Still watching the recordings from the conference and still learning a lot. I’ve especially enjoyed Sara Wigal’s session on creating your brand.

“Building Your Brand Before You Query” was an excellent session that provided concrete examples you can use to build your author brand. One of the suggestions was to include a “Brand Manifesto” on your website somewhere: “I write (genre conveyed) that introduces (audience segment) to (action step) to (core values communicated).” For example, “I write historical fiction that allows underrepresented women to envision an alternate history to that of dour textbooks, and thus begins to drown out colonialist narratives.

Let the following questions guide you as you search for your brand:

• What problem are you solving?
• What is the sexiest trait about your book or books?
• What would you never tell a book buyer about you on a first date?
• When potential customers say “no thanks,” what is generally the reason?
• What are the benefits and features to a reader of your book?
• What qualities do you want readers and the book industry to associate with you?
• What is your mission?

Other tips Sara suggested include:

• Brand as an AUTHOR, not a book, when it comes to social media, websites, etc. If you brand each book, you’ll never get finished and you risk your name getting lost in the shuffle.
• Author brand as a brand–your identity is separate. Your author self is a character you put on to deal with your public. Keep it separate from your personal (private) life.
• Use your author brand manifesto in your query letter.
• Allocate set time amounts to platform activities each week (or month). Treat your platform as one more job in the writing business and keep on top of it.

HERE’S a good article about evaluating your Facebook page.

I attended my first writing conference last year. Oh, I’ve been going to DragonCon’s writing track for years, so I figured I’d pretty much heard everything I needed about writing. I was going for the chance to pitch my book to an agent or editor. Maybe I’d pick up a couple of new ideas, but I was paying for that face-time.

Boy, was I wrong.

I did meet a lot of agents and editors – and other authors, who are not only great people to talk with, but can help you connect with even more agents, authors, and editors. I did pitch my ideas, and even got positive results from all of them.

But I also learned more than just a couple of new ideas. We had lectures like “Treating Your Story’s Setting as a Main Character” and “Crafting a Gripping Opening” and “World Building 101.” We wrote, and we critiqued each other’s work. We shared ideas and websites and contact information.

We had classes on social media, and on publicizing yourself and your books. I think I learned more in one day than I’d learned in two years of playing around on Facebook. My Facebook author page – and I learned to set up a separate page for that instead of using my personal page – went from a few friends to over 3,000 in around six months, and it’s still growing.

If you’ve never attended a writing conference, save up the funds and go! You’ll learn a lot more than you think you will, plus you’ll meet all those people who will play an important role in your career later on. The contacts you make now can only help you in the future.

Plus, it’s just a whole lot of fun.

What’s the best conference you’ve ever attended — or the one you’ve always dreamed of attending?