Ghostwriting, Productivity, and Writers' Summits with Jessie Kwak

Have you ever attended an in-person writing conference or summit?

This week's guest is not only a full-time writer and productivity guru, she's organizing the Author Alchemy Summit in Portland February 22-25!

Jessie Kwak is an author and business book ghostwriter living in Portland, Oregon. She is the organizer of the Author Alchemy Summit, as well as the author of a supernatural thriller, two series of space scoundrel sci-fi crime novels, and a handful of productivity books including From Chaos to Creativity and From Big Idea to Book.

The path from scribbling in notebooks to professional ghostwriting is no small feat. Jessie opens up about her strategies for productivity, including reserving her mornings for creative fiction and afternoons for client work. It's not just about finding time but protecting it fiercely.

Our discussion then shifts to the more personal side of writing—self-promotion and confronting impostor syndrome. We affirm the power of individual narratives, sharing touching stories of readers who have found solace in our work, and reminding all authors that their words can be a sanctuary for someone out there.

In our final segment, the spotlight turns to the Author Alchemy Summit and all the work that goes into planning and attending a writers' conference. From the event's conception to networking for the introverted author, we explore strategies for creating an engaging, memorable conference that can leave a lasting impression on attendees.

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Join us for a discussion that's rich with advice and inspiration for writers of every stripe.

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Jessie Kwak
Summit Website: www.authoralchemysummit.com
Instagram & Bluesky: @kwakjessie

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Greta Boris:
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TikTok: @AuthorMeganHaskell

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:37

Hello everyone and welcome to the AuthorWeal podcast. I'm Greta Boris, USA Today Bestselling Mystery Thriller.

Speaker 2: 0:44

Author and I'm Megan Haskell, award-winning fantasy adventure author, and together we are the AuthorWeal. Today's episode is the first of two interviews with different writing summit organizers. One is actually an in-person summit and the other is online, and so it's going to kind of give us a comparison between the two different kinds of events for writers. So this week, first up is a full-time indie author, ghost writer and conference organizer, jesse Quack. She's putting on the Author Alchemy Summit in Portland February 22nd through 25th, so that's an in-person event at a hotel where you actually go and go to the lectures, kind of more like a not lectures, more of like a mastermind group, as she'll talk about in this interview. She did tell us that there is still time to grab tickets, so you'll want to listen in to hear about everything that she has planned and the fabulous guests that she has coming to speak and present, as well as how she manages to stay organized and on task with everything that she has going on, because she's you know, this is not her full-time job being a conference organizer.

Speaker 1: 1:53

It was a little overwhelming listening to everything she was doing.

Speaker 2: 1:56

I'm telling you I know, I know it's impressive.

Speaker 1: 2:00

It is.

Speaker 2: 2:01

She's a pretty good master of productivity. It sounds like so do. This interview is going to be fabulous. You're going to enjoy it. We also have a coupon code for the conference, so if you're interested, you can get $200 off your ticket.

Speaker 1: 2:15

Boo, that's big.

Speaker 2: 2:16

Yeah, it's really big, and because the conference is not all like, relatively speaking, it's not the most astronomical expensive conference I've ever seen either, so that's a great deal. So $200 off, use code authorwheel24. And you can either search for author Alchemy Summit Portland or follow the link in our show notes. And then I do want to also quickly mention, too, that next week we will be talking with Paula Judith Johnson, who's organizing the Writing Romance Mastery Summit online, and so that's an entirely different experience with different challenges, technical requirements and goals and all that stuff than an in-person event. So we thought that having this kind of side-by-side comparison would be interesting for you all. Yes, yeah. So before we actually dig into those interviews, greta, how's your week going?

Speaker 1: 3:11

It's actually really going good. So I got some exciting news. This week. Tantrum Media sent me the bio for a suggested narrator for my books. Funnily enough, I had looked at this narrator just a couple months ago I think. I was listening to a book and was impressed, and then looked her up and I thought, oh, I'd love to have her narrate my book, she's so cool. And then they sent me an email and said, hey, do you want? And I'm not going to say her name yet until it's all buttoned up for sure but she is an award-winning narrator. She's done a lot of kind of cozy mysteries and cozy-esque mysteries in paranormal fiction and she can do accents, which I love. That's amazing, I know, because I have a couple in my books. She even looks a little bit like Imogen, my main character, which I think is really fun, and she's an actress. She's done some TV work, so super excited. And once it's buttoned up and I can announce her name, maybe we'll even get her on the podcast.

Speaker 2: 4:17

Oh, that'd be cool. Yeah, that would be fun, that would definitely be fun.

Speaker 1: 4:21

Yeah, and you can hear her lovely voice. Yeah, and so then, otherwise, I finally got my arc out to the team. They are so amazing. 24 hours later I'm starting to get the typos back. I had to like whoa, you guys are fast. There's not very many of them this time. I'm really happy about that, but really embarrassed. I used the word aperitif when I meant digestive and I was like I know better.

