What Happens in Vegas: A Cheap Indie Writer’s Conference
The NW: A Newsletter for Ninja Writers. April 30, 2017.
Hey, Ninja Writer!
Here are some things to make your week awesome:
Thing One
A cheap writer’s conference
I spent the last few days immersed in the Smarter Artist Summit — a self-publishing conference — which was not cheap. I heard over and over about the 20 Books Conference in Las Vegas this November. It’s another conference about self-publishing. And it is seriously cheap.
A) Las Vegas is my hometown and most of my family is there.
B) It costs $99. Between A and B, this is a no-brainer for me.
C) I bet we could have a Ninja Writer contingent there. Just saying.
Thing Two
A podcast episode
The Smarter Artist Summit was put on by Sterling and Stone, who produce The Self-Publishing Podcast. One of the speakers was Chris Fox, author of Write to Market. Here’s a Self-Publishing Podcast episode with Chris Fox as the guest. Totally worth a listen.
It’s a tough thing to shift from wearing your artist hat to wearing your marketer/business owner hat. I was super resistant to the idea, but if you have any desire to earn a living writing novels, it’s necessary. I’m learning, even if it is with a little bit of kicking and screaming.
I’m going to start by going through more of those podcasts. And trying to keep an open mind and not let my fear of things I don’t understand (yet) lead me.
Thing Three
Ninjas on Medium you should totally support
Our Zach wrote this essay that broke my heart.
Megan Johnson wrote a pretty perfect example of the way a writer’s brain works.
Lily King’s post about getting back on a bicycle is an awesome reminder to be brave.
If you want to be featured next week, make sure to link to your best Medium post in our Facebook Group next Friday!
Thing Four
#Ninjalife assignment of the week
I reached about as far out of my comfort zone in the last week as I have in a very long time. Between hosting the first ever live Ninja Writer event, flying to Austin for a conference full of people I didn’t know, and spending four nights sleeping in a bunk bed at a hostel — yeah, boundaries definitely stretched.
And you know what?
It was good for me.
I’m going home inspired. Ready to do this rebel writer thing.
This week, try to pay attention to situations where you could nudge your comfort zone. Or kick it in the nuts. Do something scary or uncomfortable or totally out of character. Just see what happens.
It doesn’t even have to be about writing. You’ll be surprised by how being brave in the rest of your life makes your writing braver, too.
Thing Five
A Marketing Idea
Once you have an email list set up, try this: post a question on your Facebook wall (or on Instagram or Pinterest or Twitter or where ever you connect with your people) to try and find out which of your friends read what you write.
Something like: Just curious, do you read romance/science fiction/thrillers?
Then, when people respond, ask if they’d like to be on your list. And tag them as readers of your genre.
In fact, talk about your genre often. And every time someone responds, let them know you have a mailing list related to what they love to read.
Thing Six
Speaking of email lists
If you sign up for my free Anti-Blogging for Creatives mini-course before May 1, ConvertKit will give you a free month of service. Even if you’re pretty sure this isn’t the time for you to go all in with a paid email server, take the free month and check them out for when you ARE ready.
Plus you get the course, which will help you get started with list building and writing here on Medium.
Thing Seven
If you need some inspiration this week
Here’s a ginormous post I put together called 100 Ways to be More Creative.
It’s full of links to quotes, videos, books, essays . . . seriously, all the creative stuff.
And if you’re feeling stuck, check out this idea for how to figure out what to write about.
Thing Eight
Connect
There are a bunch of ways you can connect with Ninja Writers.
You can join our Facebook Group, if you haven’t already.
A good place to start is by sharing a link to your work on Friday, our self-promo day.
You can reply to this post and just check in — say hey and I’ll say hey back.
If you want to support Ninja Writers and get connected to a smaller, tighter, more focused group, you can visit our Patreon page. The $10 (The 1000 Day MFA) and $25 (A Novel Idea) levels both have Facebook Groups that are incredible.
See you next week!
Love,
Shaunta
If you enjoyed this story, give it some love with a heart. ❤❤❤
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Shaunta Grimes is a writer and teacher. She lives in Reno with her husband, three superstar kids, and a yellow rescue dog named Maybelline Scout. She’s on Twitter @shauntagrimes, is the author of Viral Nation and Rebel Nation, and the original Ninja Writer.
