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3 Budget Friendly Writers Conferences in North Carolina

“Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout of some painful illness. One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven on by some demon whom one can neither resist nor understand.”    —George Orwell

Okay.  So – maybe I didn’t find the process of writing a novel to be horrible but it was exhausting and yet, exhilarating – kinda like how I imagine a mountain climber would feel when they reached the summit Mt. Everest.   Seriously, I was on the top of the world!

While I love writing, it requires solitude – a lot of it – and that can lead to a creative drain. When we don’t recharge our batteries, our writing will suffer.

One way to avoid this is to periodically surround ourselves with like-minded individuals. A writers conference is the perfect event to make these connections.  Not only do we get the benefit of learning from the experts, we have the opportunity to forge relationships with other writers – people who get us and our struggles.

Write.

For many people, attending a week long conference is out of the question due to work, family, and monetary considerations.  However, smaller conferences are often presented by local writers groups.  These are typically one or two days long and very affordable.  If you’re in the North Carolina area, you might be interested in attending the following:

February 27, 2016:  Book’em North Carolina Book Fair and Writers Conference  This conference is held at Robeson Community College in Lumberton, N.C.  FEE:  FREE

March 18-19, 2016:  Pamlico Writers Conference is held in Washington, N.C.  at the Turnage Theater.  FEE:  $49.00 non-members $39.00 members

April 16, 2016:  Carolinas Writers Conference is held at the Lockhart-Taylor Center in
Wadesboro, N.C.  FEE:  $30.00 and includes a catered lunch.

Both the Book’em NC and Carolinas Writers Conferences are short drives from northern South Carolina.  And for those writers in south eastern Virginia, the Pamlico conference is only a two hour drive.

Thanks for stopping by and if you know of a budget friendly conference, please feel free to add it in the comments.

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The Enchanted Cottage

They say opposites attract – and it must be true.  My husband and I have been married for over 25 years.  He’s my best friend and while we have many things in common, there’s plenty of areas where we differ.  He likes chicken; I prefer steak.  He likes salty; I like sweet.  He loves winter while summer is my choice.

Hubs grew up in Ohio – he loves snow and white Christmases – neither of which happened in coastal North Carolina this year.  Christmas day hit 70 degrees. Hubs was disappointed to say the least.

So – that made my Christmas gift to him all the better.  A weekend in a mountain cabin in Virginia.

Drum roll….

The Enchanted Cottage

D.S. McKnight

This little cabin was perfectly enchanting!

Enchanted Cottage waterfallAnd while it is quite the romantic getaway, I couldn’t help but think that others might find the cabin a wonderful writing retreat. Everything about this place tickled my imagination.  It was literally like walking into a fairy-tale.

The Enchanted Cottage is located in Dugspur, Virginia – just about 30 miles north of Mt. Airy, North Carolina.

How about you?  Have you stumbled across a place that would serve as a wonderful writing retreat?

 

 

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My Writing Mantra

One of the blogs I try to follow is WRITERS IN THE STORM. Their Jan 01, 2016 post What Word Will Guide Your Writing in 2016 by Orly Konig-Lopez was awesome. Click here to read.

When it comes to my writing, last year left a lot to be desired.  I worked on two manuscripts but failed to complete either. As for my blog, well let’s just say I could have done better. With each disappointment, determination seeped away. Procrastination took the place of discipline. Writing became a chore.  I felt edgy and unfulfilled.

I decided my word would be:  REFOCUS

I recently finished reading a novel by Greg Garrett called Shame.  Without going into detail, let me just say this was the perfect end of the year read. One line from the book stuck with me:

 What could have been is the greatest enemy of what is.

I had a choice – I could continue to carry the weight of all those unrealized goals and expectations or I could let it go.

2016:  A new year.  A new slate.  A chance to refocus, to give myself permission to selfishly guard my writing time. And I did it.  Sunday, I set aside three hours and I wrote.  It was wonderful and I felt like I could breathe again.

So how about you?  Have you chose a word or phrase to guide your writing?

 

 

 

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So You’re Booking A Virtual Book Tour?

Imagine if you will:

You’ve published your novel.  Your mom, sister and best friend have purchased it. Your cousin smiled and asked for a free copy while your neighbor has studiously avoided you since you announced your happy news.

Your sales report from KDP is nothing short of humbling.

Now what?

You’ve checked into several options and seeing as how your marketing budget is quite limited.  You’ve decided to take your book on tour – a virtual tour.

STOP!

Before you go any further, before you sign on the dotted line, let me share a little of my experience as both a touring author and hosting blogger…

thinkingClose your eyes and picture yourself sitting at a table in your favorite bookstore.  There’s a line of people eager to meet you, patiently waiting for you to sign their copy of your novel. Of course, you smile.  You schmooze. You pull out your trusty pen and you sign your name with a flourish – just as you’ve practiced so many times before.

Now:  Open your eyes and let’s talk about your virtual book tour.  Because while they are much the same, they are uniquely different. Instead of a line of people physically standing in front of you, there will be countless people sitting in front of their computer screens.

First:  Do your homework.  Make sure that the tour organizer you’ve selected is a good fit for your book.  This is easy enough to figure out. Sometimes, you can tell just by the name.  (ex:  Deb’s Chic Lit Tours) Other times,  the name won’t give you a clue. (ex: Deb’s Virtual Book Tours) This is when you need to look at the books that are currently touring and those that have previously toured.  Is your book’s genre well represented? If so, go a step further.  Visit the host sites.  Note the visits/interaction on the site or the lack there of. Remember: It’s up to each individual blogger to sign up to host your book. There’s no guarantee that you’re going to be featured on a site with heavy traffic. However, a blogger who wants to increase their traffic is going to do their best to help generate views by sharing the post on various social media sites.

Next:  After you’ve selected your tour organizer – you will receive requests for book excerpts, author interviews and guest posts.  Meet the requirements.  If a blogger is willing to participate with your tour, offering you space on his/her blog – then kindly oblige with the requested guest post or interview.

Finally:  This is important.  Be selective in the dates you choose as tours are time consuming.  Just like with a face to face book signing, virtual book tours require that the author be present.  This can get tricky especially when juggling jobs, families and other obligations.

On occasion, I participate with virtual book tours as a host.  What I’ve seen has left me scratching my head.  I share a post featuring the author and their novel.  My readers comment with things like:  This sounds interesting!  Or Sounds like my kind of book!  

And the author’s response:  imagine

Seriously?  Potential readers are being ignored.

While the author has paid for the tour, he/she must remember that is more of an organizational fee.  It isn’t the hosts job to sell your book.  The hosts offer you, the author, a seat at the table, a place at the podium, a little time in the spotlight. But – it’s up to the you to take advantage of the opportunity.

How?  That’s easy:

*Stop by and thank the host for having you on their blog.  (You may have to get up a little earlier than usual to make that early morning visit.)

*Check in periodically through out the day.  (Lunch, breaks, after work)

*Share the post on your social media sites.

*Enlist the help of family and friends by asking them to follow your tour and share the posts.

*AND FOR GOODNESS SAKE – Acknowledge the comments!  Those comments were made by people who found something interesting about the book, interview, etc. Failing to do so isn’t any different than getting up and walking away from that table in your favorite book store, paying no attention to those folks in line.

ChirpDon’t forget – The people who take the time to read the posts and comment are potential book buyers…

And ultimately, isn’t that the point of doing a virtual book tour?