Speaker 2: 4:55

But anyway, OK, so I don't. What is the difference?

Speaker 1: 4:59

So an aperitif comes before Emil and a digestive comes after. So my characters are in a bar and this bartender is being all a foodie and all that and he offers them an aperitif after dinner and it's like, seriously, I knew better, it should have been a digestive, and both my editor and I missed that. So thank you, arc Team. You guys are brilliant. There you go, and I'm working on the launch plans this week, setting up newsletters and starting to research on the kind of Facebook ads I want to use and all of that kind of good stuff. Oh, good, good. And then together we've also been working on our new courses, layering your Story World and Trip Stacking another genre, magic and as I'm working on them, I'm getting more excited about them.

Speaker 2: 5:52

I think they're going to be really, really fabulous, like there's a lot of good information in there that we're going to be sharing in those courses. So, yeah, I'm excited about it too.

Speaker 1: 6:03

Yeah, you know something. I just have to toot our horns a little bit because I was realizing, as I'm going through this information, there is a lot, a lot of different courses and books. Wonderful courses and books I'm not putting them down about plotting, but nobody talks that much about what to do before you plot and how to set yourself up. And so these courses really although we do kind of get into plotting a bit in Trip Stacking another genre magic it's really more about getting yourself set up to write not just one book per se, but like a series or many books or whatever. So I think it's a little unique from what I've seen that's out there. So I'm excited about them both.

Speaker 2: 6:50

Yeah, I agree, I think that they'll be very, very good. And again, to toot our own horn, it just kind of always reminds me how much we've learned and how much we have discovered and practiced and come up with over the last I mean, what? Five years together, but 10 years each, plus for our writing and publishing careers. So we have a lot of good information to share. We do, and I think we're finally really getting ourselves out there. So that's good.

Speaker 1: 7:20

Yeah, yeah. So there you go. So what have you been doing this week?

Speaker 2: 7:23

Well, it's kind of funny. I feel like my life is pretty boring right now Busy, very, very busy, but boring Because I'm trying to do the same thing all the time. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but I did sign a distribution contract with Dreamscape Select for my audiobooks. I realized I kind of don't know how to market the audio very well and I think that they will do a much better job of that, and so I'm going to hand off those audiobooks to their very capable hands and I'm excited about that to see what they can do with that and how that all works out. So I got to get that uploaded. That's number one is making sure I get all those files over to them in the way that they need them, because they all have to be formatted in the right titles and stuff like that. So got that going.

Speaker 2: 8:18

And then I'm continuing to put together the Kickstarter for the Last Descendants and that's a special edition hardcover that I'm going to create, which means it's a lot of first time stuff for me, because I've never done a hardcover before. I've never figured out how to do the foil inlay on the cover, what is the art standards needed for that? I don't know. So I'm learning a lot and figuring out all those technical details, but that's in progress and if you're interested you can follow the campaign. It's the Last Descendants on Kickstarter.

Speaker 2: 8:52

I'll have the link in the show notes and then I'm also chugging along with the Clarify, simplify, implement newsletter, this week's post that I was actually working on this morning as we are preparing to record this intro. It's actually going to tie in a bit to our goals versus resolutions discussion from the Quick Tips last week. So that's fun. I get to kind of dig in even deeper to what we already talked about. And then I'm making slow but steady progress on Aether Burned. So I actually finalized the cover for that one as well this week. So now I have some visual motivation to keep my fingers moving on the early morning writing sessions.

Speaker 1: 9:36

Good for you.

Speaker 2: 9:38

Yeah, yeah. So it's all coming together, it's all chugging along, but it's so funny because even talking about this and as I was writing this down, prepping for the intro and everything, it makes me realize how much I really am doing. And so I've decided Greta, it's okay with you, but I'm definitely doing it on the news, on the Substack newsletter Start a weekly wins thread every Friday on the Substack and in our Facebook community where we can all share all the fabulous stuff that we've done over the course of the week and celebrate with each other and encourage each other, so that we're actually recognizing those wins and those successes every week, no matter how small they are and sometimes it is just like, well, hey, I wrote a word, you know, great, that's awesome. Or I prepped for an event, Perfect. But every little small win I think should be celebrated. So I think I'm gonna do that. I actually I love that idea.

Speaker 1: 10:43

Okay, I totally think you should do it, and that'll make me think about it too. You know what were my weekly wins, and then we can maybe hear from you guys a little bit more, because you know, absolutely, we do all the talking, I know yeah.

Speaker 2: 10:57

I will post that into the Friday on Friday into the Facebook author wheel community as well as on Substack.

