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This is part of a Q & A blog interview Penny Sansevieri conducted with Tom Gregory about Infinity’s annual Author’s Conference.
What made you want to host the first Express Yourself… Authors Conference? Our first Authors conference was held in 2000 with 2 goals: to attract writers with a book-in-progress interested in learning about Infinity’s unique method for publishing author-originated books; and to help our authors to learn more effective ways for promoting and marketing their books. You've been doing this conference for several years, what do you think is the secret to the success of it? Quality. We invite the top experts in their fields such as Brian Jud, John Kremer, Dan Poynter, Melanie Rigney, Bonnie Neubauer, and you Penny, to present at our conference, and everyone always presents fresh ideas. Value. We deliver a variety of benefits for participating authors at an affordable price and there are no hidden agendas or additional charges. Our $639 registration fee includes all conference activities, 2 nights lodging at the Sheraton, and all meals. That’s a great value. Location. The Sheraton Park Ridge Hotel is an excellent facility with an attentive staff and their food service is outstanding. The Sheraton is about a mile away from exit 24 of the Pennsylvania turnpike and 30 minutes from the Philadelphia train station and the PHL airport. Flexibility. We adapt our seminar content to always include useful information about developing trends in the publishing industry so participating authors can benefit from them now. Why is it important for authors to attend a conference like this? In addition to all the valuable learning experiences, our conference provides marvelous networking opportunities. We rarely have a head table at meals, and our presenters are encouraged to break bread and share ideas with as many of the attending authors as possible. It is really amazing seeing authors connecting with other authors sharing similar interests and exchanging ideas. Is this only open to Infinity authors? Our conference is open to all authors interested in learning new ways to effectively promote their books. We welcome writers exploring author-originated publishing. What makes your authors’ conference different from any of the others? We focus on presenting fresh concepts that are more timely and beneficial to authors than the typically traditional topics usually offered at the conferences that attract writers aspiring to become authors. The majority of our attendees are already published authors or on the verge of having their book published. So they aren’t interested in learning how to write a query letter or a one-page book proposal. They’re interested in how to craft a one-minute pitch that will sell their book the next time they’ve asked what their book is about. We’re different because we want to help authors to sell their book – and we don’t do a sales pitch for Infinity – nor do we allow our presenters to pitch their services as part of their presentations. Another big difference is that our $639 registration fee really does cover everything – including one-on-one consultations with the presenters of their choice. We have literary agents attending and they make the time to meet free of charge with every author interested in talking with them, because agents know that a published book with a track record of sales is easier to present to a traditional publisher interested in mainstreaming a book. What are your future hopes for this event? My greatest hope is for more authors to attend. We put a tremendous amount of work into our conference each year, so I’d really like to see more authors benefiting from all of those efforts and learn from the experts we have brought together to help authors to achieve more success with their books. I hope interested authors will visit www.authorsconference.com to register. |
