We are thrilled to announce the full schedule for our upcoming virtual conference, Storycrafting Sessions: Publishing, happening on May 25th! This free-first conference will be a jam-packed day of learning about all things publishing, featuring authors from all publishing paths and at every stage of their careers.
We’ve got five incredible panels (all times are in EST):
11AM – 12PM: Finding A Home For Your Fiction: Choosing Between Trad, Small Press, or Self-Publishing
12:30 – 1:30PM: Book Comps: How to Find Them and Frame Them
2 – 3PM: The Self Publishing Debate: Kindle Unlimited vs Publishing Wide
5 – 6PM: Dealing with Entrepreneur Overload: Using Tools To Simplify Non-Writing Tasks
Attendees also get access to the Weeknight Writers conference Discord, where you’ll be able to learn more about our authors, chat with other attendees, and carry on conversations about our panel topics after the panels have officially ended. We’ll also be having an afterparty in the conference Discord from 6 – 7PM!
What does free-first mean?
Free-first means you can attend this event for free! Free tickets are available for all panels. This is part of our efforts to make educational resources and support available to ALL authors, especially working-class and poor authors.
However, a lot of work goes into these events – in fact, Storycrafting Sessions are our most labour-intensive events to create. So we offer Supporter Tickets for folks who want to pay us for the time and energy we put into these events.
Supporter Tickets also include a Conference Companion printout you can use to guide your note-taking process.
You can buy Supporter Tickets directly from the event pages for each panel OR, if you prefer to pay via PayPal, through our Ko-fi store.
Want to do even more to support Storycrafting Sessions: Publishing AND get a chance to connect your business with our audience? Apply to sponsor a panel today!
More about the panels
All panels will have live captions thanks to our partnership with Renaissance Press. Panels will also be recorded for publication to our YouTube channel.
11AM – 12PM: Finding A Home For Your Fiction: Choosing Between Trad, Small Press, or Self-Publishing
Finishing up a novella or novel? Trying to figure out the best way to share it with the world? Weeknight Writers is here to help!
This free-first panel will feature authors who have published in a variety of ways discussing why they chose traditional, small press, or self-publishing and how you can make the best decision for your stories.
Moderated by: Dianna Gunn Panelists: Gabriel Hargrave, RSA Garcia, May Barros, Mia Tsai
Grab a Supporter Ticket on Ko-fi
12:30 – 1:30PM: Book Comps: How to Find Them and Frame Them
Struggling to pin down the perfect comp titles for your book? Join our panelists as we dive into the art and strategy of selecting comps that showcase your story’s voice and genre, and discuss how the right comps can boost your pitches, sharpen your positioning, and catch the right audience—whether you’re querying, launching, or marketing.
Moderated by: Jade Benjamin Panelists: Moniza Hossain, Mona Mehas, P.H. Low
Grab a Supporter Ticket on Ko-fi
2 – 3PM: The Self Publishing Debate: Kindle Unlimited vs. Publishing Wide
There are many decisions to make when you’re self publishing a book. One of the biggest is whether you’ll self publish through Kindle Unlimited, the Amazon-exclusive subscription program, or publish wide through platforms like Kobo and Itch. This free-first panel features authors who have considered this decision from all angles sharing the choice they made, why they made it, and how you can choose the best self publishing route for your story.
Moderated by: Cait Gordon Panelists: KJ Harrowick, Dax Murray, Drako
Grab a Supporter Ticket on Ko-fi
3:30 – 4:30PM: Effective Outsourcing: How to Find/Work with Illustrators, Social Media Managers, and Other Industry Experts
Self publishing doesn’t always mean doing everything yourself. In fact, you’ll often be able to publish a better book if you hire professional editors and cover designers. You may also want to hire professionals for book formatting, social media management, and other aspects of your business—and make no mistake, publishing is a business.
In this free-first panel, four self published authors will share how they’ve approached hiring and collaboration processes in their own self publishing businesses and provide advice for how you can find the right professionals to work with in your own publishing career.
Moderated by: M Pepper Langlinais Panelists: CM Lockhart, Tanya Gold, Dianna Gunn, Scarlett Chase
Grab a Supporter Ticket on Ko-fi
5 – 6PM: Dealing with Entrepreneur Overload: Using Tools to Simplify Non-Writing Tasks
Whether you’re self published or traditionally published, your author business is a business. You’ll need to do a lot more than write if you want your books to succeed.
Dealing with Entrepreneur Overload: Using Tools To Simplify Non-Writing Tasks will feature four authors at all stages of their writing careers sharing the tools they use to simplify non-writing business tasks like time management, graphic design, and social media marketing.
Moderated by: Dianna Gunn Panelists: Raven Oak, NM Kerr, Sagan Morrow