Speaker 1: 11:06

And then listeners. If you're not a part of the Facebook community, why aren't you Just come on down? You know it's a small, growing community. We usually have a question of the week. Now we're gonna have weekly wins. It's just, it's just fun.

Speaker 2: 11:23

It's been getting more active too. We've had, you know, not just us talking yeah, so come on in and share your voice as well, please.

Speaker 1: 11:31

Yes, we love it.

Speaker 2: 11:32

Alrighty. Well, I think that's it for now. So why don't we get into our interview with Jesse Kwak? Today's guest is someone we actually met at the 20 Books to Vegas conference last November 2023. And we were immediately friends, just right off the bat. It was amazing. So we're excited to have Jesse Kwak on the show. She is an author and business book ghost writer living in Portland Oregon. She's also the organizer of the author Alchemy Summit, as well as the author of a supernatural thriller, two series of space scoundrel sci-fi crime novels and a handful of productivity books, including from chaos to creativity and from big idea to book. So welcome, jesse. We're so excited to have you. I'm excited.

Speaker 3: 12:22

Yeah, thank you for having me.

Speaker 1: 12:23

This is super fun. Hi, jesse, it's so good to see your smiling face.

Speaker 3: 12:29

Yeah, likewise.

Speaker 2: 12:30

So why don't we start off with our usual intro and have you tell us what was your journey into writing and publishing and being, you know, an summit organizer?

Speaker 3: 12:47

Yeah. So I guess I probably like a lot of the listeners, I've always written books. I've always written stories. I grew up kind of trying to tell stories to my sister and always loved writing. So when I was in high school I actually wrote my very first novel. I conned one of my teachers into giving me like a special study period because there wasn't any classes I wanted to take during that time. So he basically was my advisor for this class that I devised, which was that Jesse sits in the library and writes a book. I showed him my novel and he gave me kind of feedback along the way, and it was a really, really awesome experience as a high schooler to be able to just kind of have that dedicated writing time.

Speaker 3: 13:35

But I was definitely hooked by then, and so I went to college to get a degree in English, literature and theater and really didn't want to follow the path of getting an MFA and going down that literary route.

Speaker 3: 13:52

I wanted to write sci-fi and fantasy and stories with ghosts in them, and so at least the program that I was in was much more geared towards literary stuff. So I kind of was like all right, from here I take this education, I go out on my own. I kind of figure out what I want to do and write the great American sci-fi novel, I guess. Yeah. So I've just been writing ever since and eventually started working as a catalog copywriter and then a blogger and doing a bunch of freelance writing, and all of that has snowballed over the years into ghostwriting business books, which is now what I do for I guess, let's say, part of my writing day is spent on client projects like that and then part of it's spent on fiction and it's worked out pretty well. But yeah, that's more or less the path that I took to get to where I am as a writer today.

Speaker 1: 14:52

So I feel like, when I listen to this, that your day must have more hours than mine, because you do part of your day writing for clients, part of your day writing fiction, and then part of your day you are organizing a conference. That sounds like way more day than I have. So that's your cure you must work fast.

Speaker 2: 15:13

Well, she has literally written the book on productivity, so I think that helps.

Speaker 3: 15:21

Yeah, I definitely. I mean it's a balance, and it is something that I have struggled with for my entire career, like trying to balance the fiction and the freelancing. And that's honestly why I ended up writing that book on productivity is because I had spent so long trying to be like OK, nobody is telling me how to spend my hours. I'm not sitting at a desk with a boss being like now you do this, now you do this. So I had to figure out how to allocate my time and stay on track and be productive and not only hit client deadlines but also my own, not let my own writing fall on the wayside which, of course, it did quite a bit in those early years of being a freelancer and so I kind of have come up with a system that works pretty well for me.

Speaker 3: 16:06

I tend to work on my fiction in the morning. I'll work on client work in the afternoons Ideally, especially now that I'm ghostwriting business books. So I kind of have these projects that are larger for shorter amounts of time, as opposed to like blogging regularly for a SaaS client where I'm like having to turn in a couple posts a week, that sort of thing. I'll kind of break up my time more like this month. I write a draft of this novel. Next month I know I'll be busy with this client project, so that will be the bulk of my time. February I will be organizing a conference. So in my mind, of course, I'm always like I will write. I'll still write 2,000 words a day on my novel. And have I done that this week? Of course not so many other things I'm supposed to be doing. So, yeah, I'm not a superwoman, so by any means when it comes to that, but I do try to stay kind of blocking my time out like that.

Speaker 2: 17:04

Yeah, so it sounds to me like you kind of have what I've called in the past like seasons of writing, so you've different shifts in focus or priority as throughout the year. Is that kind of accurate? Am I hearing that correctly?

