Behind the Scenes of a Writing Summit
Behind the Scenes of a Writing Summit
Insights from the upcoming Write Anyway summit
There’s a free writing summit coming up October 21 to 24 from the folks at Write Anyway and there are *nine* Author Accelerator Certified Book Coaches giving presentations — and also me. This is a great chance to learn from some very accomplished teachers, writers, and coaches.
I’m particularly interested in hearing from author and psychologist Gay Hendricks, because I am a fan of his book, The Big Leap. It is assigned reading in my Book Coach Certification Program because so many writers and coaches hold themselves back from doing their best work. I can’t wait to hear what he has to say.
Jessica Abel is also a new friend (we’re in a business mastermind together) and she is very smart about getting creative work done. Her presentation looks great, too.
And did I mention *nine* coaches from our community?! I just love this so much! I see our coaches in the spotlight in so many writing organizations and conferences coming up — people speaking at SCBWI, Muse and the Marketplace (Grub Street), NCET (National Council of English Teachers, Association of Writing Professionals (AWP), and many other places. It makes me so proud!
My offering for the Write Anyway Summit is a conversation with summit organizer Sue Campbell on The Surprising Power of Asking for Help. We dig deep into the reasons why it’s so hard for writers to ask for help and how a book coach can help a writer build trust in the process of letting other people into their creative process. My presentation includes a free download of The Writer’s Universe of Support — a simple but powerful tool I made to help writers figure out who to go to to ask for help with their writing, and who to avoid.
You can sign up for the summit HERE. It’s free.
There is also a VIP All Access Pass for sale that gives you more time to watch all the content, which you can purchase as soon as you sign up using the link above. There are a lot of bonus giveaways that will come from that All Access Pass purchase — including a free download of my Blueprint books. Note that if you use that link above, Author Accelerator will earn a % from the All Access Pass sign-ups.
Why host a summit?
Why would anyone go to the trouble of hosting a summit? It’s a great way to connect with other people in your field and to build up your email list. The goal for this Write Anyway summit, for example, is 15,000 writers. We’re still a few weeks away and they have almost 4,000.
The host depends on the speakers to tell their audiences about the event, which in theory benefits everyone. The hosts get traffic to their website and their event, and the speakers get exposure to new audiences who might not be aware of their area of expertise.
You generate a lot of great content when you host a summit. I put on a summit more than five years ago when we had to do so much work to educate people on what a book coach even was, and I still use some of those recorded sessions today to teach and inspire people. Author Accelerator Book Coach Sara Gentry (
) has been putting on summits several times a year for the KidLit community (and now expanding to all fiction writers), and she’s building up a great library of presentations.If you have a VIP purchase like this summit does, you also have the opportunity to make money by selling the upgraded access.
All in all, you build a lot of goodwill by being generous to your audience and you build a lot of buzz by having something to write and speak about. Plus you get to network with the people you invite to present.
What are the downsides?
The downside is that it’s a lot of work to organize a summit like this. I think Sue and her team started reaching out to potential participants last January — and I know they had to nudge me several times before I replied because life and inboxes have a way of getting full.
They are using an affiliate platform (by which they can track where participants come from and pay out those affiliate fees) that takes setting up and sorting out.
They had to set up the summit sales page and the platform where the sessions will be shared.
They had to write and share “swipe” copy that participants can use to tell folks about the summit and design graphics to share with everyone.
They had to wrangle the presenters to make sure we all submitted our presentation on time and in the right format and to make sure our bonus offerings were in the right format and in the right place. (Mine wasn’t!)
Launching a summit feels similar to launching a book — you’re using all social channels and lots of social capital to let everyone know what you’re up to and invite them to spread the word and join in.
Why participate in a summit?
It’s fun to spread good free content and to get the chance to speak to writers you might not otherwise reach. It’s one of the best ways to get a lot of new people to pay attention to what you do.
Whether or not you interest and attract those people to what you do is, of course, another story. That is going to depend on the topic you are speaking about, the offer you are making that is attached to it, and how well you present.
I always try hard to work with the event organizer to pick a topic that is in my wheelhouse but that is also going to speak very directly to the kinds of people the summit (or conference or workshop) is trying to attract. I want to hit the sweet spot!
In this case, the summit topic is “Learn to write in the face of every obstacle.” The organizers originally asked me to speak about something else — something I felt was going to be common among presenters — and I proposed, instead this topic: The Surprising Power of Asking for Help. This topic connects to my mission of setting the bar for excellence in the book coaching industry since asking for help includes asking for professional help.
The topic allowed me to choose a giveaway that I think will add a lot of value. It’s a worksheet called the Writer’s Universe of Support. It helps writers know when to share their work, who to share it with, and who to avoid.
The summit gave me a chance to be creative and innovative about what and how I present, and that helped me to hone in on who my audience is and to refine my messaging — always welcome tasks.
Are there any downsides to participating?
You are normally required to tell your audiences about the summit within a certain window. That is what I am doing here — which I hope shows that you can usually do it in a way that feels useful, interesting, and authentic.
I don’t agree to things that demand I assault my audience with a whole bunch of notices and announcements, use their words, or do anything that feels yucky.
Participating always takes more time than you think it’s going to take because you have to send a photo, send a bio, get the presentation together (or show up live for a live summit.) Those activities add up.
How do you get invited to participate in a summit?
It’s the same things I am always talking about when it comes to running a book coaching business:
Speak to a very specific kind of writer who is experiencing a very specific kind of challenge.
Be generous with the content you share. Seek to serve the people you wish to serve.
Be a good literary citizen, which is to say engage with other people’s work, follow them, respond to them, thank them. (Someone responded to my newsletter the other day with the loveliest note and we had a wonderful exchange. I learned something really important about my program I didn’t know before — the specific benefit a student gets from it even if they don’t become certified — and I feel like my universe has expanded, all from someone taking the time to send a little note.)
Pitch yourself when you see opportunities you want to be part of. Get out of your comfort zone and apply to speak or present. Start local and build your way up to bigger online and in-person events.
Be patient. Sometimes it takes time to build your reputation and your network.
Do excellent work.
In conclusion…
Summits can be a win-win-win!
You can sign up for the Write Anyway summit HERE and see if you’re inspired to host one of your own!
Just got my free ticket!