybrid author is an author who chooses more than one route for publishing. Often times it’s an author who has published both in a self published sense and a traditional sense. Sometimes it can also mean an author who combines any of the above and/or has published with a small press.
2. Meeting so many wonderful authors.
I discovered new books I want to check out and I learned that a lot of authors actually live nearby. There was a speed dating session that allowed readers to get up close and personal with authors. My only complaint was that it was too short!
3. The Diversity Panel
In case you haven’t heard there’s an awesome campaign called We Need Diverse Books…and go figure, we do. It was interesting to see how many readers actually want to read diverse books (hint: it was everyone in the room).
4. Character Development Workshop
My favorite quote came from author, Ben Hale: “Don’t worry about making the character perfect on the first draft. Through editing, the character will become real.” This resonated with me the most because I’m currently on the third draft of my novel and I always try to get the character perfect on the second draft. But it’s okay if she’s not quite real then. Through constant revision, we get to know our characters and that’s how they start to feel like real people.
5. The T-shirt that came with registration.
I’m a sucker for a good T-shirt.
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