Speaker 3: 17:21

Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 2: 17:23

So do you find that you still like I don't know, because I'm very curious about this, this is always kind of my personal passion project as well. I love productivity conversations I'm such a nerd, anyway. So when you do that, do you actually find that your days shift based on those priorities? So is your morning fiction writing time maybe a little bit shorter when you have one of those big projects that you're working on, and then when you don't have a big project like that, your fiction writing times takes up more of your day. Is that sort of accurate, or how does that all like break down?

Speaker 3: 18:03

Yeah, that's absolutely kind of how it works. I really do try to not lose focus on the fiction, even when I am in a really busy time, for you know, whether it's a client project or like this conference and so I put that first thing. It turns out I mean, I've tried a million things but writing first thing is the advice everyone gives and honestly, that's what works the best. Like, you get that done, you get it out of the way, you move on to the next, yeah, but yeah, some days it's like I have an hour for that, some days I have three hours.

Speaker 3: 18:36

The one thing that doesn't shift in my day is that I never take calls before 11.

Speaker 3: 18:42

My time because that is just my most creative energy is in the morning and unless I absolutely have to, I just won't set any meetings before that time. And that was something that for years I was like oh well, the client said he wanted to meet at nine, so I guess I'm meeting at nine, and I was just like, well, I mean, I couldn't push back on that, right. And I finally was like, you know, taking those calls at a time that is right in the middle of my most creative energy time, like that's really, really messing with my ability to get A the client project done, my own projects done, all of that stuff. So I finally started pushing back and everybody was totally fine with it. And that was just the thing that over my career that I keep being like, oh, if I ask for what I need, people are always fine with it. Nobody's ever been like, oh, how dare you say I can't break up your creative hours, because if I'm like that's when I work, can we meet at 1130 and everyone's like, oh, yeah, why not?

Speaker 1: 19:46

Yeah, so no, it's interesting because I just heard somebody say that she was she had this insight similar. She was belly aching about her schedules. I was like oh, my schedules are crazy, it's so busy, it's just in that. And then the thought just popped into her head well, who made your schedule? And it's like oh, I guess I did, so you know what I mean. So it's like we complain but we have agency, at least to a degree.

Speaker 1: 20:14

I mean, there are, I'm sure, people listening who have full-time jobs, that they have, but the time that you're not committed to other things is the time you're not committed to other things. And yeah, so that is wise to know when you are the most creative and when it's gonna work, and then guard that time. Yeah.

Speaker 2: 20:36

So why don't you is there. I mean that obviously sounds like productivity was a bit of a roadblock for you and figuring out that schedule and how things worked best for you. Did you have any other roadblocks in your writing life that you've had to overcome over the years?

Speaker 1: 20:53

Or was everything else just like super smooth and easy?

Speaker 2: 20:55

Yeah, has we all only ever have one roadblock Exactly.

Speaker 3: 21:02

Yes, like most people, I've only ever had one roadblock. No, putting myself out there is the biggest roadblock, and I guess I kind of already alluded to that with, just you know, learning to ask for what I needed in my schedule. But marketing and promotion, those are so hard for me. I hate talking about my books Anytime anyone's like so what are you writing? I'm just like, oh, nothing, how it's your job? Look at that weather, you know it's I. Just I shut down over that and I have. I'm very comfortable talking about my ghost writing and my freelancing and I can talk about that all day and explain what I do and what my clients do and I'm very good at promoting my clients work. But that being able to talk about my own fiction, my own writing, any sort of marketing campaigns, any sort of you know book launch, where I have to be like, hey guys, over and over again I've got a book coming out I'm just like, oh, nevermind, nobody wants to hear about this. So that has been, I think, my big struggle.

Speaker 2: 22:12

I definitely feel that and I've been thinking about this actually a lot too myself. Do you think that's because of the emotional importance of your own work, or because of imposter syndrome, like do you have, like, have you ever really like dug into the why behind that difference between client work and your own work?

Speaker 3: 22:34

I think it's definitely the emotional attachment and it's hard to describe, like here's what my book is about, without feeling like I'm pouring myself into it and did you like what I said? Or you don't seem to be interested? Oh no, that means my book's terrible. Therefore I'm terrible. So I think there's some of that and I think there's also it's been hammered into me for so many years. I mean I kind of mentioned my classical literature degree.

Speaker 3: 23:07

Like sci-fi is, oh, that's just fluffy and fun. That's not real. It's not real literature. Indie publishing, you know, oh, your books are self-published, so they're not real books anyways. And what difference are they making in the world? Right, like, I have clients that are writing books that are like really changing people's lives and I write books that are fluffy, fun adventures that I mean I think are still quite good in deep public. But those are some of the things too that go through my mind Like, oh, I mean there's so many more important things. Like what did you do with your life? Oh, you wrote sci-fi. When you could have been like a doctor and saved lives, you could have like worked in a homeless shelter and like helped people out. Oh no, you just sat there and wrote sci-fi adventures, so I think there's that's a lot of it too.

