The Women in Publishing Summit Is Over… Now What?

Alexa Bigwarfe has done it again: another marvelously successful and highly informative Women in Publishing Summit. It wrapped up yesterday and if you weren’t there, you missed out on a remarkable learning experience – and all I can say is perhaps next year you’ll pay closer attention when I begin to effuse about it.

This year’s event featured some sixty of the leading experts in their respective fields – from writing and editing to cover design, publishing, marketing, analytics and advertising. The Summit really did offer something for just about everyone involved in any aspect of the writing and publishing arena.

Attendees hailed from all over the U.S., Canada, Germany, Norway, Ireland, England and Australia. I’ve almost certainly left off some countries, but it was truly a global event. This was my fifth WIP Summit and I don’t know how Alexa and her team manage it, but it just keeps getting better every year!

Some of my favorite presentations came from Judy L. Mohr, Shayla Raquel and Tamara Dever. Seriously, look these women up. They’re each remarkable in their own way and if you’re a writer, you would do well to learn from them.

Another highlight (in my opinion) was the Zoom chat room. Open three times a day for an hour each time, the space afforded attendees kind of a virtual lounge in which to connect over a cup of coffee (or a glass of wine, depending on which time zone each participant was in), chat about the previous sessions and get to know one another in a relaxed social environment.

So, what now? If you attended the Summit, you probably have several session recordings to view, and a ton of presenter assets to download. I know I do. In between all the other things I’ve got going on this month, I’ll be systematically watching the videos and learning all I can about writing, editing, marketing and publicity.

“But, Rita, you’re a professional author and editor,” you may be saying. “Don’t you already know a lot about writing and editing?”

Yeah. But I can always learn more. We all can. That’s why attending conferences and webinars and summits is so important: It gives you the opportunity to learn all you can and to improve your skills.

But the learning doesn’t end there. At the end of this month, I’m attending my seventh Tennessee Mountain Writers Conference. This two-day event in Oak Ridge will focus on various aspects of the written and spoken word. Featured sessions will include storytelling, poetry, small-press publication, young people’s literature, play writing, fiction, nonfiction and more. There’s plenty of occasion for networking with other writers, too. Plus, I’m bringing a carton of The Purringest Kitty Finds His Home to sell (and autograph) in the conference bookstore.

It doesn’t matter if you’re an aspiring author or a writing veteran with multiple titles to your credit. You can always benefit from attending a good writers’ conference. So, if you’re within reasonable driving distance of Oak Ridge, I urge you to consider attending. And if that’s too far afield, check out a writing conference closer to you. You won’t regret it.

If you’ve ever attended a writers’ conference, what was it and what was the best thing you learned?

About the Author:
Rita M. Reali is a two-time international award-winning author and longtime editor who most enjoys editing memoir, general fiction and romance, along with inspirational writing. She’s self-published five novels: Glimpse of Emerald, Diagnosis: Love, The Unintended Hero, Second Chances and Tender Mercies – the first five in the seven-volume Sheldon Family Saga. The sixth novel in the series, Brothers by Betrayal, is scheduled for an early 2024 release. Her first children’s book, The Purringest Kitty Finds His Home, was released at the end of February. As a former disc jockey in her native Connecticut, Rita used to spend her days “talking to people who weren’t there” – a skill which transferred perfectly to her being an author. Now she talks to characters who aren’t there on “a little chunk of heaven in rural Tennessee.” Contact Rita. To purchase your own personally inscribed copy of any of Rita’s books, download this order form at her website.

Global Women in Publishing Summit Returns March 1-4

Mark your calendars: It’s registration time for the sixth annual Women in Publishing Summit!

This year’s event promises to be one of the best yet, with 40-plus speakers over a four-day period, from March 1 through March 4. Ably hosted each year by author, speaker and publisher Alexa Bigwarfe (and a cracker-jack crew of assistants), the conference always delivers on its promises of information-packed sessions by experts in their respective fields. And with this being the sixth one, the event grows ever more seamless, year over year.

Wherever you are in the writing process – and whatever your particular role therein (i.e., author, editor, publisher, marketer) – the Women in Publishing Summit is sure to have something for you.

Broken out into three separate tracks, the Summit offers something for nonfiction, fiction and children’s book authors alike. Day One will feature various aspects of the craft of writing. Day Two focuses on editing, production and routes toward publication. Day Three’s theme is marketing. Day Four is all about growing your business.

This year, all sessions will be presented live, with recordings of each session made available for viewing at your leisure within hours. So, for instance, if you watched a session live and partway through had to take a phone call, sign for a UPS package or even use the restroom, you can go back and watch what you missed.

Besides the multiple hour-long sessions, interspersed with sessions led by Summit sponsors, what I’ve found to be one of the most beneficial and enjoyable parts of the Women in Publishing Summit each year is the networking. Incidentally, the sponsors always include generous discounts and offers on their products and services.

Sponsors and speakers will be available for Q&A sessions, and participants experiencing technical difficulties will find the community support to be first rate. Plus, the organizers are presenting something new this year: SlushFest. In all honesty, I’m not sure what that is, but I’m guessing it’ll have to do with having agents on hand to cull through attendees’ submitted manuscript excerpts… we shall see.

Other participant-favorite features are the writing sprints and special session rooms for coffee chats, all coordinated via Zoom. Last year, several participants and I were vocally (and enthusiastically) instrumental in persuading the Summit organizers to offer multiple after-hours happy hour gatherings, complete with interest-based breakout rooms where we could visit and mingle.

Sound like just what you’re looking for? Yeah, I thought so. Sign up now and join roughly two thousand other writers (and me!) for the Women in Publishing Summit! Register here. When you buy tickets through this link, I earn a modest sum. And what could be bad about that, eh?

About the Author:
Rita M. Reali is a two-time international award-winning author and longtime editor who most enjoys editing memoir, general fiction and romance, along with inspirational writing. She’s self-published five novels: Glimpse of Emerald, Diagnosis: Love, The Unintended Hero, Second Chances and Tender Mercies – the first five in the seven-volume Sheldon Family Saga. The sixth novel in the series, Brothers by Betrayal, is scheduled for an early 2024 release. Her first children’s book, The Purringest Kitty Finds His Home, is due out sometime in 2023. As a former disc jockey in her native Connecticut, Rita used to spend her days “talking to people who weren’t there” – a skill which transferred perfectly to her being an author. Now she talks to characters who aren’t there on “a little chunk of heaven in rural Tennessee.” Contact Rita.