Hi, everyone. We're glad you're here. This is the Three Lesbians and a Pen podcast. Get ready to have your world rocked. As we dive into the wild and sometimes wacky world of self-publishing. We are three fabulous bestselling authors. I'm your host, Kimberly Todd with my best friends.

K. C. Luck

and Jamey Moody. 

Join us as we discuss the joys of writing, challenges of self-publishing, and anything else that tickles our fancy. 

Hey there, and welcome to Episode 27 of the Three Lesbians and a Pen podcast. I'm Kimberly Todd, and I'm here with my fabulous friends, KC Luck and Jamey Moody. Today we're talking about Book Conferences, but before we start, how was everyone's week, KC?

Uh, Week was really good. Well, okay. It was good and bad a little bit, so, I've been writing, which is really good. I'm working on the novella. It's almost done. I should finish the rough draft today. Get ready for the editor by the end of the week. 'cause I have to because I'm gonna Sun River, which is a resort here in Oregon on Thursday night.

So I have kind of a deadline, but I'm looking forward to that. It'll be a nice break. After finishing a book of any kind. It's always nice to take a little time out. So, I've also been spending a lot of time marketing, which I have been bad about in the last couple of years, especially.

I started off my career really marketing heavily, like posting every day a graphic every day or a picture of me every day. And I kinda let that slide, but I'm back on it because. Because sales, are not what I would hope they are. And there's a number of reasons why, but, I think Jamey's gonna speak to it a little more. But, KU page reads are definitely down for reasons that I'm not gonna talk about. We'll let Jamey do it. So over to you, Jamey.

Well, I had fun this weekend because I went and played games with my lesbian friends, and here's the big news. I freaking won.

Yay!

It's always nice to win every now and then, don't you think? What, KC was referring to is all the, banter. I will say, well, banter makes it sound light and fun, and it's not light and fun.

All the discussion on social media about this Amazon boycott. And it affects our community, because it affects your favorite authors like me and my Pod Pals, because when you don't get your books on Amazon, then you won't be able to get our books, because our books are in Kindle Unlimited. And, the main reason they're on Kindle Unlimited is because it helps our readers afford them, especially the ones on a budget. So, our sales have been down and it is a bit concerning and it kind of is a factor going into our topic today, which is book conferences, because it takes money to be able to attend those. And, when you're not making the money, producing these books, then that becomes a factor. But we'll talk about that a little bit because let's talk about Kimberly's great week last week, because it was

My Birthday!

Yay. Happy Birthday! 

We won't sing, but...

We could sing.

You know, I would, but.

Maybe.

Yeah, So I went for, a nice dinner with my wife and it was fabulous and I bought myself the Lady Gaga Mayhem cd. I'm telling you people, I love this. 

I have been playing it on repeat forever and driving my wife absolutely crazy. 

Is this her new one? 

Yeah.

Yeah, 

I've listened to a few songs. It is good.

Yeah. And then for writing, I am having so much fun with my new book, doing the character quirks, you know, because I'm doing something fun, and it makes you laugh and you're like, that is freaking awesome. When we talked about process, I work in the morning, a certain timeframe that you like to tease me about.

Yeah.

I've added this thing, you guys should try it. You take hot water, honey, lemon, ginger, and then you can put in a little bit of cinnamon if you want. I'm telling you it gives you such energy in morning. So, I've added that. 

Hmm. 

We're supposed to drink this?

Well, did you get the recipe? Write it down and go.

That sounds pretty cool. Yeah.

Okay. Listeners, you can't see, but we can see each other and I'm having a Diet Coke, which gives me energy in the morning. So...

Oh, there you go...Tea. 

There, it is okay. Her concoction. 

Yes. 

Oh, well anyways, that helps me write.

Well, thank for sharing that with us.

I know. 

I know. 

I'm not being unappreciative friend.

Now all of you listeners, go out there and make it. Don't listen to these two ding-dongs, 

Yeah.

I'm telling It's good. 

I love that.

Oh, okay. KC, do we have any texts this week?

Yes, we had two of them actually. One was from Cheryl who asked about the boycotting, which is one of the reasons Jamey talked about it 'cause it's a hot topic and there's some confusion about it. But she also said she'd love to go to a conference with us three, and probably she would be a fan butch, which I thought was amusing since usually it's fan girl.

But that's a nice twist, so I totally get it. Being a butch myself.

That is.

So, yeah. So CeeJay also said that she has never been to a conference. 'cause she lives in the middle of nowhere and that's like two hours from a highway middle of nowhere. So I think she might even have you beat Jamey as far as middle of nowhere.

Yeah, I have a highway not far from me.

There you go. Two hours. It's crazy. But, she lives in Maine and she says we should go there because Portland is gay, ladies. So there you go.

Well, let's, plan a trip.

We should, yeah. What the 

heck? Road Trip. Yep. A road trip. Yeah. Maybe not from Oregon.

Yeah. Really? Or Texas,

We could wait for you for seven to ten days.

Yeah. 

To get over here.

Some road trip.