Speaker 2: 24:00

Yeah, I totally understand that too. I think too, we had an interview with Tanya Kappis and she talked about how, for her, she writes cozy mystery and she was never a writer, she was hardly a reader, and then she went through a tough time and reading cozy mysteries and books sort of brought her out of that. So I keep reminding myself of this because I have the same issue. I think a lot with like when somebody asks, oh, what do you write, especially somebody who I know doesn't read fantasy and I'm like, oh, I write about a bartender who can see the demon on your shoulder. They're like what? And it's hard.

Speaker 2: 24:39

But the thing is is when you find that one reader, as Tanya Kappis was talking about, you are providing that escape for them and that relief. And so I don't know, I have to keep reminding myself of that Like just one reader, you're finding one reader, one person, to make their day a little better. And all of that like you should have been a doctor, because I actually almost tried to be a doctor back in the day it's like yeah, no, no, actually this is good too.

Speaker 1: 25:08

Yeah, it's funny too, because Tanya was she was a therapist. Yeah, she actually felt like her books were kind of like an extension of her being a therapist, because they were bringing joy and helping people and in that escapism way that we all need. I had one reviewer say about one of my books it was a good review and he said I enjoyed reading a book by an author who obviously doesn't take herself too seriously, and I strive for that. It's like not all of us are called to be Martin Luther King Jr, not all of us are called to be Mother Teresa, like we all have different gifts and you never know how you're impacting some pep talking.

Speaker 1: 26:04

You, jesse, your books are important and I wanna read your supernatural thriller because that's like my alley. But I do think we just don't know. I have like minor in a mortuary and I've had a couple of readers tell me that they were at family members funerals and they started laughing because they were imagining my character in the basement, like putting makeup on the dead bodies and for some reason it made the funeral easier to get through and I'm like whoever thought that was gonna happen? I don't know, yeah, so Story is important.

Speaker 2: 26:41

Story is what we need to say and believe.

Speaker 1: 26:43

Yes. So now that we've pep talked to you, the next question is besides Greta and Megan, what tips, tools or advice do you give to writers who have to overcome that same roadblock? That same feeling as what I'm doing is just not that significant.

Speaker 3: 27:05

I think, megan, you said like finding that reader. I think that just that one reader who is waiting for your book and needs that story today and that's that has been huge for me is like starting to cultivate those readers and hearing from people that are like. I had one guy wrote to me the other day and he's a veteran, he's bedwritten and he just has been reading through my series and he's like this is so great, like it's just letting me explore someplace new and has helped me through these last couple of weeks and I mean I found that I had some health stuff over the last year and I just spent hours and hours immersed in audio books and it helped so much to like escape, even though I couldn't really leave the house. So, like I know the importance of story and so I think partly what the advice I would give is thinking about your own experience, like why are you writing these stories? It's tapping something in you, there's something that you are needing to tell and share the world.

Speaker 3: 28:10

Right, whether it's, it doesn't matter what you're writing, I mean, whether it's the deepest literature or the corneas, sci-fi or fantasy or whatever.

Speaker 3: 28:21

Like if you have this story that needs to come out of you. There's some reason for it and there's also someone who is waiting on the other end to receive that story, and so I guess that would be my biggest advice that, and when it comes to like getting over yourself to do like the marketing and promo stuff, I mean the amount of people that have been like oh I didn't realize you launched a book last month when I'm like I swear to God, I like have yelled so hard this month Like people, don't you're not yelling as hard as you think you want to? Yeah, it's so true. Yeah, people will still be like oh wait, did you just have a book come out? And I'm like I put out like 18 Instagram posts last month and several newsletters and I swear I told every single person I walked, ran across. And how did you not see this? Like people, your marketing efforts are not as annoying as you think they are.

Speaker 1: 29:20

That is very true, and Facebook and Instagram only decide to show so much, and so you can say something 30 times, and maybe only a third of the people who follow you are going to even see it. So that is a very good point. So what do you do besides, when you do launch your books, because you said you don't like launches. So what do you do? What is your launch? What is the launch process for someone who doesn't like to launch a book?

Speaker 3: 30:02

I guess I lean on my newsletter a lot and kind of sending them out sneak peeks and tidbits and cover reveals and things like that, although I do find that I get a lot more engagement on my newsletter with personal stories and like sharing parts of myself as opposed to parts of the book, which I'm trying to balance that out a little bit. I can't just talk about my books and what's coming next. I also need to cultivate more of a one-on-one relationship with you, or I guess, a one-on-many.

Speaker 1: 30:36

It'll work.

