Writers Conferences: NINC 2015
I’m home from the Novelists INC conference in St. Petersburg, Florida at the Tradewinds Resort after a jam-packed four days of workshops, conversations and panels. Wow. My head is still spinning. So much energy, so much I still don’t know. Everything in publishing is changing at the speed of light, and it’s difficult, if not impossible, to keep up with all the changes.
I promised I would share, and so for fun I’ll tell you what might have impact for you as a reader, as well as show you some of the things I tweeted during the conference. Tweets flew fast and furiously over the days of the conference and beyond. Don’t you love the frog in one of the Tradewinds ponds? I really do think he was listening.
At NINC 2015 I attended workshops on organizing review teams (you’ll hear more about that in the future), the fantasy/paranormal market, how to form marketing plans, Amazon’s publishing programs, BookBub promotions, Wattpad, metadata, publishing in Germany, the tools publishers use that indies can use, too, Draft2Digital, the Author’s Guild Fair Contract Initiative, and Apple iBooks That’s for starters.
But what did I learn that might help you?
Most important? It’s a small world (but big print on this last tweet for some reason.). Did you know the English language is definitely not endangered? For instance, half the words in our language come from other languages, and therefore we are constantly blessed with many new words. We even need a synonym dictionary, something unheard of in many languages. But did you also know that there are more students of English in China than there are people in the United States? 1 out of every 5 persons worldwide speaks English.
Can you guess the country with the highest English proficiency–outside the U.S. and UK etc.? That’s right. Sweden. (You didn’t know, did you? I sure didn’t.)
And did you know that many people worldwide read exclusively on their cell phones? Think about that next time you purchase one. Will you need a larger screen so you can easily read on yours?
In China books spark most of the entertainment, movies and games are based on them and there are. . . 1.4 billion consumers. Wow! Books are definitely not going away.
And speaking of reading on your cellphone? Do you know about Wattpad? There’s plenty of free content there. Take a look and see what you think.
One of my favorite quotes from the conference came from Richard Nash, who tried to put publishing in perspective for us. He said–and this may not be an exact quote:
“Writers don’t just want to sell books, they want to be loved.”
I might tweak that a bit and say “Writers don’t just want to sell books, we want you to love the books we sell.” The NINC conference this year was all about finding readers who love books, local and international, but most of all finding the readers who will love what each of us writes. And heck, maybe love us, too. What a nice extra, right?
I know of readers who use their phones and iPods to read! I’d hate it personally – my age probably. When I was teaching my students had discovered Wattpad and were using it, they were always up with the latest.
It sounds like they were saying at the conference – expect your audience to be everywhere. I hope that might change the publishing rights eventually, so everything is automatically worldwide!
Love the books you write.
Emile, I love to read and I love to read what you write. Your note about the conference on the English language is surprising, because Spanish is taking over the United States. I have read books on my cell phone but find it tedious. I have an LG pad and it is better (10.1 in. screen) for reading. It is an android system. But my favorite is to have an actual book. So I buy your books. Thank you for your wonderful books!
I suspect cell phone screens will get larger and more comfortable for reading, but so far I’m in your camp on preferring an ereader or actual book. I do love my Kindle. And it’s so easy to carry in even a small purse. I feel very uneducated when I realize how many people speak at least two languages and often many more. What is true is that everyone prefers reading in their original language because it’s so much more comfortable. So we need books in all languages, and translators are going to be in high demand.
Thanks for sharing all those gems from the conference. Sounds like you had a great time!
Some of those tidbits of info were surprising:
a) highest proficiency in English is Sweden (who knew?)
b) smart phones in villages accessible by bicycle? (seriously?)
What a strange world we live in.
I personally like to hold an old-fashioned, page turning book! And love that dear little frog floating on the lilly pad – the one that likes to eavesdrop, of course.
He is a cutie, isn’t he?