Tell your girlfriend to prepare now.

Yeah, exactly. 

Cheryl emailed the same thing to me, which I thought was fun. But then, right before we recorded, I got an email from, Manishka who said, on our conference question that she would love to attend the GCLS conference because she loved to meet the authors that she reads. And, several years ago during covid, GCLS had a virtual conference, and I remember going to that too.

It was great because it was just over Zoom and it worked out well. At least you still had to have a conference. It just wasn't in person. So anyway, that's all the emails we have. Do we have anything on Insta?

Yup. Jules wrote in and said that she loved hearing how we became Pod Pals, and that she's learning a lot from the podcast, so that makes us feel good. And she thanked us for sharing our struggles as author's because she said it's easy to get stuck in her head and it's nice to know she's not the only one. And then she's also looking forward to this, podcast 'cause she didn't even know there were book conferences to go to.

Hmm.

So that's it for Insta. Today again, we are talking about book conferences. So KC, do you wanna start us off?

Sure.

So, there's a number of different conferences, around the world, probably more like a dozen. The ones I've been to are the Golden Crown Literary Society, which, is GCLS, and it's usually in the summertime. I've been to it three times, I believe. And that one's, focused more on the authors, which you'll notice the different conferences have different focuses, so it's mostly authors learning about the trade from each other, so that's very, very powerful and a good networking opportunity.

Another one I've been to is called ReadOut. That's in Gulfport, Florida. The GCLS one moves around, but this one's always in the same place, and that one's more focused on readers.

You don't see quite as many authors. You see a lot of readers come by, especially locally. Some do fly in for it, but that one's a lot of fun. It's really in a beautiful place. And then I've been to P-Town, which is Women's Week, and that's usually in October. And I honestly don't know if that's for the readers, if that's for the authors.

It's just fun with a bunch of lesbians.

It's just really fun. Lots of lesbians. Lots of shows. Lots of stores to go to. So yeah, that's a fun one to go to if you can get to it, just because you can meet lots of people all over the spectrum of, writers, authors, etc. 

Right. 

There is one I would love to go to if I ever had the time and money. And that's actually in Europe. It's in the UK it's called the Weston Super Sapphic. And that would be a fun one to go to, a lot of their local authors, but sometimes people that go over and join them, and I think that'd be really fun.

So yeah, that's my experience with conferences, Jamey?

The London Book Fair. I think that's a big one that some of our sapphic authors go to. One conference I want to mention is a virtual, book conference every other year. The Lesbian Review does it, and that's a great site that tries to help us market our books. And, it just embraces sapphic literature and their, conference actually is about to happen, next weekend.

Is that one paid?

Yes, you have to buy a ticket to it. That's what I was about to tell you. I'm gonna be attending It's on Saturday and Sunday, March, 15th and 16th. And it's all time zones. If you'll go to the Lesbian Review website, you can get a ticket, but it's gonna be a great time.

They have, panels all day long with different authors. Let me give you some of the, panels. This time. There's gonna be an, Ultimate Showdown Sweet Versus Spicy. So, you'll have authors talking about whether the book should be sweet or spicy, and then they'll have a chat room where you can ask questions and give your own comments.

The readers can. I love it because, there's just so many readers that are there, and you can see their names and they can ask questions. I'm gonna be on a panel that's gonna talk about the top tropes. So, listeners, if you have a top trope that you would like to put a word in for, email me because like I said, it's gonna be next weekend and then there's gonna be a panel that I'm gonna be on, How Romance Authors Do It. So how we. Not do "it", but how do we do it?

No comment. 

 One panel that's always really fun is there's, four or five authors on it, and they create a story live right there. Readers can give their comments on it, and each author adds their little bit and by the end of the hour you've got a story written or at least the start of a story. So it's always fun. 

Who gets to publish it?

Yeah, really. But those virtual conferences are great. You just, follow the link. And then, Sheena does a great job moderating the panels. So they're a lot of fun. I certainly recommend if you wanna see what a conference is like, and you haven't been to one, buy the ticket and go to this two-day conference, virtually.

Okay. And then, one other one that I wanna go to, but I've never been to, and KC mentioned it before, it's 20 Books to 50K, but they changed the name to Author Nation and it's in Las Vegas in November. And basically, it's a conference for Indie and traditional authors that are focused on business marketing and networking, and they have guest speakers.

And you can do these, workshops where you can learn things and network, and it just sounds like a lot of fun. Plus, who doesn't wanna go to Las Vegas for a couple days?

Yeah, really. And that's similar to the GCLS conference it has different topics and, authors can learn from one another, but also there are a few readers there, and they get to interact with authors and a lot of times, they'll have, a book signing and a chance to read a scene from your book. So…

And for GCLS as well, one of the great things that we talked about is, you get to meet other authors. A few of them have ended up in, group writing sprints with me. Or you can do newsletter swaps like us pod pals do. And so that's great for, meeting new friends and whatnot in the author world.