Speaker 3: 30:39

But yeah, so I kind of start by sending things out to my newsletter. I post teasers on Instagram because that's really the only social media that I enjoy being on and I've tried to force myself to do other things and I certainly have found if you don't enjoy a social media, you're not going to make any connections with anybody because you're not going to go into it with enough effort to actually make it work and be like people can tell you don't like it. So newsletter, instagram, and then right now I'm working on books and series and so that's kind of been like all right now I do newsletter swaps and promo, so paid promos and things like that for the first book and the free book that I have at the beginning of the series, and so kind of ramping up readership into that funnel. So that makes it a little bit easier because you're not selling something entirely new. You can be like hey guys, you know the story that you loved, we've got more of it, and if you haven't, here's where to start. It's on sale right now.

Speaker 1: 31:45

Yeah, that's good. So tell me, I'm curious, because I think a lot of us struggle with how much and what do we say about our own self as an author, versus talking about the book or, like you said, teasers about the book and things like that what kinds of things do you share about yourself?

Speaker 3: 32:11

Yeah, I found the things that get the most response from readers from my readers at least is sharing about stories that I love and books that I love, and asking them to kind of respond with like what got you into reading science fiction, that sort of thing. So that's kind of it. I think. For people who don't want to like spill their private life all over their newsletter, you're like that's a really easy like. We all love reading. Your readers love reading. You probably love reading.

Speaker 3: 32:44

The other day I shared a newsletter that was like which author takes up the most real estate on your bookshelf? And so I sent a photo of my bookshelf and was like these authors, I've got a couple, a lot of their series and what's the author that takes up the most shelf space on your bookshelf? And I got a lot of responses of people being like I've got 100 Terry Brasha books or whatever. It's just kind of amazing. I have some readers with an amazing amount of books. Everyone's still in the email back and they're like oh yeah, I've read all 185 of this person's books. Like how?

Speaker 1: 33:25

I've done that before too. I was doing it for a while like where I'd have at the bottom of my email what I'm reading now. But then I went through this dry phase where I didn't love a lot of what I was reading, so I stopped putting it down and then I forgot to put it back. Plus, the genre I read is slightly different than what I'm writing right now. So then I wonder is that to share or not to share? So it is interesting to hear what everybody else is sharing.

Speaker 2: 33:58

So that's a good reminder. So I'm working on my newsletter for this week. This morning, before we got on the call and I was like I need something more than just here. Here's what's coming, I should say because I just read a book that would be perfect for that.

Speaker 1: 34:13

Tell us because we've had a little bit of conversation. So I know that this is part. This discussion segues kind of nicely into your author Alchemy Summit, because I know that you're trying to help writers overcome some of the very things that we're talking about here that difficulty of getting over the marketing hump and that kind of thing and I wish I was going. I'm not going this year, but hopefully will in the future, but I'm real excited about it. So why don't you tell, why don't you tell listeners a little bit more about what you're going to be doing in the genesis of the idea, yeah, so it's a real kind of small, intimate conference that we're doing in Portland Oregon this year.

Speaker 3: 35:03

It's going to be February 22nd through 24th and I am very much hoping that this is the first of many years We'll see, but so far I feel like there's no point in learning how to do this. This is my first time organizing a conference, so there's no point in learning all this if I'm not going to use it again next year and hopefully be less stressed out. Yeah, so we'll at least be doing a 2025. But yeah, so the genesis of the idea was that there's not really any kind of indie focused, businessy conferences in the Pacific Northwest. There's some genre conferences, there's more literary conferences, but they're all kind of focused more on like traditional authors and I, whenever I go to them, there's a lot of how to how to get an agent, how to write query letters, and I really wanted something that was more focused around the type of topics that Indies are thinking about with the marketing and business and how do you connect directly with your readers, and that sort of thing. And so that final question how to connect with your readers that is what I decided to organize the conference around, because I feel like that's such a huge thing that we're all trying to do Right. So how do you connect with your readers? Through telling a story in your book and through your craft? How do you connect with your readers through marketing and promotion, through your newsletter? How do you build these relationships? Because those are what really will you know by word of mouth, help your books get out there in front of the right people.

Speaker 3: 36:40

Yeah, so it'll be two days of programming, like I said, pretty small, so a lot more kind of workshoppy. We'll be having hot seats where we'll do, you know, individual business questions in front of the group so that we can all kind of benefit from it. Breakout sessions with the different industry leaders that are going to be in town, and Fun Cariochi party night. I'm really designing it around like opportunities to connect not only with the speakers but also with your fellow authors. I feel like that has been. I guess I would say maybe the number one thing that has helped me get over myself a little bit more is just having that network of people who, like you guys, just give me pep talks when I'm like I don't know how to promote this. I'm like your book is good, get out there, here's the way to do it. Yeah, yeah, but then also like newsletter spots and people who are organizing, like you know, a box set in your genre and things like that.

