Creating a conference

Writing a novel is hard but familiar work for me. Creating a conference? That’s a whole ‘nother thing.

Late in 2024, Megan Williams, founder and CEO of The Self Publishing Agency, told me over coffee that she had an idea. What if there was a book festival or event that would unite the worlds of writers, self-publishing, and traditional publishing? Sounds intriguing, I said.

In January 2025, Megan asked if I’d help her flesh out the idea. Sure, I said. I’ve got opinions and contacts. I’ve attended and presented at a lot of conferences. It could be fun.

Fun doesn’t begin to describe it. For the next few months, I had the pleasure of brainstorming with Megan and her smart, creative team at TSPA. What would the conference focus on? How long would it be? What topics would it cover? How much would it cost? Where would we promote it?

Once we set June 8 as the date, we got down to programming. We drew on all our networks. We got ideas and volunteers from the North Shore Writers’ Association, especially the NSWA Speaker Coordinator and host of CHEK-TV’s Bold Leaps, Lisa Bagshaw.

Will we find good panellists, we wondered. Will people come? Could we sell 80 tickets?

On June 8 there were over 200 people from Canada and the United States in The Wallace, a venue in the Shipyards District of North Vancouver. The panels were populated by a stellar array of publishers, agents, editors, and of course authors. TSPA, which hosted the conference and handled every logistical detail, right down to the day of, did an unbelievable job of pulling off a sold-out, rave-review conference that ran remarkably smoothly given how fast the day came together.

A highlight for me was moderating the Selling Stories panel. We heard from Natasha Mihell, agent with The Rights Factory; Nicole Brand, rights assistant with Penguin Random House; and Donald Maass, owner of the Donald Maass Literary Agency. (Extra highlight: getting Don to autograph my copy of Writing the Breakout Novel.)

I learned so much from helping with this conference. The biggest lesson came from witnessing Megan Williams, a bold innovator and entrepreneur if there ever was one, take an audacious idea and turn it into a wildly successful inaugural event. Thanks, Megan, for letting me be part of the ride!