Mm-hmm. For sure. Other cool thing about conferences is the exposure you get. So, especially if you're on a panel. All the conferences have panels like Jamey was talking about, and different authors get a be on them. And so, readers who have never ever seen you before or heard you talk about your books before will get an opportunity to meet you. And so that's pretty cool. It's a nice way to get your, name out and let people hear you read. Usually there's readings too.

Right at the GCLS, they have a big room that sells all the books. It's really great. Bella Books mans the table and, you’ll be able to buy books there as a reader, and then you'll be able to stop the author and have them sign it for you, which is kind of a little extra.

Yeah. And to that point also, if you're starting off with your author business, it's great because it kind of forces you to focus in on making sure you have a business card, or if you wanna make swag like a bookmark or a pin or something, then you have 'em and you can give them away to readers and things like that. So it's a good motivational thing.

Right. Yup. It's a good thing to go to a conference if you can. But then they aren't free and they aren't cheap because most of the time you're gonna have, travel expenses and things like that. So sometimes you have to weigh, as I was saying earlier, whether, it's worth it for you at this particular time.

I'll put it that way. Have y'all experienced that?

Yeah, the cost and having to wait maybe because your book sales don't match your expenses for that sort of thing. 

Mm-hmm.

It's always a lot more than you think. Like you pay for the fee and you pay for the hotel, but then you go out for dinner and you're doing all these drink things and it's just a lot more and the taxis and all that. You think it's gonna be, less. But it turns out when you get home and you do your taxes, you're like, holy shit, that conference costs a lot.

Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

That's all I wanna point out is there is expense involved, and the tickets have gone up. I think GCLS is $500 this year just to go to the conference. And so that doesn't count your, hotel stay and, getting there. It is a good time, but there is some expense involved and so sometimes you have to look at it that way. Uh, so I think my pod pals are laughing right now because they can see my dog in the background because he has been such a good boy right now, but has decided to play a moment. So...

He has one end of a bone in his mouth with his head way up in there. So proud and prancing through the room.

He throws it to himself, because I'm busy, obviously, but anyway.

Oh, that's awesome. He's my little love.   

He's always part of the podcast. He's podcast pal number four.

 I love it. That's hilarious.

 Oh because listeners, I posted a picture on the socials right before we started recording. With a picture of him laying on the floor saying, look, who's being a good boy?

Oh, there you jinxed that. 

Yeah, he couldn't hold it. Sweet boy. 

Back to conferences. So another thingis the overwhelming factor. So...

Oh God, yeah. 

I didn't account for that. I was really in my first conference was really trying to promote myself, but I wasn't ready for the swarm of people, and I don't mean like swarm to me, but just there's so many people, there are people trying to talk to you.

It's just, yeah, it can be a little much. And for those introverts in the world, I guess I'm introverted, believe it or not. It can be really taxing. You get really tired by the end of the four days.

Oh yeah, you certainly do Uhhuh.

Mm-hmm. 

After a while you're like, where's a quiet area where I can have a drink and no one will talk to me?

Yeah, you have to have quiet time. But again, it's fun and you learn some things, so that's always good.

A lot of people do say they get overwhelmed. So, like the first day, you're all gung-ho and you get your, badge and you do all the things, and you go to a couple of the panels and then you're done.

Yeah, you get tired.

Let's see. Is there anything else we need to say about conferences?

I just think that you really should put yourself out there, even if you're an introvert, like KC was just saying, you should definitely try it at least once so you can meet people and be on a panel. It's helpful.

Yeah, because it is motivating, I mean it is overwhelming. It's also motivating because one of my things is I always try to surround myself with people who are positive and think like, I think, and you know, that's how I learned about my pod pals and stuff is going to those, getting motivated about the writing.

So definitely consider going even though it's expensive and overwhelming. 

And we were just saying before we hit record, that we're so happy that we met each other. And it's so nice to be able to talk in a, space where you can just vent all your worries or fears or whatever, or learn new things and you really wanna build your own little community if you can.

And I wanna encourage you one more time, if you wanna experience a virtual con, you've got the chance this weekend. It only comes around every other year, and somebody on the podcast is gonna be there, but it'll be fun. It's fun.

Well, I guess that's it for this week. So next week we're gonna be talking about relationships with readers and do we have a question?

Yeah. So basically, what is a turnoff for you when it comes to interacting with readers? So, authors out there, what is something maybe that the reader shouldn't do, but also on the flip side, I know there's some authors out there that can kind of, turn readers off and I like to know what they are so I don't do them. So, yeah... 

Really please.

Okay, well that's it for this week. Thanks for listening.

Thanks everybody. See you next week.

And let me remind you, please buy our books on Amazon. 

Yeah.

Yes, please.

No, let me say that honestly. We really appreciate it. So, thank you for buying our books on Amazon, and have a great week. Thanks for listening. Bye. 

Thanks for listening. If you'd like to reach out to us, you can contact us by email at contact@threelesbiansandapen.com with the number three spelled out or on Instagram, Facebook and X at Three Lesbians and a Pen using the number three. And finally on our website, at threelesbiansandapen.com, we look forward to hearing from you, see you next week.