Speaker 3: 37:39

All of those connections have really are really what have helped my my readership grow into my career grow. So hoping to create a conference that forges those connections between people but also is very educational and hopefully a lot of fun.

Speaker 2: 37:55

Awesome. So you said. You said the conference is going to be fairly small and when this episode airs it'll be just a couple of weeks away. But how many people have already signed up? Can they still sign up? What's the kind of plan for attendees or registration?

Speaker 3: 38:12

Yeah, We've got about 50 attendees at the moment and there are still seats available. The space, I think, caps out at 150. But it's yeah, the way we set it up. It's going to be just kind of a real cozy awesome event. Oh great.

Speaker 1: 38:32

And we'll have. We'll definitely have the link in the show notes for people to go check it out and explore. So, some of the industry experts you have coming, why don't you share with us who's who's showing up?

Speaker 3: 38:45

Yeah, Um, tamela Breck from newsletter ninjas, going to be there. Um, speaking of newsletters. Um. Also, blaine Moore, who runs Apex Publishing. It's kind of an author services educational company. Um, charlie Gilkey he runs productive flourishing and he's written a couple of books on kind of productivity and mostly kind of aimed at a more corporate like team building, entrepreneurial audience. Um, but he's local to Portland and it's just a really, really amazing speaker that I think a lot of I really wanted to bring in people like Tammy, that I think a lot of your audience will know, and also people like Charlie, who probably is not as well known in the indie world, but, um, it's going to have a lot to add.

Speaker 3: 39:32

Um, let's see. Also, claire Taylor is going to be coming and talking about um, anyogram work and like building a sustainable author career and connecting with your readers by knowing yourself better, which I'm really excited about that. I love her work. So that's a a handful. Oh, joanne McCall um, who's a local Portland person as well. She's a book publicist who works primarily with authors, trying to get them like speaking engagements and things like that. So she's going to be doing some media training for us, which I think will be really, really helpful. Oh, that's nice.

Speaker 1: 40:08

Yeah, that's a great topic. So, um, well, that's, it sounds like a lot of fun. And yeah, I love Claire Taylor. But I what you said too about reaching outside the just our little indie author fiction community into sometimes an entrepreneurial world. You can learn a lot. There's a lot of techniques and sometimes, um, those uh people in that space are like a lot farther ahead than us.

Speaker 1: 40:39

You know whether I was listening to somebody who you know she has a podcast and she her specialty is kind of like online marketing and it's not per se books or fiction or anything like that. But, boy, I learned just so much from her about the newsletter and setting up my newsletter and auto responders and all of those kinds of things. It's just really helpful to not always be in our little um click. It's a wrong word, but you know, reach outside, that just sounds great, it sounds really fun. So what kind of spark to the um. It's a big job. I'm just going to say I said the same thing to Paula. It's like this is a big job you're taking on this to do as summit. I think it's really bold and courageous. So good on you. But what kind of gave you that shove? Because I can totally see wishing and I have that this kind of thing existed, like maybe in my area or something. But taking it from I wish this existed too, I'm going to make it exist. No, I never. That never occurred to me.

Speaker 3: 41:50

Well, I had been complaining about wanting something in my area for a while and I would bring it up from time to time and my husband would be like, well, you should organize something. And I was like, no, no, that sounds insane. And I mean he was right that I should and also I was right that it isn't an insane amount of work. But about a year and a half ago he said it again. I was complaining again and saying I'd love to see something like this. He's like why don't you do it? And so I sat down and I think I had no, I was going to be going to 20 books in 2022. Right, so 20 books was maybe a month away from when I had we had this conversation and I was already kind of in my mind like the people that I knew, my friends that I was going to see and people that I might meet, and so I started making a list. I was like, well, who could I probably talk into coming? Who would probably say yes to me or at least entertain the idea, because I've known them and they would trust me?

Speaker 3: 42:56

And by the time I finished this list, I was like this is actually a pretty impressive and decent amount of people who I could at least approach and say does this sound interesting to you, would you be interested? And so I kind of made that my plan and so, at 20 books in 2022, I was like, all right, hey, I want to talk to you about this crazy conference idea. Does this seem reasonable? Would you consider attending as a speaker? And I had a lot of people being like, wow, that sounds great. Yes, I'd love to help out whatever I can do. And so I came back and was just like wow, I think I could pull this off. And so it kind of just snowballed from there. It's amazing.

Speaker 2: 43:43

That is amazing, because I mean, I've been to conferences like this that are a little bit smaller, a little bit more intimate. I mean you look at the big conferences and you go oh my god, that's way too much work. But the little ones even still, it's like I've been to them and they're so valuable and they're so beneficial, not just for, obviously, the content but for the networking and it allows those of us who are a little bit more on the introvert side but or more comfortable in smaller groups, smaller spaces rather than big crowds. It allows us to get a lot of the same benefit that the people who go to the big conferences go to, but it's a more intimate experience.

Speaker 2: 44:26

But yes, I mean absolutely like going through and being like OK, I'm going to do this, I'm going to go find a hotel, I'm going to make a schedule, I'm going to invite speakers. I've got to organize all this, I got to set up marketing materials, I got to somehow get the word out. That's so much, so much work. So I'm so impressed that you're doing that. But, beyond getting speakers, how have you sort of gotten people interested in just attending? What have you done to spread the word on registration and getting people to make that expense, or have you focused more locally? What have you done for that?

Speaker 3: 45:02

I have kind of a few different paths and I mean, as I was saying earlier, the promotion and marketing is not my favorite thing to do. Putting myself out there is hard for me, but with this it's like I can't just write a book and put it out in the world and be like, all right, we're done, I don't have to do anything with it. I had to actually grow quite a bit as a marketer and as a promoter to be like no, you have to keep talking to people, you have to keep pushing this. So I think this was very, very good for me in terms of and I'm seeing that already in my willingness to promote my books a little bit more. So, yeah, maybe that's another tip for people who are wanting to. You know, learn to get themselves out there more. Organize a conference.

Speaker 3: 45:50

Just dive in Get going, get out.

Speaker 2: 45:53

Right into the deep end.

Speaker 3: 45:54

Yeah, but I mean honestly, it's been a lot of word of mouth and a lot of, you know, just reaching out to people that are local or you know friends that I've met at other conferences and be like, hey, I'm doing this thing, are you interested in coming Talking to everybody that I possibly could at 20 books this last year and other local conferences that I've been to. You know printing out flyers, walking around, being like, hey, what about this? Think about this, I'm doing this. So it's been, yeah, a lot of word of mouth, a lot of trying to get the speakers have been bringing people in as well. You know, sending out things to their newsletters. But, yeah, I haven't done much in the way of, like, cold advertising. It's really been more going after those warm leagues Because, like I said, it's a small conference so I don't have to spread the word as far and wide as possible. It's really more like putting my energy into targeted places. This has given me the best results right now. Yeah, oh, that's great.

Speaker 1: 46:56

Yeah, that is good. You know it's funny. I have thought in the past about doing like maybe a writer's retreat, that kind of thing. But that's like, well, that's way easier than a conference. That's gonna be like I'm thinking, 10 people, you know what I mean and then I get high centered on well, we'd have to feed everybody and I have such a bizarro dietary habits and restrictions that I'm gonna go all right, never mind, I'm not doing that.

Speaker 1: 47:27

So I'm quite impressed with you because at conferences it is speakers, it's the facility, it's marketing. And then you do have the practicalities too, about where do people eat and is there gonna be coffee? And you know, all the blood's Portland, there's gotta be coffee. Oh, there's definitely coffee.

Speaker 3: 47:49

And we're part of the you know I was mentioning I wanted to make it all about connecting with other people and so we're catering breakfast and lunch so that people can stay in the venue and not have to like wander out and be like, oh I don't know who I can have lunch with. Yeah, so you mentioned kind of the dietary restrictions. There's a lot of like all right, who's? We've? Okay, we've got some click for people. We've got one vegan We've got. Okay, somebody's allergic to this. Like, yeah, with our friend, he's helping with catering, she's got all that under control, which is very nice. That's off my plate at least.

Speaker 1: 48:24

That's good, Because that's a complex one. So well, this has just been a really great conversation. I love that you're doing all that you're doing and we're just going to have to have you back on to do like a post-mortem.

Speaker 2: 48:41

Yeah, you know how did it go and are you actually going to do it next year and where do we register? Because I couldn't do it this year, but next year maybe.

Speaker 1: 48:52

Yeah, I've never been to Portland and I always wanted to go to, so if you had a doubly good reason to show up, you know.

Speaker 2: 49:01

It's a great city. I have family there. It's a great city.

Speaker 1: 49:04

Yeah, so why don't you tell listeners where they can find out more about you your books, the conference and all the things that you do I everything is all links from jessiquackcom and that's J-E-S-S-I-E-K-W-A-K.

Speaker 3: 49:25

And yeah, that's where we find my books, ghost writing information link to the conference and, as I mentioned, I'm mostly active on Instagram in terms of social media, so if you want to connect there and look at photos of my plants, love your plants, yeah Well good.

Speaker 1: 49:42

And we will have that note and we will have that link in the show notes for everybody, to all of our listeners. Don't forget to go check out that conference at Jeff Jesse's website. And then also, if you want just a little email course to help you clarify your author mission statement and create a tagline, we have just what might help you, just what might help you on our website, seven days to clarity, uncover your author purpose, and you can sign up at info or I mean, I'm sorry, at authorwheelcom for free. So until next time, keep your stories rolling.